“A blustery, beleaguered, ever-curious linguist and thinker, Windy Wilberforce is the character to whom Ed Pinsent seems most attached, chronicling him across twenty years.

"Six of Windy’s unpublished or little seen tales from the last ten years are gathered in Voice Of The Wilberforce. These are visionary comics, not linear or plotbound, but rich with dreams, signs, languages, alchemical symbols; they fascinate like parables open to endless interpretation.”

     Comics International October 2003

"Ed Pinsent's worried hero, Windy, blusters through bizarre stories, talking to cosmologists, alchemists, frogs and fishmongers, trying to get a handle on life. He's the frock-coated voice of sense in a world in which anarchy seems to rule.

"Subtitled A Book of Signs this is visually reminiscent of Dr. Seuss in its accumulation of heavy, restless ink. Pinsent takes the reader on a journey through acres of disjointed, dreamlike imagery. The stories deal with philosophical thought, alchemical symbols and mystical imagery. Almost like a puzzle, each frame is memorable and independent to interpretation."

     The List Feb 200


"Bitesize: I've read a lot of comics, of all kinds - European, Japanese, South American, small press and mini comics. All manner of weird stuff, but I've never come across anything like the work of Ed Pinsent.

"For a long time, through the 80s, Pinsent was a mainstay and prime mover of the UK small press comics scene as a regular contributor to Escape magazine, editor of Fast Fiction , handling the distribution service of the same name, as well as self-publishing his own work in a stream of diverse one-off titles which eventually included the copyright-defying Illegal Batman and Silver Age Superman. For many people interested in creating their own comics, Ed was a first point of contact. I was one of them, and although my own efforts were pretty hopeless I always found a source of support and inspiration in Ed. He led by example, proving that however bizarre your imagination you stand a chance of putting it across in your own comic. In recent years Pinsent has stepped away from comics and now concentrates on his music magazine The Sound Projector (which you can check out here at thesoundprojector.com), which nevertheless comes lavishly illustrated with his mind-bending images.

"I thought I might have seen the last of Pinsent the comics artist, but here at last, once again, comes Windy Wilberforce. Windy Wilberforce has been a recurring character in Ed's work, his first appearance came back in 1983 and this book collects work from 1992 to 2003. A puff-cheeked metamorphic figure in top hat and tails, Windy's adventures take him skipping and blundering through strange zones of earth, sea and air guided by dream logic and whimsy. Ed's great talent is his ability to take a story in any direction while maintaining an internal credibility. There's no way of guessing what might happen next, but the reader never feels cast loose with the suspicion the writer/artist is just making this up as he goes along. The narratives are carefully structured and the pages of artwork well-designed and beautifully-executed with a flowing brushstroke line that's always thrillingly vibrant."

     Mr Sloane, www.bookmunch.co.uk

"Windy: visionary, magical figure. Ed Pinsent creates layers of quasi-religious legend and mysticism, managing to say unfamiliar resonant things with familiar phrases. It is this depth which takes Windy Wilberforce out of the ordinary and into the realms of the memorable. Windy Wilberforce is a very personal, individual vision."

     Richard Middleton.