Synopsis/Book Info

 ‘The De Chirico Horse’ is an upcoming 40 page graphic novel. I have just finalised the book, and am looking for some guidance in going about publishing it. I have screen-printed several spreads, which are displayed on this website; the intention being that after it has gone through editing, the entire book will be screen-printed, and subsequently lithographically reproduced. The intent of this project is to showcase my abilities as a visual sequential narrator, as well as acting as a springboard to larger projects.

In 1927, my great-grandfather Hugh Compton travelled from England to Italy as a young man. He would stay here for several years, where upon his return he had acquired fluent Italian, affluent friends and a miniature carving of a wooden horse. This, it would turn out was a gift from the artist Giorgio de Chirico, the founding artist of the School of Metaphysical Art, a precursor to the start of Surrealism.

On the year of my 21st birthday, my grandparents sent me this carved miniature when I was at art school. My intrigue in the object, its history and the memories recalled from childhood led me to contemplate how I could consecrate a cherished family story. Reminiscing on ruminated histories, the nature of any story is its natural degradation or evolution. So before fading from existence, I decided to put down a place marker, to create a vignette of what has until now been a word-of-mouth family story. The resultant narrative is sustained by the amalgam of both assumed historical truths and the beatified act of crafting story. The fictive nature of being both author and illustrator indelibly makes anything I create an automatic half-truth, but that is the nature of story.

The narrative’s purpose lies not only in its ability to encapsulate the story of the horse, but in its dual purpose to act as a recording of The De Chirico Horse’s validity as an artefact with a recorded historical basis. I may be wrong, but I would like to think this is an original work in its purpose to act dually as both story and recorded provenance.

Any further questions about ‘The De Chirico Horse’ then please contact me. Any questions welcome!

Screen-Printed Book Pages

I have just finalised the book, and am looking for some guidance in going about publishing it. I have screen-printed several spreads, which are displayed here; the intention being that after it has gone through editing, the entire book will be screen-printed, scanned and subsequently lithographically reproduced.