Hot on the heels of his recent bleak thriller British Ice from Top Shelf Productions, creator Owen D. Pomery follows up this summer with his second graphic novel Victory Point from Avery Hill Publishing. We have a preview here today at BF courtesy of the team at AHP.
FIRST LOOK:
Victory Point by Owen D. Pomery
***
Published by Avery Hill Publishing
11th June (UK) / 18th July (USA)
Hardback, 80 pages
£14.99 / $18.95
*
Award-winning architectural illustrator Owen D Pomery presents Victory Point: once an ambitious Modernist seaside haven, now a forgotten coastal oddity. Against this extraordinary fictional backdrop, Pomery examines how we live, what we leave behind and how we choose to be remembered.
In the 1930s, the village of Victory Point was selected as the site of an architectural experiment. Funded by both the government and private investors, they appointed modernist architect M.L Schreiber to redesign the town on modernist principles, creating an exemplar of ‘how to live’. Lack of public interest meant the development had to reduce the scale of its ambition, and what remains today is a quiet, coastal oddity. Now it is merely home to those that chose to live there…
On a summer’s day, Ellen returns to her coastal hometown – the picturesque, yet architecturally strange, Victory Point. Revisiting old haunts and people from her past, she feels both disconnected from her previous life and exhausted by the constant struggle of ‘swimming upstream’ to forge her way ahead.
Exploring the town, performing a thought experiment in how to live, Ellen searches for some comfort in her own history that might give her the strength to move forward.
Victory Point quietly explores the idea of how we choose to live and be remembered. It ultimately asks whether we should strive for a higher calling, or if a simple, domestic legacy is the most honest and admirable achievement we can hope for – and if the land from which we disembark feels as alien as the one we hope to reach, how does anyone make their peace with a life amongst the ever- changing ocean waves?
***
Praise for previous work by Owen D. Pomery:
“Visually innovative, exciting, and absolutely bloody brilliant to behold.” – Slings and Arrows
“Pomery’s drawings are crisp and precise, making great use of both negative space and geometric patterns.” – Rob Clough, High-Low
“Skillful storytelling… fabulous.” – Forbidden Planet International
‘Pomery is one of those creators who fully appreciate the unique storytelling opportunities inherent in the comics page.’ – Broken Frontier
***
Owen D. Pomery studied architecture and specialises in illustration. He burst on to the UK comics scene with the publication of Between the Billboards & the Authoring of Architecture (Avery Hill Publishing, 2015). His graphic novel British Ice was published by Top Shelf in 2020. He continues to work with an array of design clients and explores architecture & narrative illustration. He currently lives in South London, with one eye on the horizon.
