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Funding from Creative Scotland for New Graphic Novel
Creative Scotland announced this month’s open project fund awards today. We are honoured and delighted to have been awarded £32,000 towards creating our next graphic novel. This new fairy tale adaptation will follow on from the success of The Red Shoes and Other Tales and The Little Mermaid. The book will be published by […]
BBC News and Brexit
The BBC interviewed us on the news programme Reporting Scotland (23/06/17) about how we feel about our position as a Franco-Scottish couple in the midst of Brexit negotiations, and after the government’s first announcement of how it might treat the 3.5 Million EU nationals living here. Sandra is French and has been established in the UK […]
Little Mermaid Launch Party at Waterstones
Had a fantastic time launching The Little Mermaid graphic novel at Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow! Great turn out, and a very enjoyable evening. Special thanks to Paddy who even brought Sandra flowers – what a gentleman! Sandra created colour sketches in every book and we even left a stock of sketched and signed books […]
American Signing Tour
We’re just back from our American signing tour and are feeling completely recharged and revitalised! What an absolutely FANTASTIC time! We met some truly wonderful people, all passionate about books and comics, and saw lots of amazing things. A massive thanks to Creative Scotland who provided funding – without their support this tour would not have been possible. […]
American Signing Tour
Very excited to announce that we’ll be touring America this May! The tour will kick off at TCAF – The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, where we’ll be part of their special programming: NBM turns 40 (events to be announced soon). Then we’ll be doing a series of signings and events in: Bethesda (DC area): Big […]
On BBC Radio Scotland’s The Janice Forsyth Show
We were delighted to be on the BBC Radio Scotland’s The Janice Forsyth Show yesterday talking about our new graphic novel The Little Mermaid. You can listen again here – our segment is at 1h40min: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08jf6ll
20 Years Since Our First Comic!
Unbelievably, this month sees the 20th anniversary of our very first comic. When we met in 1994 we started working on comics together almost right away and, after creating several short comic stories, eventually collected them in our first comic Strange Weather Lately – Martin Nitram #1 in December 1996. We brought this out with limited […]
Winners of The Sunday Herald Scottish Culture Awards 2016
We’re honoured and delighted to have won The Sunday Herald Scottish Culture Awards 2016 for Best Visual Artist! With Janice Forsyth (left) and Janice Kirkpatrick The award ceremony was a fantastic evening, and it was a pleasure to meet some of the amazing finalists. Runners-up for the Best Visual Artist category were sculptor David J Mitchell, animation film maker and […]
Finalist for The Sunday Herald Scottish Culture Awards 2016
We are finalists in the Best Visual Artist category for The Sunday Herald Scottish Culture Awards 2016. The finalists will appear in print in The Sunday Herald this weekend, with winners to be announced on July 7th at the award ceremony. http://newsquestscotlandevents.com/events/sunday-herald-culture-awards/ (scroll down this link for the full list of finalists and judges).
Rosalie Lightning feature for The National
We’ve written a feature for The National newspaper about the graphic memoir Rosalie Lightning by Tom Hart. It’s an incredibly powerful book about the loss of a child: Rosalie Lightning died just before turning two from unexplained causes. Rosalie loved one of our own books, Louis – Night Salad, and Tom integrates this and her other loves, […]
The Red Shoes and Other Tales Deleted Scenes
“Deleted Scene” from The Red Shoes and Other Tales. At the request of our publisher, Papercutz, we changed several pages in the final version of the graphic novel. Here we removed the blood from The Red Shoes story in the final version of the book: Old version: Old version of page 41 in The Red […]
Aye Write! 2016
We very much enjoyed being part of Aye Con at the Aye Write! Book Festival this year! There’s a review of our solo talk here, and reviews of the panel with Frank Quitely, Alan Grant and ourselves here and here. From left to right: chair Sasha de Buyl-Pisco, Alan Grant, Frank Quitely, John and […]
Brand new EP Wise Ol’ Man – The Fall in Review
The Fall will release a seven track EP Wise Ol’ Man on the 19th of February, postponed from the original date of the 29th of January it is well worth the wait. The group celebrate their 40th anniversary and continue to make exciting, challenging music. In the sea of bland that passes for mainstream music these days it is […]
Graphic Lyrics on BBC Radio
Graphic Lyrics, the project we were involved in as Writers in Residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2015, was featured on the Janice Forsyth Show on BBC Radio Scotland. Hear Janet Smith, Dave Hook and ourselves, as well as the pupils of Shawlands Academy and their teacher Mrs Kirk talk about the project: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06wcj2v (1h47min in).
Graphic Lyrics
Last night saw an extremely enjoyable and well-attended Burns Night celebration, at The Glad Café, for the culmination of the Graphic Lyrics project. For the past six months we were Writers in Residence for the Edinburgh International Book Festival Booked programme, working with hip-hop artist Dave Hook helping S4 pupils of Shawlands Academy create comics […]
Red Shoes Deleted Scenes
“Deleted Scene” from The Red Shoes and Other Tales. At the request of our publisher we changed the violence in the page below to an off-panel cutting of the feet in the final version of the book. Sometimes showing less is just as effective.
Red Shoes launch at Northfield Academy
Last week for Book Week Scotland, Northfield Academy, where we are Patrons of Reading, organised a special Red Shoes book launch. 280 kids from local schools gathered in the assembly hall and we talked about the book, the creative process and fairy tales. Waterstones were also there and sold lots of books. Afterwards we took […]
Writers in Residence at Edinburgh International Book Festival
Yesterday was our last session with the pupils of Shawlands Academy in our capacity as Writers in Residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2015 – as part of the Booked programme. The pupils have created four comic stories based on fairy tales and raps which we are now in the process of assembling into […]
Writers in Residence at Edinburgh International Book Festival
It’s been three weeks now that we’ve been working with pupils at Shawlands Academy, in our capacity as Writers in Residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, helping them to create fairy tale comics. We have two more weeks to go and they have already produced lots of great work! We’ll soon be able to […]
Writers in Residence at Edinburgh International Book Festival
Our sessions at Shawlands Academy as Writers in Residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival got off to a good start this week. The pupils have already created fantastic fairy tale raps with Dave Hook and now they’re beginning to transform them into comics. Our mission is to get them to complete four stories by […]
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival
Had a great time at The Lakes International Comic Art Festival launching our new graphic novel The Red Shoes and Other Tales. In fact we were so busy we completely forgot to take pictures! Jeremy Briggs was kind enough to send us photos he took throughout the weekend. ‘Shiny New Red Shoes’ launch talk chaired […]
Red Shoes Launch at The Lakes Festival
So excited! Next week is the official launch of our new graphic novel THE RED SHOES AND OTHER TALES at The Lakes International Comic Art Festival co-launching with Page 45! Our main talk SHINY NEW RED SHOES is on Saturday 17th at The Clock Tower and is chaired by Melanie Gibson – we’ll be signing […]
Islay Book Festival
Had a great time at the Islay Book Festival last weekend, where we did two events for children and families. It was enjoyable to spend time with all the other authors and see some of their talks: Vivian French (pictured here far left, with ourselves, and Violet and Jean, two of the organisers) Simon Puttock, […]
Writers in Residence at Edinburgh International Book Festival
The Edinburgh International Book Festival may be finished, but our residency at the festival was just beginning today. Over the next few months, with hip-hop artist Dave Hook of Stanley Odd fame, we’ll be working with pupils at Shawlands Academy, to help them create comics and rap songs based on fairy tales and folk stories. […]
Edinburgh International Book Festival 2015
We had a great time at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2015. Our new graphic novel, The Red Shoes and Other Tales, premiered with gold stamped exclusive advance edition copies. The book isn’t officially out until October 13th in the US and November 1st in the UK. Gala Day, the final day of the festival […]
Talk at Momentum
Yesterday we gave a talk to book festival directors from around the world, about our work and also about graphic novels (including the Scottish scene). It was part of Momentum, the Edinburgh Festivals International Delegate Programme delivered through a partnership between British Council Scotland, Festivals Edinburgh and Creative Scotland. Also speaking were Adele Patrick and […]
Gold Stamped Exclusive Advance Edition of The Red Shoes and Other Tales
A very limited number of gold-stamped ‘Exclusive Advance Edition’ copies of our new graphic novel The Red Shoes and Other Tales will be available from the Edinburgh International Book Festival bookshop on Charlotte Square, for the duration of the festival, which takes place during the last two weeks of August. Exclusive Advance Edition of The […]
First reviews for The Red Shoes and Other Tales
Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews have both written great reviews of The Red Shoes and Other Tales, to be published on October 13th 2015 by Papercutz. Publishers Weekly says: “Hope, joy, and pain intermingle in these dark, alluring stories, which may leave readers thinking of Andersen as a precursor to modern horror.”Full review here: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-62991-283-7 Kirkus […]
Patrons of Reading Activities: Great Scottish Scientists Project
This year, as Patrons of Reading at Northfield Academy, we had the pleasure of working on an exciting project, organised by librarian extraordinaire Mandy Wilson. The project involved art and science teachers, and S1 pupils were set the task of creating comics about Great Scottish Scientists. Scotland has a rich history of invention and, for a small […]
Edinburgh International Book Festival Residency
We are honoured and delighted to be writers in residence for the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2015. As part of the Baillie Gifford Schools Programme, we will be working in collaboration with hip-hop artist Dave Hook doing a series of workshops in Shawlands Academy in Glasgow, exploring stories, translations and fairy tales from different languages […]
Edinburgh International Book Festival 2015 Event
We’re thrilled to be part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival again this year and honoured to be doing an event as part of the Baillie Gifford Schools Programme. The other exciting news is that we will be premiere launching The Red Shoes and Other Tales at the festival. Limited numbers of a Special Festival Edition of the […]
The Red Shoes cover and trailer!
Here it is: the cover for our new graphic novel The Red Shoes and Other Tales to be published by Papercutz in October! It’s going to be a nice quarter bound hardcover in full colour and contains our interpretation of the Hans Christian Andersen classic. And here’s the trailer! THE RED SHOES AND OTHER TALES by Metaphrog – Coming […]
Wonderlands Graphic Novel Expo
We’re really looking forward to being part of the Wonderlands Graphic Novel Expo on May 30th. This one day event in Sunderland University’s City Space will be a celebration of comics in their book form, with panels, workshops and publisher hall. Patron Bryan Talbot, author of the Grandville series and (along with Mary Talbot) Costa winner Dotter […]
New Graphic Novel: The Red Shoes and Other Tales
We’re really excited that this year will see the release of our new graphic novel! The Red Shoes and Other Tales will be published in October 2015 by Papercutz. The book includes our interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic along with two other short tales. There will be some really exciting events at prominent festivals to mark […]
Book Week Scotland 2014
Once again it’s been a busy few weeks and we’ve had great fun travelling around visiting places as far afield as Helsinki and giving talks and delivering workshops at The Lakes International Comic Art Festival and Craigmillar Book Festival among others. Last week was Book Week Scotland 2014 and we did a string of events […]
Comics Lab
This month we had the pleasure of running the Comics Lab, which Scottish Book Trust and Literary Dundee were hosting. The first part was a pretty intense weekend with wall to wall talks and workshops. From left to right: Michel Faber, ourselves, Bryan Talbot, Mary Talbot, Kate Charlesworth and John McSane On the first day, […]
Autumn Events
We’re gearing up for a really busy autumn, now that we’ve finished our new book.September already saw us do some events at the excellent Tidelines Book Festival, and we’ll continue giving talks and delivering workshops in schools and libraries around Britain over the coming months. We’ll also be doing several public events at The Lakes International Comic Art Festival including […]
Interview with Creative Scotland
There’s an interview with us on Creative Scotland’s Connecting: http://www.creativescotland.com/explore/read/stories/connecting/2014/metaphrog-on-graphic-novels-and-the-creative-process. We talk about our work to date, our approach to the creative process and also our new graphic novel, due to be published by Papercutz in 2015. Last year we received substantial funding for a year from Creative Scotland to research and develop new work and […]
New Graphic Novel to be published in 2015
We have been fortunate to receive funding from Creative Scotland to create new work this year. One of the things we have been working on is a new graphic novel which will be published by Papercutz in 2015. Papercutz is the publisher of New York Times #1 best-seller Lego Ninjago, Nancy Drew, and other fine graphic novels. Some pages from this new book […]
Metaphrog Recommends 12 Graphic Novels for Young Readers
In our capacity as Patrons of Reading, we recently had the pleasure of returning to Northfield Academy for a follow up visit, doing an in-depth workshop with S1 pupils and also introductory comic workshops with P7s. We promised to compile a list of recommended graphic novels for the school, and indeed, any library interested in extending their graphic novel section (or […]
Patrons of Reading at Northfield Academy
Last year we were made Patrons of Reading at Northfield Academy in Aberdeen and, as the first ever graphic novelists to fill such a role, we were honoured and delighted. We’ll be working closely with the school for the next three years to encourage reading and creativity. Our first author visits in this new capacity took place at […]
Skint! Returns
In 2011 we worked on the graphic novel Skint! with playwright Gowan Calder. The book was commissioned and published by the Scottish Book Trust and distributed free in Scotland. It was such a big success that Standard Life Charitable Trust and the Scottish Book Trust commissioned a second Skint!, this time for England. Skint! for England was released in January […]
The Fall – The Remainderer Review
The Remaindererarrived today. A new six track EP from The Fall. Originally slated for release on the 11th of November and weighted with a sense of expectation after receiving radio airplay. It would be unkind to make comparisons with Slates – after all it has been 32 years and fans of the group tend to […]
Winter’s Tales
We’ve written and illustrated a couple of graphic shorts: The Glass Case and The Little Match Girl, from the Hans Christian Andersen tale, which we’ve compiled into a 20 page comic called Winter’s Tales. The A5 booklet is a limited edition of 200, signed and numbered, and you can buy it throughout December only. BUY NOW Here’s […]
Patrons of Reading Announcement and Graphic Novel Workshop Tour
We are delighted to have been named Patrons of Reading at Northfield Academy. It’s the first time that graphic novelists have been selected for such a role, and we’re really pleased that Northfield Academy chose us. Over the next three years, we’ll be encouraging pupils to read more graphic novels, which in turn, we feel, will encourage them to […]
Time To Shine: Graphic Novel Behind the Scenes
In this blog we’ll talk a little bit about the creation of the Time To Shine: Graphic Novel, which we produced for Creative Scotland. We were approached by Creative Scotland well over a year ago, and were asked to place a bid, for the work of creating a graphic novel which would support Scotland’s new arts strategy […]
Time To Shine: Graphic Novel
We’re delighted to be able to share the news of our commission to produce a graphic novel, by Creative Scotland. This morning saw the launch of Time To Shine: Scotland’s first youth arts strategy. Time To Shine: Graphic Novel is a part of the strategy along with an animation produced by The Gates Film and […]
Stripped at Edinburgh International Book Festival
We had an amazing week travelling regularly to Edinburgh for Stripped, the comic strand of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, attending the mini comic fair and also contributing to the blog with reviews and interviews. Highlights included interviewing Chris Ware and Joe Sacco. We’ve met Joe on half a dozen occasions over the years […]
Canongate’s Future 40
We’re delighted to announce that we have been included on Canongate’s Future 40 list of storytellers. Canongate’s 40th birthday list celebrates the best of contemporary Scottish storytellers – with 40 multi-disciplinary creatives they’re banking on defining the next four decades. Delighted to be included and to be in such good company. The list also includes: Tom Gauld, Will Morris, […]
Advice for Aspiring Comic Creators and Graphic Novelists
We are often asked how to pursue a career in graphic novels or comics, so we thought we’d write this blog post. So, what advice can we offer to aspiring comic creators and graphic novelists? 1. There isn’t one path to follow. As with many artistic or creative careers, each individual will have his or her own path, that […]
Stripped at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Stripped is here! A celebration of comics and graphic novels at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Over the years the festival has featured a number of graphic novel events, with guests including Neil Gaiman, Alan Grant and Bryan Talbot. We had the honour of participating in the festival a few times, doing sold-out comic workshops […]
5 Tips on Getting Started Creating a Graphic Novel – Part Two
In our last blog post, we gave 5 tips on getting started creating a graphic novel or comic, focusing on writing. In this post we’ll give 5 tips on page layout, or thumbnails. Making several drafts of page layout, or thumbnails, is often necessary in order to tell a story in the best way possible. […]
The 45 Minute Comic Strip Challenge …plus Crackin’ Crits
Last month, we had great fun returning to The Mitchell Library, this time for the Young Writers Conference, which was part of the excellent Aye Write! festival. We’ve been doing events for the Glasgow-based book festival for the last 4 years in row, and this year was as fantastic as ever (you can read more about it […]
5 Tips on Getting Started Creating a Graphic Novel – Part One
We’ve been mentoring the artist Gillian Steel through the making of her graphic novel (see previous post here). It’s given us the idea of blogging a few tips on how to get started making a graphic novel. Whether you’re thinking of writing and drawing the entire book yourself, or of working with a writer or […]
Graphic Novel Mentoring
We are mentoring the artist Gillian Steel through the creation of her graphic novel project. Gillian is an eclectic artist, a graduate of Glasgow School of Art, her practice includes short films, animations, video art (you can see her videos here), hand-crafted objects, printing and drawing. She has a day job as a cultural coordinator in Ayrshire and is also […]
Re-Mit by The Fall Review
John here has been listening to The Fall since the group released their first record Bingo-Master’s Break-Out! back in 1977 and has been a constant fan. Recently, more and more, their music has formed a backdrop for working and has provided a source of inspiration for writing. Re-Mit, their 30th studio album will be released […]
The Infinite Corpse
We’re delighted to have been invited to contribute to the new, exciting, online comic The Infinite Corpse. The chain comic currently has 213 artists contributing, among them no less than: Art Spiegelman, Paul Karasik, Matt Madden, Tom Hart, Aaron Renier, Paul Hornschemeier, Alison Bechdel, Nate Beaty, Lewis Trondheim, Peter Kuper, Michael Kupperman, Gabrielle Bell, Craig Thompson… […]
Anatomy of an Illustration
Recently Sandra created life-size illustrations for an exhibition at Borders Textile Towerhouse about the local high street. The exhibition, Vision 2014, was focused on Hawick’s delicatessen Turbull’s, and its rich history, dating back to 1855. A group of school pupils were given the task of brainstorming and setting up the exhibition, and we helped them during an afternoon of […]
Exhibition at Borders Textile Towerhouse
In February, we delivered a day workshop at Borders Textile Towerhouse. Pupils were there to come up with ideas and put an exhibition together, Vision 2014, about their local High Street. They concentrated on their local delicatessen, Turnbull’s, a fabulous little vintage café/shop. Here we are with some of the pupils, helping them to brainstorm ideas. Photo […]
Author Visit Bonanza!
The beginning of a new year is always a busy time for us with author visits and events, and this year has been no exception. Since January we have travelled all over Scotland visiting schools, libraries and museums speaking to several hundred children of all ages about comics and graphic novels. We encouraged them to make their own […]
Pig Books in Polish
Last year, Sandra illustrated the Pig series of books, by author Barbara Catchpole, for Ransom Publishing. All six titles are now to be published in Poland. Here are the covers and also an extract. Really like the cover designs – they’re bold and almost retro. And we love the card inserts! A really nice touch!
Olympia Building Workshops with P7s
This week we visited Sacred Heart Primary School in the East End of Glasgow to deliver a series of comic workshops. The project tied in with the the recently refurbished Olympia building, which hosts a brand new library with a vibrant children’s section. It’s well worth a visit, and the building has a fascinating history, which was revealed to us by […]
2012 Round-up: A Year at Metaphrog
Can’t believe another year has gone by already! It’s been another incredibly busy twelve months – hardly had the chance to take a breath. As well as travelling regularly for author visits we had the opportunity to create illustrations for manifold projects. This year saw us commissioned to create a graphic novel, and we spent the summer […]
Graphic Novels in the Classroom
It was an honour to be invited as keynote speakers at the National Literacy Network Meeting last week. We spoke to over 70 delegates, including representatives from local authorities, librarians and teachers, who had gathered for the day at Stirling University to discuss literacy and how to make reading more accessible. The day was organised by an […]
Illustrations for ipad Game for Kelvingrove Museum
We’ve just completed artwork for an ipad game for Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.The Ancient Egypt themed game, Book of the Dead: Afterlife, is currently on display at the museum as part of the Pharaoh: King of Egypt touring exhibition from the British Museum, as well as in the permanent exhibition on Ancient Egypt. Here are […]
Metaphrog Events
We’ve had fun doing several events this autumn, talking about our Louis graphic novels and the comic medium. Highlights include: a talk at the Advance Higher Creative Writing Conference at Edinbugh University; comic workshops with over 100 primary school pupils for the Encounters Festival 2012 in North Lanarkshire, and comic workshops with over 100 secondary school pupils for the […]
New Work and Events
We’ve had an incredibly busy summer working on a big commissioned graphic novel project and we haven’t really seen the time pass. More about the graphic novel project soon – we’re still in the middle of it and all we can say at the moment is that it’s about art. We’ve also been gearing up […]
Illustrations: Pig Series
We’ve just completed an illustration job for a series of chapter books aimed at children age 7-12. Sandra had great fun creating over 240 different images for the Pig series, a set of six, funny and touching stories, written from the point of view of a 12 year old boy. The books, out now, are written by Barbara Catchpole […]
Recent Projects and Comic Workshops
It’s been a busy last few months, juggling different projects and continuing to deliver comic workshops and talks. We have had the pleasure of working on a few illustration jobs: for a series of chapter books due for release soon by Ransom Publishing, and also for educational resources online and in print. Here are a couple of sample […]
Press Coverage: The Scotsman
Our comic adaptation of Edwin Morgan’s First Men on Mercury poem was featured in The Scotsman on Friday, as part of an interesting article on science fiction and Scotland, by Pat Kane.Read the online version of the article here: http://www.scotsman.com/news/pat-kane-beam-us-scotties-up-alex-1-2353626 The Scotman – Friday 15 June 2012
New Writing Scotland Goes Graphic
Great news! We’ve just found out that a short story we created has been accepted for inclusion in this year’s New Writing Scotland. The 30th volume of the annual anthology will be the very first to feature a story in comic form. The short graphic narrative The Photographs will be published, along with an array of work by new and established […]
Eindhoven School Visit
An exciting email came in a few months ago asking if we would be interested in travelling to The Netherland for a school visit… And ever since then, we’d been really looking forward to it! So last Tuesday we got up at the crack of dawn and headed for Glasgow airport, under pouring rain. Arriving […]
Skint! media coverage
Skint!, the graphic novel/play we worked on for the Scottish Book Trust, along with the playwright Gowan Calder, was featured on BBC Radio Scotland. We’re really happy to have been part of this fantastic project! The “Sunday Morning with…” program features interviews with young people and tutors. The show is available to listen to online […]
Newport Comic Workshops
Last week, on February 20th and 21st, we had the pleasure of visiting Newport, Gwent in Wales where we delivered two full day comic workshops to KS2 pupils: all boys. We first travelled down on the Sunday, ready for an early Monday morning start at the Millbrook Resource Centre. This would be everyone’s first day […]
Comic Exhibition at Scotland House in Brussels
Scottish Comics, the Environment and Creativity We are delighted to announce our involvement in an exciting exhibition of Scottish Comics at Scotland House in Brussels. On November 30th an exhibition of 24 graphic prints, curated by the University of Dundee’s Dr Chris Murray and produced by Dundee Contemporary Arts, opened at Scotland House, the Scottish […]
Live at Leeds
Last week saw us visit Leeds for Thought Bubble 2011 and the Leeds Graphic Novel Awards. We were thrilled to learn that Louis – Night Salad was one of the books shorlisted for the award (and delighted with the diamond shaped prize we received). On the afternoon of Friday the 18th, children from several schools […]
Louis – Red Letter Day out now!
Today we are very excited to see the release of Louis – Red Letter Day. It looks AMAZING! Totally redrawn and repainted. Some of you may remember the original comic: a multiple Eisner Award nominee (for Best Graphic Album New and Best Title for a Youger Audience), and Ignatz Award nominee for Promising New Talent, […]
Skint! Artwork
We had a fantastic time launching Skint! last month at the International Adult Literacies Conference in Stirling. Members of the Scottish Youth Theatre re-enacted a small part from the book/play, with our artwork as a backdrop, and it was amazing. The actress playing Carly actually looked like Carly in the book (strange to see as […]
Louis – Red Letter Day
Louis – Red Letter Day has now gone into production. We received the ozalids this week and all has been approved. Looking forward to seeing the finished book! Official release date is 10th of November 2011! And we’re delighted to announce that we have been successful in securing investment from Creative Scotland for the publication. […]
1001 Comics…
Paul Gravett’s excellent new book is out now. We are pleased to say that 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die features Louis!
Guernsey Book Week 2011
We’d been looking forward to our trip to Guernsey for Book Week 2011 ever since the Guille Allès library invited us, and we weren’t disappointed! Leaving Glasgow in the rain, in a small plane, we soon found ourselves landing in sunny Southampton. From there it was another short flight to Guernsey where we met our […]
Belmont Primary
The past year has been such a whirlwind of activity, we ended up not getting a chance to blog about some of the things we had planned to, and had really enjoyed. Between all the author visits around Britain, the illustration jobs, convention visits, the work on Skint! and the new Louis graphic novel, we […]
Highly Commended for the 2011 Scottish Children’s Book Awards!
Great news!! Louis – Night Salad has been Highly Commended for the 2011 Scottish Children’s Book Awards! The Scottish Book trust asked us to write a guest blog about the book on their excellent website here. This is the fourth award that has recognised the book this year! Highly Commended for the 2011 Scottish Children’s […]
Come Back!
Recently, we had the pleasure of doing a series of graphic novel workshops with a group of young women in Ayr who had already been producing prose and poems with writers. After several weeks of planning and working hard the group had produced fantastic finished drawings and graphic novel pages. We were delighted to see […]
New Book out in September 2011: Skint!
Over the past year and half, we’ve been involved in a top secret project, which we can now reveal! Scottish Book Trust, in partnership with Scottish Government, commissioned us to work on the book Skint! in collaboration with actor, director and playwright Gowan Calder. Skint! is an interactive, learner-centred money management resource for 16 to […]
Edinburgh International Book Festival and Merchant City Festival Events
We’re really looking forward to be doing several events this summer, including two workshops at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and a talk at the Merchant City Festival. Details below: Merchant City Festival Illustrated Talk In a lively illustrated talk, acclaimed duo metaphrog will discuss graphic novels and also give an insight into the creative […]
Glasgow Life Comic Commission
We have been working on a very exciting project over the past few months: Glasgow Life commissioned us to create a short comic story. The Photographs is an artistic response to a series of graphic novel workshops we carried out in Glasgow during 2010. Some of these workshops were with senior groups in day care […]
A Big Thank You!
The postman delivered a giant “Thank You!” card from Carnforth High School’s manga club pupils. We very much enjoyed the workshops we did there last month and were delighted to receive such a fantastic response!
School Certificate
Last week as part of our three day trip to England and Wales, delivering graphic novel workshops, we had the pleasure of returning to Bishop Fox’s High School in Taunton, to give a talk on graphic novels and our own working methods to over a hundred Year 9 pupils. The talk was followed by a […]
Forthcoming Workshops
We will be delivering several comic workshops in the spring, with more to be announced for the summer. Cardiff Central Library on May 27th for two sessions (1030-1130 and 1400-1500), for 9-14 years old. Free. To book a place, phone 02920 780953 or email centrallibrary@cardiff.gov.uk Tramway Family Day in Glasgow on May 8th for their […]
Illustrations
We very much enjoyed doing research and producing images for some educational text books! Here are just a few of them. More illustrations can be viewed on www.metaphrog.com/illustrations Evolution of man. Roundheads vs Cavaliers. Ancient Mesopotamian.
Eisner Award Nomination
Great news! Louis – Night Salad has just been nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Coloring! Along with the YALSA nomination for Great Graphic Novels for Teens, this is the second award nomination Louis – Night Salad has received this year!
Recent Talks and Workshops
Over the past few months we’ve been busy working on various projects and also delivering a variety of talks and workshops around the country. We were particulary honoured to be invited to deliver three very different talks: one at the CCA for Words Across the Water last November (along with Alisdair Gray who was also […]
The Comics Journal Review of Louis – Night Salad
Gavin Lees has written a fantastic review of Louis – Night Salad in The Comics Journal. Here’s a short extract, from the beginning and from the end of the review: In the hands of Franco-Scottish duo Metaphrog (aka John Chalmers and Sandra Marrs — reductively, he writes and she draws, but the collaboration is much […]
The Skinny Feature
Louis – Night Salad is featured in The Skinny this month (December 2010 – Issue 63), with a review and mini-interview. Online version here.
ArtReview
Louis – Night salad is featured in ArtReview this month (issue 46 Dec 2010). Here’s an excerpt: These days we’re bombarded with animations or graphic novels that claim to amuse kids while offering a meta narrative to please adults. But few actually fulfil these promises as effectively as this Scottish duo’s hand-painted book.
Metro and Sunday Herald Reviews
This week Louis – Night Salad has been reviewed in the Sunday Herald graphic novel round-up and in Metro!
IMPRINT BOOK FESTIVAL ILLUSTRATION
We gave a comic workshop at the Imprint Book Festival last night, and Sandra took some pictures of the banners for the festival – with the illustration she made. The brochures turned out really well too.
Press
Louis – Night Salad was reviewed in The Libary Journal in the US on October 29th: A dream-quest theme persists throughout this colorful book [Louis – Night Salad], which brings to mind many classic, if somewhat less unsettling, adventures: Harold and the Purple Crayon and Where the Wild Things Are. Established fans will delight in […]
IMPRINT FESTIVAL COMMISSION AND AUTHOR VISIT
We’re delighted to announce that we have been commissioned to do the illustration for IMPRINT BOOK FESTIVAL 2010! We were honoured and excited to be asked to produce an illustration for the Imprint book festival, and wanted to create an image that tried to capture the electrifying and thrilling possibilities of books. The festival will […]
October Author Visits 2010
There’s lots happening this autumn. We’re just about to start a new wave of author visits and are continuing to promote our new graphic novel Louis – Night Salad! Well, in fact, it all really started in September. After a summer jam-packed with illustration deadlines and working preparing for the release of our book, we […]
Exhibition at the London Print Studio
We’re delighted to announce that we will be part of That’s Novel! …Lifting Comics from the Page!!! the new exhibition curated by Paul Gravett at the London Print Studio. Original pages from Louis – Night Salad will be on display, and previously unpublished, limited edition prints will be available along with signed copies of Louis […]
Louis – Night Salad in The Scotsman
Louis – Night Salad was featured in The Scotsman on Saturday the 25th of September 2010!
Louis Around the Web
Louis – Night Salad’s release is a month away, and the book has already made its way to the Forbidden Planet Blog’s most wanted list of forthcoming graphic novels, as well as Paul Gravett’s PG Previews for October releases. Overpixelated.net has already run a great review, and Bleeding Cool plugged the Night Salad trailer!
Louis – Night Salad the actual book!
We’ve finally received copies of the Louis – Night Salad graphic novel, and we’re delighted with the result! The book is beautifully bound and printed, and has a pleasant weight!Copies can still be ordered through Diamond Comic Distributors August Previews: item code AUG101077 LOUIS NIGHT SALAD HC (C: 0-0-1), page 297.
The First Review of Louis – Night Salad!
In the tradition of Little Nemo, Scotland-based creative team John Chalmers and Sandra Marrs of Metaphrog have brought forward a fanciful adventure story. Louis, the little hero from numerous previous Metaphrog titles, returns in a new stand-alone story perfect for young readers and the young at heart. Desperately searching a cure for his sick friend […]
Louis – Night Salad available to order from Diamond Previews in August
A reminder that Louis – Night Salad is now available to order from Diamond Comic Distributors August Previews, item code AUG101077 LOUIS NIGHT SALAD HC (C: 0-0-1), page 297. Release date: October 201096 pages- full colour- hardbackISBN-13: 978-0954598419US $14.99UK £9.99 Highly acclaimed metaphrog return with a brand new stand-alone graphic novel: the moving tale of […]
Trailer for Louis – Night Salad!!
We’ve just finished the trailer for Louis – Night Salad!! Our friend hey from Berlin (who worked on the music for Louis – Dreams Never Die), has made an amazing soundtrack inspired by Bach’s beautifully emotive “Air on a G-string” and also by Delia Derbyshire’s version. It really captures the mood of the book! Louis […]
LOUIS – Night Salad out soon!
We can now announce that Louis – Night Salad, our new graphic novel, will be out in October 2010! It will be available to order from Diamond Previews in August. We’ll also be posting some preview pages and an online trailer then too, so watch this space! www.metaphrog.com/louis
Louis – Night Salad pages
Finally, we’ve completed our new graphic novel, Louis – Night Salad. Here they are, more than 90 pages, all hand painted. It took a while! Some of the pages (a big chunk of the book, come to think of it) were redone, some of them as many as 3 or 4 times!!! It’s the first […]
Louis – Night Salad
Sandra is currently painting the very last pages of our new graphic novel, Louis – Night Salad. Only three pages to go! We’re so excited!
WORD 10 and other Workshops Report
We had a fantastic time in Aberdeen, both at WORD 10 book festival, where we conducted a couple of workshops, and also at Dyce and Northfield schools we visited in between. The main event we did was on May 15th, and we had fun delivering a family comic workshop: parents and children of all ages […]
Illustration
Sandra just delivered another batch of illustrations to an educational publisher. She had fun getting to do her version of a flying spaghetti monster – an actual real thing, google it if you’ve never seen it!
Events
Once again, we’ve a series of events lined up for the coming few weeks. Today, we’re flying to Bristol, as we’ll be delivering a talk about our work, tomorrow (April 28th), followed by a series of comic workshops at Bishop Fox’s school in Taunton for their annual Conference Day which this year will focus on […]
Work in Progress
As well as our finishing working on Louis- Night Salad, Sandra has been working on a series of illustrations for some educational books. Some of these will make their way to our online portfolio soon!
CPD on Graphic Novel Adaptations
In early March 2010, we did a CPD illustrated talk for teachers on graphic novel adaptations as part of the Scottish Book Trust OTIR (Online Teacher in Residence). Teachers gathered in a class room at Inveralmond Community High School, and we talked briefly about our history as metaphrog, then explained what graphic novels are, before […]
PRESS
John wrote a Picture Stories feature for The Sunday Herald, which was published yesterday. John’s text was edited, and below the photograph is the original version: The year must be 1956 and the photograph is of my father, David, standing in Antarctica where he spent two and a half years on an ordinance survey expedition. […]
Press
The Evening Times ran a double page spread today about our author visit at Knightswood Primary on March 4th. Almost the entire school had dressed up that day to celebrate World Book Day, and they gave us a really warm welcome. Over 450 pupils gathered in a big hall for what proved to be an […]
March Events
March is going to be a busy month! We have several events lined up, for festivals, schools, libraries and more! Kicking off the events will be a Glow Live Meet on March 3rd at 1pm with Learning and Teaching Scotland: a virtual comic workshop available to view on the Glow network by subscribing schools. Then […]
The First Men on Mercury Sketches
The preparatory sketches Sandra did for The First Men on Mercury comic adaptation of the Edwin Morgan poem. www.metaphrog.com/mercury
Comic Workshop at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery
Last Sunday was spent at the museum, the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow to be precise. There we delivered a comic workshop to a group of young people (aged 12 to 17). The session lasted three hours and everyone had plenty of time to create characters and develop a story (to be set […]
Comic Workshop at Kelvingrove Museum
Happy New Year! We’re really looking forward to our event at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow. Here are the details: Create Your Own Comics with metaphrog:An exciting comic workshop during which we will share the secrets of making comics. Participants will learn how we go about making our own Louis graphic novels […]
Un-office Xmas Party
Last Friday, we headed off to Edinburgh for a spot of festive lunch (an Un-Office Xmas party, as named by Linda Strachan) with fellow writers and illustrators. It was a day fit for Sherlock Holmes or even Jack the Ripper, as fog completely engulfed the city. But the photos below illustrate what a lovely, warm […]
Comic Workshop
We were greatly impressed by the quality of drawings made by the pupils during our comic workshops for the Booxfactor! Festival (Monday Dec 7th at Braehead Primary and Clydebank High). Here are just a few of them. For more, please visit our photo album here.
Press Coverage
The Edinburgh Outlook newspaper ran this article about our comic workshop at Kirkliston library on October 23rd. Online version here.
Comic Workshops
We’re looking forward to participating in the Booxfactor! Festival for the second year round. Monday December 7th we’ll be delivering two comic workshops in schools in West Dunbartonshire for their annual book festival. The 2010 calendar is already filling up with more events, starting with an afternoon session at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum […]
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 always enjoy hearing other cartoonists talk about their work, and this kind of thing rarely happen on our doorstep, so that was a real bonus. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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, ClydebankWhen: July 7th 2009, 1.00 – 2.00pm Where: Parkhall Library, ClydebankWhen: July 7th 2009, 3.00 – 4.00pm Where: Balloch Library, BallochWhen: July 8th […]
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 […]
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.htmCheck 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Graphic Novel Workshops in Schools
Well, the end of the year has proven really busy with workshops! As well as the events mentioned previously in this blog, we did a whole series of highly enjoyable workshops: two during the Booxfactor Festival in Clydebank and also double workshops (one then a follow-up a week later) at the Howdenhall and St Katharines […]
Imprint Festival Workshop
This week, we conducted a comics workshop at the Imprint festival in Kilmarnock. We always enjoy showing people how we go about making our own comics, but also like to see what kids can come up with themselves. This link will take you to a gallery of monsters and some jam comics that they created […]
sketchbook
I (Sandra) did this sketch at life drawing a while ago. I had finished drawing the model, and, waiting for the next pose, did this sketch of one of the fellow attendants. He had a fisherman aspect about him and always displayed his painting materials on cloths below him like that. The watercolours he made […]
Autumn Events
We are preparing ourselves for a few autumn events: first we’ll be exhibiting at BICS, the Birmingham International Comics Show (Oct 4th –5th). For this, we wish to thank the Scottish Arts Council, as they are partly funding the trip. Then, a couple of comics workshops, at the Storytelling Festival, in Milngavie, on Oct 14th, […]
Louis Work in Progress
We’re making great progress on our new book, Louis – Night Salad, in full swing and turning round pages: half way through it in fact. In this book, Louis will encounter tiny people leading him through a desert, a strange doctor and his minions, and a giant caterpillar! Here are their character designs, stay tuned […]
Louis Work in Progress
Here is a quick character design (Louis and his guide) for our graphic novel in progress, Louis – Night Salad.
Comics Day at Dundee Lit Fest Photo Report
We’re just back from Comics Day at the Dundee Literary Festival: another fine event organised by Dr Christopher Murray, with really varied talks, all extremely interesting in their own ways. Here are a few photos documenting the event.Our own talk was about making the Louis graphic novels, and, in order of appearance, Chris Murray himself […]
Talk at Dundee Literary Festival
A quick reminder of our talk at the Dundee Literary Festival on Comics Day, Sunday 22nd June at 3.45pm: The Making of the Louis Graphic Novels.In addition there is a talk by Bryan Talbot, and also by Paul Gravett, Roger Sabin, Ilya, Jim Glen, and Chris Murray. It promises to be a great event! Official […]
National Library Exhibition Pictures
As the Graphic Novel exhibition at National Library of Scotland just ended, we thought we’d post some pictures of it here for those who couldn’t make it to Edinburgh.The exhibit represented a broad spectrum of graphic novels, from the underground movement right through to superhero, and focused on Cam Kennedy’s artwork for Kidnapped (adapted from […]
National Library Workshop Report
Our illustrated workshop at the National Library of Scotland last week was great fun! (Create your own Comics, May 23). It was fully booked (it even had a waiting list!), and the kids loved it, which is so rewarding. A little girl had even brought her own copy of Louis – Red Letter Day and […]
New LOUIS Work in Progress
For some time now, we’ve been working on our new book, Louis – Night Salad. We’ll be regularly updating this blog with progress on the book, but for now, as a sneak preview, here is a painting from it.
Paper in the International Journal of Comic Art
In our last post, we mentioned last year’s Biff Bam Crickey! Comics as Design and Entertainment Conference in Dundee in May 2007. The highly enjoyable two day event, gathered academics and other interested parties to discuss comics and graphic novels. We were delighted to be participating in such an event, and as practitioners talked about […]
Talk at the Dundee Literary Festival
We’ll be giving another talk, on June 22nd at the Dundee Literary Festival on Comics Day, at 3.45pm, The Making of the Louis Graphic Novels. The event is a continuation of the Biff Bam Crickey! Conference and Exhibition organised in Dundee by Dr Christopher Murray last year (in conjunction with the Six Cities Design Festival). […]
National Library Talk Report
Our talk at the National Library of Scotland last Wednesday went really well and we got great positive feedback. Thanks again to everyone who came along and to all those involved in organising the events. With Lisa Otty chairing the evening, we gave an overview (with slides) of our work since our beginnings back in […]
Press Interest
The List have featured our forthcoming talk in their 600th issue, and kindly included a photo taken by our good friend Jim Taylor. Also added here is a listing for our kid’s workshop): And The Guardian Guide also featured the event:
Talk at the National Library of Scotland
This week, we’re doing a talk at the National Library of Scotland, as part of their series of events on graphic novels in April and May. We’ll also be doing a workshop at the end of May. Details and links are below. Talk/Panel Session: ‘In conversation with metaphrog’.Chaired by Lisa Otty, Graduate School of Literatures, […]