A talking dog with a bucket on his head might sound bizarre but Michael Grant believes his comic cartoon creation could go on to rival Snoopy, Garfield and even Bart Simpson.

Michael, 42, unearthed Hackman: a Dog in a Bucket after a routine business lunch with cartoonist and friend Bill Houston eight years ago.

The Artistic director recently agreed a multi-book publishing deal with Harper Collins, who was instantly captivated by the lugubrious pooch.

He says: "We were having lunch in Baker Street when I spotted a doodle in Bill's notebook.

"It felt immediately familiar to me and had a quirky, unique quality that I believed would be very successful.

"Bill said he'd recently seen a dog in a collar and it had inspired his sketch. I immediately suggested that he did a three-part comic strip and we brainstormed some ideas.

"With a bit of artistic flair, the collar became a bucket and the dog became Hackman."

The Hackman book is out now and the strip started in Freetime last week.

Michael describes Hackman as an "adult cartoon which will appeal to children as well".

He said: "He has a world-wide appeal that works on different levels, like all great cartoons."

Hackman is a spaniel condemned to a life viewed from the inside of a plastic bucket because of his confused and paranoid personality.

Alex Melvin