Dark & Golden Books have announced three new titles to be released at Thought Bubble Festival next month, with copies available from the independent publisher’s site for preorder now. They include a reprint of Dave Gibbons first professionally published comics work first seen in Pocket Chiller Library.
“We’re very excited to be continuing our relationship with all of the below artists, and making more of their unseen and obscure work out into the world,” say publishers Tom Oldham and Douglas Noble.
Another Way Out by Carol Swain | DAG014
Enter the evocative world of Carol Swain’s comics once again, in this new collection of three previously unpublished pieces. The landscapes are wreathed with ghosts, and the spaces between words spill over with unsaid secrets. Elusive and intriguing, these stories are never quite what you expect, but always the truth you have known all along.
Another Way Out collects three never before seen comics by Carol Swain: “Vast New Market”, “Coming of Age”, and a sequence from “Mwnci Siwt”, her forthcoming graphic novel.
Carol Swain 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.
I’ll Be Glad When Today is Over by Kevin Woodcock | DAG015
I’ll Be Glad When Today is Over is a new selection of the work of Kevin Woodcock, featuring rare and favourite cartoons from the pages of Private Eye, Punch and The Spectator.
The cartoons of Kevin Woodcock are a trip to a place that is just not quite right. In this new collection, spend a day in his world as a series of calamities unfold about you. From sudden octopi and horrifying zoos, to bleak tropical islands and unwelcoming living rooms, this is a collection of comics that you won’t be able to get out of your head.
The Dead Are Awake and Walking by Dave Gibbons | DAG016
Dark & Golden Books re-present “The Dead Are Awake” and “Walking” from the cult classic digest series published by Top Sellers, Pocket Chiller Library, stories drawn by a young Dave Gibbons in the 1970s.
“Dark and Golden books are pleased to return this lost milestone to print,” says the publisher. “Originally published in 1971, ‘The Dead Are Awake’ and ‘Walking’ is the very first professional comics work by Dave Gibbons. A story of creeping dread, of the uncanny and of betrayal, it heralded the debut of a major comics talent.”
All these new books, and previous releases are available here, and will be on sale at Thought Bubble.
Dark & Golden Books, run by Tom Oldham and Douglas Noble, is an independent publisher dedicated to charting a less travelled course through the history of British comics, finding and celebrating mislaid and forgotten classics for the audience of today in new high-quality editions.
Other 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)
Head downthetubes for…
• Also on downthetubes: The Perplexing Origins of “Pocket Chiller Library” – and a series checklist
• Checklists: Issues 1 – 49 | Issues 50 – 100 | Issues 101 – 137
Note that from Issue 86 onwards, the title went reprint
- 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, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comic Previews, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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