Cram Comics #5

Reviews Doris Sutherland | July 30, 2026 Lillian Ansell’s cover art to the fifth issue of Cram Comics gives us a partial idea of what to expect: a nude Bacchus sings while drunkenly slouching amidst a pastoral scene, all rendered in a loose style of cartooning straight out of a 1960s underground comic. This is going to squarely be a not-what-the-corporations-have-to-offer title, that much is clear; but will the contents necessarily be as colourful and carefree as the scene implies? After all, the theme of the issue (as seen on the banner held up over Bacchus’s nether regions by two balding cupids) is “Something Strong For When The Love Is Gone”, a phrase with rather heavier connotations than joyous inebriation. Editor Andrew Alexander has pulled together nine short comic stories, each interpreting the given prompt in a different way. At the start we find Swayam Parekh’s single-page “Shabana, I Hate Tears,” a slice-of-life story about the relationship between a mother, a daughter and a family friend, Shabana Aunty. The mother embroiders a set of napkins as a present for Shabana’s 50th birthday: when Shabana fails to thank her even after a week, she is consumed by rage (“Who does she...