Here is one of the later-stage roughs and the finished cover art for The Rainbow Orchid complete edition (out on Sep 3rd). Although the artwork was drawn specifically for the UK Egmont publication, it actually made its first appearance as the art for the Dutch boxed set back in June.

In a month's time Egmont will release The Complete Rainbow Orchid, all three volumes in one book. Right from the beginning I had intended RO to exist as a single volume, so this is the book that matters most to me, and is the edition I want to supersede the three volumes and to be most widely available, if at all possible.

It's 117 pages of story and comes with 17 pages of extras, including character development, research notes, sketches and comic creation. There are no differences or additions to the story from the three volumes, except for the correction of three or four minor text errors and a couple of graphical ones that you'd be hard-pressed to notice.

I'd also like to announce The Rainbow Orchid Supplement. The main part of this features complete annotations for the entire story, as well as extra sketches, artwork, and some interviews. It's not quite finalised yet, but I'll post more news when it is. The book doesn't repeat any of the extras from The Complete Rainbow Orchid. I'm publishing the supplement myself, so numbers will be limited, and I'm hoping it will be available late September from this site, but if not it will definitely be available for Thought Bubble in November.

The picture below was inspired by Sarah McIntyre's marvellous take on Grant Wood's American Gothic. Here we have Evelyn Crow and Scobie - but what are they doing in America? Perhaps overseeing the distribution of The Rainbow Orchid in the States, which will be available there in October thanks to a new distribution deal!

Some of you may have noticed that The Rainbow Orchid volume 2 is getting hard to find (we ran out at the East Grinstead Bookshop event and Amazon UK are out too) - that's because it has sold out! But don't worry, a second edition is being printed and will be available soon. You may also have noticed that I've sold out of all three volumes in my own shop, but I will endeavour to get new stock in as quickly as possible.

June was very busy with events and I'm enjoying a bit of a gap now, but I'll be appearing at Grinning Demon Comics in Maidstone on Jul 28th as part of their Sketch Saturday programme - see the events page for details. After that I'll be at Seven Stories in Newcastle on 8th August.

And don't forget there's still time to win one of ten copies of The Rainbow Orchid volume 1 from The Phoenix comic. You'll have to have read the strip I drew, The Bald Boy and the Dervish, in issue 26, but if you have then it's easy-peasy lemon-squeezy.

Finally, for now, a quick thank you to Richard Bruton for his positive review of The Rainbow Orchid volume 3 over at the Forbidden Planet International blog - lovely!

At the beginning of last week I announced some pretty exciting news - that The Rainbow Orchid was to be published in Spanish by NetCom2 Editorial. Well, now I have something else to tell you ... A French language edition of The Rainbow Orchid is going to join the Spanish, Dutch and English versions.

L'Orchidée Arc-en-ciel is to be produced by Belgian publisher Bd Must Éditions. They already put out stunning collections of Franka, Alix, Lefranc, Largo Winch, Max Fridman, Pom and Teddy, Barelli ... and loads more besides. To have my book sit alongside such great comics, to have The Rainbow Orchid appear as an actual Franco-Belgian album, is something I'm absolutely chuffed to bits about. There's an 8-year old me inside who has fainted at the very idea.

I'm very grateful to Jean-Michel Boxus of BD Must for initiating contact with me, and equally to Oliver Munson at Blake Friedmann and Michèle Kanonidis at La Nouvelle Agence for their work in securing the deal. As far as I understand it, the plan is to first release a de-luxe boxed set of hardbacks, around Christmas 2012/Jan 2013, each with a signed bookplate, and then a little later to release them as individual albums.

This was only my second ever visit to Manchester. The first one, some time in the late 1980s, involved a rather hair-raising drive up the motorway (where I discovered my late step-father's lack of awareness of both speed and the highway code) and me buying my first ever guitar, a black and white electric Marlin.

The journey this time, by train, was much better - although I did have a two and a half-hour rave going on in the seat adjacent to me as the bloke sitting there decided that the entire coach had to listen to the monotonous beat of the party he was having in his head. I was largely able to ignore it, lost in the June edition of BBC History magazine.

Things rapidly improved after reaching Manchester. My publisher had put me in a rather plush hotel, the Malmaison, albeit decorated to the taste of a 1980s teenager, in black and grey. And then I met up with Colin Mathieson (Accent UK) who was a gallant and generous host to me for the entire weekend. I don't get to talk with a fellow comics (and, as a bonus, history) enthusiast that much these days, so it was a real treat - for me at least!

On Sunday morning, after a breakfast surrounded by bleary-eyed Stone Roses fans, we met up again and spent a pleasant couple of hours or so at the Manchester Art Gallery before heading to Waterstone's, in Deansgate, for the main purpose of my visit - a comics workshop/party as part of the Manchester Children's Book Festival. I must admit that most of the children attending were a lot younger than I was expecting, or I'm used to, and as I launched into the event I was mentally shedding bits of the workshop I thought wouldn't work and thinking of new things that would. In the end it went very well and I had enormous fun with the children's bizarre and brilliant suggestions. The children really seemed to like it too, producing some fantastic characters, and that's the main thing!

A huge thanks to Waterstone's events co-ordinator Mike Hayes, festival volunteer Emma Reynolds (a fantastic artist herself!), and again to Colin, for support and photographs. It was also really nice to see fellow comic creator Bevis Musson, who brought along his son for a little while. Afterwards I signed a few copies of The Rainbow Orchid, and my first and only copy of The Phoenix comic featuring the final episode of The Bald Boy and the Dervish.

Colin and I then departed to the café of the John Rylands Library for a wind-down cup of tea, before heading out for some fresh air and a little tour of central Manchester with Colin as my informative guide. After a short break and a drink at Mr Thomas's Chop House we ended up at the brand new and very shiny Tops for dinner - a new experience for me, but a very pleasant one. Both Colin and I were interested in the Euro 2012 final, Spain vs Italy, so we went back to the Malmaison. We only managed to catch the last 10 minutes but still ended up seeing two goals. Well done, Spain.

A drizzly Monday morning saw us meeting up again, now with Colin's son, Scott, and we had a couple of hours at the very absorbing People's History Museum, where we saw the Temperance exhibition and then up to the first floor and the main gallery for an education in Peterloo and an amusing print of some flying Scotsmen - and much more besides. With the clock ticking towards my train home, we had to curtail our visit for a quick lunch and then it was back to the station for me, and a much more pleasant (ie. no rave music!) journey home.

I can't thank Colin enough for his fabulous company throughout the weekend - all of which helped to make a very enjoyable trip to Manchester that I hope I can do again in the future.

Edit: You can read Emma Reynolds' report of the Waterstone's event at the Manchester Children's Book Festival blog.

On Saturday I had my book signing at The Bookshop on East Grinstead High Street. I had a great local book launch there back in 2009, and John Pye has been a terrific supporter of my work since then.

Also supportive has been the East Grinstead Courier & Observer, and earlier in the week they ran a nice little feature on me to help support the signing. Then on Saturday morning I made my way to the Meridian FM studio to appear on the Krys O'Brien programme. I had a lovely hour with Krys who gave a really friendly and enjoyable interview.

When I got to The Bookshop I discovered that John had set up a table for me outside - it was a little blowy, but sunny enough (glad I brought my hat!) and I was busy for the full two hours, including signing books for a number of children who had been at my school workshop the previous Monday, and who wanted to complete their sets of books.

I must give mention to two fellow artists who I had the pleasure to meet - especially as a gust of wind blew the paper with their details on half way down the High Street at the end of my stint, and I chased it down and rescued it! Dave Novis is a fabulous animator and visual effects artist (love those Pip the Robot shorts), and Sarah Partington creates an original and chuckle-inducing cartoon called Fingerprint Len. Check them out!

As ever, a huge thanks to everyone who came along to see me on Saturday, and to all those who helped to make it happen. Next event - Waterstones in Deansgate, Manchester, this Sunday!

I'm absolutely delighted to announce that The Rainbow Orchid is to be published in Spanish by Netcom2 Editorial, as La Orquidea Arcoiris.

I couldn't be happier to see my book brought out by Netcom2 as they also publish albums by authors that rank among my own favourites - Jacques Martin (Alix, Lefranc) and Roger Leloup (Yoko Tsuno) to name just two.

César Espona contacted me quite a few months ago to ask about adding The Rainbow Orchid to his enviable list, and with the help of my agent, Oliver Munson at Blake Friedmann, and Iria Villahermosa at their Spanish partners, The Foreign Office in Barcelona, we were able to make this happen.

At the moment, publication is set for somewhere around Christmas 2012 in a hardback format - I will keep you up to date on details as they come. Spanish is one of those languages that I've had emails asking if RO will ever be translated into - and now, at last, I can say yes. Or rather ... sí!

This will be a quick blog post covering a number of things: news, publications, and events! Let's start with the events ...

On Saturday I went down to Lewes to give my adventure comics workshop at Bags of Books, an outstanding children's bookshop in a town that boasts a number of fine little bookshops. I think there were about 25 children and the imagination was in full flow as we created fabulous heroes, dastardly villains, and the shortest little epic adventure strips you'll ever see. A special thank you to Anna and Vikki for hosting me. If you ever find yourself in the vicinity of Lewes, do go and give their wonderful shop a visit.

On Monday I was invited by Forest Row Primary School to give four comic workshop sessions to four classes, all in one morning - it was hectic but great fun. This time we added a dash of the Olympics to the proceedings as I set the story of the Olympic flame being stolen. As for by whom, and who would save the day, that was up to the children to decide, and I must have seen over 200 unique, bizarre, and amazing Olympic heroes and villains that morning! Another sincere thanks for having me, this time to Denise for setting up the event, and to Siobhan and her colleagues for looking after me so well.

This Saturday I will be at The Bookshop in East Grinstead, available to sign copies of The Rainbow Orchid, and I'll also have some original art pages to show. I'll be at the shop from 11 until 1, and if you tune into 107 Meridian FM from 10am you should also find me on Krys O'Brien's morning show just beforehand. I look forward to chatting to anyone and everyone who comes about comics - making them and reading them!

One more event, for now, the following weekend, on Sunday July 1st, I'll be at Waterstone's in Deansgate, Manchester, from 1-3pm. There will be games, competitions and activities! More details here.

If you've seen the current issue of TBK Magazine (Summer 2012) you'll see a lovely mention of The Rainbow Orchid, and also a page I wrote and designed that gets you going on your own comic strip, complete with some handy hints on how to write a gripping adventure story.

And speaking of nice mentions - here's a lovely review of The Rainbow Orchid volume 3 by Rol Hirst on his blog - thank you, Rol!

Which reminds me ... I have, at last, updated the online shop to include volume 3, either as part of the complete set, or as a signed and sketched-in edition on its own. From interest and enquiries so far I am expecting a bit of a glut of orders to begin with (I've had four in the half hour since I updated the page), so please bear with me if they take just a little longer to get out in the post than usual - thank you.

Finally, don't forget that this week sees part three of The Bald Boy and the Dervish, the penultimate chapter in Ben Haggarty's Silk Roads story, illustrated by me and appearing in The Phoenix. Here's a little sneaky-peek ...

I was last in the Netherlands in September 2010 at De Stripdagen in Houten for the launch of De Regenboog Orchidee volume 1. This time it was Stripdagen in the beautiful city of Haarlem for the launch of volume 3. In addition, it was the first time my 14-month old daughter would be flying, it was Elyssa and my tenth wedding anniversary (though we've been together for twenty years), and there was an added atmosphere of celebration in the air thanks to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. So, packed and ready, we flew from Gatwick on Friday afternoon and headed for Holland.

For a flight that takes just an hour, you certainly have to spend a lot of hours at the airport waiting around - but it's all part of the 'fun' (if you fly as infrequently as I do). My daughter was very good and had a fellow one-year old in the seat behind us to chat to (well, they mostly just pointed at each other). We arrived at Schiphol just after 6pm where we were met by my publisher, Silvio Van Der Loo of Silvester Strips, and he drove us to Haarlem, and our very nice hotel - the Amrath Frans Hals.

Once in our room I had half an hour before I had to be at Silvio's newest shop on Kleine Houtstraat, just round the corner from the hotel, principally to sign 250 Rainbow Orchid prints that were being included as part of a special Stripdagen portfolio, priced at 50 Euros and produced by Stichting Beeldverhaal Nederland. The other prints included work by Peter Van Dongen (who illustrated this year's Stripdagen poster, above), Hermann, Romano Molenaar, Eric Heuvel, and Wil Raymakers. I also signed a few books for customers as the shop was still open.

After another short break at the hotel I ventured out again to meet up with Silvio and some of his Silvester Strips staff, as well as French comic artist Jacob Damien (Major Arcanum) and his wife, and Croatian comic artist Igor Kordey (Secret History, Empire) and his girlfriend, at a restaurant for a late-night dinner. It was a very enjoyable evening, and I did my best to keep up with the conversations flying around the table in French, Dutch and English. I felt pretty shattered by the time I got back to the hotel at about half-past midnight!

Saturday was the first day of Stripdagen, and as we set off to join the Silvester Strips crew for breakfast in a little café next to their shop, we saw the stalls in the market unloading what seemed to be hundreds of banana boxes - but there were no bananas contained therein, they were full of comics! Part of Stripdagen was a huge number of stalls in the Grote Markt, all selling more comic albums than I think I've ever seen in my life. And walking through the streets we saw that a number of the local shops had comic displays in their windows (you can see Erik de Graaf's here).

With breakfast consumed it was off to the Philharmonie where the hub of the comics festival was set up. To my surprise I didn't have to obtain a pass or a ticket to enter - the event was totally free. The Silvester Strips stand was right opposite the main entrance and within 15 minutes or so I was sat down at their long signing table and sketching and signing all three volumes of De Regenboog Orchidee. This is where I saw my first examples of the beautiful box ('cassette') my Dutch publisher had made to house all three hardback albums, as people brought them up to be signed. The Saturday saw me signing for 5 hours, not including a lunch break where it was a pleasure to catch up with friend of The Rainbow Orchid, John Wigmans.

At various times throughout the weekend my fellow book signers (the ones I met, anyway) included Dirk Verschure (who reduced me to tears of laughter at one point in his attempt to make my daughter smile, she staying stony-faced throughout), Igor Kordey, Damien, Simon Spruyt and Fritz van den Heuvel. I only managed to have time for one brief walk round the main festival, and no time to visit any of the many exhibitions that were taking place across town - I particularly wanted to see those featuring the work of Joost Swarte, Peter Van Dongen and Eric Heuvel. But this was a working visit, and there was more sketching and signing to be done.

After Stripdagen had closed for the day, we took a stroll around Haarlem in the early evening sun. It had been a beautiful sunny day, and even though the Grote Markt was packing up and most of the shops had closed, it was such a relaxing and blissful walk round the beautiful little city that I felt completely refreshed, if a little tired, after hours of sketching in books.

I didn't join up with the Silvester Strips group again for dinner that evening, it was Elyssa and my tenth wedding anniversary so, along with our little one, we headed to a little Italian restaurant and had a lovely meal just ourselves. Besides that, the Silvester Strips meal was rather later in the evening, way past my daughter's bedtime - and I really needed an early night too! Not just because of Stripdagen, but because working on the 'Bald Boy' strip for The Phoenix meant I hadn't been to bed before 2am in quite a while.

We awoke on Sunday to something of a torrential downpour, and after a little expedition out into the city, we decided to have breakfast in our hotel room. Sunday was more of the same at Stripdagen, signing and sketching in books, and - the best part - chatting to those who read and enjoyed my books. I'm made to feel very welcome in Holland, and the enthusiasm for my albums is very heartening. Comics in mainland Europe are treated with another level of respect entirely compared to the UK, though they're both equally marvellous in their ways.

I was only able to stay at the Silvester signing table for three hours on the Sunday as we had a plane to catch back home. After a quick lunch, a few goodbyes, a couple of last-minute signings, and picking up a handful of the wonderful Silvester Strips 20th anniversary Julius Chancer coins, Silvio's wife kindly drove the three of us back to Schiphol and our journey home began. The return flight was not as packed as our outbound one, so we had more room to stretch out on the plane (celebrity passenger spotted on flight home, Andrew Graham-Dixon). It's lovely to get out of the house, away from the drawing desk, and go to these events, but it's also very nice to come back home again!

I must say a huge thank you to Silvio and his Silvester Strips colleagues for, once again, being wonderful hosts and inviting me along to Stripdagen in Haarlem. It was a fabulous experience and I was delighted to have met so many lovely Dutch Regenboog Orchidee readers. I love Holland, and feel so lucky to have my book published there in Dutch, and in such a beautiful format. I can't wait until next time.

Issue 23 of The Phoenix is out today and it includes the first part of The Bald Boy and the Dervish, a four-part Silk Roads tale written by Ben Haggarty (Mezolith) and drawn by me.

Look carefully and you might spot a character or two (or four, actually) from The Legend of the Golden Feather, that appeared in issue 1, hidden somewhere in the story!

If you're not yet reading this fantastic weekly comic, go and get a subscription, right now!