Bloc Party's Kele Okereke shows us his amazing graphic novel collection

Date
29 July 2014

When we received a copy of illustrated sine Steak Night through the door a couple of weeks ago (check it out in Things here) we were pleasantly surprised to find that Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke is not only a musician, but a keen writer too. Intrigued, we hunted him down and grilled him about his Bookshelf, which turns out to be an incredibly well-stocked selection of graphic novels and comic books, with a little photography thrown in too. He’s multi-talented and he’s got great taste! Here’s Kele telling us about his choices.

Above
Babak Ganjei: Hilarious Consequences

Babak Ganjei: Hilarious Consequences

Musician and cartoonist Babak Ganjei is a very funny man. Best known for his self-deprecating autobiographical comic Hilarious Consequences, the musings of a broke, balding hypochondriac father. His monochrome sketchy style is somewhat reminiscent of American cartoonist Jeffrey Brown. I read Hilarious Consequences in 2010 while on tour and it brought a tear to my eye. There was bittersweet pathos, wit, and most importantly humour in his writing and it was a real pleasure to work with him recently on our Steak Night collaboration. 

Above

The Uncanny X-Men #2: Firestorm

The Uncanny X-Men #2: Firestorm

This was the first comic I ever read in my teens and it started a fire in me that is still burning! Every week I make the pilgrimage to Forbidden Planet to stock up on the latest titles. Two years ago when I was walking though the West Village I saw the cover staring back at me from a street vendors stall, I knew I had to buy it. As much as the X-Men/queer subtext was not lost on me, it was really the bold stencil work that firstly caught my attention. There have been many notable artists working through the X-Men franchise, Salvador Larroca and the manga-styled Joe Madureira are two of personal favourites, but I still believe Jim Lee’s detailing is the most iconic and impressive. 

Above
Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples: Saga

Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples: Saga

A friend recommended this comic to me a year ago and I’ve been hooked  ever since. Saga is the Hugo award-winning epic space opera/fantasy comic book series written by Brian K. Vaughn and illustrated by Fiona Staples. Described in solicitations as “Star Wars meets Game of Thrones,” it’s really Staple’s glorious pencil work that defines the series. Her use of delicate lines to frame characters with large, bold figures and her mixture of the familiar and the foreign together in her character designs create a visually cohesive universe. Her backgrounds are elaborate, yet never distracting or too busy and they never take focus off the main characters. Everything looks like it belongs in her universe.

Above

Rotimi Fani-Kayode and Alex Hirst: Photographs

Rotimi Fani-Kayode and Alex Hirst: Photographs

This is the only photography-based art in my collection, but I feel strongly that this work embodies a spirit that has inspired me over the years. I caught Kayode’s exhibition in Shoreditch and it completely floored me. Kayode was a fiercely unapologetic queer Nigerian-born photographer, who moved to England at the age of 12 to escape the Biafran War. In his work he explored the tensions created by sexuality, race and culture through stylised portraits and compositions. The frank images in this book of photographs detail Yoruba traditions as well as the erotic signifiers of the black male body.

Above
Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples: Saga

Alan Moore and David Lloyd: V for Vendetta

Quite simply one greatest graphic novels ever written, from the artwork, to the story, to the panelling. It all comes together for a sublime violent fantasy set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s to the late 1990s. The masked anarchist V’s Guy Fawkes mask has now become synonymous with the idea of protest against tyranny. 

Share Article

Further Info

About the Author

Maisie Skidmore

Maisie joined It’s Nice That fresh out of university in the summer of 2013 as an intern before joining full time as an Assistant Editor. Maisie left It’s Nice That in July 2015.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.