About us
We are an award-winning Franco-Scottish duo, author and illustrator of children’s graphic novels and kids comics.
Sandra is a French artist who packed her bags to move to Scotland in 1994. That year John, a punk from a poor Scottish town, had completed his PhD in micro-machining and was returning from working in The Netherlands, but had always wanted to be a writer. We met, fell in love, and immediately started making comics.
Our self-published series of graphic novels, Louis, received multiple Eisner Awards nominations, our fairy-tale adaptations, published by Papercutz, received a starred review from the School Library Journal, and endorsements from Nate Powell, Denise Mina, Michel Faber, Charlie Adlard, Frank Quitely, and Bryan and Mary Talbot.
We have undertaken several commissions, for example making a comic adaptation of Edwin Morgan’s poem The First Men on Mercury for The Association for Scottish Literary Studies for National Poetry Day.
We love to spread the word about comics and have delivered over 600 author visits in schools and libraries, as well as undertaking school residencies. In 2015 we were Writers in Residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Last year saw two solo exhibitions of our work in two of Scotland’s historic landmarks: The Park Gallery in Callendar House and the Mitchell Library.
We have just completed two graphic novels for Harper Collins, and are currently developing graphic novel pitches and picture books. View our portfolio here.
Awards:
Winners of the Sunday Herald Scottish Culture Awards: Best Visual Artist 2016
Winner of the Excelsior Award Junior 2018
Winners of the SICBA Comic Book Awards: Outstanding Achievement to Comics 2018
Highly Commended for the Scottish Children’s Book Awards 2011
Eisner Awards nominations: Best Graphic Album New 2001; Best Title for a Younger Audience 2001; Best Coloring 2011
Ignatz Awards nomination for Best New Talent 2001
Books published:
Freya (Harper Collins, June 2023)
Harris and Grace (Harper Collins, April 2023)
Bluebeard (Papercutz 2020)
The Little Mermaid (Papercutz 2017)
The Red Shoes and Other Tales (Papercutz 2015)
Louis series of graphic novels (6 books self-published 2000-2011)
Guest lectures/appearances of note:
Guests at Rencontres Internationales de la Bande Dessinée, Angoulême (2021)
Edinburgh International Book Festival in conversation with Shaun Tan (2011)
School Library Association Conference (UK, 2018)
The Guardian Education Reading for Pleasure Conference (London, 2017)
SUISS Masterclass at the University of Edinburgh (2015,2017)
The Glasgow School of Art (2011)
See our Author Visits page here
See our Public Appearances page here
Exhibitions:
The Graphic Novel World of Metaphrog solo exhibitions:
Moat Brae, Dumfries (March 30 2024 – June 30 2024)
Carnegie Library, Ayr (November 11 2023 – February 4 2024)
The Mitchell Library, Glasgow (November 7 2022 – January 9 2023)
The Park Gallery, Callendar House, Scotland (January 29 – April 17 2022)
Other exhibitions:
The Glad Café, Glasgow: The Dark Side of Fairy Tales (November 2017)
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival (2014)
The British Library: Comics Unmasked (May – August 2014)
Scotland House in Brussels: Exhibition of Scottish comics (Dec 2011)
London Print Studio: That’s Novel!…Lifting comics from the page!!!
Comics by international innovators and the British cutting edge. Curated by Paul Gravett (October – December 2010)
National Library of Scotland: Local Heroes – The Art of the Graphic Novel (May – June 2008)
University of Dundee: Biff! Bam!! Crikey!!!: Comics As Design and Entertainment (April – June 2007)