With the final part of his ‘Zita the Spacegirl’ trilogy hitting stores in May, you might have been wondering what Ben Hatke’s next project would be. Well wonder no more! Because First Second have given The Beat a first look at his new story ‘Little Robot’, which’ll see publication in Autumn (Fal) 2015.
Edited by First Second’s senior editor Calista Brill, Little Robot is a story about friendship – an unusual one perhaps, but a strong one – which develops over one hazy Summer season. Also: turtle! There’s a turtle.
Hatke says of the project:
In 2012 I drew a little comic strip about a robot. It looked like this: http://zitaspacegirl.com/wp-
content/uploads/robot1.jpg. I had intended it to be a one-off, just a little expression of how I felt that day. But for some reason, I kept returning to that Little Robot and he kept on doing interesting things and developing a personality without a whole lot of conscious thought on my part. And now he’s found his way into a book of his own. Little Robot is my first post-Zita graphic novel, and while it’s still got some of my hallmarks (robots and adventures!) it’s also a more intimate story about one friendship and one summer. And it’s extremely fun to draw.
For the last few years Hatke has been busy working on his Zita the Spacegirl series, which concludes this May with “The Return of Zita the Spacegirl”. Following that in October will be his first ever picture book, called “Julia’s House for Lost Creatures”. It’s going to be a busy few years for him! So if you want to find more – head over to his website at www.benhatke.com
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