Hassan: Well, to start off with, just introduce yourselves and gives us a bit of information about what you've done in the indie scene.

Oliver: Well, we're Modern Monstrosity, which comprises of Oliver Lambden (artist) and Laurence Powell (writer) we make a comic called Tales From The Flat as well as other small things here and there. We put out an anthology a little while back with other small pressers including {ln:Oli Smith}, Andy Cheverton, {ln:David Baillie} and Dan Lester. We do a comic strip called Curtis and Terrorist and Oliver's working on a new comic with Monkey's Might Puke creator Dan Lester.

Hassan: So did you guys grow up with comics, or was it just something that you found later on in life?

Laurence: First comics were bought in a primary school fare, but before that I saw superheroes in cartoons, and then used to get them out of the library.

Oliver: Laurence was into Brit comics like 2000AD and I was on Marvel. Kinda introduced each other to the two worlds.

Laurence: I’ve collected 2000AD since I was probably too young to be even supposed to read it, like 10? Started collecting at 10, but read Judge Death when I was like 8 or 9.

Oliver: I was about 11 when I read my first comic, but I think I was more interested in the pictures

Laurence: Have a comic shop (Avalon Comics) round the corner from my house so used to spend all my pocket money in there, and in secondary school saved my lunch money as well.

Oliver: I had a tab with my local by the time I was 13.

Laurence: When I met Oliver I started collecting properly though. He got me hooked like some sort of comic book pimp pusher.

Oliver: Get ‘em when they're young, my motto.

Hassan: So was it more that Oliver took the art route straight from comics? Or were you already a budding artist before you got into them?

Oliver: Yeah, used to make up silly little characters when I was a kid, had folders full of them. Stuff like Binny the Bunny and my own superhero personae, Ollie Orbit. He was great. Never did art at school though, or college. Self taught all the way. I made comics with mates at school but they were awful spider-man rip off's called Spider-Mutant and shit like that...

*pause*

Laurence: I used 2 copy the pictures and try and make my own comics that were shit, I was quite good at drawing and art in school, but never really had the discipline to do comics and develop a style, I used to draw from photo's but then I got into writing when I stumbled on this drawing monkey named Oliver

Oliver: Like one of them monkeys at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey

Laurence: Hey we were both monkeys really with human suits for the conventions

Hassan: Hah! So how did you meet then?

Laurence: In the jungle swinging through the trees…

Oliver: Met at a drama club of all places

Laurence: Oh yeah that was it

Hassan: Same difference

Oliver: True

Laurence: Yeah, drama clubs are a good place to hook up with girls when you’re 13/14…

Oliver: Or boys…

Laurence: Or crazy comic geeks…

Oliver: Didn't get any girls, just ended up with Laurence instead…

Hassan: Well not too bad, could have been worse…

Laurence: Not really

Oliver: Well, could've met a girl who could write.

Laurence:That'd be cool, if I meet a girl who draws, you’re ditched.

Oliver: Would be better if I had a writer who wrote bangin’ scripts and who I could actually bang...

Laurence: You’re dirty.

Oliver: This is getting too X-rated for IndieReview

Hassan: We’ll manage.

Oliver: I knew I should've done this alone.

Hassan: Nah, I’ll leave it all in, shows your real personalities!

Oliver: Shit

Hassan: Obviously Oliver did this or the girls…

Oliver: Yeah man, convention chicks.... In final fantasy outfits. That’s all I draw for.

Laurence: Only Oli Smith uses comics to pick up chicks.

Oliver: Yeah, then he makes comics about ‘em.

Laurence: Thou shall not use comics to get into a girls pants!

Hassan: Alright, steering away, what got you into the small press scene and got you creating comics?

Laurence: Just because we didn’t really know the first thing about how to get our stuff published, so did it ourselves and started hitting the conventions.

Oliver: TFTF was a screenplay, then we realised it should be a comic, we did it for ages but on the cheap at Laurence’s college printers and just sold them to mates. Then we realised we could be doing it for real so we started from scratch and tried to make a TFTF that anyone could understand. We failed.

Hassan: So there’s a sort of issue #0 around somewhere?

Laurence: 1-7 I think.

Oliver: There are seven issues of a whole other TFTF that you'll NEVER see.

Laurence: and 2 never printed.

Hassan: That bad?

Oliver: Yea, still got the pages to 8 and 9

Oliver: Just a product of its time. The five issues we have out now are a reworking of the original five issues. But Connor died at the end...

Hassan: Maybe as an extra in the next collected editions?

Laurence: Nah they won’t be seen, maybe some, but the new stuff is a reworking of the originals that fleshes it out better and makes it a proper read where as the other ones just read badly and look crap

Oliver: Yea, maybe a few panels as extras in a collected edition sometime. To be honest, I just swiped a load of Jim Mahfood art. My style didn’t kick in ‘til the end. I’m a baby.

Hassan: So what issue would you say you're most proud of?

Oliver: Of the proper stuff? My favorites are still the first 3 issues. Issue 4 is just a big action sequence and five is the climax. 1-3 I love, along with #6 which got back to the TFTF roots I think.

Laurence: I love 5 and 6. 1 and 2 are ok, but for my writing I'm most proud of 3, 5 and 6

Oliver: Can only get better.

Laurence: Yeah let’s hope so.

Hassan: What’s the most appealing thing to you, as creators, of the small press scene?

Oliver: Just being able to do our own thing I guess. That and meeting all the other talented folk who just love making comics for no financial reward. I think we're a part of a new group of small press creators who really wanna push things forwards. I know we get a lot of flak for "doing superheroes" which are seen as the scourge of the industry, but there's room for everything. I don’t think the general public see comics as "just spandex" anymore, they're more than aware that comics can tell any good story...and besides, TFTF ISN'T a superhero comic

It's the best of both worlds in comics, a bit of fantasy and realism. Something for everyone I reckon. Semi-autobiographical and semi bullshitting

Laurence: With small press it’s all about the extended family of creators giving it a go, but we self publish comics 2 basically trying to generate a big enough fan base to eventually do stuff for a larger audience, I love TFTF but I wanna write very different stuff eventually.

Hassan: Where did the inspiration come from for TFTF? Obviously not every story is based on real-life occurrences, so where did you get it from?

Oliver: A mix of watching Kevin Smith's clerks too much at an early age and plenty of Jim Mahfood books. They were the earliest influences I guess.

Laurence: Like imagine if that mad stuff happened to us and if we could react to it in a way we obviously wouldn't in real life.

I just wanna write a comic where i get to make smart assed remarks and see myself in action scenes.

I should probably try and get it out of my system

Hassan: Kevin Smith seems to have been an inspiration to a lot of people, especially with Clerks. I guess it was the first film that really hit that target of people.

Oliver: Definitely you can see his influence everywhere. spaced is influenced by it very much I think, which is something that popped up while we were working on TFTF and something we're compared to a lot. The whole pissed off generation x angle.

Laurence: I'm not pissed off.

Oliver: Yea, we just wanna look cool. Small press on the whole is pretty self indulgent, people moaning about their lives and boring jobs n so on. We're doing the opposite I suppose

Laurence: Yeah when I first saw spaced I was like ‘hey that’s kinda like what we're trying to do!’

Oliver: Yea, fuckers.

Oliver: Ahem

Hassan: There seems to be a hint of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm in there (if you've seen it), reacting in a way you just wouldn’t dare to in real life.

Oliver: We love Curb Your Enthusiasm!

Laurence: Yeah only got into it this year. That’s all about putting the character of yourself into messed up situations.

Oliver: Hell yea

Laurence: But more socially than superheroey

Oliver: But ours are even more messed up, at least his are semi realistic

Laurence: Music’s an important influence!

Oliver: Definitely

Laurence: And a lot of other non comics/films mediums. Any one into comics has to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It’s a novel by Michael Chabon, I think is how his names spelled.

Hassan: Yeah, heard of that, never read it though.

Laurence: Do!

Oliver: I still need to. Got a copy and everything…

Laurence: It’s long but worth it.

Hassan: Alright, I’ll track down a copy.

Laurence: You'll both cry.

Hassan: Haha! Alright, why would you recommend the UK indie scene to those that have never had any previous experience of it?

Oliver: Well, to anyone who reads comics I’d tell them to dip their toes in. Experience comics in a different, more personal light. There’s something for everyone, whatever you may be into, there's most likely a comic out there which will appeal to them, and if they want to create something, it's the best way to make your story come to life and the quickest. Got a movie idea? Fuck it, make it a comic instead, because you can make it happen without having to worry about all the things you'd have to worry about when making an indie film...

Laurence: Yeah there's definitely a lot of good stuff out there, I think that between the creators we're covering most genre's with some original ideas, there's so much out there anyway so just don’t dismiss a comic because it's not printed in colour or on glossy paper because you don’t know what you could be missing.

Oliver: Comicscomicscomics. The bestest way to tell a story. Period. The ultimate storytelling medium.

Laurence: True.

Hassan: So what are your two's top 5 indie books at the moment?

Oliver: Bloody hell...um. Not Hazy Monday, or whateverthefuck it's called. We both love Paul Rainey's stuff. The O-Men was one of the first indie books I picked up. Baillie's stuff. Monkeys Might Puke is glorious....

Laurence: Well I'd say that my fave's are Paul Rainey's- No Time Like The Present, Dan Lesters-Monkey's Might Puke, Jake Harrold- Tards, anything by David Baillie or Oli Smith and West by Tim Keable and Andy Cheverton.

Oliver: Not sure if it's strictly "indie" now that it's a movie, but Persepolis is great.

Laurence: Yeah blink twice obviously but it isn’t like they need the props

Laurence: Oh yeah don’t start on the stuff you find in bookshops these days, too much good stuff!

Oliver: Loads of great travelog comics out there. Generally, the Europeans (French especially) make great comics.

Laurence: I’m just thinking of the guys we meet at conventions and read their comics who I really like what they do. I really like Banal Pig as well that stuff is jokes!

Oliver: We love his stuff but he thinks we're the scourge of the industry.

Hassan: Haha, probably right…

Laurence: We are!

Oliver: We so are! Hehe.

Hassan: Alright, well we're coming to a close, so anything final you want to add or plug?

Oliver: Buy our comics!!! Oh, and I wanna plug my blog, http://www.modernmonstrosity.blogspot.com It's well good...

Laurence: Verb T's Verbs with a vengeance album, what we did cover for. Its UK hip hop so don’t know how appealing it'd be to readers of this site but you should give it a go!

Laurence: Can someone take out this kiwi who's trying to do his own Tales From The Flat! We been working on this since ‘99 and he has zero web presence but does exist!

Hassan: Alright! Well, thanks for taking part!