Steven Appleby’s new graphic novel
Dragman has been glowing quietly
on my table since it was published last month. Glowing quietly are the
words I’ve been looking for to sum up the lingering effect this book
has. At 336 pages it’s a hefty volume but there’s nothing heavy about
it. With a light, airy touch it achieves the tour de force of making a
complex subject - being a transvestite - into a surreal, wildly
inventive superhero thriller while never losing sight of tenderness
,
vulnerability and everyday domestic life. The trademark Appleby style
of drawing, simultaneously relaxed and nervous, is enhanced by Nicola
Sherring’s delightful watercolouring. The story is told in comic-strip
frames, interspersed with poetic and humorous prose passages and some
fabulous double page spreads. The shy, awkard, troubled August Crimp,
married to Mary Mary and Dad to baby Gulliver, is Dragman when he puts
on women’s clothes. You must get this book to find out what happens. I
trust it will have the serious recognition as well as the popular
success it deserves.
It was
a happy coincidence that Steven Appleby was one of the judges for the
2019 Laydeez Do Comics awards and I won the Rosalind Penfold award for a
graphic novel-in-progress by an artist over fifty. It was at this event
that I met Steven and asked if I could paint him. I had always admired
his work, very much on my wavelength, and on the several occasions he
came to sit for me we talked and became friends.
My portrait of Steven Appleby. 2019. Oil on canvas. 50 x 61 cms
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