Transformers: Dark of the Moon Prequel!

Two new releases this week for those of you desperate to keep your Etherington Brothers' Publications Tick-List up to date (don't deny it - we know who you are).

Firstly, it was DANDY day yesterday and because Lorenzo is still in the process of getting his internet life back on track, I forgot to mention it. Apologies all round  - now rush out and buy a copy because it's a little corker and features the final part of our second Yore quest. Ooooooooooooooooh.

If you'd like to guarantee every copy reaches your greedy paws on time, you can place a subscription HERE.

Now for something pretty cool. A while ago I was given the opportunity to write a number of Transformers strips to tie into the new movie (which Lorenzo and I saw on Tuesday in all it's eye-popping, bot-bashing, 3D blockbusting glory!!!). As you can imagine this was an extremely fun project to bring to life and the first of my tales has just hit the shelves, illustrated by the hugely talented Horacio Domingues.

'The Fight for Fiesole' takes place just before the events depicted in the movie. Optimus, Bumblebee and Sideswipe are called to action by NEST agents in order to investigate a mysterious alien artifact buried within the caverns of an Italian cathedral. Unfortunately they are intercepted by the deadly Starscream and an almighty battle ensues. Starscream's orders are to keep the artifact from the Autobots at all costs...

YEAH!

So now you've three choices:

(a) Buy The Dandy

(b) Buy issue 3.1 of Transformers: Dark of the Moon

(c) Buy them both

And the only correct answer is (c) ... obviously!

Oh, and Transformers subscriptions can be purchased HERE!

P.S. In an interesting turn of technological madness, the Dandy's voting competition - despite having closed over a month ago - seems to still be adding votes on a daily basis. Our entry, Tag Team Tastic, is now 200 votes in the lead! Ha!

Scribbler Monster MADNESS!

Earlier this year we were invited by Scribbler to create a comic workshop for their superb magazine.
We had a fantastic time and the finished interview, article and feature looked like THIS!

There was also a special competition for readers, in which they could win one of five copies of Monkey Nuts: The Diamond Egg of Wonder. All they had to do was create their own monster. The results were announced in the current issue (April-June).

I don't think anyone was prepared for the awesomeness of their response!

We secretly hoped the Scribbler readers would rise to our challenge, but the quality of the entries was remarkable. Better still each creature came with a back story written by the children. These were every bit as inventive as any of our own creations!

It was a horrendous challenge selecting the winners but we finally agreed that the five seen above were absolutely fantastic.

In joint order of excellence (starting from the single picture on left page, moving to the top left picture on the right page and continuing clockwise) we were proud to proclaim Ollie Thomson (and his creation Strako), Hannah Liddle (and Delph), Esther Lambert (with Wheelie), Dominic Cooper (and Galactob) and Nirvan Barua (with the mighty Premo Tiraginoid) as our famous five. We hope you all enjoy your prize.

Many thanks to everyone who entered, and look out for more Etherington Brothers' competitions coming soon!

Return of the BUG CLUB ... and us!

Good morning, friends. It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about the absence but you'll all be delighted to know that Lorenzo is now happily installed in his new studio - and what a beauty it is!

While he's still in the process of rebuilding his comic-making empire, we've NEWS to share!

Back in October last year we told you about a new book series for Primary School classes called Bug Club, published by Pearson Education - a series which would eventually comprise of over 200 titles, including 10 comic books.

I was lucky enough to be involved in two of the first comics off the production line (Monstrous Trouble and Mirror Magic) and now I can now announce that I've contributed stories to a further TWO titles!

Unexpected and Shocks and Secrets feature new adventures from 'The Strange, Strange World of Weird', the comic strip I originally created with Zak Simmonds-Hurn for the DFC.

This is rapidly growing into a lovely little collection of books. I mean, don't they just look FUN!

The Bug Club offers schools an inspirational range of books, activity packs, teaching resources and entertaining titles to get the whole classroom reading. I cannot recommend the series strongly enough.

For more information visit the Bug Club homepage HERE.

- Robin

Moving!

Right, I'm sitting here, surrounded by boxes eating cheese on toast for breakfast, which can only mean one thing...we're moving house! Yep, this may be my last post for a while as I may be - GULP - without the internet for a while! GAAAAAAAAAAGHH!!! Still, at the end of it all I'll get an awesome new studio, so that can't be a bad thing! In the meantime, it is, of course Dandy day! Our adventure series YORE! continues apace! Today's post is the lineart for a popcorn machine from the third season of Professor Popalop's perplexingly puzzling puzzle pages which I just completed, and which will also run in the Dandy in the coming months.

So, my time in this studio is coming to an end, and it's been quite a ride, I drew both Monkey Nuts books, all my Dreamworks pages, Baggage, YORE!, Professor Popalop and begun three very big new series that you guys don't even know about yet within these four walls (and a turret). Who knows what the new studio will hold?! That's what I love about drawing, you never really know what's coming next!

See you on the flip side!

Lorenzo!

Ten and a half years of L.O.V.E.

Well, today I celebrate my ten and a half year love-a-versary with my wonderful girl, and I just wanted to come in here and post up a little piccie for her. Baby, you just get more beautiful every day. I love you SO MUCH! Cannot wait to move into our new house next week! 

Lorenzoxxx

El Sketchbook Lorenzo Deluxe Collection unavailable

Hey folks! A few of you have asked me in the forums and things why my big El Sketchbook Lorenzo Deluxe Collection is not on sale anymore. Well, the truth is, it's had to be withdrawn due it being...well...too BIG. This 600 page bad boy has basically been crashing the printers over at Lulu! Yikes. Work is going on to try and make this book available again, and I will keep you posted, but for all those who already have a copy, you can feel very smug!

More on this as and when it happens!

Lorenzo!

Rubbish dumps, park benches and burning castles...

Dandy day! Go get your comics, go get your sweets!

Lorenzo!

"If you can't say something NICE..."

"...don't say NOTHING at all." Wise words from the mouth of an animated rabbit (Thumper, from Bambi - for those of you taking notes).

Of course, the opposite is also true, and here at Etherington Towers we are firm believers that if you have something nice to say ... SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS!

We were overjoyed therefore to discover an entire family had reacted so positively to Monkey Nuts that they'd felt compelled to pop a storming review on Amazon. Here are some delightful extracts: 

"We bought 'Monkey Nuts' and my boys fought fiercely over who was to read the book first. It had to be withdrawn until they had reached a happy agreement."

"My 8 year old thought it is 'The best book I have ever read' and has asked for the next one, yet to be published, for his birthday several times an hour since."  

"We are 4 new Etherington converts ranging in age from 8 to 50 and will be following their publications closely from now on."

Now isn't that nice? And for those of you wondering, age 8-50 is our intended readership. We aim to please the whole family and, based on this evidence, we sometimes succeed!

Click HERE for the full review!
And click HERE to add our debut graphic novel to your collection.

- Robin

Brand New Clone Wars comic hits the shelves!

Every new edition of Titan's Clone Wars comic should be greeted with joy, but those episodes featuring a story written by yours truly should be greeted with triple joy, back flips and extended air guitar solos!

And guess what? Yep, it's time to grab that pretend Stratocaster, Flying V or Gibson Les Paul and strum your hearts out! Issue 21 is an Etherington special!

So what's in store?

"The Feral Queen sees Ahsoka on a dangerous mission to protect the Felacatian royalty from heavy enemy bombardment - but will the Jedi find she is surplus to requirements?!"

Oooooh - there's action, intrigue and shape-changing adventure, all delivered with delicious style from the pencils of Andres Ponce. Andres and I have collaborated on a number of Star Wars tales and his work goes from strength to strength with every issue.

As a little bonus for you all, below are two rare pencilled pages from the new story. WHAT AN EXCLUSIVE!

You can grab a copy today from any self respecting newsagent or supermarket, or better still, you can place a subscription HERE and never miss an issue again!

- Robin

Suffering from Hay Fever is NOT a Bad Thing!

Here, as promised, is the first of our festival reports, kicking off the action with the mighty Hay Festival.

On Monday, after a delightful Sunday evening at The Old Rectory Country Club (swanky, I know) spent dining and giggling with the ever-lovely Louise Vallant and Kelly Tapper from Random House and literary superstars Jonathon Stroud, Mini Grey and Candy Gourlay, Lorenzo and I awoke ready for action.

After all, it was HAY DAY, and we were extremely excited!

Despite a slight Welsh drizzle in the air, the famous Hay deckchairs were out and waiting to greet us as we arrived at the festival marquee venue, just outside the town of Hay on Wye. The crowds were already thronging as we were led to our performance space, the delightfully named and decorated, Starlight Stage.

After setting up and checking everything was working, the doors opened and a hungry horde of comic book fans filled the tent. Although we had sold out, a queue of hopeful attendees still tried their hardest to wriggle in. Unfortunately it was already standing room only!

Show time. We took to the stage ... there was an audible hush ... then Lorenzo and I began to monkey around in our usual fashion!

Here I am demonstrating what Rivet would look like with a mustache. Priceless!

Our audiences are always fantastic but this show was special and we spent about as much time chuckling as they did. I can't remember what cracked Lorenzo up in the pic below because there were simply too many amusing comments coming from the crowd!

Never scared to add a little drama to the proceedings Lorenzo and I held an impromptu competition to see who could do the best impression of Professor P (seen behind us) ... so come on then - who's more convincing?

Now, I don't say this often enough but Lorenzo is an inspiring teacher. It's one thing to be able to draw well, but quite another skill to be able to share the secrets of your art with an audience aged 6-60, and my brother knows how to make learning fun for all our fans.

Just look at him blabbering on about that Ogre ... masterful stuff.

After over-running (we're too rock and roll for timekeeping, baby!) we were hurriedly shepherded over to the main festival bookshop for a signing session. Imagine our delight when we saw the board below!
A.A. Gill then us! Genius.

Lorenzo sketched and I daubed my name in crayon for a solid hour (I've never seen such a queue) then it was finally time to meet up with our dear wives for a spot of lunch.

Nothing says "this festival is awesome" quite like steak and chips and a bottle of red wine with friends.

(Had to get a food shot in there!)

Our first Hay experience was an absolute joy from start to finish. Many thanks to Kelly and Louise and Sophie (our Hay chaperone and future 'Hay Mexico' festival host - fingers crossed!) for making our debut so entertaining; and to everyone who came, saw, laughed and bought, we hope you had as much fun as we did.

We cannot wait to return ... next year's show is going to be a MONSTER!

Monkey Nuts back in stock - for real this time!

Okay, so as some of you will know, we announced that Monkey Nuts: The Diamond Egg of Wonders was back in stock a month or so ago, and then within a few days it was sold out again. Well, this time, it's ACTUALLY back in stock, I promise! So, what are you waiting for? Go get some!

It's also just four months now until the release of BAGGAGE too!! Whoop!

Lorenzo!

Bits an' bobs!

It's Wednesday in the UK and it's Dandy-buyin' time! Here's some more bits from YORE...!

Also, I've uploaded a massive character design file in my DevaintArt gallery HERE, for those of you who like such things!

More soon!

Lorenzo!