50ft lesbian is let loose in Brighton

There’s a new league of superheroes on the loose. Based in Brighton, this rainbow-coloured team of caped crime-fighters appears in a comic called ‘Spandex’, by local artist Martin Eden.

Characters Prowler, Indigo, Butch, Mr Muscles, Diva, and Glitter poke fun at common gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender stereotypes.
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Graphic novel review – Savage Volume 1: Taking Liberties

In my days of youth, people took the piss out of me relentlessly for reading comic books, and I can’t say that I blame them. There is no way around the simple truth that comics in general are for rejects, and no amount of high-handed talk about ‘depth’ and ‘dark subject matter’ will ever really find a way around this fact. Savage, however, is one of those rare works which genuinely has a saving grace in terms of its presentation and philosophical subject matter, and in this case I believe that if the story had been presented to the British public in almost any other medium, there would have been a lot of pressure for it to get banned.
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If you think you’ve had bad Valentine’s Days, think again!

As the realisation flickers into your head that your date is a troll-faced bore, comfort yourself with the thought that your Valentine’s Day will have been better than Salman Rushdie’s. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the shameful ‘fatwa’ imposed on the Booker-winning novelist, so his mind may, quite understandably not be on lingerie or chocolate.
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Short Fuse: Literature review, Komedia

Komedia’s place as one of Brighton’s most interesting and varied venues is reinforced at the Halloween special of long-running fiction event ‘Short Fuse’. The audience was presented with a variety of short horror stories from some of Brighton’s best writing talent, which ranged from the sinister to the downright surreal. Read more

Bright Sparks

Flash fiction is the literary equivalent of hotpants: there are short shorts, and then there are short shorts, and that is the best way to sum up flash fiction.

The works are usually 1,000 words or less, but most still have a beginning, middle and an end, a protagonist, a setting and so on. The most famous example is Ernest Hemingway’s six word flash: ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn’. Read more