Coming soon from American publisher NBM is The British Invasion, a new graphic novel by Hervé Bourhis, described as a “little square book” focused on English pop culture since 1962 “when the country began its revolution!”

It’s not the first comic-related title to bear that title, of course, but this work has a much wider remit than Greg Carpenter’s Sequart book published back in 2016, which focused solely on British comic creators such as Alan Moore.

“Because it was in 1962, 60 years ago, that the ‘ole Albion’, that of the monarchy, tea and crumpets and bowler hats took a resolutely modern turn,” publisher NBM outlines, “thanks to a sexy secret agent, a band from Liverpool, and a mini (skirt and car).

“From the eccentric to the ultra-conservative, from James Bond to AstraZeneca, from Bowie to Banksy, including After Eights and the Teletubbies, year after year, all things Brit are covered.”

Hervé Bourhis was born in Touraine in 1974. He’s known for his books on music, such as The Little Book of Rock or The Little Book of Black music, he has been the author of around thirty graphic novels since 2002.

The artist received the Goscinny Prize in 2002, the Jacques Lob Prize in 2010 and the Landerneau Prize in 2014.

Passionate about popular culture, he enjoys dissecting cultural movements to better tell the story of our times. Even if his documentation is rigorous, Hervé strives to give his work a subjective (and sometimes bad faith) tone to make the complexity of this world funky.

He alternates between contemporary or even political stories with books for young people or humorous ones. He also alternates between fiction and the historic-pop-patchwork, of which he invented a personal form in 2007 with The Little Book of Rock, an illustrated chronology of rock culture since its origins translated into eleven languages. He expanded this into a series dealing with the Beatles, comics, black music, French pop, ecology and now British pop culture.

Hervé only works on subjects that have obsessed him since his teen years.

He is also a scriptwriter for other artists, including Brüno, Christian Cailleaux, Christian Durieux, Amélie Graux,
Grégory Mardon, Rudy Spiessert, and Lucas Varela. He also works as an illustrator for the newspapers and magazines such as Libération, Télérama, Spirou, La Revue Dessinée, and the website lemonde.fr.

• The British Invasion by Hervé Bourhis is scheduled for release by NBM on 12th November 2024 | 272pgs colour hardcover | ISBN 978-1681123424 | Preorder it from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)

With thanks to Paul Gravett for the news tip – check out his latest PG Tips column here

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.

Categories: Comic Previews, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, US Comics

Tags: downthetubes News, Hervé Bourhis, NBM, The Beatles