Trains Are .... Mint.

And whilst on the subject of Small Press......

Here's a book that not only deserves more attention, but thanks to Blank Slate Books will be getting a lovely hardback collection very very soon and should be available in all discerning bookshops everywhere.

Trains Are Mint
by Oliver East.

I'm waiting on my copy and getting very excited about it as well.

I've looked on Oliver's website and perused enough of Trains #4 (which is available in it's entirety at the website) to know that I just can't read it online.
I need to read it complete, and experience it in my hands.
I just know it's going to be that good.

& yes, I know Blank Slate Books is a company formed by our very own (FPI that is) Kenny Penman and James Hamilton.
But I know it's a pure labour of love and exists only from a desire to see things like Trains published.
This is what Kenny had to say about it when he included it on his best of 2007 list:

"Oliver East has produced one of the most unique works to come out of the UK small press scene and one that I believe has a chance of crossing over to a much wider audience. His comic forgoes word balloons and the text and speech is all written in Oliver’s own longhand superimposed upon the images. Essentially this is a diary of walks along the train tracks between Manchester and Blackpool in the northwest of England. The story is told in deceptively simple watercolours that many will see as childlike (somewhat like the work of a young John Porcellino) although in fact they convey not only the narrative but also the spontaneity of sketches - which seems highly appropriate to a diary. It also serves as eyewitness to what modern Britain is like behind the tourist posters, showing the everyday lives of small towns and people, and the often deep drabness at their centre, it reminds me in feel of the films of Shane Meadows."

Obviously I'll be talking about this some more when the book comes out. It looks very much like becoming one of the highlights of the year.