By Andi Watson

Walker Books

I did my review of Andi Watson’s great new Gum Girl series a few days ago, but I’m not who the book is aimed at, not by many years! So Walker Books and Andi were kind enough to donate some copies to the school graphic novel library, where we’re doing our very best to create the comic readers of the future.

But before they go on the shelves we handed them out to some very keen pupils…. and they certainly seemed to like them!

Review by Holly (Year 5)

I loved Gum Girl, it’s a really good book, in fact it’s not good, it’s absolutely amazing!

When Catastrophe calls, it’s Gum Girl’s time to shine. Grace Gibson is the new girl with one very big secret … there’s a new heroine in town and she can well stick to the bad guys!

Review by James (Year 6)

I liked this book; it’s all about a girl moving to a new town with a new school and new problems!

Grace Gibson looks normal on the outside, but she manages to create some super-gum which comes in useful as she needs to save herself countless times!

There are three stories in Gum Girl Catastrophe Calling but my favourite is the first where she starts at Calamity Primary School and meets a boy called Billy Fisher, who always gets picked on. But the school bully at Calamity happens to be a giant super-robot!

Then there’s the evil genius little Nigel Lott who wants to get rid of Gum Girl because she saved the town from his robot of destruction. In fact, by the end of the book there’s a whole Evil Geniuses After-School Club. That’s just the sort of school Grace has found herself in!

I would definitely recommend this book to adventure lovers!

(School bullies with a difference at Clamity Primary School)

Review by Lucy (Year 6)

Grace has moved from a small calm town, to a catastrophic city packed with calamity! And if that wasn’t bad enough, her dad is the headmaster at her new school!

Things turn from bad to worse when Grace finds an old chemistry set in the new house. Unpacking or fiddling with the chemistry set…. oh … Grace chooses the chemistry set. And the explosive chemical reaction creates GUM GIRL!!

I liked Gum Girl because it has a fun, quirky storyline which people of all ages will enjoy. It was really clear, and each character felt like they could be real. I also liked the graphics and the jokes that Andi Watson puts through the book.

It’s an amazing graphic novel and I’d give it 10 out of 10.

(Oh dear…. the origins of Gum Girl!)

Review by Mae (Year 4)

At her new house, Grace Gibson plays with an old chemistry set she has found, but the glowing green contents explode everywhere, including on her gum.  Later on, when she goes to the shopping centre with her “friends”, chaos break loose; a meteor crashes down to Earth, a robot attacks the shop, and Grace is nearly run over by an out of control bright pink bin lorry. The gum she’s chewing, that was covered in the chemicals from the experiment, saves her from first the bin lorry and then the huge meteor. Grace realises what’s happened and after doing more experiments becomes Gum Girl!

I liked it because it has a lot of adventures in it whilst also having a bit of friendship. My favourite part was when Grace’s hair went very, very wrong and she looked so funny.

I think you should read this book, it is full of surprises and laughs.

(Grace Gibson, AKA Gum Girl is definitely having a bad hair day!)

Thanks once again to Walker Books and Andi for the books. They’re going in the library after Easter!

Making comics since the early 90s, his bibliography has an eclectic feel; there’s a little Buffy, a couple of Marvel things, a couple of DC, even an Aliens thing for Dark Horse. But it has always been Watson’s more personal works that really impress those who love his work. Whether it’s the emotional adult fare of Breakfast Afternoon, Dumped, Little Star, and Slow News Day, the fun romps of Skeleton Key, Love Fights, and Clubbing, or his more recent all-ages work in Princess At Midnight, Glister, and Gum Girl, there’s a rare beauty in his work.

Nominated for many major comic awards, the one award he may not be aware of is being the only comic artist to have works beloved by all three members of the Bruton household. For Molly it’s Glister, I have a different favourite depending on mood, but right now it’s Dumped, whilst Louise, my comic tolerating beloved, read Breakfast Afternoon and adored it many years ago, and remembers it still.

Watson’s currently working with Walker Books, who’ve already published four volumes of the wonderful Glister series. His latest work, also four volumes, is the full-colour, larger format, bubblegum pop style Gum Girl.

But enough, here’s Andi Watson….

“Grace Gibson has just moved to Catastrophe where her dad is the new head teacher at Calamity Primary School.

This is a place where disaster rules the day. Meteors fall from the sky. Volcanoes erupt. Giant robots roam the streets. Villains are on the loose. And evil geniuses are plotting revenge on a daily basis. What’s more, no one seems to care.

But, one day, a chance accident up in the loft with an old chemistry set and a stick of bubblegum leads Grace to an extraordinary discovery. It’s going to save her life. In fact, it’s going to save the lives of everyone in Catastrophe. But she has to keep it a secret. And, for that, she will need a whole new identity…”

I’ve chosen a page from Gum Girl Book 2 Tentacles of Doom because I happen to have a record of the pencils. Usually I’ve inked them over without scanning them first. Gum Girl is my new series for children published by Walker books. Book 1 Catastrophe Calling is out now, Book 2 is out in August. Two more will follow.

Before I even get to the point of writing a script there are a few hoops I’ve already struggled through. What I can’t show is the pages and pages of scibbled notes as I work over ideas for stories. Often I’ve a good idea but it doesn’t pan out into a full script. Sometimes I have an idea and ride with it and it comes out first time. Mostly I latch onto an idea I like and then thrash out how it’s going to work as a story.

Anyway, all those scribbled ideas end up in the bin and I’m left with a synopsis. The synopsis is a key part of the process, a single typed sheet laying out all the main beats of the story. If it doesn’t work at this stage then it won’t work as a full script.

When I work with an editor they like to see a full script, that way it’s easy to visualise the story, and because it’s typed they can shoot down the worst typos before I start. A full script is the story broken down into pages and panels with panel descriptions and dialogue. On different books in the past I haven’t written a full script. On the one hand it allows for a bit more flexibility in tweaking things if I’m working from notes and thumbnails. On the other, having a full script gives me the peace of mind that I’ve fit everything in that needs to be there. Editing bits out is part of the scripting process and skipping past a full script is the sneaky way of postponing tough decisions on what has to go. There’s never enough “room” in comics, so scenes and bits of dialogue have to be snipped. Each Gum Girl story is twenty pages long, with three stories in each book. Twenty pages with a beginning middle and an end is a really good discipline for keeping things concise and snappy.

Thumbnails are the little scribbles I make to see what fits on each page, what the (very) rough panel compositions are going to be like, and if I need to move a panel from one page onto another. It’s more about figuring the beats and rhythms of the panels and pages, where a revelation might fit best, at the end of a page, on a spread, or on a page turn. Best to figure out what needs to go where before moving on to the next stage.

These thumbs [above - ed.] are from Glister and the Faerie Host, I must have binned the relevant scribbles for this Gum Girl page I’m highlighting.

Layouts. I’d never done these before working on Gum Girl, a rough script and thumbnails were enough before I was diving in to my books. I print out the dialogue from the full script, cut it out and place it on a sheet of scrap paper before roughly penciling what the finished page will look like. I find it’s very useful for balloon placement and generally sorting out the flow of the page, reading from panel to panel and balloon to balloon. It’s the kind of thing a reader doesn’t notice unless it’s done wrong. Not being certain which is the next panel to read (if I ever think I need an arrow to direct the eye from one to panel to another then I know I need to rework it) or mixing up which piece of dialogue comes before another messes up the flow of a page and chucks a reader out of the experience.

This stage also clarifies any areas where I might have crossing balloon tails…a sure sign I haven’t staged a scene properly, and how much dialogue to include, and if I need to snip a line of two. This is all stuff that I hope is part of the invisible architecture of a page and isn’t consciously picked up on by the reader. Most of thinking work is done so it’s on to the next stage.

Lettering. I started hand lettering with the Glister series. Part of me felt like I wasn’t a proper cartoonist because I wasn’t lettering my own work, but using a (very good) font by Woodrow Phoenix. As I was doing everything else myself, often completing design and colours and whatnot, I felt lettering was the next challenge.

Hand lettering is a pain in the butt, it’s time consuming and finicky and just plain hard. It took me a long time to get the hang of it. The upside is that it’s another part of the comic that is unique to me. No one else has the same look, and I think the hand crafted type complements the artwork. Unfortunately, there may be no going back!

I letter on a separate sheet, cut it out and lay it on the ruled page. I pencil in the balloons and panel borders and then start penciling.

Penciling is fun. A lot of the thinking and planning is out of the way so I can concentrate on facial expressions and making sure the proportions are accurate.

I tend to draw in a decent quality sketchbook so I can be portable and have work on hand if and when a day’s broken up. I’ve never used Bristol board or anything super expensive. I like to use materials that are widely available, so if I run out I’m not worrying about tracking down obscure items. Working on pricey paper would freak me out, I’d be worried about messing up an expensive page before I’d even put pencil to paper. I use certain pens and paper but I’m not into the fetish side of art supplies, Moleskines and such. I drew my first book, Samurai Jam, with Berol felt-tips and copier paper.

Inking. Once I’m happy with the pencils (they’re not very tight) I break out the pen and start inking. Gum Girl is full of rounded shapes and generally has a uniform line width. Because I’m drawing for colour I tend to leave a lot of open areas and make sure all the lines meet, that way it’s easier to colour. I like to listen to podcasts and music while inking, it’s more of a motor function by this point. It’s often a frustrating struggle, but the whole story doesn’t hinge on my inking a foot correctly. I try not to mess up the work I did right at the penciling stage.

Inks complete, I erase the pencil lines and see what needs fixing. I’ll tweak areas of the drawing and use a bit of tippex to tidy up. Occasionally I’ll realise a panel I’ve struggled with is beyond salvation, so I’ll draw it on a separate sheet and glue it on to the page. Some people call these a patch, I think they’re more of a figleaf to hide one’s embarrassment.

I take the lettering and glue it on to the page. It’s only now that I know that the page is balanced, there’s not too much dialogue, and that it all seems to gel. I scan in the page, take ages cleaning up and fixing my lettering and then I’m ready to colour.

I colour in Photoshop, a program I’ve been using for years. Gum Girl’s style requires a lot of gradients and shiny surfaces, so it’s a different approach than I’ve used before. I incorporate a few ben day dot patterns and use a bright, friendly palette. Gum Girl’s my first full colour book so I’m still learning as I go.

There’re always a few missteps, cursing and eyestrain along the way, but eventually I get a coloured page I’m happy with. I save often … the horror of losing a coloured page I haven’t saved is heartbreaking.

The last thing to do is select all the lettering and save it on a different layer. Then I’m done. Repeat the next day.

FPI would like to thank Andi for taking the time to take us through the process. Gum Girl Volume 1; Catastrophe Calling is available right now, published by Walker Books. The second book of the series Tentacles Of Doom is published in August 2012.

You can catch up with Watson at his website, there’s lots to see and do on the Gum Girl blog, and his lovely all-ages comic Princess At Midnight is currently being serialised as a webcomic, in colour, a page every Saturday.

By Andi Watson

Walker Books

It’s been nearly two years since Andi Watson’s last four volume series for Walker Books finished. That was Glister, and it was as sweet, sentimental, full of a melancholy wistfulness as you could wish for, a perfect little comic for adults AND children, with Volume 3; The Faerie Host the one that really stood out as exceptional. Andi Watson’s career as a cartoonist, as an artist has been perhaps underrated, but not here. His work never fails to impress.

And now we have his next 4-volume series with Walker; Gum Girl. If Glister was sweet and sentimental, mixing laughs, beautiful artwork, and a hint of melancholy sadness, then Gum Girl is all out bubblegum pink adventuring, with all three stories in this volume sure to appeal so strongly to the growing group of young girl readers we have in school.

There she is, young Grace Gibson, moving to a new town, a new school. Which would be bad enough, but her dad’s the headmaster of Calamity Primary and just that first page should have enough to tell you that Catastrophe is no ordinary town; the active volcano and giant robot early hints of what’s to come for Grace.

In the three stories here she’ll have to navigate the troubled socio-political environment of the school playground, where the girls have the most perfect hair. But alongside that struggle she’ll be called into action to face down dire threats against Clamity School and the town of Catastrophe. She quickly realises that Catastrophe just isn’t the safest, or nicest of towns. No-one seems to help anyone else, all these crazy things happen and no-one seems to care. The people are just used to it all, accepting their place, merely putting up with all the weirdness and letting the villains get away with it all. And such villains… The Titanium Avenger Professor Roboticus, the hair-raising villainy of Rapunzel, and worst of all the evil that is Oliver Ramsey, the celebrity chef determined to bring his super salads to the school dinner plate. Boo, and hiss.

If only there was some way she could do something about it….. but surely stuff like bizarre accidents to create superheroes only happen in comics?

Good job this is a comic then Grace…..

Luckily, she’s not going to have to face these threats as Grace Gibson, schoolgirl. No, thanks to that unfortunate accident with a chemistry set and some bubblegum, she gets to battle evil, villainy, and the threat of no more chips as the spectacular, the heroic, the very, very pick Gum Girl.

Although she does have one small problem to overcome first…..

But before long, she’s up and running, supersuit all made, gum at the ready, and springing into action, determined to face whatever threat Catastrophe can throw at her, because from now on she’s Gum Girl!

Three stories, three adventures, three tales packed with fun. This is the perfect bubblegum pink pop record given comics form. Each story clocks in at 20-pages, quick, satisfying chunks of frothy pink fun, but across the three stories Watson builds characterisation in, delivers characters the children should grow to love. It’s not all about superheroing, and there’s plenty of simple school stuff, with Grace settling in, making friends, finding her way. And it’s that mix of riotous action and down to earth stuff I’m really confident the children at school will absolutely love.

There’s something of another favourite in here as well, as the school setting and great female lead (not to mention the giant robots) puts me in mind of Neill Cameron’s Mo Bot High (and that means I think I have just the candidate for first read of Gum Girl – I reckon Holly will love this).

Gum Girl is another great series from Andi Watson. It looks absolutely gorgeous. Anyone who’s seen his work before will know just how good an artist he is, with action and characters working together to make his pages a joy to look at and to read. You can see from the Gum Girl website just how much design work has gone into this series, and it’s all paid off. The colours took a while to nail down, but the decision to go really bright all adds to the fast and furious, and just all round damn good fun that Gum Girl delivers.

There’s even time for a little behind the scenes stuff in the book, with fun schematics of the town and the school to give you some idea of the trouble Grace will be finding herself in in future volumes.

I loved Gum Girl for what it was; a perfect bubblegum pop song of a comic. But there’s part of me finished it and wished for something a little more substantial. Thing is, it’s not as satisfying for me as Glister and I found myself missing the contrast between the melancholy of Glister’s life and the fun of her adventures.

Yes, there are downbeats to the positive stuff in Gum Girl; Grace’s uncomfortable start at school, her mild homesickness, the missing her old friends, difficulties fitting in, but overall these are very small, mere dips in the mood, and Gum Girl is resolutely positive, upbeat, and cheery. Glister on the other hand seemed, at least to my mind to capture a wider range of emotional scale. The rhythms were balanced, emotions swung full range from despair to elation, perfect balance.

But then again, I have to keep in mind that this is a kids comic, deliberately set up to have kid appeal. Glister was one way of doing kid’s comics, Gum Girl is another. This is about finding an audience, building something. Bright, bubblegum pop has it’s own unique appeal as well.

Heavens, listen to me, moaning that this is just too much fun, too bright, too happy. Grouch. It’s like complaining that Madonna, Kylie or Girls Aloud at their very best were all a bit too happy and poppy. The point of those ladies, just as with Gum Girl is to create the perfect bit of perfect shiny pop, polished and vibrant, moaning that it doesn’t have a huge emotional range is taking it a bit far I think.

I’m off to read it again, bit of Madonna in the background to get into the groove (sorry). You can get Gum Girl from anywhere books and comics are sold. Ask for it if needs be. Lets make this a huge success, just as it deserves.

You can also follow the adventures over at the Gum Girl blog, and Gum Girl Volume 2; The Tentacles Of Doom is published in August.

here’s the start of the very strange, very gummy secret origin of the hero of the title…..

His new series from Walker Books has now been announced, with Volume 1 out in March and Volume 2 due late in the year, where Watson’s heroine faces off to …. “The Tentacles Of Doom“:

The first storyline will be serialised online at the new Gumgirl website.

And of course, there’s the ongoing Princess At Midnight webcomic, currently reprinting the original, but soon to start publishing new material.

On the schedules – the first volume in Watson’s Gum Girl series gets released by Walker Books 1st March. I think this may well find its way into the school library:

“Gum Girl might be pink, but she’s got bite, she’s got bubbles, and she’s not afraid to use them. Grace Gibson has just moved to Catastrophe where her dad is the new head teacher at Calamity Primary School. It sure is no ordinary town. This is a place where disaster rules the day.”

But that’s not all…. there’s this:

Yes, Princess at Midnight is a previously published comic, but Watson’s dusted it off, given it a splash of colour, and promises fresh adventures when the initial published storyline finishes:

“I’m going to be putting up PaM as a web comic with the Saturday Morning Webtoons crowd, a bunch of creators who’re putting out kid-friendly web comics every Saturday starting this weekend. …. I’m putting up a page a week in colour. I have 50 new pages of material to follow the previously printed stuff.”

The Saturday Morning Webtoons site looks very nice, must investigate further. Meanwhile, here’s page 1 of the newly coloured Princess At Midnight:

Andi Watson’s new series gets a cover, a release date and at least some details.

It’s called Gum Girl (but we knew that). It’s coming from Walker Books in March 2012, and will be in a series of 4 volumes, with at least the first one; Catastrophe Calling, having three short stories in its 64 pages.

“Gum Girl might be pink, but she’s got bite, she’s got bubbles, and she’s not afraid to use them!”

“Grace Gibson has just moved to Catastrophe where her dad is the new head teacher at Calamity Primary School. It sure is no ordinary town. This is a place where disaster rules the day. Meteors fall from the sky. Volcanoes erupt. Giant robots roam the streets. Villains are on the loose. And evil geniuses are plotting revenge on a daily basis. What’s more, no one seems to care. Least of all the girls in Grace’s class who would rather primp and preen than help a victim in distress. But, one day, a chance accident up in the loft with an old chemistry set and a stick of bubblegum leads Grace to an extraordinary discovery. It’s going to save her life. In fact, it’s going to save the lives of everyone in Catastrophe. But she has to keep it a secret. And, for that, she will need a whole new identity…”

Now, how wonderfully, magnificently cool does that sound? I can see this one being on permanent loan from the school library when we get our copies in (and believe me… we’ll be getting copies plural). Just as with Glister I’m expecting Watson’s storytelling and his gorgeous artwork to really get our girls buzzing about comics.

All images from Andi’s Flickr… all rights reserved.

Andi will be appearing at “The Big Draw” at Worcester City Museum, next Saturday – 8th October.

and there’s one for writers as well.

First volume coming in early 2012, this is the teaser image from Watson’s next series from Walker Books. See, it’s not just Marvel and DC who do press releases with extensively blacked out characters!