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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 Sandra (Metaphrog)Post […]
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).
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]