One of my favourite reveals in my books was in Vampire Mountain, book 4 of my Cirque Du Freak series, when the limping Little Person lowers his mask and croaks, "Name... not Lefty. Name... Harkat... Harkat Mulds."

There were bigger and more shocking twists to come in later books, of course, but I liked that one so much because, for the readers, it just popped up out of the blue, at a point in the storyline where they weren't expecting anything. I don't imagine, after the first three books, that anyone was thinking that a Little Person was going to be a major character, and when Harkat broke with the mute tradition of his kind, I think it made it clear that this was going to be a journey where you could take nothing for granted, and where all the cool reveals WEREN'T going to be telegraphed fifty miles in advance!

In honour of that silence-breaking occasion, let's treat ourselves to four fabulous pieces of fan art this Saturday, featuring everyone's favourite Little Person... Harkat "name not Lefty" Mulds!!!

Look closely at the first piece, by Mayu, because it isn't actually a drawing -- it's a paper cut!! Mayu created this by cutting the figure out of card and pasting ito onto a clear background. Cunning, right?!?

The second piece is a drawing by a fan called Nanigashi. In their Twitter post, Nanigashi apologised for not drawing Harkat in the style that we see in the manga adaptation, but I don't think they have anything to apologise for -- I love when fans put their own spin on the charaters.

The third and fourth drawings are both by a fan called An, and capture Harkat at his heart-warming cutest!! It makes you just want to reach out and give his head a little rub, doesn't... oops!! There go two of your fingers that you're never going to see again!!! :-)

Oh, and if you were reading my piece about Nanigashi's art, and suddenly stopped in your tracks and gasped, "Manga?!? There's a Cirque Du Freak manga?!? Why didn't anyone tell me?!?" then you need to click on over quickly to the August issue of my monthly newsletter, where you can read all about the omnibus edition which is currently midway through the process of bringing the manga back to the world again after years of being out of print. Click here: https://darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly