Book Zone Visits The Hay Festival

On Saturday I made a flying one day visit to the Guardian Hay Festival. For those of you who don't know, this is an annual literature festival held in the small town of Hay-On-Wye, and is a wonderful place to visit if you are a book lover of any age. This was my first ever visit to the Festival, and I certainly hope to go again in the future, and hopefully for more than just the one day.

The Festival site is a short walk out of town, and consists of a small village of marquee style tents, including book shops, cafes, and of course the 'theatres' in which the author sessions take place. I was very excited as I had tickets to hear Andrew Lane (Young Sherlock Holmes), Garen Ewing (The Rainbow Orchid), Charlie Higson (Young Bond and The Enemy) and Steve Cole and Chris Hunter (Tripwire collaboratively, although Steve Cole has written many more books).

First up was Andrew Lane. I was fortunate to receive an early copy of Death Cloud, the first in his new Young Sherlock Holmes series, and then Andrew took part in an incredibly detailed interview for me which I posted last week. The problem with by-email interviews is that you can't delve deeper, so for me this session couldn't have been better timed. Andrew's answers covered a lot of what he had already revealed in his interview for The Book Zone, but in even more depth and so many of the questions I had were soon answered in the interview and the Question and Answer session that followed. It was wonderful to see such excitement for the series amongst the many young readers who were present at this session, and their questions proved to be rather probing at times. The other great treat of the session was Mr Lane reading a couple of passages from Death Cloud (coincidentally one of my favourite scenes from the book), the first time he has done this in public, and the young audience hung on his every word.

As this was my first time at Hay I was not ready for the speed with which authors are rushed away to sign books at the end of the sessions, so I only had a few seconds to thank Mr Lane for the interview he did for The Book Zone, and I couldn't wait in line to get my book signed as I has to rush off to my next one - this time a talk by Garen Ewing, the genius creator of The Rainbow Orchid, a fantastic graphic novel that I reviewed some time ago. The second book in the series is due to be released in July, and I was very much looking forward to this session. Whereas Andrew Lane had been interviewed, this was Garen very much on his own, delivering a well-prepared talk about his work and the creative process he goes through when creating his comic strip, with slides projected to illustrate the stages. As a total non-expert in the world of graphic novels I found this totally fascinating, and again it added to the information that Garen had divulged when he did an interview for me earlier in the year. Garen's passion for his work and for the ligne claire style in general shone through his whole presentation, and if you have not yet got your hands on a copy of The Rainbow Orchid then you really should go out and buy it straight away.

Again, only a brief moment to say hello to Garen before he was whisked off to sign books, and I raced over to queue up for the event I had been most excited about - the great Charlie Higson. I am sure the man needs no introduction, but just in case you have been living a hermit-like existence in a small Himalayan hut for the last decade, Mr Higson is the author of the five books in the Young Bond series, and last year delivered the superb zombie thriller The Dead. Mr Higson was interviewed in a packed-out theatre by film critic legend Mark Kermode, himself a horror fanatic, and Mr Kermode had obviously read The Dead from cover to cover as his interview questions were both relevant and probing.

Charlie started off my explaining about how he has always loved horror, and especially when he was a teenager, but when starting to write The Enemy he didn't really know how far he could push the horror and gore factors. He experimented by writing passages and then trying them out on his youngest son, who each time seemed totally unphased by the content. Until that is one night when there was a knock on the bedroom door, and there was his distressed son having woken from a terrible nightmare - "Yes! I've finally got him" was Mr Higson's ecstatic response!

If you have not yet read The Enemy, the basic premise is that a disaster has struck whereby everyone over the age of fourteen contracted a horrendous illness that either killed them or turned them into flesh-craving zombies. Mr Higson went on to explain that he feels that teenagers get a very bad press in this country these days and he wanted to write a story that highlights the fact that actually the majority of teenagers are nice, normal kids and "in the end teenagers and kids are probably more at danger from us adults than we are from them, so the enemy of the book is adults". He also had an answer to commentators who have said his book is similar in ways to William Goulding's Lord of the Flies, in that rather than degenerate into "wild beats and savages" they will actually become stronger, help each other and try to rebuild society whilst the "pesky zombie adults try to eat them".

In The Enemy one group of surviving kids has set themselves up at Buckingham Palace and appear to be trying to re-establish a monarchy, with a few remaining zombie-fied members of roylaty as figureheads. Charlie went on to say that in future books we will see other kids setting up a more militaristic society in The Tower of London, and another group trying to set up a new democracy in the Houses of Parliament. All whilst trying to battle against loads of zombies of course!

A key element of The Enemy that I found made it particularly suspenseful and scary was that you just never know who is going to get killed next. Mr Higson said this was a great departure from his Young Bond books, in that however dangerous the situation Bond finds himself in the reader always knows that he is going to survive as he obviously grows up to be this iconic fictional hero, and therefore many readers never found these scenes scary. He therefore set out right from the start of the book to create and develop a set of characters whereby he could "constantly surprise the reader in how it was going to develop in terms of 'I never expected them to get killed' or 'I didn't think they were going to be an important character by now they've come into their own'". He was also very conscious of trying to build a "believable gang of kids with a  range of personalities" in order to ensure there was something there for everyone.

As with the two previous sessions I had sat through, once the Question and Answer session started the young audience responded brilliantly, asking questions about Young Bond as well as The Enemy. Mr Higson finished off his interview by announcing that he would shortly be signing books in the book store, and before he had even finished his sentence a handful of young fans were already sprinting out of the theatre to queue up for his signature.

My final session of the day was with Steve Cole and Chris Hunter. Mr Cole is the author of a huge number of books for kids and young adults, and he has recently teamed up with Major Chris Hunter, a bomb disposal expert, to write Tripwire, the first book in a new series about a teenage bomb disposal/anti-terrorism operative. This session was again different from those that I had already been to in that each author took it in turns to talk about their respective backgrounds and the part they played in the collaboration. Mr Hunter wowed the young audience with brief anecdotes about his time in the armed forces, and it is this that makes Tripwire stand apart from the many other books in this genre that have been published in recent years, as everything that happens to the main character Felix Smith is based on Chris Hunter's extensive knowledge of this incredibly dangerous profession. The authors even gave an example of a car chase scene where Steve Cole had Felix shooting at the escaping enemy and missing. In steps Chris Hunter with his first-hand experiences to explain that if Felix was making the shot then he would not miss, resulting in a rewrite of that small scene.

We were then treated to a couple of short demonstrations using a few willing volunteers from the audience, who then assisted him in defusing a mock-up explosive vest (as worn by a very nervous looking Steve Cole). These two made a great double-act and I am confident that their series of books featuring Felix Smith will be a huge success.

So, a pretty busy day for me and thoroughly enjoyable it was too. I hope to make the pilgrimage to Hay an annual event from now on, and maybe get to stay for more than the one day. I recommend this event to all book lovers - there is so much going on and it was wonderful to see so many families there, with the kids so enthusiastic about the authors they were going to see.     

*** Rainbow Orchid Contest Result

The draw has just taken place and the lucky winner of the Rainbow Orchid contest is:

Bill Purser from Towcester

Well done and thank you to everyone who entered. I will now endeavour to contact the winner through email. Please reply within 48 hours or I will draw another name out of the hat. Many thanks to Garen Ewing for providing this fabulous prize.

(Note: all names were drawn randomly using a nifty little freeware programme called The Hat)

*** Contest: WIN a signed/sketched copy of The Rainbow Orchid by Garen Ewing

On Friday I posted an interview that Garen Ewing, author of The Rainbow Orchid, did for The Book Zone. Garen then very kindly offered to provide a signed and sketched copy of The Rainbow Orchid to one lucky reader of this blog. 

In order to win a copy of this book all you have to do is email me at bookzone4boys(at)gmail(dot)com, put Rainbow Orchid contest as the subject, include your name in the email and answer this one simple question:

What is Garen's favourite Tintin book? (hint: check out the interview)

The first name drawn at random after the closing date will win a copy of this gorgeous book. Deadline for your emails is 8pm Monday 29th March. This contest is open worldwide thanks to the generosity of Mr Ewing who will send out a personalised signed copy of the book to the winner, including a sketch of one of the characters. This is a fantastic prize - you can read my review of the book here. Garen's own website is also well worth a visit.

Terms and conditions

Contest open to entrants worldwide.
Mr Ewing will not be held responsible for items lost in the mail.
I hold the right to end a contest before its original deadline without any prior notice.
I hold the right to disqualify any entry as I see fit.
I will contact winning entrants for their postal address following the close of the competition. Winners have 48 hours to reply. Failure to do so in this time will result in another winner being randomly selected.

*** Interview with Garen Ewing (author of The Rainbow Orchid)

Some time ago I reviewed The Rainbow Orchid, the first book in what I hope will become a long series featuring the Adventures of Julius Chancer. As part of my Graphic Novel Month Garen very kindly offered to be interviewed for the blog. But his generosity does not stop there, for he has also said he will provide a sketched and signed copy of volume one of The Rainbow Orchid for a book giveaway contest which I will be running next week, so watch this space.

How would you describe The Rainbow Orchid to a potential reader?

It's a classic adventure story set in the late 1920s, with a story informed by the likes of Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard, and a graphic style in the tradition of Hergé and Edgar P. Jacobs, though with a particularly British outlook. The plot concerns the quest for a mythical orchid, last mentioned by the ancient Greek botanist Theophrastus, which leads the story's hero, one Julius Chancer, into the lost valleys of the Hindu Kush, hotly pursued by the cold-hearted yet exoptable Evelyn Crow, intent on preventing him at any cost.

The Rainbow Orchid is set in the 1920s – how did you go about researching the book?

I was already fairly well immersed in the era thanks to my interest in silent film, and the decade is really the first of the 'modern age', when world-wide travel took off, so is quite recognisable to us today in many ways, yet it still has a foot in the Edwardian or even Victorian age, which I love. There have been some wonderful books that have helped me, for instance Alan Jenkins' The Twenties, which I got for £4 in a Brighton junk shop, plus a number of books on the fashions of the day. The Indian side of things has been a little more tricky, but again, it's second-hand books that often come to the rescue. P. S. A. Berridge's Couplings to the Khyber, for instance, has been great for little details on the North Western Railway of the Indus Valley, or some of the old educational books showing 'our empire', such as the Pictures of Many Lands series published by A&C Black in the early twenties. Sometimes you have to call in the experts, for instance when I needed some text translating into Ancient Greek. And I don't know where I'd be without some of the more obscure corners of the internet!

There are three volumes planned for The Rainbow Orchid, the second due out later this year. Can you give us any hints about where the story will take Julius and his friends next?

Volume one is mainly set in England, moving to France towards the end of the book. In volume two we're in India, travelling up the Indus Valley and into mountains of Chitral. And in volume three our intrepid adventurers are lead further north into the unknown. In India they encounter an elephant with a mind of its own, an exploding Fokker F2, an ancient ruined city, a crazed Afghan wielding a khyber knife, and a snow leopard. I'm not sure I can say much about volume three without giving too many secrets away. Perhaps I'll just mention there's an incident with a whirlpool...

Different authors create their strips in different ways. How did The Rainbow Orchid evolve?

I'd just completed a strip adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, and next I wanted to create something with my own characters whom I could use again and again if I wanted. It was a toss-up between a science-fiction tale or a lost-world tale, and the latter won the day. To begin with a few elements came together from earlier story ideas – for instance, the Indian location came from an old scribbled note about Victorian vampire hunters on the sub-continent. I also wanted to make a comic that would be okay for kids to read – at the time there was an over-saturation of ultra-violent, gritty and dark comics, so-called 'mature readers' material that was actually mostly very immature.

The actual creation of the strip follows a fairly simple process. First it is plotted in note form, to which I gradually add more detail as various ideas come to the boil in my head. Then I'll break down the plot into pages, and then I'll script the story, page by page, doodling little thumbnail sketches as I go along to help with layout and point of view. Next I might do larger roughs on A4 and I'll scan them in and get some of the lettering down. After that it's on to the drawing – pencils first, then inks (using a dip pen and india ink), and then I scan the pages into the computer for colouring and lettering. The dialogue will be re-written and re-shaped several times along the way.

During March I have been spotlighting the first three books from The DFC Library on this blog. How did you become involved in The DFC comic and are there any future plans for your DFC strip Charlie Jefferson and the Tomb of Nazaleod ?

I basically got involved in The DFC after they saw The Rainbow Orchid online and decided to contact me. At first I worked with Philip Pullman on his story, but this soon moved into the more capable hands of John Aggs for more of a manga feel, and I was offered space in the comic to write and draw my own tale. At the moment I have no interest in doing anything with Charlie Jefferson – I like the story but feel as though it may need re-working a little and I can't forsee having any time to do that in the near future. I'm more fond of another idea I came up with, an interdimensional time-travelling adventure that was to appear much later in the comic's run. As it happened, neither story made an appearance as the comic folded. Serves me right for taking so long!

You are obviously a fan of the likes of Herge’s Tintin and Edgar P Jacobs’ Blake and Mortimer. What is it about these works that you like so much?

I was brought up on Asterix and Tintin and that lovely European album format is highly evocative for me. When I realised I didn't want to pursue a career as a work-for-hire artist in comics, just because comics are such hard work and I'd be putting all that effort in for someone else's vision, I decided to do a comic purely for my own pleasure. I wanted to include all the aspects of comic storytelling that I was attracted to, and those Franco-Belgian adventure albums were top of the list. I love the absorbing narrative style that results from the simple bande dessinée format, it has a classic cinematic feel to it. And the graphic clarity of the line and flat colours are also very appealing. It's quite a discipline to keep within what can be a fairly rigid format, but it forces you to concentrate on plot and story much more.

Apart from these are there any other big influences on your work?

Adventure films of the 1930s are a big influence, such as King Kong, She and Lost Horizon. And keeping with cinema, I greatly admire the storytelling style of Akira Kurosawa, especially the way his characters shape the plot, rather than being subject to it – I've not quite mastered that, but feel very happy when I get little touches of it in. David Lean and Charlie Chaplin are other creators whose work I find motivating.

What comics did you read when you were younger?

I've already mentioned Asterix and Tintin, which dominated my childhood, and have stayed with me into adulthood too. I read a spread of the British humour weeklies and also Oor Wullie, introduced to me by my Scottish grandmother. At about age 7 or 8 I got seriously into war comics, especially Battle and the masterful Charley's War. A couple of years later it was 2000AD, and then for a short while super-hero comics – until I discovered Warrior and Alan Moore.

Do you have any favourite graphic novels?

To pick out some particular books, I'd say my favourite Asterix book is possibly Asterix and the Roman Agent or Asterix and Cleopatra, and my favourite Tintin is usually The Black Island. I really like Nausicaa by Hayao Miyazaki and Dororo and Black Jack by Osamu Tezuka. Yves Chaland's Freddy Lombard stories (especially The Will of Godfrey Bouillon and F.52) and Edgar Jacob's The Yellow Mark would be desert island books, as would Trondheim and friends' Dungeon series. There's so many great comics to choose from... Charley's War, Luther Arkwright, The Left Bank Gang, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman... oh, From Hell is one of my absolute favourites. I should stop, I could keep going!

Can you recommend any other graphic novels that you think will have boy-appeal?

I think I'd especially pick out the Dungeon series. It's a little 'European' in places, so would probably suit older boys more, 12 and up, I'd say. I think Fantagraphics will be translating Tardi's Adele Blanc-Sec adventures soon, and those are terrific too – Adele And The Beast and The Demon of the Eiffel Tower have been available in English before, wonderful stuff. If you like science-fiction I'd heartily recommend Leo's Aldebarran from Cinebook, and also Roger Leloup's marvellous Yoko Tsuno – I used to spend ages hunting out the few out-of-print English translations of those, and now Cinebook are making them available again. For slightly younger readers, you can't go wrong with Astro Boy – at any age, in fact.

Before we bring this interview to an end, a very important question - Batman or Spiderman or ........?

These days I'm not so into superheroes – I think most of the modern stuff is a bit ridiculous! But I was always a DC comics reader, I could never get on with Marvel for some reason, so it would have to be Batman. My favourite series was The New Teen Titans, and I still have my collection of those, plus a complete run of the 1960s and early-70s Teen Titans with their stunning Nick Cardy covers, which I collected later. Actually, Marv Wolfman and George Perez are bringing out a new New Teen Titans book later this year, Games, and it's on my Amazon wishlist, just for old time's sake!

Is there anything else you would like to say to readers of this blog?

I think I read in Dave Shelton's interview that he's doing some kind of all-day breakfast – so let's go over to his place and carry on talking about how marvellous comics are!

 ~~~~

Huge thanks to Garen for providing such detailed answers to my questions, and for making my Amazon wishlist double in length. And don't forget - next week there will be a contest on the blog to win that fantastic signed and sketched copy of The Rainbow Orchid.

Review: The Rainbow Orchid: Adventures of Julius Chancer by Garen Ewing

I have never been a huge reader of graphic novels and comics. As a child I loved the Beano, and then I religiously bought the Eagle comic when it was relaunched in the 80s. I was also a huge Tintin fan, and to a lesser degree an Asterix fan. These days I prefer to devote my dwindling spare time to reading non-graphic novels, although I still own that same complete collection of Tintin books which I continue to enjoy reading immensely from time to time - they are books that I will never tire of reading (remind me to write a Tintin article for my blog sometime). But now that has all changed.....

"The Rainbow Orchid" is an ambitious blend of classic storytelling and cinematic artwork in which adventure, historical drama and legend are seamlessly intertwined. In Volume One, follow the story's hero, Julius Chancer, as he embarks on a hazardous quest for the rainbow orchid - a mythical flower last mentioned by the ancient Greek philosopher, Theophrastus, and steeped in legend. His epic journey takes him from 1920s Britain to the Indian subcontinent and its mysterious lost valleys.

I stumbled across The Rainbow Orchid on Amazon whilst buying a couple of Tintin books for my godson Max's birthday, and the cover immediately grabbed my attention - it was obvious to me that the artist had been heavily influenced by the work of Herge, and the reviews on Amazon suggested that Tintin fans would not be disappointed by the story either. Thank you Amazon reviewers - thanks to you I added it to my shopping basket and now that I have read it I have no regrets at all.

This book is very different in style to many of the more popular graphics novels around today by the likes of Alan Moore and Frank Miller. The artwork is beautifully drawn and rendered and I experienced a wave of nostalgia surround me as I started to read it. The story is just as wonderful - to me it is a seamless hybrid of Tintin, young Indiana Jones, Republic Serials and old-school Boy's Own adventure. The story is exciting and fast paced and the dialogue is realistic and sparkling with good humour. 

Personally, I think this book would have greater appeal amongst slightly older boys as, unlike the Tintin stories, there is a lot more dialogue text with the images. The other obvious difference between this and the Tintin books is that Garen Ewing's characters are far more believable and 'real'. Much as I love the Tintin books sometimes the slapstick humour does become a little too much and whilst there is a character in this book (Nathaniel Crumpole) who has obviously been used to create a few Thompson and Thomson laughs, these moments never detract from the story itself.

My only moan -  this is only Volume one and I am going to have to wait some time for the conclusion of this great story - Volume two is scheduled for May 2010. According to Garen Ewing's website Volume three will follow in late 2010 or early 2011. In the meantime though, Mr Ewing's website is well worth a look if you want to discover more about the world of Julius Chancer and also contains an informative entertaining blog by the author.