Lockdowner: Book of the Word of the Year?
If ‘lockdown’ is ‘The Word Of The Year’ (according to Collins Dictionary) then ‘The Book Of The Word Of The Year’ might just be ‘Lockdowner’.
‘Lockdowner: The Covid-19 lockdown comic-strip’, to give its full title, is the newly-published collection of the daily comic-strips that appeared on the Garylebone social media pages throughout the first national lockdown.
The strip was created by London-based freelance copywriter Gary Knight who decided on day 1 of the first national lockdown (March 24th) to “deal with the virus lockdown madness one daft comic-strip at a time”.
“I’m not really sure why, but I felt instantly compelled to create a slightly grouchy comic-strip character to experience and ponder the stuff we all suddenly had to get our heads around.”
“Social distancing, face masks, loo roll stockpiling, impossible deliveries, overgrown hair, pining for pubs, video calls, video singalongs, heavy snacking, furloughs, job searching, scary graphs, protest groups, 5G conspiracies, Captain Tom, Boris getting sick, Trump talking nonsense, empty sports stadiums, Test & Trace, Support Bubbles, The New Normal, The New Shopping, The New Drinking, The New Dining, the rules, the rule changes, the idiots, the weirdness.”
Gary posted a new strip every day for 111 days until the lockdown was effectively ended and most places opened up again.
Has he been tempted to do produce a second run of Lockdowner for the 2nd national lockdown? “No, actually. This time, we all know what to expect. For those first few months, we all felt like Guinea Pigs trapped in a surreal never-ending maze.”
The Lockdowner book is a unique look back at the surreal experience we’ve all shared in 2020. All observed with a plucky sense of slightly unhinged humour it surely demanded.
Lockdowner is available now for £6.99 on Amazon.
amazon.co.uk/dp/B08NMJ8YM3
Title: LOCKDOWNER: The Covid-19 Lockdown Comic-strip
Creator: Gary Knight writer + art, London
Publisher: Garylebone via Amazon KDP
Out: Nov 19 on Amazon
Format: 120-page Paperback: £6.99 Amazon
Social Media: twitter.com/garylebone, instagram.com/garylebone
Contact: gary@garylebone.com
Bio:
Gary Knight has been a comic fan since childhood. But he’s only been a comic creator since last year. After too many years as an Adland creative (including an frantic 5-year stint moving between Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia), Gary decided to “jump off his hamster-wheel” and started working on some of his comic-strip ideas. His first book was the late 2019 self-publication of Paired: The Chit-Chat Of Smart Tech – a hundred pages or so of smart-tech devices getting smart with each other. This was followed in 2020 by three issues of the Paired comicbook. But Gary’s major project of 2020 has been ‘dealing with the Coronavirus lockdown madness one daft comic-strip at a time’ via his daily Lockdowner strip on the Garylebone Twitter and Instagram pages. The Lockdowner book contains them all.