Break the Cake – David Robertson – Fred Egg Comics
First things first. I need to confess. I was a resident of the fair city of Dundee for several years. Billy McKenzie? I saw him walking the city streets with his whippet and his cool hats. Philosophy lectures in the Tower Building? I sat through them (when they weren’t too early).
One thing I didn’t do is peruse the amazing archive of comics in the University of Dundee – that is a more recent innovation and has contributed to Beano-Town (thanks Ricky Ross) cementing it’s place as an important place for comics in the UK, building on the legacy of D.C Thomson whose comics sold in the millions, with some still going strong.
Although the title of this comic collection is ‘Break the Cake and (as David pointed out to me at Edinburgh Comics Art Fest’s event in Leith) the cover portrays the case of the Bake Off outside a Gregg’s, there are no peh’s in this comic collection.
Instead you can read David’s writing illustrated by a variety of artists. The stories go from Star Wars fandom and tales of work and travel to weird and funny tales of puffer fish and werewolves. Break the Cake really reminds me of Harvey Pekar and his groundbreaking work with American Splendor. Like Pekar, David’s work is rooted in everyday life and he has the ability to convey the ordinary in an extraordinary way.
Artist and Writer David Robertson
David does some of the illustration but as with Pekar, the art is handled by a wide variety of artists with differing styles ranging from Olivia Hicks’ pop-art to Tim Kelly’s Bagge-esque grotesquery. You’ll have to pick up Break the Cake yourself to get the full, long list.
Catch up with David on his blog and with some of the Dundee comics scene on the That Comic Smell podcast. Buy more Fred Egg comics online here.
Daredevils and Warriors 