The Adventures of Richard Spruce

The Adventures of Richard Spruce is a graphic novel with moving image telling the truly remarkable story of little known botanical explorer Richard Spruce . This intrepid explorer made pioneering leaps in the botanical understanding of the Amazon region collecting over 7000 new species in his gruelling 15 year expedition. After suffering with malaria for several months, Spruce offers his services to help cultivate the quinine bark in the Amazon an early antidote in the prevention and cure of malaria. 
Told in the first person from original quotes from Spruce’s journals and letters, the story recounts how he endured impossible conditions, narrowly avoided civil war and struggled with a series of illnesses both real and imagined. 
Readers will explore Spruce’s surroundings in a highly visual and experiential journey of this determined hypochondriac whose obsessional eye for detail, passion for botany made him one of the largest contributors towards 19th Century Pharmacy and botanical sciences.