Page 48 The key to the puzzle
skyangel on Jan. 4, 2025
I hope you all had a really nice Christmas!
As for my story, we're now at the point where I finally came across ‘Tula the life of Caroline Cossey’ the book that was to explain everything I needed to know about my gender conflict. And Mr Ellen's bookshop has sadly long gone now but for me it was there at just the right time as I would spend many happy lunchtimes there looking through books often with barely enough time to get back to college!
I had to give a cameo appearance to my ‘Pan books of Horror’ too which I enthusiastically collected at the time. I've always loved short stories of all kinds and this particularly creepy series was very popular back then apparently running to 30 volumes before it finally ended, mainly I think because the stories were becoming more sick than scary.
Being 2nd hand though these books were so cheap to buy and I'd often buy Pan Books especially just for their beautiful painted covers which I still treasure to this day!
A Reader at 3:19PM, Jan. 5, 2025
Oh Skyangel, such a lovely page once again. And there seems to be a few little things (as always) tossed in for... Fun? Such as actual books on the page, love your nod to the publisher 'Pan', wish I'd had a chance to read some of them, they look like interesting stories, one hopes. I'll have to see if they're still out there. As for some of the book titles on the shelf? I enjoy trying to read them, even if at least one seems a bit, 'questionable'? LOL! Anyway, it's wonderful as always to see some of the things that informed your life. What can I say, thank you for sharing!
skyangel at 2:16PM, Jan. 10, 2025
Probably not easy to see without zooming in but the two books in the window are 'A Triple Echo by H E Bates about a soldier who deserts from the army and dresses up as a woman to avoid being caught. The second is called 'I want what I want' by Geoff Brown. I chose these two books as they are both fiction but deal with being transexual and transgender at a time before much was known about it but also felt very homely to me.
Roberto Fabris at 9:12AM, Jan. 5, 2025
The backgrounds are stunning!
skyangel at 2:08PM, Jan. 10, 2025
Thank you :)
UnderTheBlackHat at 7:00AM, Jan. 5, 2025
Another beautiful page Sky, love the little details on each of the buildings, making each one stand out as a separate structure so well. The detail of the book shop, as it gives us a great feeling of what the store was like, opening onto the street with a full window as it was, yet still warm and enclosed (like a private space hmm?) and filled with books of all and every type. We really like this page and appreciate the level of work that you've put into it. Lastly, wherever Mr. Ellen is, I'm sure they are proud of having been at least a little part of your life and being a place of joy for everyone that entered. Thank you so much for sharing.
skyangel at 2:08PM, Jan. 10, 2025
Thank you! THis page was interesting for me to do as I started off doing my usual pen and ink by hand and then starting adding more detail on my tablet as I'm now able to enlarge the art to tidy up smaller details which does give the final art a bit of a surreal feel I think. I wanted to do the outside view of the shop darker to enhance the warmth felt within more but as the page is set during daylight I had to hold back on that. I do regret never having taken the time to pop in and say goodbye to Mr Ellen after I left college. Years later when I went back again for a reunion visit the shop had gone.
Stever_Blotto at 6:31AM, Jan. 5, 2025
The drawings of that bookstore are soooo amazing. Totally next level! Bookstores have always been an escape for me as well. Way more than comic book shops because I never quite fit in with that superhero crowd, even though I do like all genres. What an amazing collections of books. Love those retro covers.
skyangel at 2:03PM, Jan. 10, 2025
Thank you! That's an interesting viewpoint. With me, it was nearly always the artwork that made me purchase comics and even many books too as I always felt a strong desire to own copies of artwork that excited me in some way.
Othosmops at 4:55PM, Jan. 4, 2025
Oh dear, your graphics are so lovingly and detailed. It must have been an incredible effort to draw it like that! And yes - those bookshops at the right time ...! In my case it was a comic store 😁 and discovered Vallejo, Pratt, Manara, the Heavy Metal magazine, bande dessinée, American independent comics and so on - a new universe of imagination.
skyangel at 1:58PM, Jan. 10, 2025
Thank you! And yes indeed, when I was at college there was an amazing comic/magazine store which imported a lot of Us stuff and EC mags I had never seen anywhere else before. I loved this particular bookshop though as it almost felt like being at home so it felt good to portray that as well as I could.