Chris Shepherd’s heartfelt graphic novel is a story of family, young love and Liverpool

The city of Liverpool seems to have a way of imprinting itself in the hearts and minds of its inhabitants both past and present, conjuring an unshakable sense of loyalty and lasting affection for its terraced streets and blustery dockside walkways. This is certainly the case for the writer, director and illustrator Chris Shepherd, who’s dedicated much of his career to telling stories about his home city and its many Scouse characters; including in his short film Bad Night for the Blues, and his animated short Dad’s Dead. Now comes his debut graphic novel, Anfield Road. A coming-of-age story set in 1989, it follows Conor Sterling, a young man who lives on the infamous Anfield Road, but who fantasises about flying the nest with his first love to pursue his dream of becoming an artist.

The 272-page novel touches on many themes, like football (despite living on Anfield Road, the home of Liverpool FC’s stadium, Conor ironically hates football), eighties attitudes, and family. Conor lives with his grandmother Mary, a controlling figure who continually meddles in his life, his choice of girlfriends, his habits, and even his music choices. Conor also gets intermittent visits from his slightly wild father Danny, a character Chris says he had great fun writing. In one scene, toward the end of the book, a two-page spread shows Danny turning up in a pimped-up ice cream van, blasting Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell. “Haven’t we all wanted to do that?,” muses Chris. “Pimp up an ice cream van?” Above anything, however, Chris says that the book is a “coming-of-age love story”, centring Conor’s love for his new girlfriend, Maureen, and the potential for escape she represents.

Before Chris even had the idea to create a graphic novel, the backbone of the Anfield Road story was already written. He’d always had dreams of working on a feature-length film, and the story – one he’d always been fond of – was originally a potential script. When the Covid lockdowns hit, Chris began to question why he was so set on the story being a film, and he soon decided to use his illustration skills to bring it to life instead. “I spent four years drawing every day,” says Chris. “I really got into drawing old buses and trying to capture Liverpool long gone. It dawned on me that I was on a mission to create something beautiful.”

Chris took a pretty unconventional route to creating the novel. After breaking the story down into 60 sequences, rather than making a rough copy or plan of the book, he instead worked sequence by sequence, “discovering” what each scene needed along the way. “I did this to keep the process fresh and I kept drawing different types of pages, panels then landscapes,” says Chris. “That way I could always discover something new in the story – I found it a great way of keeping it exciting over the four years.”

Creating a sense of beauty and paying homage to the feel of 1980s Liverpool was a key incentive for Chris, and one of the main means he did this was through his use of colour. Suns rise and fade dramatically over his post-industrial landscapes, scenes of football fans making their way to Anfield are emblazoned with the bright red against a dreary day, and rainbows tail Conor’s heels – “it might not be realistic,” says Chris, but it looks beautiful.”

In the background of his beloved double spread ice cream van scene, the ‘piggeries’ – an iconic block of Everton-affiliated flats that were sold by the council in the 80s for £1 – are shown in the background lit from behind by a warm, pinky orange sun. “There’s a beauty in the way they are shown here,” says Chris. “Why can’t council estates be beautiful in films and literature?” Ultimately, Chris wants Anfield Road to put a smile on readers’ faces and to uplift the things that really matter to him, and likely many others: family, love, and, of course, Liverpool.

Anfield Road is published today (29 October). You can grab a copy here.