The November Sale is finished now, thanks everyone!
Hello! I've got too many copies of my first book length comic 'The Storytellers' in boxes in my bedroom so I'd like to give some away. Until the 17th of November I will give one free copy of the book away with any comics order from the
shop on my blog or from
my Comicsy shop. Free postage in the UK, for the rest of the world please add £3 to your order with the button at the top of
my comics shop. Cheers, Rob.
'The Storytellers' is an 80 page book, halfway between A4 and A5, black and white with colour covers. It tells the stories and myths of the Jackson family.
Review from Rob Clough at High Low-
The Storytellers is a labor of familial love, as Jackson
weaves together family vignettes stretching over two hundred years. The
story begins with Jackson’s great-grandfather (also named Robert
Jackson) as a boy, just after his mother had died. He was sent to live
with his grandfather in his pub, who comforted the mourning lad with
tales from his days as a smuggler. He told stories about his father
being shot at by Americans during the War of 1812 and having his ship
confiscated by them, as well as a story about his grandfather in Canada,
trying to hike his way to New York after abandoning the British army.
It’s one of many colorful tales of Jackson run-ins with authority,
including an uncle who was nearly executed in Chile, a relative who had
to skip town after dropping some concrete on a cop, a female relative
who skipped out on her husband to run off with a colorful salesman, a
great-grandfather who drank way too much, another relative who demanded
that that the men of his family have a drink and remember him at every
pub en route to the cemetery (only to be thwarted by the women of the
family who changed the route to avoid pubs), and a grandfather with grim
war stories.
Structurally, the book (it’s a beefy 75 pages) is fluid in its
storytelling, jumping back and forth in time in a way that makes sense.
Jackson is careful to establish key members of the family and then work
forward and backward as the focus switches from young Bob Jackson to his
descendants. What I like best about this book is that these are clearly
treasured family stories passed down as part of a tradition of pub
storytelling. Jackson clearly put a lot of thought into how to properly
record these family stories in print for posterity in a way that made
sense and paid proper tribute to the best of the storytellers. It helps
that the family has no censor whatsoever, relishing their scrapes with
the law and their adventures just outside it. Despite that craziness,
one can also sense a long tradition of love, support and continuity in
the Jackson clan; despite the misadventures of many children, they were
always welcome back. This may be my favorite of Jackson’s comics; it has
the flourish of his fantasy stories with the unvarnished truth of his
autobio.
