At the beginning of the year you probably never heard of Tara Togs.
Now you can buy her on the shelves of WHSmith beside 2000AD!
She has everything against her as a comic character. Too Scottish, ginger hair, a girl, too European, an unknown lead – you name it, we heard it.
But what a year!
Great art, draughtmanship and story from Stref wins out in the end.
The graphic novel ‘The Silence of Unicorns’ was all but complete when ComicScene suggested a Tara Togs short story in the ComicScene magazine. Tara appeared on the cover and in the magazine in a 9 page story ‘Hot Dog’, a mystery around Edinburghs Greyfriars Bobby. Better still the creator got paid a competitive page rate thanks to your support.
ComicScene then ran the Kickstarter which got 385 backers and raised almost £10,000 to publish the ‘Silence of Unicorns’ and an extra Tara Togs Zine. This unexpected success gave us the option to print extra copies for newsagents, comic shops, Amazon and bookshops. How would a bande dessinee style book work on U.K. newsagent shelves? Everyone in comic fandom had talked about it for years – but what if it actually happened!
It has longevity and with Christmas coming up let’s see how this unique book, still available on newsagent shelves, goes.
Of course Tara didn’t stop there. ‘Hot Dog’ will appear again in newsagents as part of the Shift It charity comic.
Tara also has two new stories in the latest issues of David Lloyds web comic Aces Weekly, with stories set in Edinburghs Mary Kings Close (a city under the city) and the Forth.
Tara has also been in the Edinburgh Evening News, Mega City Book Club podcast and comic cons such as the Lakes, Oh Con, Thought Bubble and Dunfermline. Free copies were sent to school libraries, an exhibition is planned for the new bande dessinee shop La Belle Adventure in December and Edinburgh College are working on a short animated Tara Togs film.
You can still get Tara online at the Shift store in three additional formats – digital, hardback and deluxe hardback – if you like your collectors items.
And what about 2025? We have six possible books on our roster – and Tara may be one of them!
If you didn’t know Tara Togs before 2024 we hope you do now.
Get your Tara Togs books here.
ComicScene magazine 
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