Watermelon comix

““The Enterprise Allowance Scheme was a product of the Thatcher Government in the 1980s which continued into the 1990s. It gave a small income to would be entrepreneurs to start their own business. Watermelon, a comic based in Brighton, was one such enterprise. The Welfare State in the UK has enabled many musicians, artists and writers to survive in times of high unemployment and a lack of market for their talents. Watermelon explored the kind of twilight world of Psychedelia and psychosis that was typified in the US by Philip K Dick. The best stories (by Nicolas C Grey, 1968-) have an artless style that is a style. There is a kind of graphomania at work here. The entrepreneurialism encouraged by the government found its apotheosis in Acid House; in the drug-dealings and Pay Parties.

Nicolas C Grey,

Cover of Watermelon #6,

36 x 21 cm,

Having spent time in both prison and mental institutions he now lives in Cambodia, where his work is appreciated for its ‘ghost-world’ qualities. His recent work is very much influenced by the region’s politics and culture. ‘‘

exert from a book on Psychedelic Art by Thomas Taylor