It’s time to draw the curtains, curl up by the fire, and enter the sinister world of that master of the English ghost story, M.R. James. Just make sure that you’ve locked the back door… because Ghost Stories of an Antiquary: The Compendium, tales adapted into comics by Leah Moore and John Reppion and a host of top-draw comic artists, is out now from SelfMadeHero.
As an academic medieval historian (of the sort often featured in his stories), M.R. James turned his back on Victorian schlock-horror sensationalism, in favour of a subtler form of creeping shivers and uncanny fear that has guaranteed the endurance of his supernatural tales. In the ninety years since his death, the spirit of M.R. James has inspired countless acts of homage, not just in literature (Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, Ruth Rendell), but in radio (Neil Brand, Mark Gatiss), television (Jonathan Miller, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton), and film (Jacques Tourneur’s Night of the Demon).
Now, Leah Moore & John Reppion have extended that influence into the graphic-novel form with Ghost Stories of an Antiquary: The Compendium, a collection of eight powerful adaptations of his most famous and spine-chilling tales.
Click pictures for larger images… if you dare…
Reimagined in a wide variety of graphic styles by Aneke, Kit Buss, Al Davison, Meghan Hetrick, George Kambadais, Abigail Larson, Fouad Mezher, and Alisdair Wood, this anthology hauntingly evokes the singular dread of what James himself simply called “the ominous thing”…
Leah Moore & John Reppion are a husband and wife writing team based in Liverpool, England. Scripting comics together since 2003, the duo have written for the likes of 2000AD, Dark Horse, DC Comics, SelfMadeHero, and Penguin Michael Joseph. Together they have contributed stories to Eisner, Harvey, and Antony award-winning books. Moore & Reppion have faithfully adapted notable works by Lewis Carroll, H. P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, and M. R. James into comics and graphic novels.
• Ghost Stories of an Antiquary: The Compendium
Original author: M.R. James; Adaptors: Leah Moore and John Reppion | Artists: Aneke, Kit Buss, Al Davison, Meghan Hetrick, George Kambadais, Abigail Larson, Fouad Mezher, and Alisdair Wood; Cover artist: Francesco Francavilla | Hardback / 144 pages / Colour / ISBN: 978-1914224416 | Price: £22.99 / US $31.99 / CAN $39.99
• Buy it from Gosh! Comics (Affiliate Link) | Buy it from Forbidden Planet (Affiliate Link) | Buy it from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
SelfMadeHero aim to publish ground-breaking and beautiful work by authors and artists from across the globe, from the quirky and humorous to the political and profound. They are proud to bring readers graphic novels and visual narratives that provoke, entertain, inspire, and inform.
Releases this year include: Barbara Yelin’s Emmie Arbel: The Colour of Memory, ILYA’s Romo the WolfBoy, Joann Sfar’s The Little Prince, Kay Medaglia’s Comic Therapy: Meditations for Reflection, Myfanwy Tristram’s Noisy Valley: The Art of Protest, Ivo van Woerden, Gemma Plum and Marloes Dekkers’ The Great Marc Evers, Mirko Ilić’s Nightmares and Daydreams: A.C. 2020, the recently-released Bryan and Mary Talbot’s Lo! An Amazon!, and Simon Elliott’s Chagall, out next month.
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Current British Publishers, British Comics - Graphic Novels, Comic Previews, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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