Guest Post: “Fantasy in Colour” by Ben Galley

A short while ago, Ben Galley sent me the first two books of his self-published fantasy Emaneska series for review: The Written and Pale Kings. As anyone who has read my Reviewing Policy knows, I don’t accept self-published works. However, I had seen Ben’s work pop up on a few other blogs I follow, and I found myself intrigued despite my reservations. I intend to give at least the first one a read at some point in the future. In the meantime, I learned about another project Ben’s involved in: turning his books into graphic novels. Since Civilian Reader features ever-more comic and graphic novel-related content, I thought it would be nice to learn a little more behind Ben’s motivations for taking this latest step.

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“Fantasy In Colour” by Ben Galley

I’ve recently embarked on a new chapter of my self-publishing career. With the help of the crowd-funding site Kickstarter, I’m attempting to turn my debut novel The Written into a graphic novel.

The question is, why?

It’s a damn good question. One with many answers. A lot of authors seem to be toying with the idea of migrating their tomes to artwork recently. The eminent Mark Lawrence, author of the Broken Empire trilogy, has been blogging a lot on his eagerness to turn his books to art. Even as I write this I see a tweet from Lauren Beukes of Zoo City and Moxyland fame saying:

“Oh man, I would LOVE a graphic novel of Zoo City (hint, hint...)”

It’s a popular feeling, that’s for sure. Not a new one, though. Fantasy graphic novels already exist, and have for quite a while. A most recent and high-profile addition was the adaptation of Game of Thrones, following in the wake of the cash-cow that was the HBO series. Another example: Robert Jordan’s Eye of the World. Stab at merchandising or not, it seems to me, as an author and fantasy fan, that there’s a buzz around graphic novels at the moment. So, why? Why am I, and others, so keen to see their prose in paint, and is it a good idea?

“Nimpentoad” by Henry L Herz & Sons

A family-created illustrated kids’ book

This is the tale of the courageous and resourceful little Nimpentoad, who leads his tribe of Niblings through the perilous Grunwald Forest, overcoming obstacles and encountering strange creatures along the way.

This is the first kids’ book I’ve reviewed, and I am kind of lost as to how to go about it. I don’t remember a single kids’ book I read when I was younger, so I have no idea how this compares, and I’m not entirely clear on what people look for when reading reviews of children’s books. Is it age-suitable? I presume so. Is it well written? For the most part – there were a few passages I thought could have been tighter.

Nevertheless, this book is based on quite a fun premise – it’s a creative adventure set in an endearing fantasy world, that has drawn quite a bit of inspiration from the Warhammer world and creatures, particularly the Forest Goblins, which I found perhaps a little too similar (only, watered down considerably for the intended audience’s age). The rhinotaurs, I thought, were an interesting new fantasy creature:

As the above image will help support, the book’s best selling-point are the illustrations by Sean Eddingfield and Bill Maus, which are quite superb (I particularly like the Neebels, which are quite clearly inspired by Warhammer Squigs – below).

If you have very young kids, and want to start introducing them to fantasy, and think it’s maybe still a little early to give them Terry Pratchett’s Carpet People or Brian Jacques’s Redwall series, then Nimpentoad could be an interesting starting point.