Hard Working 'Phrogs

For Glasgow based graphic novelists Metaphrog, who are artist Sandra Marrs and writer John Chalmers, 2009 has been a busy year. As part of National Poetry Day in October they adapted the poem The First Men on Mercury by Edwin Morgan into a four page, full colour comic of which over 32,000 copies were given out free to Glasgow's school children while they also have continued work on the fifth of their Louis graphic novels, Louis Night Salad.

In addition to this writing and illustrating they have also regularly given workshops on their work and on comics creation in general and this year to date they have presented some 26 workshops to the general public as well as both primary and secondary school pupils.

On 16 January they were at Oldmachar and Harlaw Academies in Aberdeen for two separate workshops for secondary school children and they were back to Aberdeen on 30 January at Bridge of Don Academy. 6 March saw them take part in the Big Book Bonanza at Perth High School while their first public workshop of the year was for teens at Johnstone Library on 26 March. 8 March saw them do their only non-Scottish events with two workshops at Cardiff Central Library before returning to Scotland and another two workshops on 15 May at Alexandria and Duntocher libraries as part of the West Dunbartonshire Festival of Words. On 19 June they were at Glasgow's Hillpark Secondary School Book Week before a run of six public workshops for 8-14 year olds from 7-9 July in Dalmuir, Parkhall, Balloch, Dumbarton, Clydebank and Alexandria libraries.

26 August brought perhaps their most significant event of the year when they sold out the Edinburgh International Book Festival's RBS Workshop Tent with a teen workshop entitled Design Your Own Comic. 21 September took them to Bellshill's Cultural Centre Library for two workshops for late primary pupils while 30 September to 2 October saw them give five workshops to teens as part of the school orientated WESTWord Festival section of the Wigtown Book Festival at Stranraer Academy, Newton Stewart's Douglas Ewart High School and the main Wigtown Festival marquee. On 23 October they were near Edinburgh at Kirkliston library for a children's workshop while on 6 November they finished off their 2009 workshops with one at Edinburgh's St-Thomas of Aquin's High School.

October's Kirkliston workshop has just been featured in the City Of Edinburgh council's Edinburgh Outlook newspaper with a picture of Sandra looking over the illustrations that the Kirkliston children produced. The article is also available on the Edinburgh Outlook website.

For libraries, schools or other organisations wishing to discuss putting on comics workshops with them, Metaphrog's details are available on the Scottish Book Trust website along with other Scotland based comics creators such as Alan Grant, David Bishop and Denise Mina. Metaphrog can also be contacted directly through their own website.

The full version of The First Men on Mercury comic is available here.

More details of Metaphrog and the Louis series of graphic novels are available on the Metaphrog website.

Wallace & Gromit are a Digital Comic Hit

Titan Publishing are reporting a huge success for their Wallace & Gromit digital comic, which launched last month (see news story). The strip is taking the iPhone app charts by storm and is currently ranked number one in the UK free books app store, a first for a British comic!

The comic has also risen to the number three spot overall in the free apps chart and all four paid for Wallace & Gromit comic apps are currently within the top 20 paid apps in the UK book chart.

With over 170,000 downloads of the Wallace & Gromit free app around the world, it’s not only the British who apparently can’t get enough of Aardman Animation’s iconic duo – it’s also currently the number one free book download in Australia, New Zealand and Finland.

"We've been amazed at how well our first app has done," commented Wallace & Gromit digital comics editor Ned Hartley. "Wallace & Gromit is such a great brand, and iPhone users obviously love them as much as we do!"

• You can download the first Wallace & Gromit Comic, ‘The W Files’ for free at www.wallaceandgromitcomics.com, and there are four other fantastic Wallace & Gromit comics available at the app store, for just 59p each.

Mohawk Media issues call for Comic Art Samples

Publisher Mohawk Media has announced that it is in search of artists for upcoming comic book and graphic novel projects.

Having had success with its Mr. T graphic novels, the publisher is readying to get new projects underway in 2010.

To help spearhead this search, Mr. T author, British comic creator Christopher Bunting, has been appointed as Editor-In-Chief.

"As a freelance writer, one in the early stages of his career, I know just how tough it is to break into comic books," he explains.

"I’ve often heard aspiring artists say there are no openings. I’m therefore proud to be part of this Mohawk Media initiative to give artists the opportunity to become published, paid, and involved in some of the coolest titles of 2010!"

The publisher recommends the following:

• A brief email about yourself and any published experience, accompanied by a minimum of 5 sequential pages

• Story pages only (no pinups, paintings or portraits)

• Your strongest – and preferably, recent – work

• A variety of genres if possible

• Samples in jpeg or PDF format only. Links will not be opened

• All submissions to chris@mohawkmedia.co.uk

"Remember, comics are a storytelling medium,"Bunting continues. "Those are the skills that you need to demonstrate."

"We’re excited to see what comes in. Good luck!"

• Mohawk Media website: www.mohawkmedia.co.uk


• The official Mr. T graphic novel is distributed to the comic book trade through Diamond Comics Distributors, and to the book trade by Bertrams. ISBN: 9780956018908. It is also available signed by the author from the Mohawk Media store

Sixth Tele! - Beano and Dandy In The Belfast Telegraph

Not so much news as "olds" but it is worth mentioning that the Belfast Telegraph gave away modern reprints of old Beano and Dandy comics during the week beginning 23 November 2009. The six issues were reprints of the Beanos and Dandys cover dated 22 & 29 November and 6 December 1975.

Like the comics reprints that were published in the Guardian in September this year, these Beanos and Dandys were direct reprints with nothing added such as a 'Given free with the Belfast Telegraph' flash. Unlike the Guardian, which reprinted comics from both the DC Thomson and IPC archive, the paper only dealt with DC Thomson titles.

The Belfast Telegraph is Northern Ireland's biggest selling local newspaper and is part of the Independent News and Media (INM) group which publishes the Independent newspaper in the UK and the Irish Independent in the Republic of Ireland.

The Friday before the giveaways, the paper ran an interview with DCT archivist, and former Dandy editor, Morris Heggie who talked about his time working on both titles. “I joined the company that publishes both comics, DC Thomson, in 1969 and had initially applied to become a journalist. I had gone to work there straight after I'd finished school. They took one good look at me and said that I'd probably be better off in comics..." Heggie goes on to say, "I started my career in the Beano. All of the story lines were written by a six-strong staff of young guys. It was a great environment and great fun to work in.”

He also shows the level of detail in DCT's records by pointing out, “in 1975, the Beano had a weekly circulation of around 400,000 – 500,000. But we actually sold 25,000 per week in Northern Ireland alone. We had a very big following in Ireland as a whole. In fact, the majority of the letters and jokes we pulled out of our post bag in 1975 — as back then everything was done by 'snail mail' — were from Northern Ireland.”

It is interesting to speculate that in the year that 247 people died in the Troubles in Northern Ireland and in London one of the presenters of the children's TV show Record Breakers was assassinated by the IRA's Balcombe Street gang, at least some of the Provence's children, denied the freedom to play in the streets and parks due to concerns for their safety, may have found a different outlet for their self expression.

The interview with Morris Heggie is on the Belfast Telegraph website.

In Review: Lucky Luke - The Oklahoma Land Rush

Lucky Luke is the cowboy who can shoot faster than his own shadow and, in the French speaking world, is probably third in bande dessinees character popularity behind the behemoths of Tintin and Asterix with over 70 titles published - easily more than the other two put together. He was created for Spirou comic by Maurice De Bevere (Morris) in 1946 who wrote and drew it until 1955 when René Goscinny, in his pre-Asterix days, joined him as writer. Lucky Luke subsequently moved from Spirou into Goscinny's Pilote comic in 1967 and Morris and Goscinny continued their collaboration until Goscinny's death in 1977 when other artists and writers began to work on the title.

Surprisingly Lucky Luke has had quite some history in British publications, appearing first in the weekly comic Film Fun before being renamed as Buck Bingo in Giggle in 1967 before Giggle merged with Buster. English language books have been published by Hodder and Stoughton / Brockhampton in hardback in the early 1970s with the equivalent Knight softcovers in the mid 1970s. Hodder tried again in the early 1980s, while Ravette tried in the early 1990s and then finally Glo'worm in the late 1990s. However none of them have had quite the impact of the Cinebook publications which now number 20 different Lucky Luke titles - more than the rest of the UK publishers put together. According to Cinebook's newsletters, Lucky Luke is consistently their biggest seller with a new title released every other month and the latest is The Oklahoma Land Rush.

Cowboy Lucky Luke, on his horse Jolly Jumper, has been hired by the United States government to clear the territory of Oklahoma prior to the land rush for the territory in which settlers will stack a claim to the land and which is due to take place on 22 April 1889. Having ensured that the territory is clear of claim jumpers, he then follows the settlers as they stake their claims and build the town of Boomville which he effectively becomes sheriff of as he settles the squabbles and thieving of certain disreputable townsfolk.

This Morris and Goscinny book may be Cinebook's 20th Lucky Luke but it was originally published as the 14th album by Dupuis in 1960 as Ruée Sur l'Oklahoma with the story dating back to 1958 in Spirou. Goscinny's humourous story races along as Luke deals with each problem in turn as part of the overall story. Indeed the book perhaps shows its weekly comic origins in the multitude of stories within the main story covering as it does a much long period of time than you would expect of a typical humour story. Yet this is not a drawback as our hero often comes across the same characters that he had to deal with earlier in the story while Morris' art is fun and accessible despite having few backgrounds to play with during the land rush itself due to the desolate nature of the Oklahoman landscape.

Based on this book, it is easy to see why Lucky Luke is so popular. This is a quick, easy, fun read for adults which is eminently suitable for young readers and with Christmas coming up it could well be worth considering as a present for younger sons and nephews since, if they like this one, there are plenty more titles for them to collect.


• More details of the Lucky Luke books are on Cinebook's website.

• More details on Lucky Luke are on the official Lucky Luke website (in French).