Kev F comic art: Lady Macbeth Sleepwalks Into A Pool Of Acid

Wednesday, 8 June 2022

Lady Macbeth Sleepwalks Into A Pool Of Acid - comics by kids

From a field in Hertfordshire, to working for the British Library in Leeds, from Chipping Barnet to Berwick On Tweed, this has been a busy week and a bit in the world of comics.

Chipping Barnet library was a class that was supposed to take place in February but got postponed by the storms that were so fierce they blew our fence over, in the house that we left at the start of March and haven't given a moment's thought to since. In all honesty I don't know if the new flat owners have ever gotten round to putting the fence back up. The reconvened class gave me the chance for one of my favourite and most colourable covers of the season.

The Exploding Toilet cover was very much a speedily rattled off job, produced in my class in a tent at the Wildwords Festival, in a field in Hertfordshire, where I also appeared on a game playing panel and hosted a live edition of Comic Cuts The Panel Show, for the first time in a year. Then came this Lady Macbeth cover, produced as part of a couple of small classes on a Macbeth theme, organised by the British Library at Leeds Playhouse. It was good to challenge myself to a different sort of class, and a bit of an honour to be being asked to do things by the British Library. The flipchart page got quite elaborate and Shakespearey, as I had more time than normal to doodle it.

Having driven all the way up to Leeds for Tuesday's classes, which were preceded by a Socks gig in Otley on Monday night (at a venue owned by Tony Wright, the former lead singer of Terrorvision, which was a surprise on arrival), the next day I was up at Brough in Cumbria, staying overnight in Appleby In Westmorland which is playing host to visiting travellers for the Appleby Fair, which is an interesting sight (any gardeners should get up there with a bucket and shovel is all I can say). The morning's comic, whose class included some year 2s (far too young for my class usually), and fell foul of my ignorance or naivety or just not playing attention. The original title the kids chose seemed innocent to me. Until the teacher pointed out at breaktime that it wasn't, and the kids, however young they might be, were fully aware of it. So I swiftly amended it...

Day four of my tour of the North was not quite as well planned as I thought. Having gone smoothly from Leeds, to Brough, I then found myself at Tweedmouth school which, because I'd been there before, I thought couldn't be that far away. I forgot that, when I'd been there before, I'd flown. It's in Berwick On Tweed, meaning I'd have at least a six hour drive home afterwards.

These kids in Tweedmouth were Year 8, with all that entails. So if Chang Wee turns out to be racist, and Big Fat Ting turns out to be another Bonzo Winky that's crept under the radar, I'm afraid the damage is done.

The celebrities these groups chose to star in my demonstration strip included some good first-time appearances in Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Amber Heard, alongside David Attenborough, Kim Kardashian, Johnny Depp (providing some coincidental balance, this being the week after the Depp v Heard trial ended) and Ed Sheeran. (Wildwords Fest and Leeds Playhouse didn't get to choose a celebrity, through pressure of time).