John Harris Dunning and Michael Kennedy's Tumult has been drawing praise from the great and good of the comics world, from Dave Gibbons to Charlie Adlard.
Dunning and Kennedy's stylish contemporary thriller, which was The Observer's Graphic Novel of the Month for July, has been compared to the work of Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith - and, as Rachel Cooke remarked, it has a "slippery, shivery power".
Tumult-blog-2.jpg76.61 KB Warren Ellis praised the "peculiarly chilly visual storytelling" on display in Tumult: "In a few panels I'm reminded of Charles Burns, Dylan Horrocks or Chris Reynolds, but the art keeps inventing, finding new tones within its own voice... It's a big book, 180 pages that slip and slide from literary fiction to Hitchcockian genre drama and back again. It's not that it's not sure what it's doing - it's that it wants you to be unsure of what it's doing."
Here's what others have said of the book:
"Tumult is a cracking read. It kept me turning the pages and hurtled along at a great pace… I couldn’t put it down" — Charlie Adlard
"The story was tremendous, a real page-turner. And I loved Michael Kennedy’s artwork" — Frank Quitely
"Tumult reads like an art house thriller. An ode to cinema, it has shades of Jim Jarmusch or a hipster Hitchcock, and some of the boldest, most original art I’ve seen in years" — Christian Ward
"Tumult is the coolest indie movie on paper. Oblique, funny and beautiful work from two future comic stars!" — Sean Phillips
"Unique, thrilling and illustrated with gusto" — Michael Allred
"I was so keen to unravel the mystery I didn’t get up from the sofa till it was read. Only complaint is that I wanted more by the end of it" — Frazer Irving
“Utterly compelling to an almost sinister extent” — Jake Arnott
“An involving story and great graphic impact” — Dave Gibbons
“When I'd finished reading Tumult, it felt like I’d met an interesting person on a train journey, and when I got off at my stop, I hoped to meet them again. We keep books on the shelf as company - some of them are best friends we visit often. Tumult is a journey I must travel again.” — Simon Bisley
"An unsettling and suspense-filled drama" — Broken Frontier
Our final release of the spring season, John Harris Dunning and Michael Kennedy's Tumult,is a stylish psychological thriller that demands to be read on the beach.
But first, you need to buy it - and what better place than Gosh! Comics, where it launches on Thursday 28th June. Join us there at 7pm for drinks, chatter and bibliotherapy.
Adam Whistler topples himself into emotional free fall by impulsively ending his seemingly perfect relationship. He meets the bewitching and troubled Morgan at a party and is instantly ensnared in her life. When he learns that people close to her are being killed, he's determined to protect her. Or is it Adam who needs protection... from Morgan?
Tumult is a stylish contemporary psychological thriller in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith.
Twenty-three-year-old artist Michael Kennedy brings his singular style and bold colour work to a script by John Harris Dunning that is taut, pacy and achingly cool.
Michael Kennedy is a cartoonist from Tamworth, Staffordshire. He is the artist on Spiritus from Vault Comics and has produced comics in the small press and independent scene. Tumult is his first graphic novel.
John Harris Dunning is the writer of graphic novel Salem Brownstone. He instigated and curated the Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK exhibition at the British Library, the most prestigious exhibition of comics to be held in Britain. He’s written for GQ, Esquire, Dazed, iD, The Guardian and Metro.
Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins' extraordinary account of the moon landing, Apollo, is out now, and to celebrate we're having a launch party at Soho's Gosh! Comics. (The moon would have been a more eye-catching venue, I know, but it lacks atmosphere.)
The launch takes place on Thursday 14th June, from 7-9pm. There'll be palatable wine, charming company and three creators with pens in hand, happy to scribble in your copy of the graphic novel.
Buzz Aldrin once said, "Astronauts are not superhuman. They lead ordinary lives and have varied personalities." Apollo tells the breathtaking story of the mission itself; the moments of high drama and astonishing risk are captured in thrilling detail. But it is also a fascinating insight into the lives of three men who, in the most extraordinary of circumstances, are separated from their families and loved ones.
It's an incredible book, but don't just take our word for it.
Scientific American praised Fitch, Baker and Collins for their retelling of the "suspense-filled" story: "They convey surprising depth and emotion, as well as rich historical details of the era. The book explores the political tension around the space program at the time, the nerve-wracking anxiety experienced by the families of the crew, and the heart-stopping moments of the mission that proved to be such a milestone."
And here's Publishers Weekly: "The moon landing is one of the most well-documented events in human history, but it’s reimagined here in a way that makes it feel new again. Lovers of space-race lore will want to pick this up."
Harold Pinter once said of the graphic artist Andrzej Klimowski, “He leads the field by a very long furlong, out on his own, making his own weather. He is Klimowski, unafraid”.
In this short video, filmmakers Stephen and Timothy Quay, author David Crowley and designer Jeff Willis discuss the work and influence of this most daring and brilliant of artists.
In the mid-1970s, Andrzej Klimowski’s fearlessly original artwork caught the eye of leading Polish theatre and film companies, for whom he designed some of the period’s most influential and iconic posters. The London-born artist, who moved to Poland at a time when many East Europeans dreamed of going West, went on to create posters for works by filmmakers and playwrights from Scorsese to Altman, Beckett to Brecht.
Drawing on folk art, Polish Surrealism and the work of his mentor at the Warsaw Academy, Henryk Tomaszewski, Klimowski uses techniques including photomontage and linocut to create posters that are filled with metaphor, drama and originality.
What goes into creating an 80-page comic book adaptation of The Communist Manifesto? The answer, it seems, is hours and hours of hard labour.
In this extraordinary timelapse video - ten hours of work compressed into five minutes - Martin Rowson creates one elaborate double page spread. His tools: various ink, paint and brushes, and a mouth atomiser.
