Julius Chancer: The Secret of the Samurai

If anyone's interested, I have a new Julius Chancer adventure currently appearing in the British children's weekly comic, The Phoenix, called The Secret of the Samurai.

No book is planned (as yet) but it's a four-part story and you can buy the individual issues (75-78) from The Phoenix online shop, if you like.

I've written an FAQ here and there are more posts about it on my blog from the last few weeks.

If you haven't yet seen the first Julius Chancer adventure (The Rainbow Orchid) then The Phoenix have a competition where you can win a copy (I don't think you need to buy The Phoenix in order to enter!).

Thanks for reading! Best - Garen

Hey, that's great news, but I will wait till the same is published in book form.

And Tybaltstone - earlier in the day I made a request to your agent/ publicist, about whether I could review The Rainbow Orchid for a review e-zine (RebeccasReads).
I am glad that the entire Rainbow Orchid has been published.
I still remember your early posts over here about whether anyone knew Urdu or Punjabi...
I replied that I know Hindi... Did you get any help from native Punjabis, or people of Karachi for your project?
Once again, congrats!

Thanks very much, advnaryan. You might be waiting a long time for the Samurai book - in fact it's quite possible it won't be a book as it's only a 20-page story.

Hope you get a review copy for RebeccasReads - it won't come from my agent, so if he doesn't respond then write directly to my publisher, Egmont.

I did get some help on languages, thank you - it turned out I didn't need much in the way of Urdu. I did need some Kalasha - an endangered language, as you probably know. I was able to get help from one of the experts who helped to create its written form, which was fantastic.

Thank you again, best wishes - Garen.

Garen has posted the first three pages of the Samurai story online for your reading and viewing pleasure! Looks like it is turning out to be a classic adventure!

You can find it on his very entertaining website here.

Cheers, chum! :-)

I can only say it's a pity that one would have to wait a long time to read Samurai.
It's not the pages/ quantity that counts, but the quality.
Although it's possible for me to read the story online, nothing beats reading the hard copy - taking the album with you to bed, losing your sleep... But when you finally do go to sleep, you feel wonderful!
That's the feeling I get when I read Tintin.
I shall try getting in contact with Egmont - but of late Egmont has not sent across books for review to this part of the world.

Garen pointed out on Twitter a really cool, but possible to miss, feature of the strips he has just posted for Samurai: if you click on the little pencil icon, you get to see the original drawings for the final artwork! Take a look!

Just read in Tybalstone's blog that The Phoenix is offering the 4 comics featuring The Secret of Samurai at a special reduced rate. This is great news for all fans of the series in Europe...
I have booked my copy of Rainbow Orchid and am eagerly awaiting the same... I am told it will be shipped on July 13th.

Sob... sob... Please reconsider the decision!

Cheers, advnarayan. The Phoenix do ship their comic internationally - so it can certainly reach further than Europe.

As for reconsidering a book version - it's not my decision, unfortunately. My publisher wouldn't seriously consider putting so many resources into a 20-page book, it just wouldn't be cost-effective.

I do have a vague plan to do a second 20-page story set in Japan, so it would link with Samurai, but that is going to be a long way off (I have another full-length book to do first) - it may not even happen. If it does happen, I have no guarantee that a publisher would want to publish it. So, it's quite likely it will remain just as a Phoenix story. A nice little collectible, though :-)

Best - G.

I understand...maybe fifty years down the lane when Julius Chancer becomes internationally famous on par with Tintin and Asterix....your publisher will release a special edition of Julius Chancer in a limited edition- and sell it for millions of pounds....50 years from now a special edition of Phoenix 4 set volume will command millions in ebay.
Phoenix ships internationally...bu they dont accept Indian rupees. Usually magazines/ publishers have tie-up with online sites like flipkart, infibeam amazon.in,crossword etc which specialize in Indian markets (thats how i purchased Rainbow Orchid)- not so with Phoenix....