Buy Bryan Talbot original artwork

Buy Bryan Talbot original artwork

This is the only place you can buy original Bryan Talbot artwork - except from Bryan in person at a convention.


The Legend of Luther Arkwright

The Legend of Luther Arkwright collates all details about Bryan's latest graphic novel.

The Legend of Luther Arkwright page collates all details about Bryan's latest graphic novel.


Heart of Empire - Directors Cut

Buy the Heart of Empire Directors Cut

 

This labour of love from Bryan and myself contains every single page of Heart of Empire in pencil, ink and final full colour format - as well as over 60,000 words of annotation, commentary and explanation from Bryan... - as well as the whole of the Adventures of Luther Arkwright!

 

 

Or see the Heart of Empire Directors Cut page for more details.


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social media

Follow the Bryan Talbot fanpage on FacebookJoin the Facebook group for Bryan Talbot fans for lots of discussions and special offers announced on Facebook first.

 

Follow the Bryan Talbot fanpage on TwitterThe Bryan Talbot fanpage is also on Twitter - so give us a follow and join in the conversation!

 

Bryan Talbot fanpage on InstagramWe are also on Instagram: give us a like and a follow.

 

The Bryan Talbot fanpage on RedditWe've also just launched a Bryan Talbot fanpage subreddit.

 


Bryan Talbot t-shirts


Also see the Bryan Talbot t-shirt shop! - we've got a vast array of Bryan's images on lots of different t-shirts, as well as other items like mugs and fine art prints: - but if there's anything else you'd like just let us know on Twitter or at the Facebook group.


The Grandville Annotations

The annotations for Grandville Force Majeure by Bryan Talbot

Bryan and myself have created a series of annotations for the Grandville graphic novel series, explaining references and homages to other works, how the pages are drawn, inked, coloured and put together.

All of the annotations are now complete and online for:

- Grandville

- Grandville Mon Amour

- Grandville Bête Noire

- Grandville Noël

- Grandville Force Majeure



This is the new version of the Bryan Talbot fanpage
But the whole of the original Bryan Talbot fanpage is still online.


Bryan's afterword to Nemesis

I enjoyed working on Nemesis. To be involved with the delightful steampunk (before the term was coined) madness of the Gothic Empire and the totalitarian insanity of Termight was challenging and fun. Challenging in that it was the first time I’d had to deal with a major comic company and meet the gruelling deadlines involved with working on a weekly strip, not to mention having to imagine and illustrate the script of an inventive genius. The fun was only in retrospect. If you’d asked me if it was fun at the time, perhaps in the small hours of the morning, deadline looming and unpaid bills waiting for the inevitably delayed cheques, I’d have rattled the chain that kept me bound Cratchett-like to the drawing board and told you to “naff off” in a voice not dissimilar to that of Ro-Jaws’

However, Pat Mills’ scripts were an absolute joy to work from. Always balanced on a knife-edge between drama and black humour, they were rich in characterisation, sub-plot and subliminal depths that are only hinted at in the dialogue. They evoked a wealth of images: pure eyeball kicks from Pat’s very visual imagination that, in a visual medium such as comics, are even more important than the words.

Torquemurder, though, was a radically different Nemesis story. It had a unique ambience - the mythic, apocalyptic ethos which pervaded the book – and a startling plot which, to be blunt, mainly involves a bunch of weirdos at the seaside having a chat. Pat’s scenario is fascinating, gripping and funny in turns and, I found, particularly effective in its manipulation of atmosphere. But the biggest change – one that Pat would later develop in Nemesis and other work – was in the story’s political stance.

There was always an underlying anti-rascist theme running through the Nemesis books. In Torquemurder, this is made explicit. Deviancy is a racial issue. Nemesis himself is coloured - he’s green, actually – a guerrilla freedom fighter battling interstellar racism. Four times Eagle Award winner for Britain’s favourite comic book villain, Tomas de Torquemada is the ultimate fascist.

Torquemada represents Order: his tyrannical oppression of Termight and xenophobic crusade against all alien races is in direct opposition to the unbridled deviancy of Nemesis, who symbolises Anarchy. One of the recurring symbols of Termight iconography used by Kevin O’Neill in the earlier stories was a straight arrow, Michael Moorcock’s symbol of Order. Hence I gave Nemesis a badge bearing Moorcock’s symbol of Chaos, a circle radiating arrows.

Yes, these issues have always been present in the stories but in Torquemurder, the racism takes centre stage. From the gloriously hypocritical Arch-bigot of Necropolis (this, written during the height of Apartheid) and his hilarious tirade against “freckled pipil” using standard phrases used to stir up racial hatred, to Torquemada’s astounding monologue wherein he rants “You’re all white men now!”, the strip bares its satirical teeth. For “deviants” read “bleks” - and note that Torque’s slogan “ Never Forgive! Never Forget! Never for Fun!” intentionally repeats the initials NF. The racist National Front party were in their heyday back then and the far right was in power under the iron hand of Prime Minister Thatcher. Today, of course, we have the NF’s successor, the asinine British National Party, the current forebears of the future Torquemada genes.

And if you think Torquemada is a bit extreme, a little unbelievable perhaps, just take a look at General John M Chivington who makes his appearance at the end of the story. This man actually existed. The massacre at Sand Creek happened as portrayed. The excerpts from Lieutenant Connors’ report are verbatim and, even more chilling, Chivington’s speech balloons all contain direct quotes from this execrable crackpot. The sad thing is that the spirit of Torquemada, Chivington and Hitler is still alive today.

Nemesis forever.

Credo!

Bryan Talbot
Sunderland July 2007

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If this is the first page of the site you've landed on then also check out: the "You Are Torquemada" flash game that a fellow fan wrote. The features homepage is where we've collated all of the text-based stuff on the site and the homepage is where all of the latest updates are signposted.