SelfMadeHero
SelfMadeHero is an independent publishing house which specialises in adapting works of literature, as well as producing ground-breaking original fiction in the graphic novel medium. SelfMadeHero's books are distributed in the U.S. by Abrams Books. History. SelfMadeHero was founded in October 2007 by Emma Hayley, and launched with two lines: Manga Shakespeare, featuring works based on the Bard but with different settings - mainly Japan in the past and future, and Eye Classics, which are adaptations of great classic works, such as those of Poe and Kafka. In 2008 she won the UK Young Publisher of the Year  at the British Book Awards. In 2009 SelfMadeHero expanded to include graphic adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, including Hound of the Baskervilles and Study in Scarlet, and later At The Mountain of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time by H.P. Lovecraft. It also began publishing the Graphic Biography series with Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness, which has further expanded to tell the fascinating life stories of era-defining pop-culture icons such as Hunter S. Thompson and Nick Cave. Since 2010 SelfMadeHero has been publishing original material, notably Glyn Dillon's The Nao of Brown, The Motherless Oven trilogy  by Rob Davis, and LOVECRAFT by I.N.J. Culbard. In 2011 the company received the Kitschies Black Tentacle award. Bibliography. Manga Shakespeare. The adaptations of Shakespeare's plays were made by Richard Appignanesi (who previously worked on Icon Books' "Introducing..." series), with the art created by UK-based manga artist who have come to prominence via Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga (United Kingdom & Ireland) competition, their work for Sweatdrop Studios or London manga collective Umisen Yamisen. Eye Classics. The creators are drawn from a British comic background (in particular "Nevermore") but also include screenwriters and more traditional artists. Crime Classics . The Crime Classics line began with a set of four adaptations of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories, adapted by Ian Edginton, with art by I. N. J. Culbard: Rachel Cooke reviewed "A Study in Scarlet" for "The Observer" and concluded: