Fuzzby’s Diner at the Harpers!

11th September 201315th July 2023

On a visit yesterday to the HQ of my publishers, HarperCollins, I bumped into familiar face: Fuzzby Bixington, all dressed up in his apron and ready for customers!

He’d opened his monster diner there for the evening (a plop-up?), with the help of his glamorous assistants, the Fuzzbettes!

It was part of a company event taking place called ‘the Harpers’ where each division show-cased their current projects and handed out awards to outstanding promotional campaigns. The children’s book division had worked tremendously hard in turning a corner of the staff canteen into Fuzzby’s diner for the night. Fuzzby’s footprints led the way:

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And there it was! With red-and-white checked table cloths, chips in paper cones, proper menus (laminated for easy wiping off of those difficult food residues) and even squeezy ketchup bottles! I have to confess to having more of my fair share of the worm spaghetti.

I spent the evening doing monster drawings to order for the customers – it was great fun and I got to meet loads of people, including some of those who worked so hard on the digital version of MONSTER AND CHIPS. I even did a drawing for the new UK CEO, Charlie Redmayne!

Thank you so much to everyone at HarperCollins – they’ve really looked after me this last year or so, and given me so much support. It’s made creating these books such an incredibly enjoyable experience – I’ve loved every second of it!

Night of the Living Bread – it’s here!

26th July 201315th July 2023

My copy of MONSTER & CHIPS: Night of the Living Bread has arrived! It’s a chunky little beast of a book and I’m completely thrilled with it. Those are actual shadows from the lettering you can see, as the cover has lashings of glossy spot varnish on it! It makes a very handsome companion to book one.

It’s officially out on Thursday August 1st (although those who have pre-ordered online will probably get their copies sooner).

Coming Soon: Night of the Living Bread!

5th July 201315th July 2023

Book Two of my Monster & Chips series is off to the printers today! Here’s how the cover will look after a few final tweaks. I’m so in love with the cover design of these books – brilliant work by designers Kate Clarke and Matt Kelly.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING BREAD is out on August 1st – I’m counting the days! Joe and his monster mates are off on a new set of adventures with plenty of food-related mayhem, along with one of my favourite characters, cover star Mr Jubbins with his see-through tummy.

We get to see some more of Monsterworld and there’s even a bit of a road trip for the gang. And of course, the Guzzelins provide their usual commentary throughout.

They’re in super-heroic mode here:

What have you been up to lately, David?

31st May 201315th July 2023

Mystery Project!

I’ve been doing some work with Sarah McIntyre on a mystery project. The mystery has, for a while, been whether it would ever see the light of day at all! But happily the end is (almost) in sight. This is an image that may (or may not) be in the final thing.

Monster & Chips

I’ve also been busy on the illustrations for MONSTER & CHIPS 2: Night of the Living Bread. The deadlines are TIGHT but I think I’m on course.
I gave a short talk last night to some of the lovely people from the children’s book division at the HQ of my publisher, HarperCollins. They were very polite and attentive as I babbled on about comics a lot. There were chips and wine afterwards too – most civilised!

Zombie cup-cakes!

22nd March 201315th July 2023

I’ve been busy writing the second of the Monster & Chips books just recently so haven’t had time to post any drawings.

Thankfully it’s all done and is now being knocked into shape by my brilliant editors Harriet Wilson and Sam Swinnerton, so I’ll have a little more time from next week to get posting sketches, comics and whatnot.

In the meantime, it came to my attention that over at the wonderful Playing by the Book, there’s a virtual Edible Book Festival in progress. And not only that, someone’s made a plate-load of zombie cupcakes inspired by Monster & Chips! Brilliant!

They look freakily delicious, I must say! You can see a pic in the background from the book – it’s like they’ve just stepped out of it! I’ve pinched the above photo from Playing by the Book – if you’re the chef, then do let me know.

ETA: And the marvellous baker was Polly of The Little Wooden Horse Blog! Do check this blog out – full of very handy reviews of kid’s books. Lots of good reading to be had there.

I’ve actually had a go at making zombie cupcakes myself in the past, as gifts for my publisher. These cakes rather put my efforts to shame!

Oh dear. I think I’ll stick to drawing.

MONSTER & CHIPS DAY!

28th February 201315th July 2023

Today is officially the best day ever, as it’s officially the release day for my book MONSTER & CHIPS!

It’s been a real adventure for me and I’ve loved every second – and I hope you enjoy the book as much as I have enjoyed creating it. My publisher, HarperCollins, has been brilliantly supportive (editors Harriet Wilson and Sam Swinnerton, designers Elorine Grant and Kate Clarke) and I’ve really felt looked after.

The book is in the shops already (please, please, please buy from your local bookshop if you can!) but the e-book goes on sale today from the Amazon Kindle store, iTunes and Google books. It’s in full-colour and I’m thrilled with the way it looks.

The promotional work the HC team have done has been fantastic – take a look at the brand new MONSTERANDCHIPS.com (defunct)! As well as info about the book and characters, there’s a fabulous competition to win an iPad pre-loaded with the MONSTER & CHIPS e-book. All you need to do to enter is think of your most disgusting recipe! Stinky coughy pudding? Frog fritters in snotted cream sauce? Vomitburgers? See what you can come up with.

They’ve has also teamed up with the crazy and gross Toxic Magazine to give away 5 copies of the book!

I popped into HC HQ yesterday and was amazed to see the canteen was being set up for a MONSTER & CHIPS-themed lunch for today, including a bit of fancy dress, apparently! I hear chewy worm spaghetti and parp tarts are on the lunch menu today, HarperCollinsers – enjoy!

HC also presented me with a souvenir apron. I hope they weren’t suggesting a alternative career. The apron reads: Monsters need foooooood! Too true. [Spatula, model’s own.]

Phew! All this AND I’m working on Book 2 right now, so more monstrous goodness to come very soon!

Imagine Festival

26th February 201315th July 2023

MONSTER & CHIPS had its first official outing at the Southbank last weekend, when I held a couple of workshops as part of this year’s Imagine Festival. The events took place just under the Queen Elizabeth Hall, probably better known as the place where the skate-boarders hang out. Part of the space has been walled in to create the Festival Village, which I was sharing with brilliant authors Sarwat Chadda and Clara Vulliamy.

It was my first solo event (although I’ve helped out at others) but there wasn’t any time to be nervous. Both workshops were sold out, so there were plenty of eager faces ready to get down to the serious business of drawing comics.

I started out with a bit of reading to get us into a monstrous mood:

Thank goodness for the microphone – it helps with the silly voices. [Photos pinched from the lovely HarperCollins team’s twitter feed.]

Then on with some character-making with suggestions from the crowd. This tweet pretty much summed it up:

Then it was comic-making time. It was so busy I forgot to take any photos of the comics that the audience made themselves – I really wish I had a record of the imagination, energy, complexity and colour that went into them. So brilliant!

After a bit of book-signing it was back to the writing desk for me: DEADLINES!!!! Thanks so much to everyone who came along – I hope you had fun! And thanks to Nicola, Lizz and the team at HarperCollins for their wonderful support.

MONSTER & CHIPS is officially out on Thursday! Woohoo! All the info here.

Monster & Chips news and reviews

18th February 201315th July 2023

My advance copy of MONSTER & CHIPS arrived on Saturday! It’s pretty much a year since I signed the contract with HarperCollins – can’t quite believe I’m seeing the finished book in my hands (apologies for the terrible photo):

And I’ve had some badges made too! Joe, Fuzzby and Barry flavours:

Some more reviews are in: this time from Love reading 4 Kids. This is great because the reviews are from proper young readers – all the more meaningful. My favourite line is from Adam, aged 9, who says: “It is so gripping that you will be attached to it like cheese on toast stuck to the carpet.” Brilliant!

Don’t forget I’m doing a couple of workshops on Friday as part of the Imagine Festival at the Southbank!

28 Days to Go!

1st February 201315th July 2023

Only 28 days to go until the publication day of MONSTER & CHIPS! I’m afraid I’ll be harping on about this quite a lot but I’m so excited to have my first book for sale! I’ll be posting some sneak peeks here but in the meantime feel free to pre-order at Amazon or other online booksellers (though you should always support your local bookshop if you can). I’ve head the book will be on sale in Asda supermarkets too, which is great news. Need to have a lie down now.

Monster & Chips

17th September 201215th July 2023

I’ve been keeping this under my hat for about six months, which has been pretty excruciating, but it looks like I’m free to talk about some very exciting creative happenings for me.

Early in the year I submitted a manuscript for a children’s book to my lovely agent, Jodie Marsh. I assumed there would be a bit of a wait before I heard anything as I know these things can take time, but after a couple of weeks I received an email from her saying that a publisher was interested. Then another. Then another. And then another…
There followed a week of visits to the different publishers, weighing up their offers and meeting their editorial teams with Jodie as my guide, dispensing words of wisdom and insight along the way. It was a pretty crazy few days. They were all brilliant and I’d have been honoured to have been published by any one of them, but after a lot of thought I’m very happy to say that I’m going to be writing and drawing a three-book series for HarperCollins, the first book due put at the end of February 2013.

Monster and Chips is the story of a boy who discovers a diner run by monsters, for monsters. Naturally, he gets a job there – with disgustingly slapstick results! Lots of fart jokes and revolting food episodes – it was huge fun to write, and I’m thrilled I got to draw the illustrations too. The team at HC have been wonderful and I’ve really felt at home there. Here’s the blurb:

Meet the amazing monster customers and sample the foul-food served up daily at Fuzzby’s diner – the brilliant setting for this innovative series from debut author and illustrator, David O’Connell.

Somewhere in suburbia, or maybe smack-bang in the middle of your city, there is a very special diner. What’s so special about it? Well it does the best chips ANYWHERE but also its customers are a little bit ‘unusual’… some people say they are monsters… The diner is hard to find, you have to look carefully, in fact some people say only a special kind of kid can find this special kind of diner. But maybe that kid could be you?

When Joe the ‘hooman’ gets a job at Fuzzby’s diner, he learns to bake zombie-cupcakes, exploding milkshakes and not to stare at the customers – even the ones who are see-through. He also foils a terrible plan to sabotage the annual Grand Cooking Competition.

With cartoon strips, ‘find-the-monster’ features and a Special’s Board that’ll make your tummy churn, take a seat at Fuzzby’s and join the fun.

I’ll posting much more about this as launch day approaches, of course. In the meantime, back to the drawing!