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You're Thinking About Tomatoes

By Michael Rosen and Cole Henley

A graphic novel adaptation of the fan favourite story!

Fiction | Graphic novels & comics

128% funded

580 supporters

On press

Publication date: July 2022

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It’s happening. You're Thinking About Tomatoes is at the printers and will be shipping to supporters as soon as the ink is dry.

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#LibrariesChangeLives

In response to the Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell's campaign, Life-changing Libraries, we are offering you the chance to support primary school libraries by giving a copy of the book to a school of your choice.

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Exclusive Bookplate
Collector's A4 Art Print

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#LibrariesChangeLives Bundle

In response to the Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell's campaign, Life-changing Libraries, we are offering you the chance to support primary school libraries by giving five copies of the book to a school of your choice.

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The ebook

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Frank and the class are going on a school trip to a stately home. Mr Butcher, the class teacher is doubtful about whether Frank has got what it takes to 'get on'. He's in last chance saloon for going to the 'better' school in town.

Once into the stately home, armed with his worksheet, Frank finds that things start going wrong. The exhibits start to come alive. Someone steps out of a painting, an Egyptian mummy climbs out of his sarcophagus, an irritating dog acts as a tourist guide. Even the gargoyle-like fish on the roof has a part to play.

Tension builds: Frank has to finish his worksheet, the girl who stepped out of the painting wants to find out her name, and an ancient head in a bottle has a terrifying and sad tale to tell.

Bit by bit, the animated characters tell the story of how this stately home came to be quite so stately - and it's not a pretty tale. The mummy, though, can be relied on to make it a crazily funny one: he is sure that he has a part to play in a remake of 'The Mummy's Tomb' - or indeed in any old movie.

Laughs, sadness, tragedy, hope, courage and a belief in the collective strength of the underdog give this story a fantastic flow of energy and excitement with a good sense of history thrown in!

Featuring art by Cole Henley, You’re Thinking About Tomatoes is a new graphic novel adaptation of the fan favorite story by Michael Rosen. A beautiful full-colour hardback book of 128 pages, it’s perfect for introducing readers to the magic of comics!

Follow along as the project takes shape and learn all about how comics are made – from designing characters, to lettering pages, colouring and bringing it all together to make a book!

Support this project

Quick select rewards

$30 + shipping

61 pledges

Hardback Book

First edition hardback

Pre-order this reward

FEATURED REWARD

$55 + shipping

221 pledges

Signed & Sketched

Signed and sketched first edition hardback

View all 11 rewards

Michael Rosen

Cole Henley

Michael Rosen has been writing books for children since the early 1970s. His most famous collaboration 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' has sold over 8 million copies world wide.

He has won several awards, been awarded several honorary degrees, and has an MA and a Ph.D. from his studies of children's literature. From 2007-2009 he was the British Children's Laureate.

He broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 4 and he is a Professor of Children's Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has written or edited over 200 books and his YouTube Channel, 'Kids' Poems and Stories with Michael Rosen' has over 300,000 subscribers and has had 60 million views.

Cole Henley is an illustrator, recovering archaeologist and maker of websites based in Somerset.

Since youth Cole has never been far from pencil and paper and is really excited to work with Michel's on bringing this fun story to a new audience.

He has two children, a dog, a grumpy Scottish cat and hates the sound ice makes in the freezer drawer.
23rd May 2022 We have books - and Graphics Brighton!

Hey all

Thank you so much for your ongoing support, patience and love for the book.

Really excited to report that the Tomatoes have landed!

This weekend we took receipt of Author copies of the book and it looks brilliant. Unbound did a great job of the print and colours.

Later this week me and Michael are heading to Unbound's top secret location (shhhh!) to sign and sketch in all your…

13th September 2021 Step 5: Masks and Colouring In

No, I’m not talking about Halloween! I’m talking about bringing our drawings to life with colour. Having done all our inking I’ve scanned them all in and removed the blue “pencil” lines I was using as a guide.

Now these are added into my drawing software, Clip Studio where I can touch up the drawings and remove any smudges or accidental lines from the inking. We then remove all the white. This…

7th July 2021 Inks and The Evolution of Frank

Step 4: Inks

With our pencils all done the next step is to print it all out for the inking.

All our pages are printed out onto Bristol Board - like a thick cartridge paper - at slightly larger than we need for the final printed book. This bit is tricky but we want to print our pencils out in light blue so that we can draw over them. Then thanks to some computer trickery we can remove the blue…

29th March 2021 Step 3: Pencils

Step 3: Pencils

With a completed script we now have a sense of the overall story and how this is going to be broken down for the graphic novel.

It is time to dust off the pens and pencils and start fleshing things out (although for this stage we are working with digital pens and paper!).

For each page from the script I start out with a rough outline of the panels and characters…

18th March 2021 Step 2: World Building

Step 2: World Building

Before we start any work drawing our story we need to set the tone. This is important as this helps us break our characters and settings down into recognisable shapes for use throughout the story.

This involves a fair amount of research - it may seem surprising to some of you but I have rarely drawn talking monkey statuettes or ornate, lead dolphins before!

There…

12th March 2021 Step 1: The Script

Hey all

Sorry it has taken us so long to post an update on the project.

It was so fantastic to hit our target back in September and work continues behind the scenes. We are significantly through the drawing stage so thought it would be a good time and a great idea to give you all an idea of the process involved in bringing Michael’s fantastic story to life!

Step 1: The Script

We…
These people are helping to fund You're Thinking About Tomatoes.

Pernilla Dagger-Magnell

Shelley Smith

Emma Boulton

Gill Goodswen

Hannah Westaway

Ed Henderson

Neil Matheson

Neil Matheson

Trevor McCarthy

Adam Crossingham

David Goda

Steve Woodward

Diana Guibord

Adam Wynne

Hazel Alexander

Ben Harding

Sue Wray

Matt Powell

Kate Bunting

Lisa Fiske

Tom Clarke

Lorna Simes

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You're Thinking About Tomatoes

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I get my book delivered to?

How do supporter names work?

Will the book and rewards that I receive look the same as the images shown on the Unbound website?

Quick select rewards

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