Preview: Dark & Golden Books Announces New Books For Thought Bubble — Including Vintage Dave Gibbons
by Richard Bruton
Dark & Golden Books announce three new titles, featuring the underground work of Dave Gibbons, more cartoons of the great Kevin Woodcock, and a book of comic shop price stickers. Yes, you read that right.
With Thought Bubble convention right round the corner, there’s a load of new books making their debut … here’s just three of them, from Douglas Noble and Tom Oldham as Dark & Golden Books (presumably a play on “Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed” — either the short story by Ray Bradbury or the London comic shop of the name, the UK’s very first of its kind.)
Noble’s work is a fixture on the Brit comics scene, having made so many quite brilliant comics, ones that are equally fascinating and frustrating at times, but never less than worth a look if you want to see someone really pushing the medium in terms of storytelling. Whilst Tom Oldham is part of Breakdown Press and a manager at London’s excellent Gosh Comics.
So, it should come as no surprise that a publishing venture by the pair was always going to be an interesting thing. And so it’s proven, with Dark & Golden taking a micro-publishing route, putting out some fascinating works, including archive material from Kevin O’Neill and Simon Harrison, Savage Pencil, and Brett Ewins & Peter Milligan. They describe themselves as “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 high-quality editions.” Which pretty much covers it.
This latest trio of “mislaid and forgotten classics” leads off with Early Gigs – Underground Comics of Dave Gibbons, doing exactly what the title says, bringing together Gibbon’s work from 1970-1973…
“Dark & Golden Books are excited to collect the underground comics work of Dave Gibbons for the very first time. Out of print since their first publication, these are the comics that Dave Gibbons cut his teeth on, honing his abilities on wild stories of rock and rock, spectral appearances, and biased judges.
Stories inside include work originally published in Fantasy Advertiser, Trials of Nasty Tales, Rock ‘N’ Roll Madness Funnies, Zip Comics and more, plus the first publication of the story “Need a Fog Set” in its entirety. Newly scanned from the original art, and with brand new introductions for each story by Gibbons himself, this is an invaluable record of some of the earliest work by one of the UK’s greatest comic artists.”
Signs of the Times collects the Kevin Woodcock cartoons that ran in Brain Damage and The Damage comic in 1989 and 1990. Woodcock is one of those cartoonists whose work might not have been seen by many in its time, but for those that did, we knew he was a genius.
“Long out of print and massively under-appreciated, the cartoons of Kevin Woodcock are an unnerving trip to a place that is just not quite right. In this new collection of three of his satirical series, he is on especially sharp form – skewering the complacency of 1990’s society in a way that still resonates today. A timeless collection of jet-black comics that you won’t be able to stop thinking about.
Newly scanned from original issues of Brain Damage and the Damage, the second in a series bringing this astounding cartoonist back to availability.”
And finally, Dark & Golden Books present A Little Book of Comic Shop Price Stickers…
One of the stranger bits of comic ephemera to debut at this year’s Thought Bubble convention in Harrogate, Dark & Golden Books are bringing out a new zine celebrating that simplest of things, the comic shop price sticker.
British comic shops have always had to use price stickers, as for so many years US comic books only had Dollar prices on the covers. Nowadays most shops have done without them, relying instead on conversion tables. But once upon a time us comic shop staffers used to have to spend an age on new comic day getting the stock out the boxes and then hammering away with price guns before the comics made it to the shelves.
Anyway, it’s a lovely idea, celebrating the last 50 years of UK comic shop history in fine style. A pocket-sized treat of 36 pages, edited by Oldham and Noble. Next, maybe comic shop carrier bags? Oh, that would be a fine, fine treat!
Find more Dark & Golden Books here. More from Douglas Noble here at Strip For Me. More from Tom Oldham at Breakdown Press.
All three books debut at Thougth Bubble.
