Monsters, sweets, and a royal quest...

King Edwin Flashypants, the boy king, is back in a new adventure involving monsters, quests and the evil Emperor Nurbison! We asked author Andy Riley to tell us more.

In his second adventure, King Flashypants is facing a new challenge - a huge and terrifying monster called the Gizimoth! Being a King, Edwin decides it is his duty to fight the monster, but the sneaky Emperor Nurbison is hatching his own plans.... We asked author and illustrator Andy Riley to tell us more about the latest King Flashypants book: Q: Why did you decide that King Edwin should go on a quest for this story? A: The oldest surviving written story is the Epic of Gilgamesh, the middle part of which can be summed up as: monster threatens community, hero goes on journey to defeat it. That's the most basic of human stories and it turns up over and over again. I thought: Edwin's all set up for it, being a king in the olden days, so let's send him on a quest. A kind of Beowulf with more fart jokes. Q: Edwin's 'trusty steed' is a small, talking horse called Colin. How did Colin develop? A: Colin came about from me looking around my own house, and noticing that my sons (now 10 and 12) have old stuff hanging around that they've outgrown. There's an old bicycle that looks comically small now. The olden days equivalent of the too-small bike is a tiny horse that Edwin grew out of years ago. Q: Edwin is searching for the Creature of Crong - who looks wonderfully scary. Did you need to draw a lot of monsters before you got him right? A: The first picture of the creature you see in the book is the first time I ever drew it. When writing and rewriting the story, I figured out in my head just how I wanted it to look. The scariest thing you can draw is not normally a horn, or a claw, or the other traditional parts of a monster; it's an eye. So something made mostly of eyes is bound to look a little bit scary. But also a bit stupid, too. Q: Vegetables take a starring but unloved role in this book. What were the vegetables you liked least as an eight year old? A: People do change their minds about vegetables as the book goes on! In my house we ate peas all the time, because my brother was a fussy eater and wouldn't each much else that was green. So it was peas, peas, peas all the way. I didn't mind at the time, but by the age of eighteen I'd had enough for a lifetime, and I never buy peas now. When I was around Edwin's age, I suppose my least favourite would have been cabbage, because the only cabbage I knew was over-boiled pale stodge from the school canteen. I love cabbage now. Q: Sweets also take centre stage, especially red bootlaces. Are they a favourite of yours? A: I hate to eat red bootlaces. They're the most disgusting snack ever created, even worse than flying saucer sweets. But they're useful for Edwin, so into the story they went. As a child I loved sherbert fountains because you could make them last for ages, and I was quite good at spinning my pleasures out. I always made sure to finish my Coca-cola after my brother had finished his, so I could enjoy a blissful five minutes where I still had some Coke but he had none. Sherbert fountains also have a stick of licorice in, and licorice is like edible plasticine. When I was eight I realised that with just a handful of licorice sticks you can make a tarantula. Which you can then eat. Q: Emperor Nurbison has a chance to be friends with King Edwin towards the end of the story - did you ever think he might be able to change? A: Not yet, not in book two. He's still a resolutely evil scumbag at this point. But watch for shifts in books to come... Q: Who were your favourite bad guys as a child? A: My reading centred around comics. Of the ones I loved, the Beano and 2000AD survive, but all the others are long gone: Action, Bullet, Whizzer and Chips, Krazy, Cheeky Weekly. Q: Although Nurbison is evil, these books are really funny - how hard is it to keep them funny? A: Thank you! Having been a comedy writer and cartoonist for 25 years now, I'm wired up to write and draw in a funny way. I think I'd find it much harder to write a serious book for children. Q: Does drawing help you to write your stories? A: I do all the writing first, and only begin drawing once the story is entirely locked down. But while I'm writing, I'm drawing in my mind, so when I come to illustrate it's really a matter of getting down what I've already been imagining for some time. Knowing I'm going to draw the stories constantly affects what I'm writing. I know that every couple of lines, some visual fun must happen. If I have a couple of pages which is just two people talking and not much else going on - it's time to rewrite. Q: What are your top tips to young comic creators? My only advice to young comic creators would be - draw a lot! Q: What can we look forward to in Edwin's next adventure? A: Book three is called King Flashypants and the Toys of Terror - which should tell you something about what's going to be in the tale. Emperor Nurbison is in it, but we'll see sides to him we haven't seen before. And we'll get to meet his mum, and see why he turned out the way he did...