Coming Spring 2024: 1177 B.C. A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed, a translation in comics of Eric H. Cline’s bestselling 1177 B.C.
“1177 B.C. is a spectacular achievement—deftly adapted, beautifully drawn, and captivatingly colored by Glynnis Fawkes. . . . [She] doesn’t just bring history alive, she propels it across the page in an accessible, gripping way.” —Alison Bechdel, New York Times bestselling author of Fun Home
Eric Cline’s 1177 B.C. tells the story of one of history’s greatest mysteries: what caused the ancient civilizations of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean to collapse more than three thousand years ago, bringing the Late Bronze Age to an abrupt end? In this vivid and captivating full-color graphic adaptation of the landmark book, author-illustrator Glynnis Fawkes invites us to follow two young friends living in the aftermath of the cataclysm as they unravel why it happened—and reveal important lessons for today’s interconnected and vulnerable world.
Pel, a member of the marauding Sea Peoples, and Shesha, an Egyptian scribe, visit the kingdoms of the Minoans, Mycenaeans, Hittites, Canaanites, Assyrians, and Egyptians to explore the calamities that brought them down. This graphic history depicts the people, events, art, architecture, and lands that Pel and Shesha encounter. We witness the Sea Peoples’ battles on land and sea, earthquakes on the Greek mainland, droughts and famine in Anatolia, invasions in north Syria, and possible rebellions in Canaan. Along the way, we also learn about the assassination of a Hittite prince traveling to marry an Egyptian queen, the sinking of a merchant ship laden with international goods, and the return of a pair of sandals to Crete by the Babylonian king Hammurabi.
An entertaining adventure story, this dazzling comic is also historically accurate and enlightening, inviting readers of all ages to think about the surprising factors and theories that explain why societies, whether ancient or modern, die or survive when struck by catastrophes.
Order from Princeton Press, Bookshop.org, or from your local bookseller.
REVIEWS
Times Literary Supplement July, 2024
Fabulous book trailer!
The Center for Cartoon Studies Presents Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre published by Little, Brown September 2019 with an introduction by Alison Bechdel.
Listed among YALSA’s 2020 Great Graphic Novels for Teens.
ORDER AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSHOP!
For me that’s glorious Phoenix Books in Burlington, VT.
Praise for Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre:
”…Emotionally nuanced and visually stunning biography…”
Kirkus Review:
“Fawkes deftly weaves narration from Charlotte’s writings into appropriate biographical scenes….Fawkes’ illustrations appear as black-and-white, shaded pencil drawings in a style that cartoonist Alison Bechdel aptly describes in the introduction as “crisp and engaging.” … A biography that goes beyond static history, inspiring respect for Charlotte and encouraging writers and artists to defend their work through adversity.”
“One of the joys of Fawkes’s slender volume is that Charlotte does not suffer in noble silence; she is openly ambitious, even resenting what teaching steals from her creative life. Though some of the portrait’s strengths can be attributed to the subject herself—this book relies heavily on her letters and poems—Fawkes is a deft and economical editor. With sure-handed, irreverent illustrations, she captures life on the windswept moors and masters the art of Victorian side-eye. Her Charlotte Brontë is as smart, brooding, and rebellious as Jane Eyre, and her volume offers an accessible introduction to and an elaboration on the Brontës’ work.”
Persephone’s Garden (2019) published by Secret Acres. It is 272 pages of new comics about my mother, cartoons that have appeared on The New Yorker.com and elsewhere, and diary comics spanning the past 7 years, most of my children’s childhood.
Praise for Persephone’s Garden:
“Few cartoonists capture a life being lived better than Glynnis Fawkes. Her comics are concocted from small joys, great sorrows, and of being in the present moment while also being painfully aware of the passage of time. Glynnis is one of my favorite cartoonists and this collection of deft observations and wry musings are by turns poignant and hilarious and collectively they add up to something greater than the sum of their parts: a low-key masterpiece by a brilliant and generous artist.”
- James Sturm, author of The Golem's Mighty Swing and Off Season
A children's song inspires a love of Greek mythology in a young girl. A young woman finds a career in archeology and illustration. A young mother sees her daughter become a woman, as her own mother's memories are lost. Persephone's Garden is a deeply personal story and an inventive study of girlhood, womanhood and motherhood, through memory, history and mythology.
8" x 6.". Full color. 272 pages.
“Fawkes has a wonderfully lithe, Thurber-esque line, which adapts effortlessly to the humorous and quotidian.
Combining small moments that will ring true for many readers, Fawkes uncovers big themes in this funny-sad, satisfying mosaic.”
Greek Diary Short Listed for the Slate Cartoonist Studio Prize.
And won a silver medal at the Society of Illustrators MoCCA Arts Festival in NY in 2017.
In June and July 2016, I went to Greece to work on a dig, my 9th season at the site of Kenchreai on the Corinthian Gulf. For 5 weeks I drew every day, both diary comics and landscapes--3 notebooks full. Part of the Diary is about work on the dig and part is about the trip afterwards to Rhodes, Santorini, and Paros I took with my family--my husband John, Classics professor, musician, scholar of ancient music, and our two kids, ages 9 and 11. My goal now is to make this diary into a book by adding context to the daily trials: memories from my first and many subsequent trips to Greece over nearly 20 years and especially the beginning of the romance with John on Santorini 13 years ago.
Reign of Crumbs is 76 pages, perfect bound b/w w/color covers and is published in June 2017 by Kilgore Books.
"Glynnis' comics have been some of our favorites for many years now. Whether she's detailing the joys and hardships of parenting in Vermont or the Middle East, adventuring in Greece, or re-telling ancient myths, she is a joy to read, with strong and clear line. She has a unique and uncanny ability to pull the critical thread out of a story and show it to the world."
This book is still in search of a title! It’s also a long time in the making. I finished a first draft in residence at La Maison des Auteurs in Angouleme in 2017. I have continued to revise, edit, and add to the story, and will be published by Holiday House in 2026.
This is the story of a family of artists on Santorini before and after the catastrophic eruption in the 17th century BC, and 11-year-old Asara who follows her father in painting frescos in palaces of Knossos in Crete and Tel ed Daba in Egypt. She is in search of both her mother, a weaver, who was lost in the chaos of evacuating the island during the eruption, and her independence as an artist.
For this project I’ve received funding from The Sustainable Arts Foundation, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Alumni Travel Fellowship, and the Vermont Arts Council, and residencies at The Vermont Studio Center and the Ragdale Foundation.
