On Comics and Literacy

I'm just blogging this because I keep having conversations about comics and literacy, and I wanted to have this up somewhere I could easily point to it. It's a quote that was forwarded on to me by Caro Fickling of The Phoenix, who knows rather a lot about such things, and it makes several great points far better than I could ever hope to. So here you go:

The 21st century is a visual world with a visual culture, but also requires high levels of reading competency. Comics, as sequential art, are a pictorial representation of a narrative. Comic art combines printed words and pictures in a unique way. Many literacy skills are required, including the ability to understand a sequence of events, to interpret the characters’ nonverbal gestures, to discern the story’s plot and to make inferences.

- International Federation of Library Associations paper at their 2009 Conference.

Phoenixy Thought Bubbly ZOO of AWESOMENESS!

Yes, this weekend I'll be up in Leeds at the fantastic Thought Bubble comics festival, where I'll basically be hanging out in the Phoenix Family Area drawing stuff and teaching kids to draw stuff and, y'know, stuff. Or, to give it it's official title, being a Zookeeper of Awesomeness with my Comics Bro, the amazing Gary Northfield! We'll be running a contest all weekend for kids to design their own bizarre and outlandish comics creatures, with the best and bizarrest getting to appear IN the Phoenix in a TOP SECRET but HIGHLY EXCITING comics crossover spectacular! I have SAID TOO MUCH ALREADY!

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! We will also be having a titanically tumultuous DRAW-OFF over the course of the day on the Saturday, with a bunch of Phoenix artists competing LIVE for your entertainment in a drawing battle... TO THE DEATH!!!*

* not strictly true!

MEET THE CONTENDERS: 

Adam “The Exhumer” Murphy

Adam will be looking to bring his particular brand of ghoulish glee with him as he vies to win Top Banana for Thought Bubble 2012. This examiner of the expired, interrogator of the interred and creator of the brilliant Corpse Talk, Adam will be ready to bring the wrath of the undead with him and to use his drawing dexterity to make his competitors stark grave- ing mad!

Gary “Shrubbery Supremo” Northfield
Gary comes to Thought Bubble 2012 to ‘till it like it is’. The creator behind the fabulous Gary’s Garden, Gary will be bringing his own brand of angry insect art to the competition … but beware Gary will be treating his ‘anenomes’ like his Garden … Weed ‘em and reap!

Alex “The Merciless” Matthews
His ancient heroes may be Useleus but he certainly isn’t … Alex “The Merciless” Matthews will be looking to bring the strength of Hercules, the wrath of Zeus and the might of the Minotaur to Thought Bubble 2012. Along with Will Dawbarn, Alex is behind the stunning adventures of Useleus, the hapless hero of Ancient Greece … but don’t let this fool you, for like an ancient Greek sea monster, if you are against Alex, you better get Kraken!

Neill “the prehistoric powerhouse” Cameron

Demon of dinosaurs, paragon of pirates and brilliant buccaneer, Neill “the prehistoric powerhouse” Cameron is coming to Thought Bubble 2012 to offer his competitors more buckle than they can swash! Along with Daniel Hartwell, Neill is behind the stunning Pirates of Pangaea, and not only that but he is a very close personal friend to the one and only Professor Panels from How To Make Awesome Comics! With a wealth of comic creating talent behind Neill, people often ask “Why are his comics so good” there is only one answer … they just arrgghh.

Rob “The Astro-Assassin” Deas
Expect great things as Rob puts his bid in to win the Top Banana award. Rob is behind the excellent alien archaeologist, Troy Trailblazer. Packed with sci-fi thrills, starbound spills and strange alien beasties Rob is no stranger to comics danger. Fellow competitors be on your guard, if the astro-assassin beats you, you’d better be ready to Apollo – gise!

Dave “The Detective” Shelton
Don’t be fooled; Dave wants to be named Top Banana at Thought Bubble 2012 and he means business! As the creator of the amazing crime capers of Good Dog Bad Dog, Dave’s canine creations could have his opponents wondering if he is guilty of War mongreling!

Matt “The Story Stallion” Baxter
The Phoenix editorial team will have their paws and trotter crossed for Matt as he enters the comic creation ring for Thought Bubble 2012. Documentor of the thrills and spills of Phoenix HQ life, Matt threatens to bring a level of comic creation that could be unrivalled. But just in case he doesn’t Chops has taught him the necessary moves to win. Prepare yourselves for high flying porky kung fu when Matt pulls out … the pork chop!

Come along to The Phoenix stand to shout your support & to find out who will be crowned The Phoenix’s Top Banana of Thought Bubble 2012!

Do come along and say hello if you're around! We'll be in Royal Armouries Hall, and you should be able to find us fairly easily by following the sounds of comics-battling zookeeping nonsense! Or look up the details on the Thought Bubble website, I guess.

ALSO: I will have with me a limited stock of Mo-Bot Highs (which I will be sketching in), Christmas Cards, and Banana Banana Banana prints and if you fancied buying any of them, well that would HELP A BROTHER OUT.

See you there!

Bananas, Desert Island Comics, Monkey Mash-Ups

 
ITEM: Look what I made! I'd been threatening to do this for a while, and finally ran out of the common sense not to:some limited edition poster prints of the already-legendary (to about 5 people) BANANA BANANA AND HIS BANANAS BANANAS BANANAS! A.k.a the Sensational Character Find of 2012! (To about 5 people).

In case you have no idea what I am talking about, here's where it comes from (page 4 of my Art Monkey Adventures strip, Mecha Monkey Meltdown, from The Phoenix issue... um, can't remember which issue.)

See? All makes PERFECT SENSE now. Anyway, you can now buy a nice print from my web shop, or get one from me at Thought Bubble! Oh yeah, I am going to be at Thought Bubble. Hold on, I'll get to that in a minute.

Where was I? Oh yeah.

ITEM: I just picked my Desert Island Comics for the Forbidden Planet International blog, and you can check out my list over there. I spent a frankly ridiculous amount of time thinking about it, and it is very specifically the comics I would want with me if stranded on a desert island. Go read, and enjoy!

ITEM: In this week's issue of the Phoenix is my latest Art Monkey strip: my Mega Monkey Mash-Up Masterclass! It's basically an entire strip of ridiculous non-sequiturs that the reader is encouraged to cut up and reassemble into something vaguely resembling a coherent story. I rather like this one, I think it should be fun to do - kind of like a narrative jigsaw puzzle. Anyway, it might provide a fun distraction for 5 minutes. And just in time for half term! You can check it out in The Phoenix issue 42, available from all over the place, and if you don't wish to cut up your nice comic you can download it as an activity sheet straight from the How To Make (Awesome) Comics page on the Phoenix site!



Right, what else was I supposed to tell you? I'm sure there was something else.

This is the trouble with blogging, I always get too busy and put it off and by the time I get round to it there are like twelve different things I'm supposed to mention and I get all confused.

Oh, right:

ITEM: I've got a few more fun workshops / public appearances coming up in the next month or so, so I thought I'd add a whole new Upcoming Events page to give all the details. Oxford, Luton, Leatherhead, Dorking, London, and Leeds. Go have a look! FUN TIMES!

Another one for the Asylum

Firstly: I suppose the following contains SPOILERS if you haven't seen the "Asylum of the Daleks" episode of Doctor Who yet...

So, SPOILER WARNING!

...

Okay, so the Daleks can't remember the Doctor now, right? Which is all well and good and exciting, but it got me worrying about something, and... look, just read the comic I made about it.

How To Make (Awesome) Comics: LIVE!

Hello! After a long stint of being chained to the drawing board I've managed to loose my bonds a little and am planning to escape and take my whole 'teaching kids how to make awesome comics' schtick on the road again at a couple of upcoming events. They are...

22 Sept, Old Marston Library, Oxford - I'll be doing a quick comics workshop as part of a full day of family fun and events, celebrating the library's 50th anniversary and raising funds to help it continue. I'm on at 11am, it should be lots of fun, and I gather there will be cake, so any local Oxfordians with young comics fans in the family - do pop along!

30th October - Luton library - How To Make (Awesome) Comics workshops at 11am and 2pm. Had lots of fun at Luton last year, looking forward to a return engagement. Full details and booking information here!

31st October - extra-spooky MONSTERIFIC Halloween comics workshops at Leatherhead Library (10:30am) and Dorking library (2pm). Full details and booking information here! 

Come along for... oh, you know, this sort of thing.

 And then in November... it's Thought Bubble! for which all manner of fun and exciting Phoenixy good times are currently being concocted. Of which more anon...

On the subject of The Phoenix, and events - you can now listen to a recording of the Phoenix panel discussion from August's Caption comics convention in Oxford, available as a podcast from the excellent Panel Borders. I really enjoyed the panel; it's in large part where a lot of the ideas got rolling that led to my recent posts about Girls' / YA comics, and that prompted a lot of discussion, and that may end up... well, who knows where. Anyway, there's lots of erudite and thought-provoking discussion on the art and craft of making comics for children, with Phoenix creators Adam Murphy, Patrice Aggs, Robin Etherington and Daniel Hartwell, chaired by the brilliant David O'Connell. there is also me, mumbling in the opposite direction from the microphone. Enjoy!

OFF LIFE Comic: It is NEW! And FREE! And a COMIC!

The above is the cover to OFF LIFE issue 1 - it's a new street press comic that's launching soon, and is going to be distributed FREE - in London and Bristol to start, I think - and which features a rather fantastic line-up of contributors. They've got Tom Gauld, and Sean Azzopardi, and Rob Davis, and Lizz Lunney, and... seriously, just a whole bunch of amazing others. Go check out their site or follow them on twitter for more details, it really does sound like its shaping up to be something cool. And also: me! Yeah, I'm gonna be in there.


I think it's a really interesting idea, putting together a bunch of exciting contemporary indy comics voices and then just plain giving it away. M'colleague Jamie Smart wrote a blog post recently on the idea of giving comics away free and - I dunno, I think it's a really interesting area, and there's all kinds of pros and cons to be considered, certainly. But in this particular case I think what OFF LIFE are proposing to do is really exciting, and a great kind of Comics Outreach Programme of the sort I'll always want to support - taking the medium to people who would maybe never have gone into a comics shop, and showing them the kind of work they might never have expected.

Anyway, I'm delighted to be involved. The strip I'm contributing is one that may be familiar to long-term super-attentive excellent-memoried readers of this blog, but seeing as that's only about 4 people I'm hoping it will be resonably exciting for everyone else. It was something I was really pleased with, anyway, so I'm really happy it will be getting a bit wider of an audience. Which is to say, an audience.

OFF LIFE are currently running an Indiegogo campaign to help with the print costs of the first issue, and I'd really encourage you to consider throwing a couple of quid at it. My thinking is: they're making what sounds like a really cool comic, and they're going to be giving it to you free. If it sounds like the kind of comic you'd consider spending, say £2 on, then why not go and donate that £2? Out of the goodness of your heart, and for the good of comics, and all that. And help take comics TO THE MASSES!

How To Build a Ghost Pirate Dinosaur Ship

 

This week's issue of The Phoenix features the rip-roaring conclusion (and that's not just hyperbole: THINGS GET RIPPED AND THERE IS A LOT OF ROARING) of our recent Pirates of Pangaea mini-epic, Ghosts of Mathrak Chu! And so it seemed a good time to (a) remind you of this fact, so you can all run out and buy a copy, and (b) share a little peek at some of the art and how it was put together.

This story, of course, featured GHOSTS PIRATES riding on GHOST DINOSAURS, because I guess Dan had not quite sufficiently found ways to blow my mind with things that were awesome / painfully difficult to draw. Anyway, it took a bit of figuring out but I was really happy with how it turned out. "Spooky Dio De Los Muertos Dinos" was the general effect I was going for, and it involved adding a couple of extra stages in the inking and colouring. First I'd draw the regular dinosaur:

...and then do the skeleton as a separate layer. I've added a grey underlayer to these pics so that the skeleton was visible and, basically, so my writer and editor could get some idea what I was going for...

And then it was just adding the colours and a bit of glowy misty effects. Almost like making Mo-Bot Dinosaurs, really (and there's a whole other story waiting to happen...).

Here's a couple more pages!

Aaaand one more, this time with Sophie and Cornflower JUST PLAIN BEING AWESOME:

There were some pages in this thing that weren't splash pages, I swear.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who's said lovely things about our little return to Pangeaea, it's wonderful to hear people are enjoying it. I'm currently hard at work on our NEXT instalment, which is going to be another giant whopping epic adventure, full of - guess what - insanely awesome and exciting new ideas from Dan that are horribly hard to draw. COMING SOON TO THE PHOENIX! 

ALRIGHT, SOON...ISH!