SYCAMORE

K.Briggs

RIGHTS AVAILABLE: All rights / The bks Agency

A beguiling exploration of place, home and return, by a remarkable graphic talent

SYCAMORE is a collection of short comics by celebrated creator K.Briggs, whose latest book is a full text adaptation of Macbeth. These shorts were created between 2014-2020, 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.

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 also be very well received by ELA teachers across the country, who use it in classroom for reluctant Shakespeare readers.