By 2pm we’ve left Harborne. It happens to us all eventually.

After crossing Hagley Road (home to my old sixth form, St Philip’s College), the number 11 saunters wistfully along the Bearwood High Street as another song comes to mind. This time, it’s the sublime This is What She’s Like from Dexys Midnight Runners’ wilfully uncommercial and criminally underrated 1985 album, Don’t Stand Me Down:

On the album version of the song, The Little Nibble café on the Bearwood Road gets name checked during some pre-song banter (legend has it that Kevin Rowland and his bandmates used to meet there for tea-dinking sessions). Sadly, The Little Nibble ceased trading in January, Dexys haven’t recorded a studio album since Don’t Stand Me Down and I’ve been sitting on the top deck of the number 11 for long enough now to start making connections.

We take a right onto Sandon Road and into Edgbaston, passing the former home of my good friend, the macaroon-chomping friend of Garfield Jez Higgins. I remember going to a barbeque there years’ ago. Jez and his goodwyf Nat are vegetarians, so this – understandably enough – was a vegetarian barbecue. Our mutual friend – the talented comic artist and occasional thug, Tony McGee - arrived at this vegetarian event clutching a greasy megaburger in his mitts. I vividly remember him wantonly flaunting his tasty bovine-based snack with scant regard for the feelings of others. At least, I’m pretty certain it was Tony.

I hope it wasn’t me.

“People Just Ain’t No Good” is a. a song by Nick Cave & Bad Seeds, b. a catchy mission statement for misanthropes, and, c. the title of a UK small press vet Rol Hirst’s excellent comeback comic.

As you might expect from the title, the three stories that make up PJANG serve up a not altogether sunny-side-up view of the human condition. That’s not to say it’s a depressing read – there’s plenty of wry humour and at least one happy ending to be found amongst its three stories – but the overarching theme is that we’re living in a world full of no-good shits. Of course, you can’t really argue with a theme like that. In your hearts you know it’s true.

That being said, the three stories that make up ‘PJANG’ are very different beasts. The first, Grotesque, features nicely atmospheric art by my erstwhile drinking buddy Mr Tony McGee. A time-lapsed tale of infidelity born from insecurity, it’s harrowing stuff.

Next is Get Creative! a blackly comic tale about an advertising exec who turns (a gun) on his industry and embarks on a Bill Hicks-inspired killing spree. It’s vicious, funny, has a great twist at the end and features some lovely, stylised art by Andrew Cheverton which reminded me a bit of the work of 2000AD legend Mike McMahon.

Finally, there’s Rooms for Writers by Rol and Kelvin Green. Despite it’s subject matter (it’s about what happens to writers after they die), it manages to end on uplifting, optimistic note that suggests (to this reader at least) that Lord Hirst of Slawit is not quite as gumpy a Yorkshireman as he sometimes makes himself out to be.

PJANG is very good, costs £1.75 and is available from here. Don’t be a tight-arse – go buy it now.