Episode 18 - Helen of Wyndhorn

For our October 2026 episode of Starship Alexandria Adrian puts forward the graphic novel Helen of Wyndhorn by Tom King, Bilquis Evely, Matthew Lopes and Clayton Cowles for Emma's consideration.

Other talking points:

The craft of framing devices

Nested narrators

Tellings, retellings; narrative and meta-narrative

Killing people is not cricket

Badass butlers

Just 100% appreciation for the art

Equal Opportunities objectification

The apparent taboo of just making things up

Civilization vs Barbarity

Unspoken histories

The "Ninth Art" (French term for comics, not the "Tenth Muse" as I said in the podcast)

Media Mentions:

The Conan stories by Robert E Howard

Wuthering Heights novel by Emily Bronte

The Barsoom stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The fantasy art of Boris Vallejo

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde novel by Robert Louis Stevenson

Star Wars movie dir. George Lucas

Fargo TV series

Next month we look at the film Sinners directed by Ryan Coogler.

This month's patron episode is our live discussion of Event Horizon from Octocon in Cork.

Adrian's music recommendation: Musik ist keine Lösung by Alligatoah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNdcr7Uu7Jc&list=RDwNdcr7Uu7Jc&index=1

Emma's latest writing is included in Creative Futures (Beyond and Within) https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/creative-futures-allen-stroud/7847161 which was recently shortlisted for a BSFA Award

Adrian's most recent book is Engines of Reason https://bookshop.org/p/books/engines-of-reason-elder-race-book-ii-adrian-tchaikovsky/b69799af416d2980

If you'd like to support the show, and get an additional monthly patrons-only episode, you can become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/c/starshipalexandria/home

You can buy our official t-shirts and mugs at https://starshipalexandria.teemill.com/

Follow us at:

Emma: @[email protected] and www.enewman.co.uk

Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and www.adriantchaikovsky.com