Ow! A Cobra Bit My Bum! - first comics of term

The first comics of the new school year by kids in my Comic Art Masterclasses, from Mendip Green in Worle to Phillipstown in Gwent to Sandy Lane in Bradford. Yes, this is the fruit of a fair bit of travelling, and what a delightful selection, wouldn't you say?

From the randomness of Clapapasp, a word which was the pure invention of its year 6 creator, to the accidental genius of Oluv in World War 2 - a mis-spelling of Olaf from Frozen, mixed up with the school's history project - these titles were chosen from 180 suggestions, all equally imaginative. Their choices for the celebrity who got to tread on a worm in my demonstration strip were slightly less varied: Simon Cowell (twice), Keith Lemon, Rihanna, Katy Perry and (suggested by a year 3 & 4 class) Mrs Brown the sweary-word drag act. Kids, eh?

An interesting range of class names this week too. In Mendip Green we have Class 14 and 15, both being the first ever year 4 classes in a school which is expanding upwards from being an Infant School, so next year those kids will become the school's first ever year 5s; in Phillipstown, in the valleys, we have Dosbarth Rira and Dosbarth Enfys, whose Welsh translation I'm sure you can work out so I won't insult your intelligence by explaining it here (I've forgotten. I've clearly forgotten.); and in Bradford we have classes named after famous local figures David Hockney and William Edward Forster (there was also a Titus Salt, a Richard Oastler and a JB Priestley, with the kids campaigning to have a class named after Zayn Malik out of One Direction)*.

*(I've just Googled famous people from Bradford and it must be the biggest wellspring of celebrity and influence of any town in the country! Check them out. What other town of a similar size could boast luminaries as varied as Mollie Sugden, Rodney Bewes, Harvey Smith, Dynamo, Harry Corbett, Tasmin Archer, Richard Whitelely, Mortimer Wheeler, Kimberley Walsh, Ricky Wilson, Tony Richardson, George Layton, Fred Hoyle, Gareth Gates, the author who wrote Lassie, a Doctor Who companion, dozens of famous cricketers & footballers, and heaps of inventors and industrialists. Well done Bradford.)



Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing Pansy Potter in The Beano, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. He's been writing and drawing comics for 25 years, he must know something.