Coming From Bryan Talbot: ‘The Casebook Of Stamford Hawksmoor’
by Richard Bruton
The next Bryan Talbot book will be The Case of Stamford Hawksmoor, a prequel to his Grandville series, and Talbot’s Twitter has now shared images and the cover to the new book…
Yes, as announced on Talbot’s Twitter via James Robertson:
“The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor – a prequel to the Grandville series – is now at 95 pages out of 172 pages completed. And as a taste of what to expect, here is page 68 panel 1 pencils and page 68 panel 1 finished page – and as a bonus the front cover.”
Talbot’s Grandville series, consisting of five volumes, Grandville, Grandville Mon Amour, Grandville Bête Noire, Grandville Noel and Grandville Force Majeure, is a fabulous anthropomorphic tale. A steampunk noir detrective tale starring Detective Inspector Archibald LeBrock of Scotland Yard, a British anthropomorphic badger, whose investigations into a murder take him to Paris (Grandville in this alt-history version of the world where animals rule and humanity are treated as pets or slaves.
It’s a completely different thing from the sci-fi wonder that Talbot is best known for, the Luther Arkwright trilogy, but Grandville is every bit as expansive and inventive, as ambitious and enthralling. So having a prequel to LeBrock’s adventures, starring Hawksmoor as, I’d be guessing from the detailing on the cover, some form of Sherlock Holmesian Victorian detective, is something to be looking forward to.
More details as they’re released.
