{"id":34833,"date":"2026-01-28T11:45:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34833"},"modified":"2026-01-28T11:55:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:55:40","slug":"add-toner-a-cometbus-collection-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/01\/28\/add-toner-a-cometbus-collection-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Add Toner – a Cometbus Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Aaron Cometbus<\/strong> (Last Gasp)
\nISBN: 978-0-86719-753-2 (TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Before the advent of computers and the internet gave everybody with a keyboard and an ounce of determination the ability to become writers and publishers (an eternity before AI made all that a complete joke and waste of time), only those truly dedicated, driven or Full-On Compulsive individualists self-published.<\/p>\n

…Or those with something to say.<\/p>\n

Aaron Cometbus (not his real name: use your search engine if you absolutely must<\/strong> find out about the man, but the best route would be to read his wonderful work) has been a drummer, roadie, author, designer, traveller, author, raconteur, social historian, bookseller and cultural anthropologist of the American Punk movement from long before he began his hugely acclaimed and long-running \u2018Zine\u00a0Cometbus\u00a0<\/strong>in 1981.<\/p>\n

In the decades over which his hand-crafted publication has been released (as photocopy pamphlet, offset magazine and even audio-mag) his writing and art have covered every aspect of the life of the contemporary outsider from self-exploratory introspection, reportage, criticism, oral history, music journalism, philosophical discourse and even unalloyed fiction – from epigram to novella, news bulletin to chatty remembrance – usually in a distinctive hand-lettered style all his own, augmented by cartoons, photo-collage, comics and a dozen other monochrome techniques beloved of today\u2019s art-house cognoscenti.<\/p>\n

Cometbus<\/strong> (go read Downtown Local<\/strong>, The Voyeurs<\/strong> and A Punkhouse in the Deep South: The Oral History of 309<\/strong>) tells stories and has been doing so since the first death of the Punk Rock movement at the end of the 1970s, but the material is – and always has been – about real, involved people, not trendy, commercialised bastardisations.<\/p>\n

In 2002 Last Gasp released Despite Everything<\/strong>: a 600+ page Omnibus distillation of the best bits from the first 43 issues with this second compilation released in 2011\u2026 and this one\u2019s still available.
\n\"\"
\nAdd Toner<\/strong>, which samples issues #44-46, 46\u00bd, and 47-48, is a far more comprehensive collection with stories, reminiscences, interviews, artworks and added features such as the novella \u2018Lanky\u2019<\/em> plus a selection of previously withheld and self-censored pieces which simply captivate and enthral.<\/p>\n

Particularly informative and moving are the collected illustrated interviews with the \u201cstaff\u201d and patrons of punk watering hole and communal meeting space Dead End Caf\u00e9 <\/em>from #46 (gloriously redolent and evocative of my own art-school punk band hang-out The Horn of Plenty<\/strong> in St. Albans) and a fabulous three-chapter oral history examination of the post-hippie \u201cBack to nature\u201d movement divided into interviews with \u2018The Kids\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Adults\u2019<\/em> and an appreciation of \u2018Back to the Land\u2019<\/em>: a fascinating period in American history neglected by just about everybody, probably since most of those flower-power Arcadians and disenchanted just-plain-folks grew more pot than potatoes…
\n\"\"
\nWith graphic contributions and supplementary interviews from Phil Lollar, Nate Powell, Katie Glicksberg, Idon, Lawrence Livermore & Michael Silverberg, this is a gloriously honest and seditiously entertaining view of life from the trenches: happy, sad, funny and shocking…<\/p>\n

Eccentric, eclectic and essentially, magically picayune, Add Toner<\/strong> is a fabulous cultural doctorate from the Kerouac of my g-g-generation…
\n\u00a9 Aaron Cometbus. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1878 Mary Tourtel<\/strong> was born, originator of UK strip star Rupert Bear<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1983 Cuban inker Frank Chiaremonte<\/strong> died and in 1996 we lost two true legends, Jerry Siegel <\/strong>and Burne Hogarth<\/strong>. You don\u2019t need me to tell you how they changed everything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Aaron Cometbus (Last Gasp) ISBN: 978-0-86719-753-2 (TPB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Before the advent of computers and the internet gave everybody with a keyboard and an ounce of determination the ability to become writers and publishers (an eternity before AI made all that a complete joke and waste … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Add Toner – a Cometbus Collection”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[119,1,122,125,216,105,328,343],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comicsacademic","category-graphic-novels","category-historical","category-humour","category-lifestyle","category-mature-reading","category-music","category-reportage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-93P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34837,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34833\/revisions\/34837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}