When graphic-novel publisher SelfMadeHero launched their #DrawYourBookshop social media campaign via Twitter on 18th November they never imagined the phenomenal response it would receive. Avid book readers across the UK have shown enthusiastic support for their local bookshops and it is an excitement that has spread overseas too. 

“We have been delighted and overwhelmed, to say the least, at everyone’s enthusiasm to participate in our activist hashtag #DrawYourBookshop”, says SelfMadeHero’s Editorial and Production Director Guillaume Rater, who initiated the campaign. “We hope that it provides some emotional support to bookshops and book-lovers doomscrolling during lockdown”. 

Intended as a fun callout for all artists to support our bookshops during lockdown with a quick sketch, drawing, or masterpiece of their local favourite store, the challenge has inspired professional illustrators along with members of the book-buying public. Organisations such as the Booksellers Association and institutions such as British Library and the Tate have also encouraged people to join in. 

Independent shops have been represented from all parts of the UK. Book lovers have been especially keen to show support for their favourite booksellers in cities as far afield as London, York, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Barrow-in-Furness, Norwich, Lake District, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol, Penarth, Oxford, and even Isle of Man. Internationally, there has been posts from America, Spain, Sweden, France, Canada, Denmark, and Germany. 

“We have been delighted to make contact with new indie shops and artists through this campaign,” continues Rater. “We hope we can continue to sustain this support throughout the year and repeat the #DrawYourBookshop call-out annually ahead of Christmas.” 

The #DrawYourBookshop campaign continues throughout the UK’s national lockdown/Tier restrictions.

bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08y64s7

CALLING ALL ARTISTS! CALLING ALL BOOK-LOVERS! 

Graphic-novel publisher SelfMadeHero is proud to announce a new social media campaign via Twitter on Wednesday 18 November! #DrawYourBookshop is a call- out for all artists to support our bookshops during lockdown with a quick sketch, drawing, or masterpiece of their local favourite store. 

With theatres dark, concert venues closed, cinemas silenced, and galleries shut during lockdown, it is time to re-brand our bookshops as an essential service, and recognise the existential crisis they are facing. Now more than ever before, in the delayed run- up to Christmas, bookshops need to be seen and celebrated on social media, through all possible means – and the most possible means is through the unique combination of word, image, and print that is comics art. 

At the same time, #DrawYourBookshop also gives the chance for artists to make their work known to the people who might one day publish it, for a reader who doesn’t yet know they love it, and who will one day find it in one of the bookshops we must now do everything we can to save. 

So if you’re a first-time doodler-cartoonist or a dedicated artist – whether it’s a quaint second-hand bookshop or part of a coffee-fragrant chain you want to celebrate – Draw Your Bookshop – and help save the greatest ever human invention: The Book!

Nights are drawing in, and there may be a bumpy winter ahead of us, we’re told, but with Halloween approaching, if you’re looking for another kind of bumpy ride altogether, then look no further than our forthcoming re-issues of I.N.J. Culbard’s classics. To mark the spooky season, this November we release our compact re-mastered editions that are as sweet and pulpy as a pumpkin, and as trick-or-treatsy as a bugaboo.

“These are powerful works and will hit you in a very visceral way,” comments the famed Canadian cartoonist Jeff Lemire, in one of the new Forewords we’ve commissioned for the series. But “Don’t be scared: I.N.J. Culbard is an able guide.” Comic book writer Dan Abnett agrees, describing The King in Yellow as “ingenious, superbly rendered, and entirely unsettling”.

The Shadow Out of Time
The King in Yellow
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

Stay safe and don’t be scared by goosebumps.

“WHEN YOU CAN'T KEEP GOING, GO FASTER!”

This famous quotation, by the Olympic runner and Czech national hero Emil Zátopek, has struck a new chord here at SelfMadeHero. It hasn’t been an easy time for anyone during Covid-19, but the ability to go the distance, against what can often feel like futile odds, is a trait that we both admire and aspire to. It wasn’t just Zátopek’s record-beating success as an athlete, in the 1940s and ’50s, that made him a self-made hero, nor the unorthodox training methods he pioneered. It was rather (in the words of an official report) that he “completely upset all previous notions of the limits of human endurance”.

There‘s perhaps never been a better time to feel inspired by such feats of endurance, and in our graphic biography Zátopek (October 2020) – written by the award-winning writer and documentary maker Jan Novák, and drawn by the acclaimed artist and musician Jaromír 99 – we follow in the tracks of this extraordinary Cold War Olympian.

From sports to socialism: Robert Tressell’s 1914 masterpiece The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists finds its first – and definitive – adaptation as a sumptuously illustrated graphic novel this September. An amazing work by Sophie and Scarlett Rickard, this is the socialist novel that, according to George Orwell, “everyone should read”. An inspiration to generations of political thinkers, from Orwell to Tony Benn, this timeless and compelling work is a must-read – and now a must-see.

September also sees the release of a book with a cute bunny on the cover. But don’t be fooled: When I Came Out tells a story every bit as courageous and beautiful as our other new titles. Danish author and artist Anne Mette Kærulf Lorentzen centres this semi-autobiographical tale on Louise, a rabbit with a big secret. As her comfortable life begins to unravel, we join Louise on a delicate, complicated, but ultimately life-affirming journey and learn what it takes for a woman in her forties to acknowledge her true identity and come out as gay.

Till soon, stay well, and always remember: UNITY IS STRENGTH!

At SelfMadeHero, we stand in solidarity alongside our black readers, creators, booksellers, librarians, and colleagues, in support of the global fight against racism. Our prime mission has always been to champion projects that break cultural boundaries, and we have always sought to be as diverse as possible in the dozen-odd stories we publish each year. But we recognize we could go further.

There is a lack of cultural and ethnic diversity among published comic-book creators in the UK. As one of the UK’s leading graphic novel publishers, we have a responsibility to promote the comics medium to creative practitioners and readers from marginalized communities. We are therefore pleased to announce that, by working with social enterprises, cultural institutions, and individuals, we will provide a platform to amplify the multifarious voices of UK-based Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic creators (writers and artists) through SelfMadeHero’s Graphic Anthology Programme (GAP).

The GAP has three principal aims: first, to provide a platform from which to showcase the work of UK-based artists from under-represented cultural and ethnic backgrounds; second, to inspire creative practitioners from those marginalized communities to create comics; and third, to promote the medium to a wider audience. The anthology will provide a springboard for creators looking to get published, with a particular focus on bringing to print the work of UK-based BAME artists. In our commitment to diversifying our publishing list, we will be making a call-out for submissions specifically from BAME creators – more details to be announced shortly.