London Loves Comics Contraband Review

Given Contraband is mainly set in London, we figured we'd see what Dom Sutton from London Loves Comics thought about Contraband...


"Behe has some interesting things to say about the world we live in and the one we’re heading for and Contraband contains enough good ideas to suggest that he could be a name to watch. His cause is aided by artist Phil Elliott whose clean style is reminiscent of Julien Opie’s work. Elliott's pictures are beautifully simple and provide a refreshing counterpoint to the complicated story...."

Comixology's Peter Jaffe Reviews Contraband

Peter Jaffe from Comixology recently checked out Contraband and had a few things to say about the GN's artwork and narrative.


"The artwork by Phil Elliott (with inks by Ian Sharman and gray tones by Cherie Donovan) has a cartoony feel that consciously focuses attention on the foreground image; faces of characters standing behind the speaker become progressively less detailed as they move farther back in the panel, while important moments are emphasized by a startling realism....the dialogue is nicely written and entertaining, if unremittingly cynical. It does have the effect of making everyone sound like a philosopher, though."

Contraband Review from Oakland Tribune

Randy Myers from the Oakland Tribune threw a few fine words our way in his monthly comics column:



“Cautionary tales about our insatiable appetite to download the misery and humiliation of others have turned into a telling genre unto itself. Behe's twisty take stands out because it's laden with surprises and has an urgent immediacy to it.”

France Comics Interview

Met this top chap Christophe Colin from France Comics a few months back at Angouleme who scribed a quick interview of Contraband's development. Folks keen to see a french version of a Contraband sample can drop us a line and we'll get a free pdf off to you asap...

Angouleme and Contraband

We've been laying low knocking out a few early interviews for Contraband while finalizing our schedule for meeting French and Belgian publishers at Angouleme next week. We're excited with the response so far as 1/2 dozen publishers have set up a time to chat after liking our blog sample. Phil heads off Saturday to spend a few days visiting relatives south of the city (the SLG folks had our first few dozen copies sent there directly from the publisher!) I fly in Wednesday and after picking Phil up at the hotel, we'll tear straight off to the event. I have to say it's been a tad tough contacting a few of the right people at these publishing houses so we'll start hunting them down in the festival halls the moment we arrive.


Here's a snippet of an upcoming interview conducted with Peter Jaffe from top comic site Comixology talking about our trip to the continent:

PJ - A lot of the story takes place in Belgium, which has a great comics tradition closely connected to the French bande desinnée. Is Contraband being distributed (translated or otherwise) in France and Belgium?

TB - I’d love to get Contraband into non-english-speaking markets. I think the comic’s art and storyline could attract a fairly strong readership in plenty of North European countries. Phil recommended we attend France’s Angouleme BD festival in late January so we’ve picked up some pro passes for the trade exhibition. And couple of nice folks from a social networking site were kind enough to translate our first chapter and synopsis into French & Flemish - so we’ll have something to hand these guys. It’s funny but being a kid growing up in North Bay (near the Quebec border) I studied French until I was 13. And there were lots of European publishers’ BDs floating around in classroom. Casterman, Delcourt, Glenat. Here we are 25 years later and we’re going to show some of these same companies Contraband..."

Bringing Contraband into Belgium

Scanning through the bdangloume.fr site I can see that this is indeed one monster show - it is said to be 2nd largest comic event in the world with nearly 1/2 million fans invading this tiny french town east of Bordeaux. And I'm amazed how many small indy Belgian pubishers say they'll show up looking for unique albums of sequential art. So we've created a Flemish/Dutch version with the help of a solid chap I met on comicspace.com: Rembrand Le Compte - who was nice enough to translate the first few pages into Flemish for us last Fall. He's currently working on his own sequential art and reporting on the latest and greatest of the thriving Belgian market - so when you get a sec, go check him out here.

Contraband Interview at Newsarama

A few weeks back we spoke with Chris Arrant from Newsarama about Contraband's key themes, the unique experience of working together and some insights around character development and tone. You can read this interview over on Newsarama. Here's a quick excerpt:


NEWSARAMA: Contraband premiered on SLG's Eyemelt.com digital comics website, and the print edition is coming out in February. What led you two to working with SLG, and what are your thoughts of going online first prior to print?

TB: Contraband was originally a 130-min film screenplay but I wanted to touch base with a few professional artists about developing the story into a multi-issue comic. There were many innovative manga and cyber-punk styles coming out today - but I was really attracted to Phil’s work. I guess his Euro-style it’s a bit like the “ligne clair” art many French and Belgian creators focus on.

PE: I’ve got a lot of respect for Slave Labor. They’re one of the few independent publishers that have weathered the various storms that have buffeted the comics industry. I’ve worked with them on other projects and was pleased that they wanted to publish Contraband.

TB: I was very excited when SLG picked up Contraband. Our intention was to release a 140+ page graphic novel in the New Year but when Dan Vado told us about his growing SLG digital site Eyemelt.com we were dead keen to get an issue out there for folks to read online. Click here for more...