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Launch Party: Nelson
This November, a 54-strong army of British comics creators launch Nelson, an experimental, collaborative, biography of a girl called Nel… London, 1968. A daughter is born to Jim and Rita Baker. Her name is Nel. This is her story, told in yearly snapshots. Each chapter records the events of a single day, weaving one continuous ribbon of pictures and text that takes us on a 43- year journey from Nel Baker’s birth to 2011. The cream of the UK comics community each take a day in her life, beginning with her birth in 1968, and wing their way through her biography in a sort of art relay race, making it up as they go along, much like the surrealists’ exquisite corpse. “The idea came from wanting to do something that reflected the variety and talent in UK comics and also do something unique with the anthology format that created a genuine cover-to-cover read,” said editor Rob Davis (Don Quixote). “The core Nelson idea of using an anthology format to tell a complete story is something I’ve wanted to do for years, it comes from a love of the British anthology titles I grew up with and a novelistic ambition to make all the stories connect.”
Everyone is involved in this unprecedented experiment helmed by Davis and his co-editor Woodrow Phoenix (Rumble Strip). There are people from The Beano, The Dandy, MAD Magazine, children’s books, indie and small press comics, webcomics, 2000AD, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse. Just look at this list: Paul Grist, Rob Davis, Woodrow Phoenix, Ellen Lindner, Jamie Smart, Gary Northfield, Sarah McIntyre, Suzy Varty, Sean Longcroft, Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, Luke Pearson, Paul Harrison-Davies, Katie Green, Paul Peart-Smith, Glyn Dillon, I.N.J.Culbard, John Allison, Philip Bond, D’Israeli, Simone Lia, Darryl Cunningham, Jonathan Edwards, Ade Salmon, Kate Charlesworth, Warren Pleece, Kristyna Baczynski, Harvey James, Rian Hughes, Sean Phillips & Pete Doree, Kate Brown, Simon Gane, Jon McNaught, Adam Cadwell, Faz Choudhury, JAKe, Jeremy Day, Dan McDaid, Roger Langridge, Will Morris, Dave Shelton, Carol Swain, Hunt Emerson, Duncan Fegredo, Philippa Rice, Josceline Fenton, Garen Ewing, Tom Humberstone , Dan Berry, Alice Duke, Posy Simmonds, Laura Howell, Andi Watson and Dave Taylor.
To celebrate the release of this ambitious project from Blank Slate Books featuring dozens of Nelson artists are being let loose in the Gosh! shop with pens and paint. They’ll be making their mark on the windows over the space of five days (20th - 25th of November), mirroring the relay race that led to the book’s birth… and then on 25 November, Gosh! host the signing, exhibition opening and launch party with guests including Roger Langridge, Rian Hughes, Sarah McIntyre, Woodrow Phoenix, Rob Davis and a host of other Nelsonists, with a Gosh! exclusive bookplate editions available on the night featuring art by Frank Quitely (Batman & Robin) signed and numbered by the man himself. More…
Tickets: Free
Where: Gosh! Comics, 1 Berwick Street, Soho W1F 0DR
When: Friday, November 25, 2011 - from 6pm
