Comic Event at The Goethe-Institut

Great evening last night at The Goethe-Institut and Alliance Francaise in Glasgow: Marc Baines was in conversation with Lewis Trondheim and Mawil, for an entertaining and genuinely interesting talk. We enjoy hearing other cartoonists talk about their work, and this kind of thing rarely happen on our doorstep, so that was a real bonus. We also got a chance to catch up with Joe Gordon, Forbidden Planet globetrotter blogger, and Dr. Billy Grove, who was there to help out as a translator.

Metaphrog Comic on STV

STV's The Hour, featuring Liz Lochhead talking about our comic adaptation of Edwin Morgan's poem The First Men on Mercury.



For the full National Poetry Day feature version please follow this link.

THE FIRST MEN ON MERCURY ON TV

STV's The Hour featured our comic adaptation of THE FIRST MEN ON MERCURY on National Poetry Day, as a way of interesting children in poetry visually. Liz Lochhead, Glasgow's Poet Lauteate, made an appearance on the show reading and talking about poetry.

THE FIRST MEN ON MERCURY

Today, 32 500+ copies of our Edwin Morgan comic adaptation, THE FIRST MEN ON MERCURY, are being distributed to all pupils in Glasgow Secondary schools, to celebrate National Poetry Day.

For those of you who have left school long ago or don't live in Glasgow, you can read the comic online at www.metaphrog.com/mercury. We wanted to make this site a little bit special, and so have added some behind the scenes information on the making of the comic. Educators will also find teaching notes for the classroom.

The project was originally commissioned and is published by the Association for Scottish Literary Studies.



THE FIRST MEN ON MERCURY COMIC
Association for Scottish Literary Studies
Edwin Morgan website
National Poetry Day

Wigtown Book Festival

This week, we'll be at the Wigtown Book Festival, doing eight events (three talks and five workshops) all packed into three days! We'll be visiting schools in the area as well as talking to over 300 pupils in the festival marquee. For more details: http://www.metaphrog.com/events.html

The First Men on Mercury comic adaptation of the Edwin Morgan poem

A while back we mentioned on this blog that we were working on a comic adaptation of Edwin Morgan's poem The First Men on Mercury for release on National Poetry Day.

Today, the Metro newspaper is running a full page feature on the project.



To mark National Poetry Day – 8 October 2009 – the Association for Scottish Literary Studies will be distributing over 30,000 copies of the comic-strip adaptation to every secondary school pupil in the poet’s home city of Glasgow. The comic will also be available to read online at http://www.metaphrog.com/mercury

"The First Men on Mercury is one of Edwin Morgan’s science fiction poems – fizzing with ideas and bubbling with invention. It’s simultaneously fascinating, funny and just a little bit disconcerting, as we witness first contact between the brave explorers from Earth and the native inhabitants of the planet Mercury." Duncan Jones, ASLS.

The form of the poem, largely dialogue based, makes it ideal for adaptation into comic-strip. It was a privilige to be asked to work on this and also highly enjoyable. We realised that by adding visuals you are also taking away from the inner images the poem in its pure text form might generate for a reader so we tried to treat it sensitively.

A Parcel from Far Away

A few weeks ago, our friend hey from Berlin, who wrote the song for Louis - Dreams Never Die, sent us a really nice parcel with the latest hey-o-hansen cd release. It was wrapped in a cd mailing box which had originally been used five years ago by Kristin, then singer with múm, to send their remix version of hey's song for the Louis - Dreams Never Die release.

The package came complete with a sketch drawn by Kristin (image below), and receiving it as we breakfasted one Saturday morning was most unexpected. We'd never seen it before and didn't know this part of the story. The box had travelled all around the world to reach hey in Berlin: múm had recorded their version then left to go on tour, forgeting completely to post it to him. A while later, while in Australia, they finally mailed it. Five years on, it reached these Scottish shores. It reminded us of the fantastic people we met and the friends we made through the collective work we all put into this project.



hey-o-hansen's new release is a complilation of rare and unreleased austrodub tracks from 1995 to 2009, and makes for an excellent introduction to their wonderful music. Although broadly speaking sounds from the dub universe it is filled with hey-o-hansen's amazingly unique sense of melody and also contains the song dreams never die (to fc). You can listen to a sample on their website: http://heyrec.org

The Guardian Comic Giveaway

The good people at The Guardian newspaper have kindly informed us that they will be giving away a classic comic every day next week from Saturday 12th of September. Details below!



Remember how you were with seven classic comics for grown up boys and girls. We are printing an original issue of Jackie, The Beano, Roy of the Rovers, Bunty, The Dandy, Tammy and Whizzer And Chips every day in the Guardian and the Observer from Saturday 12 September.

It all starts on Saturday with the 1975 Valentine's Day special of Jackie, featuring David Essex, Slade, the Cathy and Claire problem page and a Donny Osmond strip story!

The Beano's back on Sunday with the 2000th issue from 1980, featuring a Dennis the Menace front cover and all your favourites: Lord Snooty, Minnie the Minx and the Bash Street Kids.

On Monday it's the one where Roy Race is shot in Roy of the Rovers from 1981, followed by the Bunty 1972 Summer Special on Tuesday. The Dandy, with the last Korky the Cat cover from 1984 is your comic for Wednesday, while Thursday sees the return of the very first Tammy from 1971. And finally, on Friday, catch up with Sid, Slippy and Shiner in Whizzer and Chips, two comics in one!

They don't make them like this anymore....


Full running order for comics giveaway:

Sat 12 September - Jackie
Sun - Beano
Mon - Roy of the Rovers
Tues - Bunty
Wed - The Dandy
Thu - Tammy
Fri - Whizzer and Chips

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Our workshop at the Edinburgh International Book Festival went really well. It had sold out extremely quickly, thanks mainly to the popularity of comics and graphic novels these days, and of the festival itself, which, despite the rain, was packed (apparently the ticket sales actually went up this year!). We had a great time hanging out at various parties and around the festival, catching up with friends. The next day we were back at work on Louis - Night Salad (currently finishing painting page 70), and preparing for a few more events on the horizon: we'll be at the Wigtown Book Festival (as part of the WESTword festival programming) at the end of September.

Press for Comic Workshop at EIBF

The Guardian gave us a wee plug in The Guide on Saturday (August 15th), mentioning our forthcoming comic workshop in a preview of The Edinburgh International Book Festival.

From the Drawing Table

Have been busy working on Louis - Night Salad. We're almost nearing completion now: page 63 finished, painted and inked, below.

EIBF Comic Workshop Sells Out!

Our comic workshop for the Edinburgh International Book Festival has already sold out! As have a lot of events, including comics, manga and graphic novels. The Book Festival experienced a phenomenal demand for tickets when they opened for sales just a few days ago, with people queuing up like crazy!
http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/

Summer Workshops in Scotland

We'll be doing a series of workshops in early July at libraries in the West of Scotland:

Create Your Own Comics: a series of summer workshops for ages 8-14

Where: Dalmuir Library, Clydebank
When: July 7th 2009, 1.00 - 2.00pm

Where: Parkhall Library, Clydebank
When: July 7th 2009, 3.00 - 4.00pm

Where: Balloch Library, Balloch
When: July 8th 2009, 1.00 - 2.00pm

Where: Alexandria Library, Alexandria
When: July 8th 2009, 3.00 - 4.00pm

Where: Dumbarton Library, Dumbarton
When: July 9th 2009, 1.00 - 2.00pm

Where: Clydebank Library, Clydebank
When: July 9th 2009, 3.00 - 4.00pm

Events are free! To book a place or pick up a ticket, please phone the libraries direct.
http://libraryonline.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/rooms/portal/page/10084_Kids_Zone

Metaphrog at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

This year, we will be part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, "the world's largest public celebration of the written word". We'll be doing a graphic novel workshop for teens on Wednesday the 26th of August from 5pm to 6pm, in the RBS Workshop Tent on Charlotte Square.

This year again the festival has a excellent graphic novel line up, with the likes of Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar, Gary Erskine, Mio Matsumoto, Dr Mel Gibson, and more, and Ian Rankin launching his first comic too! Of course the entire two week festival is packed with exciting literary events for adults and children alike.

Yesterday morning we enjoyed attending the festival programme launch, which took place at the luxurious Signet Library in Edinburgh and featured elaborate canapes and Bloody Marys (plus tea and coffee for those of us who had just had breakfast - after all, it was only 10am!).

For info and bookings, please go to the festival website: http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/

From the Drawing Table

This is what is happening at Sandra’s desk right now! Page are from the upcoming Louis – Night Salad graphic novel.

Workshop Feedback

We just received this link via email, a slideshow of drawings that the kids made during our comic and graphic novel workshop session at the Booked! festival on May 15th: http://www.wdcweb.info/onlinestories/literature-festival-2009/slideshow-metaphrog-artwork-alexandria.htm
Check it out, there are some really funny ones!

Author Visits Feedback

We received this via email on Friday:
“Metaphrog visited Cardiff’s new library in May 2009 and enthralled children from Year 7 at Fitzalan High School with a lively demonstration creating comic book characters and effects. All the children created their own cartoons and enthusiastically shared their drawings which showed an impressive range of humour and skills.
We’d love Metaphrog to come back and visit again. And good luck with the new Louis book!”

Heather Noble Children’s Library Services Manager

Thanks Heather!

Booked! Festival Comics Workshops

We’ve been on a roll doing graphic novel workshops this month! Friday May 15th we were at the Booked! Festival of Words in West Dunbartonshire, working with classes of Primary 7 children. These sessions were really fun! The kids were keen to flick through Sandra’s sketchbook and also asked some very interesting questions, such as “What’s the most difficult part of making a book?” or “How long does it take to make a book?” And of course they did fantastic drawings too.
Terry Lanagan, the Director of Education was present during our first session, and he mingled with the children while they were busy creating monsters, the feedback was that he was really pleased, as were the kids. We ended up sandwiched between the wall and a crowd of children, after the workshop, all wanting their posters and postcards (goodies we brought for them) signed, as well as the festival bookmarks. At one point one asked for his hand to be signed, starting a trend, and next thing we knew they all wanted their hands signed too!
The festival itself had an interesting line up, including Louise Welsh, Ian Banks, Julia Donaldson and many more, as well as a Dave McKean Retrospective exhibition in the Dalmuir Library (on until May 30th).

The day after our session we got a really nice comment on our Louis animation on YouTube from one of the kids: “I've met Metaprog, I got their autograph :) And they showed us this, it took Sandra 5 months to make.” It put a smile on our faces for the rest of the weekend.

More pictures from these events can be seen on our Picasa photo album here.

We'll be doing a series of summer workshops. Stay tuned for more info on this soon!

Cardiff Workshops and Bristol Comic Expo Report

Our visits to Cardiff and Bristol were great! Really rejuvenating. We did two workshops on Friday 8th of May in the brand new Cardiff Central Library, a really attractive building, and the kids were great. A big thank you to Heather and Rob who invited us down and were perfect hosts, we managed to catch up with them over a few beers and Japanese food! Thanks too to all the chilren who as always had amazing ideas and who left some positive comments and thank you notes.

Slideshow below. Photo album here.



After the workshops we went on to Bristol for the rest of the weekend and had a fantastic time too, catching up with people like Chris Staros of Top Shelf and Gary Millidge on a quiet Friday evening. We were in the SPExpo part of the Comic Festival on the Saturday all day, the first SPExpo in fact, situated in a spacious, well-lit hall (complete with actual windows and panoramic views over Bristol, a welcome variation on many comic conventions). The whole event was fairly low key, as the Expo had to downsize this year. The two shows might have benefited from being in one large space rather than split between venues (we heard from many people that they didn't know the SPExpo was there until much later, for instance) but it all still managed to be highly enjoyable. On the Saturday evening, drinking beer and wine and eating tapas al fresco with Paul Gravett, Ilya (Best New Manga, King Lear), and Doug and Emma from Self Made Hero, was highly enjoyable as was the convention bar/party, were we shared conversational notes on dizziness with Tony Bennett. Sunday was spent trailing the Expo and checking out stalls and books, then absorbing sunshine for several hours, watching people finish a half-marathon, generally being very relaxed without passing out, before heading back to Glasgow. The funny thing about conventions is that you can completely miss people: we only met up with Gary Erskine at the baggage pick up in Glasgow!

Louis - Dreams Never Die Review

It's always great to get a good review, and even more so when a book has been out for a while. Louis - Dreams Never Die, the graphic novel with music and animation we released in 2004 has just been reviewed here (you have to scroll down a bit).
On Friday 15th we're doing another two workshops, this time for "Booked" West Dunbartonshire Festival of Words, at Alexandria Library at 10.30am and Duntocher Library at 1.30pm.
We'll shortly be posting an entry on our workshops in Cardiff and on the Bristol Comic Festival.

Upcoming Events

We're preparing for a few events coming up next month.
First, a couple of workshops at Cardiff Central Library on the 8th of May. We did a workshop there in 2003, and have been asked back, now that their brand new library is open.
Then we're travelling to Bristol for the Comic Expo and SPExpo on the 9th and 10th of May, where we'll be signing books and original art (on the Saturday only). Note that the Comic Expo itself will be at the Ramada Hotel, while the SPExpo will be a couple of blocks away at the Mercure Hotel (that's where we'll be).
Then on May 15th, we're looking forward to another couple of workshops as part of the West Dunbartonshire Festival of Words.

More details on all this, and other forthcoming events, can be found on our regularly updated events page.

Graphic Novel in Progress

We're back at work on Louis - Night Salad, after working on our short comic adaptation of Edwin Morgan's poem The First Men on Mercury. Two very different methods of working, but we'll talk more about that in a later post!

Edwin Morgan Comic Adaptation

We are honoured to announce that the Association for Scottish Literary Studies has commissioned us to produce an adaptation of the poem The First Men on Mercury by the great Edwin Morgan. It will come in the form of a four page, full colour comic, and will be published as a pamphlet given out free in Scotland in autumn 2009.

We're thrilled to be working on this. Adapting poetry into comics is proving to be a really interesting project, and the poem being largely dialogue based, is ideally suited to this. You can read the poem itself here.

We'll be posting more on this as the project develops.

Adam West Illustration

We've just had the pleasure of contributing an illustration of Adam West's Batman to Dangerous Ink, the UK alternative arts magazine. The January 2009 issue features a special interview with the man himself, and also includes several illustrations from various cool artists.

Sandra's drawing is pictured here.

Dangerous Ink Vol 2, Issue 1 is out now from all good stockists.

New Year

It's still January, so Best Wishes for 2009!

This is a panel extract from our graphic novel in progress, Louis - Night Salad.

We're getting ready for more workshops in schools and libraries, starting tomorrow in Aberdeen. Details are on our events page.