J O N AT H A N C A P E
J O N AT H A N C A P E
Welcome to the Jonathan Cape Graphic Novel catalogue. Inside you will find an astonishing array of books that, combining words and pictures, go under the banner of ‘graphic novels’ even though quite a large proportion of them are in fact non-fiction. The Cape list was launched in 1998, when we published Raymond Briggs’ classic Ethel & Ernest. It was followed, a year or so later, by the first Cape editions of books by Dan Clowes (David Boring and Ghost World) and Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan) that are now recognised as classics of the genre. When Jimmy Corrigan won the Guardian First Book Award in 2001 we felt that the list was on the map. You will find many other classics in these pages – Joe Sacco’s Palestine, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Posy Simmonds’ Gemma Bovery, Charles Burns’ Black Hole, David B.’s Epileptic, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, Bryan Talbot’s Alice in Sunderland – and a reader wondering where to start in this strange new field, or a bookseller which books to stock, should probably start with these. They could not be more different from each other, but as with conventional novels you need to try everything to find out what you really like. In 2007 we launched the Cape/Observer/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize in a deliberate attempt to find new home-grown British talent. Many of the authors who have entered the competition – Julian Hanshaw, Isabel Greenberg, Joff Winterhart, John Broadley – have gone on to write full-length books for the list. I should end by saying that the Cape list occupies just one corner of the graphic novel field. Jonathan Cape is one of the foremost literary publishers in the UK, and the graphic novels on our list reflect this. They tend not to feature superheroes. They are of exceptional quality. And just like the literary novels on the main Cape list they can be challenging, dark, witty, complex, shocking, cool, heartbreaking… Please try one. Dan Franklin Publisher
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Rutu Modan
Rutu Modan has received several awards in Israel and abroad, including the Best Illustrated Children’s Book Award from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem four times and Young Artist of the Year from the Israel Ministry of Culture. Children’s Book Award from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem four times and Young Artist of the Year from the Israel Ministry of Culture. Exit Wounds Chosen by the Times as one of the three best graphic novels of 2007. Set in modern-day Tel Aviv, Exit Wounds is the first graphic novel to be published in Britain by one of Israel’s best known cartoonists. A young man, Koby Franco, receives an urgent phone call from a female soldier. Learning that his estranged father may have been a victim of a suicide bombing in Hadera, Koby reluctantly joins the soldier in searching for clues. HB | 9780224081665 | £14.99
Jamilti and Other Stories A collection of Modan’s early short works: stories that range from darkly fantastical and unsettling to surprising discoveries that shape personal identity. HB | 9780224087704 | £14.99
Paolo Parisi
Paolo Parisi is an illustrator and musician who lives in Bologna, Italy.
Coltrane A graphic biography of one of the most celebrated, enduring and enigmatic figures in America’s musical history: John Coltrane. Juxtaposing scenes from Coltrane’s personal life – his military career, addictions, political activism and love affairs – against snapshots of his major recordings, Coltrane evokes an extraordinary life and the momentous historical events that formed its backdrop. PB | 9780224094108 | £12.99
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Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie Marguerite Abouet was born in Abidjan in 1971 and now lives outside Paris. Clément Oubrerie was born in Paris in 1966 and has illustrated more than forty children’s books. Aya A rare, captivating and hugely entertaining portrayal of life on the Ivory Coast. HB | 9780224081849 | £14.99
Aya of Yop City For the residents of Yopougon, everyday life is good. It is the early 1970s, a golden time – work is plentiful, hospitals are clean and well equipped, and school is obligatory. For the teenagers of the town, though, worries are plentiful, and life in Yop City is far from simple. HB | 9780224087476 | £15.99
Brecht Evens Belgian cartoonist Brecht Evens was born in 1986 and studied illustration in Ghent. He now lives in Brussels, where he lives on illustration work and Flemish cartoonist grants. He was the recipient of the ‘Audacity’ Prize at the 2011 Angoulême International Comics Festival. The Wrong Place The first English graphic novel from the wunderkind of European comics. Rendered in vivid watercolour, where parquet floors and patterned dresses morph together, The Wrong Place revolves around Robbie, a charismatic lothario. Robbie’s sexual energy captivates the attention of men and women alike. PB | 9780224094207 | £14.99
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Rutu Modan
Rutu Modan has received several awards in Israel and abroad, including the Best Illustrated Children’s Book Award from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem four times and Young Artist of the Year from the Israel Ministry of Culture. Exit Wounds Chosen by The Times as one of the three best graphic novels of 2007. Set in modern-day Tel Aviv, Exit Wounds is the first graphic novel to be published in Britain by one of Israel’s best-known cartoonists. A young man, Koby Franco, receives an urgent phone call from a female soldier. Learning that his estranged father may have been a victim of a suicide bombing in Hadera, Koby reluctantly joins the soldier in searching for clues. HB | 9780224081665 | £14.99
Jamilti and Other Stories A collection of Modan’s early short works: stories that range from darkly fantastical and unsettling to surprising discoveries that shape personal identity. HB | 9780224087704 | £14.99
Paolo Parisi
Paolo Parisi is an illustrator and musician who lives in Bologna, Italy.
Coltrane A graphic biography of one of the most celebrated, enduring and enigmatic figures in America’s musical history: John Coltrane. Juxtaposing scenes from Coltrane’s personal life – his military career, addictions, political activism and love affairs – against snapshots of his major recordings, Coltrane evokes an extraordinary life and the momentous historical events that formed its backdrop. PB | 9780224094108 | £12.99
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Marguerite Emma Rendel Abouet Marguerite Emma Rendel Abouet was was bornborn in 1976 in Abidjan in Uppsala, in 1971 Sweden. and now Shelives studied outside illustration Paris. and graphic Clément design atOubrerie Central St was Martin’s born inand Paris Communication in 1966 and has Arts illustrated and Design more at than the Royal forty College of Art. children’s She contributes books.to Galago, Hjelp and Le Gun, and her illustrations have been published in Icon magazine and Time Out. Aya Pentti and Deathgirl A Two rare, strange captivating tales in and one hugely beautiful entertaining volume. portrayal of ‘Pentti’ life onisthe theIvory storyCoast. of two Finnish brothers, Juha and| 9780224081849 Pentti. ‘Deathgirl’s Diary’ tells of Deathgirl, HB | £14.99 lonely and friendless, talking only to her diary. PB | 9780224085069 Aya of Yop City | £12.99 For the residents of Yopougon, everyday life is good. Vicar Woman ItThe is the early 1970s, a golden time – work is plentiful, hospitals are clean and wellthe equipped, and of school A lonely vicar investigates dark secrets is obligatory. For the teenagersinofthis thestrange town, though, one remote island community and worries plentiful, andEmma life in Yop City isartwork far fromis hauntingare graphic novel. Rendel’s simple. extraordinary: detailed and intricate (with carefully rendered sketches of St Peter’s Basilica and the HB | 9780224087476 | £15.99 Papal Palace); imaginative (the island is inhabited by a menagerie of bizarre characters) and atmospheric. Each page demands close attention. PB | 9780224091398 | £14.99
Brecht BastienEvens Vivès Bastien Vivès is a graphic novelist and illustrator. is studied the author of several highly acclaimed Belgian cartoonist Brecht Evens was born in 1986He and illustration in Ghent. He now graphic novels, including The Butcher and Hollywood in January. A Taste of Chlorine won the lives in Brussels, where he lives on illustration work and Flemish cartoonist-grants. He was the ‘Essential Revelation’ prize at the Angoulême Festival in 2009. He lives in Paris. recipient of the ‘Audacity’ Prize at the 2011 Angoulême International Comics Festival. ‘ Every once in a while, a graphic novel comes along that warrants the kind of attention more typically bestowed upon the likes of the Booker shortlist. Bastien Vivès’s A Taste of Chlorine is one such book.’ Independent on Sunday
The Wrong Place A Taste of Chlorine The first English graphic from novelcurvature from the wunderkind A teenage boy suffering of the of European Rendered in vivid watercolour, spine beginscomics. swimming every week at the local pool. where parquetand floors and patterned dresses morph In the interior echoing world of the swimming together, The Wrong Place revolves pool he becomes acquainted with a around girl whoRobbie, agrees atocharismatic lothario. energy give him pointers onRobbie’s his poorsexual technique. It is the captivates the attention of menone andthat women start of a tentative friendship, existsalike. only in the water. PB | 9780224094207 | £14.99 HB | 9780224090964 | £16.99
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Rutu Modan
Rutu Modan has received several awards in Israel and abroad, including the Best Illustrated Children’s Book Award from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem four times and Young Artist of the Year from the Israel Ministry of Culture. Children’s Book Award from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem four times and Young Artist of the Year from the Israel Ministry of Culture. Exit Wounds Chosen by the Times as one of the three best graphic novels of 2007. Set in modern-day Tel Aviv, Exit Wounds is the first graphic novel to be published in Britain by one of Israel’s best known cartoonists. A young man, Koby Franco, receives an urgent phone call from a female soldier. Learning that his estranged father may have been a victim of a suicide bombing in Hadera, Koby reluctantly joins the soldier in searching for clues. HB | 9780224081665 | £14.99
Jamilti and Other Stories A collection of Modan’s early short works: stories that range from darkly fantastical and unsettling to surprising discoveries that shape personal identity. HB | 9780224087704 | £14.99
Paolo Parisi
Paolo Parisi is an illustrator and musician who lives in Bologna, Italy.
Coltrane A graphic biography of one of the most celebrated, enduring and enigmatic figures in America’s musical history: John Coltrane. Juxtaposing scenes from Coltrane’s personal life – his military career, addictions, political activism and love affairs – against snapshots of his major recordings, Coltrane evokes an extraordinary life and the momentous historical events that formed its backdrop. PB | 9780224094108 | £12.99
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David B. Mio Matsumoto was born in Kobe. She studied for a BA in Illustration at Kingston University from 1998 to 2001, and then an MA in Communication Art and Design at the Royal College of Art from 2001–3. She works as an illustrator and lives in Tokyo.
Kim Deitch
Epileptic The most acclaimed European graphic novel of the last ten years, Epileptic is David B.’s story of his brother’s battle with epilepsy – but it turns into a penetrating and sometimes lacerating self-examination on the author’s part, as he delves into his own complex emotions and his family’s troubled history. PB | 9780224079204 | £14.99 | ebook available
‘ A work of deep, deep darkness and luminosity.’ Guardian
Alias the Cat At the centre of Alias the Cat are Kim Deitch and his wife, Pam – a passionate collector of Halloween cats from the 1920s and 30s. But when she buys a mysterious old cat costume, she and Kim find themselves in wholly new territory: the lost world of Alias the Cat, who, in 1915, appeared not only in a comic strip and film serial, but in real life as a freedom-fighting superhero. Alias the Cat is Kim Deitch at his eye-catching, mind-bending best. PB | 9780224084864 | £11.99
Igort Igort was born in Cagliari in 1958. In 1979 he moved to Bologna where he created his first comic. He is the winner of numerous awards for his work. He now lives in Paris.
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5 is the Perfect Number 5 is the Perfect Number, winner of several comics awards including Book of the Year at the 2003 Frankfurt Book Fair, is the story of an old Mafioso who is forced out of retirement when his son is murdered. He lays down his fishing rod and picks up his pistols and goes looking for revenge. PB | 9780224073875 | £12.99
Marjane Satrapi
Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran. She grew up in Tehran, where she studied at the French school, before leaving for Vienna and then Strasbourg to study illustration. She has written several children’s books and her commentary and illustrations appear in newspapers and magazines around the world, including the New Yorker and the New York Times. She is the author of the internationally bestselling and award-winning comic book autobiography in two parts, Persepolis and Persepolis 2. She currently lives in Paris. Persepolis I & II Marjane Satrapi’s brilliant memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during and after the Islamic revolution. Wise, often funny, sometimes heartbreaking, Persepolis tells the story of Marjane Satrapi’s life in Tehran from the ages of six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the devastating effects of war with Iraq.
Chicken With Plums A hugely accomplished, moving and multi-layered story of one man, Nasser Ali Khan (Marjane Satrapi’s great-uncle), a world-class musician who gave up his life for music and love in 1950s Iran. HB | 9780224080453 | £12.99
Embroideries A gloriously entertaining and revealing look into the sex lives of Iranian women. PB | 9780224087407 | £9.99
PB | 9780224080392 | £14.99 PB | 9780099523994 | £8.99 (film edition) Also available in hardback: Persepolis I HB | 9780224064408 | £14.99 Persepolis II HB | 9780224074407 | £12.99
‘ The magic of Marjane Satrapi’s work is that it can condense a whole country’s tragedy into one poignant, funny scene after another.’ Independent on Sunday 9
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Lynda Barry
Lynda Barry has worked as a painter, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator and teacher, and found they are very much alike. She is also an American comics legend.
‘ Part free-spirited workbook, part instruction in how to write… unparalleled in originality’ Entertainment Weekly
What It Is Bursting with full-colour drawings, comics and collages, autobiographical sections and gentle creative guidance, each page of What It Is explores the depths of the inner and outer realms of creation and imagination, where play can be serious, monsters have purpose and not knowing is an answer unto itself. HB | 9780224087872 | £16.99
Charles Burns
Charles Burns lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two daughters. As well as writing comics he has designed the set for a New York production of The Nutcracker, illustrated covers for Time magazine and produced an album cover for Iggy Pop. Black Hole Black Hole was selected for the Comics Journal’s list of The Top 100 English-Language Comics of the Century. The Observer chose it as one of their Top Ten Graphic Novels. Following 1970s teens in the aftermath of the outbreak of a sexually transmitted plague, Burns’ existential horror is as hypnotically beautiful as it is terrifying. HB | 9780224077781 | £16.99
X’ed Out When his dead cat Inky is discovered next to a huge hole in the wall, Doug doesn’t think his night can get any stranger. Until Inky beckons Doug to follow him through said hole… HB | 9780224090414 | £12.99
The Hive The sequel to X’ed Out. Doug is still in the netherworld. He’s working a cleaning job in the Hive’s stinking hallways, trying to ignore the screams… HB | 9780224096737 | £12.99
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Daniel Clowes Daniel Clowes was born in 1961. He is the creator of the comic book Eightball, twenty-one issues of which have been published to date. He lives a childless, petless life in California with his beloved wife. The Death Ray The Death Ray utilizes the classic staples of the superhero genre – origin, costume, ray-gun, sidekick, fight scene – reconfiguring them in a story that is anything but morally simplistic. HB | 9780224094115 | £14.99
David Boring When David Boring, a nineteen-year-old security guard, meets the girl of his dreams, things begin to go awry. Another Clowes classic. PB | 9780224063234 | £12.99
Ghost World Made into a major film, Ghost World tells of the adventures of Enid Coleslaw and Beck Doppelmeyer, two bored, supremely ironic teenage girls whom Clowes captures with uncanny skill. Selected as one of the ‘100 Best Comics of the Twentieth Century’ by the editors of the Comics Journal. PB | 9780224060882 | £8.99
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Ice Haven Welcome to Ice Haven! ‘It’s not as cold here as it sounds.’ So declares Random Wilder, the town’s would-be poet laureate. Random is our ersatz guide to the sleepy midwestern hamlet, and just one of many characters we meet in this ingenious novel. HB | 9780224077798 | £10.00
Mister Wonderful A Love Story The fan-favourite and Eisner Award-winning story. Marshall is waiting for his blind date, who is nine minutes late so far. The night takes an unexpected twist when she eventually shows. HB | 9780224085342 | £14.99
Wilson Wilson is the epitome of the modern egoist – outspoken and oblivious to the world around him. Engaging, complex, hilarious. HB | 9780224090612 | £12.99 ebook available
Robert Crumb
Born in Philadelphia, legendary underground comic artist Robert Crumb lives in the south of France with his wife and daughter. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1991.
Robert Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Crumb’s The Book of Genesis, the culmination of five years of painstaking work, is a tapestry of masterly detail – a reworking of the biblical text in an astonishing and profound way. From the Creation to the death of Joseph, here are all fifty chapters of the Book, revealingly illustrated as never before. HB | 9780224078092 | £18.99
Joe Matt Born in 1963 in Philadelphia, Joe Matt currently lives in a rooming house in Toronto where he spends most of his time editing his treasured collection of ‘nature films’. Occasionally, he finds time to produce his comic book series, Peepshow, the first six issues of which are collected here.
The Poor Bastard Meet Joe Matt, a talented cartoonist with strong ideas about how life should be lived. He makes no apologies and never compromises. Well, almost never. Actually, Joe Matt is a painfully honest man who doesn’t mind admitting – in print, in cartoon form – that he has one or two flaws. Just minor ones. The Poor Bastard is his neurotic, compelling and utterly shameless account of some of the most personal details of his life. PB | 9780224081955 | £12.99
Seth Seth lives in Guelph, Ontario, with his wife and two cats.
It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken Selected as one of the ‘100 Best Comics of the Twentieth Century’ by the editors of the Comics Journal. Seth pays homage to the wit and sophistication of the magazine cartoon. Disaffected by the crassness of contemporary culture, Seth takes refuge in a quest to uncover the
life and work of Kalo, a forgotten New Yorker cartoonist from the 1940s PB | 9780224079181 | £14.99
Wimbledon Green Meet Wimbledon Green, the self-proclaimed world’s greatest comic book collector who brokered the biggest comic book deal in the history of collecting. HB | 9780224079198 | £14.99 ebook available
George Sprott The story of George Sprott, the host of a long-running and unaccountably popular Canadian television programme, Northern Hi-Lights, in which he shows old films of the Arctic, while ‘rambling on in a monotone voice about Eskimos or seal hunts or snowstorms’ and often falling asleep on-air. PB | 9780224089982 | £16.99
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Chris Ware Chris Ware is the author of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, which won the Guardian First Book Award in 2001, Quimby the Mouse (2003) and Building Stories (2012) Winner of countless awards, he is widely acknowledged as the most gifted cartoonist of his generation. ‘ I don’t think there’s any Jimmy Corrigan independent cartoonist Hailed as the greatest whose stuff I don’t like or comic/graphic novel ever respect in at least some to be published. It won way or another. We’re the Guardian First Book all marginal laborers – Award 2001, the first we’re practically medical graphic novel to win a major British literary prize. oddities – so I don’t see ‘ The greatest thing in strip why we can’t all be nice to each other.’ cartoons since Krazy Chris Ware Kat and Little Nemo.’ Raymond Briggs ‘ A book that challenges us ‘ A work of such startling genius that it is difficult to to think again about what know where to begin’ literature is and where it is Jake Wallis Simons, going.’ Guardian Daily Telegraph
‘ Astonishment is an entirely appropriate response’ Sam Leith, Guardian ‘ Unbelievably wonderful’ Flavorwire ‘ A heartbreaking work of staggering genius’ Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Metro
HB | 9780224062107 | £20.00 PB | 9780224063975 | £14.99
Building Stories Twelve years after he changed the history of comics with Jimmy Corrigan, a new graphic novel masterpiece by Chris Ware. In Chris Ware’s own words, ‘Building Stories follows the inhabitants of a threeflat Chicago apartment house: a thirty-year-old woman who has yet to find someone with whom to spend the rest of her life; a couple who wonder if they can bear each other’s company for another minute; and finally an elderly woman who never married and is the building’s landlady...’ HB | 9780224078122 | £30.00 (October 2012)
‘ A work of such startling genius that it is difficult to know where to begin’ Jake Wallis Simons, Daily Telegraph 14
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Raymond Briggs Raymond Briggs was born in 1934. One of the most popular and innovative author-illustrators in the world, his books include Father Christmas, The Snowman, Fungus the Bogeyman, When the Wind Blows, The Man, Ug and Ethel & Ernest. Ethel & Ernest Raymond Briggs’ tender, moving, warmly funny tribute to his parents, Ethel and Ernest. ‘ In the details of Briggs’s sparkling cartoons, the characters become richly specific and endearing... both pathetic and heroic in the face of overwhelming events. They are what make you read through Ethel & Ernest over again.’ New York Times PB | 97802240046626 | £9.99
Gentleman Jim Jim Bloggs is a lavatory attendant set on a dazzling career change, but when he tries to bring his dreams to fruition, he realises they are more costly and complicated than he imagined. ‘There’s not much opportunity for self-advancement in toilets...’ HB | 9780224085243 | £10.99
Shirley Hughes Shirley Hughes is one of the best-loved and most innovative creators of books for young children. She has written and illustrated over fifty books, which have sold more than eleven million copies. Her characters Alfie and Dogger are loved by children and parents all over the world. Bye Bye Birdie Shirley Hughes’ first graphic book for adults. A young man, in his best bow-tie and boater, meets a fashionably dressed – and rather bird-like – young lady. But when he takes her home she undergoes a transformation and our hero’s dreams of connubial bliss suddenly turn into the stuff of nightmares. HB | 9780224080750 | £12.99
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Bryan Talbot
Bryan Talbot has worked on underground comics, science fiction and superhero stories such as Judge Dredd and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight. Vertigo titles including Hellblazer, Sandman and Fables and has written and drawn several Eisner Award-winning graphic novels. In 2009 he was awarded a Doctorate in Arts.
Grandville Bête Noire The third volume in his series of steampunk detective thrillers. At Toad Hall, lair of multibillionaire Baron Aristotle Krapaud, a cabal of industrialists and fat cats plot the violent overthrow of the French state by the intervention of horribly beweaponed automaton soldiers. HB | 9780224096249 | £16.99 (December 2012)
Grandville Mon Amour Set three weeks after the finale of Grandville, Grandville Mon Amour pits Detective Inspector Archie LeBrock of Scotland Yard against an old adversary and ruthless urban guerrilla, Edward ‘Mad Dog’ Mastock. HB | 9780224090001 | £16.99
Grandville The first instalment of Bryan Talbot’s anthropomorphic steam punk thriller. Inspired by the work of the nineteenthcentury French illustrator Gérard, who worked under the pseudonym ‘Grandville’ and frequently drew anthropomorphic animal characters, it tells the story of Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard as he stalks a gang of murderers through the heart of Belle Epoque Paris. ‘ Utterly delightful...it’s a playful, allusive book in which there’s a witty touch or deliciously knowing in-joke on almost every page...beautifully rendered, throughout, the glossy gorgeousness fills your eyes.’ The Times HB | 9780224084888 | £16.99
Alice in Sunderland Bryan Talbot takes the city of Sunderland and the story of Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell (the ‘real’ Alice) as the spine of his story and around them spins a spectacularly diverse range of different stories. Hailed by the Guardian as one of the ten best graphic novels ever.
The Tale of One Bad Rat Winner of the Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album Reprint, The Tale of One Bad Rat is the story of a young girl, Helen Potter, who runs away from home to escape an uncaring mother and a sexually abusive father. HB | 9780224084703 | £14.99
With Mary Talbot Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes An extraordinary new graphic memoir about James Joyce, fathers and daughters. ‘ Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes is doubly enjoyable for writer Mary Talbot’s masterful interweaving of two fatherdaughter relationships and cartoonist Bryan Talbot’s equally brilliant drawings, which transported me backand-forth between gritty postwar Britain and the swinging Paris of the 20s and 30s.’ Joe Sacco HB | 9780224096089 | £14.99
HB | 9780224080767 | £18.99
‘ I have greatly enjoyed the Grandville books. I think they’re superbly designed, beautifully conceived, admirably written – everything about them is terrific. They really show what the form can do.’ Philip Pullman 17
Posy Simmonds Posy Simmonds is the author of many books for adults and children, including Gemma Bovery, Lulu and the Flying Babies and Fred, the film of which was nominated for an Oscar. She contributed a series of weekly cartoon strips to the Guardian in the late 70s and 80s, and has won international awards for her work. She lives in London. Gemma Bovery Posy Simmonds’ extraordinary reworking of Madame Bovary. PB | 9780224061148 | £12.99
Literary Life Approximately fifty ‘Literary Life’ cartoons which were serialised in the Guardian and two short stories, ‘Murder at Matabele Mansions’ and ‘Cinderella’.
Mrs Weber’s Omnibus For the first time, a complete collection of the classic Guardian strips that made Posy Simmonds famous. HB | 9780224096836 | £20.00
HB | 9780224072694 | £16.99
Tamara Drewe A brilliant graphic novel inspired by Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd. Awarded the Grand Prix 2009 de la Critique Bande Dessiné, it has subsequently been made into a hugely successful film. PB | 9780224078177 | £12.99
‘ She knows so much about how people behave, and with her ear for the spoken word and her brilliant eye for the look of things, she has created her own masterpiece.’ Nicholas Garland, Daily Telegraph 18
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Hannah Berry Hannah Berry is a graduate of the illustration course at Brighton University. Her highly praised first book, Britten & Brülightly, was an Official Selection at Angoulême in 2010.
Britten and Brülightly ‘Private Researcher’ Fernández Britten hopes to deliver, just once, a truth with a positive impact. He and his partner take on a suicide case where the fiancé is convinced something more sinister occurred. TPB | 9780224077903 | £12.99
Adamtine A mystery surrounding disappearances on a train… Four strangers; seemingly random, unconnected, all take the last train home. But something each of them has forgotten – or is trying to forget – is catching up with them; with a terrible, inexorable purpose. PB | 9780224089081 | £14.99
William Goldsmith William Goldsmith is a writer and illustrator. He lives in Glasgow.
Vignettes of Ystov An extraordinary new graphic novel: a sequence of astonishingly rendered scenes depicting the lives of the inhabitants of Ystov. Vignettes of Ystov is a series of miniature masterpieces. Beautifully drawn, and written with a Chekhovian clarity and concision, it marks the arrival of one of the most inventive new talents in comics. PB | 9780224090360 | £14.99
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Julian Hanshaw
Julian Hanshaw is an animator, cartoonist and illustrator. He won the Cape/Observer/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize in 2008. He lives in East Sussex.
The Art of Pho The noodle soup called pho is the national dish of Vietnam. Inspired by this food, The Art of Pho is a remarkable debut by the winner of the 2008 Cape/Observer graphic novel competition. ‘Play’ the interactive motion comic at www.artofpho.submarinechannel.com HB | 9780224089845 | £14.99
I’m Never Coming Back A collection of surreal, comic and mournful interweaving tales travelling across three continents, and diverse destinations, from Winchelsea to New Mexico. In each destination we zoom in on unusual lives and remarkable situations, each tale unknowingly having an impact on the next. HB | 9780224096447 | £14.99
Nick Hayes
Nick Hayes is the founding editor of Meat magazine, a periodical which has been showcasing new writing, comics and illustration for the last six years – and has won two Guardian Media Awards. His forthcoming book is a graphic biography of the American protest singer Woody Guthrie.
‘ Holding this exquisite book in your hands feels akin to a sacramental act.’ Guardian
The Rime of the Modern Mariner This beautiful graphic novel recasts the shimmering horror of Coleridge’s famous story into a contemporary context. Deep in a polluted city, a worker escapes his office for a sandwich on a park bench. But his moment’s peace is shattered by a stranger – a seaman with a tale to tell... Shortlisted for the Max und Moritz Prize. HB | 9780224090254 | £18.99
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Sarah Herman Sarah Herman lives and works in London.
I Like My Job A brilliantly funny graphic novel about office life. I Like My Job begins with its protagonist facing the numbing realisation that her job is no longer challenging. From performance review to unwanted promotion we follow her ups and downs against a backdrop of petty office politics. But hers isn’t a mundane every-day-is-the-same existence. Instead there are a series of quite unexpected characters and events. PB | 9780224085762 | £12.99
Simone Lia Simone Lia writes and illustrates comics and children’s books. With Tom Gauld, whom she met at the Royal College of Art in 2000, she publishes her own comics and limited edition products under the name of Cabanon Press. British-born Maltese, she lives in London andvisits Malta frequently.
Fluffy Fluffy is a baby rabbit who is being looked after by an anxious, single man called Michael Pulcino. Michael tries to make it clear to Fluffy that he is not his daddy, but Fluffy appears to be in denial. A graphic novel of love, despair and happiness, to make you laugh, as well as ponder the meaning of life. PB | 9780224089241 | £9.99
Please God Find Me a Husband Simone Lia is in Leicester Square. She’s just been dumped by her boyfriend and she’s talking to God, telling Him that she’s nearly thirty-four and if He wants her to get married He’d better get a move on. Amazingly, God sends a reply, prompting Simone to plan an ‘Adventure with God’ that starts with a fortnight in a nunnery, then takes her to Australia in search of a hermit. PB | 9780224096225 | £14.99
Jed Mercurio and Wesley Robins Ascent Yefgenii Yeremin is a flyer and he is a phantom. In the Korean War, he is the legendary ace dubbed ‘Ivan the Terrible’, shooting down more American jets than any other pilot in history. Years later, and long forgotten, Yefgenii Yeremin is called upon one final time. With America about to launch Apollo 11, he is sent on the most perilous mission of all. At last he has his chance to write his name into the history books... HB | 9780224090797 | £16.99
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Tommy Penton
Tommy Penton is an illustrator and artist who has exhibited in London, San Francisco and Sydney. He lives in London.
Tate to Tate An Illustrated Walk Along London’s South Bank An astonishing, innovative graphic book that takes the reader – and a host of colourful characters – from Tate Britain to Tate Modern along the South Bank. PB | 9780224085151 | £10.00
Ravi Thornton & Andy Hixon Ravi Thornton lives in Manchester. The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone is her first graphic novel. Andy Hixon lives in Manchester. He works with clay, photography, digital media and animation.
The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone An extraordinarily powerful and disturbing experience – one of the most daring graphic novels of recent years. Brin and Bent are poolkeepers at The House for the Grossly Infirm. Their days are spent abusing the House residents with bleach and chlorine, spying on them through holes they have drilled in the walls. They do not know that someone else comes to the pool at night: Minno Marylebone, a child like no other. HB | 9780224093743 | £15.99
Joff Winterhart Joff Winterhart is an illustrator, film-maker and drummer in his band, Bucky. He lives in Bristol, where he walks his greyhound, Peep-Peep. He was runner-up in the Cape/ Observer Graphic Short Story Award in 2009.
Days of the Bagnold Summer A tale of single parenting and heavy metal. ‘When someone looks back and writes a history of this summer, two people they will almost certainly leave out are Sue and Daniel Bagnold...’ So begins Joff Winterhart’s sublimely funny and perceptive graphic novel. Joff Winterhart perfectly captures the ennui, the tension, the pathos and yes, the affection of this mother-son relationship. ‘ Extremely original, funny, and beautifully observed. There is probably no truer portrait of teenage and parental angst.’ Posy Simmonds PB | 9780224090841 | £9.99
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Guy Delisle Guy Delisle was born in Quebec in 1966 and has spent the last decade living and working in France. He has written and drawn five graphic novels, including Shenzhen, an account of his travels in China, and Pyongyang, an account of his experiences in North Korea. In 2012, his masterpiece Jerusalem won the Angoulême Fauve d’Or, European comics’ premier prize. Burma Chronicles A timely and incisive portrait of a country on the tipping point. PB | 9780224096188 | £12.99
Shenzhen A Travelogue from China A brilliant funny, scary, utterly original graphic novel about the cold, urban city in Southern China that is sealed off from the rest of the country with electric fences and armed guards.
Pyongyang A Journey in North Korea North Korea remains one of the most secretive and mysterious nations in the world today. When the fortress-like country recently opened the door a crack to foreign investment, cartoonist Guy Delisle found himself in its capital, Pyongyang, becoming one of the few Westerners to witness current conditions in the surreal showcase city.
Jerusalem Chronicles from the Holy City A thoughtful and moving travelogue about the complexities of life in the Holy City. Winner of the Fauve d’Or: Prix du meilleur album at Angoulême 2012.
PB | 9780224079907 | £12.99
HB | 9780224096690 | £16.99
HB | 9780224079914 | £14.99
‘ Books like...Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang – are held up not only as great literature but also as instructive guides to global conflict zones.’ Newsweek 25
Joe Sacco Joe Sacco, one of the world’s foremost cartoonists, is widely hailed as the creator of war reportage comics.
Palestine Selected as one of the ‘100 Best Comics of the Twentieth Century’ by the editors of the Comics Journal. In late 1991 and early 1992, at the time of the first Intifada, Joe Sacco spent two months with the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, travelling and taking notes. The result is a classic of comics journalism. ‘A political and aesthetic work of extraordinary originality.’ Edward Said
Notes from a Defeatist Before Joe Sacco crafted his major works of ‘cartoon journalism’, he created a number of shorter pieces, ranging from one-page gags to thirty-page ‘graphic novelettes’. This book finally collects the entirety of Sacco’s earlier work. PB | 9780224072700 | £14.99
Safe Area Gorazde Joe Sacco’s classic, groundbreaking work, with a foreword by Christopher Hitchens. This is a remarkable account of the terrible siege of Gorazde, where the people, despite being surrounded by Bosnian-Serb forces, were slowly letting themselves believe that a war was ending and that they had survived.
Footnotes in Gaza An account of a crime that is almost forgotten. In one bloody incident in 1956, 111 Palestinian refugees were killed, shot by Israeli soldiers. In a quest to get to the heart of what happened, Joe Sacco arrives in Gaza and, immersing himself in daily life, uncovers Rafah, past and present.
PB | 9780224080897 | £14.99
Journalism Shortlisted in the 2012 Angoulême Official Selection, a collection of comics journalism spanning conflict zones across the globe.
The Fixer Joe Sacco returns to Bosnia, the setting for his first masterpiece, Safe Area Gorazde. In 2001 he went back to Sarajevo to meet up with his old ‘fixer’, an army veteran called Neven who, for the right price, could arrange anything for the visiting journalist. PB | 9780224073820 | £12.99
‘ Some of the world’s blackest holes are out in the open for anyone to see...’ from Palestine
HB | 9780224071093 | £20.00
PB | 9780224097321 | £18.99 (NOVEMBER 2012)
‘ The blessing of an inherently interpretive medium like comics is that it hasn’t allowed me to...make a virtue of dispassion. For good or for ill, the comics medium is adamant, and it has forced me to make choices. In my view, that is part of its message.’ Joe Sacco
PB | 9780224069823 | £14.99
‘ Sacco is formidably talented. A meticulous reporter… and a gifted artist whose richly nuanced drawings tread a delicate path between cartoonishness and naturalism.’ Charles Shaar Murray, Independent 26
Lamia Ziadé
Born in Lebanon, Lamia Ziadé is an internationally acclaimed artist and illustrator. She has worked as a fabric designer for Jean-Paul Gaultier and Issey Miyake, participated in a number of exhibitions and has published several books for adults and children. Bye Bye Babylon A unique visual record of a terrible war: part artist’s sketchbook, part travel notebook and part family album. Looking back on the golden days before the war in Beirut and Lebanon and its immediate, devastating effects, Bye Bye Babylon positions an elegiac and shocking narrative next to a child’s perspective of the years 1975–79. PB | 9780224096195 / £14.99
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Alison Bechdel For twenty-five years, Bechdel wrote and drew the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, a visual chronicle of modern life – queer and otherwise – considered ‘one of the pre-eminent oeuvres in the comics genre’. She has drawn comics for Slate, McSweeney’s, Entertainment Weekly, Granta, and the New York Times Book Review, and was recently profiled by the New Yorker. Fun Home A brilliantly told memoir, marked by gothic twists, a family funeral home, sexual angst, and great books – universally acclaimed and named by many reviewers as the best graphic book of all time. PB | 9780224080514 | £12.99
Sarah Leavitt
Dykes to Watch Out For The comic strip that made Alison Bechdel’s name. Since its inception in 1983, Dykes To Watch Out For has become a counterculture institution, offering an eye-opening
and acerbically funny insight into the lesbian society of 1980s America. PB | 9780224087063 | £16.99
Are You My Mother? A rich and funny memoir about Alison Bechdel’s mother. This is the perfect counterpoint to her masterpiece, Fun Home. HB | 9780224093521 | £16.99
Sarah Leavitt writes both prose and comics. Tangles is her first book.
Tangles A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me What do you do when your outspoken, passionate and quick-witted mother starts fading into a forgetful, fearful woman? In this powerful graphic memoir, Sarah Leavitt reveals how Alzheimer’s disease transformed her mother Midge – and her family – for ever. PB | 9780224094221 | £12.99
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Martin Lemelman Mendel’s Daughter As solemn and as hopeful as a prayer, Mendel’s Daughter is a haunting, immensely moving graphic novel about one family’s experience of the Holocaust. The devastatingly simple power of a mother’s words and a son’s illustrations combine to create a work that is both intensely personal and universally resonant. HB | 9780224078566 | £14.99
Frederik Peeters
Blue Pills From one of Europe’s best young comics artists, a black-and-white memoir that is an intimate, moving and revelatory exploration of the author’s relationship with his girlfriend and her three-year-old son, both of whom are HIV positive, and what it means to love in the face of daunting obstacles. PB | 9780224082396 | £14.99
Mio Matsumoto Mio Matsumoto was born in Kobe. She studied for a BA in Illustration at Kingston University from 1998 to 2001, and then an MA in Communication Art and Design at the Royal College of Art from 2001–3. She works as an illustrator and lives in Tokyo.
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My Diary Mio Matsumoto, a Japanese student at the Royal College of Art in London, finds what she thinks is an ulcer on her tongue. She is diagnosed with cancer. My Diary is Mio Matsumoto’s brilliantly drawn diary of the five months she spends in treatment: her fears; her feelings; her darkest moments and the funniest… HB | 9780224084437 | £12.99
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Kate Beaton
Kate Beaton was born in Nova Scotia, took a history degree in New Brunswick, paid it off in Alberta, worked in a museum in British Columbia, then came to Ontario for a while to draw pictures, then Halifax, and now New York. Maybe the moon next time, who knows.
Steve Bell Since 1981 Steve Bell has written and drawn the daily If... strip in the Guardian. He has won numerous awards, including the Political Cartoon Society Cartoon of the Year Award in 2001 and 2008, Cartoonist of the Year in 2005 and 2007, the British Press Awards Cartoonist of the Year in 2002, and the Cartoon Arts Trust Award eight times.
Hark! A Vagrant A compendium of cartoons from the hugely popular online comic artist. Praised for their expression, intelligence and comic timing, her cartoons are best known for their wonderfully light touch on historical and literary topics PB | 9780224094146 | £12.99
If… Bursts Out MARVEL AT GORDON BROWN’S PROGRESS FROM THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD TO ROCHDALE OGLE AT SILVIO BERLUSCONI’S FALSE TITS WATCH CHERIE BLAIR LOSE TRACK OF HER EQUIPMENT This is a magnificent, full-colour compendium of the If... cartoons. HB | 9780224087629 | £16.99
John Broadley John Broadley is an illustrator who lives in London with his wife and three sons.
John Broadley’s Books The debut of a remarkable new graphic artist, based on an extraordinary series of little books that have become cult and collectors’ items. HB | 9780224089579 | £16.99
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David Heatley David Heatley is a cartoonist, illustrator and musician living in Queens, New York, with his wife and two children. His work has appeared in McSweeney’s, The Best American Comics of 2006 and 2007, the New Yorker and the ‘Op-Ed’ page of the New York Times. My Brain is Hanging Upside Down A collection of stories from the American maverick, including ‘My Sexual History’, in which the author wrote and drew a comic strip that honestly depicted every sexual experience he’d ever had, from junior school (don’t ask) to last week (ditto). HB | 9780224085380 | £16.99
Matt Madden Matt Madden is the author of Black Candy and Odds Off. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the author and cartoonist Jessica Abel.
99 Ways to Tell a Story Exercises in Style Matt Madden’s 99 Ways to Tell a Story is a series of one-page comics that tell the same story in a variety of ways – Marvel superhero, R. Crumb, Hergé, even as a map or the Bayeux Tapestry. The result is funny, inspiring, and genuinely clever. HB | 9780224079259 | £14.99
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C. M. Dawnay & Mungo McCosh C. M. Dawnay used to be a niece, but now she is an aunt. She is also a literary agent who lives in London. Mungo McCosh is an artist. He has made maps and illustrations and book jackets, and painted portraits. His name is not invented, and he lives in Scotland.
An Alphabet of Aunts Aunts have not had their due recognition – until now. An Alphabet of Aunts describes her in twenty-six beautifully observed portraits, one for each letter of the alphabet, from Elegant to Truant. HB | 9780224081160 | £14.99
David Hughes David Hughes is an artist whose work combines illustration, graphic design, photography and animation. In 2003 he received the Pentagram Award for his outstanding contribution to the art of illustration. His drawings have appeared in the Observer, the New Yorker, Esquire, the Guardian, and many other magazines and newspapers. He has received great acclaim for his children’s picture books, Strat and Chatto (1990) and Bully (1992). In 2006 he published his version of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
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Walking the Dog A work of stunning visuals, humour, darkness and invention from one of the most acclaimed illustrators in the world. Approaching fifty, and warned by his doctor that he’s drinking too much and needs to take more exercise, David Hughes is given a dog for his birthday – Dexter, a wirehaired fox terrier. HB | 9780224082297 | £25.00
Audrey Niffenegger
Before she wrote The Time Traveler’s Wife, now a bestseller all around the world, Audrey Niffenegger’s books were beautiful, handmade, exquisitely illustrated tales, published in editions of as few as ten copies. They took many years to create, were bought by collectors and have been seen by few people. Until now. The Night Bookmobile A haunting tale of transcendence and a young woman who one night encounters a mysterious library that happens to stock every book she has ever read. Seeing her history and her most intimate self in this library, she embarks on a search for the bookmobile.
The Three Incestuous Sisters The story of three sisters, Clothilde, Ophile and Bettine, who live together in a lonely house by the sea. All three are rivals for the love of Paris, the lighthouse-keeper’s son, which ultimately leads to tragic consequences. HB | 9780224076869 | £16.99
HB | 9780224089524 | £16.99
The Adventuress The follow-up to The Three Incestuous Sisters, The Adventuress tells a new tale of love, loss and redemption. When an alchemist’s daughter is kidnapped, she escapes into the arms of a man named Napoleon Bonaparte. Together the Adventuress and Napoleon share a passionate romance which has tragic, yet transcendent, results. HB | 9780224080057 | £16.99
Martin Rowson Martin Rowson is an award-winning political cartoonist whose work appears regularly in the Guardian, The Times, the Independent on Sunday, the Daily Mirror, the Scotsman, Tribune, Index on Censorship and Granta. He lives in London. Fuck: The Human Odyssey Award-winning cartoonist Martin Rowson tells the story of Earth, from the Big Bang, the emergence of life, the death of the dinosaurs…to the End of the World, in sixty-seven beautiful, savage, splendidly satirical images, all with only one word in the speech bubbles. HB | 9780224084413 | £16.99
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Brecht Evens
Belgian cartoonist Brecht Evens was born in 1986 and studied illustration in Ghent. In 2011 he won the Angoulême ‘Audacity’ prize for his comic The Wrong Place (2009). He lives in Brussels, where he lives on illustration work and Flemish cartoonist grants. The Making Of International sensation Brecht Evens returns with a graphic novel like no other. Peterson, a frustrated artist, is finally given a chance to shine at the Beerpoele biennial festival. Upon arriving, he soon realises that it will not meet his lofty expectations. Peterson’s plans to salvage the situation are derailed in spectacular, beautifully rendered fashion. HB | 9780224097338 | £16.99
Audrey Niffenegger Warren and Gary Pleece live in Brighton. They have written and drawn many comics. A collection of their early material has been published as The Great Unwashed.
The Raven Girl One of the world’s most beloved storytellers has created a dark fairytale full of wonderment and longing. Illustrated with Audrey Niffenegger’s bewitching etchings and paintings, The Raven Girl explores the bounds of transformation and possibility. HB | 9780224097871 | £18.99
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Warren and Gary Pleece Warren and Gary Pleece live in Brighton. They have written and drawn many comics. A collection of their early material has been published as The Great Unwashed.
Montague Terrace Meet the residents of Montague Terrace: landlocked sailors, fake pet-psychics, hounded inventors and randy postmen, unsuccessful megalomaniacs, nervous magicians,1930’s detectives. And all under one roof. From the legendary graphic artists comes a book about an extraordinary address... TBK | 9780224090629 | £14.99
s. j. Harris
Eustace Poor Eustace is not very well. Convalescing in bed, a victim of the coughs and hiccups that rack his frail body, his world is confined to his gloomy room in a tall house in London. He is left alone with his imagination. That is, until his wicked uncle introduces some new friends. Eustace is a blackly comic, surreal and exquisitely rendered work – and an assured debut. HB | 9780224093583 | £14.99
Stephen Collins The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil The first book from a new leading light of UK comics, The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil is an offbeat fable worthy of Roald Dahl. But more than this, it helps us answer that eternal question: what, exactly, do beards mean? A book for anybody who’s ever had a beard, thought about a beard, seen a beard, not had a beard... HB | 9780224096287 | £14.99
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ISBN: ISBN 9780224097673 Jonathan Cape is an imprint of The Random House Group Prices and availability are correct at time of going to print, but may be subject to change
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