Feb. 11th, 2026 at 12:57 PM
Adventuremice: Of Mice and Mummies
The eighth Adventuremice book is poised and ready to launch! Adventuremice: Of Mice and Mummies will start hitting bookshops any day now, officially launching on February 26th. My co-author Philip Reeve and I have been coming up with activities and a video, and I hope to make another drawing video soon. But I wanted to make sure I wrote a blog specially about this book because the setting is very near and dear to my heart. When I was between, say, 11 and 15, I really, really wanted to be, not a writer-illustrator, but an archaeologist. I kind of knew an archeologist wasn't really a tomb raider like Indiana Jones (in fact, tomb raiding is bad!), but I was still wrapped up in the glamour and excitement of those films.
I went along to some archaeology classes and realised, if I did it for a living, I probably wouldn't be discovering amazing Egyptian tombs, I'd probably be digging up a petrified piece of a wood in a cold, muddy bog somewhere. And that made me realise that what I was most excited about wasn't the digging and cataloguing, it was simply getting to look at extraordinary tomb paintings, and even painting something similar myself. I love the flat aesthetic of ancient Egyptian art, the elegance, the way the pictures are made of lines, coloured in, much like a Tintin comic book. I've wanted to do this Egyptian-style book from the beginning of the series, I knew it was coming, but Philip and I waited until we had just the right story for it.
This book pushed my watercolour paintings skills, and I was particularly proud of this double-page illustration, with the lighting on the ruins:
I like to keep one of the paintings from the book for myself, for a sort of home gallery, and I haven't yet decided if I'm going to keep that one or this other title-page illustration of Pedro and Fledermaus having a lark:
As with earlier book, the original ink & watercolour illustrations from the book will go on sale in the Adventuremice.com shop from 9pm on launch day, 26 Feb, UK time. (Set a reminder if you're keen, to get in quick so you get the best pictures or lowest prices! Usually there are pieces from as low as £5 up to £350.)
This book's dedicated to Stuart, a hardworking member of the Adventuremice team; without his help with the business side of things, doing this job would be nearly impossible for me. Thank you, Stuart!!
I went along to some archaeology classes and realised, if I did it for a living, I probably wouldn't be discovering amazing Egyptian tombs, I'd probably be digging up a petrified piece of a wood in a cold, muddy bog somewhere. And that made me realise that what I was most excited about wasn't the digging and cataloguing, it was simply getting to look at extraordinary tomb paintings, and even painting something similar myself. I love the flat aesthetic of ancient Egyptian art, the elegance, the way the pictures are made of lines, coloured in, much like a Tintin comic book. I've wanted to do this Egyptian-style book from the beginning of the series, I knew it was coming, but Philip and I waited until we had just the right story for it.
This book pushed my watercolour paintings skills, and I was particularly proud of this double-page illustration, with the lighting on the ruins:
I like to keep one of the paintings from the book for myself, for a sort of home gallery, and I haven't yet decided if I'm going to keep that one or this other title-page illustration of Pedro and Fledermaus having a lark:
As with earlier book, the original ink & watercolour illustrations from the book will go on sale in the Adventuremice.com shop from 9pm on launch day, 26 Feb, UK time. (Set a reminder if you're keen, to get in quick so you get the best pictures or lowest prices! Usually there are pieces from as low as £5 up to £350.)
This book's dedicated to Stuart, a hardworking member of the Adventuremice team; without his help with the business side of things, doing this job would be nearly impossible for me. Thank you, Stuart!!