Fear, anger and bravery... story of Eyam Plague retold in comic
wealth of audio and visual content out there, HOME are slowing down the pace by reviving the disappearing format of the weekly comic strip.
Nick Burton is a Manchester born illustrator and storyteller.
He spent the majority of his life in Canada (Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto), but for the past eight years has been living in Salford, England.
His illustrations and comics have featured in Wired Magazine, The New York Times, Ride Journal, GQ and others.
He was a finalist in HOME’s first Manchester Open and updates his Instagram
feed on a frustratingly intermittent basis. Visit: https://nickburtondraws.com
Nick explained what it was about the story of the Eyam Plague that appealed to him.
“I’d heard of Eyam, but not in the context of the Plague, and I couldn’t pronounce it correctly. I can now.
“It’s pronounced Eem – rhymes with Team.
“Anyway, I was researching for this project and began reading about different plagues.
“When I read the story of the Eyam Plague, the way it tore through the village, devastated a community, and the incredible sacrifice the people of that village made, I knew there was something in it.
“Maybe it was because we’d just entered lockdown ourselves and the parallels between what happened then and what’s happening now are considerable.”
We are taken back to 1665. A plague creeps ever towards a rural English village, Eyam, in Derbyshire. An isolated village in lockdown brings out the worst and the best in its people (mostly the worst).
Wise woman Granny Dankworth, speaks a muddled truth but holds no authority within the village hierarchy.
Village gossip, George Gribble, blames the fairies for all misfortune, while young Godfrey Berrycloth, confined to a wheelchair, could be best positioned to ride out the inconvenience – his rich interior world within a moment’s reach.
In which characters will we recognise ourselves? What similarities exist between their world and ours?
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