Brian Crane – författare

A selection of more than 150 of the best daily strips from Brian Crane's hugely popular cartoon Pickles.

Someone once said Where there is life there is hope.And so it was for Jasper, a border collie, existing a life of purgatory at the hands of a drunken, embittered brute of a master. Jasper could only wait for an opportunity to escape.But when that opportunity arrives does he take it?The storypoems of Beneath The Fickle Moon follow the life of Jasper. The meetings, the partings, the highs, the lows.

The Ballad Of Jessie Gray.and other stories.Playing For Laughs - focuses on one person who, like the majority of those in the entertainment business fail to realise their dreams. The Last Page - attempts to show how the subsequent consequences of grief can affect a person.From Whence I Came - allows a man to sift through the memories of an experience created over 40 years before and to examine the impact on his lifeDust On The Shelf - sees a womans struggle with impending spinsterhood and the demons she has been harbouring since childhood.A Minor Deception - asks the question, what is the affect on a hard working father, when he finally comes to terms with the ramifications of his single mindedness.The Corner Shop - seems to have been there forever, but what is the secret surrounding the latest proprietor. The Ballad Of Jessie Gray - anonymously jotted down on a scrap of paper in 1859 that starts a search with an astonishing outcome.

A selection of more than 150 of the best daily strips from Brian Crane''s hugely popular cartoon Pickles.

'Will we once again find the light, now darkness has fallen' The Seal is a story set just weeks before the outbreak of WW2 but which has its roots in the historical Holy Crusades of some nine hundred years before. It is a story of one man s chance encounters in a series of incidents that would not only have a profound effect on him personally but which could have led to serious consequences at a time when the security of this country was at its most vulnerable. However, within the story is also a journey, albeit over a short period of time of one man in search of his own conscience through the events in his life and their affect on the circumstances that he was to find himself in, a journey that was to have far reaching repercussions for him beyond the limits of this story.

VOICES FROM THE WASTELAND and other stories.Showcase……………………………….a weekend for entertainment agent trouble-shooter Ronnie Littlewood, that does not go according to his well thought through planning, in this third story about the ex-comedian.The Box…………………………………..is a Kodak box Brownie Camera that holds a dark, sinister secret for its owner. But it is his loyal friend who takes on the task to unravel what it all means. The Park Bench……………………….is a refuge, a place of solace and tranquillity for one woman to contemplate where her life has led her. It is also a place where she finally come to terms with her situation. Voices From The Wasteland……began as a Theatre In Education Project inspired by a cutting in a Manchester newspaper under the heading ‘body of an unidentified man found in alley’. From there it became a musical and then a fourteen track album. However, it has always been the wish of the author to write it as a story and now with many of the lyrics from the original musical interspersing with the narrative, his wish has come true.Cover illustration.‘Winter Moon On Canal’By R S Gardner. Courtesy of Clark Art Ltd

SANCTUARY IN THE CLOUDS and other stories.is a collection of three novella length stories, each dealing with adifferent time and setting.The Long Weekend….is the fourth story in the series that follows Ronnie Littlewood, a retired clubland comedian, now employed by a prestigious Entertainment Agency as a troubleshooter/liaison between the various venues in the industrial area of Central England. The Seventh Key….is not so much an ‘Who Done It’ more of a ‘We Know Who Done It….We Just Have To Prove It,’ And so, two concerned individuals take up the challenge to do just that. Sanctuary In The Clouds….is the story of an impressionable young couple in the psychedelic 60’s, who have their somewhat idyllic world shattered by a series of strange events, which ultimately leaves them with a responsibility that changes their lives forever.Cover illustration…Wheat Field With CypressesVincent Van Gogh

"Pickles is going to be around for a long time, and I am glad we have this collection to look at over and over and over," wrote Charles M. Schulz, creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang about Brian Crane. After thirty-five years, we can now say Mr. Schulz was one-hundred percent correct. 35 Years of Pickles celebrates the amazing thirty-five-year career of Brian Crane and his work with Earl, Opal, Nelson, and the rest of the Pickles gang. Including full-color strips never published in a collected format, 35 Years of Pickles is sure to delight the lifetime fans continuing their journeys with this award-winning strip, as well as new fans the Pickles family is eager to welcome into their home and hearts. 35 Years makes a unique addition to any Pickles library.All strips in 35 Years of Pickles, including Sunday strips, have never been published in a collected format beforefull-color, including updated strips from black and white originalsStrips from each year from 1990 through 2025Crane has hand drawn the strip daily for the past 35 yearsPickles appears in over 900 newspapers nationwide

Odyssey Of A Quiet Man The weight of the cross that you bear is measured by the guilt in your heart. Odyssey is the story, told over two generations of an insignificant quiet man who was totally unprepared for the world that he was born into. And yet through the resources of his untapped, strength of character he managed to rise above the adversities brought about by his inherently private and dispassionate nature and the inadequacies of his physical stature. One story in two parts, that encompasses the periods of the late Victorian era to the dawn of the new Elizabethan. However, it is also a story of consequences, of a quiet man falling victim of his own honourable disposition and then through no fault of his own being drawn into the dark pit of retribution in his search of spiritual atonement.

Take one long-married and occasionally exasperated couple getting along in years, their well meaning daughter and precocious grandson, a clueless dog, an independent minded cat, plus assorted other quirky but endearing characters and you have the world of Pickles, Brian Crane's beloved comic strip that takes a wiry but good-natured look at the foibles of family and friends.

Getting old is not for sissies. But as Brian Crane's crotchety but endearing seniors Earl and Opal Pickles do it, it can be humorous and often touching. For over twenty years, Crane's comic strip, Pickles, has been delighting readers around the world. This sixth collection continues the adventures of grandparents Earl and Opal; their precocious grandson, Nelson; quirky family members and friends; and the family's dog and cat, who offer their own distinctive views of the goings-on. Crane's view of the foibles of a long-married, often cantankerous couple and their extended family and friends is wry, honest, and always warmhearted.

Getting old is not for sissies. But as Brian Crane's crotchety but endearing seniors Earl and Opal Pickles do it, it can be humorous and often touching. For over twenty-five years, Crane's comic strip, Pickles, has been delighting readers around the world. This seventh collection continues the adventures of grandparents Earl and Opal; their precocious grandson, Nelson; quirky family members and friends; and the family's dog and cat, who offer their own distinctive views of the goings-on. Crane's view of the foibles of a long-married, often cantankerous couple and their extended family and friends is wry, honest, and always warm-hearted.

Pickles Tails Vol. I is Brian Crane's first collection dedicated to the beloved Pickles family pets, Roscoe and Muffin, and their wily ways. This hardcover collection, the first in a two-volume set, contains the daily and Sunday strips that feature Roscoe and Muffin from Crane’s earliest work in 1990 through 2007. This volume tracks Brian's early days with the Pickles appearing in black-and-white, to the beginning of his full-color Sunday strips. All of the beloved Pickles characters are here, playing, cuddling, gently scolding, and loving wholeheartedly their favorite furry friends!