Preview: Mary M and Bryan Talbot

• David Pollock
• 10 August 2016

This article is from 2016

Mary and Bryan Talbot

Graphic novel husband and wife creative team tackle a feminist icon

An anarchist, school teacher, nurse and member of the Paris Commune in the 1800s, Louise Michel was known as 'the Red Virgin of Montmartre'. She fought during the Siege of Paris and was transported to the South Pacific colony of New Caledonia, where she helped the indigenous people rise up against their French colonial masters, before being pardoned and returning to France. In their new graphic novel adaptation of her life The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia, husband and wife creative team Mary M and Bryan Talbot tell Michel's singular story while positioning her firmly as a feminist icon.

Together, the Talbots are the creators of the Costa Biography Award winning book Dottir of Her Father's Eyes (2012), which combined Mary's life with that of Lucia Joyce, daughter of James. While Mary's background is in academic writing, Bryan is one of Britain's most celebrated comic artists, whose credits stretch from Judge Dredd and Nemesis the Warlock in 2000AD back in the 1980s to his own creator-owned works The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, The Tale of One Bad Rat, Alice in Sunderland and Grandville. For anyone who views graphic novels as one of the 21st century's boldest storytelling mediums, this event will be essential.

Charlotte Square Gardens, 27 Aug, 11pm, £12 (£10).