The official Grandville and Grandville: Mon Amour homepage
Tuesday June 26th 2012: and here, for your viewing pleasure (and, might I add - a world exclusive!) Grandville: Bête Noire page 4!
We'll be publishing 1 new page of Grandville: Bête Noire per month between now and when it is published - which should be just before Christmas
Grandville Bête Noire Progress report
Bryan tells me (June 6th 2012) that he has now finished all the pencils and inks for Grandville: Bête Noire and has done about a quarter of the colouring.
I've also created a link to pre-order Grandville: Bête Noir
This is the official home on the web for Bryan Talbot's new graphic novel Grandville and it's sequel Grandville: Mon Amour published on November 20th 2010.
Grandville is now available as a digital comic from Dark Horse.
The third book in the series; Grandville: Bête Noire is currently (July 23rd 2011) being worked on by Bryan. Buy Grandville from Amazon in the UK
Also for your viewing pleasure is the first page of Grandville: Bête Noire.
Reviews of Grandville Mon Amour:
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My own review of Grandville: Mon Amour: "Overall I give this an unhesitating recommendation: this is the kind of comic you want to buy for other people to introduce them to our beloved medium at the top of it's game"
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The Guardian reviews Grandville: Mon Amour: "he brings a rare subtlety, even beauty, to his medium. His drawing is first class and his dialogue superb, adding credibility to his characterisation while moving the story along at a laconic lick."
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DownTheTubes.net review: "With a range of new and fascinating characters and a mix of Holmesian deduction, knowing humour and edge of the seat action, Grandville Mon Amour continues the vein of high-octane adventure begun in the first volume. Can even LeBrock escape the past or do heroes have feet of clay?"
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TheBookBag.co.uk review: "The thriller here is great - proving yet again Talbot could have been a wordsmith alone if he hadn't turned out so great on the drawing board - and the pace, energy and darkness of the plotting are all exemplary."
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TheBookTrust.co.uk review: "The series is a great idea and the book is brilliant, sumptuously drawn and exceedingly pleasing in its pay-offs, of violent set pieces, deductions, investigations, twists and chase sequences. The pace never relents."
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TheBleedingCool.com review: "But it’s the melting pot of all this that works. A bizarre world full of humanoid animals that give every page, every panel a rich untold history. I’m left with far more questions than answers, but this is a thriller which never takes the easy or predictable way out ."
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The Hi-Ex review: "You know, it would have been enough if the story was merely passable. This is because the art is somewhere on the other side of exquisite."
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PaulGravett.com: "This welcome return trip to the weird and wonderful world of Grandville had me in its grip from page one and wouldn’t let me go."
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The Comic Fanzine: "the sense of place is superb, steampunk touches flavouring the Victorian look, everywhere from streets to railway stations to brothels coming alive. Bryan is of course a comics veteran by now, and his storytelling is impeccable, controlling pace with immense skill and care, telling us nearly everything with the visuals."
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The Independent: "Talbot plays with colour, angle and perspective just as gleefully as with the facts of history. The look of Belle Epoque Paris merges with the naughty-nineties London of Whistler, Wilde and Conan Doyle."
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Crikey: "The story is fast, unrelenting, dark, moving and funny. Make that hilarious. The artwork alone proves yet again why Talbot is one of England's finest storytellers and his dialogue is sharp and witty."
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Bookmunch: "Talbot is so deft at weaving together his skein of plots, and small hints and tips litter the book pointing out how things will go (the background detail littered with joys and pleasures that anoint second and third readings of the book and indeed second and third readings of the first Grandville book too), that you hardly notice how efficiently you are taken from plot twist to revelation to plot twist to revelation. "
Also see Matthew Rees talk about Bryan's talk "Grandville and the Anthropomorphic Tradition continues"
Saturday October 9th 2010: Jordan Smith has now uploaded the video trailer for Grandville: Mon Amour!
Thursday August 26th 2010: those nice people over at Comic Book Resources just published a new interview with Bryan about Grandville: Mon Amour.
Thursday June 24th: the first 6 pages of Grandville: Mon Amour have been released by Bryan as a preview! Click on the preview of page 1 on the left there to see all 6 pages: failing that, click here for page 1 of Grandville Mon Amour; page 2; page 3; page 4; page 5 and page 6.
Sunday June 6th 2010: this is a total exclusive: no other site on the net has this yet - mainly cos' Bryan's not released it to anyone else! the cover to Grandville Mon Amour!
Tweet This!
Breaking news! Saturday May 29th 2010: Vote for Grandville in the Eagle Awards! This year's Eagle Award nominations have been announced and Grandville is nominated for Favourite Graphic Novel. Vote for Grandville as Favourite Graphic Novel on the Eagle Awards site. We'd be very grateful for your support!
Bryan's publishers - Jonathon Cape - have just published the catalogue entry for the Grandville sequel: Grandville Mon Amour:
The Badger is back! Set three weeks after the finale of Grandville, Grandville Mon Amour pits Detective Inspector Archie LeBrock of Scotland Yard against an old adversary and ruthless urban guerrilla, Edward “Mad Dog” Mastock, - a psychotic serial killer whose shocking escape from his execution by guillotine at the Tower of London begins this fast-paced, Hitchcockian steampunk thriller.
LeBrock, still racked by remorse for his failure to prevent the death of “the Divine Sarah” and working outside the law after resigning his post following a blazing row with his superior officer, embarks on a quest to redeem himself by tracking down Mastock and bringing to an end his horrific murder spree. Aided by his adjunct and old friend, Detective Roderick Ratzi, he follows the trail of carnage to Paris.
Otherwise known as Grandville, it’s the largest city in a world dominated by France, a city used to violence following the years of terrorist bombings by the extreme fanatic wing of the British resistance during the occupation, the notorious Angry Brigade, of which Mastock was the sadistic leading light. With his customary tenacity, LeBrock stalks his prey through a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, an underclass of humans and automaton robots where advanced steam technology powers everything from hansom cabs to iron flying machines. It’s a 
trail that leads to the demimonde of Parisian prostitution and an atrocity perpetrated twenty-three years ago. With a range of new and fascinating characters and a mix of Holmesian deduction, knowing humour and edge of the seat action, Grandville Mon Amour continues the vein of high-octane adventure begun in the first volume. Can even LeBrock escape the past or do heroes have feet of clay? Follow the badger!
Bryan is doing his Grandville presentation and discussing graphic novels at the Glasgow Book Festival, Aye Write! on Friday March 12th 2010 at 19.30-21.00 with illustrated presentations by Denise Mina and Bryan Talbot and chaired by Stuart Kelly: address: The Mitchell Library, North Street, Glasgow, G3 7DN Phone: 0141 287 2929Admission £7/£6
On the 27th and 28th March he will be signing the French edition of Grandville at the Paris Book Fair, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles at the Bragelonne / MiLady booth.
Even more breaking news about the Grandville sequel! (added December 15th 2009) Bryan is currently working on a second Detective Inspector LeBrock book, GRANDVILLE MON AMOUR. If these first titles do well, he has plans for atleast three more. The story of Grandville Mon Amour is set three weeks after the events in the first book and concerns LeBrock's hunt for an insane serial killer, an old adversary and deadly urban guerrilla. Bryan has pencilled and lettered all 96 pages and is currently working on the inks. It should see publication either late 2010 or early 2011. Sample pages will be forthcoming. Meanwhile, here's an exclusive preview of the very first page, which, as you can see, Bryan has also coloured for us.
Breaking news about the Grandville sequel! - The second Grandville book, Grandville Mon Amour, will be published by Jonathan Cape and Dark Horse probably early 2010, perhaps earlier if Bryan gets his finger out and stops attending all those foreign comic festivals! [His words - not mine!] It is fully scripted and the first sixty pages are already pencilled and lettered. Depending upon how these first two books are received, Bryan will do a further three LeBrock books.
We have a lot of Grandville related goodies here: there is:
- the afterword to the French edition of Grandville published in English.
- an entire image gallery of previews of the comic
- A review of Grandville
- A review of Grandville from the nice people at Bookmunch. Do you think they liked it?!
- Another Grandville review from the Metro newspaper.
- Bookmunch also reviewed Grandville - using a positive fountain of hyperbole.
- The Times no less also reviewed Grandville, calling it "utterly delightful" and saying " throughout, the glossy gorgeousness fills your eyes".
- An interview with Bryan by Benjamin Berton for a French website, translated into English.
Read the first review of Grandville!
Interviews with Bryan on Grandville:
- SteamPunk magazine: Bryan Talbot on Bastable, Brass Goggles and badgers.
- Creating an anthropomorphic thriller in that ol' steampunk style: an interview over at Comics Bulletin
- The Grandville Tour: talking to Bryan Talbot: an interview at Newsarama
- Also see the official Dark Horse Grandville homepage.
The Grandville launch party
Grandville was officially launched at the Cartoon Museum on Monday September 28th 2009; here's some photos from the event! Many people from the world of comics were in attendance, such as Oscar Zarate, Posy Simmonds, Joe Sacco, Garen Ewing, Mike Lake, Mark Stafford, Steve Marchant and Paul Peart. Also there was Bryan's first publisher, Lee Harris, the man who published Brainstorm Comics.
Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe at the Grandville launch party. (thanks to Molly Brown for the pic)
Bryan signing Grandville for more fans at the launch party (thanks to Molly Brown for the pic)
Also check out Molly's work on her website.
Bryan, Mary and Molly
Bryan with Mary and Molly Brown
Oscar, Mary and Roz
Artist Oscar Zarate, next to Bryan's wife Mary at the opening speech. In the background, wearing the black hat, is writer Roz Kaveny.
Rowland Emett machine
The Cartoon Museum is currently hosting an exhibition of the machines of Rowland Emett. Here's one in the foreground.
Also see Garen Ewing's review of the launch party.
Grandville preview image gallery
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Detective
Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard
Grandville is an anthropomorphic steampunk detective-thriller. This is the protagonist, Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard.
