Review by Frank Plowright

Steven Appleby’s instantly recognisable art and strikingly individual newspaper strips have been part of British comics culture since the early 1990s, so it may surprise that 2020’s Dragman is his first full length graphic novel. It’s consistently inventive and deeply personal, as despite not being autobiographical, it cuts to the core of who Appleby is. However, that’s not the half of it, as Dragman is also a quirky superhero story with the emphasis on humanity, a consideration of what we all are, and an exploration of a reality where souls are tangible, and can be traded.

Using a transparent metaphor, August Crimp’s super powers only manifest when he’s dressed as a woman, and a joyous subversion of superhero clichés is accompanied by a raft of new thoughts about super powers and their application. Appleby mixes August’s past career with a problem in the present day long after he’s retired as a superhero, having never disclosed that career to his wife who experienced a superhero related tragedy. This is against a background of trans people being murdered, prejudice in the superhero community, and those who’ve sold their soul undergoing a change of personality. Chapters are separated by brief text sections supplying the hateful narrative of a killer. A description of the sensational sort doesn’t do Dragman justice, though, as it’s also very funny and supplies genuinely inventive mysteries.

Appleby’s people are stylised, with thin heads drawn with an endearingly shaky line, generally filling small panels and with past and present contrasted by colour and lack of it. That’s no metaphor, just a practicality.

Part of the reason for Dragman is Appleby normalising some men’s attraction for dressing in clothes society in general has allocated to women. It’s only the secrets that need to be kept that harm anyone, and it all seems such an inconsequential matter to get worked up about. However, it’s not an issue addressed with any serious intent in comics before now, at least not over three hundred pages, making Dragman a groundbreaking graphic novel above and beyond the considerable entertainment on offer.

That entertainment is plentiful and intelligent, as Appleby injects tension generated by the knowledge that at some stage August will be revealed to his wife. The length is due to a thorough airing of issues, while creativity ensures questions most readers haven’t thought to ask come to have relevance. Appleby has thought long and hard about what makes a superhero, and about the fears of a man who enjoys dressing in women’s clothing, and they combine delightfully for the most original superhero story you’ve ever read.