How To Make (Awesome) Comics COMPETITION!

This week's How To Make (Awesome) Comics strip in the Phoenix - which by kind permission I have reproduced in its entirety here - features the start of a brand-new and very exciting Create-a-Comic COMPETITION!

It's kind of the wrapping-up of a year's worth of Professor Panels and Art Monkey's lessons, and I thought it would be nice to go out in style by encouraging the comics' readers to pull it all together and have a go at making their own panelologist publications! The rules are very simple - comics should be at least 4 pages long, and have a title, and THAT'S ABOUT IT. Go nuts! The closing date is the 15th January 2013, so there's plenty of time to plan and make and create - maybe as a little project over the Christmas holidays?

M'colleague Sarah McIntyre wrote a great blog post the other day for librarians about getting started with kids' comics, and mentioned some of the many benefits that comics - reading them and making them - give to children. I'd strongly recommend reading her post; it's something I couldn't agree with more, and this competition is part of my ongoing bid to help get every child in the country busily making their own comics.

Pick up this week's Phoenix or head over to the website for all the details (scroll down past all the Santas), and for loads of page templates and activity sheets and all kinds of FUN STUFF to get you started. And I hope to see MANY FINE COMICS in January!

(A final note: if this week's strip is the 'last lesson of term', then the next couple of weeks see us closing out 2012 with the comics equivalent of Bringing In Games. Much fun stuff coming up!)