Black Project

(Paperback)

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Description

Getting a girlfriend is easy, according to Richard. All you need is papier mache, string, soft material, a balloon, some old fashioned bellows, and a good pair of scissors. The difficult bit is keeping her secret. This darkly funny story of obsession, beautifully crafted in embroidery and lino-cut, won the inaugural First Graphic Novel Competition.

Reviews

'One of the most powerful and distinctive graphic novels to come out in a long time. I can't recommend this strongly enough - but brace yourself. It may make your skin crawl.'-Dylan Horrocks; 'Completely bloody amazing. Dark and funny and sad and moving and totally original.'-Stephen Collins; 'Brilliant. Clever, inventive and beautifully written.'-Sarah Lightman; 'Utterly bizarre and quite brilliant.'-Steve Bell; 'You know a story is great when you want to believe it's real, and I do believe this is real. Also I'm a big fan of nostalgia, I lap it up, and this book is piled high with it.'-Joe Decie; 'All 208 pages of this ominous tale are spectacular, mixing dark lino cuts with embroidery and hand-written text. Pack away the craft materials and get reading.'-It's Nice That; 'Brookes has created something truly incredible with his first book... The Black Project is genuinely unlike anything else happening in the graphic medium at the moment.'-We Love This Book; 'Brilliantly excruciating.'-Dr Nicola Streeten; 'Like Cath Kidston embroidering for David Lynch.'-Teddy Jamieson, Herald Scotland; 'Exquisite, excruciating and exceptional... a landmark, once read, not easily forgotten.'- Paul Gravett; 'Clandestine first love with a papier mache twist is the order of the day in this remarkable debut... the perfect entry point into the wicked whimsy of [Brookes's] creative mind.'-Andy Oliver, Broken Frontier; 'Brookes plays on that [creeping horror] feeling, adding dark humour and deadpan first person voiceover to create something really unsettling, genuinely creepy.'-Richard Bruton, Forbidden Planet

Author Bio

Gareth Brookes studied printmaking at the Royal College of Art. Known for an unusual approach to materials, which include, embroidery, linocut, monoprint, pressed flowers and pyrography, he has published two graphic novels with Myriad Editions. The first of these, The Black Project, won the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition in 2012, was featured in the Comics Unmasked, Art and Anarchy in the UK exhibition at the British Library, London and was nominated in the Slection Officielle at the 2018 Festival de la Bande Dessine in Angoulme. In 2017 he took part in the British Council Koreas Storytelling City exchange project to Seoul, South Korea, culminating in an exhibition and webcomic. He has been a guest speaker at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, The Manchester Literature Festival, The Bradford Literature Festival and The Toronto Comic Arts Festival. He is a Tutor in Foundation Studies at City and Guilds of London Art School, and a regular visiting Lecturer on Illustration at Lincoln University. Since then Gareth has produced a number of self-published books, including The Land of My Heart Chokes on Its Abundance. His work is also published by collectives such as The Alternative Press and The Comix Reader, while his two-comic collaboration with artist Steve Tillotson, Manly Boys and Comely Girls, is available from Avery Hill Publishing. Gareths second graphic novel, A Thousand Coloured Castles, was published by Myriad in April 2017. Gareth has been a visiting lecturer at Wimbledon School of Art, the University of York St Johns, Staffordshire University and The Royal College of Art. He runs regular workshops in embroidery, printmaking, comic and zine making, most recently running workshops in embroidery at Bradford Literary Festival and in monoprint printmaking (with Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants) at The ICA, London. He also organises South London Comic and Zine Fair, an annual book fair featuring over 40 small press publishers and artists, which is focused on encouraging new artists to exhibit their work.