London Zine Symposium & Le Dernier Cri

Along with my (incredibly English and middle-aged) trip to Arundel, the high point of my Bank Holiday weekend was my visit to the inaugural London Zine Symposium on Brick Lane.

There was a great atmosphere in the two rooms, both crammed with illustration, prints, vanity publications, underground comics, one-off show pieces and, unfortunately, a full stall of dull propaganda rags.

Show highlight: picking up HOPITAL BRUT 8, the latest anthology of extreme illustration from the boutique french comic and serigraph publishing house Le Dernier Cri. I was lucky enough to buy the previous edition in Toronto at the Beguiling.

To complement the consistenly stomach-turning imagery, Le Dernier Cri use a custom press that gives all the books a unique poster-paint texture and neon colour range I haven’t seen anywhere else. They also work to make the books as tactile as possible, with different weights and milling of paper throughout as well as insanely imaginative use of translucency and tracings. If you’re into graphic novels, illustration or shock value, pick this up asap.