GAST BY CAROL SWAIN
GAST BY CAROL SWAIN
TITLE: GAST
PUBLISHER: FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
CREATORS: CAROL SWAIN
THIS SHOULD BE A: Film
AGE RANGE: MID SCHOOL +
NETFLIX TAG: Drama, Teen Drama
BOX ART: Dog and Teenage Girl
IT’S LIKE: Kes, Submarine, Stranger Things, The Selfish Giant, Sleep Furiously.
TAG LINE: “A MYSTERIOUS DEATH, A MYSTERIOUS LIFE”
LOGLINE: A child from the city moves to the Countryside and begins to investigate the apparent suicide of an elderly crossdresser from the small community and in doing so reveals melancholy truths about her own life.
LONGER LOGLINE: Helen is a child from the city, new to rural Wales, who discovers a mysterious bag of cosmetics and a spent shotgun shell in a skip on an abandoned farm. The discovery leads to questions about the farm owner, Emrys’, and prompts intense inner reflection for Helen. Emrys had few human friends and so Helen is left to question the animals about Emry’s mysterious death and their equally mysterious life. This interrogation of the beasts Emrys owned leads Helen on a voyage of discovery, not only concerning Emrys’ mysterious life and death but of herself and her place in the world.
CONTEXT: Hailing from rural Wales, a setting for many of her comics, Carol Swain is an OG of the UK comics scene. Rising to prominence in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s with her anthology series Way Out Tales, she was an exceptionally talented cartoonist notable for the quality and unique vision of her work in a sea of lesser talents who were attempting to emulate the styles prevalent in the North American alternative comics boom of the era. Alan Moore (From Hell, V for Vendetta, Watchmen) described her work as, "Dark and full of life, like soil... [Swain's comics are] a perfect example of what modern comics are capable of if only they try". Idiosyncratic use of liberally applied charcoal, studied attention to pacing and masterful panel composition are all markers of Swain’s approach to comics. Often focussing on liminal, rural or suburban spaces Swain’s comics often feature naturalistic detail, phantasmagorical occurrences and deal with themes of isolation of being an outsider. she has had three full-length graphic novels and short comics published with Fantagraphics Books including, Invasion of the Mind Sappers, Foodboy and Gast. Swain has also had a collection of shorts, Crossing the Empty Quater and Other Stories, published by Dark Horse Comics. A profile for Swain can be found on comic journalist and curator Paul Gravett’s website, here. Gast is welsh for bitch.
THE PITCH: Potentially a relatively low budget showcase, dependent on how you handled the animal effects, for a talented younger actor, that could be transposed to any rural setting around the world (though not with the same Welsh title, obviously). Could be a nice touch to cast well known British character actors as the voices of the animals Helen befriends.
IF I WERE DOING IT: I’d debut a young actor in the role, keep special effects to a minimum and tonally aim for Sleep Furiously (2007) via Submarine (2010). The rural setting would allow for some considered cinematography which could powerfully service the introspective and unsettling narrative. Obviously, there is an old adage about working with children and animals in the world of broadcasting this pitch is ignoring...
REVIEWS: Publisher’s Weekly, The Comics Journal, Broken Frontier, Paste.
ARTISTS WEBSITE: fantagraphics.com/flog/artist-bio-carol-swain
AGENT DETAILS: Unknown
RIGHTS STATUS: Unknown