With all the great graphic novels being published these days it's hard to believe that as recently as 1980 (Ok, seems recent to me!) comics were on the verge of oblivion. Oh, I remember it well: "Epic Illustrated" (don't ask) was considered cutting edge comics in those days. And there were all sorts of embarrassing start-up companies and comic titles that are best not mentioned here. But wait: there were at least a couple of reasons for hope at the time. Aside from Raw (which started that year), a British cartoonist by the name of Raymond Briggs published Gentleman Jim, which by Seth's count was at least his second graphic novel. It's been out of print for years now (and as far as I can tell, never even made it over to the U.S. the first time around). D+Q is now re-publishing it in a newly-designed hardcover edition, with a new introduction by Seth. It''ll be out in July, and in the meantime take a look at these two sample pages (I'll try to get more readable pages up soon).

Posted in: