“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.
“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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 cardswill 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
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
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
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.
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”.