Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, so since you've no place to go why don't you glance your snowballs over this avalanche of awesomeness from Blank Slate...
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BLANK SLATE: WINTER 2011 BOOKS
With Winter's frosty hand now well and truly upon us, there's never been a better time to settle down inside with a good read. Luckily, we've got no less than six great titles for you to check out this cold season! Read all about them below and be sure to check out www.blankslatebooks.co.uk for more info.
NELSON - various
All profits from this book go to Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity.
Part exquisite corpse and part relay race, Nelson is an unprecedented 250-page collaboration between over 50 of the UK’s most exciting comic creators. Edited by Rob Davis and Woodrow Phoenix, the book tells the story of one woman’s life through 54 distinctive creative voices across 54 yearly episodes.
Celebrating the incredible diversity of talent in British comics today, Nelson unites creators from across the comics spectrum, including: Posy Simmonds, Duncan Fegredo, Sean Phillips, Warren Pleece, D'Israeli, Roger Langridge, Dave Taylor, Rian Hughes, Luke Pearson and many more!
ISBN: 978-1-906653-23-1 | 252 pages | 236 x 178mm softcover with flaps, full colour | £18.99
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HECTOR UMBRA - Uli Oesterle
Munich, present day. Master DJ Osaka Best has disappeared, mysteriously vanishing in a flash of blinding light during the climax of his set at Robot Mitchum nightclub. Enter, Hector Umbra—Osaka’s best friend and artist-turned-detective—to solve the mystery of a lifetime.
61 hours, seven packs of cigarettes and countless phone calls later, Hector springs into action, turning over every dirty stone in Munich on the hunt for the displaced DJ. It soon transpires that all is not as it seems, and our hard-boiled painterly protagonist finds himself embroiled in a plot involving religious freaks, villainous Elvis impersonators, aliens and even the dead themselves.
“Uli Oesterle is a genius and a fountain of inspiration” – Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy
ISBN 978-1-906653-16-3 | 212 pp | Hardcover, full-colour | £18.99
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MY SKATEBOARD LIFE - Ed Syder
Growing up in the Cornwall skate scene of the 1980s and 1990s, Ed Syder details the thrills, spills, romance, excitement, and obsession of a sport that, for those involved, defined a generation worldwide.
For anyone who ever puzzled over the axel width of their trucks or oogled board designs in a skate shop, Ed recalls the teen anxiety of not having the coolest equipment as a beginner, the epoch-changing shift from vert skating to street skating, and how things just got weird when there were girls at the skate park. Also features mini-interviews with classic skateboarders Steve Steadham (of Bones Brigade fame) and Jeff Hedges.
ISBN 978-1-906653-11-8 | 98 pages | Softcover with flaps | £8.99
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A LONG DAY OF MR. JAMES-TEACHER - Harvey James
A brief snapshot of HARVEYJAMES’ time in Korea, A Long Day of Mr. James-Teacher encapsulates the highs and lows of his life as an English teacher. The poster-child for the new wave of manga-inspired artists adapting those styles to their own ends, James exhibits astounding craft in his depiction of one particularly grim day.
“This spindly English anime nerd has springboarded off his love of Japanese cartoons into something new and beautiful. His linework and sense of volume comes purely from Japanese animation but he’s deconstructed the style and rebuilt it to express big ideas and deep feelings. “ – Nick Gazin, Vice Magazine
ISBN 978-1-906653-53-8 | 28 pages | 285 x 211mm softcover with flaps, B&W | £5.99
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DINOPOPOLOUS - Nick Edwards
Nigel is your average 13-year-old boy from Chipton. He loves reading fantasy and sci-fi comics, playing video games, listening to heavy metal and obsessing over his classmate Martha. Oh yeah, and he spends his free time solving mysteries with his best friend Brian… a talking dinosaur with twin-mounted laser cannons on his back.
Called into action by moustachioed madman Lancaster Perrifold, the Jurassic duo are launched into the hunt for The Miracle Bird of Ndundoo, a mythical jewel-excreting creature that lives deep below the planet’s crust. Racing against the clock, Nigel and Brian must beat their nefarious adversaries, Julian and his Evil League of Lizards, to the mysterious ancient prize. Steven Spielberg’s got nothing on this.
ISBN 978-1-906653-52-1 | 26 pages | 285 x 211mm softcover with flaps, B&W | £5.99
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THE SURVIVALIST - Box Brown
It's the end of the world as we know it and Noah Wartowsky has survived intact. As a regular listener to Dick March's extreme conspiracy podcasts, Noah came prepared for the cataclysm by maintaining a fully-operational bunker beneath his home.
Apparently justified in his strange beliefs, Noah begins a new life as the last man on Earth; an enjoyable brave new world without work, without the man, and—most importantly—days full of pursuing his true passion: drawing comics with his pet cat.
However, all is not as it seems and soon enough, a mysterious female shows up, setting up camp in the wasteland around his bunker. Is she friend or foe? Can they co-exist peacefully? And more importantly, will there be enough weed for the both of them?
ISBN 978-1-906653-55-2 | 48 pages | 285 x 211mm softcover with flaps, B&W | £5.99
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Let it snow, let it snow, let it snowwww!