British Author Challenge May 2022: Comic Books/Graphic Novels & Audiobooks

Death of the Endless from The Sandman & the Librivox app logo

Before there were books there were stories. For thousands of years storytellers entertained pre-literate societies with recitations and artists created countless works depicting famous tales. For this month's theme, look at how art can be used to tell the story in a comic and how a narrator's voice can contribute to a tale.

Comics suggestions
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore
Lucifer {2000-2006} by Mike Carey
Hellblazer {1988-2013} (Original Sins or Dangerous Habits are good places to start the series.)
Metaphrog
Kate Charlesworth
Isabel Greenberg
Simon Spurrier
Couch Fiction: A Graphic Tale of Psychotherapy by Philippa Perry
Billy, Me & You: A Memoir of Grief and Recovery by Nicola Streeten
Mauretania by Chris Reynolds
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone by Ravi Thornton

Audio suggestions
There are obviously zillions of books available on audio, so I'm just listing a few I've enjoyed. Also, be sure to check out LibriVox for free public domain audiobooks.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III by Cressida Cowell, read by David Tennant
Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling, read by Stephen Fry (Really anything read by Fry.)
The Chronicles of St. Mary’s by Jodi Taylor, read by Zara Ramm
The works of Neil Gaiman, read by the author
James Bond series by Ian Fleming, read by various narrators (Some recent narrators of the series include Tom Hiddleston, Toby Stephens, David Tennant, and Bill Nighy.)
Discworld by Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs
High-Rise by J. G. Ballard, read by Tom Hiddleston
Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
The Witches by Roald Dahl, read by Miranda Richardson
Longbourn by Jo Baker, read by Emma Fielding

Highly recommending Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner

as created by Hunt Emerson in a Classic old Graphic Comic.

I have a hold waiting for Ethel & Ernest for comics, and I'll be listening to Fatal Pursuit by Martin Walker, read by Robert Ian Mackenzie, and possibly A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It's likely that I'll also listen to some Sherlock Holmes short stories on LibriVox.

>2 m.belljackson: I haven't read Emerson's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, but I loved his Dante's Inferno.

>3 cbl_tn: I have some Sherlock Holmes stories read by Stephen Fry that I've been meaning to get to.

Free audiobooks https://audiofilemagazine.com/sync/

AudioFile magazine's Sync program makes two titles available each week through the Sora app. Once you've borrowed a title, it is yours to keep. This week's selections are Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda and four stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.

FAQs: https://audiofilemagazine.com/sync-faq/
Full list: https://audiofilemagazine.com/sync-season/

>5 amanda4242: I made notes about a month ago in my calendar to remind me when there were titles I was interested in downloading. Downloaded the four stories yesterday when it became available.

Shadowman by Garth Ennis & Ashley Wood by Garth Ennis and Paul Jenkins
Shadowman by Jamie Delano & Charlie Adlard by Jamie Delano & Dick Foreman

I read these back-to-back and was not impressed with the direction Delano went with the title. Ennis's story was a bit of a mess, but the world-building was interesting and opened up the possibility to create a rich mythology with complex characters; Delano turned most of the characters into backstabbing assholes and did little to develop the world.

The Incredible Adventures of Janus Stark: Volume 1 by Tom Tully

A collection of comic strips about a Victorian era escape artist/detective/Robin Hood who is very good at getting through improbably tight spaces. Got really old after a couple of strips.

Saga of the Swamp Thing Books 1-6 by Alan Moore

I first dipped into Alan Moore's run of Swamp Thing because that's where my favorite comic character, John Constantine, originated. I stayed through his run because of the engrossing, sophisticated storytelling and stellar art.

On the audiobook front, I've been listening to Cressida Cowell's Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III series read by David Tennant. The stories are wonderful adventures and Cowell does a great job of developing later books from small details in the earlier books. Tennant's narration is superb: he captures mood and emotions expertly, and gives each character a distinctive voice so you're never confused about who is speaking.

I've started listening to A Tale of Two Cities, narrated by Simon Vance. This is one of my least favorite works of Dickens; if anyone can change my mind, Simon can! We shall see how it goes.

Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood by John Smith

Devlin Waugh is a body-building aesthete exorcist existing in the same world as Judge Dredd--oh, and he's also a vampire. I'm not entirely sure what I just read, but it was a heck of a trip and I'm glad I have two more Devlin Waugh collections.

I read The Whisper Man, audio book, author Alex North (British author).

The June thread is up!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/342001

Enigma: The Definitive Edition by Peter Milligan

Surreal, chaotic, and, well, enigmatic. It's a metafictional look at superhero comics and pretty much what I expect from Vertigo titles of the 1990s. I thought it was great, but I can see where it won't be to everyone's taste.

Enigma is available as part of Humble Bundle's Comics Are for Everyone: Pride Month Collection through the end of June.

Collections of Neil Gaiman's Sandman are on sale for $3.99 on Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Google, and possibly other retailers.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JHX4H9V?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_s...

The latest Humble Bundle is the Neil Gaiman Dark Horse Collection.

The Neil Gaiman Dark Horse Collection bundle