Wimbledon Green is one of the most unusual comics I’ve read in many years, and this is largely down to the way it was created. According to the introduction to the piece by the author Seth himself, it didn’t start life as a graphic novel at all, but rather as a bunch of loosely linked sketchbooks, that he later decided to build into a continuous story. Seth is the pen name for Gregory Gallant, who was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1962. He featured in Chester Brown’s autobiographical piece ‘Paying for it‘, as he is a friend of the Chester.

Wimbledon Green is the story of the comic book collector of the same name. He mysteriously comes onto the comic collector scene, before he just as mysteriously disappears again. The comic takes the form of a number of interviews with people (comic store owners and other collectors) who knew him, discussions on his completely contrived comic collection and a number of moments with Wimbledon himself.

Some of the finest moments of the book are about the imaginary early comic books that he collected, and their authors. This newly created world is all too believable and reminded me of the Michael Chabon’s ‘The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay’. There are full pages devoted to the covers of some of Green’s most highly sought after comics, with various discussions on their importance, due to the introduction of new characters or the creative team involved.

Check out the interview with him below, on QTV. While it does the usual ‘comic books are not just for kids’ line, it does cover a lot of ground, on his book ‘George Sprott 1894-1975’ among others.