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SELFMADEHERO, the UK’s leading independent publisher of graphic novels, has acquired the UK and Commonwealth rights to The Good Inn, a book penned by Black Francis from the alternative rock band Pixies and Josh Frank, with art by Steven Appleby.
SelfMadeHero’s Managing Director Emma Hayley secured the rights from Molly Jaffa and Melissa Sarver at Folio Literary Management on behalf of Michael Harriot.
The Good Inn is a fantastical piece of illustrated fiction based on a yet-to-be-written soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t yet exist, which Black Francis has approached with the same characteristic eccentricity and imagination he writes a song. The teenage hero known only as Soldier Boy escapes a devastating explosion at the French port of Toulon and sets out on a bizarre journey across France. Navigating past homicidal gypsies, combative soldiers and porn-peddling peasants, he takes refuge in a secluded inn, where he finds himself centre stage in the making of the world’s first narrative pornographic film.
Black Francis is the frontman of cult US rock band Pixies, whose songs have inspired musicians from Thom Yorke to Kurt Cobain. Josh Frank is the author of the Pixies biography Fool the World. The book is fully illustrated by Steven Appleby, the Guardian cartoonist who has written over 20 books as well as having worked in TV, radio and musical theatre.
The book will be published as a hardback in the UK in May 2014.
Notes to editors
SelfMadeHero aims to publish works that provoke, entertain, inspire, and inform through the medium of the graphic novel. We are proud to publish ground-breaking and beautiful work by authors and artists from across the globe, from the quirky and humorous to the political and profound. Its releases this year include The Park, Room For Love, The Man Who Laughs and Typex’s Rembrandt.