I mentioned The Bristol Story in passing while discussing a recent lecture by Sir David King.

It's a history of Bristol, in the form of a beautifully illustrated graphic novel. Producing a comic as part of a literacy initiative is not quite as barmy as it might sound. Running a few random excerpts of the book through the Lexile analyser suggests that the text is broadly understandable by children in the 13-16 range with low literacy levels, and that it is still capable of stretching the more advanced reader.

I'm puzzled as to why it's being given away, when it could have been sold at cost - the underlying funding is coming from the Arts Council, Bristol City Council & Business West through "Bristol Reads" so I would expect it to be largely tax payer's money. But I'm not going to agitate too much as I think it's rather good and I'm pleased to have a copy. To get yours, ask in any Bristol Library, or buy a copy of the current issue of Venue magazine.

The author - Eugene Byrne - is a renowned local journalist and novelist, although not renowned enough for Wikipedia which has flagged his page as "may not meet the notability guidelines for biographies". He has previously partnered with the artist Simon Gurr for a similar work concentrating on the greatest Briton since Alfred, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

I'm something of an afficionado of Graphic Novels, and I'd particularly recommend one of Eugene's previous works, Back in the USSA (a collaboration with Kim Newman). I thoroughly enjoyed standing in Waterstones for half an hour reading it back in '97 (Sorry, guys, I was young and poor), and it is still available from Amazon for a jaw-dropping £33.91.

A quick aside, the pride of my collection is a copy of Neil Gaiman's Sandman: The Wake, signed by the author with a special dedication just for me: