Briar Vol 1 back

I've just had to remove "Exclusive Page 45 Signed Bookplate Edition" because we sold all 50 within a week, before I could even contemplate a review.

Were you among the hundreds (yes, hundreds) who relished Ben and Christian's PORCELAIN VOL 1? Because PORCELAIN VOL 2 (previewed) debuts next month with another Exclusive Page 45 Signed Bookplate Edition so I would probably pre-order now! Thanks etc.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a princess in possession of a good fortune but hidden behind an impenetrable hundred-foot hedge of wild, red, rambling rose must be in want of a noble knight to rescue her.

Sure enough dozens of valiant would-be suitors have attempted entry but lost their lives and souls to the living briar whose thorns have shredded their shining armour and stripped the flesh behind it, leaving them caught in its coils to echo the entreaties of their equally doomed successors.

The Knight Of The Twisted Oak, however, will not be deterred. He too has heard the calling but holds a certain something up his sleeve which may give him the edge. Even so, he's in for a rude awakening for the curse is more complex than it seems.

The star of the show under Chris Wildgoose is the titular briar. According to Ben the script for page four ran little further than "The knight encounters the most monumental hedge". Something similar, anyway. It took him all of ten seconds to type. Now imagine you're the artist. Have you started crying yet?

The semi-sentient cadavers within are truly harrowing. There's something fundamentally frightening about one's orifices being invaded like that.

Tradition after tradition is thrown at you then out of the window, and my educated guess is that as soon as you've finished your first read through you'll want to begin again to see if the illusion cast by the clever script holds. It does.