“If anyone was going to bring a different attitude to pop’s top table, it was going to be her, and this is perhaps why her involvement with it reads like a version of the film This Is Spinal Tap as scripted by François Truffaut.”

Unconnected to Phonogram in any way, except being about one of the primary subjects. Long interview with Elastica’s Justine Frischman in the Observer. Worth reading, especially for those who know about her or know nothing about her. So that’s everyone then.

Frischman’s always been an interesting interviewee. Her contributions to Harris’ Britpop History “The Last party” were enormously entertaining. That she says she’s uncomfortable with the Lady MacBeth role in this interview doesn’t quite ring entirely true.

And, in passing, even from my top-of-head knowledge of Elastica, there’s more than a few factual errors and/or disingeniousness for sake of simplfying the narrative in the piece. Which, I suppose, links it back to Phonogram after all.

“PDR: What type of crowd do you think would favor a story, such as Phonogram? KG: A beautiful crowd. Not just beautiful on the outside – though I’m sure almost all of Phonogram’s readers are enamoured by whatever sexes they choose – but a true inner beauty that lights up the life of anyone who has the good fortune of crossing their paths. They’re really special people.”

Paul Dale Roberts interviews Gillen and finds him showing interview fatigue.

A couple more reviews of Phonogram #3 we wanted to link to.
Firstly, James Hunt over at Noise to Signal gives it an A+ and notes “The fact that the writing and art in Phonogram are both brilliant is reason enough for you to be buying this, but it can’t be overlooked that if you’re remotely interested in, or even vaguely remember britpop, then you’ll get so much more out of it than almost anything else you’ll read in comics.”

Secondly, Andrea Speed over at Comixfan says that “This is a fun and oddly philosophical title that you should give a shot if you haven‘t yet. Flip through it on the shelves and enjoy the strangeness and the love of music”.

And some review for Phonogram #3 appear.

Firstly, PopSyndicate describe it as “As catchy as any pop song on the radio.”

Secondly, Comics should be good notes “the issue itself was fun, with good dialogue and characters. I would recommend it”.

Thirdly, the chattering classes are a-chattering. AroundComics talk about Phonogram #3 as part of their latest podcast, which includes an interview with Jonathan Hickman of the absolutely annoyingly clever Nightly News and Ifanboy chat about it in their latest episode too.

Hurrah for comics criticism/journalism!

“Point being? This issue of Phonogram is capped off by what may be the most enjoyable and funniest costume changes of all time, all set to one of my favorite songs, and that is ridiculously exciting.”

Chris’ invincible super-blog gives Phonogram pick-of-the-week.

They’re my favourite 5 pages of Phonogram so far too, embarassingly.

Issue 3 is out in the US today. It’s out tomorrow in the UK. It looks like this:

And its our favourite one yet. Go find, consume and tell us what you made of it.
Also, as a cheery supplementary information once you’ve read it, I’ve done a director’s commentary sort of thing on some of my favourite (or rather, least cringe-making) pages over at Broken Frontier.

It finishes with this  quote: “I suspect someone will sue us for giving them a brain tumour or something, but that’s the price you pay for this sort of posturing nonsense.”

Go read, already!