Happy Fat Gourg Day!

Happy Fat Gourg Day!

Fat Gourg is the monster drawn in the Monster Motel by Luke when he was 7 (see previous blog post). Both the monster and Luke have become famous since some French artists adopted him as their mascot.

Today is Fat Gourg day - because it's the 8th of the 8th and the roundness of the letters reflect the roundness of Fat Gourg's plump body!

Monster Motel hits the headlines!

Kids on the Net features today in the Leicester Mercury. In one of those strange but heartwarming Internet stories, a monster ("Fat Gourg") created by a seven-year-old, Luke, during a writing workshop at a Leicestershire primary school led by KotN editor Helen Whitehead in 1999 has become something of a cult figure for a group of French artists and cartoonists.

"In 2003, the drawing was discovered on the website by famous French online cartoonist Pierre Primen. The 25-year-old raved about Fat Gourg on Primsworld, his website dedicated to funny cartoons and drawings, which gets 50,000 visitors a day, sparking instant adulation. Every year, thousands of fans gather in groups on August 8 - the "eight" symbolising his fat body - for Fat Gourg Day.

"He has a Friends Reunited profile, where he is listed as single and retired, and there is a Facebook page dedicated to finding Luke."

Now the hunt is on to find Luke. His French fans "would like to know if Luke remembers drawing this monster. If he does, I guess we have to thank him for all the fun Fat Gourg has brought to us, and we have millions of questions to ask him about this character. We also have to offer him a statue to pay tribute to his oeuvre!"

Fat Gourg can be found in the Monster Motel on the Kids on the Net website. Children worldwide are invited to contribute their own monsters to this ongoing project.