We’re delighted to be publishing Room for Love, an original graphic novel by ILYA, on 15th November. Over the next week or two, ILYA will be blogging about the inspiration(s) behind the book, revealing what led him to write about an unconventional relationship between a homeless young man and a middle-aged romance novelist. In the meantime, here’s the blurb and details of the launch event.

“Romance is dead.” So says Pamela Green, middle-class and middle-aged – a romance novelist suffering from writer’s block. Then, on a bridge crossing over the river, her unsettled life collides with that of a ragged young man. He’s survived for months on London’s streets, by his wits…and his looks. Under extraordinary circumstances Pamela invites him into her comfortable suburban home. There, in spite of obvious differences, they soon come to form an unlikely partnership, their once separate lives revived in stark new directions.

ILYA’s work has been published by Marvel, DC and Dark Horse in the USA, Kodansha in Japan, and numerous independent companies worldwide. The creator of award-winning graphic novel series The End of the Century Club, his other works include Manga Shakespeare’s King Lear and the kitchen sink drama Skidmarks. His Illustration clients include the BBC, the Royal Academy of Arts, and The Guardian and Times newspapers.

Room for Love will launch at Gosh! Comics, 1 Berwick Street, London, W1F 0DR on Friday 15th November. The launch party is open to the public, so drop by from 7pm to grab yourself some free beer and a signed copy of the book.

Q: Why did you call it The Complete Don Quixote?

A: So many readers have failed to complete Don Quixote, this book advertises the possibility on its cover. Now you too can “Complete Don Quixote”! And because I finished my adaptation of the book, something that seemed unlikely at times. Other adaptations have failed to complete Don Quixote, not naming any names, you know who you are.

Q: But you missed some bits out so it’s not complete is it?

A: Yeah, yeah, shut up. It’s nearly 300 pages of comics, you could knock someone out with that lush hardback edition (only £19.99 from good stockists and a paltry £15 for a signed one at Thought Bubble!). And I have added as much as I’ve taken away – this is the graphic novel, not the novel novel. Cervantes would have loved comics as they can demonstrate his crazy ideas with an ease that cuts through age gap. Given how differently shaped our brains are now*, one could even claim that The Complete Don Quixote will give one a more complete experience of the story.

*There is no science to support this assertion.

Q: How so?

A: Here is an example from Volume Two, Chapter Four (a personal favourite)…

The mad knight, having escaped a wedding punch up, uses his idiot squire who has consumed much of the wedding feast for ballast as he leaps into the dreaded Cave of Montesinos.

After half an hour, Sancho drags his friend back up.

Quixote’s tale is rather abstract. We switch to his point of view with a change in style.

As you can see, there is some discrepancy between Quixote’s version of events and the probability that he just fell asleep.

This experience has changed his mission.

Brilliant! A true knight’s adventure! Sadly they are immediately distracted by a man dragging a cart who tells them of an impending war. Again, the switch of style lets us into the polite farce that began this war. Now whether we’re in Quixote’s imagination, Sancho’s imagination or the storyteller’s imagination matters not – by now we are familiar with the comic clues to a story within a story.

And back in the inn the man completes his story in person.

Or at least he would do but for the arrival of another storyteller in the shape of the Puppeteer, Master Pedro, and his psychic monkey.

And once again we enter the comic story within the comic story as Master Pedro’s puppets play out the story of another brave knight who would also rescue his fair maiden. But this time the comic page is a puppet theatre and the characters are puppets.

Turn the page.

Hmmmm. Quixote breaks the fourth wall. The comics break their own rule. This could be getting a bit meta if it weren’t for the gift of comics to help it all make perfect daft-sense.

Q: Fair enough. So what happens next? Does Quixote rescues Dulcinea from Merlin’s evil clutches?

A: I suggest you read the book. And so does the title.

This Thursday evening (24th October) sees the launch of Oscar Zarate’s brand new graphic novel, The Park, at Daunt Books in Hampstead.

Oscar Zarate will be signing and sketching copies of the book, and he’ll also be in conversation with author and Manga Shakespeare editor Richard Appignanesi.

The event will take place between 6.30 and 8.30pm. Daunt Books is located at 51 South End Road, London, NW3 2QB (nearest stations: Belsize Park and Hampstead Heath). If you’d like to attend, please RSVP to [email protected] or join the event on Facebook.

You can learn more about The Park here, and you can read a wonderful review of the book here. Keep an eye on our Facebook page, where we’ll be sharing some images from The Park throughout the week.

This Saturday (19th October), Rebetiko creator David Prudhomme will take part in ‘Greece is the Word’, a series of events celebrating modern Greek culture at the South Bank Centre in London. Curated by Rosie Goldsmith, ‘Greece is the Word’ is intended as a cutting edge, creative response to the current Greek crisis, featuring some of the world’s finest writers, poets and performers.

David Prudhomme will be drawing live on stage accompanied by the Rebetiko music of Pavlos Melas and his band. The live drawing event forms part of ‘Katerina’s Krisis Kabaret’, an evening of comedy, theatre, music and literature hosted by Greece’s funniest stand-up comic Katerina Vrana (Purcell Room, 8pm).

To find out more about ‘Greece is the Word’ – and to buy tickets – visit the South Bank Centre’s website.