The first volume of a print-only, ad-free, hardcover “comics and culture quarterly,” Full Bleed is nothing if not ambitious. Collecting comics, essays, interviews, and fiction, it’s a hefty, well-designed thing from the Portland-based branch of IDW. The publisher’s best known for its oversized artist editions, which reproduce the work of comics greats like Jim Steranko and Mike Mignola, and licensed books like Star Trek and My Little Pony.
Full Bleed aims to be something bigger. “I like comics. I like long interviews. I like punk rock,” co-editor Dirk Wood writes in his introduction. “I like history. I like learning about other cultures. I like great stories, and I like great art. I like being surprised, and reading about things I’ve never heard of. I’m placing a bet there are a few more people who feel the same way.”
Wood’s curiosity echoes throughout Full Bleed, which includes a comics-focused interview with Stephen King, Abdulkareem Baba Aminu’s examination of comics’ misrepresentations of Nigerian culture, an interview with musician Carla Bozulich, the first chapter of Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Steve Beach’s creepy comic about a Nazi U-boat’s ominous cargo, and Shawna Gore’s appreciation of the late horror artist Bernie Wrightson—accompanied by a generous helping of Wrightson’s gorgeous, haunting art.
