Coming Soon.... The Collected John G. Miller, Volume 4

On what would have been his 72nd birthday Braw Books is proud to announce their final A4 collection of the late underground maverick John G. Miller's comic work, 116 glorious black and white pages featuring seldom seen strips, pin-ups, art and posters that span his 40+ years of unique outsider genius. Collated and compiled by latter-day collaborator Rob Miller it also includes some of his final works in progress, unfinished pages and pencils recovered from 'The Archives of Doom' that prove without a doubt that his abundant creative fire was still burning bright.... 

A Braw Book - Coming Soon

“The ingredients may well seem familiar, but I’ve never encountered a personality quite like Miller’s in all my years of reading comics.” – The Comics Journal

“…a revelatory collection from one of the lesser known, but most unusual underground cartoonists of our time. If you are interested in the history of the sub-underground, these volumes are indispensable. I thank god these books exist.” – John Porcellino (King-Cat Comics)

“…the visual energy that sparks off the page is remarkable… far-out and mind-blowing content. These visuals create near-hallucinogenic sensations in the reader. Readers of Philip K. Dick will appreciate this and have hours of fun with these dimension-switching experiences…” – Ed Pinsent (Fast Fiction, Illegal Batman, Windy Wilberforce)

“Within these pages are some of the most original, inventive and urgent comics that have been set to print.” – Graphic Eye

A Year In Orbit - Unearthly Science Fiction....

Rest, weary space traveller....

Can it really be a year since Agent Rob, Agent Johnny and Adam Smith watched Unearthly Science Fiction roar off into the night sky over Edinburgh never to be seen nor heard from again...? 

http://futurefire.net/links/index.html

And yet, just when Agent Rob had finally given up all hope he happened to receive a transmission from the lovely people at The Future Fire. It seems they had tuned their frequencies to 'far out' and successfully intercepted a communication from our lonely satellite somewhere over London in November 2017....

'Steve Mason and 'Olgur Zen' by John G. Miller

'Codename: Cosmos' by John G. Miller and Rob Miller

....and boy did they like it! It's hard to deny that sending an unmanned space mission out into the publishing universe is a long, lonely (and more or less) thankless task, so it was a real pleasure to read N.A. Jackson's in-depth review....

'Maria 3' by Rob Miller

"In some ways the fiction is all too earthly, collectively the stories evoke a grungy, malfunctioning world, disturbingly similar to our own in which the characters wrestle with the pointlessness of life or are consumed by ambition or bitterness."

'Splashdown one' by Adam J. Smith

In particular Adam J. Smith's 'Splashdown One' was singled out as "One of the most memorable pieces in the collection" while Ian Wark's 'The Pod' was praised for being "one of the more resolved of the stories... benefitting from its length."....

'Agent X4 and The Deep Fix' by John G. Miller

Furthermore, the "amazing illustrations", successfully "evoking the luridly coloured science fiction mags of the sixties", lead the reviewer to comment "It’s not often that illustrations complement fiction so well, but here they do and they help to give the magazine a unified look."....

'Planet Of The Jakey' by Neil Beattie

The reviewer concludes that the collection is "an intelligent and irreverent glimpse into how humanity may grapple and grope its way onwards. In the conception of these authors, we may head for the stars but we’ll be taking along all the trappings of dysfunctional late capitalism." 

'Steve Mason and 'Olgur Zen' by John G. Miller

It's great to see our wee book receive such a thoughtful and encouraging review, justifying Agent Rob and Adam J. Smith's early decision to intentionally go (if not, er, 'rub up somewhat') against Agent Johnny's (more traditional) grain - this collection couldn't simply be another run through of well worn riffs on the favoured SF of our youth. True, it might have been a somewhat bumpy ride until we cleared the atmosphere, but a write-up like this made the frequent bends all very much worth it....

Anyone who fancies heading to the dark side of the moon with us can book a ticket >> here....

Life In The Buckfast Lane....

Yep! Just to prove 'you don't get nothin' for nothin'.... Well, you do actually, the whole damn fish, but.... Anyway, it's time for the inevitable sales pitch for the newly revised edition of Life In The Buckfast Lane. Here's the braw blurb....

Life In The Buckfast Lane: A City Of Two Tales

£5.99 RRP, 130 pages, B/W landscape format, Suggested for mature readers.

Written and drawn by Rob Miller.

It’s as blackly comic and as bleak as they come....

Going deeper than Still Game and darker than Limmy, this 130 page collection gathers together the complete Life In The Buckfast Lane saga, all 200+ strips of Rob Miller’s weekly and weekend edition webcomic. Featuring a cast of colourful characters (with language to match!) this is an expertly rendered and typically bleary-eyed trip into the ‘by any means’ city, showing a side of Glasgow no one wants you to see.... but everyone knows is there!

(With a slightly rejigged running order and 10 extra pages of new material - the missing story link! - it's now an even more essential underground purchase....)

Oh dear, Green Place....

Consider buying it here!

Countdown to launch - Unearthly Science Fiction....

It's a book, but not as we know it....

Well it's been some time languishing out there, lost in deepest space, but we can finally announce that Agent Johnny's Unearthly Science Fiction anthology - talk about judging a book by it's cover, ay! - is now ready to enter earth's orbit. NASA have just today released an official statement announcing that this shiny A5, sleek 72 page, sturdy 5.99 GBP RRP ship will make a successful/crash? landing at The Banshee Labyrinth in Edinburgh, Scotland on the 12th of April 2017 (at approx. 7.30pm). The opportunity to stargaze at this spectacular sight is brought to you courtesy of the good people at Shoreline Of Infinity and their excellent Event Horizon happenings....

Cosmic Phantomette by Neil Beattie

A long-gestating brainchild of Agent Johnny, Unearthly Science Fiction sees him rounding up the (un)usual gang of suspects, encouraging them to run riot on a 'broad' (but typically esoteric) science fiction theme (with some cowboys and, er, dinosaurs in the mix fer good measure). The difference this time is that the bulk of this book is made up of intriguing text(!) stories from the likes of auld Edinburgh acolytes (S.H.I.E.L.D. Director) Andrew J. Wilson and John Rafferty....

Emordny's Syndrome by Andrew J. Wilson

Rebirth Anew by John Rafferty

....and never fear as Glasgog gets in on this intergalactic action too, with Agent Rob 'tapping up' fellow cohorts  Simnel and Ian Wark 'fer to transmit' a story or two....

The Pod by Ian Wark

The Unit by Simnel

Not to be outdone, Agents Johnny and Rob have somehow found time to beam in a few leery texts of their own making....

Agent X4 And The Deep Fix by John G. Miller

The Summons Of Natas Fillage by Rob Miller

And if all this 'textual intercourse' isn't enough to get yer cosmic juices flowing, there's also several comic strips to be found adrift in the yawning void! Agent Johnny is on script duties for the 'presented in full for the first time ever' Codename: Cosmos, featuring Una Kennedy (with 'remastered' art by Agent Rob) and Jed Hale, Arizona Sheriff: The Second Pteranodon (with Adam J. Smith on fresh art duties). 

Codename: Cosmos by John and Rob Miller

Jed Hale: Arizona Sheriff by John Miller and Adam Smith

In addition, seasoned Edinburgh cartoonist Malcy Duff serves up his surreal Two Headed Fish while the ever mysterious Simnel journey's back and inwards to explore The Atlantean Mind....

Two Headed Fish by Malcy Duff

The Atlantean Mind by Simnel

To round things off we genuinely travel back through space and time to the year of our Orb, 1967, (re)printing 'Lanark crony' Jim Lindsay's schoolboy superhero extravaganza Tales Of The Justice Legion....

Tales Of The Justice Legion by Jim Lindsay

So set your stasers to 'phun' as Braw Books (I mean, c'mon, who else?) brings you the latest, greatest and furthest out 'warped factor' you could(n't) possibly imagine....

Event Horizon, an evening of science fiction....

Going Through The Motion Pictures....

All new strips coming soon(-ish)....

Underworld - Slow Slippy

Work in brawgress....

Work in brawgress....

Work in brawgress....

The Speculative Book....

Our friends over at The Speculative Bookshop have finally unleashed their much anticipated sci-fi debut anthology, The Speculative Book. Clocking in at an impressive 220 pages or so, and featuring 28 short stories with titles like Snafu, Roadkill, Black Box, The Grand Order of Strathclyde, Treehugger, Blood Farm, Deep Draw and The Little Difference Engine That Could  - from writing talents as diverse as Emeline Morin, Iain Maloney, Pete Sutton, Sarah Gailey, Neil Williamson and Konstantina Braoudaki - and several accompanying illustrations (yep, Agent Rob made the grade) - this is not to be missed! Get your year off to a truly rocketing start with the e-book, available here....

Physical copies should be available soon - keep an eye on the SB facebook and/or events page for more details of the when and where you can exchange some hard earned credits for a copy....

Death March of the Missile Men....

* a point of note worth mention in addition to the, ahem, last post's Chronicle of Doom....

Agent Johnny seemed in a decidedly 'depressy' and reflective mood last Woden'sday, resigned to the fact that his recent drawin' output seems to have fallen short of expectations (and certain demands), bemoaning his helpless servitude to the 'one-eyed god' and complainin' of bein' simply too 'nakt' and sufferin' from 'aches and pains' to bother. Perhaps in an attempt to alleviate (t)his mood he presented this Agent with the 6 thus-far-completed pages of the Agent of S.M.E.R.S.H comic (the opening page rough here is from a letter circa 2010, a pitch of sorts for its intended inclusion in Kurt Sibling's Nexion #3 - before Evil Hollywood became an (on)going concern).

Well, what to say? What an absolute corker 'Death March of the Missile Men' is shaping up to be! (Hard to imagine it failing with a brilliant title like that!) No doubt in my mind these pages feature some of John's very best work - every panel crackles with energy, simply pops with startling imagery! It seems our Agent's style has evolved yet again, as he's gone big, bold and gnarly in his faces and layouts, meaning there's plenty space for him to run riot with his beautiful op-art touches. - there's brain-boggling 'beezom' fashions on every page! One particular panel, a simple enough shot looking from behind a cat standing on a desk, was so simple, so striking in its execution that it had this Agent agog. Shame that exposure to this as-yet-unfinished epic (3 or more pages to go?) left this reader in something of a 'depressy' funk. In the company of sheer genius why bother indeed...?

Br'All Around the World....

Site back in action, folks....

Thus Spoke Larnedjustin....

One of Khaki Shorts's Stateside contributors sells it thru....

Taking a Breaking Brawd....

With the various new books having hit the shelves (at, er, Hope St) and the recent Khollected Khaki Shorts launch, it's time for a little reduction in Braw activities for the next few weeks. The official Braw Books site is presently redirecting to the Evil Wee Comics spotlight on Lulu, where they'll be happy to take care of any customer needs....

A Chronicle of Doom: Khaki Shorted!

Spacewoman, Agent Rob, Agent Johnny....

And so it came to pass.... That's right, Saturday saw the successful launch of The Khollected Khaki Shorts on home turf (namely the "Notecave" basement at the 13th Note Cafe/Bar).

100% proof....

At least 75% of the artists who contributed (certainly, all the core regulars from Neil Bratchpiece, Iain D. Smith, Martin Smith to Cheesemonster and Tolywoly) were in attendance, with Agent Johnny making a surprise trip (of sorts) from Edinburgh to Glasgog fer the party....

Stack 'em up, sell 'em on....

Timed to coincide with Adam J. Smith's birthday the event wiz soon 'bustlin' as the psychedelic soundtrack (from the likes of Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, Klan and Love) produced the expected "Blastor!" results. 'Our Man from Pester Whailes' wiz soon groovin' in the atom heart!

The greatest Scots. Frank Quitely (YEP!) and Agent Johnny co-exist on the same plane! 

As the afternoon wore on (and the tunes just got longer and longer) things slowly settled into a contented swill, with the occasional sale providing a necessary boost to the proceedings (in between lengthy guitar solos from the likes of The Grateful Dead, Traffic and Aguaturbia)....

Do not be deceived! Agent Johnny is the one out of focus here....

And before we knew it "We Love You" by The Psychedelic Furs fair lowped from the speakers, signalling the end (more or less) of the afternoon's delights. 3 hours that had long loomed on the horizon were now but a distant past....

Survivors of the assault on Glasgog rest up, safely back at Hope St. Towers

So thanks to those who came, who saw, and who khakied! Of course, big up the 13th Note for being able to cope with all our Diva-ish demands - cartoonists, eh? What a better way to finish than this....

An image NEVER to be found in Khaki Shorts....

The Psychedelic Furs - We Love You

Launching The Khollected Khaki Shorts....

2 weeks and counting (down) to the Khollected Khaki Shorts "funderground" launch right here in Glasgog. All are welcome to join us in the 13th Note Cafe/Bar basement (that makes sense, right?) on Saturday 5th September from 2-5pm to hang out with the likes of Adam J. Smith and (fingers crossed) John G. Miller. It's real, cos The List says so. Quite sure there'll be a little bit of that and a quite little bit of this too....

It's alive...!

Yep, the eagles have finally landed and The Khollected Khaki Shorts, Gently Does it....: The Collected Rob Miller, The Atomic Society of Justice #2: Evil Hollywood Over Subterrania and Drewer have all arrived over at Braw HQ! All orders can be placed but a click away here....

D'yer wanna be a spaceman...?

Rough for something that, er, might not turn out to be anything, um....

Comic Con Countdown #1....

THE JOHN G. MILLER SCRAPBOOK

Annnnd in at number 1, it's The John G. Miller Scrapbook! This seriously eclectic tome attempts to encapsulate the far-outer limits of John Miller's unique worldview, collecting together some of the very best of his cult S.H.I.E.L.D leaflets - no doubt familiar to certain bewildered Edinburgh pub goers and commuters - it's 80 pages of genuine underground/outsider genius....

It also gathers together a smattering of unpublished strip work, a gallery of psychedelic posters, leery pin-ups, strange record covers and peculiar postcards.... 

As to the last word, well, we'll leave that to John's sometime sweetheart Lyndy Henderson....