Salem Brownstone: All Along the Watchtowers

Dunning, John Harris

ISBN 10: 0763647357 ISBN 13: 9780763647353

Publisher: Candlewick, 2010

Synopsis

A mundane life takes a strange and magical turn in this rich gothic fantasy told with vivid black-andwhite art — a graphic novel perfect for a Halloween night. 

As he twists the key and slowly creeps into the grand mansion left to him in his father’s will, Salem Brownstone has an eerie feeling that his world is about to change. First there’s the appearance of a beguiling contortionist from Dr. Kinoshita’s Circus of Unearthly Delights . . . then a crystal ball . . . then an attack by the sinister Shadow Boys. It seems the father that Salem never knew was actually a powerful magician, and the son has inherited his dark legacy — and an unfinished battle for life or death. With intriguing echoes of Tim Burton, Edward Gorey, H. P. Lovecraft, and Aubrey Beardsley, this album-format, beautifully cloth-bound graphic novel forges a mesmerizing style all its own.

About this title

About the Author:

John Harris Dunning has written for many leading newspapers and magazines. Salem Brownstone, his first graphic novel, was first serialized in the U.K. anthology Sturgeon White Moss. Born in South Africa, he now lives in London.

Nikhil Singh’s artwork has appeared in numerous major magazines. Besides working as an illustrator, he performs in the post-punk band The Wild Eyes. He lives in London.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Bound in purple cloth, with oversize pages filled with hallucinatory black-and-white visuals, this graphic novel immediately looks and feels unlike anything else out there. Astonishingly the work of two first-time creators, this is a book that both takes full advantage of its form and offers something unique in the current graphic-novel market: a deep strangeness that pervades every panel, every figure, and even every object within. Although Dunning’s humorously dry writing and the bizarrely calm affect of an array of enjoyable characters help create the creepy tone, Singh’s flowing, surreal perspectives and vaguely Ditko-esque landscapes of alternate planes are what will cast readers into an unfamiliar and occasionally uncomfortable world. Even amid the constant barrage of obtuse and off-kilter imaginings, there are indelible images that stand out: tortured smoke haunting the air over a mansion; intertwined souls trapped within the insectoid eye of a fly. What’s it about? Well, the plot concerns Salem’s inheritance of a magic orb from his deceased father, after which he is abetted by the freakish denizens of Dr. Kinoshita’s Circus and opposed by the Seven Dark Elders of Midnight City. But what it’s really about is the thrill of the genuinely weird. Grades 9-12. --Jesse Karp

About this edition

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0763647357
• ISBN 13: 9780763647353
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 96
• Illustrator: Singh Nikhil