Jonathan Cape Graphic Novels

Dotter of her Father’s Eyes presents two coming-of-age stories, taking place at different points in the twentieth century. By intertwining these stories, I explore aspects of social history: gender politics and social expectations, shifting notions about ‘acceptable’ behaviour.

The idea for the book started when I took early retirement, giving me more time to write. Bryan suggested I try my hand at autobiographical writing, producing a graphic novel script that he would illustrate. Some previous plans of his for a collaboration had sadly fallen through, with the untimely death of the Australian narrative poet, Dorothy Porter. He suggested a couple of draft titles: ‘James Joyce and Me’ and ‘What a Piece of Work’ (actually the title of one of Porter’s books). To be honest, I was a bit bemused at the prospect of autobiography. ‘Whoever would want to know?’ I thought, ‘So, my father was a Joycean scholar, so what?’ I gave it some thought anyway and, vaguely aware that Joyce had a daughter, I looked into that as a possible angle. As it happened a biography of Lucia Joyce had come out not long before (Carol Shloss’s Lucia Joyce: To Dance at the Wake, published Farrar Straus Giroux). I was blown away by the tragedy of Lucia’s story – that was what I was interested in writing about. It’s that biography that I’m reading in this train journey scene, part of the opening sequence.

Check out the rest of the Director’s Commentary for Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes on the Forbidden Planet blog.

Last week Bryan Talbot scooped prestigious SNCF award for the French edition ofGrandville Mon Amour.

Bryan won the Prix SNCF for best graphic novel at a ceremony at the Gare de Lyon, Paris on Tuesday 29th May.

Voted for by the general public, this is a national award given by the French railway company for the best in crime fiction.

“They give an award for best novel and best short film,” Bryan told us. “This is the first year they’ve introduced the bande dessinée category and it was won by Grandville Mon Amour out of a long list of 50 and a shortlist of five.”

[Photo courtesy of the Milady blog.]

Grandville Bete Noir is the third stand-alone volume in the Grandville series. At Toad Hall, lair of multibillionaire Baron Aristotle Krapaud, a cabal of industrialists and fat cats plot the violent overthrow of the French state by the intervention of horribly beweaponed automaton soldiers. Meanwhile, the brutal murder of a famous Parisian artist, mysteriously stabbed to death in his locked and guarded studio, is subject to the investigations of the tenacious Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard, placing him and his faithful adjunct, Detective Sergeant Roderick Ratzi, in pursuit of the mysterious masked assassin stalking the cut-throat commercial world of the Grandville art scene. LeBrock battles against outrageous odds in this funny, high octane thriller, an adventure shot through with both high art and comic book references, a glorious illegitimate offspring of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming – with animals! You’ll have to wait until December though.

Tonight the British Library are hosting a wondrous event dedicated to the art of illustration and some of the finest illustrators working today. Illuminate! will showcase an eclectic mixture of graphic novelists, cartoonists, children’s book illustrators, calligraphers – you name it.

Among many others, the pop-up exhibition will include work by Cape’s very own Bryan Talbot and Hannah Berry. The evening will also feature an event with Posy Simmonds and a workshop lead by upcoming Cape artist and winner of last year’s Cape/Observer/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize, Isabel Greenberg. Karrie Fransman, from our sister imprint Square Peg, will also be running a workshop on illuminated manuscripts. Not to mention Mr Scruff, whose work will be exhibited, and who’ll also be the DJ for the night.