Independent British comic publisher Dark & Golden Books next title will be the continuation of their introductory 2x series, and the editorial team are incredibly pleased to announce that its subject will be their first comic with the wonderful Carol Swain.
Described as “The Raymond Carver of British comics” by Time Out, Carol Swain is a Wales-based comics artist, author of the graphic novel Gast, Giraffes in My Hair and Foodboy.
Carol was born in London but brought up in Wales, the population of the village being an uneasy mix of mean Baptist hysteric (© Hunter S Thompson) and drop-out hippie… a place deemed so evil by travelling evangelist missionaries, they condemned it as a modern Sodom and Gomorrah.
Carol left Sodom and Gomorrah to go to art school where she studied painting. She began self-publishing her comic Way Out Strips in 1989, which was later picked up by Fantagraphics Books. Since then, she has completed several graphic novels and has contributed numerous comics stories to anthologies worldwide.
Many of Carol Swain’s stories are set in Wales, and are grounded in autobiography. Absurdity, loss, alienation, belief, disbelief and revelation are common themes. She sees her characters as map readers searching for latitude and longitude in an attempt to fix their position in the world, their plight emphasised through her use of unusual perspectives that give her work a filmic quality.
Collecting two never before reprinted comics from different volumes of Carol’s Way Out Strips series, 2x Carol Swain will feature new introductions and an interview with the artist, as well as a bibliography of her books.
“We have, once again, been incredibly lucky to be able to work with the original art for pages in this collection, and it’s going to look amazing,” enthuses Dark & Golden Books Douglas Noble. “The announcement of when it is coming out should be imminent.
“At Dark & Golden we are wildly excited about getting this work back out in front of people, and are really looking forward to see how you enjoy it. We already look forward to doing more.”
Dark & Golden Books, an independent publisher dedicated to charting a less travelled course through the history of British comics, is the brainchild of Tom Oldham and Douglas Noble.
The team are dedicated to finding and celebrating mislaid and forgotten classics for the audience of today in new high-quality editions.
Recent releases include 2 x Chris Reynolds, 2 x Brett Ewins and Peter Milligan and the never-before-collected Shuk and Doode by Simon Harrison.
• Read Paul Gravett’s guide to the work of Carol Swain here on his official site
• Books by Carol Swain on AmazonUK (Affiliate link – help support downthetubes, thank you)
- 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 - Collections, Comic Previews, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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