It's Dark in London (Mask Noir Series)
2 journalers for this copy...
"The growing blood and guts posse of young mystery writers ... Decidedly the new face of British crime ... not for the faint hearted." Time Out on the Mask Noir series
from the back cover:
Comics have thrived in London over the centuries with Gilray, Hogarth ... a new generation of British artists has developed a rich synthesis of the Continental graphic novel and American comic strips. In It's Dark in London the work of some of these artists is featured -- Alan Moore, Ilya, Neil Gaiman, David McKean, Carol Swain, Dix -- in tandem with the stories of London writers like Iain Sinclair, Graeme Gordon, Christopher Petit, and Stella Duffy. This fusion produces a portrait of London that captures the city's fundamental essence as exquisite mixture of lofty towers and gutter sleaze, of suburban gentility and urban depravity, of private vices and public philanthropy.
It is a book that is as graphic as it is visionary.
from the back cover:
Comics have thrived in London over the centuries with Gilray, Hogarth ... a new generation of British artists has developed a rich synthesis of the Continental graphic novel and American comic strips. In It's Dark in London the work of some of these artists is featured -- Alan Moore, Ilya, Neil Gaiman, David McKean, Carol Swain, Dix -- in tandem with the stories of London writers like Iain Sinclair, Graeme Gordon, Christopher Petit, and Stella Duffy. This fusion produces a portrait of London that captures the city's fundamental essence as exquisite mixture of lofty towers and gutter sleaze, of suburban gentility and urban depravity, of private vices and public philanthropy.
It is a book that is as graphic as it is visionary.
Got this book from greedyreader at the BookCrossing convention in Fort Worth - thanks so much! [I love it when people offer me grim, twisted books and say "saw this, thought of you" {grin}.] I also get a perverse kick out of reading these on airplanes; it may just be my imagination, but I think my seatmates give me more elbow room after glancing at some of the illustrations!
This is a varied assortment of stories (and illustrators), but all with a dark-side-of-London theme. Some of these include humorous/grotesque elements: "Frozen" is about a conceptual artist who collects urine from her models, freezes it, and sculpts the models in the resulting ice - I don't know if this ever has been done but it's certainly an interesting idea, although I would have thought it would take months for one person to generate enough of the raw material! "The Body" was a sad one (with an extra kicker of "creepy"); a drowned woman is taken to the morgue, and turns out to be a hermaphrodite, which intrigues the rather necrophiliac pathologist. "The Court" is a Neil Gaiman story about a crime lord with a weakness for beautiful young men, and what happens when he finds the Most Beautiful Man in the World - another dark tale, and even more weird because it's told by one of the crime lord's henchmen, whose own tastes are darker yet.
Oddly enough, my favorite story of the lot is the first one, "You Are Here" by Woodrow Phoenix; it's not really a story at all, but a series of black and white illustrations of mundane spots around London. Not landmarks, and no people, just the little details of street crossings and iron railings, store fronts, signs, the Underground... I've been in London a couple of times and these little pictures perfectly evoked all the "in between" times, walking from one sight to another, trying to find a certain pub that had been recommended, attempting to get back to my hotel. Very deftly done.
[Note: Some of the pages started to come loose as I was reading this; I did a hasty repair job with some archival tape, but the book will need to be handled with care.]
*** I've offered this on the Around the World in 80 Relays book relay.
And - it's been accepted! The book's on its way to BCer Zmrzlina in Pennsylvania as of 4/26. Hope you enjoy it (and that it holds together a while longer {grin}).
[Update: May 9 - heard from Zmrzlina that the book arrived safely. Good luck with your move!]
This is a varied assortment of stories (and illustrators), but all with a dark-side-of-London theme. Some of these include humorous/grotesque elements: "Frozen" is about a conceptual artist who collects urine from her models, freezes it, and sculpts the models in the resulting ice - I don't know if this ever has been done but it's certainly an interesting idea, although I would have thought it would take months for one person to generate enough of the raw material! "The Body" was a sad one (with an extra kicker of "creepy"); a drowned woman is taken to the morgue, and turns out to be a hermaphrodite, which intrigues the rather necrophiliac pathologist. "The Court" is a Neil Gaiman story about a crime lord with a weakness for beautiful young men, and what happens when he finds the Most Beautiful Man in the World - another dark tale, and even more weird because it's told by one of the crime lord's henchmen, whose own tastes are darker yet.
Oddly enough, my favorite story of the lot is the first one, "You Are Here" by Woodrow Phoenix; it's not really a story at all, but a series of black and white illustrations of mundane spots around London. Not landmarks, and no people, just the little details of street crossings and iron railings, store fronts, signs, the Underground... I've been in London a couple of times and these little pictures perfectly evoked all the "in between" times, walking from one sight to another, trying to find a certain pub that had been recommended, attempting to get back to my hotel. Very deftly done.
[Note: Some of the pages started to come loose as I was reading this; I did a hasty repair job with some archival tape, but the book will need to be handled with care.]
*** I've offered this on the Around the World in 80 Relays book relay.
And - it's been accepted! The book's on its way to BCer Zmrzlina in Pennsylvania as of 4/26. Hope you enjoy it (and that it holds together a while longer {grin}).
[Update: May 9 - heard from Zmrzlina that the book arrived safely. Good luck with your move!]
