The Dancing Plague

From "choreomania" to coronavirus: an utterly original graphic novel about a newly urgent subject

Set in 1518, and told from the imagined perspective of Mary, one of the witnesses, The Dancing Plague tells the true story of when hundreds of Strasbourg's inhabitants were suddenly seized by the strange and unstoppable compulsion to dance. Prone to mystic visions as a child, betrayed in the convent to which she flees, then abused by her loutish husband, Mary endures her life as an oppressed and ultimately scapegoated woman with courage, strength, and inspiring beauty. As difficult to interpret now (as a psychological reaction to social injustice?) as it was then (as a collective demonic possession?), the story of the "Dancing Plague" finds suitably extraordinary expression in the utterly unique mixed-media style Gareth Brookes has devised to tell it. The pioneering blend of his trademark "pyrographic" technique with sumptuously colorful--and literal--embroidery perfectly reflects, in a beautiful work of art, the enduring fragility of our human condition--from "choreomania" to coronavirus.

"The most visually stunning quarantine comic I've seen is THE DANCING PLAGUE by the British artist Gareth Brookes . . . With fire and needle, Brookes crafts a book the likes of which we've never seen before." - The New York Times

Author: Gareth Brookes
Publisher: Selfmadehero
Published: 08/31/2021
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.32lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.60w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9781910593981
ISBN10: 1910593982
BISAC Categories:
- Comics & Graphic Novels | Historical Fiction

About the Author
Gareth Brookes studied printmaking at the Royal College of Art. His graphic novels include A Thousand Coloured Castles (2017) and The Black Project, which was nominated for an award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2018. His work has appeared in ArtReview, been published by Kus, and was included in the Comics Unmasked exhibition at the British Library in 2014. He is based in the United Kingdom.