Slingsby Bros Ink! have announced their third Carol Day Story Book will be the story “Cousin Hugo”, the 25th story, first published in the Daily Mail in 1963-1964.
Preorders are open now through Book Palace Books for this latest collection of one of the stunning “Carol Day” strips, created by David Wright, launched in 1956. As previously, this edition is limited to preorders, closing Sunday 3rd August 2025.
“Carol Day” centres on the eponymous fashion model, elegant and assured in a world of intrigue. Her adventures were vividly brought to life in this sophisticated newspaper strip, featuring multi-layered adult storylines and superbly detailed and atmospheric artwork.
Independent Slingsby Bros Ink! have been publishing high quality collections of the strip for several years now, distributed by Book Palace Books, the quality of their books and dedication to the project rightly earning praise from comic art and newspaper strip fans.
David Wright’s Carol Day: Cousin Hugo is the companion volume to the Carol Day Story Books Riverside Racket and Last of the Line, and the large format books, Lance Hallam and Jack Slingsby.
“Cousin Hugo” returns readers to Carol Day’s beginnings, while reflecting a changing world. The plot revolves around some stolen cash Carol’s cousin Hugo hides in an African sculpture that he gives to their Uncle Marcus as a gift, and the story bears many strong similarities and echoes of the first story, “Charles Logan”, placing Hugo and con man Vernon Flowers at the center of the action once again.
This strip, however is a serious crime story in a much darker world, far from that of “Charles Logan”. Flowers is now a career criminal; Hugo lives on the edge, vastly overrating his cleverness, underrating his risk, and overcoming his residual moral qualms with ease. He’s a willing accomplice in a robbery that hospitalises a man.
“Although at first reading, ‘Cousin Hugo’ can appear to be a side-note to Carol’s more usual romantic entanglements and modeling plots, in a fuller context it clearly shows the change in Wright’s tone and attitude as the strip evolved and has an important place in the canon,” the Slingsby Bros Ink! team – Roger Clark, Chris Killackey and Guy Mills – note.
“Cousin Hugo” will be published the same format as Riverside Racket and Last of the Line, the publisher’s other story books. Leading with a brief introduction, it will contain the complete story, reproduced from the original art in its original size, continuing the project’s founding principle.
The art pages will be just like other Carol Day books, the edition limited to preorders, so don’t miss out.
• Preorder David Wright’s Carol Day: Cousin Hugo here from Book Palace Books |64 Pages | £149 | Trade Flexibound edition | Quarterbound with a cloth spine | Size: 19.25 x 14.25 inches (pages are 19 x 14 inches) | Printed on acid-free paper
Pre-orders end on Sunday 3rd August 2025, at which time the print run and go to print will be set, shipping to in the final quarter of 2025.
• David Wright’s Carol Day: Cousin Hugo is the companion volume to the Carol Day Story Books Riverside Racket and Last of the Line, and the large format books, Lance Hallam and Jack Slingsby
• Carol Day Official Site: carol-day.com
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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 - Newspaper Strips, Comic Previews, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
Preorders open for “David Wright’s Carol Day: Jack Slingsby”