Cast Iron Books

The Plague and Doctor Caim follows the life of a 17th-century plague doctor: an Everyman with a beak.

One day, Doctor Caim is hired by a village to treat both the rich and the poor. The doctor readily accepts this position, but goes about the work with much trial and error. Doctor Caim encounters patients from all walks of life, experimenting with treatments while monitoring his own health and watching the stars for omens…

With the aesthetic of a medieval illuminated manuscript, this full colour graphic novel from the acclaimed creator of The Poet and the Flea finds macabre comedy within the history of the bubonic plague.

Generation after generation, people are taught one thing – never use magic…

When a plague known as Dark-bark spreads over the land one by one infected villagers disappear into the enchanted forest never to be seen again. When it reaches her village, a young girl called Grace sets out to destroy the evil witch responsible and save her family by any means possible – even if she must steal the witch’s magic.

As candles flicker and wolves howl into the night sky, Idris, a flamboyant sorcerer, and his talented apprentice Ava, are cast out of their town when their talent for magic is discovered. Determined to find the source of the misery that has made them outsiders, they too begin to hunt the root of the Dark-bark… but all is not as it seems.

An all-ages story about magic, family and a plague that has no mercy, Candles is the latest graphic novel from Lyndon White, creator of Reanimator, for lovers of fantasy, fairy tales, monsters and magic.

The town Bobby lives in is a grey cluster of houses trapped against the sea by a half-ring of factories. Over the horizon, a war is raging. Any day now it may sweep over the town and crush it. And Bobby has fallen in love.

The Boy with Nails for Eyes is a dystopian fantasy graphic novel. The book, the first in a three-volume series, was long-listed for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition in 2018.

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“Mixes the nightmarish world of Guillermo Del Toro with the elaborate world building of Neil Gaiman and the artwork of Shaun Tan or Dave McKean.”

“This comic is sublime.”

The year is 1940, the Blitz is raging, and Hitler’s forces are sweeping across Europe.

At the front of the invasion is the victorious Luftwaffe, and at the front of the Luftwaffe is Hans Vogel: fighter pilot, ace, and recipient of the prestigious Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross medal. Young, painfully shy, and with the backbone of a jellyfish, Hans keeps his head down and does what he’s told – but something still feels… off. One night on a routine raid, Hans experiences a freak radio malfunction, is separated from his unit, and is shot down and killed.

That’s where his problems start.

Hans finds himself carried out of his world by the Valkyrie Brynhildr, but instead of Valhalla, he’s brought to the mysterious Märchenwald, the world of the fairy-tales. Märchenwald has been transformed by the war Hans left behind and taken over by the malevolent and cruel Erlking, a monster who traps people within a sinister web of Stories. Stripped of everything he was and forced to confront the consequences of the evil he served, Hans finds himself faced with a choice: give in to the same evil a second time, or try and make things right.

Hans Vogel is Dead is an antifascist fairy tale with elements of historical fantasy about the power of narratives, the question of individual responsibility in a totalitarian regime, and the struggle to become a better person. 

Isabella & Blodwen follows sixteen year-old Isabella who has been granted early admission to the prestigious University of Oxford.

Academically gifted, but severely lacking in social skills, she finds navigating the hallowed halls a trial she can’t study her way out of. Mixing with older students, and struggling to find her place, she sets her heart on the coveted summer internship with her hero, Professor MacLeod. While wondering how to get the letter of recommendation she needs to be considered, she accidentally drops an exhibit from a museum she’s visiting in her bag… and Blodwen, the Witch from the Bottle enters her life!

Aimed at a young adult audience, and exploring themes of friendship, growing up, and finding your place in the world, Isabella & Blodwen is a story that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt alone and that the world is against them.