How to use this Page

Aaahh, what are those marvelous goodies in the window of Daunt Books???



It's BAGGAGE, the Etherington Brothers' brand-new addition to the DFC Library series of AMAZING comics for kids, adults, aliens, cowboys, whoever craves pages full of lush story goodness. Here's writer Bob Etherington, our fab publisher David Fickling, and artist Lorenzo Etherington at their madcap launch on Thursday night in London.



Lookie, lookie, isn't it lovely? And at the party, we had not only The Brothers, but two other creators from about-to-be-launched DFC Library books! From the left, here's James Turner, David, John Aggs and The Bros.



So let's have a little peek, shall we? (Am I allowed? Heh heh... apologies, these are merely snapshots, you can probably get *proper* scans from the publicists or artists themselves.) But a little peek, just for yoooou....




The back cover reads: Meet Randall, a happy-go-lucky but disaster-prone lost property officer with an impossible task. In order to save the job he loves he must locate the owner of the oldest item stored in his immense warehouse... in just one day!

So begins an adventurous journey through a wonderous city. Clues are uncovered when Randall leasts expects them, and help arrives from the strangest of quarters.

But whereever Randall goes, trouble is sure to follow. And even if he succeeds in his mission, just how much of the city will be left standing?

Oh, and would'ya look at this title page?! Beeyootiful.



Okay, and a sneaky little peek at the action-packed, highly caffeinated world inside those Etherington Brothers' heads.



Warning: book includes MASS DESTRUCTION.



Moving on to another of Thursday's party's very special guests! Here is the magnificent James Turner with his journalist partner Akanksha Awal.



I've been waiting SO LONG for this book to come out. Do you remember these wacky little guys? They ran at the same time as my Vern and Lettuce in The Guardian, and I am a huge fan. James is possibly the funniest writer I know, and his drawings perfectly capture the spirit of the characters' banter.



Every book needs an exploding pirate ship.



A cunning escape ruse... involving... pumice? Whaaa...? Ha ha ha...



And our next very special guest, John Aggs! Here is is with one of our fab DFC editors, Will Fickling, who currently is commissioning work for the Phoenix Comic. (Comic creators and readers, if you don't know about the Phoenix Comic yet - which launches in January -

On Tuesday, my studio mate Ellen Lindner and DFC comics colleague John Aggs and I took the train up to Nottingham to paint murals for a big festival called Game City. We'd known about it last year because the guys who used to work upstairs in our studio, Ian Gouldstone, Martin Lye and Dave Surman had done a lot of animation work for it, so we were prepped to expect a huge burst of creativity on Market Square.



Our brief was for each of us to decorate a gaming lounge by Wednesday afternoon. John's and Ellen's were more specific (John had a somewhat open mission to feature the video game Crysis 2 and Ellen's instructions from LEGO were fairly tight.) I wasn't given a set theme, so I decided to draw a 30-panel space opera comic featuring a bunny called Flummox. When I saw the guys across the way finish theirs in three hours, I realised I'd been stupidly over-ambitious, and I had to work like mad, and leave out a lot of things I'd planned to do to finish by the next day and catch a particular train. But hey, it's there now, ta-dah!



This was my rough outline. It's a choose-your-own-adventure type of story, inspired partly by seeing Daniel Merlin Goodbrey's pieces at the HyperComics exhibition at Battersea Park, and having tied the idea into a workshop I led there.



Here's the almost-finished painted version. It's sort of a mash-up of the bunnies from Vern and Lettuce comic book and the aliens from You Can't Eat a Princess! picture book.



Poor Flummox. The story had several 'Game Over' bits, so he died a lot.




Here's some bits of John Aggs's work, which was sectioned off in the 'mature' area, since the video game is rather violent. The subject matter isn't my cup of tea at all, but no one can deny that that this John guy can really draw. (And he'd only been commissioned at 5pm the night before!)





Ellen was still working with the LEGO people as I left, but you can get a glimpse of it here, next to the family arts-and-crafts area. They changed the brief completely when she got there, but she was great at coming to a compromise with them.



These were the guys who finished in three hours: Daniel Grey (daninski on Twitter) and Tom Brown (tomshqui on Twitter) from Holbrooks Films. They dragged black paint down the wall on bits of cardboard, a bit like screen printing, and their walls looked great.

See that little cube that Ben Haggarty's holding? It's a special mineral that naturally occurs in huge silver cube shapes, and when Ben found it, he wondered what people would have thought if they'd come across it 10,000 years ago... and then the stories of Mezolith began to uncoil in his storyteller's brain. (I've forgotten the exact name of the crystal, I'll get back to you about that one!)

Hurrah for Ben and one of Britain's most remarkable artists, Adam Brockbank, the authors of the second installation in the DFC Library. And man, Mezolith a corker. Adam's mostly been working in film (he created a lot of the Harry Potter monsters) but I'm so glad he put himself on pages this time.



Our DFC publisher, David Fickling, gave one of his trademark rousing speeches, and made everyone laugh when he said people ask him what ages these books are suitable for. His reply: six... 'til death!

I was excited to see a whole bunch of the DFC Team! You can see what we've been getting up to and visit websites over at the Super Comics Adventure Squad.


Adam Brockbank and Ben Haggarty (Mezolith), back row from left: Lorenzo Etherington (Monkey Nuts), Dave Morris (Mirabilis), Sarah McIntyre (Vern and Lettuce), Emma Vieceli (Violet), David Fickling (publisher), Patrice Aggs (The Boss), James Turner (Super Animal Adventure Squad, John Aggs (John Blake, The Boss), Robin Etherington (Monkey Nuts)

Some wondefully atmospheric pages from the book. My favourite story is the one about the swan maidens. Gary and I were laughing at how much some of the characters look just like Adam. (Which makes sense, he modelled the main character, Poika, on his son.)





Adam in conversation with children's book legend Shirley Hughes, still a great regular on the party circuit. I had a big grin on my face listening to Paul Gravett and Ian Rakoff trying to convince her to make more comics after being so impressed by Bye Bye Birdie, Hughes' first graphic novel for adults.


David's wife, Caro Fickling, and Adam and Ben's agent, Suresh Ariaratnam, examining the mysterious crytal.


The Etherington Brothers and John Aggs. Look out for the Etherington's Monkey Nuts, which comes out a month before my Vern and Lettuce!


Shirley Hughes talking with John's mum Patrice Aggs. (The mother-son team wrote and drew The Boss together.)


Random House team, editor Helen McKenzie-Smith, publicist Lauren Bennett and new publicist Random Rosie. (Right, Rosie, I really AM going to