Receiving kind words from readers must be my all time favourite part of creating a work. I don’t know if it’s the fact that someone is appreciating the work I have produced, or the reassurance that there are people out as fucked as I am - by fucked, I mean willing to take a chance and really get their teeth into a story as dark and insane as The List.  Yep, fucked. ;^) Franklin is one of those people. I can clearly recall her breaking through the crowd at Melbourne Supanova declaring “The List fucks with my head!” or something to that effect. After I admitted that those words were exactly what I wanted to hear from my readers, we proceeded to take some pics by the stall banner. They are a little too big for the blog, but I will provide the very cool feedback she gave regarding The List:

“I also have a teensy bit of feedback to add in regards to Volume I:

If Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk and Quentin Tarantino took LSD and
created a comic… it would be The List.

It’s still the best thing to come out of Supanova. ;)”

Franklin, you’ll always be welcome here.

Blew. Me. Away!

That’s the only way I could describe my reaction to receiving the first sketch for the new cover of Volume I of The List.

Having already produced amazing covers for both Volumes II & III, Wayne Nichols (www.wnichols.com) somehow managed to trump both of them with this dynamic, atmospheric and attention grabbing piece.

If there was one picture that could tell The List in…well…one picture, this would be it and it is certainly contender for the cover of the TPB (single volume graphic novel) because of that. Wadda ya reckon?

Devilshly-delicious, huh?

Check out the artist responsible for this lighheaterted piece at www.wnichols.com

(Scroll down for the development of this piece).

Broken Frontier Review Extract:

“Deep breaths first… The List is not a comic for the squeamish or the easily disturbed. When I described it as “uncompromising” in my introductory paragraph I wasn’t being hyperbolic or dramatic. In fact, if anything, I was probably underplaying just what an uneasy and troubling read The List can often be…This is take-no-prisoners psychological horror at its grimmest and is all the more effective for that defiant, defining stance…Bedford adopts an economical storytelling style that is entirely suited to his subject matter and reflects the single-minded objectives of The List’s protagonist…There’s something almost hypnotic about the way we follow this unhinged persona from page to bloody page…I have found myself saying this a lot recently but The List is definitely a comic that rewards re-reading. There are layers to the mystery here…There’s a dark emotional resonance to the The List, escalating with each volume, that is almost threatening in its delivery…On the art front Henry Pop on pencils and Tom Bonin on inks do an outstanding job of visualizing the Son’s descent into apparent religious obsession…Pop’s visceral and brooding layouts are a fitting complement to Bedford’s taut and unsparingly paced script…Few comics are as likely to make your eyes bleed just from reading them as The List but, such is its power to ensnare and transfix the reader, you’ll barely even notice the ocular haemorrhaging until the book has you well and truly trapped in its devious grasp.”

Straight up, I must both thank and apologise to Andy Oliver of Broken Frontier; thank him for his eloquent, insightful and thorough review of our work, and apologise for putting him through it!

I feel for any critic that has a crack at reviewing The List, because I have a hard time myself explaining what the hell it’s about! Seriously though, at conventions I keep a printed outline of the story on the stall itself. This serves to both save me from repeating it ad-nauseum to those interested as well as giving a better version of what our GN is about than I ever could verbally. Reviewers are faced with the task of not only being able to summarise the story, but also attempt to glean insightful observations (be they good bad or in-between) from it. You will see in this review that Andy Oliver has grabbed The List by the horns and wrestled it to the ground, battering it into submission with relentless incisiveness. If you ever want to be a critic, check out how it’s done here:

http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdown/p/detail/making-the-list

Cheers,

The List Team

Extract from the Vol I review: “Paul Bedford’s The List promises to be a dark ride into the depths of religious mania judging from the first of four volumes. The graphic novel is stark, foreboding, and has the impact of a sledge hammer to the skull. If planning on delving into the world of The List then don’t take that decision lightly, the book is taking no prisoners, is unapologetic in content, and lurks in the dark undergrowth ready to snatch unweary travellers from the lighted and well trode path of popular fiction…Needless to say, Paul Bedford’s story is intriguing, full of subtle nuances, and likely to be one twisted hay ride. Excellent stuff, someone should pick up the script the graphic novel is based on and make the movie. Dexter Morgan and Hannibal Lector have nothing on the Son.”

Extract from Vol II Review:”Paul Bedford’s writing skills are to the fore early in Volume II. He simply lines up the big goal posts and kicks a major with apparently very little effort. You have to admire a writer that’s not giving anything away in terms of quality regardless of the medium he or she are writing for…I simple devoured Volume II, it’s a page turner folks, and had to go back and force myself to slowly read through it a couple of more times to get the full nuances and jive to the excellent artwork on display. The book is deceptively simple, a second reading will inform you that there’s a lot more happening here than it would first appear. I’ve got the feeling I’ll review each Volume as they are released and then do a review of the entire graphic novel, start to finish. That way I get to read The List again and again.”

Yep, today the evil was spread to a new frontier: Facebook!

Check out The List Facebook fanpage and if you’re not already a member, join up to show your love for the dark side of graphic fiction and leave comments/reviews/thoughts, photos or start/enter discussion about this delightful little tale:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=10540&uid=168591365372#/pages/The-List/168591365372

Note: this page was created to replace The List Facebook ‘Group’ which had over 530 members. Let’s hope they all come over to this group…

Gotta say, it’s a blast coming up with the ideas for covers for The List. This particular effort for Vol III had to be dredged up from the darkest corners of my mind (there are many light places too - I’m a sucker for a sad song and…I will admit…I cried watching The Notebook. Tell anyone and I’ll kills ya!).

As with Vol II, this cover is being illustrated by Wayne Nichols, so it’s bound to be a cracker. Wayne will also be redoing the cover for Vol 1. I love Tom Bonin’s angel pic, but I want to keep the style of the covers consistent. Vol 4 (the last in the series) is a while away yet, but I have already a few ideas for that one.

So, after sending my design idea to the esteemed Mr. Nichols, he came back with this thumb:

Now, the problem we had was that the Mother figure (on the bed) is naked, but you could hardly have that on a cover without it being stuffed behind the counter (sure, you can have two people about to murder another, but an actual naked human body?! No way!). I suggested that we have the Son (figure on the left) moved toward the foot of the bed, and the Father (on the right) moved toward the bedhead so that their shadows could cover Mum’s rude bits.

Wayne tried that, but the light source didn’t work. I then suggested that, due to this being a ritual of sacrifice (those who have read The List will know that the Mother is known as ‘The Sacrifice’ in the story), we could put some candelabras on either side of the room to both enhance atmosphere and give us our legit light, but it just didn’t quite work (the candelabras were included anyway for effect). It was only when Wayne came back with the idea of having the Angel cast his shadow across the Mother that we had our solution. Hence:

Oh what a joyous family occasion!

The Angel looks like one bad mofo, and Wayne’s inclusion of the family happy snap on the wall (obviously taken prior to The List coming into their lives) is a particularly nice touch:

The cover will be completed - basically just extra detail and colours to go in about a fortnight’s time.

Cheers,

Paul.

As a writer it’s great to receive positive reviews from insightful critics. It’s somehow more special to get them from readers. I put this down to incentive. Good critics get compensated for their efforts by gaining renown. But readers who take time out to write a review are doing so for no other reason than they were simply compelled to express how a particular work has affected them. One such reader is Michelle Kasparian. Michelle purchased Volume 1 of The List back in 2007 from Sydney Supanova and tells me that she had been seeking further volumes since doing so. Having recently acquired Vol II she took it upon herself to go to all the effort of writing a review - no easy task, I can tell you. Michelle didn’t tell me that she was doing this; it simply appeared in my inbox. As I began to read it was apparent that she wasn’t skimming the surface. A writer herself - she won the Nolan Award for Creative Writing in four unit English (Year 12) - Michelle drew a deep breath and plunged fearlessly into the dark heart of my story. I could give my views on how incisive I consider this review to be (I wish I had been able to write like that at her age), but my words of praise are simply not required to support such a strong critique:

You cannot read The List with a headache. Don’t attempt to, I have and it really doesn’t work.

The List comes with a clarity, head straight forward, eyes completely opened. Most comics opt to invert this, at first everything is blurry, only vivid colour and landscapes strike the audience, then over a very lengthy twenty-issues or second trade paper back, we realise that the protagonist or our beloved anti-hero isn’t the bastard he wants to be. Paul Bedford (writer) hasn’t done this and neither has Henry Pop (illustrator) or Tom Bonin (colourist).

The List presents us within the first few pages all you’ll need to know about The List in regards to if it’s yours. The stark contrasting inks, hard jaw lines of father and son and the straightforward dialogue has already embedded itself in your mind. Other comics or trade paper backs, the audience cannot wait to turn the page, in the end each page as a single entity becoming powerless and trivial. Every single page of The List is important—no, omnipotent. Our eyes linger on each frame and word comprehending it knows more than us, and that it is not afraid of the audience. There is no placation, no softening the edges, no justifying back stories. Just the images, the ink, words and most prominently the List itself.

We as the audience enter the hidden taboos of social morality. Religion and its control over us, all the little bits of contradiction that is censored or omitted from public speeches or churches. The List shows us our commandments, reveals to us true transgressions and the most enticing part is the List is aware that we believe it is ours.

I didn’t write this little, what—review, feature article—to justify to you why The List should be read, I could include all the out of context quotes, linguistic and visual techniques or allusion to verify my opinion. I didn’t recount in detail the plot or current story line of volume one and two. Because The List wouldn’t want that and I don’t think any of the composers would either. The List and its creators offer and seek no justification, unlike the world that the high rollers want you to believe in, that religion wants you to believe in.

This comic is not for idealists or Marxists, or any philosopher that believes in progress. When you actually for the first time look at the true world, it stares back. This is The List and it is not for the placators.

So don’t try to read The List with a headache, it requires more from you, and it deserves to be seen as it is told and printed. With no blurriness or impatience.

Michelle Kasparian.

October 2009.

(Nothing kicks off your saturday better than receiving a review from a critic that really takes his time to consider the material before him. JeffR from the aussie horror site www.scrayminds.com has turned the knife back on The List and disected it to within an inch of its life. It is so heartenening for The List team to have our work appreciated right down to its deepest level. Enjoy:)

Review

“The Angel will understand that my violation of the list was not intentional.” - Son

The second Volume of Paul Bedford’s The List is like finding a blood coated meat cleaver on your kitchen table that you vaguely remember from a nightmare set in an abattoir you had the night before. It’s stark, uncompromising in the morning sunlight streaming through the curtains, and it does promise you dark secrets that you may not want to unravel. This graphic novel probably wont appeal to balanced minds, just as well then that horror fans tend so be slightly unhinged, this one is for us brothers and sisters, lets continue our trip to enlightenment.

Paul Bedford’s writing skills are to the fore early in Volume II. He simply lines up the big goal posts and kicks a major with apparently very little effort. You have to admire a writer that’s not giving anything away in terms of quality regardless of the medium he or she are writing for. Without giving away any spoilers here, may be saying that a lot in this review, the first panel of Volume II reprises the last panel of Volume I, there’s an inherent conflict that needs to be resolved, and Bedford takes time out of his busy schedule to get that done and dusted. The Son is in a rebellious mood after getting his list out of synch and is asserting himself against his father’s dictates, the list is his own after all. In a normal family, perhaps like one appearing on Neighbours, the Son would have stomped out of the house and hooned off to the nearest milk bar after an argument. Thankfully in The List the family isn’t anything like normal, arguments are likely to have fatal consequences dependant on Angel dictates.

It’s at this stage that we start to see the strength in Paul Bedford’s writing and his vision for The List. Having asserted himself, the Son must re-integrate his father, the enlightened being, into his fantasy. If you haven’t picked up on it yet, The List is less supernatural religious allegory, and more Psycho Roos bounding around the top paddock. In short the Son’s psychosis can not be allowed to shatter, else it’ll all come tumbling down, the structure of his world view must remain unbroken and unblemished. Without giving anything away Bedford accomplishes this, it rings true, and you the reader are not getting short changed by a simplistic solution.

Having established the home environment is a charnel house, did I mention Mom? - if not I’ll leave that as a discovery for the reader, Paul Bedford turns his attention to moving the plot along and furthering our understanding of what the quest might involve. The Son runs into a duo of would be rapists in a rain swept park late at night, who thankfully are going to provide the means for him to get his list back on track. We learn the road to enlightenment is paved with pain, the Son makes your typical avenging Angel look like a Tellytubbie, once a commandment from the list is meet it must be removed from the list (ouch!!!), and the Son is coming onto the radar of the authorities.

You get the feeling Paul Bedford is sharpening his knives in Volume II ready to take his pound of flesh, yes there will be blood, in the second half of The List. I’m pretty sure we are still in the shallow end of the blood pool at this stage with new depths of insanity and depravity to swim through in the next volume. For sure the Writer has the reader hooked and it’s going to be with some unease I’m sure that we’ll wait for future offerings from The List.

Naturally the reader is left with a few things to ponder while waiting for Volume III to hit the streets. Who is the “unknowing successor” and is an Angel motif a continued symbol for the Son’s unbalanced view of the world? I am also still wondering if the Father is the root cause of the Son’s current mental instability, in which case sign on the suicide dotted line, or is just another element in it? Guess more will be revealed in due course, just as this instalment threw a reddish hued light on the mother’s “sacrifice”.

Henry Pop and Tom Bonin remain dedicated to bringing the story to life in all it’s harsh tones, neither artist is taking a backward step in lifting the shroud from The List, and are depicting each panel as vividly as possible. This graphic novel is getting down and gory, I hate to think what the two Artists would come up with if they decided to get the crayons out and go full colour. Special mention of the full page panel when we finally meet mom, and the inserts proving our darkest thoughts in this direction were spot on. The panel is impactful, necessarily blood splattered, and one hell of a jolt that will have you sitting up and taking notice. There’s a reason for that “Mature Content Warning” appearing on the front cover.

Wayne Nichols throws another superb cover at us, in a stylish noir fashion. There’s something about Nichols work that speaks above the simple depictions used. I’m guessing it’s due to the Artist’s ability to slice directly to the heart of the matter and leaving the viewer to join the dots. Nichols is ahead of us at this stage of our road to enlightenment.

A couple of readers have written in wondering about the content of the graphic novel. Thought I had it covered people, try to keep up please. Warning: Adult language, horror themes, and extreme violence. That good enough for ya? This isn’t a Walt Disney shrill the rubes duck outing, this one’s coming at you from the dark heart of horror, if that doesn’t appeal then go read Twilight or something similar.

Summary Execution …

I simple devoured Volume II, it’s a page turner folks, and had to go back and force myself to slowly read through it a couple of more times to get the full nuances and jive to the excellent artwork on display. The book is deceptively simple, a second reading will inform you that there’s a lot more happening here than it would first appear. I’ve got the feeling I’ll review each Volume as they are released and then do a review of the entire graphic novel, start to finish. That way I get to read The List again and again. The List Volume II: An Honouring of the Third Commandment is available from the official site for $16.50 AUD. This represents extreme value for money as you get 72 pages, a 250gsm colour cover, and 100gsm pages. Anyone else thinking collectors item? Actually the site itself, we’ve linked it, is worth checking as it’s updated regularly with news items and about anything to keep the ever expanding fan base happy with life.

Volume II of The List continues the story and dark themes of the first volume. You are going to need to read them in sequence so if you haven’t read the first Volume than make it a double purchase with Volume II. Believe me you will not want to wait on delivery times after reading the first release, yes it’s that good. The road to enlightenment is painful, and that pain for us the readers is waiting on the next instalment. My first commandment is to read all four Volumes, make it yours!

ScaryMinds Rates this read as …

Paul Bedford and team are rocking the house down.