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A Decidedly Harrowing Halloween: A Ramblingshire October

by James Crucorney

40 pages; Saddle stitched; illustrated children's book; catalogue #06-2005; ISBN 1-4251-0248-4; US$18.26, C$21.00, EUR15.00, £10.50

A right rollicking romp as our admirable - if slightly bootless - heroes encounter some of the strangest creatures ever to appear on that night of mischief and dark magic - Halloween!

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About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

About the Book

From amongst all the super heroes… super villains… invaders… dripping monsters… crusaders… menace and mayhem… ultra this… ultra that…
Screaming!
Blasting!
Murdering!
Tearing!
Renting!
Banner waving and massive promotional launches, out steps… Morton Cradbury.

The finely detailed cartoon illustrations will encourage you to pause over the pages to study the subtle humorous features surrounding Morton, his world, friends and antagonists.

A Decidedly Harrowing Halloween, written and illustrated by James Crucorney is the first of a unique series of seasonal graphic novels.

This story and the others that follow, feature one dashed decent sort, Morton Cradbury, unquestionably a man of his time, quintessentially British and unequivocally an all round good egg.

What I am trying to do in this, the first and most commercial in a series of over thirty stories, is develop a good old fashioned archetype, an all round (if at times rather reluctant) British hero.

What makes the Ramblingshire stories so unique is simple. They feature British characters, set in a British rural county, involved in adventures inspired by British folklore.

Also the adventures are packed with the highest standards of traditional detailed illustration and I would like to think, have significant educational values in as much as the tales are interwoven with British history, customs and culture.

The intention is to use Morton's adventures as a vehicle to explore all those ancient special dates on the UK calendar with all their associated myths and legends.

We all know, of course, the most commercial events in the year (i.e. Christmas, Easter and now Halloween), but what about dates that are not so celebrated? 'Wassailing night', 'Up-Helly-ah!', 'All Saints Day', 'Beltain', 'Walpurgers Night', what are these mysterious historical occasions all about?

I have a story to complement and encapsulate the ambience of the happenings associated with those age-old milestones in the Gregorian calendar. I have plans for many more books, same characters, same format. Here are some of the evocative titles: The Ice Giants of Lyoness, A Journey to the Centre of Rootland, The Legend of the Batstone Ledges, The Seven Witches of the Demdike, The Secret of the Rattlebone Barrows … and so on. (I have worked out a synopsis for each of these titles.)

There are many different creatures in my stories, some of a supernatural nature, others are beings which, well, seem to have been forgotten over the passage of time. One example is the 'Woodworst', a big hairy wild man of the woods, rarely seen these days but his image is celebrated in many a church carving countrywide.

Therefore, I have had no need to 'make up' these fantastical entities. The drawings are of course my interpretations of their historical descriptions but I can assure you every beastie, fairy, phantom and bogie inhabit that rich otherworld that is our own very British folklore.

Talking of strange creatures, at this point an explanation of Cradbury's arch adversary might be in order. I have passed this book around to many budding young critics who have generally been full of praise and I've noticed that most of the comments have been about Morton's nemesis, 'The Fanatical Pumpkin'. It looks like he is one of those characters people love to hate. He manages to turn up in almost all the stories and being the bad guy, he invariably meets a sticky end. Children seem fascinated by his destruction, suggesting all sorts of gruesome ways he could meet his demise. But, you cannot keep such a nasty character, as is the calibre of the Pumpkin down, so by fair means or foul, (mostly foul), he manages to return.

The story of his creation features in the Vegetable Vampire of Buckleigh Fortwollow or The Genesis of the Pumpkin!

I've always thought that the UK lacked a good solid cartoon hero. After all Belgium has Tin-Tin, France has Asterix and they are as popular now as when they appeared many years ago. Perhaps this is where, with the help of a little magic, Morton can step in.

Morton Cradbury, a celebration of the great British cartoon hero from an age long passed. A Decidedly Harrowing Halloween the definitive Halloween adventure.

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About the Author

After an uninspiring education James Crucorney left the stalag he had always known as 'school' with one O'Level and a bundle of sketches and paintings from his art class. At 16 he found himself totally bemused as he landed himself a 4-year apprenticeship at the local steelworks as an overhead crane fitter. His greatest achievement in those long dark times at BSMC (British Satanic Mills Corporation) was to teach his good friend 'Bone' how to draw during the intolerable grind of the night shift.

Creative fulfillment gnawed at his soul and so he learned how to lay bricks and build with stone believing construction could bring some satisfaction (and perhaps pay the rent).

Wanderlust took a grip and James found himself walking the length and breath of this sceptered Isle stumbling upon all manner of myths and legends which he duly made note of later in the pub.

To finance his travels and a taste for fine ale, James took on a veritable cornucopia of jobs including, hot dog man, toilet cleaner, boatman, filmmaker, lorry driver, bar man and archeologist. After the strong grounding in these many specialized fields, James decided to go, as one does, to university. After three years and countless thousands of pounds James was handed a piece of worthless paper that declared he had attained an Honours Degree in Design. (He did not have his photograph taken wearing the funny hat and cloak.) Going back to building walls in exchange for food, it struck James that maybe all those experiences and interests could be somehow brought together and the only vehicle for this should be of course a children's book, and so Morton was born.

Today James lives alone with his dog Sparklby Rudge in a beautiful old house on Offas Dyke. He still loves to walk and he still has to knock things down and put them back up again to eat and pay the bills.

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Excerpts

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