Preview: More Gaffney And Berry With ‘Rivers’: Three Ordinary Weirdos, One Recurring Dream

First brought together on The Three Rooms in Valerie’s Head, Dan Berry and David Gaffney return in 2021 for what promises to be another great book, something whimsical and ambitious, a “portrait of human connection in the age of digital fragmentation’ starring ‘three ordinary weirdos, one recurring dream”.

Back in 2018, I described Gaffney and Berry’s first book together, The Three Rooms in Valerie’s Head, as a “darkly beautiful meditation on obsession and memory” and a “wonderfully offbeat, dark comedic delight”.

Berry’s artwork has always been great to see, and I’ve seen it for many years in the British scene, fabulous use of a loose line and wonderful colour sense, somewhere in the realm of Quentin Blake, so getting any new work from him is great news. But the fact that we’re getting another graphic novel from Berry AND Gaffney is a real cause for celebration.

It’s a book that’s weaving together multiple storylines, including extracts from Revenge of the Ghoulers, the comic book made by one of the characters from Rivers. And we’re promised that we’ll read “a quirky examination of how events from the past can bind people together forever, and a surprising reunion between people who’ve never met”. Yep, that sounds rather superb to me.

Here’s how the PR describes Rivers… it sounds exactly the sort of thing I’m going to really enjoy…

“Gideon is a lonely I.T. developer, obsessed by a comic book from childhood called Revenge of the Ghoulors, and secretly in love with his co-worker Lisa. Heidi works at home in her pyjamas, makes a lot of soup, and wishes she had time for friends. Peter is a 56-year-old divorcee who delivers classic cars, has a built-in toaster, and thinks a lot about the past.

These three people seem unconnected, yet they share something — they each have the same recurring dream. And when a new web service is introduced that helps people share their dreams, what will happen when the three of them find out about each other? Just what is it that links these three lonely souls?”

Rivers by David Gaffney & Dan Berry is a 176-page full-colour graphic novel released from Top Shelf in Spring/Summer 2021.