TAKE ME BACK TO MANCHESTER
One of Manchester Museum’s prize exhibits is the skeleton of Maharajah the elephant who walked to Manchester.
‘Wombwell’s Royal Number One’ famous travelling menagerie closed in 1872 with all the animals sold by auction in Edinburgh. The Asian elephant Maharajah was purchased by the owners of Manchester’s Belle Vue Zoological Gardens. So far so good. It was planned to send him by train to Manchester, but this plan altered rapidly when he immediately wrecked his railway carriage. Thrown off the train, his keeper suggested that they should walk to Manchester, perhaps to secure a few extra days work, and this they did over the next ten days.
The tale of the walk has entered zoological and Manchester folklore.
In April 2015, Manchester comic artist Oliver East (www.olivereast.com) will retrace the 200 mile walk, over the ten days 8-17 April 2015, accompanied not by an elephant but by his phenomenal imaginative, drawing and narrative skills. To challenge himself further Oliver will set his drawings in 1872. Oliver has researched the comprehensive written archives documenting the walk, looked at the care and welfare of animals in captivity in 1872 and also researched Victorian paintings and photographs of the route, held in local art/museum collections.
Oliver’s Walk is commissioned by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival and Manchester Museum and sponsored by Craghoppers and The Elephant Yard, Kendal
The day by day route will follow the A7 and the A6. Full details below:
8 April Edinburgh (Waverley Station) – Stow
9 April Stow – Hawick
10 April Hawick – Langholm
11 April Langholm – Carlisle
12 April Carlisle – Penrith
13 April Penrith – Kendal
14 April Kendal – Lancaster
15 April Lancaster – Preston
16 April Preston – Bolton
17 April Bolton – Manchester ( Manchester Museum )
Take me back to Manchester will be filmed by Cumbrian based film makers Dom Bush and Simon Sylvester. The documentary film Take Me Back To Manchester is commissioned by the Lakes Culture Lakes Ignite programme.
The film will be shown at the Brockhole Visitor Centre in the Lake District from 8-17 May inclusive and also at the Toronto Comic Art Festival in May 2015.
Take Me Back To Manchester will be the first time that Oliver has walked in another’s footsteps ie Maharajah and his keeper Lorenzo Lawrence and the first time he has attempted an historical approach. The walk in the Spring of 1872 was a media sensation in its day and well documented in local papers; there are also a couple of paintings/drawings recording the event (one in Manchester Museum and one in Manchester Art Gallery ).
Following the walk, Oliver will create a comic book Take Me Back To Manchester.
Take Me Back To Manchester will be showcased at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in October 2015 and some work in progress will be included as part of the LICAF Comic Art Pavilion at the Toronto Comic Art Festival in May 2015.
Oliver will also make 20 large scale drawings that will form the basis of an exhibition at Manchester Museum alongside the skeleton of Maharajah. The exhibition of Take Me Back To Manchester is pencilled for early 2016.
Oliver East is an artist who gets his creative energy and inspiration from walking predetermined routes and creating comics as a result. Previous works include the Trains are…Mint series ( walks along train lines in and around Manchester ); Sweardown 2013 and The Homesick Truant’s Cumbrian Yarn 2014. He also designed a few album covers for Elbow ( Build a Rocket Boys and The Seldom Seen Kid )
Quotes
It’s a story that sits somewhere at the back of most Mancunian’s memories without ever really knowing what happened. There is a lot written about Belle Vue Zoo itself, and Maharaja’s life there, but little to nothing on the actual walk Lorenzo undertook, which makes it ripe to mine for linear narrative. The burgeoning relationship between animal trainer and animal, whilst undergoing such an epic trek is interesting to explore in itself, aside from the task of getting to Manchester.
While aspects of the book will have to fall to fiction, I feel doing the walk myself will give the finished project so much more substance than spending that same time pouring over old newspaper cuttings in libraries. The landscape drawings gathered on route, the empathy of exhaustion, the thrill I’ll have having completed the walk, these will make it a much better project. A book born on the road.
Oliver East Comic Creator
Oliver is taking on a legendary tale linked closely to the local landscape which is certain to capture the imaginations of people of all ages whether they are into comics or not. It promises to be memorable, especially with an elephant involved! and to tell this amazing story in a way only comics can do.”
Julie Tait, Director of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival
About The Lakes International Comic Art Festival
A huge line up of both British and globe-spanning international comics talent and other events is being lined up for this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival, taking place 16th – 18th October 2015, which attracted thousands of fans young and old to Kendal in 2014.
International guests announced so far are award-winning Canadian artist Darwyn Cooke, Kathryn Immonen, Stuart Immonen, Seth, Kate Beaton, Michael deForge, Simpsons Comics artist Bill Morrison (thanks to the National Cartoonists Society in the US), Boulet, Winsluss, Benoit Peeters and Antoine Cossé – with many more to come.
The Festival’s dedicated organisers are determined to deliver a truly European-style comics festival involving the whole of the local community and visitors in a truly unique comics experience.
For the latest news on the 2015 Lakes International Comic Art Festival visit: www.comicartfestival.com
