Things are moving fast this year – it's already time to share our lineup for Spring 2026! Thank you all for your readership this year so far, and here's to the titles coming up in our next exciting season!
SelfMadeHero is delighted to announce an eclectic and stimulating quintet of new graphic novels for Spring 2026 from UK, French, and German creators.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved classic The Little Princeis reimagined by France’s eminent comics creator Joann Sfar in this 80th anniversary edition (March 2026). In February, comics creator ILYA brings us Romo the WolfBoy, a new series set at Blimey O’Riley’s Travelling Circus where a stagehand and a strange, wild boy find themselves investigating a paranormal mystery. Both titles continue our range of graphic novels for younger readers.
Moving on to more serious real-life subjects for adults, Barbara Yelin’s Emmie Arbel: The Colour of Memory– the haunting testimony of a Holocaust survivor – sees its release in early 2026, followed in May by Noisy Valley, Myfanwy Tristram’s stirring work of graphic journalism exploring the right to protest, told by people who raised their voices and demanded to be heard.
Finally, on a lighter note, Kay Medaglia, the creator of the popular One Year Wiser series, is back with Comic Therapy, a new collection of powerful inspirational meditations to lift our spirits and keep us all sane, centred, and cheerful.
The Little Prince, adapted by Joann Sfar, translated by Sarah Ardizzone.
Meet the original Boy Who Fell to Earth. Stranded in the Sahara Desert, an aircraft pilot meets a strange little boy who tells him of his journey from another world. The Little Prince, by the French writer, illustrator, and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was written and published during the Second World War, to immediate acclaim, and its classic status has been embraced ever since. Whether as a children’s fairy tale or an existentialist fable, religious parable or political allegory, the “secret treasure” of its complex simplicity has only unfolded further truths over the years, like the petals of the precious flower of friendship it celebrates.
Vividly realized here, for yet another new generation, by the award-winning graphic novelist Joann Sfar, this stunning adaptation celebrates the 80th anniversary of its French edition, and confirms its wisdom of ages: that life (and love) can be hard; that “grown-ups are very strange”; and that our precious planet is intrinsic with our universal Nature.
De Saint-Exupéry’s aircraft disappeared in the wartime skies over the Mediterranean in July 1944, and his death has remained a mystery ever since. “The only reason to speak in riddles,” he wrote, in his prophetic masterpiece, “is to solve them.”
OUT IN UK: 19th MARCH! 🇬🇧
Romo the WolfBoy by ILYA.
At Blimey O’Riley’s Travelling Circus, a stagehand and a strange, wild boy find themselves investigating a paranormal mystery.
Romo, rumoured a wolf boy taken from the wild, and a young stagehand named Francis are the two newest members of Blimey O’Riley’s Travelling Circus. Together they will become Criminologists Extraordinaire, Specialists in the Paranormal – but this is only their first adventure…
When the circus comes to town in Victorian England, repeated acts of sabotage by a mysterious, giggling culprit turn Romo and Francis from rivals to friends. Can they work together to solve this baffling case, and even become a top act in the meantime?
OUT IN UK: 19th FEBRUARY! 🇬🇧 OUT IN NORTH AMERICA: 1st SEPTEMBER! 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇲
Emmie Arbel: The Colour of Memory by Barbara Yelin, translated by Helge R. Dascher, edited by Charlotte Schallié and Alexander Korb.
Arrested with her family in her native Holland, deported, held in a series of Nazi concentration camps, and orphaned – all by the age of seven – Emmie Arbel transformed her childhood survival into a lifelong mission to stand against any such other horrors. With her home now in Israel, to where she and her brother emigrated with their foster-parents in the wake of the Holocaust, she still frequently travels abroad to report and record her testimony.
Working closely with Emmie herself, the acclaimed German graphic artist Barbara Yelin has created a brilliant portrait – what she calls a “visual biography” – of this remarkable woman: her rebellious spirit, her resilient humour, the seriousness of her contemplation. “Surviving is not over,” Emmie reflects. “Surviving is every day.”
Emmie Arbel: The Colour of Memory is at once a haunting portrayal of a historical atrocity; an inspiring account of a modern friendship; a beautiful work of art; and a meditation on memory itself. Because, as Barbara Yelin has put it, “The long arms of history wrap right around the present.”
OUT IN UK: 5th FEBRUARY! 🇬🇧 OUT IN NORTH AMERICA: 17th MARCH! 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇲
Noisy Valley: The Art of Protest by Myfanwy Tristram.
“It’s about what ordinary people do, because what we do... is quite extraordinary.”
Protest matters, and never more so than today – and yet our rights around dissent have been eroded in law. Noisy Valley is a beautifully illustrated work of graphic nonfiction exploring the importance of protest, and what it can achieve, through the voices of one vibrant community.
In every neighbourhood there are the activists, the ones who raise their voices. Myfanwy Tristram visited the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, inviting local people to recount their memories of the times they’d refused to take things lying down. Noisy Valley is the result: a graphic retelling of protests both past and present.
The area is best known for the miners’ strikes of the 80s, (and their support from the LGBT movement as documented in the film Pride) but the spirit of dissent runs deeply whenever there is injustice. These stories tell how communities and individuals pushed back on a landfill site that poisoned local streams, a waste processing plant that destroyed an area of natural beauty, sexism in the workplace and the closure of the local hospital. We dip into the historic Aldermaston marches and the Greenham women’s peace camp too.
Originally shortlisted for the 2023 First Graphic Novel Award, Noisy Valley is a testament to protestors who – whatever the political climate – have believed in their power to get things changed.
OUT IN UK: 14th MAY! 🇬🇧 OUT IN NORTH AMERICA: 19th MAY! 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇲
Comic Therapy by Kay Medaglia.
From the creator of the popular One Year Wiser, this unique collection of short comic strips is designed to offer moments of calm wellbeing and thoughtful reflection while lifting readers’ spirits with lighthearted humour.
In Comic Therapy, readers will find a range of comic strips that blend heartwarming messages and gentle wit, creating a space where readers can unwind, laugh, and feel inspired – all within a few panels. The charm of this collection of homely homilies lies in its ability to address real-life challenges with a sense of optimism, focusing on themes like self-compassion, resilience, and mindfulness. Each of its beautifully imagined sequences serves as a temporary retreat from the pressures and anxieties of daily life, with each page offering a blend of encouragement and humour. By using visual storytelling, Comic Therapy engages readers in a non-intrusive, yet impactful way, inviting them to pause, smile, and reconnect with their inner calm.
This book is an invaluable resource for anyone looking for a momentary escape, a laugh in tough times, or a much-needed boost of positivity. Whether read all at once or savoured a little at a time, Comic Therapy builds into a toolkit of emotional wellness, and a perfect go-to for personal reflection, or to share with a friend in need of a cheerful lift.
Into a world filled with noise, Comic Therapy sends a quiet voice of compelling reassurance, reminding us that it’s always okay to pause, reflect, and enjoy a light-hearted moment.
OUT IN UK: 2nd APRIL! 🇬🇧 OUT IN NORTH AMERICA: 7th APRIL! 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇲
Our sincere thanks to you all for your support this year – watch out for more on our 2026 lineup soon!
To celebrate their third graphic novel with SelfMadeHero, we decided to ask the Rickard Sisters all about this new work, how it fits in with their previous titles, and the social and historical inspirations that tie them all together.
Sophie Rickard (left) is a writer and child counsellor. Scarlett Rickard (right)is a graphic artist, illustrator, drummer and junk collector. Together, as the Rickard Sisters, they have collaborated on multiple graphic novels including the Eisner-nominated The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists,No Surrender, and This Slavery.
SelfMadeHero: To returning readers, This Slavery could seem to be the third part in a trilogy of literary adaptations by the Rickard Sisters, following on from The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (by Robert Tressell) and No Surrender (by Constance Maud). Was a “series” like that always the plan?Scarlett Rickard: It wasn’t the plan to make a trilogy of adaptations of Edwardian political fiction, it kind of happened by mistake. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and No Surrender feel very much like siblings (which is reflected in their cover designs), whereas This Slavery stands alone. The others were written primarily as recruiting tools and propaganda for their respective causes (socialism and suffragism), whereas This Slavery is a bit more sly! The story is exciting and heartfelt; you care for the characters and feel their struggles, and by the end you’ll probably accidentally be a socialist and a suffragist!
Sophie Rickard: By the time we finished The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and No Surrender, we thought we’d had enough of thinking about and drawing the 1910s, but we couldn’t resist This Slavery. Where The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists told the story of the working-poor in industrial capitalism, and No Surrender told the story of life without civil rights for women of all classes, This Slavery astounded us with a human story that holds both the patriarchy and capitalism to account. So although we had no idea we were going to make a trilogy, that’s what happened. They are three stories from a similar era, written with authenticity, and with a shared purpose: systemic change.
SMH: Being from the same corner of England in which this story is set, have you been longtime fans of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s work? How did you come to know of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, Britain’s first female working class novelist?
Scarlett: Ethel Carnie Holdsworth and her work have been overlooked for many, many years. Being working class, female, northern, a revolutionary socialist, a feminist and a pacifist meant she was really up against the Establishment — physically, mentally and economically. Despite having written bestsellers in her day, outselling HG Wells at one point, she isn’t well known. We weren’t aware of her, despite growing up in East Lancashire and regularly spending time in Great Harwood, where she lived and worked in the cotton mills. The geography of the book was so personal to us, as it’s set in our homeland, that we felt confident in our innate knowledge of the place and the culture when it came to adapt and draw the book. It felt like coming home.
Sophie: The fact that we only stumbled across Ethel Carnie Holdsworth during research for the cotton-mill parts of drawing No Surrender is a testament to the work underway to revive Carnie Holdsworth’s work and reputation. Despite being born and educated in the area, we’d never been introduced. In the making of This Slavery we have benefited greatly from help and support from several members of the Pendle Radicals and Carnie Holdsworth’s relatives. We hope that this graphic adaptation will add to the visibility of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s spectacularly radical life and work.
SMH: All of the graphic novels you’ve published with us at SelfMadeHero have, thanks to the works they’re based on, tackled similar socially conscious themes and struggles during similar points in history. What inspired you to make that your focus?
Sophie: It’s Scarlett’s fault – because it all started with her saying The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists deserved to be more widely read but could do with more pictures and fewer words! The format – a full-length faithful graphic adaptation of an important book – seems to work so well for these topics, especially where young people are hungry for an accessible political education. We didn’t deliberately set out to make books about socialists in the years leading up to World War One, but it turns out that was a vibrant time for fictional accounts of lives spent trying to make change.
Scarlett: The common thread through the adaptations we’ve chosen to make is that of social justice, and of authenticity in the telling of the stories. We are drawn to books written by people who were there, who had boots on the ground, who lived and breathed the issues on the page. Often these books, written 100 years or more ago, are not the easiest to read for modern audiences, yet they have so much relevance to our lives, and so much to say about community, history and society — and how things could be different if we worked together, rather than against one another.
SMH: Naturally, adaptation means alteration. Did This Slavery require any adaptational changes that your previous titles did not, or vice versa?
Sophie: My hope is that readers who are familiar with the original works we have adapted never notice what’s been left out! Getting a long, wordy book into a graphic novel ‘shape’ requires a lot of cutting, and all sorts of gems and details get left behind. We did make a couple of tweaks to Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s original text for plot reasons, and played the (now familiar) tricks of blending minor characters and switching the order of some events. We both particularly enjoyed the location setting this time, and have revelled in recreating Great Harwood, Blackburn and Pendle Hill – as well as the fabulous interiors of terraced houses, ‘modern’ mansions and of course the weaving mill. I’d like to think Ethel would be pleased with how This Slavery has turned out, and how her vibrant characters look and feel on the page.
Scarlett:This Slavery felt much more ‘story-shaped’ than The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and No Surrender. Ethel Carnie Holdsworth really knew how to craft a good romance, and she also knew how to get thoughts and ideas across in punchy ways. This book is different to the other two in one other respect – we actually added stuff to this one! There’s a section in the middle of the story where the original basically says, “I know you want to know what happened next, but I’m not going to tell you.” We decided not to be so cruel to our readers, so we made a sort of intermission between Book One and Book Two to show the passage of time, and to give readers a bit more of the story which Ethel only hinted at in the original.
SMH: Continuing with comparison, and returning to the similar themes shared across your graphic novels, how do you feel the relevance of their themes have changed since they were first published?
Scarlett: It’s ironically frustrating for us how relevant our books are! Things haven’t changed as much in 100 years as you’d hope. Both This Slavery and The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists deal with the impact of capitalism on people’s lives and, in This Slavery’s case, its effects on women. In some ways, things have slipped so far backwards since the radical government changes of the 1940s (the welfare state, nationalised industry, the National Health Service, free education etc.), that the situation in the 1910s was better than now.
For example, in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell said that rent was a third of their income – it’s considerably more than that now for a large number of people. Even No Surrender, which deals with the movement for votes for women and wider gender equality, came out during the American mid-terms when Roe vs Wade was being overturned. It also has a lot to say about the politics of protest, at a time when people are being arrested for peaceful dissent against their governments. This Slavery features strikes and industrial action, collective bargaining and holding the ruthless capitalist bosses to account – hopefully we’ll begin to see some more of this, and it’ll become relevant in a new way!
Sophie: This Slavery is also radical in two directions at once – it points out the cruelty of systems within capitalism that keep working people precarious, and it also presents marriage within capitalism as one of the ways women are obliged to feed the monster. “We’re the slaves of the slaves, or the slaves of the bosses,” says Hester, “so long as we go on breeding children to become more masters and more slaves…” And her sister Rachel wants to know what the difference is between manual labour by the hour, and what we would now call ‘survival sex work’. These ideas were incredibly edgy when they appeared in This Slavery in 1925, and they still have bite today. As for Rachel’s speeches calling for a socialist revolution – I think they would equally impress Robert Tressell then, or Chris Smalls today.
SMH: So, with This Slavery hitting bookshop shelves, what do you hope your readers will take away from it? And what’s next in store for the Rickard Sisters?
Scarlett: We’re really excited for people to read This Slavery and to spend time in the world of Rachel and Hester Martin – and their dog Jip, of course! We hope it will be immersive, that it’ll make readers feel intimate with the locations and the characters and the time in which it’s all taking place. And that it fires people up to stand up to injustice, to love who they want to, to look after their communities, to enjoy nature and art, to spend time with their grandma and their dog, and read plenty of Marx!
Sophie: Yes, all of that – plus the value of local organising and solidarity, and inspire a little holiday to Burnley perhaps? Readers will recognise so much that is familiar to the way things work today, not least the strength of people in the face of injustice. I know we keep making ‘political’ books, but they are also funny and romantic and full of twists and turns. We hope our readers enjoy themselves. And what’s next? Well, it takes a long time to make a graphic novel, and we can’t promise anything yet, but we may be going to catapult forward several decades for our next story…
Thank you for reading! This Slavery is out today in the UK, and will launch in North America on October 7th!
Thank you all for your steadfast support in what is already proving to be a most unpredictable year! Amidst all this chaos, now comes a moment of clarity (or at least something to look forward to): our list for Autumn 2025!
This Slavery by Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, adapted by Scarlett & Sophie Rickard.
My Dad Fights Demons! by Bobby Joseph and Abbigayle Birch.
Bone Broth by Alex Taylor.
The Most Amazing Saturday Morning Rubbish Club by Bill Tuckey and Francisco de la Mora.
You likely already know the Rickard Sisters for their previous graphic novel adaptations of literary classics No Surrender and The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. This year they are reviving This Slavery by feminist trailblazer Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, the first female working-class novelist to be published in Britain.
When the Lancashire cotton-mill that employs them burns to the ground, sisters Rachel and Hester Martin are each forced to find their own way to survive in the harsh realities of pre-war industrial Britain. The contrasting paths they take in their quest for domestic autonomy form a subtly strident allegory of the all but insurmountable barriers of class and gender that then enslaved half the population.
Part compelling narrative epic, part fiery Marxist-feminist polemic, this faithful, sumptuous, and revelatory adaptation by the award-winning Rickard Sisters reclaims a lost classic by holding it up as a mirror to our own hard times, and as a gloriously flaming beacon to future communities to offer strength, hope, and dignity.
Of No Surrender, Comics Review wrote: “Powerful, enraging, engaging and even occasionally funny, this never-more-timely tale of the force of the disenfranchised with their backs to the wall and ready to fight is supremely readable and should be compulsory viewing for all.”
OUT IN UK: 9th SEPTEMBER! 🇬🇧 OUT IN NORTH AMERICA: 11th SEPTEMBER! 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇲
UK Comics Laureate Bobby Joseph and breakout illustrator Abbigayle Bircham have teamed up to create SelfMadeHero's next Young Adult graphic novel, My Dad Fights Demons!
Welcome to Rye’s world: their stepdad hates them, their mother ignores them, and they’re stuck in a dead-end relationship. To make matters worse, their world is turned upside down one day with the return of their father, the Magical Mr Mantrikz, self-styled “greatest sorcerer in the world”, and Rye now has to spend their weekends with this rude, pushy, and frankly ridiculous wizard. And that was never going to work – especially when magic is involved…
This is Bobby Joseph's first graphic novel since Scotland Yardie (Knockabout Comics, 2017). Abbigayle Bircham was a LICAF Breakout Initiative participant and has been published under Soaring Penguin Press and the Rat Pack Collective.
OUT IN UK: 25th SEPTEMBER! 🇬🇧 OUT IN NORTH AMERICA: 30th SEPTEMBER! 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇲
Winner of the 2023 First Graphic Novel Award, Gen Z Hannibal tale Bone Broth is up-and-coming artist Alex Taylor's debut title.
In this coming-of-age queer thriller, the young transmasculine Ash begins his transition into adult life by landing his first job at a ramen-noodle shop in London, prepping the bone broth. But as the financial landscape shifts under Ash’s feet, and after months of bonding with a series of challenging co-workers, everything suddenly stops dead. Literally. At a drunken staff party, Ash’s bullying boss turns up dead, and everyone’s been taking selfies with the corpse. Good thing Ash has already spent a year on the job…
OUT IN UK: 23rd OCTOBER! 🇬🇧 OUT IN NORTH AMERICA: 28th OCTOBER! 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇲
The Most Amazing Saturday Morning Rubbish Club is a unique collaboration between author (and veteran DJ/broadcaster) Bill Tuckey and illustrator Francisco de la Mora, both of whom are parents of SEND children. SelfMadeHero readers may know de la Mora from the Art Masters titles Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
This graphic novel puts the lived experience of SEND children at centre-stage. Its inspirational storyline appealing to parents and children, tells how three very different kids, each with their different needs and subject to the same low expectations, come to share their own unique skills to achieve their goals. These spirited characters meet in the park and unite to establish a litter-picking scheme. Touching, funny, and beautiful, this unique collaboration is indeed… most amazing.
"It’s a wonderful tribute to both her personal life and her art." — Morning Star on Frida Kahlo: Her Life, Her Work, Her Home.
OUT IN UK: 20th NOVEMBER! 🇬🇧 OUT IN NORTH AMERICA: 25th NOVEMBER! 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇲
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Thank you all again for your continued readership! We look forward to sharing more details about these titles soon!
Below you'll find an article by Reinhard Kleist written in Spring 2023 at the time of publication for STARMAN: Bowie's Stardust Years, reshared here to whet your appetite for the May 2025 publication of the concluding part: LOW: Bowie's Berlin Years!
Dear readers,
“David Bowie saved my life”: I wrote that sentence in the list of thanks at the end of STARMAN, my graphic novel about Bowie, because it has twice been true. I was a kid of about eight or nine when I first heard “Ashes to Ashes” on the radio, and was transfixed. Though I didn’t understand the lyrics, the music made me somehow afraid and fascinated at the same time. The singer later appeared in teen magazines like Bravo, and in music videos on the TV and… I was smitten! Not only was he extremely good-looking, he was also, it seemed to me, in some mystical way, announcing the presence of another world that someday could be mine; that it was possible for me to leave behind the fenced-off environment of my little village outside Cologne and become, quite simply, somebody else. That was the first time Bowie saved my life. And, as I later found out, the lives of so many others.
Over the last few years I have written a number of graphic biographies about sporting champions (the boxers Emile Griffith and Hertzko Haft and the athlete Samia Yusuf Omar), the revolutionary Fidel Castro, and even a couple of musicians (Johnny Cash and Nick Cave). But creating something about Bowie has always been a long-lasting dream. I had to wait for the right moment to finally grasp how to convey a character with so many different aspects to him: where to lay the focus, what biographical span to include, and how to portray him, not just from my perspective of loving admiration, but also to include his many dark sides, and those of his personas.
One recurring theme in particular suddenly emerged: I call it “the abandoned mission” – a mission to save the world, and everyone in it, that somehow ends up in the gutter. The arc of that storyline leaves its traces in Bowie’s songs (“Space Oddity”, “Ashes to Ashes”), films (The Man Who Fell to Earth), and above all in his Ziggy Stardust album. That masterpiece seems to me a deeply dark portrayal of everything it means to be a “rockstar” – a hero who lives and fulfils the dreams of so many, and shows them the way to the top. But as Bowie was absolutely aware, stardom is closely aligned to the abyss.
So I started work on this first book – with the second already germinating in my mind, which will address some of the questions left hanging at the end of the first. At least, I hope it will. In STARMAN, I focus on how Bowie became Ziggy, and how that character increasingly engulfs his creator – before, of course, having to be killed off on stage, before an unsuspecting audience, for Bowie to become Bowie again. He will go on to lose himself again in the USA, and resurrect his career in what is now my hometown: Berlin…
But that is a theme for LOW: Bowie’s Berlin Years. As for STARMAN, it was enormous fun to draw the crazy costumes and haircuts of Bowie’s 1970s heyday, and the book looks as good as it does thanks in part to an amazing designer called Thomas Gilke, who chose a colour palette I would have never even dreamed of, but which perfectly captures the life and spirit of the Ziggy Stardust performances. I used a vast amount of archive material that helped me find images, but somehow the most important footage was of the audience and their reaction to what was happening on stage, which became a huge part of the finished book. They were so happy – dancing and screaming, laughing and crying, dressing up as Ziggy, living the moment – and not a smartphone in sight! How I wish I’d been there.
The second time David Bowie saved my life was during my work on this book. We all suffered from the worldwide impact of the Covid pandemic, but I must confess that it hit me hard. So many aspects of my life seemed to be going down the drain, and I struggled to either fix them or know where to turn. So instead I focused on drawing Bowie, and as I did so, it appeared that the work itself extended a helping hand to stave off the depression forming around me. So there he was again for me: the trickster messiah from outer space with the crazy hair, telling of an inner world of salvation and potential. And then… he disappeared. Because in the end it is only us who can save ourselves (though possibly with a little helping hand from a friend).
So thank you, David Bowie – and thank you for reading this. Reinhard Kleist, 2023Thank you from us, as well, for joining in on this little look back through time to the release of STARMAN, two years ago!
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Thank you from us, as well, for joining in on this little look back through time to the release of STARMAN, two years ago!
LOW: Bowie's Berlin Years is set for release on May 22nd in the United Kingdom, and July 8th in North America!
In association with Comica and VIP Brands, join us at The Century Club in Soho on May 30th for a special launch event and talk by Reinhard Kleist! Tickets here: https://centuryclub.co.uk/bowie_celebration/
Or, catch Reinhard signing copies of LOW at Gosh! Comics on May 31st between 1 and 2pm!
Today marks the UK release of Kusama: Polka Dot Queen, the brand-new graphic biography of the visionary modern artist Yayoi Kusama!
To mark the occasion, we decided to ask author-artist Simon Elliott some questions about how this book came to be, and why he chose Yayoi Kusama as the subject of his third graphic novel.
Simon Elliott is criminal barrister, artist, and lover of all things colourful. As a self-taught graphic novelist, his two previous works are Hockney: A Graphic Life (Frances Lincoln, 2023) and Vincent: A Graphic Biography (Frances Lincoln, 2024).
SelfMadeHero: You’ve spoken before about how you rediscovered a lifelong love of art and painting during lockdown. Since then, your work as a graphic novelist (separate from your work as a barrister) has focused on the lives of other artists. Did learning more about artists’ stories play a part in reviving your own passion for art?
Simon Elliott: Absolutely! I am such a fan of art and I am always curious about the person ‘behind the canvas’. I read a lot of artist biographies, and I am particularly drawn to stories of people who have managed to produce art often in the most difficult of situations – either because they grew up in modest circumstances and access to art/art education was limited (as with Hockney), or because mental health challenges were or are a part of their lives (as with van Gogh and Kusama) or because they faced religious and racial discrimination (as with Marc Chagall, my next project).
I suspect that lots of people took to art in lockdown as I did – I am always looking to art for inspiration and Hockney’s message at that time – ‘spring cannot be cancelled’ really resonated with me. I have been drawing every day since because it has become an essential part of my life. I don’t subscribe to the idea of the ‘tortured artist’ in that I don’t think that difficulty is a prerequisite for making (great) art, but I am a huge believer that we can all overcome certain difficulties through art. The fact that Hockney personally approved my first book is a source of constant inspiration.
SMH: David Hockney, then Vincent van Gogh, and now Yayoi Kusama. Why did you decide to return to a living, modern artist after dipping into the 19th century?
Simon: I am an art lover, not an art expert – so I am working my way through the artists whose work speaks to me the most. I like a fluid approach to art, so I am more interested in themes than artistic periods, dates , schools and so on. I think that great art speaks to us with an immediacy and a sense of connection – but for me that can be as true of a painting from thousands of years ago as it is of a work that someone has just made, with the paint still wet.
SMH: Did telling the life story of Vincent van Gogh, who famously suffered from mental ill health, also inspire you to tell Kusama’s story as well? Did you bring any lessons learned from van Gogh with you to Kusama?
Simon: I started drawing graphic novels because I connect to stories through pictures and so it just seemed a very natural fit. I try to make work in a way that conveys the style and the vibe of the artist whose story I am telling. If I do a good job, then the book should be an artistic conversation between my style and the subject’s style. I have grown in confidence since my van Gogh book, so hopefully this work will feel like a progression. I am always building on the styles, techniques and the technical iPad stuff, which I am learning as I go along.
SMH: As a self-taught graphic novelist, did you encounter any unique challenges when it came to capturing and adapting Kusama’s artistic style into this book?
Simon: I wanted two distinct styles in the Kusama book – one that gives a grounding in reality, and one designed to convey what I think of as ‘Kusama vision.’ I understand that Kusama doesn’t do any drafting, she just makes her beautiful work based on her incredible artistic skills, abilities and instincts. In order to reflect that, I set myself the challenge of only drawing the ‘Kusama vision’ pages once. There was no drafting, no redrawing and no editing as I went along. Nobody would ever know that, but I hope that something of the energy and rawness of Kusama’s process is conveyed.
SMH: What was your relationship with Kusama’s works and story before tackling this project? During the different stages of production, did you discover or rediscover anything about her life or her art that surprised you?
Simon: I am a huge Kusama fan. I have travelled all over the world to see her exhibitions, and I think one of the greatest pleasures of life is a few minutes spent in one of her Infinity Mirror Rooms. For me, the best bit about making books about artists is discovering work by them that I haven’t yet seen. In Kusama’s case, that was a lot of the work from her childhood and early years in Japan. She has always been hugely prolific (50 – 100 new works a day, at certain times) and seeing those works and understanding the roots of a lot of her key themes and motifs was seriously fascinating and fun.
I knew lots about her later life, but not so much about her childhood and so I decided to make a large portion of the book the origin story that people may not know so well, or at all. I think what surprised me the most was how talented she was even at a very young age. Her ability, scale and ambitions may have grown – but the spark of genius was always very clearly there.
SMH: Kusama is a world-famous, legendary artist. But, is there anything that you want people to learn about her from this book that they might not know or fully understand?
Simon: I like the line about Ginger Rogers being more impressive because she did everything that Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in heels. I think Kusama is rather like that. She was a woman determined to set her own path within a very traditional, patriarchal Japanese society, she dealt with serious abuse, she fought against a lack of representation and recognition for female artists, she faced prejudice in a post-WWII America which was still hostile to Japan, and overcame so many other challenges. For those familiar with her story, I hope that this book represents a unique way of telling it – and for those who don’t know about her life, I hope that it gives a flavour of just how pioneering, visionary and brave the woman behind the polka dots has been throughout her long life.
SMH: And finally, as for yourself, what part of Yayoi Kusama’s story has stayed with you the most since finishing Polka Dot Queen? What will you be taking with you into future projects, or even just into your artistic life?
Simon: In Kusama’s words, she followed the thread of art and somehow discovered a path that would allow her to live. I think that art can transcend politics and some of the problems of the world and be an inspiration – and that we can all overcome certain things through making art (or through some other kind of personal expression). I find her story incredibly inspirational. For me, it’s all about picking up the pencil and making something. She did it because she felt an irresistible urge to create – and I bet that anyone who follows her example will feel the incredible benefits of just making something.
Thank you for reading! Kusama: Polka Dot Queen is out today in the UK, and will launch in North America on May 20th!
