Great Fire of London comic book stamps will reignite your love for letter writing
LONDON -- Sept. 2, 2016 marks 350 years since the Great Fire of London tore through the city, leaving mass devastation in its wake.
To mark the occasion, Royal Mail has released a set of six graphic novel-style stamps reimagining the fire and locating the action within a street-map design.
This is the first time Royal Mail has used a graphic-novel style of illustration for its stamps.
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The stamps were designed by comic-book artist and writer John Higgins, who has contributed to the likes of Watchmen, Judge Dredd and 2000 AD. The Great Fire of London broke out in a bakery in Pudding Lane on Sept. 2, 1666 and lasted until Sept. 5.
The fire devastated 13,200 houses and it's believed to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of London's 80,000 residents. While the exact death toll is unknown, it was believed to have been small: only six deaths were recorded.
“It is an honour to illustrate these stamps and to commemorate this moment in history 350 years on," Higgins said in a statement sent to Mashable.
"Capturing the story of the Great Fire of London in just six special stamps was a wonderful challenge. I am thrilled to have been chosen to bring the graphic-novel style to Royal Mail’s Special Stamps for the first time."
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Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
