Mega Robo Bros LIVE!

This weekend saw the third annual Phoenix Children's Comics Festival - or #PHOENIXFEST15, to hashtag it all up in here - at the Story Museum in Oxford, and an amazing fun time it was too. I was there on the Saturday and it was just stunning to be surrounded by such enthusiasm, creativity and sheer bursting-at-the-seams excitement for comics. And for OUR comics! Honestly, it's hard to put into words how great it was to see.

ANYWAY! As is my usual form, I was far too busy drawing robots for people to remember to take any photos of it all. But fortunately, some of my robots came to life and came along, so I could take photos of them! Look who I bumped into:

Which, obviously, rather completely made my day. And allowed us to quickly create the following:

MEGA ROBO BROS LIVE!

You'll notice that the kid who came cosplaying as Freddy was also SIMULTANEOUSLY COSPLAYING AS EVIL EMPEROR PENGUIN, and as such holds a pretty solid claim to being the most awesome person in the country.

Here for good measure is the Alex version:

Just so much fun. I made those panels last week, volunteering on a Sunday and being filled with a  nagging worry that I really should have just taken a much-needed day off instead. I really hoped they would be a fun little bonus thing for kids and parents at the festival, and anyway, these pictures alone make it all pretty much worthwhile from my perspective. Thanks so much, Mega Robo Family!

Children's Comics Library: a call for donations!

I've technically come to the end of my residency at The Story Museum in Oxford, but I seem to be still hanging around the place a lot, between my weekly Comics Club there and a few exciting bits and pieces I've got planned before the Phoenix Children's Comics Festival in May. One thing we've talked about is putting together a bit of a permanent reading library of children's comics, which I think would be an absolutely fantastic thing - a collection of great comics from all over the world and all over the years that kids can just sit and peruse and read and get lost in.

So: what we need is... well, comics. ALL child-friendly comics from all nations and eras are enormously welcome, but in the first instance what I'm really after is a range of British weekly comics of the 1970s / 80s. Not necessarily long runs of anything, just a couple of Mistys here, a couple of Victors there, a few Whizzer and Chipses in between. One of the upcoming activities I've got planned for Comics Club is all about anthologies, and it'd be really great to show kids something of the range of material, of genres and subject matters, that used to be available. I've got a bunch of early 2000ADs that I'll be donating myself, and it'd be great to have a load of other old comics to keep them company.

(Please note: comics in this library would not be preserved in mylar in pristine condition. They would be read, and no doubt ultimately destroyed, by children. But isn't that the point?)

If you do have any comics you'd like to donate to the museum, the best thing to do in the first instance would be to contact either me - on twitter or in a comment here - or the Story Museum directly, and then we can start to liase about details. Please spread the word, and thank you in advance!

Saturday Morning Comics Club!

(Photo courtesy The Story Museum)

I'm trying an Exciting New Venture in 2015, running a Saturday Morning Comics Club at the Story Museum in Oxford! It's for kids aged 8-12, and every week we'll be reading comics...

(Like THESE)

...talking about comics, learning about comics, and most importantly MAKING LOTS OF AWESOME COMICS!

Like this one! Or maybe EVEN AWESOMER. Who can say?

The goal is to have produced a brand-new anthology comic in time for the Phoenix Children's Comic Festival in May, but I dare say that'll just be the start of it!

I'm also going to be using the same 'curriculum' and ideas to run a weekly Comics Club on a volunteer basis as an afterschool thing at our local primary. I bang on a lot, encouraging parents and teachers and librarians to use comics in their schools as a great way of boosting literacy and encouraging creativity and having FUN, and I figured it was time to put my money where my mouth is and get involved myself. I'll be blogging about the experience and lessons learned and ideas it prompts as we go along here, in the hopes of maybe encouraging other parents / cartoonists / foolhardy souls to have a go themselves.

Anyway, the Story Museum Comics Club starts with a taster session this Saturday (14th Feb), 11-12:30 am. You can find full details and book a place on the Story Museum website, here:

...and then the main event starts in proper on 28th Feb and then every week thereafter. If you'd like more information please e-mail tickets@thestorymuseum.org.uk or phone 01865 790050 to speak to the lovely people at the museum with any questions you may have.

I am mildly terrified but I think it's going to be lots of fun. If you do know any families in the Oxford area who might be interested, please do spread the word!

Awesome Comics: MADE

I recently spent the week doing something new; teaching a weeklong course at the Story Museum in Oxford, that venerable institution (it's only been there a little while but it is PRETTY VENERABLE) where I am currently cartoonist-in-residence. The course was titled Make Awesome Comics; it was for kids aged 7-12, and the idea was to try and give them a bit of an introduction to all aspects of making comics; from coming up with ideas to writing stories to drawing and lettering - featuring lessons along the way from Guest Lecturers and International Comics Superstars Kate Brown and Gary Northfield - all the way through to printing and self-publishing their own comic by the end of the week. 

And we did! And I am now exhausted.

Our classroom! I had a CLASSROOM.

Some recommended reading materials.

Those kids like The Phoenix. Those kids liked the Phoenix A LOT.

It was hard work, but also a preposterous amount of fun, and I learned a lot from the whole experience. I'm still processing a lot of it, but I had to boil it down into a few key lessons - and I guess I knew these already, but this really hammered them home - it'd be:

• that the imagination and creativity of children is endlessly potent, amazing and hilarious
• that comics are an incredibly effective way of allowing kids to harness, express and develop that creativity, and finally
• that whatever we as a society are paying teachers to deal with those monsters  **charming little scamps** on a daily basis, it is NOT ENOUGH.

I jest! They were a lovely bunch. And they really did come out with some great stuff. TO  WIT:

One of the most amazing parts for me was how the entire class knuckled down when it was time to Actually Make The Thing, writing and drawing and entire 32-page comic in a single day. And here it is, their comic that they made... THE AWESOMEST COMIC!

I helped a bit, putting it all together and getting it print-ready, but it's 100% all their own work. 

There's some genuinely hilarious stuff in there; we're just looking into the logistics of it all and then we might put some of it up online, because frankly it DESERVES TO BE READ.

Anyway, yeah. Ludicrously hard work at times, but the moment we had at the end of the week when we held a little 'graduation ceremony' and they all got to come up and get a certficate and a copy of their comic that they made, handed to them by David Fickling... that was pretty great, and it felt like a great way to bring the book into the world.

Here are some photos from the party! (There's loads more, and an exclusive preview of the book, over on the David Fickling Books blog!)

 Addressing the troops! (Photo: Diane Cameron)

L-R: David Fickling, the incredible Kate Sayer from the Story Museum who was invaluable all week and without whose assistance I think I may have ACTUALLY DIED, The Awesomest Comic, me. (Photo by Diane Cameron)

Me, demonstrating my powers of EXTREME SHININESS to my class (photo by Susie Day)

The brilliant Susie Day and Sally Nicholls and OH WHAT'S THAT THEY'VE GOT THERE? (Photo by Jo Cotterill)

David Fickling, awesome book. (Photo by Jo Cotterill)

Oh, my new book? My new book, which comes out tomorrow? DID I NOT MENTION THAT I HAVE A BOOK COMING OUT TOMORROW?