Blast! #1

Jun 1991; Cover price £1.50
76 pages. Colour and B&W.
John Brown Publishing, Ltd.

Edited by Stuart Green.

Mr. Monster cover by Simon Bisley.

Contents:

 2 Metal Hammer - the Biggest and Best Hard Rock / Heavy Metal Magazine magazine advert.

 3 Incoming... text introduction by Stuart Green. / Contents / Indicia.

 4 Mr. Monster Lair of the Lizard Ladies w: Michael T. Gilbert; a: Simon Bisley, lettering by Fred Nurney.

11 Willy Roach - He Goes by Coach (half page) advertisement for EuroLines. a: (uncredited). / C&T Eyewear advertisement.

12 Star Trek: The Next Generation clothing advertisement.

13 Concrete Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous w:/a: Paul Chadwick, lettering by Bill Spicer.

r: Dark Horse Presents (Dark Horse) #01 (Jul 1986).

21 More than Just Comics advertisement for Deadline magazine.

22 The Ceremony Has Begun advertisement for The Doors film.

23 Torpedo Every Dog Has His Day w: Sanchez Abulli; a: Jordi Bernet, colouring by Dondie Cox.

r: De perro a perro from Creepy (Toutain Editor) #34 (Apr 1982).

27 /  1 Speakeasy Insert Kevin Costner photograph (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves).

28 /  2 Mega City Comics advertisement.

29 /  3 Liverpool Comic Mart & Film Fair (quarter page) advertisement. / Birmingham Comic Mart & Film Fair (quarter page) advertisement. / UKCAC 91 (half page) advertisement for UK Comic Art Convention 1991.

30 /  4 Speakout text introduction (uncredited). / Comic Views reviews by John Smile.

31 /  5 King Ink comic chart.

33 /  7 Speakeasy Newsline (half page) advertisement. / Experience Natures Secret High with Yuba Gold (half page) advertisement.

34 /  8 Free Comics! (quarter page) advertisement for Planet X. / Direct Contact Dating (quarter page) advertisement. / Mr Extra, on the brink of defeat once more at the hands of Jane (5½) and Tilly (6¾) (half page) advertisement for Meanwhile.

35 /  9 Book Views reviews. / Twitch City UNTITLED ["I fink I'm Kured!"] w:/a: Bambos.

36 / 10 Nu Earth (quarter page) advertisement. / Gotham City Comics (quarter page) advertisement. / The Sheffield Space Centre (quarter page) advertisement. / Worlds of Wonder (quarter page) advertisement.

37 / 11 Comic Fantasy (quarter page) advertisement. / Back-Issue Comics Manager Required (quarter page) job advertisement. / Titan Distributors Comic Mart (quarter page) advertisement. / Cosmic Comics (quarter page) advertisement.

38 / 12 Prince of Thieves interview by Alan Jones.

42 / 16 Scorched Earth advertisement.

43 / 17 Phaze II The Dead Zone would like to present "Sex in the U.K." advertisement.

44 / 18 The Number of the Beast Simon Bisley interview by Gordon Rennie.

46 / 20 The Gloucester Comic Book Fair (quarter page) advertisement. / Rainbow's End (quarter page) advertisement. / Comicbook Marketplace Special Edition - Saturday June 15 (quarter page) advertisement. / Comicbook Marketplace - Sunday July 14 (quarter page) advertisement.

48 / 22 Classifieds

50 / 24 Forbidden Planet advertisement.

55 Portobello Trust - London Cartoon Centre (quarter page) advertisement. / Needing Direction? Life Lost it's Meaning? Lacking Moral Fibre? (quarter page) advertisement for Electric Soup. / Genuine Ex-Tour T-Shirts - Cult Movie T-Shirts (half page) advertisement for BMS.

56 For over fourteen years... advertisement for Titan Distributors.

57 Axel Pressbutton Famous For Fifteen Minutes w: Pedro Henry (Steve Moore); a: Steve Dillon.

63 Hey You! in-house advertisement for Blast! T-shirts. / Subscribe Now!.

64 ...Let's Follow Him! w:/a: Peter Bagge.

r: Neat Stuff (Fantagraphics) #01 (Jul 1985).

66 There are no others advertisement for Titan Distributors.

67 Lazarus Churchyard The Virtual Kiss, part 1: Fracture w: Warren Ellis; a: D'Israeli.

74 Incoming...30 Days next issue feature.

75 Attention! Fear Want You! subscription advertisement for Fear.

76 The Face advertisement.

Simon Bisley's art is an attention grabber - a minimalist background emphasises the power of his painting perfectly, though the cover text (by way of dialogue) could have done with a white outline, highlighting red against blue better. Blast!'s logo is, disappointingly, rendered in a font which doesn't quite work, looking as if it has been vertically stretched to an alarming degree. This is our first indication that, for all the talent brought together for the title, there's a hurriedness to proceedings... a certain lack of attention to detail.

Mr. Monster - beautifully illustrated by Bisley - is a mad, violent, and extremely funny strip, which would be better served with more space. It's an irreverent, wonderful complete story (common sense in a launch) which has a great pay-off. Concrete is a welcome addition to the line-up, with a tale which feels familiar, yet contains a surprising amount of heart and intelligence. Going through a small mountain of mail received after appearing of the Carson Show, as Ron is exposed to the full range of reactions to his participation on the television show.

Agreeing to attend a party invitation, he is confronted by a single mother whose son's eighth birthday party is in full swing. The best line is about John Ritter's appearance a year before, which is entirely believable - if anyone would do a cool appearance at a kid's birthday party, it would be him. Concrete has a lot of fun with the concept, and ends on a very amusing note. One of the all-time greats of American comics, and its inclusion here is appreciated.

Torpedo is from the "hard boiled" school of writing, and many influences are clear. There's something indefinably off about the strip, and it doesn't gel into a convincing or engaging story, partially due to the endless text boxes which drive forward the narrative. The colouring is far too garish for the setting, and I have a suspicion it would read better if reproduced in black and white.

Axel Pressbutton reappears here - the planet Scrofula, in the 31st century, where television has begun broadcasting directly into the brains of viewers. Axel interrupts an interview in the street, and producers request that he be brought into the studio to exploit his status as a famous assassin. Things go wrong extremely quickly, and the bodycount is... well, its an Axel Pressbutton story, so we aren't expecting rainbows and kittens, are we?

The ...Let's Follow Him! two-page comedy strip isn't as funny as it could have been, though it is a joy to Bagge's work. Managing to fill in a lot of character detail with little effort, the strip does exactly what the name indicates.

The opening installment of Lazarus Churchyard, with a suitably macabre and off-beat lead character in the titular Lazarus. Four hundred years old, and effectively immortal thanks to a plastic bonded to his body, he has to investigate a spate of deaths in order to get his wish... death. The cyberpunk setting contrasts nicely with the rest of the strips, and the artwork by D'Israeli compliments Warren Ellis' script perfectly.

There is very little prose in Blast! (a solitary introduction), and the heavy use of color indicates that what Fleetway was doing (in response to Trident) had been taken into consideration when putting the title together. There's an interesting, though disjointed, collection of strips, but nothing screaming "break-out hit" aside from the Concrete reprint. When you have creators of this caliber involved, it isn't surprising that the comic is still relevant and massively appealing, but a more focused aim might have helped.

I'm not sure who the target audience for the title was.

Now to the Speakeasy insert.

Wisely using the Rian Hughes logo, there are hints of the classic Speakeasy formula, but it is so diluted that it might as well have taken a different name for this:

Speakeasy has a ten year history as a news and features magazine distributed exclusively to specialist comic shops. In that time it has never stayed still, appearing in various formats: from a xeroxed A5 fanzine it became a fold-out broadsheet before graduating to its previous incarnation as an A4 glossy.

Now Speakeasy has mutated into BLAST! a monthly comic magazine dedicated to bringing the best international comic strips to a British audience. Our pull-out editorial section - which will be distributed free to British comic shops - retains the name Speakeasy and its original brief: to promote comics and the culture that they reflect. Over the coming months we will continue to bring you the exclusive interviews with the biggest names in comics and genre film and literature, while keeping you up to date with the significant releases in all three mediums.

It is unfortunate that the paper is so awful, as the shiny white pages of the regular magazine was so impressive. This is a step backwards, but as it is a free insert I'm willing to accept that something had to give. Troublingly, we don't even get the full experience of the title here, omitting several of the main draws. Grant Morrison is nowhere to be seen, and there are far, far too many adverts.

That the change included a heavy film interest is annoying. I read film magazines to find out about films, and I want comics information from comic magazines. There's still a comic strip in this incarnation (Twitch City), though it isn't as immediately amusing as Pedantic Stan. There's a Simon Bisley interview to make up for such a radical change to the formula, but too much has been altered from the magazine. There are parts I really miss from the standalone magazine, and their absence makes this extremely frustrating to read.

A sad decline for a highly-regarded title. Change, we are reminded, is not always for the better.