For the second week in a row The Observer has printed positive words about The Rainbow Orchid, this time in an interview with New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby (you might know him best as Murray Hewitt in the excellent Flight of the Conchords). Rhys lists his cultural highlights from the worlds of film, books, gadgets, television, fashion and music.

Books: The Rainbow Orchid by Garen Ewing - The main character in this set of graphic novels is an assistant to a historical researcher who ends up embroiled in an epic adventure to track down a rare flower. Beautifully illustrated with classic storytelling, in a similar style to Hergé's Tintin.

He also sent me a nice response on Twitter: "... I really love your Rainbow Orchid books. They fuel my hunger for classic adventure!"

How nice is that? I'm so chuffed to know he enjoys The Rainbow Orchid. Rhys starts his UK tour of This Way to the Spaceship on 1 July - see his tour dates here.

I had a superb time at Stripdagen in Haarlem this past weekend. Report and photos to follow soon.

Yesterday's New Review section of The Observer included a rather lovely review of The Rainbow Orchid by Rachel Cooke, featuring it as their 'Graphic Novel of the Month'.

You can read the review online or click the image below to see a larger version of the piece from the paper itself.

I'm really sorry to say that I am still unable to offer sketched-in and signed editions of The Rainbow Orchid volume 3 from the shop. This is purely down to my current workload, meaning I will not have enough time to fill the expected orders. Thank you to everyone who has emailed enquiring about them - I really appreciate your patience!

At the moment I expect time to free up a little a week or two into June, at which point I will get the shop updated and we'll start getting those orders out! (I must also apologise for my tardy email replying at the moment - for all the same reasons).

Here is a little snippet of what I'm currently working on - it's for The Phoenix and is written by Ben Haggarty.

Bristol marked my return to conventioneering, the first big show I've done since Thought Bubble back in November 2010 (after having to cancel my attendance at this year's DemonCon 3, and not to belittle the highly enjoyable DemonCon 2 in Nov 2011, which was a much smaller affair). It was also the first time Ellie and I did the comics-show thing with our now 13-month old daughter, so a few new challenges for us in that area, but all of which went well.

We drove up on Friday afternoon, stopping in Reading en-route to visit my aunt and uncle for lunch, and then continuing on to Bristol and checking into the Ramada around 6.30. Not being the free agents we usually are at these things, we ordered pizza and had a night in. I actually got to have quite an early night - a rarity at the moment with my current work schedule, so I felt nicely rested for the start of the Expo on Saturday.

The show was back in the Brunel Passenger Shed, which I think is a lovely venue for a comics show. Previous years in this location had got pretty stuffy, but the temperature was just right throughout the weekend. The other good thing was the amount of space - not only in the aisles, but also behind the table, meaning there was plenty of room to stand comfortably with the chair behind me, and to keep boxes out of the way under the table.

Ellie and our daughter (1) went for a day out on Saturday, meeting an old Uni friend at Bristol Zoo, but for much of the afternoon I was kept company by John, an old friend I had originally met through my long-defunct Chaplin UK site - we'd been out of touch for over 10 years, so it was a real highlight of the weekend to catch up.

Saturday was a good day for sales with a non-stop busy patch from mid-morning to early afternoon. By the end of the day I only had 8 copies of The Rainbow Orchid vol 3 left, and I thought I wouldn't have enough for the Sunday. But Sunday was a very slow day, and while I sold a good few volume ones, and a couple or more full-sets, I still ended the day with two volume threes left. The advantage of the slow sales meant that I was able to have some decent chats with people, which made up for not being able to be sociable in the evenings.

My table was next to Joel Meadows, editor and publisher of the long-running Tripwire magazine. Joel was marvellous company throughout the weekend and I must point you in the direction of his Unbound appeal to help get the amazing 20th anniversary Tripwire special published. From what I've seen, it's going to be brilliant. It was also great to chat to Ben Le Foe who is involved in the London-based Comica, and is a fellow enthusiast and aficionado of European comics.

In addition, I had a long and interesting discussion with Daniel Clifford of Art Heroes. Besides being a top chap, Daniel is a definite force for good in comics and is doing some truly wonderful stuff - do go and check out his website and wares. I won't list all the nice people I met at Bristol (a robust list) but I would like to give special mention to Simon Gurr, whose terrific art is to be found in the new Scarifyers comic, making its debut at the show, and it's also always good to see Ben Dickson, who has conceived and written the very intriguing-looking Kestrels, being drawn by comics legend Mick McMahon.

This year's Bristol Expo has come in for a bit of criticism, some of it understandable, but some of it, I think, a little unjustified (eg. convention helpers expected to be of a standard able to deal with any brawls that might kick-off!). I was pretty relaxed about the show as it was my first one for over a year, my first with The Rainbow Orchid vol 3, and I was happy to have some time to have good long chats with people. I'm also really lucky in that some of my expenses are offset by my publisher (I do have to buy all my own book stock, though). Still, from a purely financial point of view, I made enough to cover my table costs and one meal for me and my family. That still leaves travel, hotel for two nights, other meals, and time away from work when I'd otherwise be earning at the drawing board. I would imagine it's pretty rare that someone comes out of all that with a profit to show. It's not all about money of course; meeting readers and fellow comic creators is very important, and there is value in people seeing me and my book even if they don't buy it.

There were a couple of minor quibbles I had, but that would be the same with any show, and they're certainly nothing worth making a fuss over. Overall I had fun, got some time out of the house, got my books to some new readers, and met lots of nice people within a very pleasant atmosphere.

There is a bigger problem, and in a way it's kind of a nice problem - there are now a lot of comic shows throughout the year stretching what is quite a small (though growing) scene. It used to be that UKCAC or Bristol was the big annual comics event, but now you can take your pick, often from several in a month. On the same day as Bristol there was the inaugural CamCon in Cambridge, and the buzz word at Bristol seemed to be Kapow! - the big London show taking place this weekend. Quite a number of comics people I usually see eschewed Bristol in favour of Kapow!. I had been invited to take a table at Kapow! but decided against it - tables at Bristol were £78 and £140 for the London show, not to mention all the hassle of getting stock into the city and then paying for accommodation too. Still, it does seem like it will be a very well attended event and I would certainly consider it next year.

It'll be interesting to see how things develop over the coming couple of years. It'd be nice to see comics move out of its niche market and opening up to a more general audience (I'm lucky to have a book that seems to do equally well at literary festivals or comic shows), especially to children - a noticeable minority at comic events. Steps are being made in the right direction, and it may be a case of a flowering comics industry adjusting and finding its feet as it starts to venture into some of that mainstream territory. Let's hope so.

The Rainbow Orchid volume 3 has been out for a month now, and I've been getting some lovely emails about it ...

"Not only did you wind up the story in a way that suggests years and years of storytelling and writing experience, but the graphics ... You made a giant leap after finishing part one! I loved every page of it. I feel like I witnessed the birth of a classic in the best European tradition." - GdB

"... I think it's brilliant! I particularly like that your illustrations and their style have grown into your own as the series has progressed - they are no longer Jacobs-like or Herge-like, but truly your own. I also love the fact that the character's voices are now fully developed, and your author's voice can be clearly heard as well. It was a treat to see the series just get better and better with each volume!" - MV

"I have to admit I was psychologically prepared for a let-down after the first two wonderful volumes - I wasn't sure you'd tie up all those intriguing plot strands. But you did - a really satisfying read, and one that I can and will re-read. One of my favourite comics from the last 5 years (and I read a lot of comics)." - EJ

A review has appeared here and there as well ...

"Rainbow Orchid has always had a great approach to recreating Saturday morning cinema serials. There's dynamic action, a complex amount of characters and interactions, but a strong focus as ever on lighthearted, old-fashioned entertainment ... you should certainly consider the Rainbow Orchid series amusing, sincere and ultimately admirable entertainment." - We Love This Book

"... Ewing designs his plot and his artwork very much as Herge did, but here is no pastiche, no arch mimicry, nor self-aware updating. He has the same global reach in his narrative, a similar love of detail - if anything his panels are more detailed than the Belgian's - and a kindred sense of humour ... three detailed yet snappy, fun yet serious, modern yet timeless sections to buy." - The Book Bag

It was also one of Lovereading 4 Kids' Books of the Month for April 2012.

Volume 3 has spent the majority of the last month in Amazon's Top 100 Children's Graphic Novels (a chart that consists mostly of imports, reprints, adaptations and picture books), and has even troubled the tougher general Graphic Novels Top 100 category on a number of occasions.

There have been a couple of interviews recently, too. Matthew Murray interviewed me for The Beat, one of the US's main comic-news blogs, and Peter Whitehead interviewed me for the Waterstones booksellers' SF and comics newsletter, Don't Panic (not available online).

As you know, I wasn't able to make DemonCon 3 so that means the Bristol Comic Expo will be my first show of the year - come and see me there on the 12-13th May (two weekends away!). I'll also be at Stripdagen in Haarlem, Holland, on June 1st or 2nd (tbc) for the release of De Regenboog Orchidee 3. And check this out - my Dutch publisher, Silvester Strips, are issuing all three volumes in a lovely boxed set ...

More locally, I will be at The Bookshop on the High Street in East Grinstead, West Sussex, on Sat 23 June, signing, chatting about comics, and showing some of my original artwork.

And talking of local - if you're not going to Bristol and want something excellent and comics-related for children, get along to StoryFest in Hartfield on Sun 13th May where my comics chum, Neill Cameron (Pirates of Pangea, Mo-Bot High), is doing one of his fabulous comic workshops. Tickets available here as part of the brand new Hartfield Children's Book Festival.

I must also mention that The Scarifyers (the audio mystery-adventure series from Cosmic Hobo that I've been doing the covers for) is being published as a comic! I believe the first issue will be available at Bristol. It's written by series creator and writer Simon Barnard, and illustrated by the excellent Simon Gurr. The latest audio adventure, The Horror of Loch Ness, is out in June.

Monday April 2nd 2012 is the release date for The Rainbow Orchid volume 3. This is the concluding part of the story - a story which I first conceived 16 years ago, and which was first serialised in the small press adventure anthology BAM! exactly 10 years ago, in April 2002.

I really hope you like it! Especially those who have been waiting the full 10 years to find out how it ends. I worry it's perhaps been hyped up a bit over the years, but despite that I am, after all, proud of it. I think it's a decent addition to the British comics scene, and maybe even quite a nice addition to the Dutch scene too (De Regenboog Orchidee 3 is out in May).

Buy it from your local book shop, buy it from your local comic shop, get it online from Egmont, Forbidden Planet, or Amazon, or the Book Depository. Enjoy ...

William Pickle is the connecting dot in The Rainbow Orchid - the adventure wouldn't have started without his story-seeking and interfering. People often say to me that they think he is the most interesting character in the story. Author Glenn Dakin wondered if I had him kidnapped and locked up so he didn't upstage Julius Chancer - perhaps he had a point!

William Pickle as drawn in 1997 and 2009

He was originally called William Buckle, but that only lasted as long as the first rough plot outline. As with Lily Lawrence, I wrote and drew an origin story for Pickle, this one seeing print in the Accent UK anthology, Twelve, in May 2005. For this I had to base a story on one of the twelve tasks of Heracles, and I was given the ninth task - the Girdle of Hippolyte. This became 'The Girdle of Polly Hipple', a story that saw Pickle accompany his mentor, Seth Surrey (whose name was taken from Eurystheus), on a job to get a photograph of the famous Eye of Horus, an Egyptian artefact to be used as the centre-piece of an exclusive fashion show. It was here that Pickle learned the power of nudging the news along if it didn't quite live up to expectations, a realisation that caused the corner of his mouth to take on an involuntary and permanent crooked scheming sneer.

Even so, Pickle isn't really bad. He's impatient for sensation but lives to be able to report a good story and write it up for his readers.

Incidentally, some of my favourite bits of writing in The Rainbow Orchid have featured William Pickle ... when Sir Alfred bamboozles him with botanical terms and his awkward fight with Newton, both in volume 1, and his attempted escape from the clutches of Urkaz Grope in volume 3.

The images below show the first panel of The Rainbow Orchid from three different publications - the 2003 King Rat Press comic in black and white, the 2007 Inkytales limited edition, and the 2009 Egmont book. As you can see from the third image, I totally redesigned and redrew Sir Alfred's building (in fact everything in that panel is redrawn except the car) with the result that it looks less like a dead movie set and more like an actual, living location.

Having changed the appearance of Sir Alfred's home I had to change every panel in which its exterior appeard. Here's one from a bit later in the story - the early version is pretty bad, and looks even more of a fake location than the early first panel. What an improvement a bit of architecture and street life can make! (Okay, plus a gap of 6 years and a slight improvement in my drawing ability).

I have been asked before if I use Google Sketch-Up for buildings - no, definitely not! (I think you can tell that, actually, otherwise they'd probably be a lot more ambitious!) A ruler, a pencil, two or three vanishing points and a bit of patience (maybe a little impatience every now and then, too), and though it may take longer, I like the feeling that it's all my own work - warts and all. The photograph below shows a page I was working on last year with three sheets of paper attached, each holding a vanishing point, and the finished panel.

I pretty much had a year off from promotional events in 2011, which saw just one school visit and one comics convention. That convention was DemonCon 2, and it will be DemonCon 3 that kickstarts my 2012 schedule (on April 22nd in Maidstone) and it will be the first time I'll be selling The Rainbow Orchid volume 3 on my table.

I can also confirm I'll be at the Bristol Comic Expo on 12-13th May at the Brunel Passenger Shed, Bristol, and at Thought Bubble in Leeds with a table in Savile's Hall on 17-18 November. May will see publication of the Dutch edition, De Regenboog Orchidee, and to celebrate that I will be appearing at Stripdagen in Haarlem at the very start of June. I will confirm details of that closer to the time. And there will be more to come (including a number of school visits that I won't be publicising here).

I've been wanting to preview bits of The Rainbow Orchid volume 3 but too many extracts contain spoilers. Instead, here's a grid of bits of panels - enough, I hope, to intrigue, but without giving anything away!

Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius, has died age 73. I was introduced to his stunning work through Heavy Metal magazine, and at the UK Comic Art Convention (UKCAC) in 1988 I saw him interviewed live on stage at Logan Hall.

He was a rare genius of the art of the comic strip with an incredible imagination and vision. He leaves a treasure trove of work - hopefully more of which will be translated into English.

Visit this wonderful tumblr blog of his work.