Author(s): Andi Watson

Fiction

This is a wonderfully playful and inventive superhero comic for young girls and boys. The fourth and final book in the Gum Girl series. The town of Catstrophe has been infiltrated by three ne'er do gooders once again! In the first story a mime artist has cast a balloon of silence preventing any noise whatsoever - no music, no laughter, no bird song. Mime man has wiped out all the good noise as well as the bad. So Gum Girl retaliates in super gummy style! In a second adventure Grace notices that all the colour is draining out of objects (including herself!). Bemused and alarmed, she follows the disappearing trail of colour to none other than...Pigment Princess! The outrageous Pigment P wants to control the colour scheme of all in Catastrophe! Someone has to stop her! And at a Fancy Dress Day at Calamity Primary, the school is sabotaged by Stick Man - an ex-counterfeiter of banknotes who accidently slipped into the photocopier during one of his scams and became who he is today. His special skill: copying himself. His mission? to erase all individuality. Gum Girl has her own ideas about everything becoming the same and sets about wiping out his crazy plans. Three separate Gum Girl adventures play out in this gloriously colourful and fun comic book. Gum Girl: Catastrophe Calling! has been nominated for the British Comic Book Awards in the Young People's category. Winner to be announced in November and will be chosen by children. These three stories beautifully and simply observe the dynamic between adults and kids - more often than not at the expense of the adults! The humour in Gum Girl is irreverent and a little off-the-wall! Inventive comic strip layouts lead the reader through the experience and truly make the world of Catastrophe, and its characters, come alive. It is perfect for introducing young children to the comic book format and for encouraging reluctant readers.