According to comics historian Paul Gravett’s 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die Hunt Emerson is “Britain’s greatest underground cartoonist”. According to the The Comics Journal his mind “works on a level untouched by most humans”. According to the French he is, with Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton, one of the legends of underground comics.
According to his mum, he’s still a lovely boy.
Now in celebration of over 35 years of cartooning madness, digital publisher Panel Nine has released The Certified Hunt Emerson – a smashing collection of his incredible work (can you tell I’m a fan of his work, yet?). The collection – available now for iPad – features over 200 pages of the finest cartoons and comics from Emerson’s warped mind.
The release comes just as Knockabout and Top Shelf release Hunt’s adaptation of Dante’s Inferno in print, a fabulous new work by Hunt with Kevin Jackson, which is another gem of a title from the man who also created comic strip versions of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Amongst the 27 different strips included in The Certified Hunt Emerson are his collaboration with Alan Moore on Leviticus, his take on Gilbert Shelton’s Freak Brothers, the adventures of cats Firkin and Calculus, Puss Puss, Alan the Rabbit and much, much more.
The one thing missing for me is his album cover for Scandal in Bohemia for Jazz Butcher, (the only album I ever bought for the cover first rather than the music but was glad I did) but hey, with digital editions there’s always an update!
The comprehensive set of extras includes audio commentaries and introductions to the strips by Hunt, a stunning cover gallery spanning over three decades, a gallery of self-portraits, a special section of astounding illustrations that have rarely or never been seen, and an exclusive interview with the artist for this collection that includes embarrassing photos of Hunt and comics creators such as Bryan Talbot and Robert Crumb.
Priced at only $9.99 / £6.99, the collection is, the publisher believes, a mind-warpingly attractive bargain.
Features:
• Specially-designed Panel Mode where you can double-tap on comics pages to zoom in and swipe from panel to panel
• Audio commentary synchronized with selected pages, recorded by Hunt Emerson exclusively for the app
• Beautiful high-quality digital images, with a specially-designed user interface that gives you fast, smooth swiping from page to page and flawless pixel-per-second movement
• Visual contents and bookmarks that let you view thumbnails of all pages and navigate quickly and easily
• High-resolution JPEGs and PDFs to enable users to zoom in to panels at up to three times the original size without loss of resolution
• Introductory notes to each comic strip written by the artist
• Buy The Certified Hunt Emerson now from iTunes
Notice: Panel Nine sponsors and supports the continued production of downthetubes
Further Notice: Hunt Emerson is quite simply brilliant. We’d have published this anyway!
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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.
Categories: British Comics - Graphic Novels, Digital Comics
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