Fishing transcends time with the graphic adaptation of The Compleat Angler - An interview with GARETH BROOKES

Cody from Keeping it Geekly sits down with acclaimed UK illustrator Gareth Brookes to talk about his Graphic Novel adaptation of Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler. It's time to cast a line and dive into the ins and outs of what goes into remixing a 372-year-old historical angling guidebook, out now through SelfMadeHero!

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COMIC BOOK YETI: Hello and welcome on in to the Yeti Cave, Gareth!! Hang your pole by the door and pull up a chair. How have the fish been biting out there?

GARETH BROOKES: It’s a bit hot for fishing at the moment!

CBY: You are credited with studying printmaking at the Royal College of Art and have several titles under your belt, such as A Thousand Coloured Castles (2017), The Black Project (which was nominated for an award at the Angouleme International Comics Festival, 2018), and The Dancing Plague (2021). Where did it all begin for you? Have you always been drawn to art, or was it a passion that developed along the way?

GB: Yes, I’ve always drawn, but that’s a long way from being any good, or connecting drawing with words and eventually making small press books and graphic novels. Its been a long journey to find the stories I wanted to tell, and find the best way to tell them. Finding people who wanted to read my work at cons and small press fairs, and other like-minded creators certainly helped. It’s a slow and circular process of coming back to the drawing board, learning and reinventing.

CBY: In your preface, you mentioned that The Compleat Angler is considered to be one of the most reprinted titles in the English Language. You also acknowledged that it never left your reading pile either. What was it about Izaak Walton's work that resonated with you so strongly? Were there any challenges with taking such a famous piece of literature and adapting it into your own work?

GB: Looking back at my book, and realising quite how much I’d butchered the original, makes it seem like an audacious thing to have done to a much loved piece of literature, but I didn’t think of it that way at the time. I had to be absolutely ruthless in cutting it down to get it to work as a comic. Walton is a very digressive writer, and always uses ten words where two would do, which made it even more challenging, especially as I like the way he writes and I wanted to keep some of that tone.

Walton’s book is full of imagery, he is a very visual writer, and a lot of the writing in the book invited illustration. The trick is to do it in a way that compliments the text and allows both registers to sing together, so to speak.

As a result of pruning the text back, I think that hopefully Walton’s voice is able to emerge a little bit, or at least my version of Walton. The Compleat Angler is subtitled, ‘The Contemplative Man’s Recreation’ and I wanted the contemplativeness aspect to be foregrounded. Contemplativeness to the max!

CBY: The interiors of this graphic adaptation evoke a genuine feeling, almost as if it serves as Izaak Walton's personal field guide. A balance of hand-drawn and linocut carving pen-and-inks, along with handwritten lettering and nuances to the page, such as water damage and wrinkling of the page, offered a distinctive reading experience. What was your reasoning for approaching the design in this manner?

GB: I like using materials that carry some of the message of the work with them. I definitely wanted the book to be pocket sized, and yes, as you say, like one of those field guides to birds or trees I used to have when I was a kid.

With the ink drawings I wanted water to be present as an element, so you could feel water through the wrinkled paper and the spreading of the ink. I think those kinds of things can affect the experience of reading a comic almost without the reader noticing.

CBY: Can you explain your process to us in more detail? What goes into linocut carving? What was your thought process in determining which pages would be hand-drawn vs. linocut?

GB: I wanted the instructional parts, about how to catch and cook fish to be linocut, and have the authority of print, albeit the kind of rudimentary printmaking which is not that far removed from what was around in the 17th Century. Then I wanted the ink-drawn parts to be more whimsical and contemplative, and to give a bit of space between the heavy dark lino pages. I drew the ink pages on wetted good quality bamboo paper. I cut all the lino out A4 size, and printed them using very cheap inks on very expensive paper using a wooden spoon. I always find a combination of the cheapest and most expensive materials to be the best. I drew the design on the lino first and then it takes a three or four hours to cut, depending on the complexity of the image. There’s a lot of complicated pond weed in the book!

CBY: The one thing I loved about reading through this was how comprehensive Walton's observations were on all kinds of fish. From catching them using different techniques, how to dress them, and even the natural predators they have, complete with his philosophy along the way. What about fishing is the most important part for you? For me, it's taking time to disconnect from the outside world and appreciate the world surrounding me.

PS: Yes, that’s a big part of the appeal I think. There’s so little opportunity to be outside the time of production or consumption, algorithms and computation. To disconnect with that stuff and dwell in nature, and have time to yourself that can’t be measured as value. It’s something that humans require on a visceral level.

CBY: So there's been a rumor floating around the Yeti Cave that The Dancing Plague inspired Florence and the Machine's Dance Fever album? That has to be one of the coolest accolades I have heard of for a graphic novel!!

GB: Apparently yes! That’s what she said on her Instagram a couple of years ago. I’m delighted that something I did contributed to someone else’s creative energy.

CBY: Thank you so much for swinging by and chatting with us today, Gareth! Where can our readers find The Compleat Angler Graphic Novel? Do you have any social media platforms you would like to mention so we can stay up to date with your future work?

GB: Social media is a bit dead these days isn’t it? But I still post on Instagram

sometimes. Best place to go is www.gbrookes.com and see what I’m up to on there.

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