The Red Shoes and Other Tales

April 26, 2016

The Red Shoes and Other Tales Deleted Scenes

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“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 Shoes and Other Tales

Final version:

Final version of page 41 in The Red Shoes and Other Tales

The ending of The Little Match Girl was also changed. In the original tale, the little girl tragically dies from hunger and cold at the end of the story, as in this page below, which was our original ending (this version can be found in the Winter’s Tales mini-comic we made a few years ago):

Old version of the ending of The Little Match Girl

In the final version of our short adaptation, the last page above was replaced by the little match girl rising in the night sky in the arms of her dead grandmother. It’s a much sweeter, less bleak ending, perhaps more suitable for the audience our publisher had in mind. It took us a while to decide whether to agree to the change or not, but in the end, we’re glad we did agree, and now have a soft spot for the final, sweeter version.

Final version of the ending of The Little Match Girl (1)

Old version of the ending of The Little Match Girl (2)

There was one more page change in The Red Shoes story, and we wrote a post about it here a few months ago.

January 18, 2016

Red Shoes Deleted Scenes

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“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.

December 3, 2015

Red Shoes launch at Northfield Academy

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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 our turn to participate in Book Fit, Mandy Wilson ‘s great initiative: read The Red Shoes on the exercise bike! Neil Hendry the head teacher took the lead! Yesterday the pupils pedaled a total of 600km!

Huge thanks to Mandy, Neil and Karen Shaw for organising all this and making the day so special!

October 23, 2015

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival

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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 by Melanie Gibson

One of our three Family Zone events at the
Westmorland Shopping Centre

Thanks to Melanie Gibson for being such a fantastic chairperson, to Page 45 for their support in launching the book and to the incredible festival team for making the weekend such a success and looking after everyone so well.

At the Page 45 book stall…

We only managed to go and see the Steve Bell talk which was packed, but wished we could have gone to more events. It was great meeting and catching with Bryan and Mary Talbot, Simon Grennan, Nicola Streeten, Corinne Pearlman of Myriad, Darryl Cunningham, Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve who stayed with us at the amazing Ash Meadows guest house, Chris Pitzer over from the US, John Freeman, Benoit Peeters, Gary Erskine and Mhairi Stewart, Paul Gravett, John McShane, Stref, Bill Morrison of The Simpsons, Matthew Gibbs (thanks for the books!), Stephane Beaujean and so many other great people.

Steve Bell talk

In other news, we are afraid that the winners of the festival’s “Draw a Ballerina” competition have been cursed: brother and sister Alec and Nicky Anderson won a copy of The Red Shoes and Other Tales graphic novel and a pair of red ballet shoes.

The prize for the ‘Draw a Ballerina’ competition

However, their mum Sofi Croft, author of YA books, sent us these pictures. It seems the shoes have come to life and her daughter can’t stop dancing.

The Red Shoes have come to life!

She can’t stop dancing! A curse?

Nicky Anderson’s drawing

Alec Anderson’s drawing

October 9, 2015

Red Shoes Launch at The Lakes Festival

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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 copies afterwards. Published by Papercutz the book is a beautiful quarter-bound volume.

We are also doing 3 children’s events at the Westmorland Shopping Centre on Saturday and Sunday.

We won’t have our own table during the festival as we have so many events on, and the book will be available all weekend at the PAGE 45 table in The Clock Tower’s Georgian Room.

To book tickets to see our Saturday talk go the festival’s website: http://www.comicartfestival.com/index.php/saturday-metaphrog

We’ve been looking forward to the festival for ages! There’re lots of other great talks and events, so if you’re in the area, do attend. It’s family friendly, with lots of workshops, talks and exhibition, as well as publishers and artists with tables selling their books, and if you want to see 3 talks, you get an extra ticket for free! Children’s events are free too.

July 29, 2015

Gold Stamped Exclusive Advance Edition of The Red Shoes and Other Tales

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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 Red Shoes and Other Tales

The book itself is beautifully printed and comes in a hardcover quarter-bound edition (that’s with cloth all around the spine), and has a gold printed spine. We’re really delighted with the way the finished book has turned out. Many thanks to our publisher Papercutz!

The official release date for the book is October 13th in the US and November 1st in the UK.

Also, a very limited quantity of signed giclée prints and greeting cards will be available at the Edinburgh International Book Festival bookshop. The giclée prints are mounted in a black frame and wrapped in clear plastic sleeves, the greeting cards come with envelopes. All are available at affordable prices. The printing and print finishing is absolutely top notch, thanks to Pennybatch Gallery’s attention to detail and high quality materials.

The Red Shoes and Other Tales signed giclée prints and greeting cards

July 21, 2015

First reviews for The Red Shoes and Other Tales

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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 Reviews calls it: “A darkly pensive read, perfect for chilly fall evenings.”
Full review here: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/metaphrog/the-red-shoes-and-other-tales

May 5, 2015

Edinburgh International Book Festival Residency

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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 and traditions. This is an exciting celebration of storytelling in its many different forms, and we are very much looking forward to being involved. The workshops will take place after the book festival and will culminate with a celebration on Burns Night 2016.

We are also looking forward to our schools event on Sept 1st on Charlotte Square, Graphic Novel Fairy Tales with Metaphrog, for ages 9-10, which will premiere our new graphic novel The Red Shoes and Other Tales. More information can be found in our previous post: http://metaphrog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/edinburgh-international-book-festival.html

April 20, 2015

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2015 Event

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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 graphic novel will be available in advance of the official release date.

Graphic Novel Fairy Tales with Metaphrog is on Tuesday September 1st, 1.30-2.30pm. The event is open to children age 9-10 and the venue will hold up to 100 pupils.

The programme is packed with exciting events and fantastic authors and illustrators, including: Debbie Gliori, the festival’s Illustrator in Residence; Cathy McPhail; Nicola Morgan; Lari Don; Keith Gray; Alex T Smith; Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve; Barry Hutchison; Alison Murray; Vivian French and many more. Check out the full programme here: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/learning/schools/baillie-gifford-schools-programme

Book now to be the first to hear all about The Red Shoes and Other Tales and get a Special Festival Edition of the book! There’s also a 25% discount on books ordered in advance of the festival for schools, and a £3 book voucher for all pupils attending events.

The official release date of our graphic novel The Red Shoes and Other Tales is October 13th 2015.

March 31, 2015

The Red Shoes cover and trailer!

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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 October 2015 from Papercutz! from Papercutz on Vimeo.
An original graphic novel from the award winning team behind the LOUIS series! The first story in this volume adapts the classic fairy tale “THE RED SHOES”. This volume also includes Metaphrog’s adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen classic, “The Little Match Girl” and a tale of their own invention, “The Glass Case”.