The Secret of the Samurai!

Delighted to see ol' comics chum Garen Ewing after the fab Battles Through History show, our first proper catch-up in ages - Actually Garen reckoned it was at the Copenhagen Comics show way back in 2017 and here he is in a photo I found from then, hard at work!

Garen's one of my oldest comic creating pals, bonding years ago over a shared enthusiasm for European Comics and Victorian Military History, so we've always enjoyed catching up even if it is a lot less regular than we'd like. This occasion was a lovely relaxed informal evening dinner with family and we'd such a nice time we forgot to take any photos, so here's an old one of us being social a long time ago, possibly the early 1900's!

Amongst many artistic achievements, Garen's probably best known as the creator of the wonderful Rainbow Orchid comic series (featuring the intrepid Julius Chancer) and character and background design and artwork for the card game, The Lost Expedition and subsequent computer game, Curious Expedition 2;

One of Garen's stories which had sadly eluded me was The Secret of The Samurai, originally serialised in the Phoenix Comic so when Garen surprisingly announced earlier this year that he'd received copies from his European publisher of a limited collected English hardback edition, I and other fans quickly pounced to finally devour this dynamic tale! Not surprisingly, it sold out, leaving many disappointed but Garen told me that he's received additional stock which he is currently offering on his website, with optional sketch which I highly recommend!

Here's hoping its not so long till we next meet up :)