The bks Agency comic creators rights guide 2024

Comic Creators 2024

Hello,

I’m extremely proud to present our first rights guide for comic creators, featuring the work of exceptionally accomplished talents.

They have almost nothing in common except their brilliance.

It’s an exciting time for comics around the world and our aim is to spread the word about these exceptional creators far and wide.

If you’d like to talk to us about any of them, just drop us a line:

James@thebksagency (primary agent)

Joanna@thebksagency (Rights Director)

Mollie

Mollie Ray is a graphic novelist and illustrator from Cumbria, with a passion for writing and illustrating stories. Mollie’s work tends to unfold from poems or thoughts capturing a feeling or experience, exploring emotional, personal and often challenging subject matter. Visually, Mollie’s work is whimsical, however, grounded in reality, comfort, and home, not dissimilar to the Magical Realism genre in traditional literature. Mollie takes a lot of inspiration from her home in Cumbria, with most of her stories taking place in natural spaces.

Instagram: @mollierayillustration

GIANT MOLLIE RAY

A remarkable debut graphic novel, resonant with empathy, healing and hope.

One morning, a teenage boy wakes to find that he has grown to the size of a giant. Inspired by the journey of the author’s younger brother, this wordless wonder of a book follows the experience of a family as one of their own faces a life-threatening illness. With his health declining, can the family gain strength from his journey through treatment?

Giant is a graphic novel inspired by the journey Mollie’s brother faced after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and how her family was affected.

“I would like the graphic novel to inspire hope in people that are going through something like this. The story is almost more targeted at the families/loved ones of those who are ill and are expected to be strong and offer support whilst struggling themselves. A key message that I think is important is that it’s ok to be struggling yourself as a result of someone you love going through a difficult time and that it’s not healthy to invalidate your own struggle whilst supporting those around you. I hope that by telling my story, that someone going through something similar will connect with it and feel understood, and take some comfort from its happy ending”.

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

Film/TV, and all other rights handled by The bks Agency

RIGHTS SOLD: World all languages/Faber

Mollie Ray

NICOLA STREETEN

BILLY, ME & YOU

A moving, surprisingly funny, and inspiring account of recovery after bereavement.

Nicola Streeten’s little boy, Billy, was two years old when he died following heart surgery for problems diagnosed only a few days earlier. Ten years later, Streeten revisited her diaries and notebooks made at the time: this wonderfully vibrant narrative recounts how she and her partner recovered.

Gut-wrenchingly sad at times, her graphic memoir is an unforgettable portrayal of trauma and our reaction to it –and, especially, the humour or absurdity so often involved in our responses. As Streeten’s story unfolds and we follow her and her partner’s heroic efforts to cope with well-meaning friends and day-to-day realities, we begin to understand what she means by her aim to create a ‘dead baby story that is funny’.

RIGHTS SOLD/UNAVAILABLE

World All Languages and screen, Myriad Editions / New Internationalist

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

All other rights controlled by The bks Agency

Dr Nicola Streeten is anthropologist turned illustrator and multi-award-winning graphic novelist and comics scholar. Her graphic memoir Billy, Me & You (Myriad Editions, 2011) was followed by The Inking Woman (Myriad Editions, 2018) a 250-year illustrated history of British women’s cartoonists. Nicola is director of LDComics – a women-led forum supporting and championing graphic novel works. In this capacity she received a British Council International Collaboration award in 2022 to deliver REVEAL! Women’s Comics East Africa-UK

Instagram: nicolast.reeten

Twitter/X: @NicolaStreeten

8 Nicola Streeten

YIELD - MY PERMACULTURED LIFE

A graphic memoir of home, spirit and nature

Yield is Nicola’s journey of her encounter with Permaculture, when, after selling their home of 20 years to pay off debts, Nicola and her family become caretaker tenants of The Grange, a former Georgian rectory and neglected Permaculture smallholding in rural Norfolk.

Permaculture is a land management system, guided by principles such as ‘The Problem is the Solution’ and ‘Everything is Connected’. But these principles are also steers for a way to live our lives, personally and collectively. It is this aspect of Permaculture which is at the heart of Yield. Nicola uses the principles of Permaculture as a springboard to reflect on British history and understand how we live today. Simultaneously, she draws on Permaculture to show how we may change our personal and social everyday, offering a hopeful message. Like ripples from a pebble dropped in a water, the potential for larger scale application is implicit.

Her mundane history of homes she’s lived in becomes fascinating when presented as inextricably bound up with the politics of land ownership, colonialism, feminism, and permaculture in Britain. Presenting her subject matter this way Nicola gently invites the reader to question assumptions whilst encouraging optimism for a future through a shift in perspective.

Yield intertwines two conversational strands, punctuated by the element of permaculture principles. The first conversation takes place with The Grange owners on the day they show Nicola’s family around the grounds. The second family conversation-while-gardening scenario takes place during their first year living at The Grange. This visually documents the seasonal tasks while weaving emerging ideas and connections into the dialogue.

Nicola’s use of detailed footnotes at the end, provides the full context for the discussions, contributing like roots to the flower of the visual story.

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

All rights controlled by The bks Agency

THE RUSSIAN DETECTIVE CAROL ADLAM

Introducing an extraordinary new crime heroine...

In this stunning reimagining of a nineteenth-century Russian crime thriller, Carol Adlam presents Charlie Fox, stunt journalist, magician, liar and thief, who reluctantly returns to her home town of Nowheregrad to investigate the murder of Elena Ruslanova, daughter of a fabulously wealthy glass manufacturer.

In Nowheregrad Charlie finds herself caught up in a multilayered story that is told through the richly varied visual devices of the time. With the unwitting assistance of her lover, Netochka, Charlie unravels the mystery of the Bobrov family, only to face the truth about herself.

Adlam’s complex, elegant narrative brings to life the lost legacies of early crime fiction and the first women journalists and detectives. Exquisitely drawn and compellingly told, The Russian Detective is the work of a graphic novelist at the height of her powers.

RIGHTS SOLD/UNAVAILABLE:

World All Languages and screen - Jonathan Cape / Penguin Random House

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

All other rights controlled by The bks Agency

THE BETRAYAL OF ELIZA RAINE

The story of an early nineteenth-century British-Indian heiress, orphan, self-declared ‘bastard’, official lunatic, and sexual trailblazer. And Anne “Gentleman Jack” Lister’s first wife.

Eliza Raine lived life on the very edge of what was possible for an orphaned, mixed-race Anglo-Indian woman in early nineteenth-century England. She inherited a fortune, which she never really controlled. She broke all societal norms by setting up a home independently, waiting for the woman she called her ‘husband’ to join her. But that time never came. She faced racism, ostracization, and accusations of promiscuity. By the age of just 25 she was declared a lunatic and committed to an asylum run by the family of the lover who supplanted her in Anne’s affections. She spent the rest of her life locked up, with no voice, no advocate, and no right of appeal, unable to realise the dreams of love, happiness, and intellectual exploration she expressed so vividly in her letters to the only person in the world she thought she could trust - Anne Lister.

The Betrayal of Eliza Raine will appeal to LBGTQ+ communities and the so-called ‘Listerverse’, which has boomed in recent years, with Gentleman Jack attracting a UK audience of almost 10 million.

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

All rights controlled by The bks Agency

Carol Adlam is a writer and visual artist. She specialises in work that explores the intersections between art and literature, poetry, non fiction, and music.

A rich and varied career has seen her working as an academic, translator, and researcher. Her recent visiting fellowship at Girton College, Cambridge resulted in the exquisite Girton Time (Beam Editions). The Russian Detective is part of a collaboration with The University of St Andrews. She has been commissioned by The Guardian, the United Nations, the National Army Museum, Delayed Gratification and The National Archives, among others.

Twitter: @1badlamb

Instagram: caroladlam.illustration

Sabba Khan

Sabba Khan is a born and bred East Londoner. Originally trained as an architect at Central Saint Martins and The University of Westminster, Sabba frames her minimal architectural comics through the lived experience of her working class, second generation immigrant upbringing.

Twitter: @sabbakhan_

Instagram: sabbakhanart

THE ROLES WE PLAY SABBA KHAN

‘A beautiful and bittersweet book about heritage and identity, finding oneself and one’s way in the world.’ - Nikesh Shukla

Sabba Khan’s debut graphic novel, composed of 30 interconnected stories, explores themes of identity, belonging & memory within the East London Azad Kashmiri Muslim diaspora. Together the stories paint a snapshot of contemporary British Asian life & the complex generational shifts experienced within migrant communities today. Issues of race, gender & class are brought to the forefront in a simple & personal narrative.

Sabba’s debut graphic novel ‘The Roles We Play’ has won the Jhalak Prize ’22, and Broken Frontier’s Break Out Talent ’22. Nominations include the Ignatz prize, Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize, British Book Design Awards and AOI’s World Illustrations Awards, as well as being nominated for best books of 2021 in the Guardian. Collaborators for Khan’s comics work include The British Council, SOAS, NHS, London Borough of Newham, JCWI and The British Library. The Roles We Play is available in the US under the title ‘What is Home, Mum?’.

RIGHTS SOLD:

World All Languages and screen, Myriad Editions / New Internationalist. All non-publishing rights (including screen, stage and merchandise) represented by Viv Loves Film for Myriad Editions.

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

All other rights controlled by The bks Agency

OWEN D. POMERY

A UNIQUELY TALENTED COMICS CREATOR WITH A SUBTLE AND DECEPTIVELY

POWERFUL STYLE.

Owen D. Pomery has a professional and educational background in architecture. He has spent the past ten years specialising in illustration, with his particular area of interest being architectural narrative.

His debut self-published series, Between the Billboards was later collected and released by Avery Hill Publishing. He followed up that story of nihilistic isolation, with British Ice, an arctic noir exploring the horrors of a colonial legacy (Top Shelf). He also released Victory Point (Avery Hill) the same year - a graphic novella about the ennui of a young woman returning to a modernist seaside town where she grew up. His most recent book, The Hard Switch (Avery Hill) is a science fiction piece about a small crew trying to survive on the cusp of a new societal order. It hugely outperformed its initial crowdfunding target and is set for great success …

RIGHTS SOLD/UNAVAILABLE:

Between the Billboards, Victory Point and The Hard Switch - world, all languages - Avery Hill. British Ice - all rights - Top Shelf

RIGHTS AVAILABLE: all other rights controlled by The bks Agency

Instagram: odpomery

Twitter/X: @ODPomery

Substack: KIOSK.substack.com

All of his work is interested and linked by the idea of narrative space, and how environments affect the stories that play out within them. This features in his illustration work too, where Owen is known for his worldbuilding, becoming particularly popular for his isometric dioramas, and subsequently working as the concept artist for computer games. In addition to this, he works as a freelance illustrator in brand and editorial, with his drawings being commissioned by Apple, Airbnb, Tribune, The Economist, The New Yorker and many others. He is represented by Brilliant Artists for brand and editorial.

He lives and works in South London.

Owen D. Pomery

Asya Voitenko is a graphic novelist and illustrator from Kharkiv, Ukraine, currently living in Lancaster. Being born and raised in a post-soviet industrial city, she deeply values her native culture and her Eastern European identity and perspective. Asya is a fan of horror (her childhood urban legends especially fascinate her) and inventive imagery.

Instagram: pigsproduction

Twitter/X: @pigsproduction

ANASTASIIA VOITENKO

FALLEN TALE

A viscerally shocking account of life under siege in Ukraine

Asya Voitenko was an ordinary young citizen of Kharkiv when the Russian invasion of Ukraine happened. FALLEN TALE is her graphic memoir of that experience, rendered in a chaotically surreal style, with irony and black humour to the fore. She portrays the anxiety and trauma of war and the erasure of culture along with the human casualties.

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

All rights controlled by The bks Agency

Anastasiia Voitenko

King Louie’s Lab are writer-illustrators from South London, known for their fantastical worlds and razor-sharp sense of humour. With almost ten years’ experience as creative collaborators, they have developed a distinctive style and voice which shines through their stories and their artwork.

They have amassed a dedicated following for their underground graphic novels and online comic strips. Their breakout series, ‘Ant Story’, has been described as “a sly mix of the poignant, the near-heartbreaking, and… the undeniably funny” (Broken Frontier).

Instagram: kinglouieslab

KING LOUIE’S LAB

ANT STORY

A father proudly and repeatedly outwits his ever hopeful twelve year old son …

Dom Linton and Fred Morris have self published and sold out multiple print runs of ten books, as King Louie’s Lab. Most prominent is Ant Story - a deceptively simple sequence of panel strips depicting the tragicomic relationship between an ant dad and his son, which develops into a complex story arc, even veering into psychological thriller territory.

Ant Story strips regularly earn between 2-3k likes on Instagram and up to 75k upvotes on reddit.

Other projects, such as the really quite disturbing Groblin have been eagerly received by their fans, as have new characters like Charles Darwin: God of Evolution.

Ant Story has fans worldwide, leading to readings and conventions in the US and Europe. Many commentators have seen a Bojack Horseman / Adult Swim potential. Their work has appeared in Smoke Signal and the Observer online.

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

All rights controlled by The bks Agency

MACBETH K.BRIGGS

A vivid graphic novel adaptation of Macbeth, with Shakespeare’s full, unabridged text.

When three witches prophecy to Macbeth that he will one day become the King of Scotland, an epic of unhappiness, treachery, and blood begins. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s ambitions lead to an ever-growing path of murder as Macbeth grows ever-closer to the throne. But where will it all end? Only with death – and with madness.

Influenced by the witches and magic of Macbeth, K. Briggs’s lush new graphic novel rendition of the classic provides a new interpretation of the Scottish play. Briggs, as a Shakespeare reader (and performer) from age twelve, brings their lifelong love of the Bard to this work.

Macbeth has received a PW star review: “Briggs’ visual collages lend fresh magic to the mystical themes of Shakespeare’s words...The mix of reverence for a literary classic with playful, sensuously detailed artistry is a joy.” It has been enthusiastically adopted by teachers and librarians who use it in the classroom for reluctant Shakespeare readers.

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

Screen and other rights controlled by The bks Agency

RIGHTS SOLD:

World All Languages/Avery Hill

SYCAMORE

A beguiling exploration of place, home and return

SYCAMORE is a collection of short comics by celebrated creator K.Briggs. These shorts were created between 20142020, documenting the author’s tumultuous struggle to remain in the UK and ultimate return to the US, re-acclimatizing to the place where they grew up. The works are highly experimental, showing the development of Briggs’ signature sequential style and emotionally poetic voice. Comics are drawn on scraps of graph paper or old newspapers; Scotrail tickets, leaves, and old photographs found in their family home slip through the panels.

SYCAMORE shows comics as visual memory, comics as DIY underground art, comics as an act of self discovery. And the reader is never far from Briggs’ deep appreciation for art history, which they reference frequently.

These stories have previously appeared in Magpie (published by now defunct Throwaway Press) and Fox & Heron (self published).

K. Briggs is a comics witch and art teacher, based in the Greater Philadelphia area. Their love affair with sequential art began in 2012 while pursuing an MFA at Dundee University, Scotland. Their adaptation of Macbeth (Avery Hill Publishing) is filled to the brim with mystic symbolism and gothic extravagance. Other works include The New Chapter Tarot, a wholly original tarot deck, and Resistance, the first comic adaptation of Val McDermid’s work.

Instagram: K.Briggs

Eliza Fricker

Eliza Fricker is an illustrator and author whose deceptively simple illustrations give way to endearingly perceptive and detailed observations, which are often irreverently humorous and highly emotional. She writes about autism and education with beautiful artistic expression of difference in today’s society.

Instagram: elizafricker_missingthemark

Twitter/ X: @_MissingTheMark

THUMBSUCKER ELIZA FRICKER

“Thumbsucker is a deeply moving and powerful book about what life can be like for children who don’t quite fit inside society’s rigid boxes” – Caro Giles, author of Twelve Moons

Spoilt. Weirdo. Fussy. Hypochondriac. Chatterbox.

Eliza spent her childhood being told she was all of these until her autism diagnosis as an adult revealed why she had experienced the world so differently. But what does it mean to grow up knowing you are different, misunderstood, ‘difficult’?

Funny, witty and tender, Sunday Times bestselling author and illustrator Eliza Fricker, uses her own memories of growing up in the 80s to explore how neurodiversity presents itself in everyday life and what neurodivergent children really need from the people who love them.

Eliza’s other books include CAN’T NOT WON’T and THE FAMILY EXPERIENCE OF PDA.

RIGHTS AVAILABLE: all other rights controlled by The bks Agency

RIGHTS SOLD: World all languages / JKP

Eliza Fricker

azbt is a transmasculine genderqueer queer artist, currently based in London. Influenced by his international background, queer identities, and experiences with mental health, azbt works primarily through illustration, comics and zines to explore emotional landscapes, human relationships, and the deconstruction of gender. In 2023 azbt was awarded a micro bursary for trans/non-binary comic creators from Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival, and won the First Graphic Novel Award for BONE BROTH.

Instagram: azbtart.com

Twitter/ X: @azbtart

BONE BROTH azbt/ALEX

TAYLOR

A coming-of-age queer thriller from a prodigiously talented new graphic novelist

BONE BROTH is the story of Ash, a young transmasculine queer person breaking into adult working life as he starts his first job in a ramen shop in London. Joined by his colleagues on the wacky adventures they have along the way, he slowly learns the method by which the shop’s traditional bone broth is prepared. This knowledge seems increasingly relevant as one night after heavy drinking at the annual staff party, the team come to find their boss dead on the floor, and must find a creative way to deal with this bubbling situation before it boils over.

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

All rights controlled by The bks Agency

Hannah Berry is an award-winning comics creator, scriptwriter and campaigner. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was appointed UK Comics Laureate 2019-21. Editions of her books have been published in the USA, France, Holland, Serbia and Italy, and she has been a guest of and speaker at over 150 comics, literature and arts festivals and events around the world.

Instagram: streakofpith

Twitter/X: streakofpith

HANNAH BERRY

COMICS CREATOR AND CAMPAIGNER EXTRAORDINAIRE

Berry’s first graphic novel BRITTEN & BRÜLIGHTLY was published by Jonathan Cape in 2008, with the French edition chosen for the OFFICIAL SELECTION of the 2010 Angoulême International Comics Festival. Her second graphic novel ADAMTINE was published in 2012 and has been optioned for film adaptation, and her third, LIVESTOCK, in 2017, both by Jonathan Cape to some critical acclaim. LIVESTOCK won Berry a BEST WRITER AWARD at the 2017 Broken Frontier Awards and was nominated in the BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL category. She has contributed comics to anthologies and publications from 2000AD to the New England Journal of Medicine, was a cartoonist for New Statesman and Prospect Magazine, and wrote several episodes of the multi-award-winning scripted podcast THE REZ.

In her role as Laureate she instigated and carried out the first national survey of UK comics creators to gain a better understanding of the industry and those working within it. This led to the founding of the Society of Authors’ Comics Creators Network – of which she is on the steering committee – which advocates for creators and offers professional support. She is also 1/7th of the Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC), raising awareness of the cultural impact of comics and making the case for better funding, support and recognition, and is a trustee of the Cartoon Museum.

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

Please enquire.

All non-publishing rights (including screen, stage and merchandise) represented by Viv Loves Film.

Anna Trench is a graphic novelist, illustrator and teacher. Her work has been published by The Guardian, The Royal Society of Literature, The Spectator, SelfMadeHero, Slightly Foxed, Cambridge University and more. Her graphic novel FLORRIE was shortlisted for the First Graphic Novel Award and the LDC Comics Award, and a previous work was shortlisted for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Award. She teaches English at a secondary school in North London, and also enjoys playing football.

Instagram: anna_trench

ANNA TRENCH

FLORRIE

A queer, historical graphic novel about love and women’s football in 1920s Europe.

FLORRIE is a queer, historical graphic novel about love and women’s football in 1920s Europe. It focuses on Florrie, a young woman who falls in love with the beautiful game and with a beautiful woman who plays it.

When Florrie’s great-great-niece discovers Florrie was a footballer in the early twentieth century, she unearths a secret history both on and off the pitch. Boxes from the attic contain match reports, photos and love letters. Paraphernalia is pieced together revealing football games, friendships and love affairs in Norfolk, London, Dieppe and Paris. Florrie’s adventures touch on both invented and real events: huge crowds at matches in London, star-lit kisses on Dieppe beach, dances at lesbian club Le Monocle in Paris and the consequences of the FA’s 1921 ban on women playing a game deemed ‘unsuitable for females’

RIGHTS AVAILABLE:

All rights controlled by The bks Agency