The Rickard Sisters: February 2025

Sophie and Scarlett Rickard talked with Alex Fitch about their collaboration.

Sophie (script) and Scarlett (art) were back at Cartoon County to talk about their latest graphic novel This Slavery, that has since been shortlisted for the inaguural graphic novel category of the British Book Awards (the Nibbies). Their third graphic adaptation of an Edwardian protest novel sees the duo tackle the book's radical feminist and socialist tale of love, loss, poverty and politics set in a Lancashire Mill.

As ever, their comic detailing of pre-war British life mixes Sophie's deft abridging of the original text by Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, and Scarlett's evocative clear line style set against lush backgrounds, to bring the impoverished early 20th Century back to life on the page. 

Alex Fitch chatted with the Rickards about their experience of launching the book at Queen Street Mill Textile Museum in Burnley, and how messages of suffrage and protest from the past are increasingly relevant again in the modern world.

Check out their awesome work here https://rickardsisters.com/