From the winner of the inaugural Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition, here is a darkly funny story of obsession, beautifully crafted in embroidery and lino-cut.
Getting yourself a girlfriend is easy, according to Richard. All you need is papier mache, string, soft material, a balloon, some old fashioned bellows, and a good pair of scissors. The difficult bit is keeping her secret.
Set in an English suburb in the early 1990s, The Black Project by Gareth Brookes is the story of Richard’s all-consuming passion for creating ‘girls’ from household objects. But as his hobby begins to flourish, his real-life friendships and family relationships deteriorate. Richard is an unreliable narrator, and the reader responds to his loneliness and his dogged attempt to find a companion while being horrified by his warped creations. The novel’s focus is on the divide between childhood and adulthood; where sex, perversion, and the grotesque feature in their many forms.
Gareth Brookes is a fine artist and print maker. He studied fine art at the RCA, where he also took a creative writing course. He started making small press comics in 2006 and has since been self-publishing and working with small press groups such as Alternative Press and the Comix Reader.
Gareth Brookes studied printmaking at the Royal College of Art. Known for an unusual approach to materials, which include, embroidery, linocut, monoprint, pressed flowers and pyrography, he has published two graphic novels with Myriad Editions. The first of these, The Black Project, won the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition in 2012, was featured in the ‘Comics Unmasked, Art and Anarchy in the UK’ exhibition at the British Library, London and was nominated in the Sélection Officielle at the 2018 Festival de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême.
In 2017 he took part in the British Council Korea’s Storytelling City exchange project to Seoul, South Korea, culminating in an exhibition and webcomic. He has been a guest speaker at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, The Manchester Literature Festival, The Bradford Literature Festival and The Toronto Comic Arts Festival. He is a Tutor in Foundation Studies at City and Guilds of London Art School, and a regular visiting Lecturer on Illustration at Lincoln University.
Since then Gareth has produced a number of self-published books, including The Land of My Heart Chokes on Its Abundance. His work is also published by collectives such as The Alternative Press and The Comix Reader, while his two-comic collaboration with artist Steve Tillotson, Manly Boys and Comely Girls, is available from Avery Hill Publishing. Gareth’s second graphic novel, A Thousand Coloured Castles, was published by Myriad in April 2017.
In the past year Gareth has been a visiting lecturer at Wimbledon School of Art, the University of York St Johns, Staffordshire University and The Royal College of Art. He runs regular workshops in embroidery, printmaking, comic and zine making, most recently running workshops in embroidery at Bradford Literary Festival and in monoprint printmaking (with Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants) at The ICA, London. He also organises South London Comic and Zine Fair, an annual book fair featuring over 40 small press publishers and artists, which is focused on encouraging new artists to exhibit their work.
