Mary Talbot's Website

It’s been a busy week! We’ve been down in London for the launch of our new graphic biography, Lo! An Amazon! The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Here’s an interview we did for the publisher’s website.

On Wednesday, we had a great time at the launch event in the Cartoon Museum, where there were lots of lovely people to chat to. Here’s Bryan with Billy Barnell, who’s proudly holding a commission Bryan did for him recently:

Its subject is an interview we did last year for his Half the Picture podcast. Here’s a link to the podcast.

Afterwards some of us went for an excellent curry at the Punjab on Shaftsbury Avenue. Highly recommended.

On Thursday, we had an invitation to talk at  Dr Johnson’s House, where we were made very welcome and had a gratifyingly warm and appreciative audience. Our presentation took place in the garrett, where the esteemed Dr Samuel Johnson compiled his  Dictionary of the English Language (the first of its kind, it first appeared in print in 1752). The eighteenth-century townhouse is an interesting place to visit.

Then finally, on Friday, we did a signing session at Gosh! Comics. Lots of familiar faces and some new ones!

Thanks to Jacob Ashbridge, Rian Hughes and Mauricio Molizane for the photos.

Lakes Festival time is almost upon us! This year it’s in Kendal again, back where it first started celebrating comics in 2013. We’ll be there and, of course, we have a new book to talk about. We’ll be sharing a Saturday 12pm slot with Nina Six from Belgium, chaired by John McShane. Details and tickets here.

I’m pleased to announce that there’s another launch event for our new graphic biography coming up later in the month – this time in NE England. We’ll be doing a presentation of Lo! An Amazon! The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft in the fine surroundings of the Literary & Philosophical Society in Newcastle.

It’s on Tuesday 29th September, from 6pm to 7.30pm. Entry is free, but please book here.

Lo! An Amazon! The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft comes out on Thursday 17th September. The evening before, there will be a launch event at London’s Cartoon Museum from 6.30 to 8.30 and we’re delighted to announce that it’s open to the public (our previous launches have been invite-only). Entry is free, with a ticket available here, where there’s also an option to reserve a copy of the book.

I’ve already posted about our talk on the Thursday at Dr Johnson’s House. On the Friday, we’ll be signing at Gosh! Comics  from 6pm to 7pm.

Lo! An Amazon! will then be well and truly launched!

The publication date of our new graphic biography, Lo! An Amazon! The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft, has been brought forward to 17th September 2026. On the same day, we will be giving a presentation at Dr Johnson’s House in London.

In the Age of Revolutions, amidst heady widespread demands for the liberty equality and fraternity of mankind, Mary Wollstonecraft spoke out for the other “one-half of the human race”: women. Over twenty years before her daughter, Mary Shelley, created the science-fiction genre with Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1792 manifesto, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, took the world by storm. Forthright and fearless, she mixed with other radical artists and thinkers of her time and she travelled widely, including to Paris, alone, during the Reign of Terror.

Lo! An Amazon! The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft with Mary and Bryan Talbot 6.30pm – 8.00pm (Doors open 6pm) | Thursday 17th September £27.50 (The ticket includes a welcome drink and a chance to view Dr Johnson’s House) | Book your tickets here (limited capacity, early booking advised) | Email: info@drjohnsonshouse.org info@drjohnsonshouse.org

So, off it’s gone to the publisher! The 6th collaborative graphic novel created by Bryan and myself. It’s now scheduled for publication by SelfMadeHero on the 1st October 2026 (UK) and 3rd November (USA). 

“And lo! An amazon stept out,
One WOLSTONECRAFT her name”

from ‘The Life, Death, and Wonderful Atchievements of Edmund Burke: a new ballad’
by William Roscoe 1790

Roscoe, a lawyer and committed abolitionist in Liverpool, was a big fan.

Here are a few samples of Bryan’s superb artwork for Lo! an Amazon! The  Interesting Narrative of the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft:

Just back from Paris again. We were over last month for book signings at the Ministry of Finance(!), at Planète Dessin, Montparnasse, and at Millepages in Vincennes, where Les Carnets de Stanford Hawksmoor (the French edition of The Casebook of Stanford Hawksmoor) had received the Prix Millepages 2025.

We managed to visit the extensive Leonora Carrington exhibition in the Luxembourg Museum, just off Luxembourg Gardens. Both are well worth a visit if you’re in Paris. The exhibition had just opened when we went in March and it’s on until the end of August, I think.

This time we were there for the Festival du livre de Paris (the Paris Book Fair), in the Grand Palais no less! Invited over by Laurent Lerner of Délirium again, Bryan had a busy three days doing dédicaces: signing and sketching at the stand. The surroundings were spectacular! Here are some photos:

Mary Wollstonecraft imagines a domestic scene. Picture a husband and wife at home:

The domestic trifles of the day have afforded matters for cheerful converse, and innocent caresses have softened toils which did not require great exercise of mind or stretch of thought: yet, has not the sight of this moderate felicity excited more tenderness than respect? An emotion similar to what we feel when children are playing, or animals sporting.

Mary wanted to bring about nothing less than ‘a revolution in female manners’. She wanted women to gain respect, dignity, independence. For that they had to be allowed to act like grown-ups: ‘How grossly do they insult us who thus advise us only to render ourselves gentle, domestic brutes!’

Women were expected to marry, thereby becoming legal property of the husband: ‘the slavery of marriage’, as Mary described it. She knew from her own experience that other options were limited: ‘Few are the ways of making a subsistence, and those very humiliating’. Lady’s Companion, Teacher, Governess – she’d tried them all. Governess was definitely her least favourite.

So, in August 1787, she became a staff writer for Joseph Johnson Esq of St Paul’s Churchyard. And she proudly announced to her sisters: ‘I am the first of a new genus’

Mary Wollstonecraft was magnificent.

Lo! An Amazon! The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft
will be published by the award-winning independent publisher, SelfMadeHero on 1st October (UK)/ 3rd November (US).

Well, this year’s visit to Angoulême was certainly different! We were there for the Grand Off alternative BD festival which, of course, was much smaller than the cancelled Festival de la Bande Dessinée de Angoulême. No dense crowds of people in the streets, at least not when we arrived. Le Chat Noir almost empty on Friday night! It was a very friendly, intimate event overall.

Bryan was kept very busy, though. Délirium, his French publisher, had invited him over to do signings at the stand in Le Villages des Editeurs (Publishers’ Village). This was located by the BD museum, down by the river Charante.

Here are some photos (some of them a bit blurry, I’m afraid):

Late last year, we did an interview with Billy Barnell for his Half the Picture podcast. In case you’re interested, here it is on YouTube: