Blank Slate Books Peering Through Peepholes

The peephole is really the only look into and out of a room. Sure, not all peepholes are two-way, but you could say the peephole is to a room what an eye is to a person. There's a lot that goes on in all those rooms though and the imagination of Laurie J. Proud runs rampant in speculating on what exactly that is in his new graphic novel Peepholes.

Clocking in at 122 pages, the full-color hardcover takes a look at some of the more scandalous activities that go on behind closed doors. Ten stories look at the bizarre, including somnambulent cities where businessmen walk up the sides of buildings, werewolves go to midnight screenings, love-struck hitmen are hired to kill their favorite movie starlets and literal towers of self-pity threaten to collapse at any moment.

The work was created over a ten-year period while Proud worked as an animator and storyboardist. It will see a release in April 2012.

You can find more information about Peepholes here. Full press release below.

PEEPHOLES - Laurie J. Proud
ISBN 978-1-906653-24-8 | 122 pages | 225 x 169mm hardcover, full colour | £16.99 / $22.99

“What colour is the moon?”, “Red, silly girl.”, “have you seen my blacken’ eyed dog?”, “I’ll be your do-og...”.

And with that, the wolf-man climbs atop the naked bottom of the kneeling woman—electric shaver in hand.

In Peepholes, Laurie J. Proud peers into the worlds that lie behind closed doors—where everyday stuck-on smiles are shaken off to reveal the darkness and inner-yearnings they obscure.

Ten beautifully-crafted stories of the bizarre take us through somnambulant cities where businessmen walk up the sides of buildings, werewolves go to midnight screenings, love-struck hitmen are hired to kill their favourite movie starlets and literal towers of self-pity threaten to collapse at any moment. Veering in between dreams and nightmares, Proud’s oblique visions of urban and emotional chaos range from the darkly comical to bitingly poignant.

Created over a ten-year period whilst Proud worked professionally as an animator and storyboardist, Blank Slate now binds these stories together in a special 122-page hardcover presentation. Fans of creators such as Al Columbia and Ho Che Anderson will find a lot to love in work that’s captivating and unsettling in equal measure. For everyone else, this is a chance to see a new UK comics talent emerge with a fully formed creative voice. Do you dare peek through to the other side?

Released April 2012

MORE INFO HERE • PRE-ORDER SIGNED COPY HERE


PRAISE FOR PEEPHOLES
"tales of high graphic sophistication" - Paul Gravett, author of 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die

"Peepholes is standing out as one of the more visually fascinating-looking works that we should all be keeping an eye open for" - Joe Gordon, Forbidden Planet International Blog

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LAURIE J. PROUD has worked professionally for over 20 years as an animator, storyboard artist and illustrator. Now fulfilling his long held desire to move into comics, he has emerged on the British scene as a fully-formed talent. Inspired by the dark and the surreal, he recalls his first time watching Eraserhead at age 17 as a ‘mind altering experience’ and agrees with Victor Hugo that the sublime is best defined as a combination of the grotesque and the beautiful. Born in Newcastle, he currently lives in Hove, East Sussex, in a flat filled with art deco furniture and 1920s- 1940s vintage clothes.