In these days of contracting budgets for the arts it is good to report that Glasgow based couple John Chalmers and Sandra Marrs, better known as Metaphrog, have been awarded £35,000 by Creative Scotland to research, develop, produce and promote their graphic novel projects.
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland. They enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. The award to Metaphrog comes from National Lottery funding and was made via the Open Project Fund. 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.”
Metaphrog are best known for their Eisner Award nominated Louis series of GNs. Of their award they said, “We are delighted and extremely grateful that Creative Scotland have funded us this year, the moral and financial support is invaluable to our development as graphic novelists and we are working very hard to create the best work achievable at this point in our career. It is fantastic that Creative Scotland are supporting graphic novels.”
The newest offering from Metaphrog is The Red Shoes And Other Tales which is due to be released by American publisher Papercutz in October 2015 and which was previewed this August at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. John and Sandra will be officially launching and talking about The Red Shoes at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal over the weekend of 16-18 October 2015.
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.
There are more details of Creative Scotland and their awards on their website.
Metaphrog will be at the 2015 Lakes International Comic Art Festival where they will be taking part in both the Family Zone events and the Main Festival events.
Family Zone – Comics and Fairy Tales with Metaphrog
Saturday 17 October
3.00-4.00pm
Westmorland Shopping Centre
FREE
Sunday 18 October
11.00am-12.00pm and 2.00-3.00pm
Westmorland Shopping Centre
FREE
Main Festival – Shiny New Red Shoes: Metaphrog
Saturday 17 October
11.30-12.30 pm
Comics Clock Tower
Tickets £8
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