BLOG
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 NOWHere’s the cover:Winter’s Tales […]
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 […]