Over the last 20-odd years, SelfMadeHero have quietly made themselves one of the best graphic novel publishers around, modestly throwing out great titles covering history, biography of people like Bowie and Kusama, plus fiction that ticks the boxes of funny little weirdos. Have you read The Nao Of Brown? Well you should.
The latest one follows artist Myfanwy Tristram’s trip to the Workers Gallery in Ynyshir, to show (in, sob, a closed down library) her drawings of protesters and their signs, and to gather stories of locals fighting their various corners over time. The noisy valley of the title is the Rhondda, and Tristram illustrates not just the more renowned tales of the area such as delegations to Greenham Common or support for striking miners, but a whole swathe of kickings-off, collective and individual. (There’s a sweet vignette about a schoolgirl successfully making a stink about not being able to study geography.)
Landfills, industrial estates, hospital closures – not all these protests achieve their goal, but Tristram captures all the worthwhile guts and good humour in fine, unsentimental style.
