Back in February 2006, Simon Ghent sent us the following suggestion: “Just a thought – have you considered a book club style scheme, where you send out to subscribers (who specifically ask for it!) that month’s recommended (top of the Mailshot) book? They are quite a mixed bunch, and I nearly always think that they sound interesting then forget all about them. Maybe I could get a free subscription for coming up with such a great idea?”

It hadn’t even crossed our minds, but reaction to the email in the Mailshot letters column was immediate and overwhelming, so Tom and I looked at each other, braced ourselves and took the plunge, kicking off with Andi Watson’s LITTLE STAR. Within two months we had 80 subscribers.

The concept: Simon Ghent pretty much nailed it first time. If you sign up for this free service, we’ll save you a copy of what we believe to be the most deserving comicbook release each month.

The system: If you already have a regular standing order for other items – by mail or in the shop itself – it’ll go in your file for your next visit or parcel. If you don’t, we’ll create a new file for you to save them in while we wait for you to visit or contact us to say they’re okay to send (as with standing orders, we’ll need to hear from you at least once every three months). We certainly won’t charge you before you give us the nod. Our selection will be announced every month on the front page of the site, in the online store CBOTM section, and via our mailshots and twitter. In short, we’ll be shouting it from the rooftops.

The discount: 20%. Not only is this service free (except postage, if required), but for signing up to accept a graphic novel of our choice each month, you’ll receive it at a 20% discount. This means that a graphic novel normally costing £9-99 will be yours for 8 quid. I wrote early on that I don’t consider this so much a money-making idea for us, more an opportunity to broaden the audience of the finest comicbook creators and their works. Equally, it’s an opportunity for you – should you so desire – to widen your own horizons.

The criteria for choices:

• Each month we’ll decide what we honestly believe would make the best Page 45 Comicbook of the Month regardless of creator, publishing status, or genre.
• That means it would be the finest work on offer, or perhaps the most interesting, the most accessible or indeed the most deserving of wider attention.
• So yes, the creator may be as established as Alan Moore, or they may be fresh as a daisy.
• It may also be a comic rather than a graphic novel, but it is highly unlikely to be in the middle of a run in either instance.
• We are not going to weird you out every month with some obscure, Czechoslovakian, one-eyed widow’s collection of sequential woodcuts.
• On the other hand, the chances of it being a superhero comic aren’t that good. I don’t think I have to persuade anyone who’s read my reviews that I love Brian Michael Bendis’ writing to bits, but it’s a rare superhero book that matches the quality and accessibility of the finest material outside that genre.
• To summarise: we’ll just choose the book based on how much the creator has paid us.
• Joke.

Terms and Conditions (or something!):

• You can sign up whenever you want, receive the current selection at the full 20% discount, and ask for as many previous selections as you like as well. We’ll sell you those previous selections, at an introductory 15% discount.
• You can cancel any time you like. There’s no specific duration you have to sign up for. And if you sign up, get the jitters but want to sign up again later in the future, we’ll welcome you back on board.
• However, anyone monkeying around by signing up, cancelling, signing back up then cancelling again just to get a couple of books at a discount, well, that’s simply not in the spirit of what we’re trying to achieve here, so eventually we’ll have to respectfully decline.
• Don’t worry #1: if you’ve already bought the constituent issues of a graphic novel that’s nominated as Comicbook of the Month, you don’t have to buy the graphic novel as well. You can just skip that month, although if you want to buy the book for a friend, you can take advantage of that discount. It’s all about spreading the word, right?
• Don’t worry #2: if you’ve already brought the graphic novel elsewhere, you can also feel free to skip that month. Just stop buying stuff elsewhere!
• Don’t worry #3: if you’ve already bought that graphic novel from the shelves or through mail order here (here, mind!), we’ll give you the discount in retrospect as a credit. We’ll know who you are, and we recognise that our decisions come at the end of each month when a book could have been out for between one to five weeks. We don’t want to restrain your purchasing power or enthusiasm!
• I know at one point I considered offering two items per month for you to choose from, but in my mind that quickly fell into the chasm-trap of too much correspondence, when all Simon Ghent originally expressed was that he wanted us to choose for him and have done with it. We agree. The judges’ decision is final.

And on we go: We remain stunned at the level of support this initiative has received, and enormously grateful for it too. We launched the service some eight months after we lost a comicbook guru in Mark, and our confidence was substantially bolstered just when we needed it most by the degree of trust each signatory represented then, and continues to represent now, in our critical judgement.

If you have any questions about this particular service or anything else, just let us know.

– Stephen

Previous Page 45 Comicbooks Of The Month

• Little Star by Andi Watson.
• The Fate Of The Artist by Eddie Campbell
• The Drowners by Nabiel Kanan
• They Found The Car by Gipi
• Promethea by Alan Moore
• Pride Of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan & Niko Henrichon
• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
• Curses by Kevin Huizenga
• Mister I by Lewis Trondheim
• Fluffy by Simone Lia
• House of Sugar by Rebecca Kraatz
• A Late Freeze by Danica Novgorodoff
• Alice In Sunderland by Bryan Talbot
• The Plain Janes by Cecil “Jeanne” Castellucci & Jim Rugg
• Criminal: Coward by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
• Silverfish by David Lapham
• Dogs & Water by Anders Nilsen
• Robot Dreams by Sara Varon
• Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine
• Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds
• The Arrival by Shaun Tan
• Acme Novelty Library vol 18 by Chris Ware
• Young Liars #1 by David Lapham
• Metronome h/c by Véronique Tanaka (aka Bryan Talbot)
• Trains Are Mint #5 by Oliver East
• Judenhass by Dave Sim
• What It Is by Lynda Barry
• The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard by Eddie Campbell
• Local by Bryan Wood & Ryan Kelly
• Solanin by Inio Asano
• My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down by David Heatley
• Phonogram: The Singles Club #1 by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
• Whores Of Mensa #4 Jeremy Dennis, Ellen Lindner, Mardou
• Tales From Outer Suburbia h/c by Shaun Tan
• Pluto vol 1 by Naoki Urasawa and Osamu Tezuka
• 100% by Paul Pope
• Second Thoughts by Niklas Asker
• George Sprott: 1894-1975 h/c by Seth
• Asterios Polyp h/c by David Mazzucchelli
• Milkkitten #4 by Tanya Milkkitten
• The Unclothed Man In The 35th Century A.D. by Dash Shaw
• Meanwhile by Jason Shiga
• The Killer vol 2 by Matz & Luc Jacamon
• Bodyworld by Dash Shaw
• Wilson by Daniel Clowes
• Weathercraft: A Frank Comic by Jim Woodring
• The Playwright by Daren White & Eddie Campbell
• Cats Are Weird And More Observations by Jeffrey Brown
• Psychiatric Tales by Darryl Cunningham
• X’ed Out by Charles Burns
• The Unsinkable Walker Bean by Aaron Renier
• Special Exits by Joyce Farmer
• Crickets #3 by Sammy Harkham
• Daytripper by Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba
• The Rime Of The Modern Mariner h/c by Nick Hayes
• Reunion by Pascal Girard
• Empire State by Jason Shiga
• Isle Of 100,000 Graves by Fabien Vehlmann & Jason
• One Soul h/c by Ray Fawkes
• Some People by Luke Pearson
• Habibi by Craig Thompson
• The Great Northern Brotherhood Of Canadian Cartoonists h/c by Seth
• Nelson by 54 of the U.K.’s finest comicbook creators
• Dotter Of Her Father’s Eyes h/c by Bryan and Mary Talbot
• Goliath h/c by Tom Gauld
• King City by Brandon Graham
• Rachel Rising vol 1 by Terry Moore
• The Boy Who Made Silence vol 1 by Joshua Hagler
• The Lovely Horrible Stuff by Eddie Campbell
• Days Of The Bagnold Summer by Joff Winterheart
• The RE[a]D Diary by Teddy Kristiansen, Steven T. Seagle
• The Nao Of Brown by Glyn Dillon
• Dockwood by Jon McNaught
• Soppy by Philippa Rice
• Ellerbisms by Marc Ellerby
• Silver Darlings by Will Morris
• The New Deadwardians by Dan Abnett and Ian Culbard
• Hawkeye – My Life As a Weapon vol 1 s/c by Matt Fraction and David Aja
• Hey You! (And Other Stories) by Dan Berry
• Marble Season by Gilbert Hernandez
• The Suitcase by Dan Berry
• Sunny vol 1 by Taiyo Matsumoto
• Goddamn This War! by Jacques Tardi
• The Black Project by Gareth Brookes
• The Encyclopedia Of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg
• We’re Out by Philippa Rice
• Show Me The Map To Your Heart by John Cei Douglas
• aama vol 1: The Smell Of Warm Dust h/c by Frederik Peeters
• Jane, The Fox & Me by Britt Fanny & Isabelle Arsenault
• Stray Bullets The Killers #1 by David Lapham
• Sally Heathcote Suffragette h/c by Mary M. Talbot & Kate Charlesworth, Bryan Talbot
• This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki
• Umbral vol 1: Out Of The Shadows s/c by Antony Johnston & Christopher Mitten
• Dark Times by Robert Ball
• Zaya h/c by Jean-David Morvan & Huang-Jia Wei
• Tomboy by Liz Prince
• The Motherless Oven by Rob Davis
• Supercrash by Darryl Cunningham
• Bad Machinery vol 3: The Case Of The Simple Soul by John Allison
• March Book 2 s/c by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell
• The Sculptor by Scott McCloud
• The Fade Out vol 1 by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
• The Realist by Asaf Hanuka
• Optic Nerve #14 by Adrian Tomine
• Munnu by Malik Sajad
• Tim Ginger by Julian Hanshaw
• Leaf by Daishu Ma
• Step Aside, Pops – A Hark! A Vagrant Collection by Kate Beaton
• Drawn Onward by Matt Madden
• Two Brothers by Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon
• I Love This Part by Tillie Walden
• Starve vol 1 by Brian Wood & Danijel Zezelj
• Rosalie Lightning by Tom Hart
• The Art Of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew
• 5000 Km Per Second by Manuele Fior
• Notes vol 1 by Boulet
• Geis: A Matter Of Life And Death by Alexis Deacon
• Snotgirl #1 by Bryan Lee O’Malley & Leslie Hung
• Hellbound Lifestyle by Kaeleigh Forsyth & Alabaster Pizzo
• The Hundred Nights Of Hero by Isabel Greenberg
• Black Dog: The Dreams Of Paul Nash by Dave McKean
• Bobbins #1 (Signed) by John Allison
• The Can Opener’s Daughter by Rob Davis
• Dogs Disco by Joe Decie
• Black Monday Murders vol 1 by Jonathan Hickman & Tomm Coker
• The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
• Collecting Sticks by Joe Decie
• Livestock by Hannah Berry
• Boundless by Jillian Tamaki
• Something City by Ellice Weaver
• SLAM! vol 1 by Pamela Ribon & Veronica Fish
• Spinning by Tillie Walden
• Graphic Science: Seven Journeys Of Discovery by Darryl Cunningham
• Mann’s Best Friend by Sophie Rickard & Scarlett Rickard
• Portugal by Cyril Pedrosa
• The Park Bench by Chaboute
• American Gods vol 1 by Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell, Scott Hampton with Colleen Doran, Glenn Fabry, Walter Simonson
• Why Art? by Eleanor Davis
• Kabul Disco vol 1 by Nicolas Wild
• The Prince And The Dressmaker by Jen Wang
• Coin-Op Comics Anthology h/c 1997-2017 by Peter Hoey & Maria Hoey
• The City Never Sleeps by Andi Watson
• Follow Me In by Katriona Chapman
• Kingdom by Jon McNaught
• Grafity’s Wall by Ram V & Anand Radhakrishnan
• Emma G. Wildford by Zidrou & Edith
• The Lady Doctor by Ian Williams
• Mister Miracle by Tom King & Mitch Gerads
• Bloom by Kevin Panetta & Savanna Ganucheau
• Lichen by Stuart Kolakovic
• Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
• Die vol 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker s/c by Kieron Gillen & Stephanie Hans
• Skip h/c by Molly Mendoza
• Sensible Footwear, A Girl’s Guide by Kate Charlesworth
• Grimoire Noir by Vera Greentea & Yana Bogatch
• Rusty Brown by Chris Ware
• Cats Of The Louvre by Taiyo Matsumoto
• The Seventh Voyage by Stanislaw Lem & Jon J. Muth
• The House h/c by Paco Roca
• Golden Age Book 1 h/c by Cyril Pedrosa, Roxanne Moreil
• Dragman h/c by Steven Appleby
• Altitude h/c by Jean-Marc Rochette with Olivier Bocquet
• A Gift For A Ghost h/c by Borja Gonzalez
• Flake h/c by Matthew Dooley
• The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine
• One Story h/c by Gipi
• What We Don’t Talk About by Charlot Kristensen
• The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell, Sophie Rickard & Scarlett Rickard
• Biscuits: Assorted by Jenny Robins
• The Book Tour by Andi Watson
• The Seeds s/c by Ann Nocenti & David Aja
• Bad Machinery vol 10 by John Allison
• The Thud by Mikael Ross
• Delicates by Brenda Thummler
• In: A Graphic Novel by Will McPhail
• The Delicacy by James Albon
• The Roles We Play by Sabba Khan
• The Collected Toppi vol 6: Japan by Sergio Toppi
• The Butchery by Bastien Vives
• Crushing h/c by Sophie Burrows
• Tunnels h/c by Rutu Modan
• The Many Deaths Of Laila Starr by Ram V. & Filipe Andrade
• The Wanderer h/c by Peter Van Den Ende
• The Grande Odalisque h/c by Bastien Vives, Florent Ruppert, Jerome Mulot with Isabelle Merlet
• My Badly Drawn Life h/c by Gipi
• Decorum h/c by Jonathan Hickman & Mike Huddleston
• The Con Artists h/c by Luke Healy
• Alison h/c by Lizzy Stewart
• Keeping Two h/c by Jordan Crane
• Revenge Of The Librarians h/c by Tom Gauld
• No Surrender s/c by Constance Maud, Sophie Rickard & Scarlett Rickard
• Sunburn s/c by Andi Watson & Simon Gane
• It’s Lonely At The Centre Of The Earth s/c by Zoe Thorogood