A stunning first graphic novel by a Cape/Comica/Observer graphic short story competition winner - a tale of a skirmish in the ice-cream wars that is worthy of Alan Bennett
Matthew Dooley won the Cape/Observer Graphic Short Story Prize and
his debut FLAKE, published by Cape in 2020, went on to win the
Wodehouse Bollinger Prize, the first time for a graphic novel. It
was also a Guardian Book of the Year.
He is from the north-west of England and now lives in London.
If Alan Bennett made graphic novels, they might look like this...
But Dooley deserves to be recognised for his own talents and they
are all on display in this fine, funny graphic novel that is full
of sly humour and facial hair, set against a world of pub quizzes,
crazy golf and crosswords. His flat drawing style has a deadpan
comedy all its own, but it's the world he conjures up that stays
with you. Lovely.
*Herald Scotland *50 best books to give at Christmas**
Full of irresistible puns… A meld of Alan Bennett and the American
comic-book artist Chris Ware…and also Tom Gauld.
*Observer*
The first graphic novel to win the Wodehouse prize for comic
literature. It's a cheerfully nostalgic trip into a north-western
English town of pub quizzes, crazy golf and crosswords, and a
testament to the powers of salt water and friendship in a crisis.
Dooley's merrily inventive ice lollies are worth a book of their
own.
*Guardian *Books of the Year**
Dooley is deft at employing a Chris Ware-like sense of ennui… Flake
is principally comedic, comedic in the way that Magnus Mills is
comedic or Wallace and Gromit… We will watch to see what he does
next with baited breath.
*Bookmunch*
[Matthew Dooley] handles this gloomy trifecta of middle age,
limited financial prospects and an English costal resort in the
melancholy style familiar to fans of Chris Ware, but unlike that
great prophet of emptiness, restores a sunburst of optimism to this
dismal corner of the nation by book's end.
*Strong Words*
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