After Julian Hanshaw won the Observer/Comica graphic short story prize in 2008 with Sand Dunes & Sonic Booms he released part travelogue, part recipe book The Art of Pho (Jonathan Cape). Since then Hanshaw was drawn to the idea of returning to his original short story and then writing and illustrating further stories all of which are interconnected despite being set on different continents. The result is a body of work even more accomplished than his previous book in part because it achieves such a delicate balance of tone - a slightly sombre, reflective mood but with a welcome hint of humour. Similar to Luke Pearson's Everything We Miss (NoBrow) in the way it mixes the surreal with the mundane I'm Never Coming Back (Jonathan Cape) is a visually complex piece of work keeping the reader on their toes - you have to work at this, not to make sense of the story but because it's so intricately illustrated and subtle. It deserves to be a breakout book for Julian Hanshaw (see here for his website).
If I've piqued your interest you'll be thrilled to know that Julian Hanshaw has visited the store and kindly signed all of our copies, with a cute little illustration ta boot. A highly recommended cake with an enormous cherry on top...
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