Superhero fun with Gary Northfield's Mighty Mega Pets!
About Author
Cats, dogs and a goldfish - superheroes with a difference! Comic creator Gary Northfield tells ReadingZone about Mighty Mega Pets, his new graphic novel series.
Gary Northfield is an award-winning, internationally successful author-illustrator of the Julius Zebra series. His comic strip Derek the Sheep appeared in The Beano, and he has created comics for The Phoenix, The Dandy, The DFC, Horrible Histories magazine and The Magical World of Roald Dahl.
Gary lives in London and you can find him online at www.garynorthfield.com and Instagram as @stupidmonster.
Interview
April 2026
Superhero fun with Gary Northfield's Mighty Mega Pets!
There's something wrong with their breakfast - and now this family of pets have superpowers! And they're not the only ones . . . there's a town full of pets with superpowers - and not all of them want to use their powers for good . . .
ReadingZone caught up with author and illustrator Gary Northfield to find out about his new Mighty Mega Pets series! Find out which pets helped inspire his superhero gang, why he loves comics so much and what makes him laugh! Plus we have a writing challenge from Gary to create your own superhero pet!
More about Mighty Mega Pet: Freaky Food Fiasco
Read an extract from Freaky Food Fiasco
Q&A with Gary Northfield: Superheroes, comics and making readers laugh
"My house feels a bit like a zoo, with two dogs, a cat, four or five stick insects, a tank full of tropical fish, plus a frog in the pond,
so I'm always imagining what they could get up to given super powers."
1. Hello Gary, thank you for joining us on ReadingZone! Can you tell us a little about yourself, how you became an author and comic creator and what you've created?
Hello! I am Gary Northfield and I've been writing and drawing comics and books professionally for over 20 years. I started off making home-made comics when I left university and by going along to comic fairs to sell my comics I met other cartoonists. One of the cartoonists I met also worked on Horrible Histories Magazine and so through him, I ended up becoming their in-house illustrator! I would draw, colour, and make amendments to other artists' work, all to a tight deadline. I thoroughly enjoyed this job and ended up working on many other magazines for the same company, including Horrible Science and The Magical World of Roald Dahl.
At around the same time, I showed my comic work to the editor at the Beano and I then got my first gig writing and drawing my own comic strips for a proper weekly comic. My strip was called Derek the Sheep and it ran for seven years. I'd read the Beano as a kid and so it was very surreal and exciting to be actually coming up with funny stories for such an esteemed comic!
I read comics from a very early age and never really stopped. My favourites when I was young were Asterix, Peanuts (with my hero Snoopy) and Marvel comics, especially the Avengers! I love coming up with very silly, energetic funny strips, mainly involving animals (though not always!). I want everyone to enjoy my strips, not just children, and I get lots of fan mail from parents, too.
My career highlight is probably a toss up between Derek the Sheep and Julius Zebra, both successful in their own right and important in my development as an artist and a writer. Julius Zebra took off in many different countries, so it's always exciting to get lovely emails from children from so many corners of the world.
For the Phoenix, I currently write and draw The Lovely Pirates, but originally for the first few years of the comic's life, I drew Gary's Garden (which I'd love to bring back, as I miss the main character, Chompy the grumpy caterpillar!).
2. Now you're creating a new series, the Mighty Mega Pets! What happens in their first adventure, Freaky Food Fiasco?
A small group of pets find that they have gained incredible super powers after eating their usual pet food. They embark on a mission to find out how their food became infected and dealing with all the other weird and wonderful super Pets that spring up all over Rumford!
Extract from the start of Mighty Mega Pets: Freaky Food Fiasco! by Gary Northfield
3. Did any of your own pets help inspire Might Mega Pets?
Mega Pets is a project I've been meaning to work on for many years! Even going back to my childhood I was always drawing super pets, inspired by the likes of Hong Kong Phooey (ask your mum and dad!) and silly superheroes like Bananaman from the Beano (then appearing in a comic called Nutty).
I originally drew some pages for Jamie Smart's Moose Kids Comics project but it took me ten years to finally approach my editor at Walker books with the idea for Mighty Mega Pets.
My house feels a bit like a zoo, with two dogs, a cat, four or five stick insects, a tank full of tropical fish, plus a frog in the pond, so I'm always imagining what they could get up to given super powers. Even my childhood super pets were based on my pet dogs (I've still got some old drawings somewhere!)
4. We love the idea of a 'superfood' that can give superpowers. If you ate some for breakfast, what would your superpower be?
I would love to fly like Canine Crusader in my book, imagine the places you could visit all over the world. In reality, seeing as the food reacts to who you are, I'd probably be like the Hulk, as my strength is always relied upon around the house. I am actually very strong! I blame all those Mars Bars I've eaten.
5. Who is in the Mighty Mega Pets gang - any favourites?
Arthur the tortoise - who is desperate to become a superhero - is a big favourite! I do love a grumpy character and I have big plans for him in book 3. I love Canine Crusader and how annoying he is. He's not in book 2 but definitely jumps back with a bang in book 3.
6. How do your pets play with the idea of superpheroes - and villains! - during their adventures in the Mighty Mega Pets?
I've read a million superhero comics and watched all of the big superhero films. I especially love Marvel MCU films and you can't help twist and turn all their ideas into fun takes, in fact I'd say Mighty Mega Pets is a real love letter to the comics of my childhood.
Villains are always fun and we get to know a bit more about Guinea Big in book 2, but I loved having him prance about shouting at his minions in book 1. The great thing about old Marvel comics is the cheesey, slightly silly villains they obviously enjoyed creating, and diving into the mind and motivation of a silly supervillain is too much fun.
7. What makes you laugh the most when you're creating your comics? Do you enjoy making your readers laugh, too?
Absolutely! My number one aim is to make people laugh. If I'm not laughing at a scene, then it quickly gets ejected. It definitely has to make me chuckle to get into the story. I love visual absurdity and silly conversations. One of my biggest influences are Laurel and Hardy. They started off in the era of silent films and successfully jumped into the "talkies" era better than most, thanks to their brilliant mesh of funny dialogue and crazy visuals. They were unsurpassed masters.
I like to think I have an ear for dialogue and often have to stop myself giggling at something someone might have said on the bus, or in a shop. I always have a notebook (or iphone) handy to write stuff down, otherwise it's definitely going to be forgotten.
8. How do you create your comic strips, do you start with the story / dialogue and then sketch in the images, or does it all happen at the same time?
Stories start with a small idea and grow outwards from there. I make notes of scenes and big ideas, then dive into the story a bit more, imagining scenes and interactions between characters. I would then make small sketches and more notes, then once I think I have a solid beginning, middle and end, I write a very detailed synopsis of the whole book over 20 chapters.
I always leave room for development as I draw the book, in fact with book 2 there was no mention of a particular character (no spoilers) in my synopsis, but suddenly thought they'd be a great addition to the team and squeezed them in from the first chapter and tried to make sure they fit snugly in as I roughed it out.
9. What do you have planned next for Mighty Mega Pets and the world of Rumford?
As teased at the end of book 1, time travel is a major element in Book 2, Dino Duck Disaster! There's lots of dinosaurs and new super pets and many periods of history thrown in too. To be honest, it's a packed book and will probably leave you breathless by the end!
10. What keeps you busy when you're away from your desk / studio?
My seven-year-old twins, plus my little zoo I mentioned. I also have far too many hobbies, collecting CDs and records, making Airfix models, reading history, watching exciting TV, collecting books and comics. My studio borders on being a fully grown library in its own right, with tons of bric-a brac thrown in (I do love a boot sale too!).
Creative Challenge from Gary Northfield
Create your own pet superhero! Take your pet (or a neighbour's/friend's/relative's pet) think about their personality and what superpower would manifest based on their character. Are they happy, sad, excited, confused? Ask yourself why and hopefully a spark of a story will appear.
Throw in a second character, a friend or a foe, do they have powers? What is their personality? Once you start asking questions of your character, stories start forming!
Design your characters and their powers and see if you can come up with a funny one page comic strip with at least four panels. Play around with camera angles, ie close ups, bird's eye views etc. Make the page look fun!
School Events with Gary Northfield
I love visiting schools! I enjoy creating new cartoon characters and comics with children and make sure everyone has fun. You can get in touch to arrange an event via my website.
Mighty Mega Pets: Freaky Food Fiasco!
