FIRST LOOK: Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas by Ant Sang & Michael Bennett

Above:  The cover for Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas by Ant Sang & Michael Bennett

Coming this July, Penguin Random House NZ presents a new graphic novel,  Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas from award-winning authors Ant Sang & Michael Bennett. And I've got an exclusive first look at some of the artwork!

In this exciting sci-fi adventure, Helen is kidnapped by time-travelling ninjas and thrust into the year 2355 — a ruined future with roving gangs and ‘Peace Balls’, giant humming devices that enslave and control people’s minds. The Go-Go Ninjas have one goal: to destroy the Peace Balls. They believe that Helen knows how. Can Helen use her knowledge of the past to help them save the future?

Above: Preview pages from Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas by Ant Sang & Michael Bennett. Copyright  Ant Sang & Michael Bennett 2018. 

Ant Sang is one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed cartoonists and graphic novelists. His books have been published in New Zealand, North America, the United Kingdom, France and Taiwan. His bestselling graphic novel Shaolin Burning won an Honour Award at the 2012 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards, and was in the Top Ten of the Nielsen BookScan charts for ten weeks. His cult comic series The Dharma Punks was released in 2014 as a graphic novel after a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, hitting its target goal after five days. Ant has also been a featured speaker at Taipei International Book Exhibition, and his work has featured in exhibitions. One of the original key creatives of the acclaimed television series Bro'Town, Ant won Achievement in Production Design awards for his work on the show.

Above: Preview pages from Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas by Ant Sang & Michael Bennett. Copyright  Ant Sang & Michael Bennett 2018. 

Michael Bennett (Ngati Pikiao, Ngati Whakaue) is an award-winning New Zealand screenwriter and author whose films have been selected for numerous festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and New York. In 2008 Michael was the inaugural recipient of the Writers Award from the New Zealand Film Commission, and in 2005 he was awarded the British Council/New Zealand Writers Foundation Award. In 2011 Michael’s feature film Matariki won Best Feature Film Screenplay at the New Zealand Screenwriting Awards, and in 2013 he was awarded Best Documentary Screenplay for his documentary on the Teina Pora case, The Confessions of Prisoner T. He went on to publish In Dark Places in 2016, which won Best Non-Fiction Book at the Ngaio Marsh Awards and Best Biography/History at the Nga Kupu Ora Awards 2017.

Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas will be released in bookstores everywhere on July 2nd, he's the product information:

Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas 

Ant Sang & Michael Bennett 

RRP:$30.00 

ISBN: 9780143771241

- AK!

Above: Preview pages from Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas by Ant Sang & Michael Bennett. Copyright  Ant Sang & Michael Bennett 2018.