Metaphrog’s Next Fairy Tale Will Be The Little Mermaid

By Jeremy Briggs on June 12, 2016 • ( 1 )

Last year Metaphrog, the Franco-Scottish duo of artist Sandra Marrs and writer John Chalmers, had their adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes And Other Tales released by US publisher Papercutz as a full colour hardback with a red fabric spine. The book has proven so popular that Papercutz will be releasing their follow-up in spring 2017 and this time it will be Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.

In September 2015 Metaphrog were awarded funding by Creative Scotland, a public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland, to research, develop, produce and promote their graphic novel projects, an award we covered here on downthetubes. At the time Emma Turnbull, Literature Officer at Creative Scotland, said, “Metaphrog have a long history of producing high quality work, inspiring a wide range of readers and writers and acting as ambassadors for the Graphic Novel form. Their work is thought-provoking, intelligent and artistically important. It will be exciting to see what the award enables them to accomplish over the coming year.”

John takes up the story since then, “Thanks to the support of Creative Scotland and the success of our previous book, we were able to really sit down and immerse ourselves in all of Andersen’s work. We were drawn to The Little Mermaid because of its spiritual undertones and universal themes. That feeling of being trapped in one world while longing for another and searching for one’s place in the scheme of things are as relevant now as 180 years ago. The aquatic environments also allowed my partner Sandra Marrs a chance to stretch her artistic muscles. The Red Shoes is a very earthbound book, while this one is full of sea and air, something that’s reflected in the colour palette and general tone of the book.”

While the book is still a year away, John and Sandra have provided a sneak preview of the first four pages:

There are more details of Metaphrog’s work on their website
There are more details of The Red Shoes And Other Tales on the Papercutz website
Metaphrog have been interviewed on downthetubes here and here and the downthetubes review of The Red Shoes And Other Tales is here
You can buy The Red Shoes and Other Tales from amazon.co.uk here

Jeremy Briggs

News, reviews, interviews and features for print and on-line: Spaceship Away (since October 2005), Bear Alley (since February 2007), downthetubes (since June 2007), and Eagle Times (since October 2008). Plus DC Thomson’s The Art Of Ian Kennedy, Titan’s Dan Dare and Johnny Red reprints, Ilex’s War Comics: A Graphic History and 500 Essential Graphic Novels, and Print Media’s The Iron Moon and Strip magazine.