Zingolula Cudaduda for the Ministry of Stories.

I was very pleased to be asked to take part in helping out the 'Ministry of Stories' based in London, who have set out to create a learning centre where kids from 8-18 can get one-to-one tuition with professional writers and other volunteers. The centre is fronted by the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies which sells everything any monster enthusiast could wish for, click HERE to see pictures from inside this incredible shop.

Anyhoo, the monster bit is where myself and a host of other (much more talented) illustrators come in. We were each asked to draw a monster that the children had come up with and boy oh boy, did they come up with some insane monsters.
I was asked to draw the monster, Zingolula Cudaduda and all the illustrators were given a limited palette of blue, red and black.

"Zingoula lives in a lion’s cave, stocked with secret gold he stole from the bank. He’s great at scaring people (and with a mouth as big as a white board, ears as big as a 72 inch TV screen, and feet so big they shake the ground, it’s easy to see why) but sometimes this back fires – he’s so good at scaring people he can’t make any friends.

He bathes and goes fishing in the canal all the time, but his arms are still always as greasy as if they were covered in Vaseline, and he has rusty toenails and lips as dry as sandpaper.
After a meal of chicken (and humans) and a play in the forest, Zingoula settles down with his prized possessions – a photo of his mum and dad, some toe nail clippings, and another photo of Zingoula killing some humans. Every night he hopes he doesn’t have bad dreams. He’s terribly scared of giant dinosaurs!

Zingoula Cudacuda was created by the Year 6 class at Burbage Primary School."

Photos by Alistair Hall.