Since 1996, John Broadley has been making, chiefly for his own pleasure, a series of remarkable little books. Each one has a tiny print run, sometimes as few as ten copies, which means that apart from a very few cognoscenti, no one has seen his extraordinary work. Until now.
John Broadley’s Books will reveal to the world an artist of astonishing imagination and skill, and one with the playfulness of the great English print-makers of the thirties and forties like Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious.
In this book you will find collected a complete visual record of Broadley’s books – covers, end papers, sketches, notes, lines, captions and errata. Comprising work in a multitude of mediums, this is a treasure trove of visual delights. Here are scenes from much loved classics, mysteries and obscure science-fiction adventures, from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to The Hawkline Sisters’ Father: turned into an umbrella stand by his own evil creation – The Chemicals.
We travel on a journey through the bookshelves of a remarkable artist, through
Broadley’s New Book of Mysterious and Melancholy Scenes in Black and Blue to the celebrated Wild for Adventure Stories – vignettes and fables in miniature – including Old Bill President Temperance League, Macabros the Monster-Maker and Frank and the Farmer, each image offering a peek at a world beyond.
Eclectic, unique, fantastical – John Broadley’s Books is the most extraordinary book of books you will ever read and a brilliant new addition to the Cape Graphic novel list.
