Obverse Books


Obverse Books is a British publisher initially known for publishing books relating to the character Iris Wildthyme, and currently for the Black Archive series of critical books on Doctor Who, and two sister series - the Gold Archive, focusing on Star Trek, and the Silver Archive, featuring other genre shows. The company also owns publishing rights for stories based on Faction Paradox, and previously held the license to Sexton Blake. Obverse Books had an e-book only imprint named Manleigh Books between 2012 and 2016.

History

The company was founded in 2008 in Edinburgh by Stuart Douglas. Obverse's first book was a 2009 collection of short stories featuring the character Iris Wildthyme, first seen in the Doctor Who universe. Further volumes of Iris Wildthyme short stories have followed regularly.
In 2010 the company expanded their line to include story collections from single authors and collections that did not focus primarily on science fiction. That same year the company also acquired the rights to publish short story collections based on Faction Paradox.
In 2011 Obverse launched The Obverse Quarterly, a series of paperback books aimed at genre fans. The series contains stories by authors such as George Mann, Paul Magrs and Michael Moorcock, and new stories featuring Zenith the Albino, Sherlock Holmes and The City of the Saved, amongst others. That same year Obverse began publishing a series of tete-beche collections as part of the resurgence of such books in the speculative fiction market. The following year Obverse launched an ebook-only imprint, Manleigh Books.
Obverse obtained the rights to the character of Sexton Blake in 2013 and relaunched the Sexton Blake Library in 2014 with Mark Hodder's 'The Silent Thunder Caper'.
In 2015 Obverse announced The Black Archive, a series of book-length critical studies of individual Doctor Who stories, launched in March 2016. In 2017, a sister series The Silver Archive was announced. This Archive, edited by Stuart Douglas, covers series other than Doctor Who, including Sapphire & Steel, Dark Skies, Stranger Things and The Strange World of Gurney Slade.
In 2018, a charity book published by Obverse contained a section of the abandoned Steven Moffat script for The Day of the Doctor featuring the Ninth Doctor as played by Christopher Eccleston.
In 2019, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the imprint, Obverse published six books, each featuring one of the most popular characters from their catalogue. These included Iris Wildthyme, Faction Paradox, The Manleigh Halt Irregulars, Senor 105, Seaton Begg and The City of the Saved.
The Black Archive #15: Full Circle by John Toon won New Zealand science fiction's Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Professional Publication in 2019. Toon repeated the feat in 2022, when they won the same award for The Black Archive #61: ''Paradise Towers.
In 2021, Obverse announced a new Gold Archive range, focusing on individual episodes of Star Trek. The company also licensed the prose rights to the setting and characters from the Doctor Who story Paradise Towers''.
In 2023, the photobook Dark Edinburgh by Scott Liddell won a Scottish Nature Photography Award as 'Favourite Scottish Nature Photography Book' for 2022.

Fiction

[Iris Wildthyme]

  • Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus
  • The Panda Book of Horror
  • Miss Wildthyme and Friends Investigate
  • Iris: Abroad
  • Wildthyme in Purple
  • Lady Stardust
  • Fifteen
  • Iris Wildthyme of Mars
  • The Perennial Miss Wildthyme
  • A Clockwork Iris
  • Wild Thymes on the 22
  • ''Bafflement & Devotion: Iris at the Edges''

    The New Adventures of Iris Wildthyme

  • Iris Wildthyme and the Polythene Terror by Paul Magrs
  • Mother, Maiden, Crone by Courtney Milnestein

    [Faction Paradox]

  • A Romance in Twelve Parts
  • Burning with Optimism's Flames
  • Against Nature - Lawrence Burton
  • The Brakespeare Voyage - Simon Bucher-Jones and Jonathan Dennis
  • Liberating Earth
  • Head of State - Andrew Hickey
  • Weapons Grade Snake Oil - Blair Bidmead
  • Spinning Jenny - Dale Smith
  • The Book of the Enemy
  • ''The Book of the Peace''

    Worlds of the Spiral Politic

  • The Boulevard: Volume One
  • Inward Collapse by Lawrence Burton
  • The Boulevard: Volume Two
  • Rose-Coloured Crosshairs by Blair Bidmead

    Paradise Towers

  • Build High for Happiness
  • Ice Hot
  • As A Kang Should Be by Dale Smith

    Charity anthologies

  • Storyteller - a Found Book
  • Dalekese
  • A Target for Tommy
  • A Second Target for Tommy
  • The Cushingverse Collection
  • Forgotten Lives volumes 1 to 3
  • A Target for Antoni
  • ''Party Like It's 1998''

    The Sexton Blake Library

  • Sexton Blake and the Silent Thunder Caper by Mark Hodder

    [The City of the Saved]

  • Tales of the City
  • More Tales of the City
  • Tales of the Great Detectives
  • Furthest Tales of the City
  • Tales of the Civil War
  • Stranger Tales of the City
  • ''Of the City of the Saved''

    The Periodic Adventures of Señor 105

  • The Gulf, or Señor 105 y el Cráter Misterioso by Cody Quijano-Schell
  • The Grail, or Señor 105 y el Pueblo del Gobernador Demente by Lawrence Burton
  • By the Time I Get to Venus, or Recuerda by Blair Bidmead
  • Señor 105 and the Secret Santa, or El Santa, el Barbudo de Plata by Stuart Douglas
  • Green Eyed and Grim, or Aquí Hay Dragones by Selina Lock
  • Horizon, or Señor 105 contra las Momias Locas de Odinhotep by Philip Purser-Hallard
  • The Senor 105 Adventure Book, or Señor 105 y los Chicos y las Chicas Guía de Peligro by Joe Curreri
  • The Five Faces of Fear, or Ocho de Lado by Jay Eales
  • Spectrum, or Monstruos en la Luz by Stewart Sheargold

    The Obverse Quarterly

  • Book 1.1: Bite Sized Horror
  • Book 1.2: Señor 105 and the Elements of Danger
  • Book 1.3: The Diamond Lens and Other Stories
  • Book 1.4: Zenith Lives!: Tales of M.Zenith, the Albino
  • Book 2.1: Tales of the City
  • Book 2.2: Lady Stardust
  • Book 2.3: The Casebook of the Manleigh Halt Irregulars
  • Book 2.4: ''The Obverse Book of Detectives''

    An Obverse Sextet

Six novellas featuring popular characters, released to celebrate Obverse Books' Tenth Anniversary in November 2019
  • The Mystic Menagerie of Iris Wildthyme - Nick Campbell
  • The Rise and Fall of Señor 105 - Blair Bidmead
  • The Immortal Seaton Begg - Simon Bucher-Jones
  • Hyponormalisation: A Faction Hollywood Production - Jonathan Dennis
  • Closing the Casebook - Nick Wallace
  • Vanishing Tales of the City - Kara Dennison

    Obverse Originals

  • Welcome Home, Bernard Socks by Paul Magrs
  • Terra Exitus by Scott M. Liddell
  • The Wallscrawler and Other Stories by Stephen Wyatt
  • Science Fiction by Scott M. Liddell
  • Beyond the Veil by Paul Magrs

    Other titles

  • The Obverse Book of Ghosts
  • With Deepest Sympathy - Johnny Mains
  • Team Up - Paul Magrs and George Mann
  • Behind the Sofa - Mark Charlesworth and Chris Newton
  • The Ninnies - Paul Magrs
  • The Newbury and Hobbes Annual 2013 - George Mann
  • The Blue Landscape and other stories - Stewart Sheargold-Pearce
  • A Treasury of Brenda and Effie
  • Stardust & Snow
  • Dark Edinburgh by Scott M. Liddell

    Non-fiction

[The Black Archive]