Many years ago when I chaired my very first in-person panel event I was lucky enough to have UK indie legend Carol Swain (Invasion of the Mind sappers, Foodboy, Gast) among the panellists. So it’s excellent news this week to hear that Dark & Golden Books – those great champions of the finest work that could otherwise be lost to the mists of time – are showcasing two of Swain’s comics shorts in their 2x series.
Those wanting either an introduction to (or a refresher on) Swain’s work are directed to Tom Murphy’s overview of her practice here at BF (up until 2014 anyway!) as well as his review of her Fantagraphics graphic novel Gast here. Tom said of her early subject matter in that first piece: “From her earliest strips, she takes us into the lives of characters who live in the edgelands, physically, socially, culturally or psychologically: the illegal immigrants coming up the River Thames in ‘Gallions Reach’; the nomadic trailer-park dwellers of the Ballardian ‘B-Movie’; the ‘Last Punk in Britain’, liberated from his cage at London Zoo by activists.”
And he remarked more generally on her comics: “It’s hard to capture in words the richness, mystery and pleasure to be gleaned from the work of Carol Swain.”
Dark & Golden say of the of the project: “Collecting two never before reprinted comics from different volumes of Carol’s Way Out Strips series, 2x Carol Swain will feature new introductions and an interview with the artist, as well as a bibliography of her books. We have, once again, been incredibly lucky to be able to work with the original art for pages in this collection, and it’s going to look amazing. The announcement of when it is coming out should be imminent.”
For the genuinely alt British comics fans this is a huge announcement. And for the newbies a rare opportunity to immerse themselves in the work of one our indie comics greats.
