Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

‘We wanted to put on display the self-activity of the working class. From
that point of view we looked at the taking over of the factory, the taking
over of the posh restaurant, the mansion, regulating food prices – that this
was what was driving the revolutionary process.’
There has been an explosion in graphic fiction over the past couple of
decades, though it is a new departure for Bookmarks – and for Tim and
John. How did they feel this project could fit into the wider trend?
62
‘A lot of graphic fiction is radical in the broader sense,’ says John. ‘Much
of the stuff that Pat Mills has done over the years, for example, has been
incredibly radical.’
Pat Mills is one of the most prominent British comics writers and editors,
creator of the 2000AD comics and of the Charley’s War series of graphic
novels about the First World War. He has written a foreword for Russia’s
Red Year, which he describes as ‘a gem of a book that celebrates the
people’s victory over their oppressors. It’s exciting, informative, emotional,
funny, beautifully painted and so relevant to our own times. It’s a work of
truth.’
As John makes clear, ‘At a time when the ideas of the revolution are going
to be hotly contested, we felt it would be a good idea to put a particular
interpretation of these events forward in a graphic form that could reach
an audience that might otherwise not read anything about the Russian
Revolution.’
The process of working on the book was challenging for both authors.
SHEEP IN THE ROAD : NUMBER 17