THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2026! The frenetic energy of an all-ages book like Beccy Blake’s Chicken Hill: Attack of the Zombie Cactus is a joy to behold. Published by Bloomsbury, this is a collection of three stories set around the town of the title. It’s populated by a quirky cast of characters including child genius inventor Ferdy, his flatulent fashion-conscious dog Gripper, sleepy cat Tink, two inquisitive urban foxes, nystic guru bunny Mitzu, and elderly feline conspiracy theorist Uncle Russ. Chicken Hill is one of those Eerie, Indiana-style small towns where weird stuff seems to happen on an everyday basis (said environment introduced to us immediately in the form of a two-page world-building map.)
There’s something very positive to be said about children’s comics where the creators are obviously having a ball bringing their characters’ misadventures to the page and Blake is clearly delighting in throwing as much oddness at the reader in Chicken Hill as possible. In the first story Ferdy and company have to repel an invasion of aliens intent on robbing the Earth of all its supplies of baked beans; in the second the gang take a trip to Mexico where they face zombie cacti and encounter a garden gnome kaiju; and in the finale Chicken Hill is flooded and taken over by amphibian despot King Frog.
What makes this such an engaging read from the outset is the ensemble cast, all with their own idiosyncratic personality traits and accompanying in-jokes. The plots are charmingly ridiculous, appealing to kids’ love of anarchic humour with slapstick and more than the occasional fart joke, and every page is crammed full of little details just ready to be reappreciated on a re-reading.
Blake’s cartooning is just so lively; frantic, busy and with perfect comedic pacing that uses a variety of diverse page structures and panel-to-panel storytelling to ensure those visual gags land. Chicken Hill may not quite qualify as the perfect tourist attraction but for younger readers with fertile imaginations it’s the perfect destination.
Beccy Blake (W/A) • Bloomsbury, £8.99
Buy online from Gosh! Comics here
Review by Andy Oliver
Bloomsbury Children’s Books are at table A22 in the Bubbleboy Hall at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble 2026 runs from November 9th-15th with the convention weekend taking place on the 14th-15th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2026 coverage so far in one place here.
Poster art by Núria Tamarit
