Gurr Illustration

EDIT: The nomination window is now closed and the shortlist will be announced very soon. Thanks to everyone who nominated us!

It may be Darwin year but the previous book by Eugene and Simon, The Bristol Story, is distracting us at the moment.

It’s nomination season for the Eagle Awards, the UK’s foremost comics award. After May 22nd, the five most popular nominations received in each category will be put forward as a shortlist to be voted on. We would love The Bristol Story to make the shortlist in the category of Favourite British Black and White Comicbook published in 2008.

Here’s the link to the nomination web page, but there is stiff competition. We can immediately think of one very worthy contender for this category. So why should anyone nominate The Bristol Story?

1. It’s funny. Eugene Byrne has crafted some of the finest puns about a West Country city ever seen in a comic.
2. It’s factual. Who knew America was named after a Welshman? Or that Blackbeard’s decapitated body leapt overboard and swam round his ship five times before disappearing?
3. It was free. If there was an award for Best Value For Money Comicbook we’d be laughing.
4. It tried to do something different with the comic strip medium. Without wanting to get too worthy here, Bristol was (as far as we know) the first city in the UK to get a 200 page ‘graphic novel’ format account of its history. It was conceived to help people appreciate the environment they live in. A lot of people liked that. Simon ran workshops with hundreds of schoolchildren after the book came out and they (and their teachers) really got something out of the book. It’s still being used in schools now.

The trouble with publishing a comicbook locally is that a lot of Eagle Awards voters have never read The Bristol Story. Conversely, a lot of readers of The Bristol Story haven’t heard of the Eagle Awards because they hadn’t picked up a comic for years, until our one. That’s why we’re blowing our own trumpet today. So people at least know they can nominate it for Favourite British Black and White Comicbook if they want to.

Thanks from Simon & Julia.

(PS People who don’t read a lot of comics might like to know that you don’t have to fill in every category of the nomination form.)

We’ve just put a brand new representative selection of Gurr Illustration work online. In the past, we have asked people to email for samples but now there are several folders worth of illustration and comic art which can be easily viewed by following the portfolio link on the right.

My esteemed collaborator Eugene Byrne celebrates a big birthday today, so I’ve put up one of his cameo appearances in honour of the occasion. Here he is doing a brief turn as Long John Silver, in The Bristol Story, the third of four comics we’ve made together.

Eugene and I first met over ten years ago when I was senior designer at a small web company developing the Venue website. We first worked on a comic together in 2001, Eugene’s story about Bristol’s mythical creatures, St. Vincent’s Rock. This was by far the most rewarding comic partnership I’d had and I hoped we would have the chance to do more. We did, thanks to Andrew Kelly and the BCDP, who have commissioned all our comics. First, Brunel: A Graphic Biography, then The Bristol Story and more recently Darwin: A Graphic Biography.

Eugene is easily the witttiest, most erudite and humane writer I’ve had the pleasure to work with. Apart from the comics, and his regular work in Venue and BBC History magazine, I heartily recommend his novels, my favourite being Things Unborn.

More information at Wikipedia.

Our free 100-page comic about the life and ideas of Charles Darwin has been out for a week already, but there are still plenty of may still be copies available. Let me emphasise that this book is free. I understand that in some places it’s not immediately apparent that you can just pick up a copy and walk out of the shop with it (using a simple downloadable coupon).
Here’s a guide to getting your copy of the first book length comic strip biography of Charles Darwin.

What does it look like?
Like this.

Where can I find it?
It has been published as part of the Lost World Read 2009 mass-participation reading project, which is happening in the following locations:

• Bristol and the South West
• Edinburgh
• Glasgow
• Portsmouth and Hampshire
• Shropshire
• Westminster

If you live in one of these locations have a look here for details of which shop, library, or museum near you is giving the book away. For example, here in Bristol the book can be found at all branches of Bristol Libraries; Blackwell, Park Street; St George’s, Brandon Hill; Tobacco Factory, Raleigh Road; Waterstones, Bristol Galleries; Bristol Zoo Gardens; Blaise Castle; City Museum and Art Gallery; ss Great Britain.

How do I get it?
While stocks last, books can be collected in exchange for this downloadable coupon. (Offer limited to one copy of the book per coupon, and one coupon per person.)

What else can I get for free?
As the name suggests, the Lost World Read project has Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World as its centrepiece. The novel is available free of charge in a full-text version and a children’s edition and there is an excellent reading guide to accompany it. For more information about this amazing project see the website.

Less than a week now until the printers deliver Darwin: A Graphic Biography, the latest 100-page comic book from Eugene Byrne and me. I’ve seen the proofs and can’t wait to hold the book itself in my hands. The big launch is on 30th Jan, stay tuned for more details and to find out how to get hold of a copy.

Thanks to all our friends, clients and suppliers who made 2008 so much fun for Gurr Illustration. Highlights of the year include:
The Bristol Story winning Venue Magazine’s Top Book of 2008.
Getting to draw a comic about long-time hero Caravaggio.
Completing Darwin: A Graphic Biography, collaboration no.4 with Eugene Byrne.
Running comic workshops in 20 schools and libraries around Bristol.
Simon being invited to be cultural ambassador at the Portrait of a Nation finale in Liverpool.
Best wishes to everyone for 2009.
Simon & Julia.

It’s already been eighteen months since Julia and I started working together as Gurr Illustration. It’s been a very exciting time for us, not least because of the arrival of the mini-Gurrilla, Joseph, last year. We have been involved in some fantastic projects in the last year and a half and to celebrate here are a selection of images from that time.

The world’s largest ever city read launched today with The Bristol Story - a 200 page comic telling the history of Bristol from the earliest times to the modern day. Over 140,000 books and reading guides are being given away free in the city.

The Bristol Great Reading Adventure - now in its sixth year - aims to get more people reading. The Bristol Story, written by Eugene Byrne and drawn by Simon Gurr, uses the comic strip form to present the history of the city in a new and exciting way, accessible to readers of 11 and over. The project is led by Bristol Cultural Development Partnership (BCDP) - for more information see their website.