Awesome Comics Makers: UNITE!

A couple of happy bits of follow-up to last week's series of posts on Comics and Literacy...

You remember how I said it would be great to try and build a network of comics clubs around the country, allowing educators and parents to share ideas and resources, and young comics makers to share their work? Well Hannah Sackett thought so too! And what's even better, she's actually doing something about it: she's begun by setting up Comics Clubs Unite! To quote Hannah:

I have set up this site to see if children’s comic clubs around the British Isles are interested in joining together to create a website where they can share ideas and comics made by children.
My current idea is to keep the site All Ages (I work with 7-11 year olds) and for comic clubs to take turns each month to post their comics (and reviews). There would also be space for worksheets, ideas for club activities, etc.

Which sounds fantastic, and I think could grow into a hugely marvellous thing. If you run a school or library comics club already - or if you're interested in starting one - please give Hannah a shout using the contact form on Comics Clubs Unite. And if you're a creator, or publisher who'd be up for helping out - perhaps contributing worksheets or ideas for activities - again, please get in touch! Hannah is @DrHComics on twitter, or by all means give me a shout and I'll pass it on.

ALSO: remember how I was talking about great comics creators who do workshops in schools? And one of the names I mentioned was Laura Howell - brilliantly talented cartoonist, historic feminist icon (she should be, anyway - first female cartoonist to work on The Beano in its 70+ year history!) and creator of one of my favourite comics of 2013. Anyway, I was just notified about a very cool-sounding competition launched by Staedtler Teachers Club, whereby you can win the opportunity for Laura to come and teach some comics workshops at your school!

Laura Howell: so good at drawing comics she can do it WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING

Here are a few words from Laura:

 “If I could go back in time and tell my ten-year-old self that I would one day be a professional comic artist, I doubt she would have believed me. But I hope I can convince talented young artists that if they never let go of their dreams, one day they might achieve it – I'm proof!”

Find full details and learn how to enter the competition here!

ALSO, speaking of Laura Howell and comics workshops: I am going to be doing some comics workshops with Laura Howell? MAN that was a segue. We'll be teaming up with the fantastic Louie Stowell to run some Write And Draw Your Own Comics workshops at the Cartoon Museum in London on October 26th, to celebrate the release of Usborne's excellent new book by that name, which Louie wrote and Laura and I drew some bits and bobs for. Come along, we are planning some really quite ridiculously fun things.

More information and booking details here!

MEGA ROBO BROS are GO(s)!

Hey! My NEW COMIC, Mega Robo Bros, begins in this week's issue of The Phoenix, and you do not want to miss out! It's a great issue all round anyway, but also: ROBOTS!

I'm really excited about this strip, I've got so many plans for it and am having huge amounts of fun. It concerns the adventures of Alex and Freddy, two kids who - well, they are robots? And they are brothers? It is all right there in the title?

You can buy The Phoenix from these fine vendors, by subscription, or digitally on iPad. Please do so!

To celebrate this new venture, and because I said it on twitter before thinking better of it, I am having a small MEGA ROBO COMPETITION! Simply tweet (or facebook, or blog) a photo of your cat* reading this week's Phoenix, and win an original sketch of Alex and Freddy, the Mega Robo Bros themselves! And indeed, possibly your cat.*

TAKE A PHOTO OF YOUR CAT READING THIS WEEK'S PHOENIX TO WIN AMAZING PRIZES!
— Neill Cameron (@neillcameron) February 24, 2014

*If you don't have a cat, dogs are allowed too.  And indeed goldfish. And indeed stick insects, zoo animals, or any variety of robot.

Here's a couple to start you off!

From @PollyLWH:

And an AWESOME CYBER DOG from @AlixCoughlin:

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

• Just tweet your photo with the hashtag #phoenixcats so I can find it!
• Competition runs until this Friday (28/02/2014), so you have plenty of time to FIND A CAT.
• Judges decision is final! Points will be awarded based on creativity, composition and ADORABLENESS.
• Or I might just pick one at random, so I feel less horribly guilty? I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO DO THIS.

Anyway, have a go! I will draw something cool, I promise. And check out Mega Robo Bros in the Phoenix, this week and indeed EVERY week until... you are all thoroughly sick of it?**

**NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. It has ROBOTS.
 

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!)

COMPETITION: Win the giant robot of your choice!

I very much enjoyed drawing Giant Robot Judge Dredd and Giant Robot Harry Potter this week, so I thought it would be fun to do another in this little sort-of-series. But who to turn into a giant robot next?

YOU DECIDE!

Yes, I thought it might be fun to turn it into a little competition, and give you YES YOU the chance to win a piece of original, custom artwork depicting a Mo-Botized version of the comics / movie / pop culture character of your choice. The winner will get an A3 full-colour poster print of the finished piece, as well as the ORIGINAL pencil sketch / whatever scribbles and roughs I do to get started.

TO ENTER: all you have to do is go 'Like' the Mo-Bot High Facebook Page, then say who you would like a giant robot version of. THAT IS IT. Closing date of January 15th, 2012, at which point I will use a combination of random number generation and deciding which one I most want to draw to pick a winner. (i.e. if the suggestion 'Batman' wins, and there are 20 entries saying 'Batman', I will pick the winning entry using a random number generator).

PS I'm not saying 'Batman' is going to win, that was just an example. Although I DO totally want to draw Giant Robot Batman.

Go enter! It will be FUN.

(If you're not on Facebook - oh, go on, just leave a comment here on the blog. But Facebook entrues MUCH HANDIER FOR ME, so would be appreciated.)

Mo-Bot Week rolls on tomorrow with the funnest and - by far - most ridiculous entry yet!

COMPETITION! Design A Fantastic Creature! And Win Fabulous Prizes!

Those fine people over at Devon Libraries are having a competition as part of The Big Draw in October to design fantastic, weird and wonderful creatures! The most fantastic, weird and wonderful will win prizes! There's some signed copies of Mo-Bot High in it for the lucky winners, for starters! And I will be helping to judge the entries. I promise to be fair, impartial, and completely immune to bribery. Unless anyone has any peanut butter m&m's. You DIDN'T HEAR ME SAY THAT.


Full info over on the Devon Libraries site! And in case you were wondering about the singularly weird and wonderful creature at the top of this post, she/he (?) is the result of a game-of-consequences-type collaboration between myself and the ludicrously talented and famous cartoonists Sarah McIntyre (head) and Garen Ewing (body). I drew the feet. Looking at it now, I think maybe we each modelled our sections after ourselves. Appropriated / recycled from the Super Comics Adventure Squad blog, lo these many years ago.