book cover

Dark Satanic Mills

by Marcus Sedgwick and Julian Sedgwick, illustrated by John Higgins and Marc Olivent

Interest age: 13+
Reading age: 13+

Published by Walker Books, 2013

  • Comic books
  • Graphic novels
  • Science fiction
  • Dystopia

About this book

In a Britain laid to waste by catastrophic global warming, a motorcycle courier, Christy, and an atheist campaigner are on the run. In their hands is the key which might prevent a violent Christian cult, the Soldiers of Truth, from gaining power and locking England’s dreaming in chains forever.

As the title suggests, much of the inspiration for this graphic novel comes from the poet William Blake and his opposition of the dead hand of dogma with freedom. Accordingly, the Soldiers of Truth are as dismal a collection of zealots as one might hope to avoid, and at stake for Christy and her friends is nothing less than the future of England itself. Yet though Blake figures prominently, perhaps a bigger influence here is 2000 AD: in both style and content this book owes a lot to classic series such as Halo Jones or Judge Dredd, and Higgins’s distinctive artwork (himself a 2000 AD veteran) gives it the appearance of a lost classic of British comics. Unafraid of big ideas, inventive and action-packed, this dystopian adventure is an impressive first foray into comics from Marcus and Julian Sedgwick.

About the author

Marcus Sedgwick began to write seriously in 1994, and his first book, Floodland, was published by Orion in 2000, and won the Branford-Boase award for best debut children's novel. Witch Hill followed in 2001, and was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Independent Reading Association award and the Portsmouth Book Award. In 2002 The Dark Horse was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, The Carnegie Medal and the Blue Peter Book Award.

The Book of Dead Days was nominated for the Guardian Award, and was shortlisted for the Sheffield Book Award and the Edgar Allan Poe Award. He wrote more than 40 children's books and won many awards. Sadly, Marcus died in November 2022.

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