This Saturday, we’re celebrating Halloween with the launch ofSi Spencer and DIX’s disturbing urban horror story Klaxon. Join us for a good ol’ knees-up at Islington’s finest, The Lord Clyde on Essex Road, from 1.30-3.30pm. There’ll be booze, bands and liquorice allsorts. All you need to do is let us know you’re coming by joining the event on Facebook or rsvping to [email protected].

Turn up on time to catch musical adventurer Paul Mosley with his band. “A honeyed voice and a garage orchestra of sometimes disturbing magic realist folk-pop. Excellent.” So wrote Q Magazine of his latest album, A Chattering of Birds. Joining Mosley at the Lord Clyde are the mighty Kung Fu Vicar.

So, what’s Klaxon all about? Well, it’s difficult to explain. Tank Girl creator Alan Martin has called it “an urban nightmare of finely balanced dialogue and artwork, as if Raymond Briggs teamed up with Daniel Clowes and they dropped the bad brown acid. Which is my idea of an evening well-spent.” And our idea of a brilliant graphic novel.

Here’s the blurb:

Carlisle, one of three slackers high on wax and cavity wall insulation, finally has a reason to leave the house: new neighbours. But his offer to help Carol and her weeping mother move in incurs the wrath of their landlord, the grim, grinning Mr Stapleton, and his halfwit minion son. As Mr Stapleton’s malign influence begins to plague both houses, the residents are afflicted by milk binges, metamorphoses and indoor confectionary storms. Inspired by the unspoken wisdom of a giant porcelain cherub, Carlisle realises he must take the fight to his enemy – only then will he have a chance of saving his friends and neighbours.

And here’s the object in all its glory:

The Lord Clyde is located at 340-342 Essex Rd, London N1 3PB. It’s close to Angel, Highbury & Islington and Essex Road stations. Join us in Jeremy Corbyn’s heartland from 1.30-3.30pm!

This coming Wednesday, 14th October, we’re celebrating the launch of Hysteria by Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate, the long-awaited second book in our Graphic Freud series. The launch takes place at the Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SX, 6.30-8.30pm. There’ll be free booze, fine company and lots of signed books – and everyone is welcome. What’s more, there’ll be an exhibition of Oscar Zarate’s artwork from Hysteria.

Hysteria follows the early career of Sigmund Freud, from his training in neurological research to his establishment of a therapeutic practice in Vienna. Taking in the psychoanalyst’s earliest clinical experiences, his studies alongside Charcot at La Salpêtrière and his interest in the work of his friend and colleague Joseph Breuer, Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate introduce the characters and case histories that inspired the development of a revolutionary new clinical therapy.

Drawing on the case histories of “Anna O.”, Fräulein Elisabeth von R. and others,Hysteria shows Freud and his contemporaries developing ideas that would transform the intellectual landscape of the Western world. With a foreword by Deborah Levy, this is a masterful visual guide to the strange and fascinating characters that populate Freud and Breuer’s Studies in Hysteria, the founding text of psychoanalysis.

Here’s what people are saying about it:

“What a wonderful book: clear and witty; beautifully drawn; by turns both disturbing and enlightening. Whether you know Freud or not, this will speak to your inner shrink.” Rachel Cooke, The Observer

“Dark, delightful and deep, this brilliant graphic novel not only brings Freud’s case history to life but also raises crucial questions about contemporary approaches to human suffering. An inspiring and thought-provoking book.” Darian Leader

“[An] incredible graphic novel, magically brought to life with delicacy and complexity in the drawings of Oscar Zarate.” Deborah Levy

Hysteria launches on Wednesday 14th October at the Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SX, 6.30-8.30pm. If you’d like to join us for a good ol’ Freudian knees-up, RSVP to [email protected].

The Lakes Comic Art Festival is now so firmly ingrained in the cultural calendar, its guest list so illustrious, its festival mascots so deeply rooted in our collective consciousness, that it’s difficult to believe this is only its third year. If you haven’t been already then now’s the time. Imagine Glastonbury in 1982; these are the glory days. There’s always a lot of rain, but you don’t have to sleep in a tent – and there are lots of creators, publishers and punters to brighten up your weekend. It takes place on Friday 16th, Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th October across various venues in the beautiful Lake District town of Kendal.

We’ll again be exhibiting our wares in the Comics Clock Tower (Sat, 10-6; Sun, 10.30-5). Our two tables (30-31) are on the first floor, just as you walk in. Joining us in Kendal will be special guests Si Spencer and DIX, whose graphic novel Klaxon debuts at the festival.

Reinventing the Horror Comic: Si Spencer and DIX in conversation with John Freeman. Time: 1.30-2.30pm, Saturday 17th. Venue: Comics Clock Tower.

Si Spencer and DIX’s brand new graphic novel, Klaxon, is a mould-breaking, intensely weird and inscrutably beautiful graphic novel about three wasters who find themselves on the wrong side of their neighbours’ landlord. Milk binges, metamorphoses and indoor confectionary storms ensue. John Freeman joins the authors to discuss this bizarre and brilliant creation. For full details (and to book tickets) click here.

Also at the festival is One Year Wiser creator Mike Medaglia, whose work is currently on show in Kendal’s branch of White Stuff. Look out for his illustrated meditations among the slippers and the socks and the jumpers. You might even find some loose pages from One Year Wiser: The Colouring Book to sneak into your bag. Mike will be signing and sketching in store from 2-3pm on Saturday and 12-1pm on Sunday. Click here for directions.

Mike Medaglia will also be selling prints, comics, greetings cards and copies of both editions of One Year Wiser in the Comics Clock Tower. You can’t miss him – his table’s right next to ours.

And that’s not it: Mike will also be giving a workshop, Illustrate Your Mantra, in which he’ll walk attendees through the process of adapting a favourite quote, song lyric or aphorism into a full-colour illustration. This takes place in the Brewery Arts Centre (Room 2) on Sunday 18th, 1.30-3pm.

There is, of course, so much more going on throughout the weekend, including an appearance from SelfMadeHero favourite Steven Appleby.

The Lakes Comic Art Festival takes place from 16th-18th October in Kendal, Cumbria. View the full festival programme here.

On Tuesday 22nd September, fresh from his appearances at SPX and the Brooklyn Book Festival this weekend, Peter Kuper visits New York City’s finest book store for the official launch of his hotly anticipated new graphic novel Ruins. The event takes place at 7pm in the Strand Book Store‘s beautiful 3rd floor Rare Book Room.

Kuper has created over a dozen graphic novels, including The System, Sticks and Stones and an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. He is co-founder of the political graphics magazine World War 3 Illustrated and, since 1997, has written and drawn “Spy Vs Spy” for MAD Magazine. His comics have appeared in TIME, The New York Times and many other publications. He has been teaching comics courses for over 25 years and is a visiting professor at Harvard University.

Ruins tells the story of a New York couple who launch into a sabbatical year in the quaint Mexican town of Oaxaca. In tandem, the remarkable and arduous journey that a monarch butterfly endures on its annual migration from Canada to Mexico is woven into Ruins, creating a parallel picture of the challenges of survival in our ever-changing world.

Here’s what Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer has to say: “With a monarch butterfly serving in the role of all-seeing observer flying poetically above it all, the constantly remarkable Peter Kuper details the travels and travails of a creative NY couple who move to Oaxaca to find inspiration and revitalize their lives. Kuper’s art is, page after page, astonishing.”

And Publishers Weekly: “Magnificent… a beautiful, epic roman à clef about the importance of seeking the new and questioning the old.”

Peter Kuper will be joined at the Strand by Karen Green, librarian of both Graphic Novels and Ancient and Medieval History at Columbia University. To attend the event, you’ll simply need to buy a copy of Ruins or a $15 Strand gift card.

This Sunday, 20th September, we’ll be exhibiting at our very first canalside comic con. Our friends at Comica Festival have teamed up Floating Cinema to create the wonderfully named CanalCon, which is happening from noon until 6pm on the canalside steps at Granary Square in Kings Cross, just minutes away from SelfMadeTowers.

This Sunday, 20th September, we’ll be exhibiting at our very first canalside comic con. Our friends at Comica Festival have teamed up Floating Cinema to create the wonderfully named CanalCon, which is happening from noon until 6pm on the canalside steps at Granary Square in Kings Cross, just minutes away from SelfMadeTowers.

Expect the full SelfMadeHero spread: new titles (Ruins, Aama 4. & One Year Wiser), limited-edition book plates and an SF & Horror flavoured selection from the backlist. In addition, there’ll be House of Illustration workshops, an interview with Comics Laureate Dave Gibbons and more – all for free! For more information, check out COMICA’s blog.

Hope to see you there!