Near Myths

*Near Myths*
Near Myths
	Cover of Near Myths #3.
Publication information
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	Sept. 1978–Apr. 1980
No. of issues	5
Main character(s)	Luther Arkwright; Gideon Stargrave
Creative team
Written by	Grant Morrison, Bryan Talbot
Artist(s)	Grant Morrison, Graham Manley, Bryan Talbot
Editor(s)	Rob King (issues #1–4); Bryan Talbot (issue #5)

Near Myths was a comic magazine published in Edinburgh during the late 1970s that only ran for five issues. The initial editor was Rob King and it was produced by Galaxy Media. Near Myths featured the first professionally published work of Grant Morrison, Graham Manley and Tony O'Donnell, and saw the start of Bryan Talbot's seminal graphic novel The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. Teenager Grant Morrison's contribution, Gideon Stargrave, later found his way into Morrison's Vertigo series The Invisibles.

Publication history

O'Donnell credits Manley as inspiring the creation of Near Myths.^[1] Founding editor Rob King also ran a science fiction bookshop in Edinburgh. Deeply in debt, he ending up leaving town, abandoning both the shop and Near Myths. His landlord later broke in and eventually pulped leftover copies of the magazine.^[2] Bryan Talbot took over as editor for the magazine's final issue.

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, by Bryan Talbot started its run in Near Myths.
- "Napalm Kiss" (in Near Myths #1, September 1978)
- "Shadows" (in Near Myths #2, October 1978)
- "The Treaty of St Petersburg" (in Near Myths #3, December 1978)
- "Point.Counter.Point" (in Near Myths #4, September 1979)
- "The Adventures of Luther Arkwright; Chapters 1B, 2b & 4B (in Near Myths #5, April 1980)
Grant Morrison (providing both art and script):
- "Time is a Four-Lettered Word" (in Near Myths #2, October 1978)
- "Gideon Stargrave" (in Near Myths #3-4, 1978–1979)
- "The Checkmate Man" (in Near Myths #5, Apr. 1980)

References

Notes

^ Ewing, Garen. Interview with Tony O'Donnell (July 1998). Originally intended for the British comics fanzine Vicious, run by Pete Ashton and Jez Higgins. Archived at GarenEwing.co.uk.
^ Johnston, Rich. "ComICA – ‘Dark We Were And Golden Eyed’ Panel Report," Bleeding Cool (November 8, 2009).