SelfMadeHero
SelfMadeHero is an independent publishing house which specialises in adapting works of literature, as well as producing ground-breaking original fiction in the graphic novel medium.
SelfMadeHero's books are distributed in the U.S. by Abrams Books.
History
SelfMadeHero was founded in October 2007 by Emma Hayley, and launched with two lines: Manga Shakespeare, featuring works based on the Bard but with different settings - mainly Japan in the past and future, and Eye Classics, which are adaptations of great classic works, such as those of Poe and Kafka. In 2008 she won the UK Young Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards.In 2009 SelfMadeHero expanded to include graphic adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, including Hound of the Baskervilles and Study in Scarlet, and later At The Mountain of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time by H.P. Lovecraft. It also began publishing the Graphic Biography series with Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness, which has further expanded to tell the fascinating life stories of era-defining pop-culture icons such as Hunter S. Thompson and Nick Cave.
Since 2010 SelfMadeHero has been publishing original material, notably Glyn Dillon's The Nao of Brown, The Motherless Oven trilogy by Rob Davis, and LOVECRAFT by I.N.J. Culbard. In 2011 the company received the Kitschies Black Tentacle award.
Manga Shakespeare
The adaptations of Shakespeare's plays were made by Richard Appignanesi, with the art created by UK-based manga artist who have come to prominence via Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga competition, their work for Sweatdrop Studios or London manga collective Umisen Yamisen.| Title | Artist | Released | ISBN | Ref |
| Hamlet | Emma Vieceli | March 2007 | ||
| Romeo and Juliet | Sonia Leong | March 2007 | ||
| The Tempest | Paul Duffield | September 2007 | ||
| Richard III | Patrick Warren | September 2007 | ||
| A Midsummer Night's Dream | Kate Brown | February 2008 | ||
| Julius Caesar | Mustashrik | June 2008 | ||
| Macbeth | Robert Deas | June 2008 | ||
| As You Like It | Chie Kutsuwada | January 2009 | ||
| Othello | Ryuta Osada | January 2009 | ||
| Henry VIII | Patrick Warren | May 2009 | ||
| King Lear | ILYA | May 2009 | ||
| Much Ado About Nothing | Emma Vieceli | May 2009 | ||
| The Merchant of Venice | Faye Yong | September 2009 | ||
| Twelfth Night | Nana Li | September 2009 |
Eye Classics
The creators are drawn from a British comic background but also include screenwriters and more traditional artists.Crime Classics
The Crime Classics line began with a set of four adaptations of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories, adapted by Ian Edginton, with art by I. N. J. Culbard:| Title | Author | Artist | Released | ISBN | Ref |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | Ian Edginton | I. N. J. Culbard | May 2009 | ||
| A Study in Scarlet | Ian Edginton | I. N. J. Culbard | May 2009 | ||
| The Sign of the Four | Ian Edginton | I. N. J. Culbard | September 2009 | ||
| The Valley of Fear | Ian Edginton | I. N. J. Culbard | September 2009 |
Rachel Cooke reviewed A Study in Scarlet for The Observer and concluded: