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Luther Arkwright
In a sprawling adult epic of boundless imagination, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and Heart of Empire now come together in a single paperback edition.
In a swirling multiverse of endless possibilities and incalculable dangers, malign forces manipulate history through countless timelines and act to wreak destruction across universes. But the fate of these infinite existences depends on one man, an anomaly who exists in but a single universe, a being of vast psychic power capable of traveling between realities--Luther Arkwright!
From Bryan Talbot, award-winning graphic-novel pioneer, comes the science-fiction classics that stunned the comics world and set the bar for audacity, ingenuity, and imagination in graphic storytelling.
In a swirling multiverse of endless possibilities and incalculable dangers, malign forces manipulate history through countless timelines and act to wreak destruction across universes. But the fate of these infinite existences depends on one man, an anomaly who exists in but a single universe, a being of vast psychic power capable of traveling between realities--Luther Arkwright!
From Bryan Talbot, award-winning graphic-novel pioneer, comes the science-fiction classics that stunned the comics world and set the bar for audacity, ingenuity, and imagination in graphic storytelling.
568 pages, Paperback
Published June 9, 2020
10 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Bryan Talbot
285 books186 followersTalbot began his comics work in the underground comix scene of the late 1960s. In 1969 his first work appeared as illustrations in Mallorn, the British Tolkien Society magazine, followed in 1972 by a weekly strip in his college newspaper.
He continued in the scene after leaving college, producing Brainstorm Comix, the first three of which formed The Chester P. Hackenbush Trilogy (a character reworked by Alan Moore as Chester Williams for Swamp Thing).
He started The Adventures of Luther Arkwright in 1978. It was originally published in Near Myths and continued on over the years in other publications. It was eventually collected together into one volume by Dark Horse. Along with When the Wind Blows it is one of the first British graphic novels.
In the early to mid-eighties he provide art for some of 2000 AD's flagship serials, producing 3 series of Nemesis the Warlock, as well as strips for Judge Dredd and Sláine.
The Tale of One Bad Rat deals with recovery from childhood sexual abuse.
Talbot moved to the American market in the 1990s, principally for DC, on titles like Hellblazer, Sandman and Batman. He also produced the art for The Nazz by Tom Veitch and worked with Tom's brother Rick Veitch on Teknophage, one of a number of mini-series he drew for Tekno Comix.
Talbot has illustrated cards for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game.
He has also illustrated Bill Willingham's Fables, as well as returning to the Luther Arkwright universe with Heart of Empire. He has also worked on The Dead Boy Detectives.
In 2006, he announced the graphic novel Metronome, an existential, textless erotically-charged visual poem,written under the pseudonym Véronique Tanaka. He admitted that he was the author in 2009.
In 2007 he released Alice in Sunderland, which documents the connections between Lewis Carroll, Alice Liddell, and the Sunderland and Wearside area. He also wrote and drew the layouts for Cherubs!, which he describes as "an irreverent fast-paced supernatural comedy-adventure."
His upcoming work includes a sequel to 2009's Grandville, which Talbot says is "a detective steampunk thriller" and Paul Gravett calls it "an inspired reimagining of some of the first French anthropomorphic caricatures". It is planned as the first in a series of four or five graphic novels.
Source: Wikipedia
He continued in the scene after leaving college, producing Brainstorm Comix, the first three of which formed The Chester P. Hackenbush Trilogy (a character reworked by Alan Moore as Chester Williams for Swamp Thing).
He started The Adventures of Luther Arkwright in 1978. It was originally published in Near Myths and continued on over the years in other publications. It was eventually collected together into one volume by Dark Horse. Along with When the Wind Blows it is one of the first British graphic novels.
In the early to mid-eighties he provide art for some of 2000 AD's flagship serials, producing 3 series of Nemesis the Warlock, as well as strips for Judge Dredd and Sláine.
The Tale of One Bad Rat deals with recovery from childhood sexual abuse.
Talbot moved to the American market in the 1990s, principally for DC, on titles like Hellblazer, Sandman and Batman. He also produced the art for The Nazz by Tom Veitch and worked with Tom's brother Rick Veitch on Teknophage, one of a number of mini-series he drew for Tekno Comix.
Talbot has illustrated cards for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game.
He has also illustrated Bill Willingham's Fables, as well as returning to the Luther Arkwright universe with Heart of Empire. He has also worked on The Dead Boy Detectives.
In 2006, he announced the graphic novel Metronome, an existential, textless erotically-charged visual poem,written under the pseudonym Véronique Tanaka. He admitted that he was the author in 2009.
In 2007 he released Alice in Sunderland, which documents the connections between Lewis Carroll, Alice Liddell, and the Sunderland and Wearside area. He also wrote and drew the layouts for Cherubs!, which he describes as "an irreverent fast-paced supernatural comedy-adventure."
His upcoming work includes a sequel to 2009's Grandville, which Talbot says is "a detective steampunk thriller" and Paul Gravett calls it "an inspired reimagining of some of the first French anthropomorphic caricatures". It is planned as the first in a series of four or five graphic novels.
Source: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 28, 2021
Any clickbaity website with top whatever comics of all time forgetting to mention Bryan Talbot and Luther Arkwright is wrong by default.
August 4, 2021
4.5 overall. 5 for The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. 4.5 for Heart of Empire.
I had a hankering to experience this again and so I picked up this collected edition. My copies of the original comics for Adventures, bought on release, went in the great clear out 5 years ago.
The Adventures of Luther Arkwright remains a landmark in comics. Such an astonishing piece that stands up to a 5 star rating even to this day. There is a real sense of it taking the form and re-inventing it. Leading the way for taking it beyond the 4 colour adolescent power fantasies that dominated the Anglophone comics world at this time. There is a denseness to the piece along with the heady sense of taking an acid trip while a dense raga rages in the background. There is so much packed into this that there is little sense in pulling out individual threads.
Heart of Empire, on the other hand, I had never actually read through. I think I bought one issue back in the day and it never really grabbed me. Something I found again, coming back to it now. It starts slow and the choice to move to cleaner, coloured artwork I find personally disappointing. I am much more a fan of dense, well draughted, black and white comic work. I was pleasantly surprised though to find Heart of Empire really picks up at the mid-point and delivers a punchy denoument. Hence my 4.5 rating for it here. It has neither the scope, nor the ambition of Adventures but is still a very good piece of graphic storytelling.
Obvious recommend here.
I had a hankering to experience this again and so I picked up this collected edition. My copies of the original comics for Adventures, bought on release, went in the great clear out 5 years ago.
The Adventures of Luther Arkwright remains a landmark in comics. Such an astonishing piece that stands up to a 5 star rating even to this day. There is a real sense of it taking the form and re-inventing it. Leading the way for taking it beyond the 4 colour adolescent power fantasies that dominated the Anglophone comics world at this time. There is a denseness to the piece along with the heady sense of taking an acid trip while a dense raga rages in the background. There is so much packed into this that there is little sense in pulling out individual threads.
Heart of Empire, on the other hand, I had never actually read through. I think I bought one issue back in the day and it never really grabbed me. Something I found again, coming back to it now. It starts slow and the choice to move to cleaner, coloured artwork I find personally disappointing. I am much more a fan of dense, well draughted, black and white comic work. I was pleasantly surprised though to find Heart of Empire really picks up at the mid-point and delivers a punchy denoument. Hence my 4.5 rating for it here. It has neither the scope, nor the ambition of Adventures but is still a very good piece of graphic storytelling.
Obvious recommend here.
May 16, 2025
A comic and an artist celebrated by Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman and other big storytellers? That's the level of quality and madness you're going to find here. Psychic powers, interdimensional travel, alternate history, lots of explicit sex, philosophy and politics... This has all that and beyond. Alledgedly one of the forefathers of the Graphic Novel as its known today, this absolute blast and masterclass of storytelling is a midblower for sure. One of the best comics I've read, for sure.
February 23, 2024
I can understand why The Adventures of Luther Arkwright is considered a milestone work in british comics but it's ridiculously wordy and confusing. Heart of Empire is more like a not-s0-great sequel.
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April 21, 2025The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. A very psychedelic comic that's a product of its time, full of drugged-up multiverse-crossing hijinks. It's pretty hard to follow in the early sections but settles down and matures the further you get in.
The story is amazing high-concept of a battle across the multiverse, taking Michael Moorcock's ideas of a multiverse and knocking them up to the next level (much as Moorcock did in his own Second Ether).
The artwork is simultaneously gorgeous and muddy. The black and white pieces and amazingly detailed, but sometimes hard to read as a result.
As much an ode to the 70s as a story, but still worth reading as a classic, and maybe rereading to see if it makes more sense the second time [3+/5].
[DNR Heart of Empire]
The story is amazing high-concept of a battle across the multiverse, taking Michael Moorcock's ideas of a multiverse and knocking them up to the next level (much as Moorcock did in his own Second Ether).
The artwork is simultaneously gorgeous and muddy. The black and white pieces and amazingly detailed, but sometimes hard to read as a result.
As much an ode to the 70s as a story, but still worth reading as a classic, and maybe rereading to see if it makes more sense the second time [3+/5].
[DNR Heart of Empire]
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews