Dark & Golden Books Release Material From ‘Savage Pencil’, Peter Milligan, And Brett Ewins

Two new books from Dark & Golden Books, publishers of fine strangeness indeed – these two include titans of Brit comics, Savage Pencil, Peter Milligan, and Brett Ewins.

Dark & Golden have two new books out, just in time for this weeks’ Thought Bubble, both of them collecting previously uncollected, much loved, wonders from the history of alternative Brit comics. It’s two comics that you really should do yourselves a favour and pick up from their shop…

First, we have Rockers and Rappers, a collection of Savage Pencil’s illustrations from music papers from the 80’s and 90’s. Limited to just 100 copies, it’s a 24-page bit of brilliance from an artist that’s such a huge part of Brit alt-comics, or whatever you want to call them, from the time. And always quite incredible to see…

“Twenty-four images that defined the musical space of an era, accompanied by Savage Pencil’s own notes on each. Immaculately designed by the artist to resemble a zine of the period, and beautifully Riso printed by Pagemasters, Rockers and Rappers is an indispensable record of an era through the incredible lens of Savage Pencil’s always stunning art.

Savage Pencil is an underground cartoonist, artist, writer, musician, and amateur magician, and has been conjuring up images since 1977. Beginning with his “Rock ‘N’ Roll Zoo” strip for 1970s music paper Sounds, his wild work has been entwined throughout the music press as well as the worlds of comics and music itself. Along with all this, Savage Pencil has also designed album covers, T-shirts, posters and other merchandise for bands including Sonic Youth, Big Black, The Fall, Sunn O))) and Coil.”

But that’s not all… not content with bringing Savage Pencil’s work back to you, Dark & Golden Books are also giving you 2 x Brett Ewins and Peter Milligan, a new collection of a pair of stories by, oh take a wild guess, Peter Milligan and Brett Ewins, 1980’s Rooney’s Lay and their 1991 adaptation of Kafka’s In The Penal Colony.

These have been out of print since their original publication and it’s about damn time someone brought them back, so well done by D&G.

“In 1980’s Rooney’s Lay, one of their first collaborations, the space age and sleaze collide in newly wild ways, while in 1991’s adaptation of Kafka’s In The Penal Colony, the duo elevate and interrogate the original text, teasing meanings from the fabric of the story. The comic also features new introductions to each story and a brief interview with Milligan, as well as a timeline of the creators’ work together.
Edited by Tom Oldham and Douglas Noble, and designed by Douglas Noble.

Rooney’s Lay has been scanned and restored from its one appearance in 1980’s Magnetic Fieldz 2. In the Penal Colony has been newly scanned from the original art.”

Dark & Golden are Douglas Noble, of the wonderful Strip For Me series of comics (last reviewed by me here), a maker of fabulously complex, confusing, brilliant comics himself, and Tom Oldham.

Dark & Golden Books are all about, according to themselves:

“Dark & Golden Books are dedicated to charting a less travelled course through the history of British comics, finding and celebrating mislaid and forgotten classics for the audience of today in new editions.”

And based on the first five releases, they’re doing a fine, fine job of that. In addition to the two coming out, they’ve already collected together a few lost wonders of Brit comics, including the sold-out Mek Memoirs by Kevin O’Neill and Jack Adrian, Shuk & Doode by Simon Harrison and Tim Crowfoot, and It May Never Happen by Kevin Woodcock.

You can find them at Thought Bubble this weekend and you can buy their wares from their shop here.