Thought Bubble Week, Day 2: Comics For Everyone!

Photo courtesy of Abby Ryder

I blogged yesterday about one of the cool things I got to do at Thought Bubble over the weekend, running some workshops where I got to hang out and draw awesome robots with various delightful festivalgoers of all ages and self-professed abilities.

Anyway, another Very Cool Thing I got to Do was be part of a panel on the Sunday talking about Children's / All-Ages comics, titled 'Comics For Everyone'. I won't try and give a blow-by-blow account of everything we talked about but I just wanted to express how much fun it was and how great it was to meet, and indeed to discover the work, of my fellow panellists. To wit:

Nathan Fox - an amazing artist whose work was new to me and I'm delighted to have discovered. I picked up his amazing-looking book from Scholastic, Dogs of War, which tells several stories of dogs during wartime and - yeah, I haven't had a chance to read it in full yet, but already I have a horrible feeling it's going to cause me to experience EMOTIONS. Nathan's art is frankly phenomenal: incredibly characterful and dynamic, with really vigorous, powerful inks and just brilliant panel-to-panel comics storytelling.

Maris Wicks - another discovery for me, I grabbed her book Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas, because it is just exactly the sort of comic I wish we saw more of over here. A funny, charming, educational all-ages graphic novel about primatology. This was a New York Times Bestseller, people! KIDS LIKE COMICS, have I mentioned that yet?

And of course, Roger Langridge, who has written and drawn all kinds of amazing things from Fred The Clown to The Muppets to Thor the Mighty Avenger to hey look you probably don't need me to tell you how amazing Roger Langridge is.

Anyway, I enjoyed the panel hugely and can only hope the audience did half as much. Quite apart from the fact that all three were lovely, it was fascinating to learn how much I think we all had in common in terms both of our own experiences with comics and learning to read, and of our beliefs about how important comics, creativity and play are in kids' lives. It was also really interesting to me to get a chance to hear about the varying forms a lot of these issues take in different parts of the world and different comics cultures.

Matt Badham compered the thing excellently and also managed to get in contributions from some more creators in the audience; Dave Bulmer and Abby Ryder, creators of one of the exceptionally brilliant comic Imaginary Gumbo, Daniel Clifford of Art Heroes UK, and Richard Bruton of the Forbidden Planet blog, whose school graphic novel library is rapidly gaining legendary status and is something I always evangelise about whenever I'm talking to teachers and librarians.

ANYWAY. Yeah, it was really fun, and if you're remotely interested in the kind of stuff I usually talk about here, I can't recommend highly enough that you check out Roger, Nathan and Maris' work. 

  

Thought Bubble Week, Day 1: MARCH OF THE (awesome) ROBOTS

I spent a fantastic weekend just past at Thought Bubble, the Greatest Comics Festival in the World or Certainly Leeds. Amongst the numerous fun things I was doing there were running some informal workshops, teaching kids How To Draw Robots (Awesome Variety). I was doing this with Playful Leeds as part of their year-long March of the Robots project, which is a hugely fun and brilliant idea involving doing all kinds of activities and events to eventually fill Leeds with 10,000 ROBOTS, and which you can read all about HERE.

So here are some of our Awesome Robot Volunteer Design Team from the weekend!

A rather fine Robot That Walks Like an  Egyptian

 Cool Weird Manga-Style Undead Elf Bot! I think? Anyway, AWESOME, is the main point.

Why, it's award-winning author Dave Shelton and his BUS-BOT 3000!

"Cowboy Android #4"

 

 Why it's internationally renowned just-plain-brilliant cartoonist Kate Beaton, with her very venue-appropriate KNIGHT-BOT! (Have you read Kate's comics about knights? They are pretty great comics.)

 

Even Nazi super-criminals love drawing robots! And Pacific Rim, apparently.

Why, it's Phoenix comics and design superstar Matt Baxter and his "Wibble-Limbed Wobble-Bot". Lord help us.

A Robot named Larry. "Larry is here to be your friend, he'll love you and compliment you and be a really nice guy".

I WANT A LARRY.

 

Why, it's award-winning comic creator Zoom Rockman's little brother Ace! Pictured here with the first of approximately ONE BILLION AWESOME ROBOTS he drew over the weekend.

Zoom-bot (no relation)

A highly colourful Werewolf-Bot and a Mo-Bot! HOORAY!

Why, it's the excedingly dapper comic creator Matthew Bramble and his esoteric six-legged sort-of-a-chameleon-I-guess?-bot!

 

Why, it's Phoenix comics superstar of tomorrow (ALMOST LITERALLY, he's got a page in next week's!), Jordan Vigay!

A rather fine Mondrian-inspired robotic crocodile.

DUDE look at that Shark-Bot.

Why, it's legendary Transformers artist and Doctor Who storyboarder Andrew Wildman, with a special Celebrity Guest Robot!

This kid was great, loved Platypuses so much he drew one brilliant Platypus-bot and then immediately drew  another.

  

...and then a third. Which he proceeded to WEAR AS A MASK.

And finally, this young roboticist done FLIPPED THE SCRIPT on everyone, not merely drawing a robot but taking the drawing sheet and converting it INTO A ROBOT. Dammmmnnnnnn!

Those are the few I managed to get pictures of, anyway, but they represent the merest grain of sand in the ENORMOUS BEACH of giant robot designs that had accumulated by the end of the weekend. The stated goal of the MOTR project is to design, construct or otherwise bring-into-being 10,000 robots in Leeds over the year, and I feel sure we must have made at least some steps towards that target at Thought Bubble.

Oh hey, and here is a video of me, drawing a Pie Floater-Bot, for reasons I am not even going to attempt to explain.

Anyway,it was a huge amount of fun, and I'd just like to say an enormous thank you to everyone who came along and hung out and drew robots, and most of all to Emma Bearman of Playful Leeds  for inviting me along to be a part of it, and also for just being generally lovely, and also for buying me stew.

Anyway, that is One Cool Thing I was doing at Thought Bubble. Tomorrow, and indeed every day this week, I will try and post about some of the other ones.

Thought Bubble 2013

I'm going to be at Leeds' Thought Bubble comics festival this weekend and I am super excited for it! How excited? So excited I am missing Doctor Who for it and I don't even care!* I had a metric ton of fun last year so I'm really looking forward to doing it again. Here is where and when I can be found!

Saturday 23rd November

12pm - HOW TO DRAW (AWESOME) ROBOTS workshop at Playful Leeds table (Tables 63-64, Royal Armouries Hall)
2pm - PERILOUS PIRATES workshop at The Phoenix Comic table (Tables 53-57, Royal Armouries Hall)

Sunday 24th November

10:40am - COMICS FOR EVERYONE panel - Speech Bubble Panel Area, Armouries Square,
12pm - HOW TO DRAW (AWESOME) ROBOTS workshop at Playful Leeds table (Tables 63-64, Royal Armouries Hall)
3:30pm DANGEROUS DINOSAURS workshop at The Phoenix Comic table (Tables 53-57, Royal Armouries Hall)

**EDIT: Here's some info about the panel I'm appearing on Sunday Morning, from Matt Badham who'll be moderating it! **

Thought Bubble is my favourite comics convention, writes Matt Badham, and so I'm very pleased to be hosting a panel there on Sunday 24th November at 10.40am.

The panel is called 'Comics For Everyone' and I think it's going to be great. Here's its description from the Thought Bubble website:

We here at Thought Bubble believe that comics should be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of their age, and that great kids' comics should be read by everyone! So if you're a young comic fan, or one who never grew up, and want to hear about some great stories to read, please come along and get the low-down from some of the best creators out there!

Well, I don't know about you but that's sounds to me like THE. BEST. PANEL. EVER!

(I might be slightly biased…)

Especially as those aforementioned creators are Neill Cameron, Meredith Gran, Nathan Fox, Roger Langridge and Maris Wicks.

(Seriously, make sure you check out their work even if you don't make the panel. It's fab.)

I hope to see you (yes, you!) on Sunday for what I think is going to be a fascinating panel, at which you'll get tons and tons of recommendations of groovy comics to read. (What could be better than that?) Please come along. It's gonna be a blast (as is the whole convention)!

Matt Badham

Freelance Writer

Blog: http://somethoughtsoncomics.blogspot.co.uk/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattbadham

...sounds good, right? Come along!

In between times I will probably be hanging out at either / or the Phoenix and Playful Leeds tables. Here's a map showing the layout of the family area, courtesy of Daniel Clifford of Art Heroes UK:

Come say hello!



*.. OH, I CARE.

Comics For 6-Year-Olds

I was asked on twitter recently for recommendations for comics for a 6-year-old-boy, and, well, as I spend quite a lot of time thinking about comics, and the rest of my time bringing up a 6-year-old boy, I was able to suggest a few. Please note that I am in no way qualified or knowledgeable enough to even attempt any kind of The Greatest Comics For Children list, so here instead is a completely subjective list representing The Favourite Comics Of One Particular 6-Year-Old Boy.

Although if I may brag for a moment, this kid has excellent taste in comics.

 

1: Good Dog, Bad Dog by Dave Shelton

I've lost count of the number of times I've been forced to read this. Fortunately, it is an absolute joy to read, particularly as I get to bust out my best Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre impressions when doing the voices. A very funny, action-packed noirish crime story, with dogs. Beautiful art, superlative storytelling.

Buy from: The Phoenix | Page 45 | Forbidden Planet | Amazon |

2: 'Fish Head Steve' by Jamie Smart.

The laughter-so-helpless-you-actually-stop-breathing-inducingly hilarious tale of a boy who wakes one day to discover his head has been replaced by a dead fish. And his best friend's head has been replaced by a live cow. And his Dad's head has been replaced by a toilet, which flushes when he gets stressed out. And so on. We took it on holiday, and the boy sat absorbed in it for hours. Genuinely, hours. Which means I love this book more than I can possibly express, because it gave me the single most precious gift a parent can receive: A Moment's Peace.

Buy from: The Phoenix | Page 45 | Forbidden Planet | Amazon | 

3: Super Animal Adventure Squad by James Turner

Another much-read, gloriously silly favourite. Pirates, spies, talking animals, TV chefs, and much hilarity involving the Jade Baboon of Rangoon (and it's secret Moon Spoon.)

Buy from: The Phoenix | Forbidden Planet | Amazon |

4: ASTRODOG by Paul Harrison-Davies

A new favourite; a wonderful, charming, wordless sci-fi adventure. Hugely recommended.

Buy: direct from it's creator's online store.

 

5: TINTIN by Herge.

This almost seems too obvious to list here, but hey. It's a classic for a reason. Particular love here for Secret of the Unicorn / Red Rackham's treasure, but I look forward greatly to working our way through the entire oeuvre over the years to come.

Buy from: oh come on, any bookshop in the land.  

6: Do I even have to say it?

The Phoenix, by Various

Of course the Phoenix. His very own comic that arrives every week, addressed to him, and packed full of glorious silliness, thrilling adventure and jokes about bums. I realise my objectivity may be slightly questionable here, but I really do think that is a rather wonderful thing for a child to receive. He particularly loves Laura Ellen Anderson's Evil Emperor Penguin, and Bunny VS Monkey by Jamie Smart (again. What can I say, that guy speaks the secret language of 6-year-olds VERY WELL.)

(He also loves Adam Murphy's historical interview strip Corpse Talk, but that's still very much one we have to read together.)

(...he ALSO also loves Pirates of Pangaea and Art Monkey, but I'll admit there may be possible bias there.)

Buy from: Waitrose, branches of Waterstones, these stockists.
Or: Buy Phoenix subscription packs and gift boxes online.

 

7: Terrible Tales of the Teenytinysaurs by Gary Northfield.

Gross, hilarious, beautiful, sweet. And it's about dinosaurs. Honestly, as Comics For 6-Year-Olds Go, basically perfect.

Buy from: The Phoenix | Page 45 | Amazon |

 

9: WELCOME TO YOUR AWESOME ROBOT by Viviane Schwarz

Funny, imaginative, creativity-inspiringly wonderful. He loved this one so much it pretty much took over our lives for a month. SO much fun, reading and re-reading it and then putting it all into practise constructing our own (awesome) robots.

Buy from: Flying Eye Books | Amazon |  

Okay, that's it! Eminently sensible Christmas presents all, frankly.

I talk a lot (literally; I have given talks lately, a lot) on the subject of comics for children and all the benefits reading comics brings to kids. But to ignore all the stuff about literacy and visual literacy and whatnot for a moment, the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT benefit that comics bring to children is, simply, fun, and I think the comics on this list are all great examples of that. Comics are hugely fun. For kids to read on their own, or for grown-ups to read with them, they're a wonderful thing. A good comic can bring excitement and laughter and joy into their readers' worlds, and heaven knows we could all use a bit of that.

A couple of points to note:

1) Obviously, all of the comics mentioned here are eminently suitable for people who, whether by age or gender, are NOT 6-year-old boys.

2) Conversely, there are many other fine children's comics - and many that I myself love deeply - that are not on this list. I'm just sharing the entirely subjective favourite comics of my own kid.

FURTHER READING SUGGESTIONS:

You can find a few more of MY favourite children's comics listed here:  http://neillcameron.blogspot.co.uk

 

You can find a great list of children's comics that I, to my shame, have mostly never read or even heard of, compiled by Zainab Akhtar, here: http://comicsandcola.blogspot.co.uk/p/ive-been-meaning-to-put-together-list.html

And Louie Stowell has a great and ever-expanding 'master list' of children's comics recommendations here:  http://loustow.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/a-bird-on-fire-and-other-comics-for-kids/

And a bunch of other fine suggestions were made when I originally tweeted this list under the #comicsFo6YearOlds hashtag, which I've Storified here: http://storify.com/neillcameron/comics-for-6-year-olds

Happy reading, and I guess I'll see you back here next year for a list of recommended Comics For 7-Year-Olds!

---

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSORS

You'll notice how I was TOO CLASSY to mention it in the list above, but the boy is also quite keen on my own book, Mo-bot High, which you can find out all about here:  www.mobot-high.com
 /2012/07/comics-in-classroom.html

Talking Lost Tales with Adam Murphy

Artwork from Strong Wind and Little Scabs (c) 2013 by Adam Murphy

I recently read a comic so astonishingly good - so cleverly made, perfectly judged, emotional and frankly beautiful - that it took my breath away. I mean this quite literally; I turned one page and GASPED FOR AIR.

It was really quite a good comic, is the point I'm trying to make. Anyway, the comic was called Strong Wind and Little Scabs, and it was by Adam Murphy. You may know Adam as creator of the weekly historical zombie-interview strip Corpse Talk in The Phoenix, and Strong Wind and Little Scabs represents, I am delighted to learn, merely the first entry in Adam's ongoing new series under the umbrella title Lost Tales, in which he will be adapting various strange, little-known or just spectacularly odd folk tales from around the world and putting his own unique and highly personal stamp on them.

Anyway, immediately upon finishing reading, I had  a thousand questions about the strip and, fortunately for me, I know Adam and he agreed to let me ask him said thousand questions. I recorded our chat as a podcast, and you can listen to it here. We primarily discuss Lost Tales, but also take in Corpse Talk and Adam's forthcoming, absolutely-categorically-NOT-for-children comic Fever Dreams, covering such issues as Adam's artistic influences, his goals in telling these stories, the challenges of making a living as a comics artist, and the sheer uncomprehending cosmic horror that is being a child.

If you're remotely interested in creating comics, or specifically in comics for children, I hope you'll give this a listen, as Adam is very much a person worth listening to on those subjects.

 

Link to podcast | iTunes link

(A quick disclaimer: there was a lot of white noise during sections of the recording, I've done my best to clean it up but there are a couple of sections where the sound gets a little fuzzy. Do stick with it, it generally clears up pretty quick and I hope is worth it.) 

Page from 'The Grateful Dead Guy', (c) 2013 by Adam Murphy.

You can learn more about Adam's work on his website, at www.adammurphy.com 

'Strong Wind and Little Scabs' appears in issues 88-89 of The Phoenix, and 'The Grateful Dead Guy' appears in issues 96-97. All back issues are available from the Phoenix shop or through the Phoenix iPad app.

In case I haven't made this clear: I RECOMMEND THAT YOU READ THEM.

Thank you for your time.

 

Choose Your Adventure! Choose... YOUR FATE!

I just wanted to give a quick mention here to a comic strip I made that came out this week: an Art Monkey 4-pager which appears in this week's issue of The Phoenix (#93), and is something a bit exciting: a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure comic!

This is something I've been wanting to try for ages. My original idea was going to be more vaguely educational, more focused on the way that choices you make when writing a story affect the tone and shape of the story. And it ended up being mostly a load of silly jokes about zombies and bananas and stuff. But never mind that! It was an insane amount of work to figure it all out and make sure it worked and read intelligibly, and I think it ended up being a lot of fun.

Here are some pics of my layouts, so you can see some of the figuring-out alluded to earlier for yourself!

And here, if you've got a copy already, is a BONUS FUN SCAVENGER HUNT GAME! Can you find, in the strip, the following...

• Asha and Shelly, famed pupils of Mo-Bot High
• Jobo Hairyfoot and Alf Garibaldi, famed binmen of the future (and stars of my super-sweary old small press comic, Dumbass Comics) !!!BONUS OBSCURITY POINTS!!!
• President Barack Obama
• Zombie versions of any / all of the above
• the leader of a race of heroic shape-changing robots that shall go unnamed here for copyright-infringement reasons.

Find them all and WIN A PRIZE! That prize being: FUN!

You can buy the Phoenix from these fine outlets, or as an app for iPad, or direct from the Phoenix website. Please do so!

How To Make Awesome Comics: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

I've recently been doing a mini-series of How To Make (Awesome) Comics strips in The Phoenix focusing on each individual step in the comics-making process, and here are some Activity Sheets for anyone who'd like to have a whirl at putting it into practise!

First, here is a SAMPLE SCRIPT for you to practise drawing!

PDF Version

Next, here is a page of SAMPLE PENCIL ART for you to practise your inking on!

PDF Version

And finally, here is a page of INKS, for you to have a go at colouring in!

PDF Version

Have fun, Comics Creators of Tomorrow! And don't to forget to send your masterpieces in for Art Monkey and co to have a look at - full details over on the Phoenix website!


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