To celebrate my friend Garen's 40th today, we're all plugging his amazing upcoming Rainbow Orchid, the first of three books in the series published by Egmont and launching at the beginning of August. I was lucky enough to snap up one of his 50 editions of the self-published version and I can tell you, it's lush! It's a 1920s comics adventure story, featuring cool airplanes and motorcars, a steamship, and a great cast of characters, including a starlet, a reporter, and my favourites, French twin mechanics (here's the fan art I made of them).



Garen (rainboworchid) is running a competition to win one of the two signed cover proofs and a characters drawing, and you can hear a new interview podcast here. Here's an extensive interview he did with Matt Badham, including several sneak-peek images.

Read more details about the comic here, and you can pre-order the book on the Rainbow Orchid website. Both adults and kids are going to go nuts over this book when it comes out, it's all very exciting!

Don't you think his portait is missing something...?

***Here's my own little Garen competition***: Draw a moustache on Garen, by Sunday evening! If yours is the most flamboyant, Garen will bestow on you an 'Order of the Exalted Moustache' (which is somewhere in between Member of the British Empire and a knighthood).
Please note, additions of various other accessories such as a monocle, jet pack or eyebrow enhancements will be respected and admired but may not necessarily further your competition standing. (...But then again, they might.)

Edit: Hurrah! First moustache pic by Neill Cameron!