Home › Comics › British Comics › British Library’s Comics Unmasked Exhibition Launches Free Digital Anthology

British Library’s Comics Unmasked Exhibition Launches Free Digital Anthology

By John Freeman on May 8, 2014

Comics Unmasked, the new exhibition at the British Library in London, has opened to great acclaim, offering the first chance to see the British Library’s extensive comics collection, as well as original artwork and scripts from names such as Neil Gaiman, Posy Simmonds, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Hunt Emerson, and Bryan Talbot. The exhibition is the largest to have ever been held about British comics and comics creators in the UK.

Of the show, Paul Gravett, co-curator, says: “Much more than childhood nostalgia, comics are a powerful adult medium which can reflect and impact on society and change’s people minds and lives. From the very start, comics have been cross-pollinating with movies, music, theatre and all the other media and today are on the cutting-edge of digital storytelling and multi-media installation art.”

Now, for those across the globe unable to get to the exhibition, or for those who just want to see more, the British Library has partnered with digital comics developer SEQUENTIAL to provide a free anthology for iPad, based on the content of the exhibition. The anthology includes excerpts of work by many of the star names from the exhibition such as Alan Moore, Bryan and Mary Talbot, Dave McKean, Pat Mills, and Dave Gibbons, as well as rare comics such as The Trials of Nasty Tales and sequential art from centuries gone by such as Ally Sloper and A Harlot’s Progress.

Comics Unmasked: The Digital Anthology contains over 150 pages of comics and information from the Comics Unmasked exhibition and is a free download via the SEQUENTIAL app for iPad here.

The anthology will be available for the duration of the exhibition, which runs until 19th August 2014. Due to the explicit nature of some of the content the app is only suitable for those age 17 and over.

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.