Scottish comic book writer
| Sean Michael Wilson |
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| Nationality | Scottish |
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| Area(s) | Writer, graphic novelist, comic book writer |
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Notable works | AX:alternative manga
Book of Five Rings
Portraits of Violence |
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| Awards | 2016 International Manga Award winner, 2016 Eisner Award nomination, 2013 Stan Lee Excelsior Award winner. |
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Sean Michael Wilson is a Scottish comic book writer from Edinburgh. He has written more than 40 books with a variety of US, UK and Japanese publishers and has been nominated for both the Eisner and Harvey book awards, and won a medal in the Japanese government's 'International Manga Award', 2016 (the first British person to receive that award).
Biography
Growing up in Edinburgh, Scotland in a family with Irish roots, Wilson was deeply inspired to create comic books at an early age by the comic 2000 AD. He largely focused on writing poetry and short stories while studying Sociology and Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University and a postgraduate in Anthropology at Edinburgh University. He later graduated as a lecturer in those subjects from the University of London (UCL). He mixed teaching with working on documentary films for British television until deciding to return to focus on his first love, comic books. In 2014 he was listed among the 'Ten Great Scottish Graphic Novel Creators' by the Scottish Book Trust.[1]
Wilson's first published comics story came out in 1998 in a book and display of an exhibition of comic art in London. Although around half of his books are 'western' style graphic novels, he often works with Japanese and Chinese artists on manga style books, being ideally placed to do so as he now lives in Japan. He is influenced by the Gekiga movement writers, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Yoshiharu Tsuge, Matsumoto Masahiko.[2] His first Japanese language work came out in Summer 2008 on the Japanese keitai manga network (comics on cell/mobile phone). Making him perhaps the first British comic book writer to have his work available on Japanese mobile phones. He is also the only British comic book writer, so far, to have a multi-book deal with the Kodansha publishing group in Japan. He edited the groundbreaking collection of indie style manga, 'AX: alternative manga', for Top Shelf Publications - which was highly praised by critics ('Top ten books of 2010' of Publishers Weekly, nominated for a prestigious Harvey Award) and noted as the most important such collection of manga yet published. But his main influences remain British and American comics, such as creators Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Eddie Campbell and Harvey Pekar.[3]
Wilson's work is equally split between original stories and adaptations of existing work into comic book form. Several of his books have been adaptations for the UK publisher Classical Comics. This has involved working with a range of well-known artists adapting 19th-century novels into comic books that stay close to the original in plot and historical accuracy. Including 'A Christmas Carol' (with Judge Dredd, Wonder Woman and Dr Who artist Mike Collins, and with sales so far of more than 20,000 copies), 'Sweeney Todd', Oscar Wilde's 'A Canterville Ghost' and 'Wuthering Heights' (with esteemed artist John M Burns of 2000AD, Look and Learn, etc.).
Wilson has attempted to do comic books that are different from the normal superhero/fantasy brands, working with a variety of 'non-comic book' organisations in the process, such as a British museum, the UK arts council, the Global Institute for Tomorrow, Bristol University, Asia Literary Review, the Norwegian People's Alliance, the British and American Humanist Associations, Basic Income groups and the activist charity War on Want. His book with War on Want, 'Iraq:Operation Corporate Takeover' was reported on by a variety of mainstream agencies across the world, such as Reuters, CCTV in China, Austrian Radio and several middle eastern magazines. His book 'Parecomic' has an introduction by Noam Chomsky, who is also in the book several times - Chomsky's first official connection with a graphic novel. His book contrasting science and religion, Goodbye God?, was made with the participation of English philosopher Stephen Law of the University of London and an introduction by Prof. Lawrence Krauss. In May 2019 his book 'The Many Not the Few' with artists Robert Brown (published by New Internationalist and the British Union GFTU) was launched in the UK parliament building, the House of Commons. This is the first time a comic book has had a launched event in the House of Commons. Shadow chancellor, John McDonell, and Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, attended - who both hold well received speeches in support of the book. In 2020 he received the Scottish Samurai Award from an association promoting connections between Japan and Scotland.
His work has been translated into Japanese, Chinese, French, Spanish, Korean, Croatian, Portuguese, Catalan, Indonesian, Czech, Turkish, Swedish and Italian.
Wilson is a regular guest at comic book festivals, schools and colleges where he gives talks and workshops about comics and alternative manga. He also occasionally writes newspaper articles for places such as The Japan Times, the London Economic, the Herald and his own article website 'Radical Roots'.[4]
