Jonathan Cape Graphic Novels

The Winner of the Cape / Observer / Comica graphic short story prize was announced the week: ‘An Artistic Odyssey’ by Edinburgh College of Art graduate Edith Pritchett beat over 200 other entrants to win the £1000 prize.

Described in the Observer as “a waspishly amusing and artfully rendered tale of modern mores and flawed feminism” it was singled out because, in the words of the Observer’s Rachel Cooke,  “Not only did it look great, it also had a beginning, a middle and an end – a harder trick to pull off than you may think over the course of only four pages. Best of all, it was funny”.

The wait is over, and we couldn't be more excited! Posy Simmonds triumphant return to the graphic novel has arrived. The magnificent Cassandra Darke is published today and available everywhere. 

We think that Cassandra is Simmonds’ greatest ever comic creation: a mean, selfish, solitary art dealer, living alone in a £7 million Chelsea townhouse. She has become a social pariah, but doesn’t much care. Between one Christmas and the next, she has sullied the reputation of a West End gallery and has acquired a conviction for fraud, a suspended sentence and a bank balance drained by lawsuits. On the scale of villainy, fraud seems to Cassandra a rather paltry offence – her own crime involving ‘no violence, no weapon, no dead body’. But in Cassandra’s basement, her young ex-lodger, Nicki, has left a surprise, something which implies at least violence and probably a body . . . Something which forces Cassandra out of her rich enclave and onto the streets. Not those local streets paved with gold and lit with festive glitter, but grimmer, darker places, where she must make the choice between self-sacrifice and running for her life.

Today we are immensely proud to publish Anna Mill and Luke Jones’ breathtakingly beautiful graphic novel Square Eyes. 

Square Eyes takes place in a near future in which the delirious excitement of the digital spectacle has been drawn tight over the crumbling remnants of the old world. AR technologies mean that the formerly ‘offline’ world is now filled with computer-generated objects, images and environments, creating a world of perpetual distraction and illusion. 

Our guide through this world is Fin, a brilliant young inventor, fêted for her radical advances in Augmented Reality (AR)  and the technological interface between mind and machine. Or at least, that's the way she remembers it. Since returning to the city after recovering from a serious accident, nothing is quite the way it should be. Now, marooned in a digital purgatory in which her identity, history and place in the world have all vanished, she has to rely on friendship and resourcefulness to uncover the mystery of her own past in a city full of secrets of its own.

Don’t miss Audrey Niffenegger and Eddie Campbell’s only UK event at the British Library on Tuesday 10th April - they’ll be discussing their life, their work and their brilliant graphic collaboration Bizarre Romance. tickets available here: https://www.bl.uk/events/bizarre-romance-audrey-niffenegger-and-eddie-campbell

Hello gang, hope you had a wonderful break over the festive period and you’re finding the transition from delicious warm sofa to cold, cold, grey reality less gruelling than us. One thing that’s made coming back to work better is finding this beauty on our desks this morning!

The beautiful design is by Rosie Palmer of CMYK, from an original illustration by the author, Kristen Radtke. 

We can’t wait for you to read it...

Go go Hannah Berry! The author of dystopian graphic novel, Livestock, has been shortlisted for Best Writer and Best Original Graphic Novel at the Broken Frontier Awards 2017!

Ever wondered what it takes to make a graphic novel look as beautiful as The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg?

Here you can watch our Senior Production Controller Polly talking about how we made it.

That’s right, it’s publication day for Grandville Force Majeure by Bryan Talbot... the fifth and final instalment in the Grandville series.

In the middle of a gang war, wanted for murder, truly alone and outside the law, Detective Inspector LeBrock is on the run.

Grandville Force Majeure is a rollercoaster ride of intrigue, betrayal and villainy.

Prepare to be royally badgered!

After hundreds of submissions, hours of judging and a lot of scanning, we are absolutely thrilled that Tor Freeman’s brilliant short story ‘If You’re So Wise, How Come You’re Dead?’ has been chosen as the winner of the 2017 Cape/Observer/Comica graphic short story prize! It’s a tale of love, artistic suffering and... procrastination. Something I think we can all relate to. I mean, there’s definitely other stuff I’m meant to be doing right now...

The runner up is Emily Jones (aka Emilybob) with her story ‘Dennis and June’. 

Congratulations to Tor and Emily! Some of our other shortlistees made it down to Orbital Gallery on Sunday evening for a glass of fizz. Here’s Astrid Goldsmith with ‘My Father in Berlin’:

Here’s Ginny Skinner with her story ‘Sea Change': 

And Lily Shaul with ‘The Slug Finger’ – her first ever comic! 

Aaand finally Jessika Green with ‘Varicose Veins’, which is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read about bad dates. Women of the world, you need to read it.

Well, this is going to be fun. This Sunday the Observer are doing a bumper graphic novel issue, featuring Chris Ware, Alison Bechdel and Hamid Sulaiman, And, at long last, the moment you’ve all been waiting for... dun dun DUUUUNNN.... it’s the announcement of the winner of this year’s Cape/Observer/Comic graphic short story prize!

And, as if that wasn’t enough, head over to Orbital on Sunday, from 5pm, where you can view this year’s brilliant prize shorlistees, drink a beer and schmooze with the authors. All are welcome, and we’d love to see you there.

Buy the Observer at all good newsagents

It’s only 18 months since we first read this astonishing graphic novel about the war in Syria. We’re so proud that Jonathan Cape is publishing it today, with a brilliant translation by Francesca Barrie.

If you are remotely interested in what is happening in the bloodiest conflict of our times, you need to read this book. 

The judging happened today... here are the judges hard at work.

Yes, that is Philip Pullman. Philip freaking Pullman was IN OUR OFFICE. We were definitely totally and completely cool when he SHOOK OUR HANDS. 

It’s only a few weeks until we publish Freedom Hospital by Hamid Sulaiman and we’re really excited about it.

Freedom Hospital has already been critically acclaimed in France and Germany, and here are some of the things people are saying about it:

'With the intimacy of a person who has lived the tragedy himself but with the restraint of a true artist, Hamid Sulaiman tells a powerful tale of Syria’s descent into cataclysm while reminding us of those still tending the seeds of the revolutionary spring.' - Joe Sacco

'This eye-opening graphic novel is a powerful and moving introduction to the realities of the war in Syria. Sulaiman's stark black and white artwork brilliantly conveys the moral, political and emotional shades of grey rarely shown on the news.’ - Stephen Collins 

'Hamid Sulaiman's shocking inside story of an ongoing people's revolution against one of the world's most brutal regimes is eye-opening, explosive and utterly necessary. The chiaroscuro-heavy artwork, more dark than light, seems drawn in Sulaiman's heart's blood.’ - Neel Mukherjee 

'If you want insight into the complex situation in Syria, read this book. It provides a stark vision of life in a war zone but, like Freedom Hospital itself, it never loses hope.’ - Mary Talbot 

Happy publication day to Emma Chichester Clark! Her wonderful book, Another Year of Plumdog, is published today!