Solipsistic Pop

Flying the flag for print, journeying and the finest in alternative comic talent is periodical Solipsistic Pop, which launches its fourth edition today.

Last year we brought you Solipsistic Pop 3 , with its brilliant blend of surreal scenarios, yogic ostriches and cravat-sporting tigers.

This latest edition is based on the concept of maps, which, like comics, present words and meanings in the form of pictures and drawings.

mapping comics
mapping comics

Doubling its print run form the last edition to 1000 copies, Solipsistic Pop 4 is the largest volume to date, featuring work from 30 artists.

The aim of Solipsistic Pop 4 is to create a little tome that embraces cartography to demonstrate the power of the comic to create breadth, scope and depth within its small cells.

a selection of the featured comics
a selection of the featured comics

‘These comics have been created to be re-read, the piece before last adding context to the next’, says Tom Humberstone, who edits and publishes the anthologies.

‘Reading this comic panel by panel or zooming into sections of the screen would not do these comics justice – these comics must be absorbed. The bigger picture observed.’

Katie Green's Solipsistic Pop 4 stamp
Katie Green’s Solipsistic Pop 4 stamp

The beautiful edition is accompanied with additional materials that add to the cartographic feel: three post-card sized comics encourage both metaphorical and literal travel in the reader; while the intricate dust jacket, Maelstrom by Katie Green, doubles-up as a map complete with teddy bears, ships, sheep, and Monopoly man top hats.

Katie Green's poster dustjacket
Katie Green’s poster dustjacket

In a cute reminder of the Michelin Man ‘eye-spy’ book, one of the postcards is a ‘walking bingo’ card, by Oliver East, encouraging people to tick off things they see around them, such as ‘a massage parlour in an industrial estate’ and ‘graffiti stating that someone is a lesbian while also sucking cock’.

The screen-printed outer folder was designed by John Miers, and gives clues to his comic within the book in its cute, tongue-in-cheek coins, such as the helix graphic that illustrates his assertion that ‘comic book readers share ninety seven per cent of DNA with humans.’

 

Solipsistic Pop
Solipsistic Pop

Solipsistic Pop 3 is published by Solipsistic Pop Books, priced at £10 from http://solipsisticpop.com/shop. The launch party takes place tonight, November 8, at 7.30pm at Concrete56, Shoreditch High Street, London E1

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