Comic cuts

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 | By Emily Pacey

In this age of digital everything, it’s comforting that children still enjoy a good old fashioned comic book. David Fickling Books regularly deploys little parcels of illustrated narrative joy, and its latest offering is a trio of hard-back books set in three diverse fantasy lands.

The Etherington Brothers’ Monkey Nuts: The Diamond Egg of Wonders features a ‘tap-dancing, banana-loving, rust-fighting’ robot and monkey duo that rove the Isla de Monstera solving crimes. Detailed drawings and beefy, bouncy comic-book prose combine to create a beguiling and convincing world. A cute factoid is that Robin (words) and Lorenzo (pictures) Etherington’s mother Hazel painted the backgrounds for The Beatle’s animation The Yellow Submarine.

Slightly younger readers may find themselves lost in the world of Vern & Lettuce by Sarah McIntyre. Pickle Rye is home to best friends Lettuce the rabbit and Vern the sheep, who merrily quest for fame in the big city, in between baking cakes and celebrating birthdays. Soft colours and rounded drawings give a nostalgic, English feel to the strip.

For some inexcusable reason, comics have traditionally focused on the male market. Attempting to right that wrong is Neil Cameron, creator of Mo-Bot High. In contrast to Monkey Nuts and Vern & Lettuce, Mo-Hot High is a manga-inspired adventure staring Asha, who fights the bullies and negotiates a school in which giant robots launch out of students’ mobile phones.