2024 Christmas Wrap-Up

Happy holidays, folks!

It’s been another eventful year here at SelfMadeHero – 8 new titles, conventions, the next First Graphic Novel Award – so thanks for coming along with us for our 2024 wrap-up!

Migrating back onto shelves, the new paperback edition of Peter Kuper’s Eisner-winning eco-drama Ruins ushered us into 2024 on gentle butterfly wings…

We also started joining in with the worldwide celebrations of 100 years of surrealism by giving the spotlight to some of our own surreal titles like Armed with Madness and Art Masters: Magritte! 

Public appearances were aplenty this year! March kicked things into a new gear: Mylo Choy’s North American tour promoting Middle Distance (including MoCCA NYC), the Rickard Sisters at Cartoon County – and that’s just for starters!

Our next title was The Last Queen, the legendary Jean-Marc Rochette’s “saga of love and extinction.” (Comics Review)

May kept us busy as well, and busy in Canada no less! TCAF and VanCAF brought us back to the Great White North, so we brought Peter Kuper, Mylo Choy, and Jean-Marc Rochette with us!

What else came in May? Well, everyone got to know the legend that is George Sand, which was later named The Observer’s June graphic novel of the month!

Summer is a good time to self-improve and keep healthy, right? Our new “accessible, wise and understanding” (The Slings & Arrows) graphic medicine title The Anxiety Club arrived in July, with a special foreword from Dr Ian Williams, founder of GraphicMedicine.org! 

September doesn’t have to be sad! We got to hang out with Peter Kuper again at Small Press Expo, and with the dream team of Oscar Zarate, Aimée de Jongh, and the Rickard Sisters at LICAF!

To further spite the season, things heated up even more in October: three titles in one month! First came They Shot the Piano Player, “a graphic novel to rival Maus or Persepolis” (The Indiependent) from the creators of Chico and Rita!

Smashing through castle walls in hot pursuit was Madame Choi and the Monsters, which was also named The Observer’s graphic novel of the month in December!

Next came the graphic Holocaust memoir Adieu Birkenau: Ginette Kolinka’s Story of Survival. The Morning Star called it an “invaluable educational testament” and “highly readable and engaging for adults and young people alike.”

Now we come to our last title of the year, and quite possibly the strangest. Edifice by Andrzej Klimowski is “comfortingly macabre… a sinister social comedy of errors if not terrors.” (Comics Review)

What? You thought that we were done for the year just because we’d launched its last title? Far from it! At Thought Bubble we were so excited to announce the return of the First Graphic Novel Award! Submissions open on January 9th 2025!

Now, at last, we’re about ready to leave you to your holiday preparations… unless you’re looking for some help! You might have heard about our exclusive SelfMadeHero gift packs, and if you’re still looking to get your hands on some of our graphic novels, it’s not too late! Email [email protected] for info on prices and shipping, or come THIS SATURDAY to Broadway Market and find Pete's book stall on London Fields, E8 (by Franco Manca 🍕)!

That’s it for now! Thank you to everyone who’s read along with us this year, and to all: Happy Holidays!

The SelfMadeHero Team