Notable artists who have had their start in British small press comics include Eddie Campbell, Paul Grist, Rian Hughes, Jamie Hewlett, Alan Martin, Philip Bond and Andi Watson.
Small press comics are traditionally sold by mail, using reviews and classified adverts, websites, email lists and word of mouth to reach an audience.
The British underground comix scene was led by Nasty Tales and Knockabout Comics of the 1970s, as well as the popularization of Punk zines in the late 1970s.
It told the story of an aging jazz musician who was tasked by the Archangel Gabriel with playing the last trumpet at the end of the world.
[8] In 1987 Jamie Hewlett, Philip Bond and Alan Martin (then students at from Northbrook College, Worthing) produced two issues of a small press comic called Atomtan.
In 1996 he set up the BugPowder distribution service, which sold any British small press comics that cared to be listed as well as importing selected books from the US and Europe.
Its first title was Pavement's own Pavement Pizza, and it soon began selling British small press comics (including such titles as Time Warp: The End of the Century Club, by Ed Hillyer; Sugar Buzz by Woodrow Phoenix, and Witch by Lorna Miller) and zines on marts in Brighton and Hove, and importing books from the US, Australia, and Europe.
Slab-O-Concrete developed into a full-scale publisher, repackaging small press comics for the bookshop market and originating new work.
It avoided the direct market of comic shops and made connections with underground publishers, zinesters, indie record labels, and other subcultural scenes.
Andrew Moreton set up Massive, a small press distributor, in 1992, and also published a zine, The Comics Cut Quarterly.
From 2000 until 2011 Metaphrog went on to produce the full-colour Louis series of graphic novels which received mainstream media attention and book shop distribution.
Recent creators to have launched through the small press include Gary Northfield, whose Derek the Sheep has gained a recurring slot in the Beano.
Garen Ewing, who worked in small press comics in the 1990s, moved onto the web with The Rainbow Orchid, soon to be published in print by Egmont UK, and also contributes to The DFC.
The Etherington Brothers (Robin and Lorenzo), creators of the small press comic Malcolm Magic, have gone on to create "Monkey Nuts" for The DFC, "Yore" for the Dandy and "Baggage" for Random House.
PJ Holden, Al Ewing, Arthur Wyatt and David Baillie (comics) emerged from the small press to work for 2000 AD.
One of the current leading distros is SmallZone, founded in 1999 by Shane Chebsey, which also provides a printing service for small press creators.
In 2006 the first Scar Comics graphic novel, Falling Sky by Ben Dickson, won "Best Indie Surprise" on Ain't It Cool News.
In addition to the founding members, regular contributors to Accent UK publications include Andy Bloor, Jon H. Ayre, David Hitchcock, John Reppion and Leah Moore (daughter of Alan Moore), Bridgeen Gillespie (Mr Maximo & Rabbit), Garry Brown, and David Baillie.
By a combination of launching new titles and taking over existing ones whose owners retire from the scene, they have built up a stable including MangaQuake, Something Wicked and Lost Property, as well as 2000AD fanzines Zarjaz and Dogbreath.
LUC also ran larger one-day events that took up an additional 1,000 square feet (93 m2) of Camden Lock Market such as No Barcodes in April 2008 and Low Energy Day in August 2008.
The UK Web & Mini Comix Thing[11] was a yearly event in London run by Patrick Findlay that brings the British small press and webcomics communities together to sell and promote their work.
]have seen the rise of the small press both online and in print[12] with conventions around the UK on an almost weekly basis and vibrant review platforms like Broken Frontier and Slings and Arrows supporting creators’ work.