I’m not sure if this is something I could get into, but the art is pretty.

I think I’ll see how it goes first, though, so I can develop a better opinion.

Wow. This is basically how i believe the world works. Thanks for this.

I really fancied finding something to read on the internet this evening, I’ve gone via rllmukforum, thetriforce and kierongillen.com to here. And what a wonderful journey it is, this is a fascinating project and it’s great to see it embarked upon not as a whim or a piece of entertainment but as something that you feel MUST be done and pushed to the appropriate level. Bookmarked.

You’re my Guitar Hero, Cheeko.

KG

Looks cool - I got a postcard handed to me at Bristol at the weekend and it looks great.

I may have to make sure my local shop orders this. Since it’s Travelling Man in Bristol I will expect that they’re ordering a few anyway…

Could you be slightly less tangentially descriptive in your above explanation, and maybe a little more directly theoretical / concrete as to what questions have driven your work? I suppose I should just read Phonogram, but I’m worried that it might assume too much of its reader as does the explanation above.

Ah no worries, one of the reviews explained things pretty well.

Hi Obiter

God bless reviewers.

I’d also point you at some of the interviews. Pretty much everyone has asked us that, and we’ve tried to be as transparent as possible.

KG

Looks groovy! only a few more hours..

Your opening to issue 1# was great, set the tone and introduced nick kohl perfectly. comparisons to constantine, albeit younger & hornier, are warranted. Great read, i’ll be watching with interest.

Kudos for all

Apologies on previous post, realised i mixed up the names about ten seconds after i submited it :S

No worries. If I was going to go around being annoyed about Typos, it would be the absolute height of Hypocracy.

I’m just glad you dug it.

KG

Hi,

I like the description of Phonogram as Hellblazer meets Blue Monday. However, I do think that the characters of Blue Monday are much more likeable even when they are being vicious to one another. It some sense the description of Phonogram as Hellblazer reminds me of the issue #7 of Planetary where Warren Ellis morphs his John Constantine/Jack Carter into Spider Jerusalem/Dr. Hunter S Thompson. The eighties are over, time to become something else in the 90’s. That someone else could be a spin doctor, a gonzo journalist, black bloc anti capitalist, zine writer publisher, webdesigner, or appropriately for this work, a Phonomancer.

Anyways, I just got #3 and enjoyed it and the commentaries. At the end of this chapter, when David enters the club, the stenciled shirt caught my eye and I didn’t know why. Then I did a search on the MSP and had an AHA! moment when I located a picture of Richey and Nicky with oddly stenciled shirts. Also, I enjoy your writings on the history and culture of Britpop. I have become interested in Brit pop lately (I always find things ten years late, I should take Mark Twain’s advice and move to Cincinnati so I will be ahead of the game) with my evolving interest in vintage scooters. Many of the folks in the scooter scene are into Britpop so I hear Parklife often spinning at Scooter Rallies.

One other thing that I was wondering about. You mentioned that Britpop are modernists, is the clean and sparse style of your
drawings designed to evoke that ethos?

Looking forward to the next issues. And no I don’t read two pages and put it on the shelf.

Charles

P.S. So, is Indie Boy supposed to be Richey?

Charles: I don’t normally comment on speculation, but I’ll say that Indie Dave is definitely not Richey. I have other things to say about Richey.

And, yes, the look of the whole comic was meant to be very Britpop. Obviously, with McKelvie’s style it could never be anything *but* like that, but it’s something we’re trying to do. When we do magic, we try and make it look… well, *sharp*.

KG

Hi again,

Richey and the ending.

You did have more to say about Richey and I found it insightful. In fact, I liked the postscript between David and Ghost Beth even better than the resolution between David and Britannia. Then again, redemption is one of the most powerful human qualities.

Thanks again for a great comic. I bought the trade to pass around and hopefully rope more people in. So what’s next?

Charles

Glad you liked it. I’m worried about how the Richey stuff would be taken, but no-one’s taken offence or missed what I was trying to say. Yet, anyway.

And, yeah, the Beth scene is absolutely the heart of the comic. It’s probably my favourite page in the whole thing.

Next? McKelvie’s doing a solo project that hits in September or so. Suburban Glamour…
http://phonogramcomic.com/sgadvert.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/215/501442086_b08885b0c6.jpg?v=0

While he’s doing that, I’ll be writing a second series of Phonogram, which will have a considerably different spin. Also, have a couple of other comics I’m pitching at the moment. So fingers crossed.

KG

Hello hello,

I picked up the trade on a friend’s recommendation and seem to have fallen in love. Whoops. The last few pages in particular had me punching my fist through the air repeatedly - you’re damn right, Shampoo were better.

The Richey conclusion was exceptionally well done too (she said, from beneath several layers of leopard print and eyeliner) - probably the most beautiful way of calling someone a jerk I’ve ever come across.

I hear there’s additional pages in the single issues though, presumably to appeal to precisely the kind of indie obsessives you’ve already cornered. Are they still available at all, or is it E-Bay time?

xx

fuck me, fuck me hard, like in the ass

it’s a good COMIC

I just finished ‘Pull Shapes’and and shamefully it was the first I’d heard of Phonogram. But like all the very best songs it won me over first time. Quality gear!