Unseen concept art - 6 new trips into strangeness!

More concepts from my sketch books today, for those of you that like to see the work that goes on behind the scenes of our comics...!

600 more pages in THIS!

Lorenzo!

An Introductory Video to the Etherington Brothers live show...

Good Monday to you all,

Always nice to start the week with something different, so here's a fantastic vid, shot and cut by South Lanarkshire council during our recent trip to Scotland. If you ever wondered what our live show consists of, well, this is a pretty accurate taster!



Anyone interested in booking us to appear at their schools, libraries, festivals, yachts, etc, can visit our workshop page HERE, where you can find out all the relevant details.

Many thanks to David Campbell for producing this brilliant video.

The Day that Hay went WAHAY! Festival Report with pics!

A fortnight ago, though it seems like only yesterday, the great Hay Festival opened its doors to greet a hoard of over-excited, giggling, juvenile wannabe creators ... and once we finally moved out the way, the actual children were allowed to enter (ba-da-boom, TSSH!).

Hay Fever is the children and family-friendly segment of the main festival, and each year the action kicks off with a double day helping of shows for local schools. This is something we'd been looking forward to for months; the BIG laughs. The laughs that come when hundreds and hundreds of kids find something truly, uncontrollably funny. And these audiences did not disappoint...

I should probably start this photo montage in chronological order, but there is one photo that sums up our 2013 trip better than any other ... it might only June but this could well be our pic of the year ... 900 KIDS GOING CRAZY! Click to see the action in all its glory.

And for three fantastic days in the Hereford sunshine, the fun just never stopped...

We were delighted to be joined by our wives and the latest edition to the Etherington clan, little Edward, - snapped here attending his first festival at just under 3 months old! He wasn't quite ready to see our show (it's a bit noisy) but he behaved extremely well for a tiny tyke!

MASSIVE thank you's to everyone who helped make the trip such a blinding success - Lauren Bennett and Harriet Venn at Random House (for sorting everything), Jenny at Mouse Castle Barn (for the hospitality), Kevin Crossley-Holland and his wonderful wife Linda (for the best stories EVER), and Rhodri Jones and all the staff and helpers at the Hay festival. You guys kept the whole shebang in order while spoiling us rotten. 

We cannot wait to return in 2014!

Step-by-step - Creating a Von Doogan Crowd...

A three stager here of a recent Von Doogan panel detail, enjoy!

Lorenzo!

Scottish Friendly Book Tour - Report with pics!

A fortnight ago Lorenzo and I joined forces with Scottish Friendly and The Scottish Book Trust to bring our brand of creativity and abject silliness to the classrooms of North and South Lanarkshire. In five days we met, entertained, inspired and giggled with thousands of young artists and writers. 

The tour was fantastic from start to finish and our chaperones, Chris and Beth, made sure we were ready for action and well armed with good food, drink and cheer. It was a magical week in their company, which ended with them presenting us with two x amazing artistic creations, each depicting a stage of our Scottish travels in miniature form. Look at the wonder on our faces!

During the week, I kept a blog running over on the Scottish Book Trust facebook page which you can read in full HERE without even having to login. Just scroll down their page for lots and lots more detail from the road including a rather infamous injury incurred on a miniature golf course. Let’s just say this for now – Lorenzo should probably stick to drawing…

But what does an Etherington tour look like? Well, we start by finding a hotel that has a unique character, for instance, one that is attached to a theme park (this was the view from my window)...

Then we add a little of this...

A ton of this...

A wonderful amount of this and this...

If we're very lucky the children add things like this (just seen in left foreground, handmade versions of the case from Baggage, the snowglobe from Baggage - including castle! - and even, hidden behind me, a replica diorama of the BonkersBall stadium from Baggage!!!!)...

Eventually, after ten great shows, we usually end up looking like this...

Aside from Chris and Beth and all the students and teachers we met over the week, a final special thanks must go to Scottish Friendly for facilitating such an incredible experience, not just for us, but for every author or illustrator lucky enough to join the tour. We'll never forget our adventure!

Sketchbook Concepts: 52 Adventure House Ideas

More from my sketchbooks today, folks, here we have 52 ways to draw a home, hovel or abode for an ADVENTURER! Thousands more pics like this in my 600 page monster sketchbook, which you can buy HERE!

Enjoy!

Lorenzo!

Boys on film...

A little something fun to start the week. Between shows at the Hay festival this past weekend, we were asked by festival sponsors, the Telegraph, to film a short video. They wanted to know why we think Hay is such a special opportunity for both creators and their audience. Here's what we had to say.




Full feedback from our monster three day trip - plus a complete belated report from our Scottish Book Trust tour - are coming soon, so stay tuned for some amazing pics.

DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY: About two seconds after we stopped filming we were mobbed by a huge pack of school children. You can hear the noise building at the end, there's a child jumping into shot in the background and Lorenzo's eyes start wandering past the camera towards the growing crowd. But we held it together like the tiny little pro's we are!

Our Hay Fever is about to kick in - BIG!!!

It seems like only yesterday we returned from our mighty tour of Scotland with Scottish Friendly and the Scottish Book Trust, and now we're off again!  I know we owe you all a proper report with pics from our travels through Lanarkshire - and it's coming - but for now only one photo is needed.  This single shot perfectly captures the fun of touring, the action contained in our brand new live show, and what it means to us Etheringtons to have the opportunity to inspire and entertain hundreds of thousands of children.

Boom.

So, we're prepped for Hay. Our show is ready. Our signing pens are packed. We've got more killer tshirts than we can possibly wear. In short it's about to go OFF! If you still want to catch our public show on Saturday, we've been moved up from the Starlight Stage to the Digital Stage and extra tickets are now available HERE!

And I promise, when we return to the blog next week, we'll share all the action from the road. Now let's get this party started...

New Star Wars Comic ... in 3D!!!

Well, this is a rather cool surprise for a Tuesday morning. I've just discovered that the latest issue of Titan's Clone Wars comic has been rendered in glorious 3D and comes with an all-important pair of free 3D specs. It's one thing to have the opportunity to write stories featuring your favourite Star Wars heroes and villains, but it's something else to see them leap off the page like this!

In Bane Vs Bane, the infamous bounty hunter, Cad Bane, is forced to returns to his roots when he discovers that someone from his home town has been impersonating him and living rich off his reputation. The gloves come off as Bane single-handedly takes on a small army. Let the battle of the Banes begin...

Brilliantly illustrated by Bob Molesworth, this is one of my favourite Clone tales, and (with the added 3D) my very first augmented reality comic book!

You can purchase this beauty from any good comic shop, newsagent or supermarket or you can order a subscription and buy online HERE!

DFC Library paperback advance copies!

A couple of pics from twitter posted by Random House publicity of the upcoming DFC library paperbacks! Not long now until August 1st release day!

Lorenzo!

Scotland, here we come!

Monday sees the start of our exciting Scottish Book Trust tour (proudly and kindly sponsored, as ever, by the great folks at Scottish Friendly). Over the course of five days we'll be visiting ten lucky schools spread across Lanarkshire, and performing ten shows to nearly 2000 children. It is going to be EPIC!

The tour itself was seriously over subscribed. Because we aren't able to visit every school possible, but still want to make sure everyone who showed interest gets a little Etherington love, the Book Trust have provided some free Learning Resources for the classroom, based on our books. You can download these fun tools for the classroom HERE!

We'll be blogging and tweeting to bring you all the roller coaster action of life on the road (seriously ... our hotel is located next to a theme park), so see you soon, Scotland!

Oh, and England and Wales, please don't feel left out. The Hay festival is but a fortnight away and you can buy tickets to our extended show HERE!

Oxford Children's Comic Festival delight!

Last Saturday, Lorenzo and I joined a legion of children's comic creators and publishers and (most importantly) young readers and their families, for a day of unbridled celebration.  The first annual Oxford Children's Comic Festival took place at the Story Musuem and it was basically awesome from start to finish.

The Phoenix team had managed to put together an absolutely jam-packed programme which included, in their own words (taken from their festival report, which can be read in full HERE):

"…comic-making masterclasses, drawing activities, convention tables, games, a wheel of awesomeness, comic pizza, Phoenix ice cream, storytelling, dirty great comic bombs, the navy, giant comics on walls, glittering bowler hats, burgers, crows, feather hunts, a name the festival competition, vikings, pirates, a wall of awesomeness, t-shirts galore, badges, stickers, dinosaur costumes, harmonicas, overly-excited Phoenix team members, and more awesomeness than you could shake a proverbial stick at!"

You can probably tell it was a FUN time.

As ever, the point of this festival was to give our audience their very own festival, and allow them to take control of the action.  Nowhere was this more apparent than behind the tables.  Kid comic creators, Zoom Rockman (top) and Jordan Vigay (bottom) showed the pros how it should be done with their own creations (including tshirts, badges and comics galore) and their very own fans.  Showcasing some truly excellent work, these two young talents are ones to watch for in the future.

ITV were there filming as well, recording footage from this brilliant day. Click on the pic below to watch their news feature.















There are loads of brilliant web reports from the day with tons more photos, none of which we managed to capture on camera because we were having too much fun chatting to the children! But thankfully others were snapping and one that cannot be missed is the chance to see the GIANT COMIC OF AWESOMENESS unfold before your eyes.  CLICK HERE to read Neil Cameron's mighty blog. That communal creation really is something special. So, so funny!

A huge thanks to everyone at the Phoenix and the Story Museum for kick-starting this festival.  We cannot wait for next year!