Good news for UK dwellers! Come this Friday from Improper Books,the studio focused on comic books related to the Gothic and macabre, is preparing to launch their newest project: Night Post.
The recent press release, adequately loosed upon the world on Halloween offers more information about the soon to be released comic:
Improper Books are delighted to announce that a limited UK indie release of NIGHT POST, by Benjamin Read and Laura Trinder, will be taking place Wednesday, 12th November 2014. A picture book for all ages, Night Post will be available from supporting independent retailers, such as Gosh! (London), Orbital Comics (London), and Page 45 (Nottingham).
Night Post is the story of the other mail service; the one you haven’t heard of, the one that starts work at midnight and delivers to all the creatures of the night. Whether ghost or ghoul, witch or werewolf, or just downright odd things with tentacles, they all have post and someone has to deliver it. Offering a fascinating glimpse into a midnight world, Night Post is a picture book for all ages.
Both Benjamin Read and Laura Trinder offered a glimpse into the process that went into bringing Night Post to life and explained why they chose to make it a silent comic. Their enthusiasm is quite contagious and given what I’ve seen of Night Post, I don’t think it’s unwarranted.
‘Night Post started from my longstanding childhood belief that midnight is a special hour, and strange things can happen as it strikes,’ said Benjamin, about Night Post. ‘The story of our beleaguered Postie has offered a wonderful chance for me and Laura to explore our mutual love of the spookier side of things, whilst having a great deal of fun at the same time. Building the world of the Night Post and then watching Laura bring it to life or, in some cases, death, and layer it with the most painstaking details – watch out for the Infinitesimal Animals – has been brilliant.’
‘I’m a huge fan of Raymond Briggs and we wear our influences unashamedly on our sleeve with Night Post – it shows a slice-of-life of a man’s day at a very special job, and is told purely by pictures. No captions, no word balloons, just intricate, detailed art. It’s the kind of book I adored as a kid, and still do now, and it’s been a pleasure to write.’
Laura adds, ‘For someone who loves fairy tales as much as I do, working on Night Post seems too good to be true. Ben has brilliantly combined favourite characters from folklore and myth with a central character of his own creation, meaning we can visit ghosts, vamps, fairies, swamp creatures, seemingly innocent old ladies and a whole host of other beasties through a new pair of eyes, more specifically, the eyes of our night postman.’
‘The real joy is working with Ben, his passion for comics informs every step of the creation process. With my main source of inspiration having always come from storybooks, I love how we’ve managed to combine an illustrative style reminiscent of this within a comic book format. I just hope that people will enjoy exploring the story as much as we have loved creating it.’
Unfortunately there are still about two weeks worth of wait, however, given that those that keep an eye out for Improper Books’ projects have been waiting for months, it doesn’t sound so bad. If you can’t contain your curiosity, however, there are several pages available for viewing, easily accessed by clicking here.
