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New illustrated “Think Like Churchill” app enlists London Mayor Boris Johnson as narrator

By John Freeman on November 24, 2014

Touchpress and Hodder Books have just released the second trailer for their new grahic novel-style app Think Like Churchill, which features some impressive art work from Jamie Huxtable.

The trailer, narrated by Boris Johnson, reveals more about how the app works. Users are asked to stand in the shoes of Winston Churchill and face up to some of the dilemmas the great man faced throughout his long life.

On release, the app will contain five decisions with a further two being released in 2015 as a free update. The decisions cover major political choices, including the Dardanelles campaign, as well some more personal moments from Churchill’s life.

Told as a beautifully animated graphic novel, the app paints a new kind of portrait of Churchill. Each decision combines the former Prime Minister’s own words, with archive material and contemporary sources, to show the complexity of his thinking and how he brought his fierce intelligence to everything he did. At the end of each story, users are asked what they would do in Churchill’s place to see if they make the same choices. Users’ decisions are measured and analysed to see if their thinking process shows the same qualities as Winston Churchill.

The app will be available to download for iPad and iPhone from the App Store in December 2014. However, Touchpress are inviting people to sign up for early access to the app at thinklikechurchill.com. Users will be randomly selected to receive an early version of the app and will get to explore it for free before it is made available to the general public.

Brighton-based artist and illustrator Jamie Huxtable, completed the Sequential Design and Illustration MA at the University of Brighton in 2010, is a past runner-up for the Dundee Comics Prize, the competition run by the University of Dundee and DC Thomson for his strip entitled “Elly’s Evil Teddy”.

With clients that include the University of Sussex, QueenSpark Books and Electric Sheep Magazine, he’s produced a comic book based on a Medieval Welsh travel diary, a Victorian tale about the colour of music and the fantastic-looking adventures of The Afanc… a lake monster who looks suspiciously like a beaver.

“The story of Winston Churchill’s life shows that one man can make a difference,” say Boris Johnson. “He wasn’t always right, but his mixture of brains, brawn and guts enabled him to take difficult decisions quickly.

“This app takes you into his thinking process and helps to reveal the nature of his leadership genius. He would have loved it, being an enthusiastic early adopter of new technology.”

“Churchill Heritage is delighted to collaborate with Touchpress in sharing Churchill archive assets to explore the decision-making process at the many ‘hinge of fate’ moments in his life – which often changed the course of history,” commented Randolph Churchill, Director of Churchill Heritage and literary executor of the Churchill Estate.

“Churchill loved new technology and thought innovation led to change. This app is a way of reaching today’s new decision-makers, whether gamers, leaders or entrepreneurs, and giving them a masterclass in Churchillian thinking as well as an appreciation of his legacy.”

Sam Aspinall, CEO of Touchpress says: “This is quite different to anything we’ve made before and yet it bears all the hallmarks of our work in terms of quality, scope and ambition. We’ve crafted this app with Churchill Heritage, Boris Johnson and Hodder, to produce something really quite extraordinary. It shows what can be done in the digital space when you work with world-class content and world-class developers.”

Think Like Churchill is made by Touchpress in association with Hodder and Stoughton, Boris Johnson and Churchill Heritage.

Touchpress is the creative team behind some of the most innovative apps available, including Molecules by Theodore Gray, The Elements, The Orchestra and Disney Animated, the latter chosen by Apple as their iPad App of 2013. It was also recently nominated for a Children’s BAFTA award.

To date, 15 of the company’s titles have been selected by Apple as Editor’s Choice or App of the Week on App Stores worldwide.

More Information: thinklikechurchill.com

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.