Monkey Nuts: The Diamond Egg of Wonders
by Robin & Lawrence Etherington

Welcome to the Isla de Monstera, home of the world's only tap-dancing, banana-loving, rust-fighting, coconut-talking, crime-busting organisation... MONKEY NUTS!

In their very first adventure, Sid, Rivet and Chief Tuft are forced to do battle against a horde of random oddballs and weirdos. When a mysterious signal begins to drive the local loonies into a crazy rage, the Monkey Nuts team have no choice but to grab their masks and get heroic!

Monster-catching action from the DFC Libray!

Find out more on the Monkey Nuts: The Diamond Egg of Wonders page.

Vern & Lettuce
by Sarah McIntyre

Welcome to Pickle Rye, home of best friends Lettuce the rabbit and Vern the sheep. Join them for baking, birthdays, bunny-sitting and a quest for fame in the big city!

Vern and Lettuce reach for the stars, but danger is lurking just beneath their feet...

Furry escapades from the DFC Library.

Find out more on theVern & Lettuce page.

Mo-bot High
by Neill Cameron

Asha’s new school is insane. Everyone has giant robots that launch out of their mobile phones!
She’s only been there five minutes when the school bully challenges her to a fight. So now it’s not just about figuring out who’s cool and who isn’t. She has to learn to pilot her Mo-bot. And fast.

But while Asha gets to grips with her Mo-bot’s moves and customises her DMC, she’s being watched… Her piloting skills are about to be put to the ultimate test, and there’s nothing her new friends can do to help.

Thrilling titanic battles from the DFC Library

Find out more on theMo-bot High page.

Good Dog, Bad Dog
by Dave Shelton

Imagine a Bogart and Bacall movie recast with Laurel and Hardy. Dressed in dog suits. That's not really quite what Good Dog, Bad Dog is like but still, imagine.

Good Dog, Bad Dog, meanwhile, is a knockabout comic noir adventure comedy full of slapstick humour, terrible puns and exciting action. It's inspired by all the old black and white film noirs that I love but it's unpretentious fun rather than arty homage (though hopefully with a touch of class about it). Comics guru Paul Gravett praised its "snappy patter and clever twists" and called it a "punchy, fast-paced ... witty yarn" and that's pretty much what I was aiming for.

It stars canine detectives Kirk Bergman and Duncan McBoo fighting crime in their home city of Muttropolis (I did mention the terrible puns didn't I?) as they tackle villains such as evil Wah Wah Johnson and thuggish Pug Ugly, trade lines with femme fatale Fifi La Confiture and occasionally disguise themselves in unconvincing beards.

It's daft exciting fun and it's got milkshakes in it: what more could you want?

Find out more on the Good Dog Bad Dog page.

MeZolith
by Ben Haggarty and Adam Brockbank

MeZolith is the result of a unique collaboration between an illustrator, Adam Brockbank, and myself, a performance storyteller. We had long wanted to work together and the DFC presented us with an opportunity to create an exciting, full-blooded, Stone Age horror story for older children. It was conceived as a graphic novel that could be serialised in action filled, 5 page episodes.

Based on careful research, MeZolith is a conjectural reconstruction of the lives of a small tribal group, living about 10,000 years ago, on the western shores of the North Sea basin, (just above the long-flooded region which geographers have named Doggerland). We follow a dramatic year in the life of Poika, a boy on the cusp of adulthood. In order to show how mythology and metaphor might have played a part in the daily lives of our ancestors, we have enmeshed Poika’s adventures in a vivid matrix of fantastical stories, dreams and nightmares to the point where the borders between the real and the imagined world become blurred.

As work on MeZolith progressed it became clearer and clearer that a significant portion of the powerful folktales, fairytales and narrative motifs, which still haunt our subconscious today, are probably far, far more ancient than we realise. We found ourselves digging deeper and deeper into the very archaeology of the imagination.

Adam’s painting of MeZolith is rich and cinematic, so that every reader recognises the book as a window into the primal world of pre-insular Britain… and wants to go there.

Turn the page; get caught in a web of story.

Find out more on the MeZolith page.

The Spider Moon
by Kate Brown

"In creating The Spider Moon, I wanted to make something that I would have liked to have read when I was younger. Being strongly influenced by the style of story-telling in cartoons and comics from my childhood, I set out to make something that had the chance to be enjoyed by young girls in particular, as, growing up, I found very few other girls who liked comics, and there were precious few titles around that catered to girls.

The Spider Moon tells the story of a young girl named Bekka, and her companions. In Bekka’s world, ancient legends tell that the sky will fall and crush the earth. The people must work together to change their fates and escape the doom that threatens them all. Slowly, however, Bekka begins to discover that all is not what it seems, as she is separated from her family and friends and thrown into a journey that will change her life."

Find out more on the Spider Moon page.