Since winning the Turner Prize in 2003, the celebrated transvestite
potter Grayson Perry (born 1960) has become something of a national
institution in the U.K. In 1992, some while before he became known,
Atlas Press published Perry's sole graphic novel, Cycle of Violence,
the nightmarish tale of a young cyclist and transvestite, now reprinted
in a handsome hardcover edition. Of the work's genesis, Perry wrote:
"When I was 12 or 13 I drew a series of short comic strip adventures
featuring an idealized male hero. When puberty hit me those boys' own
tales became increasingly kinky, involving much cross-dressing and
bondage. Sadly these reports from my young subconscious were lost in the
upheavals of adolescence. Twenty years later I drew Cycles of Violence
while facing up to becoming a father myself, and once again my
imagination became an open wound."