$ 19.95
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by Joy DeLyria and Sean Michael Robinson
Humor / Satire / Television
Hardcover
6 x 8.5 inches
120 pages
12 half-tone illustrations
$19.95
$22.95 CAD
by Joy DeLyria and Sean Michael Robinson
Humor / Satire / Television
Hardcover
6 x 8.5 inches
120 pages
12 half-tone illustrations
$19.95
$22.95 CAD
Highly anticipated since its initial online appearance and immediate viral proliferation, first-time authors and ersatz Victorian scholars Joy DeLyria and Sean Michael Robinson have painstakingly created a satirical and fictional world based on the characters and narrative of television’s most loved drama, The Wire.
To be published in time to celebrate The Wire’s tenth anniversary, Down in the Hole: The unWired World of H.B. Ogden is a collection of excerpts and illustrations from The Wire, a Victorian serial novel of DeLyria and Robinson’s invention, credited to fictional author H.B. Ogden. Excerpts from Ogden’s work are knit together by the history of the novel, its author and illustrator, and the adventures of the passionate archivists who uncovered this forgotten text. DeLyria and Robinson have gone to great lengths to maintain the reality of the satirical world they have constructed, as in this early press release:
“Difficult. Tangled. Funny, dark, and, once, almost forgotten. The Wire, Horatio B. Ogden’s novel about the crime-ridden streets of ‘Bodymore’ was recently brought back to public light through the work of Joy DeLyria and Sean Michael Robinson. In March, 2011 DeLyria and Robinson released a reappraisal of the work, accompanied by a brief excerpt and illustrations. ‘We were surprised and gratified by the reaction to the article,’ said Joy DeLyria. ‘Who knew there was such an audience for unknown Victorian-era serial fiction, especially in this junk culture of spin-offs, sequels and tired retreads.’
“DeLyria and Robinson have unearthed a wealth of primary sources relating to The Wire and its creator, including one of the only extant copies of The Wire‘s five-volume publication. They have also painstakingly restored the existing prints of the copperplate etchings of Baxter ‘Bubz’ Black, whose grimy, earthy illustrations lent the environment of The Wire another layer of social commentary. Down in the Hole breathes new life into this literary classic, giving us once again a well-loved story, while at the same time illuminating the tumultuous life of its creator, the searing commentary of contemporaries, the difficulties of the Victorian Age, and the reason works like this may be forgotten, but never lost.”
The Baltimore Sun writes: “…[This] quintessentially Victorian vision of Ogden’s The Wire…is a scintillating piece of faux-scholarship. It’s set in an alternate universe where the HBO series doesn’t exist—and where The Wire in any form, including Horatio Bucklesby Ogden’s, has yet to be discovered.”
Gawker asks: “So, how long before we can actually buy this illustrated version of The Wire? I’d put it on my Amazon wish list now if I could.”
Follow H.B. Ogden on Twitter: @OgdenWire
