‘Briggs’s pencil has drawn everything about being human – the comic, the tragic; passion, tenderness, fear, anger, joy, bogeys ... slime’ Posy Simmonds Raymond Briggs has changed the face of children’s picture books, with his innovations of both form and subject. Stylistically versatile, he has illustrated some sixty books, twenty of them with his own text, and first became a household name in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a handful of books – Father Christmas, Fungus the Bogeyman, The Snowman, When the Wind Blows – that were entertaining and subversive and appealed to both children and adults. The refrains of his work are class, family, love and loss. Nevertheless, his default mode of expression is humour. Briggs is always funny, and the balance between this and melancholy is his defining characteristic, though his style ranges from the romantic to the grotesque, from the fanciful to the direct. Encompassing sixty years of Raymond Briggs’s work, from political picturebooks to children’s classics, this study explores his themes of class, family and loss, and how he demonstrates both emotional power and great technical skill.

The first book to cover the entire career and range of work by Posy Simmonds, one of Britain’s leading satirical cartoonists – part of the new Illustrators series. In the course of a career spanning more than fifty years, Posy Simmonds has become one of Britain’s best-known satirical cartoonists. She is also as a much-loved author and artist of widely translated children’s books and graphic novels. These include Fred, animated in 1996 into the Oscar-nominated short film Famous Fred, and Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe, both adapted into films, increasing her international fame. Simmonds once described her job on a census form as ‘a visual engineer’. Her extraordinary precision of drawing, her powers of observation and her sharp but welltempered wit have made her one the Britain’s most sophisticated innovators, renowned especially for expanding the scope and subtlety of comics. This is the first book to explore Simmonds’s life and work from her early childhood to the present day. In a series of interviews with Paul Gravett she offered insights into her creative process and provided unprecedented access to her ‘workroom’ and archives containing sketchbooks and rare or never-before-seen artworks. A portrait emerges of Posy Simmonds as a chronicler and critic of contemporary British society and a storyteller in words and pictures of rare perception and humanity.

After the death of her mother, a young girl moves away to the country with her father. Angry and grief-stricken, Monica Bleue must find a new life away from her friends, her school and everything that was familiar to her. Though she’s not speaking to her dad, she begins to find her way out of her heartache from the country serenity around them. But while out wandering the forests near their home, she comes face to face with a hidden horror that changes their lives forever. Monica and her father search for answers to her newly transformed state, and together they bond as she learns to harness the monstrous powers she now possesses. But there’s a sinister evil lying low in their small country town… and the number of missing children is climbing. Monica may be the only one with the power to uncover the secret, but as she begins to unravel the mystery, finding a savage killer only puts her and her father deeper in danger.

Drugs, vampires, and punk rock. Kayla isn't a great person. But maybe she can stay on the straight and narrow...this time. Clawing her way to her 90th day sober, Kayla sets out to find her missing friend - the one person she knows can keep her on the straight-and-narrow. The only problem? The gang of heroine-dealing vampires that have him... and that's just the start. From the writer of Dead End Kids comes a story of a young woman's recovery journey and one hard truth: not everyone is cut out to be a hero.

What if everything the right thought about the left was real? Accomplished ANTIFA operative Max Marx is about to get THE big promotion: body augmentation to become a fully-fledged super-soldier in the shadowy organization's never-ending battle to destroy the police, the American way of life, gender, capitalism, and anything else they decide to deem "fascist." The next frontline: internet celebrity and right-wing gadfly Adonis Asproulis is about to give a lecture on the campus of the prestigious Earle University. Adonis could do the impossible: present college students with a debate, ANTIFA'S worst nightmare. Can Max and his comrades get to the university and deplatform him in time? Or can the officers of the Big City PD and newly-promoted Sergeant Paul O'Shea put a stop to it?

The author of The Mental Load returns with more "visual essays which are transformative agents of change." After the success of The Mental Load, Emma continues in her new book to tangle with issues pertinent to women's experiences, from consent to the "power of love," from the care and attentiveness that women place on others' wellbeing and social cohesion, and how it constitutes another burden on women, to contraception, to the true nature of gallantry, from the culture of rape to diets, from safety in public spaces to retirement, along with social issues such as police violence, women's rights, and green capitalism. And, once more, she hits the mark.

A gorgeously illustrated, first-ever graphic novel adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's beloved American classic. First published in 1925, The Great Gatsby has been acclaimed by generations of readers and is now reimagined in stunning graphic novel form. Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, and the rest of the cast are captured in vivid and evocative illustrations by artist Aya Morton. The iconic text has been artfully distilled by Fred Fordham, who also adapted the graphic novel edition of To Kill a Mockingbird. Blake Hazard, F. Scott Fitzgerald's great-granddaughter, contributes a personal introduction. This quintessential Jazz Age tale stands as the supreme achievement of Fitzgerald's career and is a true classic of 20th-century literature. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy is exquisitely captured in this enchanting and unique edition.

Metalshark Bro is a surreal comedy, high-octane revenge comic series teetering on the brink of reality and the void of the unknown written by Bob Frantz and Kevin Cufe, illustrations by Walter Ostlie, and edited and lettered by Chas! Pangburn. WHAT THE FIN IS A METALSHARK BRO? Well, since you asked: Metalshark Bro is an anthropomorphic and bloodthirsty shark, created and forced into murderous service by Satan’s jerky nephew, Beelzbra. Upon the realization that he was double-crossed by Beelzebra, our hero, along with Ira--his magical floating eyeball companion--vows revenge against his treacherous maker. The road to vengeance is never easy as Metalshark Bro and Ira travel through space and time slaughtering anyone or anything that stands in his way.

Raina wants to be a normal 12-year-old. But when she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth, she begins a long, frustrating journey with braces, surgery, hideous headgear and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there's a major earthquake, boy confusion and friends who turn out to be not so friendly. From Raina Telgemeier, Eisner award-winning author of Ghosts, Drama and Sisters! Raina just wanted to be a normal girl, but one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there's still more to deal with: a major earthquake, boy confusion and friends who turn out to not be so friendly. A great coming-of-age graphic novel Perfect for fans of Ghosts, Drama and Sisters Beautifully illustrated in Raina Telgemeier's intimate and accessible style