Trains are Mint #3 by Oliver East

Hey look, it's another issue of Trains Are Mint! If you don't already read Oliver East's wonderful mini-comic, then take a glance at these pages.
I prattled on about Trains Are Mint Issue 1 in this post. From last Neovembert:

Trains Are Mint is a great example of what mini-comics do so well. East takes something important or interesting to him, and puts it on the page for a small audience to discover. What I like about East’s effort is the extra touches. The watercolor art is gorgeous. He uses a neutral, stiff card stock for the cover with plenty of information for the reader inside the back cover.

This goes triple for issue three. Oliver is a little more adventurous in his panel layouts this time around. There's a very funny bit where he encounters a lady jogging; he throws you off a bit until your eyes hit the last panel at the bottom of the page.

Oliver's website is here. Click on any of the three issues (the man is leaning on them) for page samples and ordering information.

A word of advice: if you have a nagging, bone rattling cough for more than six weeks, it’s probably not a good sign. And if you try to battle said cough with massive amounts of Nyquil and whisky instead of reluctantly submitting to a round of antibiotics, you may have signed up for a nice case of bronchitis that leads to pneumonia. The Nyquil and whisky will certainly knock out the cough and help you sleep, but you’ve got to wake up and function in the real world at some point. Caffeine is a big help unless you’re piling a venti Starbucks and two Diet Cokes on top of the Nyquil. Hello heart arrhythmia.

Six weeks of dry coughing, an echo stress test, and a heart event monitor later, I feel pretty damn good. But that was a bad six weeks. Unfortunately, you devoted mini-comic crafters have continued cranking out fun stuff while I’ve been out of commission.

Some great things have been arriving in the mailbox. The Partyka gang sent some new stuff. Oliver East has another episode of Trains Are Mint, and Craig Atkinson sent in a few awesome books. In a moment of lucidity I snuck a review of Sarah Morean’s Bad Time for a Polar Bear in, but she also sent a couple of other minis, including the following mini-comic novel.

Human by Sarah Morean At 120 pages, Sarah Morean’s Human encompasses ten years of her romantic life. Sarah doesn’t shy away from honesty in her subject or art. One of the most charming aspects of her story is that she just draws. She doesn’t bother trying to perfect her line, she just draws. As a reader you’ll watch her style morph and change from chapter to chapter. She subtly alters ways of rendering her hair and glasses and other details to suit her mood and the story. It’s a very refreshing way to tell a long form tale.

About a third of the way through the story, things turn serious. Sarah shows a great deal of maturity and humor when her life changes. A things grow serious around her, she adapts, even making mini-comics for her latest beau. Now I want to see a copy of “Monkey Explosion.” “It is how all monkeys are born BOOM!”

Here’s a few samples of Human that show how Sarah’s art changes through the 120 pages. Get your own copy of Human from Sarah’s website. Human is a steep $9, but it’s much larger than your typical mini-comic.

Trains Are Mint by Oliver East
In Trains Are Mint, Oliver East takes readers on a lovely tour of Manchester train stations. Starting at the Oxford Road Station, he highlights the things that strike him along the way. East is on a journey with no goals save understanding and a pint at the end of the track.
The real beauty of this mini-comic is in the watercolor or paint wash art. His tour is intimate and real, but the art is fantastic. East uses simple shapes and unique angles to suggest innocence, even when he’s looking at a dodgy alleyway. His cars are the cars that we learned to draw as children. There’s a bit of Allison Cole in his art.

Trains Are Mint is a great example of what mini-comics do so well. East takes something important or interesting to him, and puts it on the page for a small audience to discover. What I like about East’s effort is the extra touches. The watercolor art is gorgeous. He uses a neutral, stiff card stock for the cover with plenty of information for the reader inside the back cover. He doesn’t list a price, but you’ll find a website and a MySpace page that tells you everything you need to know.

And if that’s not enough, he has page samples! Nice job, Oliver. Give him a shout. Order your own copy of Trains Are Mint. Looks like he’s only made 500 copies of this first issue.