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...."

Contraband Review at France Comics

Here's a short review from Christophe Colin from France Comics a clever comics lad I met a few months back around the time of Angouleme.


Toby travaille dans un cyber-café et filme par hasard Tucker, un cynique malhonnête à la tête de Contraband, une chaîne de contenus violents relayés par la téléphonie mobile. Sur une trame classique, une personne au mauvais endroit au mauvais moment, TJ Behe promène son lecteur et ses personnages dans un thriller où on ne peut savoir à l’avance ce qui va bien pouvoir arriver. Le lecteur que je suis est resté en haleine tout au long de cette lecture et n’a pas voulu abandonner avant la fin. Le dessin de Phil Elliott ajoute cette touche de réalisme nécessaire à Contraband et complète parfaitement le propos de TJ Behe. Le personnage principal, Toby, évolue même de manière naturelle tout au long du récit, passant de naif à calculateur et Tucker dans le rôle du beau salaud manipulateur décroche facilement la palme d’or, ce qui amplifie les relations entre ces deux personnages et donne beaucoup de densité à cet excellent ouvrage.

Graphic Novel Review at The Pulse

Jen Contino at The Pulse dropped us a line a few weeks back regarding Contraband.

Phil Elliott Q&A at Comics Village

In his latest Village Gossip column, UK comics guru Craig Johnson asks Phil 20 rapid-fire questions about his latest work, tastes, the cleanliness of his hands (!?) and this rather nervy encounter with some Watchmen artwork:

"The scariest package I ever received contained a piece of original artwork by Dave Gibbons - a painting of The Comedian from Watchmen for the cover of a UK magazine, Arkensword 22 that I had to do the lettering separations for. I'd never done anything like this before and was shit-scared that I was going to ruin it all. Turned out okay though."


Check out the whole interview at Comics Village - where its Page 45 column has also made Contraband one of the top preview titles for Feburary.

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...

Promotion Video for Contraband GN

We've been in touch with one of the UK's top 3D animation artists to create some promotial video material for Contraband. A preview sample of some early results can be seen on the side panel (INTRO). We're really pleased with what's arrived so far. The artist Koutsoliotas Kostas created nearly all animation material for the BBC in 2007 (Match of the Day, 2012 Olympic promos and heaps of reality TV bits). And he also did some solid work on that Red Star graphic novel/ PS2 video game a few years back. Check out his stuff at www.koutsoliotas.com.

Interview with Canadian comic critic Tyson Durst

A few weeks back, Tyson Durst interviewed Phil & I where we kicked around a few issues relating to mobile phone abuse. Here's how it turned out:


"When people think of contraband, they typically picture illegal goods such as street drugs or guns. But in today’s society, where portable digital technology is commonplace, the distribution of explicit, violent reality content is the new contraband of the 21st century. Writer Thomas Behe and artist Phil Elliott explore this emerging and disturbing underground world in a new graphic novel of the same name." Click here for more...

Review of Contraband Issue 1 at Paperback Reader

Avid comic fangirl Moya from Oz dropped me a quick line to say she took some time to review (a very early version) of Contraband. Unfortunately she was working from a raw version we first sent out to a few folks last May to gauge early feedback - we've since sorted out those "rough bits" she picked out in the original sample. That being said, we're pleased she liked what she saw on the whole. Check it out at Paperback Reader.

Contraband Issue #2 Arriving in December

Issue 2 of Contraband will be appearing on Eyemelt in a few weeks. Watch for some upcoming promo/review stuff with Publishers Weekly and an interview for a cool Canada University rag. And here's a preview page from Issue #3 showing why you might think twice about stashing your mobile into your front pocket.

Persepolis and Promoting Contraband

What a top night out - the ICA's final night of Comica in London was one of the best eves I've had in months. Meeting the chaps who created the top webcomic (& now graphic novel collection) Shooting War - followed by a bit of Contraband promo chat over beers with some of the UK's coolest comic types - concluded with the premiere screening of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (this is one fantastic movie). Even got in a quick chat reflecting on the Toronto Comic Arts Festival with Paul Gravett - who was one of the guys heading up this year's Comica event (his site www.paulgravett.com has plenty of info on this and other upcoming festivals).


It looks like the Angloueme festival won't be just fun and games after all. Our pro pass aps were approved so we're heading into the trade fair early to seek out out some foreign publishers for Contraband. Already we've had an interesting chat with a company in the Philippines who's keen to get a trade edition out bookshops/newstands in that country - perhaps sometime in the summer (have to get the english version finished first) In any case, watch for Contraband 6-pages previews in Dutch, Japanese and French popping up here at www.contrabandcomic.com over the next few weeks..

Talking Cabs & Contraband with Dave Sim

A few months back while visiting the folks in my hometown of North Bay, I blasted 350kms down the 400 to check out the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. It was well worth the trip - along with meeting some cool SLG and other comic artists, after (more than) a few pints I managed to get babbling about my old uni town, my part time cabbie job and this funny/cheesy/giant bar called Lulu's with Dave Sim. It was very cool to meet Dave but the truth is I vaguely remember our chat. Thankfully, Dave's decided to recap this rather blurry conversation on his blog (www.davesim.blogspot.com.). Kinda' happy I wasn't that much of a mess!...T


"T.J. Behe who had had a few by that point came up and struck up a conversation and gave me his business card. He's doing a title with Phil Elliott (there's a blast from the U.K. past) called Contraband which will be coming out from Slave Labor "in early `08".

Turned out he used to drive a cab here in town and we started reminiscing about Lulu's. Used to be a K Mart and they gutted the place and turned it into a bar. That's right, a K Mart-sized bar so you know it was the 80s. It was in the Guiness Book of World Records for The World's Longest Bar. I saw Jerry Lee Lewis there, James Brown…a very unhappy Bay City Rollers revival (missed that one did you?), Elvis, Elvis, Elvis (three impersonators). It was absolute heaven for cab drivers since it was way out on the highway so, as he said, wherever the customer was going it was going to cost at least $20 to get there. It wasn't unusual to have 50 cabs lined up at closing time.

The thing that really bothered me was that the place was so huge (how huge was it, Dave?) it was SO huge that if you downed a drink and just walked from one side to the other, you had sobered up by the time you got there. The thing I liked about it was it was mostly civilians who didn't get out much so you could usually get pretty close to the stage without having to step on anyone. I was about ten feet away for Jerry Lee Lewis and James Brown.

Anyway, T.J. is probably hoping that I've completely forgotten him (as you always do when you meet someone when you've had a few) and lost his business card, but no such luck, mate. Check out the work in progress at www.contrabandcomic.com."

Contraband Cell Phone Gun

We've had a few mails come in regarding the phone gun design on our front cover (the artwork highlights some key features and functionality of a mobile device owned by the story's antagonist Tucker Scott.) Here's the background:

About 8 months, I had a chat with my collegue Marcus Hohl, O2 UK's Device Specification guru about some cops who caught a few drug dealers with a .22 calibre mobile hand gun. I knew he could do better so I asked Marcus to cook up ideas for your worst nightmare mobile weapon.

A week later, he came back with a layout so clever, we kept his orginal design for the cover and even scripted a few extra panels into the story describing how the weapon's functionality.

Here's how the page came out (#29 of Contraband Issue I which you can now download over on Slave Labor's digital comic site http://www.eyemelt.com/.)

Kicking off Contraband Issue # 3

Some manic page-development action happening over the past few weeks means we've tied-off the second issue and have started developing Issue # III (you can grab Issue # I at http://www.eyemelt.com/ now) It also means we'll have the graphic novel ready for comic retailers to order from their Diamond December Preview magazine (very cool indeed!)

Here's a neat little action sequence Phil drafted up a few days back from the upcoming final Issue...

Review of Contraband Issue #1 from AICN Comics

A few months back, Ambush Bug from AICN Comics offered up his insights an early draft of Contraband Issue #1...

"Sometimes a book comes along and just knocks you in the gut. IN a good way, mind you. CONTRABAND is a story set in the very near future. Reality TV has grown to massive proportions and technology has advanced to match it. Everything can be recorded with camera phones and immediately uploaded to websites for all to access. Privacy is an obsolete concept and the public has grown hungry for the next shocking thing and their fifteen minutes of fame. This story is a smart and scary vision of where we all may be headed.

At times, the story can get a bit techy, but it only disrupts the momentum of the story slightly. I found the tech-speak to be extremely interesting because it is such a major part of the story. This Orwellian tale is not to be taken lightly. You can tell the writer has done his research. According to writer TJ Behe’s bio, he’s a digital creator who has worked for the BBC, Playboy, and MTV, so it looks like he knows what he is talking about.

The art is equally powerful in its simplicity. Artist Phil Elliot does a great job of evoking powerful imagery with very few lines. Despite the attention to technology, this story has a lot of heart. There is a passion for the material and a moral lesson beneath it all. This is the type of story that will make you think about yourself and the direction humanity is going with its addiction to technology, voyeurism, and fame. - Ambush Bug"
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32680

You can download Issue #1 now at http://www.eyemelt.com/ or pre-order the 144-page graphic novel at Amazon (ISBN number 978-1593621018).

Heading to the Birmingham Comics Show

On Saturday, we're trekking up from London to Birmingham to attend the International Comics Show. The line-up look super with some massive heavy-hitting global and UK pros/artists (ie...Mike Mignola, Adi Granov and Dave Gibbons) hosting seminars and signing their stuff.


We'll be giving a few previews of Contraband away to folks keen to hear more about our Feb '08 graphic novel release from SLG (you can currently find Issue #1 at http://www.eyemelt.com/). Ian Sharman, the artist completing the inking work for our book is going too and will be showcasing a few of his new titles from his very indie Orangutan Comic label. Hope to see you there!

Contraband Issue #1 now available

Starting today, you can get the first Issue of Contraband at Slave Labor Graphic's digital comic store called Eyemelt (http://www.eyemelt.com/). The 42-page issue can be downloaded for $0.89 using all the standard payment methods. Click on the banner below to go straight to Contraband issue 1...

Actually, you'll find all sorts of cool comics from Christopher (Ghouly Boys), Evan Dorkin (Dork), James Turner (Rex Libris) and heaps of other Slave Labor folks (I was fortunate to meet a few of these fantastic artists last summer during Toronto's Comic Arts Festival).

If you'd like to check out a few sample pages first, go to www.comicspace.com/tjbehe. Best, T

Contraband Chapter One Preview

Here's a quick preview of final version of Contraband Issue I we just sent off to SLG for posting onto their Eyemelt site. Simply click on the page for a larger image. We hope you enjoy! TJ & Phil

Contraband Available for Pre-Order Online

You can now advance order Contraband at Amazon.com. If you want to order the book from your regular book or comic shop then just quote our unique ISBN number - 978-1593621018 and our names, Thomas Behe and Phil Elliott.

The pencilling continues and here's a new scene where Toby meets Jarvis Stevens for the first time:

Contraband Preview in Comics International

Caught this cool preview of Contraband a few weeks back. Around May, we skipped off as much script and artwork as we had to a few comic folks to get some feedback on the story, characters and key themes of the project. We see the reviewer Leonie's an artist herself (http://www.lomoore.com/) who's created her own graphic novel - always great to get feedback from someone who's hammering away in this market herself...


"Contraband has a great underlying premise, based around the use/misuse of camera phones, loss of privacy and the boom in the spy cam industry that this generates. That's probably enough for a story, but TJ Behe goes further, weaving an interesting plot around an abducted girl. This is a great sci-fi thriller, written by someone who knows a lot about mobile technology. However, the real stroke of genius was to enlist Phil Elliott as the artist. This adds another twist to the story, giving it a clean and unique feel. Rather than being another dark cyberpunk comic, the style is quite European and very inviting. The first chapter is currently free online and you can also view sketches and development work online too. LO 8/10"

A Bar in Ghent

Ian came over last night and collected a few more pages to ink. Amongst the pages is this panel:


Toby has managed to escape the den of iniquity that is the XXX Mobile Emporium and has found his way to Ghent. I'm sure Ian is relishing the prospect of inking the bar and WW1 details.

Ian handed over another batch of inked pages last night and we have to say that we're really pleased with the work he's producing, especially as we know he also working hard on colouring books for Markosia, as well as producing his own comics under the banner of Orang Utan Comics. We know that Phil's style of drawing is not what Ian is used to inking and he was a bit hesitant about taking on the task at first, but he has not let us down. We look forward to showing you more pages as we count down to Contraband's release next year.