Sunday 22 December 2013

Christmas Cheer for a Merry Year - full review!

Readers, watchers, followers, friends, fans, peers, professionals, amateurs, family, and more...

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(right click on the pic below and open in a new window to read this Monkey Nuts card updated from the Etherington Archive!)

We want to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for making 2013 such an exciting chapter in our ongoing adventure.

Festivals - We appeared at the Hay Festival for the third year in a row - during which we played to our largest ever crowd (900 giggling children and adults) and the Edinburgh Festival for the third year in a row. The Phoenix comic hosted its first comic festival in Oxford which was a complete success. We appeared at the Imagine Festival, The Beverley Literature Festival and, possibly most memorable of all, we traveled all the way to Singapore to host live shows and masterclasses as part of their Writers Festival.

Schools and Tours - We toured Scotland with the Scottish Book Trust, Fife with the Cultural Trust and Nottingham with the NCSEP. Over the past year we've met over 15,000 children in Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales, and introduced the joy of creativity, imagination, reading, writing, drawing and laughing (not to mention comics) to a new legion of young creators.

The Phoenix - Long Gone Don returned to the pages of the most remarkable comic in children's publishing with his second book-long adventure, and Lorenzo's Von Doogan continued to fox both kids and parents alike with weekly problematic puzzles. The comic itself hit the big 100 ISSUES, which is some sort of an incredible milestone.

The Dandy - Our one comic series yet to be collected was brought together in magnificent style as the Dennis and Gnasher Megazine published the complete YORE! stories in a super exclusive 32 page comic. All Etherington, no filler. It was something to see.

Star Wars and Transformers - More lightsabers, more metal-on-metal smackdowns. Robin continued to bring the fun and his stories were published for the first time in German and Russian! Hooray!

The BBC - We filmed a live show in Edinburgh for BBC iplayer and the Author's Live portal. We also shot a secret pitch with the BBC which is still under wraps. Hopefully we'll have more to share next year.

Film and TV - As it's now up on IMDB we can announce that Robin wrapped story and script work on the BBC wildlife movie, Enchanted Kingdom, which is set for release next year. The film uses groundbreaking 3D technology to provide a whole new perspective of Mother Earth ... and I do mean groundbreaking! Much more about this in the new year!
Elsewhere Monkey Nuts developments continue to bubble away in the background in serious fashion. We still can't say much but (fingers and toes crossed) 2014 could prove to be really rather interesting for Sid and Rivet.

Charitable work - Robin was honoured to became a Trustee for the Bristol Story Lab charity; a fantastic initiative which aims to encourage reading and writing for pleasure, self expression and confidence to young children in the Bristol area - for many of whom English is a second language. Sam and Dave have done some amazing work in bringing this project to life and Robin hopes to be able to continue supporting their efforts.

The New Year - A number of projects are nearing the end of production, including two books from Robin with different publishers - one for release in 2014 and a different series launching in 2015. We can't say anything yet, but all the work is coming together beautifully. Our third volume of Long Gone Don is also looking fantastic and will be appearing in the pages of the Phoenix around Spring.

We'll be back on the road visiting lots of schools and festivals and taking our furthest flung tour ever, as we head to New Zealand (and possibly Australia) in May.

Plus ... and this is the BIG one ... a brand new baby Etherington will be joining the ranks in March. Wow!!!

Thank you all for the support and the inspiration. We look forward to bringing you more fun next year.

~ Robin and Lorenzo

Wednesday 18 December 2013

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Etherington's Best of the Year 2013 @ Forbidden Planet International

In what is becoming a seasonal treat, those fine folks at Forbidden Planet International have begun running their annual Best of the Year column. Here there ask various creators from the wide world of comics to pluck memorable book, film, TV and comic selections from the past 12 months and share them with their readers.













To say my selections are rather eclectic is an understatement, with thrillers, musical biopics, comedies, police procedurals and dystopian indy tales all making the cut. But that's just the way my mind works!

To see the full list, and to get a sneak peek at what we've got coming next year, click HERE!

Oh, and we'll be posting a little Etherington Year in Review soon, because 2013 has been really rather special.

- Robin

Monday 16 December 2013

Frozen concept art part one!

A little snowy piece of concept art to get us in the Christmas spirit!

Lorenzo!

Friday 13 December 2013

TIME votes the Phoenix #2 best comic of 2013!

Yup, you read it right, those fine folks over at TIME MAGAZINE have named The Phoenix in their top ten best comics or graphic novels of 2013! Huge congrats to all at Phoenix HQ and all our fellow creators! Whoooop!

Lorenzo!



Wednesday 11 December 2013

Download the Von Doogan Who Dunnit? Game for free!

A couple of shots here of the Von Doogan Who Dunnit? game from the center spread of the Phoenix issue 100, which you can now download for FREE right HERE! Perfect for these wintery nights!

Lorenzo!

Monday 9 December 2013

Get down to the Made in Bristol Christmas fair this Saturday!

Just wanted to drop in and encourage those of you in the Bristol area to head on over to Colston Hall this Saturday for the Made in Bristol Christmas fair!

Amongst the creators selling their awesome wares will be my amazing wife Esther and our friend Alys Paterson. Below is a little peek at a couple of Esther's new decorations!

The Show fair runs from 10am - 4pm this Satuday 14th December, so get down there, drink in the Christmas cheers, and pick up some fantastic bespoke xmas gifts for your loved ones (or yourself!!).

Lorenzo!


Wednesday 4 December 2013

Today is your LAST CHANCE to get the YORE! collected edition!

YES! Our YORE! collected edition is available for just ONE MORE DAY, and then ... it's gone FOREVER! If you didn't manage to get a copy of this most rare of books, then here's a few snaps to show you what you missed!

Lorenzo!


Monday 2 December 2013

Robin and the Guardian present ten awesome comic books!


Recently I was asked to contribute to the Guardian's ongoing top ten book list, and obviously I requested that this be a top ten comic list. I wanted to use this brilliant opportunity to showcase come of the greatest comic series suitable for younger readers.

















You can read the article and peruse my selection for free HERE, but I must stress that this is not a 1-10 list. Though Calvin and Hobbes probably deserves the top spot, in my opinion these ten all sit on an equal shelf. How can you compare Akira to Sam and Max? Or Usagi to Asterix?






With Christmas around the corner I encourage you, nay URGE you, to pick up some of these wonderful books.  For yourself, for a friend, or (most importantly) for your children or nephews, nieces or grandchildren, if they're at the right age. You will not be disappointed.