Rob Ryan

The Invincible Kingdom : Part 2

We are excited to announce that Rob has now delivered The Invincible Kingdom, the last and final book in his Kingdom trilogy!

Rob began drawing at the beginning of the year, he then spent a month writing the story whilst making changes and additions to the drawings.

Once Rob got to the stage where he had a first draft together it was sent to his amazing editor Jocasta Hamilton at Penguin Random House who suggested changes. Jocasta has worked on three books with Rob (this is the fourth!) so she has a really good understanding of the way Rob works, as Rob does with Jocasta. Changes were then made by Rob taking Jocasta’s suggestions into account, often many words are cut from the story so the space Rob has left on each page for the text has to be adjusted digitally.

Once the story is at a stage that Rob is happy with it is sent to a copy editor who reads it through with fresh eyes and checks for grammar and consistency.

Then it was time for the fun part – colouring in!!! Libby worked together with Rob to colour the many layers on each page and it’s not all flat colour; the backrounds are made up of delicate washes and brushstrokes which have been scanned in and used to give the book a painterly effect. It’s a time consuming process! One a page is complete it is printed out and pinned to the wall so that Rob and Libby can see the book taking shape in full colour!!!

Rob and Libby then worked with the super talented Rich Carr who did (yet another) brilliant job of fitting the words onto each completed page. Once the words have come together with the pictures the book is complete and it is then put into production!! We cannot wait to see the proof which we should receive in a couple of weeks!

The Invincible Kingdom follows The Invisible Kingdom and The Kingdom Revealed and catches up with John, a young man born into the Royal family who has escaped his destiny in order to build a different future for himself. Just when all seemed to be going to plan…….his past catches up with him!

The Invincible Kingdom is published by Penguin Random House and will be available in late October. We’ll keep you up to date with plans for the book signings.

Sarah McPhee
Studio Assistant