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\nBy Gareth Brookes<\/b> (Myriad Editions)
\nISBN: 978-1-908434-20-3 (PB)<\/p>\n
\nBy Gareth Brookes<\/b> (Myriad Editions)
\nISBN: 978-1-908434-20-3 (PB)<\/p>\n
As I eagerly await Gareth Brookes’ imminent latest release, let’s look at his first award-winning work: one that set the scene not just for his trademark versatility of style and artistic weapons of choice, but also the uniquely skewed mindset that finds the extraordinary in everyday life and those weird things called people\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
Brookes is a capital-A artist, printmaker, textile creator and educator who learned his craft(s) at the Royal College of Art and who has subsequently appeared in ArtReview<\/b>; Kus<\/b>; The British Library’s Comics Unmasked<\/b> exhibition and numerous classrooms and lecture theatres as inspirational teacher.<\/p>\n
He began literally crafting comics in 2015 with an astounding, disturbing and hilarious epic entitled The Black Project<\/b>. In essence it’s a paean to uncomfortable, outsider British youth: the ones shunned and ignored by those who overachieve in class, look like gods on the sports field and have great hair and no trouble talking to girls or the right boys. If you’re old enough, try humming \u00e2\u20ac\u0153David Watts\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/i> (either The Kinks<\/b> or The Jam<\/b> versions) while reading this and you won’t go far wrong\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
It’s the 1990’s and schoolboy Richard<\/i> is at that difficult age. Status, social pressure, shifting relationships are all acting on a bizarrely changing body, but at least he’s not overly worried about proving his burgeoning manhood. According to him, getting a prestige-enhancing girlfriend is simple. All you need is time, peace and quiet and the right components\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
Sadly, once Richard has completed his amatory endeavours, there’s the small matter of keeping her secret from his few – rather unpleasant – friends, assorted adults in his family circle, teachers and overly-fussing mother. He may not be able to express why, but the clever lad instinctively knows nobody will understand what he’s done, or why\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
Inevitably, disaster strikes and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Laura<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is lost to him, but Richard is not daunted. He simply adjusts, regroups and starts the laborious creative process again. And again and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
Darkly hilarious and outrageously clever, powerfully mired in the minutiae of English suburban nostalgia and peppered with twisty subplots and red herrings, The Black Project<\/b> is rendered with mastery in stark monochrome imagery, generated by deftly-chiselled lino cuts and pieces of painstakingly-sewn embroidery. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen and equally unique in terms of narrative.<\/p>\n
Supplemented by a revelatory Q&A Afterword<\/i> delving deep into the methodology and inspiration for the book, this is a graphic triumph no fan of the medium or lover of dark fiction should be without.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 Gareth Brookes 2013. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Gareth Brookes (Myriad Editions) ISBN: 978-1-908434-20-3 (PB) As I eagerly await Gareth Brookes’ imminent latest release, let’s look at his first award-winning work: one that set the scene not just for his trademark versatility of style and artistic weapons of choice, but also the uniquely skewed mindset that finds the extraordinary in everyday life … <\/p>\n