Big Kids Creating Kids Books at Camp Creative

 Multi-award winning illustrator and cartoonist and our old mate Jules Faber is running a children's writing and illustrating course in Bellingen, NSW, Australia in January 2015.

What do you need to know about the course?

Well, in working as a cartoonist and illustrator for over 20 years, Jules has figured out the right way to approach a children’s book from an illustrator / author’s perspective. Many people believe it is easy to write a children’s book but the complexity of children's publishing is deceptive. Some authors claim it’s actually more difficult than creating adult fiction

Jules will give you lots of tips and examine:

• What the different aspects of writing and creating a story are about
• How to make the story age-appropriate, and 
• How to lay it out into illustrated form. 

Utilising his personally formulated nine rules and guidelines, he will demonstrate how you can apply these to creating the right artwork to accompany your story from rough ideas through to finished art.

Participants will complete enjoyable small projects, and work towards creating an illustrated children’s story by the end of the week, thereby gaining an insight into the world of children’s writing and illustrating.

What do you need to know about Jules?

Jules has been working in book illustration for over 20 years, having completed work on many grown-up books and 10 children’s books for well-known authors like comedian Anh Do and cricketer David Warner. Jules is a multi-award-winning children’s book illustrator and cartoonist. He won the 2014 Book of the Year for Older Children at the Australian Book Industry Awards with Weirdo alongside author Anh Do, as well as the 2014 Best Designed Fiction Book for Children and the Best Cover at the Australian Book Design Awards with designer Nic Stofberg. His versatility as an artist means he has worked in a variety of different fields including live caricature, editorial cartooning, editing an award-winning comic book series and animating on a Disney program. From 2002-2004 he taught Comic Book Illustration and Scriptwriting and Storyboarding for TAFE Qld, and in 2005 he began a full-colour series of comics entitled Golgotha, which he re-imagined in 2014 in classic black and white. He has served three terms as the President of The Australian Cartoonists Association, the world’s oldest cartoonists organisation, and has won three Rotary Cartoon Awards, Australia’s biggest International cartooning competition.

HURRY! Bookings close on 20 November 2014!

When: January 2015 (dates and times TBA)

Course Length: One week

Where: Bellingen HIgh School

Level: Everyone

Age: 16+

Cost: Adults $370; Under 18 $210

Bookings: Camp Creative website

A Two Trickster Christmas Treat

Jozef was lucky to attend a book launch a few days ago for Sophie Masson's new title Two Trickster Tales from Russia, which was launched by fantasy author Kate Forsyth in Sydney.

The book features two retold Russian folktales – "Masha and the Bear" and "The Rooster with the Golden Crest". It was illustrated in a classic style by David Allan, and designed by Fiona McDonald who happens to be a mermaid aficionado.

Sophie also has a connection to mermaids – or to be more precise – selkies. We covered her children's book Thomas Trew and the Selkie's Curse last year in a blog post.

Sophie is one of Australia's prolific children's fantasy authors. She is also the Chair of the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) and an advocate for children's writers and illustrators.

Two Trickster Tales from Russia is the launch title for a new Australian publisher called Christmas Press. You can find the names of stockists on the Buying Our Books page or order it direct. The RRP is AUD$22.95 plus postage & handling.

We've each got signed copies and we're delighted to add them to our respective libraries.

Congratulations, Sophie, David and the editorial and production team, for a major coup!

BMP Supports Books in Homes

Last year in a blog post we mentioned an Australian charitable foundation called Books in Homes to let you know about this great program we've been supporting. Books in Homes aims to give books to children in remote communities or in low socio-economic circumstances. Since that time, I (Julie) in my capacity as a Books in Homes role model, have attended three book-giving assemblies at primary and infants schools in my local area where I talked about amongst other things... yes, you guessed it... mermaids! I brought one of my book treasures – my copy of Ruth Manning Sanders A Book of Mermaids to show everybody. The kids loved the illustrations but alas we did not have time to read one of the stories aloud because the most important part of the agenda was to hand out the book satchels and shake the hand of every child in the room. It was a delight to do so because dare I say it... a book in the hand is worth two ebooks in the digital world. The kids' faces reflected their enthusiasm and happiness which was wonderful.

Anyway, we were equally happy and proud to be given a sponsorship presence on the Books in Homes catalogue with the inclusion of the Black Mermaid logo (see top row right below), and our support will continue later on in the year and beyond.

We can't mention enough how Books in Homes is helping Australian children so we encourage you to support this very worthy cause.

CLICK ON THE LINK to see the Term 1, 2013 Book Catalogue.
CLICK ON THE LINK to see the Term 2, 2013 Book Catalogue.

CLICK ON THE LINK to check out the Books in Homes website to find out more, to make a donation or to see how YOU can provide your support.

Mermaids in Comics 5 – Lucia and the Golden Mermaid

 "Lucia and the Golden Mermaid" was a comics serial that ran in the weekly Princess comic book published in the UK in March and April 1961. Our resident Princess comic book collector and expert – Terence – forwarded these to us. We're hooked. We've got to find out what happened in the story.

Mermaids in Comics 4 – More Milly the Merry Mermaid [UPDATED 08/1/12]

One of our blog followers – Terence – contacted us to let us know he had read a previous post on the "Milly the Merry Mermaid" comics that appeared in various UK girls' Annuals published during the 1960s and 70s. He kindly filled in some of the gaps in our knowledge and sent us several more pieces to share with you.

Apparently, "Milly the Merry Mermaid" ran in the weekly Princess Tina comic book. The first image is from 02/03/68. The sea horse image is from an issue dated 04/05/68. The third piece is from the very last issue released in 06/12/69. The strip reduced in size, and two weeks later Princess Tina absorbed the Penelope comic so Milly was phased out. She made a reappearance again in comic books in the 70s, as well as an in several Annuals and summer specials. Terence pretty much has the entire collection, and he mentions that the last one in his possession is 1980.

Thank you, Terence, we appreciate you opening the door to more Milly.

Books in Homes

I had the pleasure and the privilege of meeting and having lunch last week with Kim Kingston, Director of Books in Homes, and her warm, energetic and dedicated team—Laura, Julie and Hester.

To put you in the picture...

Books in Homes is an Australian charitable foundation that aims to "re-awaken a sense of wonder in children and excitement in parents, by creating an Australian where every child and family has access to books of choice at home."

The heart of the organisation lies in its mission:

Books-in-Homes provides books-of-choice to families and children living in remote and low socio-economic circumstances, ensuring crucial early literacy engagement and the development of reading skills needed for lifelong success. 25% of titles on offer are written by Indigenous Authors.
This Programme aims to break the education inequality found in remote and disadvantaged communities where resources are often scarce and generational poverty endemic.

I've just volunteered to be a Role Model and will be attending a book-giving assembly at a local public school at the end of the year to talk about why I LOVE books and why they were so important to me when I was growing up, as well as to hand out some books to the students.

I must add that Books in Homes also believe in graphic novels... and guess what? Mermaids as well!

So we encourage you to read all about the Books in Homes program here, or better still, make a donation or help in some other way to, as they say, "Empower Kids, Literally".

Mermaid in Comics 1 – Milly the Merry Mermaid

This is the first part in a series where we'll be looking at what's out there in the comics world – outside of our own Elf~Fin comic book series – that features mermaids. This selection is probably little known but it is a point of nostalgia for me. 


"Milly the Merry Mermaid" were delightful short stories published in the the Princess Gift Book for Girls (1973) and the Princess Tina Annual (1971) by IPC Magazines, London, and distributed in Australia by Gordon & Gotch. There are many other books in the series but I only have those two. I found second hand copies of them while I was growing up and read them over and over again. I loved the gentle humour, some of the environmental themes, and Milly's undersea animal pals who could all talk. 


These stories really influenced me. I've chosen a one page story to showcase here, and a two pager where we see a large full body panel of Milly where her tail takes prevalence. It looks like there were two artists working on them, as the style is different for both. I have no idea who wrote or drew them, as there are no creator credits in the book—a real shame. Many writers and artists were anonymous in those days. I believe if they were published now, the creators would have had a great fan base. Anyway, we hope you like them. You can still find some of the Annuals on eBay or online. Here's one of the books from whence these stories are sourced. It says 1972 but my book says 1971. I wonder who'll be the first to grab it for their mermaid collection...

The Impact of Graphic Novels in the US Education System

We were recently sent a great online article from the USA – "15 Awesome Examples of Graphic Novels in Education". The writers have "compiled a list of some of the best, coolest and most successful ways graphic novels are playing a role in education". We certainly understand the value of using comics as teaching tools – Julie's mother emigrated at the age of 12 from post war Europe in the late 1940s. In Australia, she taught herself English by reading comic books.

The only thing we have to pull the writers up on – and this is a very common mistake – is that "comics" is a medium and not a genre. Check with Scott McCloud who is mentioned in the article. He drums that into his readers in his Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art book. He also recently talked on the subject at GRAPHIC at the Sydney Opera House. Colleen Doran also spoke about it at the Comics Masterclass, which was held in Sydney a few weeks ago.

Just so you know – there are many "comics" works published in all kinds of genres including superhero, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, crime and many many more.

Magabala Books Releases First Indigenous Graphic Novel

Australian independent Indigenous publishing house Magabala Books recently released its first Indigenous graphic novel – The Legend of the Phoenix Dragon – the first book in the "Ubby's Underdogs" trilogy. The story is a product of artist / writer Brenton E McKenna's imagination, who lives in Broome in the far north of Western Australia. The story was greatly influenced by Brenton’s childhood in Broome and his Aboriginal and Malay heritage.

The story is about Ubby, a young ruffian who lives in a dusty pearling town in Western Australia who leads a rag-tag gang known as the Underdogs. When Ubby meets Sai Fong, a Chinese girl just off the boat from Shanghai, she is thrown into a mysterious world of ancient legends and never before exposed secrets. The main character, Ubby, was inspired by his grandmother, a strong Aboriginal woman who knew how to look after herself.

Brenton graphic novel was recently nominated for the 2011 Deadly Awards Outstanding Achievement in Literature.

For more information check out the Ubby's Underdogs website.

To order just go to the Magabala Books catalogue and key "Ubby's Underdogs" into the Search button.

Rupert the Bear and the Mermaid Boy

Aussie comics artists/illustrators Frank Kennedy and Marcelo Baez stopped by my place the other day after attending the Australian Society of Authors Xmas party. My friend Zoe Harvey and I made it to the party too but left after ten minutes. This wasn't a commentary on the speeches, the guests, the food or any of the proceedings – it was because we were on an animal rescue mission and had to look after a baby bird we had found in the middle of the main road in Balmain, Sydney.

Anyway, had a great chat with the two guys and somewhere in the conversation, we began to discuss Rupert the Bear. Now for those of you who don't know anything about this literary character, he was the lead in a comic that was first published in 1920. The books were unusual in style – there were four sequential art panels per page but no captions or word balloons. The story was told in a two-line verse under each panel and in prose at the bottom of the page. I found a copy of Rupert, sans cover, in a box of books I found hidden in a cupboard of our home in Cronulla where I was born. I must have been about two years old because we moved soon after. I have no idea who this book originally belonged to but from that moment it was mine. It's sitting on my lap right now and in a few moments I'll return it to the graphic novel section of my library. The title page only says "Rupert" and a statement at the bottom proclaims it to be "A Daily Express Publication". It costs 4 shillings and six pence. I think this must have been the first graphic novel I ever owned.

Anyway, Frank asked me if I had ever seen the story (Rupert and the Popweed) where Rupert meets a merboy and I said no. He then kindly emailed me the piece you see on this blog post, which of course prompted me to do a bit of investigation and see if the title still exists. It does. If you're a mermaid collector like us, you can order it from Amazon (although I think there's only one used copy left). We'll see which of us gets in first! There are lots of other Rupert books out there too so check them out if you have a minute.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

The character designs in the upcoming Alice in Wonderland film are simply stunning. Helena Bonham Carter as the "off with your head" Red Queen and Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter are our personal favourites. Tim Burton films are must sees for us. Not all of them work story-wise (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory being one of them) but they're all visual feasts. Can't wait till 2010.

50 YouTube Video Tips, Sifting Out the Delusional, and the Case for Children's Print Storybooks

We're planning to bring out some video clips in the near future and, as we've just discovered from Chris Pirillo's  FABULOUS article,"50 YouTube (and Online Video) Tips and Tricks":

YouTube is now 25% of the Internet's search traffic, and if you're not doing something on youTube, you're ... crazy. 

Also here's a great article by Bon Alimagno, Harris Comics Director-Publishing & Editorial, on the Newsarama blog that will help artists who want to pitch their portfolios to publishers. "Ignition: Portfolio 101" advises us to draw the most exciting millisecond, get the conversations and talking heads scenes right, that less is more, and to kill your idol. 

And the case for the continuance of print children's fiction is made in a Science Daily article "Storybooks on Paper Better for Children Than Reading Fiction on Computer Screen, According to Expert".

Swedish researchers believe we understand more and better when reading on paper than when we read the same text on a screen. We avoid navigating and the small things we don't think about, but which subconsciously takes attention away from the reading. Also texts on a screen are often not adapted to the screen format. The most important difference is when the text becomes digital. Then it loses its physical dimension, which is special to the book, and the reader loses his feeling of totality.

We're all for digital content but there is nothing finer than holding and flicking the pages of a physical book to enhance our reading experience.