Scarlett and Sophie Rickard, aka The Rickard Sisters, have revealed their cover for This Slavery, their third graphic novel adaptation with SelfMadeHero.
Their take on This Slavery, the classic novel about women’s place in capitalism by feminist trailblazer Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, follows Constance Maud’s No Surrender (2022) and Robert Tressell’s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (2020) which was Eisner nominated for Best Adaptation.
Their first graphic novel, an original fiction called Mann’s Best Friend, was self-published. They work collaboratively from 200 miles apart, without arguing.
They will be appearing at Borth Comics Day on Sunday 25th May at the Star of the Sea in Borth, Wales, to promote their work, alongside Rachael Bell, Eira Richards and Gabi Putnoki with the Graphic Reading Room, a free event that includes workshops, browsing, reading and chatting comic books with comics people
Ethel Carnie Holdsworth was the first female working-class novelist to be published in Britain. In This Slavery, when the Lancashire cotton-mill that employs them burns to the ground, sisters Rachel and Hester Martin are each forced to find their own way to survive in the harsh realities of pre-war industrial Britain. The contrasting paths they take in their quest for domestic autonomy form a subtly strident allegory of the all but insurmountable barriers of class and gender that then enslaved half the population.
Part compelling narrative epic, part fiery Marxist-feminist polemic, this faithful, sumptuous, and revelatory adaptation by the award-winning Rickard Sisters reclaims a lost classic by holding it up as a mirror to our own hard times, and as a gloriously flaming beacon to future communities to offer strength, hope, and dignity.
The Rickard Sisters have previously received plenty of deserved praise for their work. Of No Surrender, Comics Review wrote: “Powerful, enraging, engaging and even occasionally funny, this never-more-timely tale of the force of the disenfranchised with their backs to the wall and ready to fight is supremely readable and should be compulsory viewing for all.”
• This Slavery will be released by SelfMadeHero on 11th September 2025 | ISBN 978-1914224355 | AmazonUK Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link
• The Rickard Sisters are online at rickardsisters.com | Follow The Rickard Sisters on BlueSky
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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 - Current British Publishers, British Comics - Graphic Novels, Comic Previews, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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