Dawn of the Unread - Issue #9

William Abednego Thompson (18 October 1811 – 23 August 1880) was an English bare-knuckle boxer from Sneinton. He was one of the first boxers to employ scientific techniques in the ring. He was supported by the Nottingham Lambs, a rowdy group who burnt down Nottingham Castle in the 1831 Reform Riots. Bendigo retired undefeated with four Silver Cups and two Prize Belts to his name, before doing a Gazza and turning to drink. This would see him banged up 28 times in the House of Correction before finding salvation as a religious preacher. In the following story he is brought back to life in a ‘Time Mine’ by Nottingham City Council for a fight with Carl Froch.

Writer - Al Needham
Al has been reading comics since the age of 3, when his Mam used to make a newsagent in Hyson Green fasten pages of Cor!! together with sticky tape so he wouldn’t accidentally see Dr Rat and have a screaming fit all night. Since then, he has written for the likes of Cosmopolitan, The Daily Mirror, Maxim, Penthouse, Esquire, Scarlet, commentated on topless boxing and catfights from trailer parks in Kentucky for Television X, been a male stripper, won an Erotic Award for a male sex blog, was the Editor of LeftLion, and collaborated with Rikki on the Int Notts Mint advertising campaign for Notts TV. This is his first go at a graphic novel, which allowed him to wallow through the first 600 Progs of 2000AD and every issue of Transmetropolitan. He’d like to do more of this sort of thing.

Artist - Rikki Marr
OH BABY I LIKE IT RAW
OH BABY I LIKE TO DRAW

Rikki is a visual thinker. He spends most of his time producing drawings of other people’s thoughts, for his company Hawk & Mouse. His style is always live and off-the-cuff – usually drawn in black ink with minimal highlights to add punches and mood – preferring the quick, instant ‘honest’ sketch to overlaboured ‘pretty pictures’. Born and bred in Nottingham, Rikki draws the Ayup Duck strip for LeftLion magazine. He’s been a comic book fan all his life, but Bendigo Versus Nottingham is the first full comic he has completed. It was a real challenge, but one he enjoyed.