Books published by SelfMadeHero

Alchemy and resurrection for H.P. Lovecraft fans Providence, Rhode Island, 1928. A dangerous inmate disappears from a private hospital for the insane, his method of escape baffling the authorities. Only the patient’s final visitor, family physician Dr. Marinus Bicknell Willett—himself a piece of the puzzle—holds the key to unlocking The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. A macabre mixture of historical investigation, grave-robbing, and bone-chilling revelation, this newly reissued adaptation artfully lays bare one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most horrifying creations.

Emil Zatopek is arguably the greatest Olympic champion of all time. The Czech runner's three gold medals at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympics, for the 5,000 meter, 10,000 meter, and marathon is an achievement that has never been matched.

The fateful meeting of Freud and Horace Frink, and the ensuing scandal that nearly destroyed psychoanalysis

An exhilarating graphic novel about the thrill and the terror of mountaineering At 16, bivouacked on a mountainside beneath a sky filled with stars, Jean-Marc Rochette has already begun measuring himself against some of Europe’s highest peaks. The Aiguille Dibona, the Coup de Sabre, La Meije: The summits of the Massif des écrins in the French Alps, to which he escapes as a teenager, spark both exhilaration and fear. At times, they are a playground for adventure. At others, they are a battlefield. The young climber is acutely aware that death lurks in the frozen corridors of this Alpine range. In Altitude, Rochette tells the story of his formative years, as a climber and as an artist. Part coming-of-age story, part love letter to the Alps, this autobiographical graphic novel captures the thrill and the terror invoked by high mountains, and considers one man’s obsession with reaching the top of them.

One morning in June 1941, a quiet village in Central Lithuania is shaken out of its slumber by the sudden arrival of the Soviet Army. Eight-year-old Algiukas awakes to the sound of Russian soldiers pounding on the door. His family are given ten minutes to pack up their things. They are not told where they're going or for how long. An airless freight train carries them from the fertile lands of rural Lithuania to the snowy plains of the Siberian taiga. There, in the distant, dismal North, they begin a life marked by endless hunger and unrelenting cold. And yet the darkness of exile is lightened, for Algiukas, by flights of imagination. This curious, brave and adaptable child transforms hardship into adventure.Drawing on her father's exile in Siberia, writer Jurga Vile brings to light a neglected, even suppressed, episode from the history of the Soviet Union. Beautifully drawn by Lina Itagaki, Siberian Haiku uses the child's perspective to tell an unforgettable story of courage and human endurance.

In 1778, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart leaves Salzburg for Paris. But there is no grand entrance for the former child prodigy. When Mozart arrives in Paris, he is cash-strapped, unknown and his French is poor. His mentor, the critic Baron von Grimm, introduces him to a number of Parisian nobles. But recognition is hard-won, and at times the French court appears indifferent to Mozart's talents and disapproving of his spontaneity.

A powerful, provocative, and politically charged fictionalized memoir Mikel lives with his wife and two children in Costur, an idyllic Spanish town surrounded by hills. He has a job selling candy, but Mikel is a dreamer, not a businessman, and money is tight. What’s more, the ordinariness of smalltown life is preventing him from fulfilling a life-long dream: to become a writer. Seeking both drama and financial security, Mikel takes a job as a bodyguard. His family is soon uprooted to the Basque Country, where Mikel is charged with protecting politicians from the armed separatist group ETA. It is a job that provides drama worthy of the page—but only at the cost of fear, uncertainty, and family breakdown. In Mikel, author Mark Bellido draws on his own experiences to create a powerful and provocative story about a man who risks everything in the pursuit of a dream.

The ABC of Typography traces 3,500 years of type, from Sumerian pictographs, through Roman calligraphy, to Gutenberg, the Bauhaus and beyond. Brimming with insight and anecdote, this witty and well-informed graphic guide explores the historical, technological and cultural shifts that have defined the look of the words we read, as well as introducing the artists who have marked typography's long history.

"There was never a place for [Isadora Duncan] in the ranks of the terrible, slow army of the cautious. She ran ahead, where there were no paths.” — Dorothy Parker In 1899, performing in the drawing rooms of London's elite, Isadora Duncan was already laying the foundations for modern dance. The 22-year-old's movements were visceral, free-flowing, and expressive; she performed barefoot. She shattered the conventions of traditional ballet and, in doing so, enchanted high society. A year later, in Paris, she met the sculptor Auguste Rodin, whose work proved a revelation, and the influential dancer Loie Fuller, whose support marked the beginning of a dazzling on-stage career. In Isadora, Julie Birmant and Clément Oubrerie capture the astonishing life and scandalous times of the so-called "Mother of Modern Dance.” This extraordinary graphic novel takes in her arrival in Europe, her rise to stardom and the development of a style of dance ? inspired by natural forms and Greek sculpture ? that would become her enduring legacy.

The dazzling, provocative work of Jean-Michel Basquiat would come to define the vibrant New York art scene of the late '70s and early '80s. Punk, jazz, graffiti, hip-hop: his work drew heavily on the cultural trappings of Lower Manhattan, to which he fled (from Brooklyn) at the age of 15.

A revealing and compelling graphic biography of Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohammed El Gharani - the life journey that led to his incarceration and the experience of interrogation, torture and abuse in custody. Franc also provided the art for "Agatha: The Real Life Of Agatha Christie".

Belgian comics writer Zidrou and the artist Aimee de Jongh collaborate on this story of older people struggling with loneliness until their fateful collision.

A history of cannabis in America, in a graphic novel format. From the author of "Andre The Great" and "Tetris", it explores the culture and politics surrounding weed, from 1518 onwards.

Daniel Brodin - bibliophile, book thief, self-proclaimed poet - enters the heated atmosphere of the Cafe Serbier, home of the Parisian literati. Under pressure, he recites not one of his own surrealist poems but an obscure piece of Italian verse he's certain no one will know. It's plagiarism - but it's a triumph. In this milieu, the wine is good and the girls are beautiful - but can success last if it is founded on plagiarism, on theft?

The much-anticipated final volume of Rob Davis’s dark and inventive trilogyThe Motherless Ovenand The Can Opener’s Daughtermay have raised more questions than they answered, but The Book of Forks explains everything. Castro Smith finds himself imprisoned within the mysterious Power Station, writing his Book of Forks while navigating baffling daily meetings with Poly, a troubled young woman who may be his teacher, his doctor, his prison guard . . . or something else entirely. Meanwhile, back home, Vera and Scarper’s search for their missing friend takes them through the chaotic war zone of the Bear Park and into new and terrifying worlds. With The Book of Forks, Rob Davis completes his abstract adventure trilogy by stepping inside Castro’s disintegrating mind to reveal the truth about the history of the world, the meaning of existence, and the purpose of kitchen scales.

Somewhere in the British Isles, at the end of a neglected road, there is a village called Lip Hook. A car speeds towards the village. The driver is a beautiful woman, the passenger a man with a gunshot wound. The two seek shelter at the Hanged Man Inn, where the woman persuades the inn-keeper to accept payment in kind. As the woman extends her services to more of Lip Hook's men a false faith grips the community - and reason, logic and humanity begin to disappear.

Technology has transformed the way we communicate and consume, how we work and fall in love and navigate the world. We are increasingly reliant on it - but few of us know anything about the science that is driving this technological change. Here, six graphic novelists present reports from the digital frontier. Exploring everything from AI to virtual reality, I FEEL MACHINE is by turns cautionary and celebratory, touching and terrifying. It challenges and confronts the digital world using the most technologically efficient machine ever invented: the book.

An entertaining, authoritative and inspiring visual account of the first moon landing

In ANDY, Typex captures the remarkable life of the king of Pop Art, from his working-class upbringing in Pittsburgh to the dizzying heights of his celebrity. Spanning a period that began with the "talkies" and ended with the advent of house music, it is also a memorable portrait of 20th century pop culture and the stars who defined it: from Elvis to Greta Garbo, Truman Capote to Lou Reed.

A compelling adaptation of Jesus Carrasco's award-winning novel

A beautifully produced collection of illustrations by Reinhard Kleist, capturing Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' thirty-year career

A collection of posters by renowned graphic artist Andrzej Klimowski

Islington-dwelling socialist, bike-riding pacifist, green-fingered threat to the status quo: this revolutionary anthology captures the qualities and quirks of the Daily Mail's worst nightmare.

Volume three of David B. and Jean-Pierre Filiu's acclaimed graphic history of US-Middle East relations