about the book
Bandette, a flirty cat-burglar is light hearted and funny, with a quirky French accent. The alter ego of gentle Maxine Plouffe, she is a quick-change artist and super acrobatic thief who bounces around the Paris rooftops liberating art from those who acquired it illicitly.
Bandette stays just one step ahead of the law, especially Police Inspector P. D. Belgique. Though always trying to capture her, Belgique will call on her when he needs her special talents. Her sword-wielding rival thief, Monsieur Leon Corvo, has beaten her to a couple of major scores, and their relationship is a complicated friend/foe thing.
Bouncing in and out of all sorts of scrapes, Bandette is on the side of the underdogs. If forced to fight, Bandette quickly leaves her opponents dazed, injured, or dosed with knockout spray, and hearing her trademark “Presto” call as she scampers away! Luckily, she has her little Chihuahua Pimento, three ballerinas, and a whole cadre of Parisian street urchins to help her out.
Her boyfriend Daniel can attest to her heart of gold. He often comes to her aid with his delivery moped. Evading bullets, she’ll leap onto the back of his bike and off they fly, usually with her standing on the back of his bike taunting her would-be assassins. In return for his help, she has filled Daniel’s squatter’s apartment full of museum pieces and rare books. It’s not stealing when the museums aren’t using the pieces anyway!
Bandette handles a bank robbery with hostages, graveyard fight scenes, a fiendish foe named Absinthe, and a shadowy international crime organization, FINIS, that wants Bandette dead! Can she turn to Monsieur Corvo for a little help…or is he part of FINIS too?
about the author
Paul Tobin is a very busy man, writing novels, comic books, graphic novels, and video games. On any given day, he works on multiple projects. They might include a dark fantasy novel for adults, lighter detective series for middle grade readers, superhero comics, wacky humor video games, or a horror series about an insane murderer that will keep even the most jaded reader awake at nights!
Born in Charles City, Iowa, Paul has always enjoyed making up stories. He talks about how tales take him everywhere, and he often doesn’t know where his stories are going until the very end. Literally ANYTHING can happen beyond the next page; he finds that intriguing.
He got his start writing an all-ages mini-series called Banana Sunday under the pseudonym Root Nobit, going on to write hundreds of comics for Marvel and DC Comics. He is also known for his extensive work on the Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies video games. He won an Eisner Award for Bandette which is illustrated by his wife, Colleen Coover. He is so busy he claims he has become a “severely cookie-dependent barely-functioning shut-in with a slew of borderline mental problems!”
But he does get out a little; on the first day of a New York Comic Con, he skipped out to visit the Museum of Modern Art to see his favorites—the Impressionists. He also spends free time bicycling, hanging with friends and talking about art…and writing! It’s not just his day job, it’s his favorite hobby! He and his wife, Colleen, live in Portland, Oregon.
Sources:
Author website
Author profile : Top Shelf Productions
Author profile : Goodreads
Also by Paul Tobin:
Bandette : 2 : Stealers Keepers! Dark Horse Comics. April 2015.
Avengers Academy : Arcade : Death Game. Marvel Entertainment Group. 2011.
about the illustrator
Some have said that Colleen Coover had it easy breaking into the comic illustration business. The story goes that she sent a packet of comics she had drawn to just one publisher and they welcomed her in with open arms. What most people don’t know is that the packet took over a year and a half to draw and contained more than a 100 pages—it was a lot of hard work!
She originally met Paul Tobin in a drama class, and he got her into drawing comics. She worked on his very popular Banana Sunday series which is still ongoing. He was her coach and encouraged her as she drew for comics, newspapers, magazines, and other promotional materials. Now they are husband and wife, collaborating on all sorts of projects.
Like Paul, Colleen was born in Iowa. They moved to Portland, Oregon, looking for more support for their creative efforts. You can’t turn around there without running into a comic book artist, illustrator, and publisher! Portland also has good public transportation, and Colleen does not drive.
Colleen says that by the time her art hits the books shelves she has already caught up with the next project. “What is brand-new for the reader is old news to me.” Though, she admits, she sometimes Google searches just to see what people are saying about her art!
Colleen likes Bollywood movies, bunnies, warm slippers, romance novels, cheese and mashed potatoes—not necessarily mixed together!
Sources:
Illustrator website
Illustrator profile : Comixology
Illustrator profile : Wikipedia
Illustrator profile : Top Shelf Productions
Illustrator interview : Adventures Underground
Also Illustrated by Colleen Coover:
Bandette : 2 : Stealers Keepers! by Paul Tobin. Dark Horse Comics. April 2015.
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