"DC COMICS, the publisher of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, has launched a graphic novel about Irish immigrants to New York, which draws inspiration from a song by the band The Pogues.
Gone to Amerikay, written by Derek McCulloch and illustrated by Colleen Doran, was inspired by Thousands Are Sailing, a Pogues ballad about generations of Irish emigrants travelling "across the western ocean to a land of opportunity".
The book intertwines the stories of a penniless single mother raising her daughter in the Five Points slum in 1870, a young artist who travels from Ireland in 1960 intent on becoming a Broadway actor, and an Irish billionaire who comes to New York in 2010 in search of the link that ties them all together.
McCulloch, who previously worked with Doran on a comic anthology of songs by Tori Amos, first approached Philip Chevron, guitarist with the Pogues, with an idea for a graphic novel based on the band's entire catalogue. Chevron was enthusiastic, but other members of the band were "non-committal", so he decided to give McCulloch permission to use Thousands Are Sailing, a song he wrote.
"What I think Gone To Amerikay does well is set an interconnecting tale, a sort of ghost story, in three separate eras," said Chevron. "It's a fairly audacious undertaking and I'm delighted to have helped inspire or influence it.""
Gone to Amerikay, written by Derek McCulloch and illustrated by Colleen Doran, was inspired by Thousands Are Sailing, a Pogues ballad about generations of Irish emigrants travelling "across the western ocean to a land of opportunity".
The book intertwines the stories of a penniless single mother raising her daughter in the Five Points slum in 1870, a young artist who travels from Ireland in 1960 intent on becoming a Broadway actor, and an Irish billionaire who comes to New York in 2010 in search of the link that ties them all together.
McCulloch, who previously worked with Doran on a comic anthology of songs by Tori Amos, first approached Philip Chevron, guitarist with the Pogues, with an idea for a graphic novel based on the band's entire catalogue. Chevron was enthusiastic, but other members of the band were "non-committal", so he decided to give McCulloch permission to use Thousands Are Sailing, a song he wrote.
"What I think Gone To Amerikay does well is set an interconnecting tale, a sort of ghost story, in three separate eras," said Chevron. "It's a fairly audacious undertaking and I'm delighted to have helped inspire or influence it.""
You can read the whole Sunday Times article HERE.
