Drowntown has been out for about 3 weeks now and has (he typed with a sigh of relief) had some pretty good reviews, a few excerpts of which are listed below:
"Morrison quickly fleshes out characters and plot with aplomb while Murray’s gorgeous art ensures this is a thrilling no-holds barred adventure from start to finish…" - Down the Tubes, John Freeman.
"A super read … Drowntown reaches high and achieves much of it, comedy, adventure, intrigue, entertainment and sumptuous art – I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything else quite like it for a while." - Forbidden Planet Blog, Zainab Akhtar.
"Flooded civilisations have long been a staple of post-apocalyptic fiction. Few have executed their dystopian vision with quite as much panache as Robbie Morrison and Jim Murray do here." - SFX Magazine, Stephen Jewel.
"It’s not the first time noir has been merged with science fiction, but the execution is absolutely first class. Murray’s illustration is simply stunning … [Morrison’s] script is razor-sharp ... Together, Morrison and Murray have created a wonderful piece of cross-genre fiction, an homage to both noir and sci-fi, honing it down to a gritty but beautiful piece of work" - Grovel, Andy Shaw.
"...breathtakingly illustrated neo-noir ... riffing on Chinatown and a hundred classic noir stories. This is a book to rival the best stories published by 2000AD, the kind of book that comes along once in a generation, often imitated but rarely matched. Buy it." - Starburst Magazine, PM Buchan.
"Jim Murray's gorgeous art is reminiscent in style of a toned-down Simon Bisley, and his attention to detail really brings this grimy, waterlogged world to life." - Henry Northmore The List.
"It is not often during the year that you read a graphic novel that you know will hit the “best of the year” lists in December. Drowntown is one such book – buy it now so you will understand just what they will all be raving about." - Down the Tubes, Jeremy Briggs.
Friday, 19 July 2013
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
THE DROWNTOWN LAUNCH PARTY!
The Drowntown Launch Party took place on Friday 21st June at GOSH! Comics, Berwick Street, London. Thankfully the evening didn't end up like this . . .
In fact, as I'm sure you can tell from this normally dour Scotsman's sunny expression, the party went very well indeed. A big thank you to Josh, Andrew, Tom, Steve, Julia & the rest of the GOSH! team for all their hospitality.
A number of comics luminaries turned up, including: Jonathan Cape publisher Dan Franklin, David Lloyd (V For Vendetta artist, founder of Aces Weekly), John Higgins (Watchmen colourist, RazorJack creator), Rian Hughes (Dan Dare, Yesterday's Tomorrows designer/artist), Dave Hine (Storm Dogs and The Man Who Laughed writer), Steve Cook (photographer and former Doctor Who and 2000AD designer), Geoff Senior and Simon Furman (Transformers comic artist and writer respectively), Laurence Campbell (Punisher, Wolverine artist), Deborah Tate (former Marvel UK'er and Sonic the Comic editor), Martin Griffiths (Thundercats & Ghostbusters artist), Giulia Brusco (Scalped and Saucer County colourist), Sally Hurst (colourist), and Julie Tait from the Lakes Comic Art Festival (www.comicartfestival.com). Also, thanks to Kevin Barnes and Ronnie Taylor for their support and for representing London's taxi drivers for the evening.
Jim and I may have our names on the cover, but a number of individuals behind-the-scenes deserve a tip of our respective hats for the parts they played in helping to bring the book to life.
Firstly, thanks to Jonathan Cape Publisher Dan Franklin for taking Drowntown on, and to him and his dedicated team for putting together such a stylish book.
Thanks also to our smooth-talking agent Rob, for his hard work, support and truly indefatigueable enthusiasm.
I'd like to thank my fiancee for coming up with the title (Deb normally has a song in her head, and this time she pulled out Petula Clark's Downtown). Jim and I had trawled through dozens of dodgy potential titles prior to that, and the reject list probably deserves a blog entry of its own.
Last but not least, I'd like to thank artist extraordinaire Jim Murray, who unfortunately couldn't attend his own launch party. He's a good friend and one of the best artists I've ever worked with. Collaborating with Jim on Drowntown has been a fantastic experience and has resulted in what are certainly some of my favourite characters to write, and a brilliantly realised world that I think offers almost limitless scope for future stories.
After GOSH! a fair few folk carried on the celebrations in the Blue Post pub, Soho.
Some shameless freeloader, a gruesome gatecrasher by the name of Leo Noiret, turned up to say a slightly slurred, but heartfelt 'Cheers!' to everybody who came along to lend their support and pick up a copy of the book.
Some characters will do anything for a free drink!
In fact, as I'm sure you can tell from this normally dour Scotsman's sunny expression, the party went very well indeed. A big thank you to Josh, Andrew, Tom, Steve, Julia & the rest of the GOSH! team for all their hospitality.
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| (Photo: Steve Cook) |
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| David Lloyd, John Higgins, Sally Hurst & David Hine. (Photo: D Tate) |
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| With Deborah Tate & John Higgins. (Photo: Sally Hurst) |
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| Rian Hughes & Wolverhampton Steve from The Cartoon Gallery. (Photo: D Tate) |
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| London Taxi Driver, Mr Barnes reveals his secret identity. |
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| Laurence Campbell heads for the exit on hearing it's his round next. (Photo: D Tate) |
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| Same book, different party: Legendary artist Cam Kennedy compliments Jim's art at the Derry 2D Festival earlier this month. (Photo: D Tate)
Customers hailed from Croatia, France, Ireland, Italy and Spain, as well as the UK. A number of people commented that the style and format of Drowntown reminded them of Bande Dessine, the hardback albums that are prominent on the continent, and were definitely an influence when we were developing the book.
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Firstly, thanks to Jonathan Cape Publisher Dan Franklin for taking Drowntown on, and to him and his dedicated team for putting together such a stylish book.
Thanks also to our smooth-talking agent Rob, for his hard work, support and truly indefatigueable enthusiasm.
I'd like to thank my fiancee for coming up with the title (Deb normally has a song in her head, and this time she pulled out Petula Clark's Downtown). Jim and I had trawled through dozens of dodgy potential titles prior to that, and the reject list probably deserves a blog entry of its own.
Last but not least, I'd like to thank artist extraordinaire Jim Murray, who unfortunately couldn't attend his own launch party. He's a good friend and one of the best artists I've ever worked with. Collaborating with Jim on Drowntown has been a fantastic experience and has resulted in what are certainly some of my favourite characters to write, and a brilliantly realised world that I think offers almost limitless scope for future stories.
After GOSH! a fair few folk carried on the celebrations in the Blue Post pub, Soho.
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Transformers comic dynamic duo Geoff Senior & Simon Furman.
(Photo: D Tate)
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| Walking Dead fan Jackie Barnes, artist Vikki Hine & Deborah Tate |
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| Robbie & Robo (-Cook, that is). Photo: D Tate |
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| 'Cheers!' |
Wednesday, 5 June 2013
PAGES 1 - 4: SOME GUYS HAVE ALL THE (BAD) LUCK!
The opening pages of Drowntown exploded onto the Jonathan Cape Tumblr on Friday night - http://capegraphicnovels.tumblr.com/ - so it's only fair that they make a splash here as well.
Thursday, 30 May 2013
DROWNTOWN PAGE 1: THAT SINKING FEELING...
Page 1 of Drowntown has just been posted (accompanied by a short interview) on the Jonathan Cape Tumblr - http://capegraphicnovels.
Meet Leo Noiret, the undisputed King of Bad Luck in futuristic London town. From here on in, things only get worse for him...
Apologies to the great Bill Forsyth for borrowing the title of his first film for this post.
Meet Leo Noiret, the undisputed King of Bad Luck in futuristic London town. From here on in, things only get worse for him...
Apologies to the great Bill Forsyth for borrowing the title of his first film for this post.
DROWNTOWN IN DERRY
This weekend, I'm appearing at one of the most enjoyable and hospitable events on the UK convention circuit - the 2D Festival in Derry.
2D, the Northern Ireland Comics Festival is an annual event that celebrates comic book culture and works to promote and support sequential art and storytelling. The festival is organised and supported by the Verbal Arts Centre, a unique and celebrated educational charity founded to promote the spoken and written word in Ireland. It's been going from strength to strength since 2007, and due to record attendances has this year expanded into a two-day event.
I'll be there on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd of June, and, as a sort of 'convention exclusive', will have a small number of advance copies of Drowntown with me. The book isn't officially released until June 20th, so come along for a sneak peek and let me know what you think.
2D, the Northern Ireland Comics Festival is an annual event that celebrates comic book culture and works to promote and support sequential art and storytelling. The festival is organised and supported by the Verbal Arts Centre, a unique and celebrated educational charity founded to promote the spoken and written word in Ireland. It's been going from strength to strength since 2007, and due to record attendances has this year expanded into a two-day event.
I'll be there on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd of June, and, as a sort of 'convention exclusive', will have a small number of advance copies of Drowntown with me. The book isn't officially released until June 20th, so come along for a sneak peek and let me know what you think.
Wednesday, 29 May 2013
SFX INTERVIEW SNIPPET
A brief excerpt from an interview journalist Stephen Jewell recently conducted for the excellent SFX Magazine, out today:
Q: How did you and Jim come to do Drowntown for Jonathan Cape?
A: Cape have been producing an excellent line of graphic novels for some years now, championing the medium before it became 'trendy'. At first, we thought Drowntown might be too much of a departure for them in that it's a more commercial, genre-oriented project - mixing elements of science-fiction and crime fiction - than they're known for. If you look at their list, though, which is impressively eclectic, it's obvious that they just want to publish the best books possible.
We figured who dares wins and submitted the script and the first few pages of artwork for what became Book 1 to them via our agent. Cape Publisher Dan Franklin loved what he saw and wanted to take the book on.
Also, as anyone familiar with the medium knows, it can take years to produce the artwork for a graphic novel, often resulting in a frustratingly long wait between books. To counter this, Cape had been considering the idea of releasing graphic novels in serialized volumes, similar to the European album format. The thriller aspects of Drowntown seemed to make it perfect for this approach and obviously Jim and I have a certain background in serial storytelling from our 2000AD days.
And a wee bit more, as I just can't resist plugging the story:
Q: Tell us about the other characters and situations we can expect to see?
A: I don't want to drown anyone in a sea of spoilers, so won't say too much about the plot, beyond that it involves: The flooded city of London, or Drowntown as the locals know it; a young aqua-courier who learns young love can be a deadly game; a ruthless criminal haunted by the past and driven by revenge; a pair of genetically-engineered anthropomorphic assassins; an all-powerful corporation which manipulates the environment and aims to control human evolution; and, of course, Leo Noiret, who only hopes he has time for one last pint before one or all of the above gets him killed.
SFX Magazine #236 is out today. Stephen is also covering Drowntown in a longer article for the June issue of Comic Heroes.
Drowntown Book 1 is out in the UK on June 20th. Pre-order your copy at your local book or comic shop, or at Amazon.co.uk.
Q: How did you and Jim come to do Drowntown for Jonathan Cape?
A: Cape have been producing an excellent line of graphic novels for some years now, championing the medium before it became 'trendy'. At first, we thought Drowntown might be too much of a departure for them in that it's a more commercial, genre-oriented project - mixing elements of science-fiction and crime fiction - than they're known for. If you look at their list, though, which is impressively eclectic, it's obvious that they just want to publish the best books possible.
We figured who dares wins and submitted the script and the first few pages of artwork for what became Book 1 to them via our agent. Cape Publisher Dan Franklin loved what he saw and wanted to take the book on.
Also, as anyone familiar with the medium knows, it can take years to produce the artwork for a graphic novel, often resulting in a frustratingly long wait between books. To counter this, Cape had been considering the idea of releasing graphic novels in serialized volumes, similar to the European album format. The thriller aspects of Drowntown seemed to make it perfect for this approach and obviously Jim and I have a certain background in serial storytelling from our 2000AD days.
And a wee bit more, as I just can't resist plugging the story:
Q: Tell us about the other characters and situations we can expect to see?
A: I don't want to drown anyone in a sea of spoilers, so won't say too much about the plot, beyond that it involves: The flooded city of London, or Drowntown as the locals know it; a young aqua-courier who learns young love can be a deadly game; a ruthless criminal haunted by the past and driven by revenge; a pair of genetically-engineered anthropomorphic assassins; an all-powerful corporation which manipulates the environment and aims to control human evolution; and, of course, Leo Noiret, who only hopes he has time for one last pint before one or all of the above gets him killed.
SFX Magazine #236 is out today. Stephen is also covering Drowntown in a longer article for the June issue of Comic Heroes.
Drowntown Book 1 is out in the UK on June 20th. Pre-order your copy at your local book or comic shop, or at Amazon.co.uk.
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
DROWNTOWN AT OK COMICS!
While Amazon and other online retailers undoubtedly offer a great service, there's nothing like the personal touch of your local independent book or comic shop, who share the same passion for the medium as readers and creators.
The award-winning OK Comics in Leeds is offering an exclusive Limited Edition Drowntown Print, signed by Jim and me, to customers who buy or order a copy of the book from them.
The image shows Leo Noiret, one of the lead characters, enjoying a quiet pint in the Stag's Head sub-pub, with the sunken streets of London visible through the window behind him.
If you're lucky enough to get your hands on one of the prints, you'll see from the gun he's holding under the table that Leo isn't fully relaxed. Drowning isn't the only way you can die in Drowntown...
Personally, I think they're being modest by calling their shop OK Comics. FAB Comics is more like it if you ask me.
The award-winning OK Comics in Leeds is offering an exclusive Limited Edition Drowntown Print, signed by Jim and me, to customers who buy or order a copy of the book from them.
The image shows Leo Noiret, one of the lead characters, enjoying a quiet pint in the Stag's Head sub-pub, with the sunken streets of London visible through the window behind him.
If you're lucky enough to get your hands on one of the prints, you'll see from the gun he's holding under the table that Leo isn't fully relaxed. Drowning isn't the only way you can die in Drowntown...
Personally, I think they're being modest by calling their shop OK Comics. FAB Comics is more like it if you ask me.
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