Garen Ewing

After self-publishing several fanzines, he started King Rat Press in 1988 with the anthology Cosmorama, which included contributors such as Steve Pugh, David Wyatt, Warren Ellis, Paul H. Birch and Sara Russell. In 1994 he had his full length comic version of Shakespeare's The Tempest published, a copy of which resides at the Shakespeare Library, Stratford-upon-Avon. Since then, he has worked as an illustrator and designer.

His most well-known work, an example of the ligne claire comic form, is a mystery adventure, The Rainbow Orchid, which has received much critical acclaim, including two nominations for a National Comic Award (2004), and winning the 2013 Young People’s Comic Award (part of the British Comic Awards).[1] The book is published in English by Egmont UK,[3] in Dutch by Silvester Strips,[4] in French by BD Must Editions, in Spanish by NetCom2 Editorial, in German by Salleck Publications, and in Danish by Tellerup.[5]

He was one of the contributors to The DFC, the weekly kids' comic published by David Fickling Books, originally developing John Blake with Philip Pullman, then writing and drawing Charlie Jefferson and the Tomb of Nazaleod.[6] For the DFC's successor, The Phoenix, he illustrated two Ben Haggarty stories, The Legend of the Golden Feather in issue 1,[7] and The Bald Boy and the Dervish in issues 23 to 26, as well as writing and drawing The Secret of the Samurai, a 20-page Julius Chancer adventure. He was one of the artists featured in Dez Skinn's Comic Art Now: The Very Best in Contemporary Comic Art and Illustration (ILEX Press, 2008), and in February 2011, his poster design for Return to the Forbidden Planet was released as a stamp as part of Royal Mail's British Musicals set.[8] He contributed the 2004 section to Blank Slate Books' Nelson (2011) collaborative graphic novel.

Since 2006,[9] Ewing has provided all the cover artwork for Bafflegab Productions' series of audio plays, The Scarifyers, written by Simon Barnard and starring Nicholas Courtney, Terry Molloy and David Warner.

'Arni’s Epic Adventures', a comic strip about a little red bird (a Pine grosbeak), was broadcast in daily episodes throughout November 2015. Commissioned by JCDecaux, it was the first comic strip to appear on public digital screens,[10] and reached an estimated audience of 30-40 million people.[11]

Ewing was the artist for the 2017 jungle-exploration Eurogame, 'The Lost Expedition', designed by Peer Sylvester and published by Osprey Games.[12] He illustrated 80 cards for the game (which was based on Percy Fawcett’s search for the Lost City of Z), as well as providing the box art.[13] 'The Lost Expedition' has subsequently been translated into French, Polish and Spanish.[14] Ewing was also the artist for the 2018 expansion pack, 'The Lost Expedition: The Fountain of Youth & Other Adventures'.[15]

Ewing is the illustrator for the expedition-simulation computer game, 'Curious Expedition 2'[16] (no connection to 'The Lost Expedition'), the sequel to Berlin-based games studio Maschinen Mensch’s 2016 Roguelike hit, 'The Curious Expedition'. The game was released on Steam on 28 January 2021,[17] and on Nintendo Switch on 11 August 2021.[17]

• Official website
• The Rainbow Orchid
• Clearing the line – Matt Badham talks to Garen Ewing, Forbidden Planet
• Garen Ewing – Interview with the creator of The Rainbow Orchid, Scribble Hound