Goathland
Goathland Febuary, March 1997
Goathland Feb/March 1997 © John Welding
| Goathland John Welding |
Further ZUM! reading: Philosophical Dead Goatland |
Goathland is the diary of a rural neophyte's life in North Yorkshire. It's creator John Welding having moved up from Milton Keynes. (Let's be thankful he didn't start the journal there, hey? Imagine trying to sell 'Milton Keynes; The Comic'.)
And what a finally drawn comic it is. John has a lovely way with cross-hatching that justly captures the windswept moorland surrounding his cottage. It's a well-trodden path; the artist's daily life in all it's dull or fascinating minutiae. Goathland gives us John setting himself up as a self-employed artist, John feeding sheep, John suffering a migraine, John having another bad hair day. I could certainly empathise with John as he battled the elements in his £1.25 trousers from Help The Aged.
So life goes on & no great events occur and there's none of the de rigueur depravity as seen in similar offerings from other comic artists. For example Goathland 10th February; "Rain, rain, wind, rain, bed". Joe Matt may well get a blow job from a sickly looking hooker whilst seated in a porn cinema, but I bet he can't boast (unlike John) that his living room featured in the popular TV drama 'Heartbeat'.
A well trodden path, but a charming one.
Carol Swain
Goathland #9
Goathland #9 © John Welding
And it's a real shame 'cos I so wanted to like Goathland, I really did. It's quite beautifully drawn, the production values are nice and you know you're reading a real labour of love. It's a little slow on tempo maybe, but there's a need for this kind of thing I think. Like a lo-fi Posy Simmonds or something. At times, the diary very nearly had me, there are a few moments of genuine pathos and I'm digging it…and then the dreaded mushroom pate is mentioned again and it's lost me.
This issue, Comics diary number nine is the last volume of the Goathland diary. John Welding deserves to, and probably will, go far. It's worth checking out (even if you share my prejudices, honestly!)
Mardou
| Goathland Feb-March '97: 20 A5 pages,
colour stock cover Goathland #9: 20 A5 pages, card stock cover with stencil spray . |
Recieved at ZUM! HQ: 1997 |
£1 each (+P+P?) | John Welding, 36 Grosvenor Street, Wakefield, WF1 5BG.
Note: update 22ix04 : stock may be limited to non existant, but contact John regarding his new Awakenfield project. |