Phil Elliott is one of the good ones. In a body of work that has seen him act as artist, as writer, and both writer and artist at the same bloody time, he has produced classy comic after comic time and again. Titles such as Tales from Gimbley, Vignette Comics, Second City and The Suttons, varied though they were, have a consistency that underlines the fact that he is one of the true great of British comics, though too often unsung in this role. People, you need to do some reading. Take, for example, my personal favourite – Tales from Gimbley. On the surface, it might seem like a slight comic, built of small moments in a mundane life. But these small moments build, creating a fragmented picture of a whole life that is being recounted. It’s a neat trick, and one that Elliot pulls off with considerable style.

His art’s lovely, a sort of blend of Herge and old British weeklies like Lion. There’s a lot of that to look at too, including some neat collaborations such as Tupelo, about the world greatest junkie super-hero and Illegal Alien, which is exactly what it sounds like. Now get out there and start reading!

Oh, and before I forget, I should really thank him for the free font that he made available on his website, as it’s the font that is used on The Rule of Death every week. So, you know, thanks!

That’s his comics though, I caught up with him to chat about other things…

So, seen any good films lately?

I saw Control the other week, the film about Ian Curtis and Joy Division. Joy Division were a big part of my life, and that of Fiona, my wife’s, as well. We met and had a child to the soundtrack of Unknown Pleasures so it was quite poignant to see the film together.

What books do you have on the go at the moment?

For my sins, I don’t read books. I read a lot of newspapers, usually a few days’ old, that are left in the canteen at work. It’s always interesting to find out what Amy Winehouse did last Friday… especially from the differing perspectives of The Sun, The Guardian and Daily Mail. The Big Issue is the only magazine that I buy on a regular basis and as luck would have it, they occasionally have something about Amy as well.

What about music? Heard anything good lately?

I’m still trying to decide what to spend the HMV voucher I got given for Xmas on. The last album I bought was The Guillemots‘ “Through the Window Pane” and that was a year ago. I’d recommend that. I had to download Labi Siffre‘s “It Must be Love” last week after hearing it on a TV advert – I’d forgotten how perfect this song is.

I don’t know what happened but suddenly our town is overflowing with bands, with almost every pub in the town having some live band or acoustic singer-songwriter. Many are simple cover bands but quite a few are doing their own material. Fiona and I go to some of the gigs but sometimes I wish I was 30 years younger again. We don’t get any big names, but last week we happened across Juicy Lucy, who were fairly big once!

If you really want to listen to some of my favourite songs then I suggest you head to The Flowerpot in Maidstone where the landlord kindly allows me space on the jukebox for my own compilation cds.

What’re you having for tea tonight?

I’m in France at the moment and I should be saying that we had some fancy gastronomic feast, but the truth is we ate fish and chips earlier. Maybe I should scrub that last sentence and tell you about the confit de canard we ate last night? You can’t beat fish and chips (unless you’re a vegetarian of course), washed down with a nice cup of tea – oops, I mean a glass of Sancerre…well, that’s what everyone else drank. Me, I prefered a cup of tea.

Oh, go on then – what comics are you working on?

As I say, I’m in France, staying with my in-laws and heading North tomorrow for the big comics festival in Angouleme where I’ll be meeting up with Thomas Behe, the writer of my latest book, Contraband. I’ve been working on Contraband for the best part of a year and haven’t really had time to do much else.

I’m taking a short break now and will then return to the second Tupelo book, written by Matt DeGennaro, which we hope Slave Labor will publish later this year. I’m also collecting together a couple of smaller comics featuring various strips I illustrated from Glenn Dakin‘s scripts.

Phil Elliot can be found on the electrical internets at www.elliott-design.com. Check it out!