This edition of Paolo Raphael arts magazine is devoted to promoting The Earth Tykes  graphics novel series. The stories are centred around a cute bunch of characters from a hidden region of South America, and their guide Hanta, a sort of spiritual guru meets Gandalf who has travelled to Earth from inside the planet Venus. The original characters designed by Nick John-Child aka Paolo Raphael, are part of the author’s personal campaign to save the plant Earth from, well not aliens but humans. In the stories the Earth Tykes come out of hiding from their mountain forest home, to bring a message of hope and creative inspiration to all of humanity who will listen to their series of transmissions. The Earth Tykes seek to inspire humanity to imagine a beautiful abundant caring world beyond the control of the present corporate madness, which it seems, has pervaded all good things with its obsession with power and greed.

     The Earth Tykes stories are probably suitable for all ages with a reasonable ability to read, Kids will love the Earth Tykes and so may adults for occasional light reading, which may also be thought provoking. Science, technology and spirituality go hand in hand in the the Earth Tyke’s world, and this may sometimes leads us into a transcendental world inside of ourselves, or adventures off this planet and into the true universe of abundant life.

     The character ‘Hanta the Wise’ is always on hand to advise the Earth Tykes with often profound insights which the author has gleaned from a lifetime of profound mystical exploration.

     In The Earth Tykes stories we meet characters such as Nikola Tesla [book 5], who is nicely reinstalled on a supra-physical level and invisible to us here on Earth, on the planet Venus, and hence his association with Hanta the Wise. Tesla resides at his new home with his pet dog Laika, the rescued Russian space dog whom he refers to as super dog. Says Laika, “My name is Laika and I was rescued by a Venusian spaceship back in the 1950s , [human time, not dog time]. My rescuers sent something back to Earth Whilst the real me remained up here. I am now working on dog intelligence programmes, on Earth one day, you will be able to talk to your dogs and other animals as in very ancient times, indeed, some of you earth people talk to your pooches right now”.