2022 First Folio Society Edtn Artist Enhanced Copy Signed NEVERWHERE By Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke Illus. Chris Malbon

2022 First Folio Society Edition 1st Printing Artist Enhanced Copy

NEVERWHERE
By Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke

KEY DETAILS
Condition: Fine
Format: Hardcover, Super octavo (8vo 7 × 11 in 178 × 279 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Published By: The Folio Society, London, 2022
Language: English
Signed By: Signed & Remarqued by Artist
Illustrated By: Chris Malbon
Collation: Publisher’s stated extent: 392 pages.; The principal numbered text concludes at p. 347, with subsequent unnumbered matter forming part of the complete published extent.; 9 full-colour illustrations, including 2 double-page spreads; 21 colour chapter headings.
Dust Jacket: None, as issued, No Jacket
SKU: BTETM0002640
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 2Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request

DESCRIPTION
Neverwhere
ARTIST-ENHANCED COPY — SIGNED & REMARQUED WITH FOUR ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY CHRIS MALBON Introduced by Susanna Clarke A striking artist-enhanced copy of the first Folio Society edition and first printing of Neil Gaiman’s modern urban-fantasy classic, substantially embellished by the book’s illustrator Chris Malbon with four large original drawings executed directly into the volume, together with his signature and a signed accompanying letter discussing the creation of the drawings and his working method. These are considerably more substantial than the small marginal sketch usually implied by the term “remarque”. Each occupies much or virtually all of its page and forms an individual original composition, executed principally in black ink with visible blue pencil/working accents. The drawings comprise character studies and an elaborate key-and-skull composition, all firmly within the visual vocabulary Malbon developed for the Folio Society commission. The accompanying signed letter provides unusually strong direct provenance for the enhancements. Malbon explains that he added a group of sketches and signed the volume, discusses the very different experience of drawing directly into a finished book rather than working digitally, and relates the technique to the exploratory hand-drawn sketches from which his work on the Folio Society edition originally developed. The publisher’s ordinary edition was neither signed nor numbered. The four original drawings, Malbon’s signature and his accompanying correspondence therefore transform this copy from the standard Folio issue into a highly individual example of the artist’s work associated directly with the book he illustrated.

CONDITION, COLLATION & COPY NOTES
An exceptionally attractive example of the 2022 first Folio Society edition and first printing, subsequently signed and artist-enhanced by illustrator Chris Malbon. Bound in the publisher’s printed and blocked cloth, with the pictorial binding design showing Richard Mayhew falling between the two Londons. Spine lettered and decorated as issued. Complete with the original printed and blocked slipcase, whose parallel design depicts Door moving between worlds. This copy contains four substantial original drawings by Chris Malbon executed directly onto otherwise blank or preliminary pages of the volume, principally in black ink with visible blue pencil/working accents. The drawings are large compositions rather than conventional small marginal remarques and include three figurative studies together with an elaborate key-and-skull design. Malbon has additionally signed the volume. Accompanying the book is an original signed letter from Chris Malbon discussing the added drawings. In it he explains the unusual experience of working directly in the physical book rather than digitally and links the process to the original sketches through which his visual treatment of Neverwhere was developed for the Folio Society. The artist’s letter is an important part of the provenance of the copy, directly documenting the creation of its original artwork. Book and slipcase present exceptionally well, the cloth clean and bright and the printed surfaces fresh, with no significant rubbing, staining or impact damage apparent. Interior clean and crisp. The original Malbon drawings and signed letter are preserved in excellent condition. Fine in Fine publisher’s slipcase. Production Details: Bound in printed and blocked cloth. Printed and blocked publisher’s slipcase. Set in Mentor with Tommaso used for display typography. Nine full-colour illustrations by Chris Malbon, including two double-page spreads. Twenty-one colour chapter headings. The Folio Society records the total extent as 392 pages. This copy additionally contains four original drawings by Chris Malbon, his signature and an accompanying signed letter from the artist. Please see Photos as part of condition report.

REFERENCES
The Folio Society, Neverwhere, official 2022 edition and production details. Chris Malbon, Neverwhere / Folio Society portfolio. Début Art, Chris Malbon, Neverwhere Internal Pages / Folio Society. Analecta Books, Seller Inventory 002310: first Folio Society edition, first printing, signed and remarqued by Chris Malbon.

SYNOPSIS
London has another city beneath it. When ordinary young businessman Richard Mayhew stops to help an injured girl named Door on a London pavement, the act costs him his place in the world he knows. His home, job and even his existence in the memories of those around him begin to disappear. Richard has fallen through the cracks into London Below. There, familiar names from the Underground acquire strange and sometimes literal meanings. Earl’s Court has an Earl and his travelling court. Blackfriars has its Black Friars. Angels, assassins, beasts, markets and forgotten people inhabit a shadow city existing alongside — and beneath — conventional London. Door is the surviving member of a murdered family and possesses the ability to open places that should remain closed. Pursued by the terrifying Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar, she seeks the truth behind her family’s destruction. Richard joins her journey alongside the flamboyant Marquis de Carabas and the legendary bodyguard Hunter, hoping that somewhere in London Below lies a path back to his former life. Their search leads through abandoned stations, subterranean kingdoms, ordeals and betrayals towards the Angel Islington and the mystery at the heart of Door’s family. Neverwhere works simultaneously as fantasy adventure and as a transformation of London itself. Gaiman turns place-names, Underground stations, historical fragments and the people whom the modern city overlooks into the raw material of mythology. The resulting London Below is both fantastical and recognisable: a distorted reflection of the city above and of the lives that disappear unnoticed within it. The Folio Society edition expands that imaginative world visually through Chris Malbon’s dramatic illustrations and binding design, while also including Susanna Clarke’s introduction and Gaiman’s related Neverwhere story, How the Marquis Got His Coat Back. In this particular copy, Malbon’s four additional hand-drawn compositions take that relationship between text and illustration a stage further, making the volume not merely an illustrated edition but an individual artist-enhanced example of one of the Folio Society’s most distinctive modern fantasy productions.

AUTHOR BIO
Neil Gaiman is a British author whose work spans novels, short fiction, comics, children’s literature, radio, television and film. His best-known works include The Sandman, Good Omens, Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, The Graveyard Book and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Neverwhere began as a BBC television series written by Gaiman and first broadcast in 1996. Gaiman subsequently reworked and expanded the material into the novel published by BBC Books later that year. It has since become one of his defining works and a landmark of modern urban fantasy, transforming familiar London geography into an imagined subterranean mythology of forgotten stations, displaced people, angels, assassins, markets and hidden kingdoms. Introduction By: Susanna Clarke Introduction Bio: Susanna Clarke is the British novelist best known for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and Piranesi. Her fiction combines the fantastic with an unusually strong sense of place, history and literary tradition, making her particularly well suited to introduce Gaiman’s parallel and mythologised London. Her introduction was specially included in this Folio Society edition.

ILLUSTRATOR
Chris Malbon
Chris Malbon is a British commercial and editorial illustrator based in Bristol. Trained in graphic design and illustration, he has worked across publishing, advertising, music and entertainment, creating imagery for clients including Disney, Marvel, Sony, Nike, MTV and Vanity Fair. His work combines traditional drawing, ink and painterly techniques with digital processes, frequently using dramatic viewpoints, strong silhouettes and cinematic compositions. For the Folio Society’s Neverwhere, Malbon created nine full-colour illustrations, including two double-page spreads, twenty-one colour chapter headings and the artwork extending across the binding and slipcase. His visual interpretation of London Below combines recognisable elements of the city with a darker, unstable and fantastical parallel world. Malbon subsequently returned to the Folio Society to illustrate James Clavell’s Shōgun, further establishing his association with ambitious illustrated Folio productions. The present copy is particularly significant for containing four additional original Malbon drawings executed by hand directly into the book, accompanied by his signed letter discussing their creation.