{"id":35718,"date":"2026-06-14T13:08:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35718"},"modified":"2026-06-14T13:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:08:22","slug":"a-thousand-coloured-castles-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/06\/14\/a-thousand-coloured-castles-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Thousand Coloured Castles"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Gareth Brookes<\/strong> (Myriad Editions)
\nISBN: 978-0-993563-30-0 (HB)<\/p>\n

The world is filled with amazing women passing largely unnoticed by the loud, shouty males with their hands on the tillers of history and chokehold on the media, but seldom a kettle or shopping bag. This amazing tale is broadly based on one of them…<\/p>\n

It comes to us from an equally intriguing source. Gareth Brookes is a \u201ccapital-A\u201d Artist, printmaker, textile creator and educator who began literally crafting comics in 2015 with his astounding and disturbing epic The Black Project<\/strong>. With A Thousand Coloured Castles<\/strong>, RCA graduate Brookes confirmed a growing reputation for challenging and rewarding graphic narratives of the artisanal kind. Brookes is a deep and slyly humorous thinker with his roots in the Littlest of Englands, and a skewed eye to storytelling. This captivating hardback tome was created solely from dark wit and wax crayons, resulting in a truly tactile and absurdly otherworldly viewing experience…<\/p>\n

Myriam <\/em>is in her declining years: married to a set-in-his-ways old know-it-all curmudgeon, as seen in most traditionally happy families and captured on paper by Raymond Briggs and TV sitcoms starring Richard Wilson.<\/p>\n

Fred<\/em> spends most of his time complaining about everything, which is why it takes a very long time for him to notice that Myriam\u2019s eyesight is fading. It takes even longer for him to grasp that she\u2019s increasingly subject to wild, abstract and absolutely convincing hallucinations: vivid visions and shapes that baffle and bewilder even as they light up her drab, interminable existence.
\n\"\"
\nOf much more concern to Fred is \u201cThe Wife\u2019s\u201d increasing fascination with the overgrown, unkempt back garden next door. He\u2019s happy to moan about it in private but doesn\u2019t want to engage in potential suburban hostilities with the woman living there. Myriam, however, keeps seeing a strange bedraggled little boy trapped in there, even though everybody knows that\u2019s not possible.<\/p>\n

… All except her toddler grandson Jack<\/em>, who\u2019s always happy to see things her way…<\/p>\n

And thus unfolds a multi-layered observation of social norms and aberrant behaviours, supposition and expectation, declining faculties and domestic evil that is truly magical to behold and impossible to predict.<\/p>\n

Despite her condition, Myriam proves that she knows what\u2019s what and what\u2019s right, as events spiral to an inevitable conclusion and all the answers are shockingly forthcoming…
\n\"\"
\nGentle, genteel and utterly beguiling, this is a masterpiece of British fantasy understatement with a potent underpinning of quietly desperate lives truly lived. Track it down and take a long hard look. You will believe your eyes.
\n\u00a9 Gareth Brookes 2017. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1912 Finnish comics pioneer Ami Hauhio<\/strong> (Maan mies Marsissa<\/em>) was born, with master inker George Klein<\/strong> (The Whizzer<\/em>, Miss America<\/strong>, Superman<\/strong>, Daredevil<\/strong>, The Avengers<\/strong>,) arriving in 1915 (or possibly 1920!) and troubled Golden Age comic book veteran Bob Wood<\/strong> (Target<\/strong>, Silver Streak Comics<\/strong>, Daredevil Comics<\/strong>, Boy Comics<\/strong>, Crime Does Not Pay<\/strong>) born in 1917.<\/p>\n

Artist Sam Grainger<\/strong> (The Sentinels<\/strong>, X-Men<\/strong>, Incredible Hulk<\/strong>, Avengers<\/strong>, Ka-Zar<\/strong>) was born today in 1930; Jordi Bernet<\/strong> (The Legend Testers<\/strong>, Jonah Hex<\/strong>, Clara del Noche<\/em>, Torpedo 1936<\/strong>) in 1944; writer Paul Kupperberg<\/strong> (Supergirl<\/strong>, Phantom Stranger<\/strong>, World of Krypton<\/strong>, Doom Patrol<\/strong>) in 1955 and David Lapham<\/strong> (Warriors of Plasm<\/strong>, Stray Bullets<\/strong>, Batman<\/strong>) in 1970.<\/p>\n

This date in 1914 William Donahey<\/strong>\u2019s long-running The Teenie Weenies<\/strong> strip debuted, as did UK weekly Monster Fun in<\/strong> 1975. In 1932 we lost Seattle cartoonist John<\/strong> \u201cDok<\/em><\/strong>\u201d Hager<\/strong> (Dok\u2019s Dippy Duck<\/em>) and in 2006 Belgian comics megastar Jean Roba<\/strong> (Boule et Bill<\/em><\/strong>\/Billy and<\/strong> Buddy<\/strong>, La Ribambelle<\/em>, Spirou and Fantasio<\/strong>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gareth Brookes (Myriad Editions) ISBN: 978-0-993563-30-0 (HB) The world is filled with amazing women passing largely unnoticed by the loud, shouty males with their hands on the tillers of history and chokehold on the media, but seldom a kettle or shopping bag. This amazing tale is broadly based on one of them… It comes … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A Thousand Coloured Castles”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[81,42,75,239,102,348],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-books","category-best-of-british","category-crime-comics","category-drama","category-fantasy","category-health-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-9i6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35722,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35718\/revisions\/35722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}