Henry Chebaane

A DISCOVERY in the basement of a King’s Cross house could lead to history-changing secrets in the realm of quantum physics.

A collection of long-forgotten tunnels unearthed by builders in a terrace near Argyle Square are said to contain Victorian-era laboratories – and these high tech bunkers are home to a mysterious machine.

Such a discovery has King’s Cross all over it, says author Henry Chebaane. His new graphic novel The Panharmonion Chronicles: Times of London, plays out across illustrations of streets that have been committed to film in the past.

If a portal to Victorian London was to be found anywhere, senses Henry, then a King’s Cross backstreet is as likely place as any.

Henry’s words have been brought to life by the art work of Stephen Baskerville. A stalwart of comics including 2001 AD, Baskerville’s work has a nice eye for location details.

The hero is Alex Campbell, a musician from Canada who inherits a home from a mystery ancestor.

Alex has had a tough life – her family were killed in an arson attack, which she mysteriously survived – and the chance to start afresh appeals.

But as she begins renovating her new King’s Cross home,aggressive “developers” keep asking her to sell up. Her home isn’t what it seems to be, and then there’s the matter of the mysterious object in the basement.

The first instalment is out now, and Henry, who lives in King’s Cross, has drawn on his work as a designer – he has created the interiors of two King’s Cross hotels – to come up with a polymathic, site-specific story, creating an alternative and scientifically curious history with a dollop of HG Wells atmospherics.

King’s Cross plays a starring role in the book

Henry’s interest in cross-disciplines influences the sci-fi: a machine that can transport people and objects across time and space poses a question of physics, and then he asks the human question of what it could be used for.

Henry grew up in Paris and a childhood spent in public libraries inspired his love of story-telling. He was encouraged to develop his inquisitive nature, and believes this partly stems from his family set-up – he and his sister were brought up by his mother alone.

“We went to the library to read all the time,” he recalls. “What a resource it was, and how encouraging to know there was a place that was free to enter with all this information for you. It was a form of entertainment for us,” he adds.

After completing a compulsory year in the armed forces in 1988, he had a taste for adventure.

“I wanted to embrace the world, see as much as I could, dedicate myself to learning,” he recalls.

“I left Paris and crossed the Channel with £50 in my pocket.”

Henry has remained a Londoner ever since. He settled in Kilburn, working as a kitchen porter in Camden Town. It offered him a crash course in British culture.

He became a hotel manager. When he had finished for the day he went to evening classes, studying architecture and interior design. He established a studio 22 years ago.

Design was a way of telling a story in 3D – and provides a link to the graphic novel genre.

“I wanted to shape spaces with a narrative,” he says. “I would begin by writing a story for the location, consider what it said and then design the interior.”

Seven years ago he worked on a King’s Cross hotel. It is well known – a landmark on Euston Road, a Victorian building with shafts of colour across its facade. Henry’s Steampunk-influenced interior now provides a backdrop for characters in the book.

“I walked the streets for hours, played out scenes,” he recalls. “I came back at different times. I saw how people move. There is so much going on in plain sight.”

The story jumps across centuries and continents.

“In telling a complex story I wanted to be able to stop, rewind. A graphic novel allows that. There are layers of storytelling. I felt it would be a great form to use to explore a wonderful world of science.”

The Steampunk aesthetic – a mixture of Gothic Victoriana, Heath Robinson’s imagination and Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s engineering – is important, he adds, and can be found in many places.

“I have a thing for tools made before the 1970s – wood, brass and screwed together,” he says. “I buy them when I walk up to Portobello Road. They are made with values of craftsmanship. This idea of long-lasting objects has disappeared almost completely. Our world is one of cheap mass-produced objects that do not last so we have to continue buying new ones.”

Industrial heritage, the workmanship and engineering of the Industrial Revolution is a theme.

“The UK was so good at producing people to make engines, machines and tools,” he adds. “There were good aspects – and then some that were not so good, to put it mildly. I am interested in unintended side effects – something inventors often see happen with their work.”

The world he has created is designed to be expanded, he adds, with the Panharmonion not restricted to graphic novels. “I have the trilogy mapped out,” he says. “I want to write short stories and a novella. There are a lot of back stories I can tell.”

What Henry does not want to do is produce a series that follows well-worn paths of sci-fi.

“One of the joys of writing is to look at fallacies, lazy thinking, the lazy labelling of people,” he says.

“I find an idea can challenge the reader to look at how they react, how they behave.”

The streets of his neighbourhood have offered stimulus.

“I enjoy using King’s Cross as a location, a starting point for story-telling,” he states.

“I live here, I feel I belong here – and I want to celebrate it.”

• The Panharmonion Chronicles: Times of London. By Henry Chebaane and Stephen Baskerville, Supanova, £19.99