
Hancock: The Lad Himself
In Stock
ISBN: 9781914169991
Hardback
291 Pages
b/w illus
Subjects:
Graphic novel & Manga artwork
Performing arts: comedy
Autobiography: arts & entertainment
Graphic novels: true stories & non-fiction
b/w illus
When he appeared on radio and television in the 1950s, Hancock immediately became an archetype and so he has remained. The writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson basically invented the sitcom form for him, teasing out the threads of his personality and creating from them a universally recognisable figure: the ever-aspiring, grumpy, petty, frustrated everyman pitted against society, bureaucracy, jobsworth vindictiveness and whatever you're having yourself; the best and worst of all of us, down to his last shilling for the meter.
WC Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton and Sid Field all came before him. Young Hancock was hugely influenced by them all, just as successive generations of comic actors (Cleese, Fry and Merton, to name a few) have been massively influenced by Hancock. The Office, Black Books, Peep Show and all the other great British sitcoms of the present day are variations on the Hancock template.
The Lad Himself is the creation of writer Stephen Walsh and artist Keith Page, exploring the strange life of a much-admired comedian.
"It's really good in a way that creeps up on you. Hancock's brilliance and comedy are timeless but the inner demons and insecurities that caused him to destroy himself are timeless too. This graphic novel shows us both sides of the man." -- Neil Gaiman (Good Omens, Sandman)
"This work of love by talented fans is a triumph." -- Nick West, The Tony Hancock Appreciation Society
"Stone me, it's a work of genius." -- Robert Ross, Comedy Historian
"Simply put, instantly one of the greatest British graphic novels ever. An immediate classic. Moving, funny, tragic and surreal. A tale that could only be told in comics form. Buy it and become entranced in the funny yet melancholy life of a British icon, beautifully told." -- Mike Collins (2000AD, Doctor Who, Good Omens)
"The Lad Himself is a complex, darkness-touched story told with kindness and elegance about a man convinced he deserved neither. It's a salute to a generation who changed comedy. Most of all it's a complex series of nested punchlines about a man whose life was far more than all of them, and who could never quite let himself believe that. Tragedy, comedy, horror and joy, all wrapped up in a big hat and a bigger coat, repeating the eternal half hour." -- Alasdair Stewart, The Full Lid
An authentic voice transmits throughout via excellently devised speech patterns, with a recurring motif of a self-destructive propensity for mistaking ambition for capability. In all, the good, the bad, and ugly of Hancock are duly and stylishly offered to present a man who delighted millions, but tragically never himself." -- Frank Plowright, Slings & Arrows
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