Keith Page brings Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May to comics

The critically acclaimed cult detectives Bryant & May created by Christopher Fowler are the stars of ten deranged novels that explore London’s most arcane mysteries, from its hidden rivers to its secret societies. And now, thanks to PS Artbooks and artist Keith Page, they’ve come to comics!

Christopher Fowler, a lifelong fan of graphic novels, has teamed with legendary Thunderbirds and Commando artist Keith Page to create a sumptuous, stunningly coloured annual of excitement containing a brand-new full-length adventure, a 1960s-set Untold Story, galleries, alternative full-page covers and trivia.

Due to be published for January 2013 The Casebook of Bryant & May centres on the little-known Peculiar Crimes Unit, based in London’s King’s Cross, which specialises in dealing with mysteries that Scotland Yard would rather not know about. A deformed creature haunting a West End theatre, a phantom highwayman, mysterious goings-on in the tube network. A London pub which apparently vanishes, an intricate Victorian machine still manipulating the events in the present day...

Things like this need a special type of policing, jobs for John May and Arthur Bryant together with their odd bunch of misfit assistants. The fact that John and Arthur are the oldest detectives still working in London (some say since the 1940’s) only adds to the fun.

"Christopher's characters had always appealed to me," artist Keith Page tells downthetubes. "Although quite a difficult subject, I thought they would lend themselves to a graphic novel if treated in the right manner. Chris had put a few of my drawings of the pair on his entertaining blog and last year he decided that the time was right to have a go at a full graphic novel. Which I jumped at, as you might imagine."

Chris thought that an adaptation of one of the novels wouldn’t be quite the right approach. Instead he came up with a greatly revised treatment of part of one of his earlier books, Soho Black, which had featured John and Arthur in a minor role.

"We also took the opportunity to portray a London which is not quite the present day one," Keith reveals - something he's tackled before in his wonderful Charlotte Corday series published by Timebomb Comics and Print Media Productions.

"There are touches of Ealing comedies and other 1950’s ephemera, although all the settings are real and required either site visits or use of Google Earth Streetview for accuracy," he explains. "The Soho part of the story was already taken care of as I had done a lot of photography for another project.

"I decided to use a pencil - and - watercolour technique, similar to that used on Charlotte Corday The Iron Moon graphic album to give a 'different' look. At the same time I had done a few paintings as 'alternative covers' for some of the novels. Chris wanted to include some text and ephemera items and I suggested that the project was now approaching something like a traditional 1960’s type annual. The publisher seemed taken with this idea, so Chris wrote an additional short story to give a total page run of 80 pages. For the second story, featuring a much younger John and Arthur in 1967, I used a 60’s Boy’s World/”Eagle type of technique of hand coloured black linework.

"A fascinating project to work on, quite difficult but fun," says Keith.

Along with this new graphic novel, there's good news for fans of the Bryant and May novels, which having achieved cult status, will continue.

"Bryant & May are set to return in the UK with two new novels, Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart and Bryant & Man and the Burning Man," says Chris. "So with the US getting back on schedule and the UK too, we’ll all be in synch again (although I have a feeling the UK will continue to publish first).

Along with the graphic novel arriving in January, it looks like a bumper time for the old fellas," he adds. "It’s just a pity TV companies have yet to commit to the series on account of competition from something called New Tricks which I have never watched.

"The new books will, I hope, raise the bar for the matchless duo, and I for one can’t wait to get started."

• The Casebook of Bryant & May - The Soho Devils goes on sale in January from P.S. Artbooks. More info: http://psartbooks.com/catalog/bryant-may-the-soho-devil.html. Limited to just 2000 copies and split across two editions, this book is available to order through either psartbooks.com or pspublishing.co.uk.

• SIGNED SLIPCASE EDITION: 300 dust jacketed copies in a full colour slipcase with exclusive art print signed by Christopher Fowler and Keith Page are also offered. ISBN: 978-1-84863-457-2

• Keith Page's blog is at: http://keithpageukcomicsartist.blogspot.co.uk

• Christopher Fowler's blog is at: www.christopherfowler.co.uk/blog/

 

Mine's A Paul Temple!

Crime novelist and detective Paul Temple made his first appearance on BBC Radio in 1938 and went on to appear in novels, film, television and a daily newspaper strip. Now, there's even a cocktail named after him...

Created by Francis Durbridge, Paul Temple inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic and the men wore cravats – a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard usually needed Temple’s help with his latest tricky case.

The Paul Temple newspaper strip, which appeared in the London Evening News, was published between 19 November 1951 and 1 May 1971 and was drawn variously by Alfred Sindall, Bill Bailey and John McNamara. On the continent, two short-lived comic-series by the Aachener Bildschriftenverlag and the Luna-Kriminalromane are rare collector's items. (More information and sample strips here).

MINE'S A PAUL TEMPLE... To celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the first Paul Temple radio series, Edward Viita, Manager of the Artesian Bar at London's prestigious Langham Hotel, has created a new cocktail: The Paul Temple, which will feature on the Bar's new autumn menu from October. The cocktail is whisky-based to reflect Paul Temple's drink of choice and is a variation of the classic whisky cocktail 'Blood and Sand', originally created for the 1922 film of the same name and reflective of the Paul Temple era. The Paul Temple • 30ml Scotch Whisky (for best results use a smooth slightly smoky scotch) • 20ml Dubonnet Rouge • 20ml Crème de Peche • 20ml White Peach Puree • 20ml Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice • Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass • Rub a short sprig of rosemary between your hands (to release the aromas) and lay it as a garnish over the drink

The Paul Temple radio serials proved so popular that their creator Francis Durbridge was inspired to write a series of novels featuring the character. On 13th November, BBC Audiobooks will release News of Paul Temple read by Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Merlin), in a story which centres on Temple meeting vivacious actress Iris Archer at a cocktail party. After agreeing to write a play for her, he is most surprised when she suddenly decides to pull out of the lead role days before the play is due to open. He is even more surprised when he glimpses her in the Scottish hotel where the Temples are holidaying – after she had told him that she was going to the South of France.

Does her sudden appearance have anything to do with the mysterious letter passed to Paul Temple by an excitable young man, with explicit instructions to deliver it to John Richmond? What does the enigmatic Doctor Steiner have to do with events? And, most importantly, who is operating under the codename Z4? It is up to Paul Temple to find out...

News of Paul Temple follows on the heels of the July release of Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery, a re-recording of the drama starring Crawford Logan and Gerda Stevenson, based on the scripts for the original production first broadcast in 1949.

The BBC Scotland Drama team tracked down the original Paul Temple scripts and went into meticulous detail to re-record Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery in an authentic vintage style. Producer Patrick Rayner explained that old pieces of recording kit, including period microphones were dug out and dusted down for a faithful recreation of the detective series and the team were able to retrieve period recordings of sound effects such as motorboats and the original incidental music to stay as true to the original dramas as possible.

In the story, the Temples enjoy the company of their fellow passengers on an ocena liner returning to England from America, only to find one of them dead the next morning – and when Paul and Steve get home to London, Sir Graham Forbes is waiting to plunge them into one of their most thrilling and dangerous adventures, the pursuit of a ruthless international gang of counterfeiters. As knives fly and bombs explode, the key to the puzzle seems to lie in a coin on the end of a watch-chain…

• Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery is available now. ISBN: 9781405678124
Duration 4 Hours on 4 CDs Download ISBN: 9781405608572

• News of Paul Temple will be published by BBC Audiobooks on 13th November 2008
ISBN: 9781405676960 Duration: 2 hours 15 minutes on 2 CDs
Download ISBN: 9781405679329

In Review: The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics

Editor: Paul Gravett
Publisher: Constance and Robinson

Considering crime comics as featured in this collection span some 80 years of the medium's history, I can't begin to imagine how hard it must have been for Paul Gravett, editor of The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics, to whittle his choices down to the excellent selection featured in this book.

Sandwiched between two great crime-inspired stories by Alan Moore ("Old Gangsters Never Die", drawn by the much-missed-from-comicdom Lloyd Thatcher - where is he now? - and "I Keep Coming Back" Oscar Zarate) are 22 more top tales. These feature the work of creators such as Neil Gaiman, Will Eisner, Max Allan Collins, and Mickey Spillaine, the latter at his nastiest with the truly hard boiled Mike Hammer, just one of a host of characters many will recognise such as The Spirit, Ms. Tree and Agent X-9.

Superbly restored, albeit for one unfortunate page transposition in the X-9 story, the choice of stories is a delight, from straight mystery with Bernie Kriegstein adapting an 87th Precinct Mystery, "Blind Man's Bluff", originally penned by Ed McBain, to the creeping horror of crime-does-not pay tales from Johnny Craig ("The Sewer") and Jack Cole ("Murder, Morphine and Me"). These veteran tales are neatly balance with modern stories from the likes of Paul Grist ("Kane: Rat in the House") and Gianluigi Gonano and Gianni De Luca ("Comissario Spada: The Street").

This is the kind of well put together, lovingly designed collection that not only delivers a great rad but leaves you wanting to track more from the creators featured. If crime comics are new to you but you fancy more than superhero fare, you'd be well advised to give this a try and find out what you've missed. If you are a crime comics fan, then The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics may well send you hunting for creators you'll discover here for the first time. Recommended.

• Buy Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics from amazon.com
• Buy Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics from amazon.co.uk
• View a selection of pages on The Times web site
• Read an interview with Paul Gravett about Mammoth Crime Comics

Crime comic articles by Paul Gravett on his web site
• Crime Comics: The Many Colours Of Noir
• Charles Burns: Body Horror In Black Ink
• Bernie Krigstein: The Right To Silence
• José Muñoz: 2007 Angoulême Grand Prix Winner
• Warren Pleece: Profile & Interview

Other Reviews
• Read a review of the book by Steve Holland on Bear Alley
• Read a review of the book on Crime Time
• Read a review on Gad Sir! Comics

Other Links
• Listen to an MP3 of "Old Gangsters Never Die"