Comics UK

My, but I've been busy preaching comics to kids in my Comic Art Masterclasses. Here are some of the recent front covers from their productions, from schools in Dublin, Birmingham, Kidderminster, Wiltshire, and elsewhere.




In a bid to be the posiest man in comics, check out this photo:



It is here for a reason. As a spin-off from my ongoing Comic Art Masterclasses, I'll be doing a live webchat and classroom session on BBC Northern Ireland's website next week. Do please send your questions to the address shown, I'm sure I can answer none of them.

Happy to be preaching comics to the masses.

Kev F
comicfestival.co.uk

'Who is strongest - Desperate Dan or the Hulk?'

- Phil R.

(Sorry Kev! )

'why are serious subjects like WW2 in the 'Victor' still called comics' and not 'tragics' or something more apt?'
[a very silly question from a very silly person].

In my mission to singlehandedly revive the junior comics readership, my Comic Art Masterclasses have seen me schlepping round more schools all over the country. Last week it was Belfast, the week before it was Dublin. This week's comics, which you can see at the link below, are from school pupils in Glasgow, Gosport, Cardiff, Malmesbury and Bromsgrove. Enjoy.




Kev F

Kev F's Comic Art Masterclasses (and the Scottish Falsetto Socks) have seen me doing some hell of a travelling this week. My new car has an extra 1000 miles on the clock since Monday, from Clevedon via Bourne in Lincolnshire and Harrogate in North Yorkshire. And it's the various primary schools of Bourne that are largely responsible for the comic book covers below. These titles are suggested by the kids in the class, and they've all contributed to the drawings on the cover, a copy of which they take away, containing a strip by every one of them and caricatures of all of them.



These show what is going through the minds of 9-11 year old kids in Lincolnshire on an average day. Zombies, pigs, clowns, hamsters, jelly babies, and business men going clubbing.

Along the way I managed, for the first time in ages, to mistake girls for boys not once but twice at two successive schools. So apologies to Sabrina, who I called "that boy there with all the hair" and Georgia who I genuinely thought was a boy right to the end of drawing her caricature, at which point I had to double check her name (I had earlier referred to her table as "the girls' table" then corrected myself by saying to her "sorry, I realise you're a boy"). Year 6, the year that invented androgyny.

Well you do sometimes get long haired boys and short haired girls these days, lol.

Well not wishing to say you look like a lady but err Kev old bean your hair is a tad long for a boy / man (as is mine all the same) - Those covers are amazing and as surreal as Monty Python - do the kids think up the title? as not sure it's genius or something we should all be worried about but some (almost all) the titles are very funny and a bit scary for 9-11 year olds - "Jesus facial hair guy", "when businessmen go clubbing" , "your Bum is under arrest" etc all wonderful - good job Kev you can tell the kids had fun doing this.

In my Comic Art Masterclasses, I teach kids how easy and fun it is to draw comic strips. I encourage them to copy from comics, which I scatter around the table (as well as showing them many other ways of learning to draw). It's always a treat when they choose to copy or be inspired by my drawings and, for the last few weeks, they've had the chance to look at my newly published Hot Rod Cow. It seems to be popular, with kids drawing him as often as they draw the other most popular choices, Harry Hill out of The Dandy and random manga faces. Here are some of their efforts (by year 5 & 6 pupils). Click to enlarge.

fantastic creativity within these montages, kev: I, for one, appreciate this unleashed cartoonery.

Some more front covers of comics produced by the kids in my Comic Art Masterclasses in schools. Working usually with two groups in a day, each pupil goes away with a comic book named by the group containing a strip by every single one of them a caricature of every one of their faces, plus they've learned how to do everything I do so they can leave school and steal my job. These are from schools in Chepstow, Bristol, Ormskirk, Devon, Leicester, Clevedon and Walsall. Click to enlarge and see more.