The Little Bookshop Between

Luke Finch emailed me out of the blue to send me a copy of his comic The Little Bookshop Between. I wasn’t sure it sounded like my kind of story, but I loved it. It could be called horror, but it’s very much about hints and attitude, not gore or conventional scares, and there’s a surprising note of optimism under it all.

An author coming from being told he needs to write more commercial, escapist work settles down at his local coffee shop. There, he notices something odd behind the wall.

There’s magic in finding out just how odd the twists and turns are, so I won’t say more, except to say that there’s a family legacy, a dementedly evil businessman, and the comfort of reading to survive a terrible situation.

Finch’s style combines traditional paneled pages and captioned illustrations. His figures are simply styled but with confident black outlines, with faces revolving around exaggerated noses. The muted colors give the exaggerated events a grounding realism, and Finch’s use of light sources is impressive. I highly recommend reading this if you get a chance. It’s unlike anything else I’ve read, and it’s quite accomplished.

There are preview pages at Finch’s website. You can get a copy from his website shop (in GBP) or his Etsy shop.