Voldemort Wears Pants On Monday - first comics of term

A new school year begins and, after a long break over the summer, I return to the chalkface to deliver the first Comic Art Masterclasses of term. As always the pupils go away with an A5 photocopied comic containing a strip by every one of them and an individual caricature by me. Here you can see I've added a wee bit of colour to the front covers. These are from Bournville Juniors in Birmingham.

And these, from Christchurch school in Wiltshire, demonstrate that some things won't be changing in a hurry. Firstly Donald Trump is as popular a figure of fun with Year 6s as ever. And secondly, whenever we're choosing the title for the group comic and a title comes up (written on little bits of paper, one from every pupil) that is clearly mis-spelled or, as in this instance, totally unintelligible, it will be the one that wins. Sometimes there's nothing funnier than the unpredictable. Except, maybe, Donald Trump.

Casting my mind way back, these were the last comics of the previous term, indeed the only comics produced in August. I'd decided not to run classes in libraries while up in Edinburgh, as I'd found it was detrimental to my main show in the evening, wearing my voice out, so these three days with one group at Balerno summer school were all we produced. There was a theme, for some reason.

To the right you see one of my many flipcharts. If I arrive early enough, I like to start the day by filling the flipchart with drawings, to show the kids how easy it can be. You can normally tell the ones I'm drawing in a hurry while talking to the kids (the Spider-Man and Iron Man for example).

To show that some other things also don't change, when asked to name a celebrity for my "Treads On A Worm" demonstration strip, all three classes at Bournville chose Simon Cowell. The other classes chose James Corden, Donald Trump and Selena Gomez.





Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here.