Welcome back to Broken Frontier Towers as we re-emerge after our Christmas and New Year break. Though to be honest “break” is something of a misnomer. It was less time off and more a case of the team working to build up a supply of great material for January 2025. What can you look out for this month then? Well the biggies, of course, are the Broken Frontier Awards for 2024 (the nominations ballot going up later today) and the announcement of this year’s Broken Frontier ‘Six to Watch‘ creators.
There’s an incredible amount planned for this year. Given my own return in 2024 to big comics events for the first time since 2019 we have already been approached by multiple event organisers about BF panels and events in 2025. So let’s see what we can do about facilitating that. You can also look forward to a re-imagining of a much-loved BF standard of yesteryear not seen since 2018 in what is our most ambitious project since I took ownership of BF eight years ago. Lots that, as ever, may or may not come off and it is too soon to talk about. But on the site itself we will continue to put our threefold strategy of championing emerging voices, prioritising socially relevant work, and exploring comics that embrace the language of the form, at the heart of what we do.
Just some of the creators at the Six to Watch party at Gosh! in August
2024 was a big year for us. We celebrated the tenth year of our ‘Six to Watch’ initiative with an exhibition and panel at St. Margaret’s House, Bethnal Green and the amazing ’10 Years of the Broken Frontier Six to Watch’ party and signing courtesy of our friends at Gosh! Comics. The latter saw around thirty of our Six to Watch-ers from the last decade in attendance at London’s finest comic shop and gave me some of the happiest memories in my eighteen years at BF. On a personal note thank you as well to everyone who made me feel so welcome on my returns to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival and Thought Bubble this year. It was a daunting prospect to be back at huge events for the first time since the pandemic began but your kindness made it so much easier. On the site I was especially proud of our Pride Month coverage, our incredible 50-plus reviews/interviews/articles for Thought Bubble Month 2024, and our Lydia Turner’s remarkable and unsurpassed work anywhere else promoting this year’s ShortBox Fair with no less than thirteen reviews.
Manon Wright’s gorgeous poster for the Six to Watch party
On a more general note 2025 looks set to be a particularly fraught and stressful year for the marginalised and the more vulnerable members of society. Now, more than ever, it is vital that we do not normalise bigotry and anti-progressivism in comics masquerading as “debate” or “banter”. Do your due diligence. Do not support the work of those associated with hate movements. Do not engage with platforms happy to promote hate movements. Do not look the other way because it is inconvenient to your own interests not to collaborate with those sympathetic to hate movements. Instead, put comics community and the vulnerable first.
BF hijinks at LICAF with Mollie Ray and Isabel Greenberg
As we head into 2025 a few other Broken Frontier things to consider. Our Broken Frontier Connects initiative has a number of offers that we rarely get taken up on in terms of community support. You can read more here but we would like to draw your attention to the free advertising for socially relevant work and marginalised creators n particular. Our massively oversubscribed (free!) one-to-one Zoom call sessions for emerging UK creators to discuss building up a profile and getting work in front of wider audiences will be increasing this year from two sessions to four, and I remain available to continue to meet with publishers to discuss how we give an extra push to marginalised artist and socially conscious comics. See also chatting to students on comics-related courses in higher education and working with libraries to promote our BF Resource Lists.
BF’s Andy Oliver and Lydia Turner at Thought Bubble
One final small plea for your help in ensuring Broken Frontier is still here this time next year. The site’s losses every year long since exceeded my own resources to cover. Until last year I never personally pushed donating to our running costs but if you value what we do, how prolific our posting is, and our wider work in the community, now more than ever we need your help in ensuring we get to carry on doing that. These are not easy times for anyone to commit to non-essentials but if you can make a one-off donation or a small monthly payment on our Ko-fi it would be so appreciated. It wouldn’t take that many of you donating one pound a month to secure our survival in the long-term.
The very best to you all for 2025 from us here at Broken Frontier. Looking forward to catching up with you across tables, in stores, at events or in bars next year!
– Andy Oliver
Broken Frontier Editor-in-Chief
January 6th, 2025
