Celery & Constipation - comics and flipcharts by kids

June has been the quietest month of the year for my Comic Art Masterclasses, being the height of exam season and with no Bank Holidays or half terms to fill. But inbetween working hard at my desk producing the Socks comic and finalising the show, I've managed a few days at the chalkface. These two examples are from Dean Close School in Cheltenham.

It was a long hot six and a half hour drive to Felixstowe for these two classes, but well worth it they were. Thanks to the Felixstowe Book Festival for laying on these sessions at the library.

This month saw a couple of events where I was invited to give a talk, but not to do the full class. So on both these occasions - at Croome House in Worcestershire, and a park in Maidenhead - I had lots of spare time on my hands in which to turn out a nice page of flipchart for them to keep. The examples above are from Croome, which was Beano themed as you can tell, and Dean Close school where my classes had a late start cos the kids had to get their innoculations. The one below was Maidenhead's flipchart.

At Ludlow Fringe I did one class on the afternoon ahead of doing the Socks show in the evening, and here's what they produced.

The celebrities these 5 groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Kim Jong Un, David Attenborough, Donald Trump (twice), and Tom Holland. PLUS - an added bonus - I did three talks (in Maidenhead and Croome) which didn't involve making a comic but did involve the demo strip, for which those three groups chose Simon Cowell, David Walliams, and Mary Berry.



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. 

Superheroes Flyer & Poster designed at last

At long last, and much later then in previous years, I've got the new flyers and posters artworked for our Edinburgh show. 2015's were completed in the April of that year (according to this blog, which shows all the previous flyers going back to 2007), but this year I've somehow not got round to it till now. (2016's flyer doesn't get blogged till August, so maybe I've not been so tardy this year after all). I'm particularly pleased with the back of the flyer.

The artwork, which I coloured specially, is from the splash page of the Socks Superheroes comic, which will be on sale at the Fringe, I hope (I'm sitting on nearly 500 copies, so we'd better start shifting them soon). Whether its resemblance to the Infinity War poster has retained any currency I don't know, but I think it represents the show well and should be fun to hand out at the rate of 300 a day.

I'd been struggling with the poster, trying to make it look more exciting and superheroic without cluttering it. I have a variety of other socks cartoon figures to use, but it became too busy when I stuck them in. So I went with lightning, which seems to have done the trick.


I've put in a bid for a big A1 poster outside the venue, though they're reserving those spaces for the shows in bigger rooms than me. Still, it would be great if I could have one and artwork a character-filled border to go with it. Let's see.

The Award Winning* Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 1st to 26th - ON SALE NOW! 

*Winners of the Bath Comedy Festival Lovehoney Best Joke Award 2018

Previews:

July 5 - Trinity Bar Harrow

July 11 - Neath Comedy Festival

July 19 - Bedford Fringe
July 29 - Derby Bar One
July 29 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern

Aug 1 - 26 - Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe

Chortle Perfect Playlist by The Socks

Perfect Playlist

Here comedians choose half-a-dozen or so of their favourite comedy moments, illustrated with clips. Whether it's just the things that make them laugh or important influences on their careers, these selections reveal what makes their comedy brains tick.

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre pick their perfect playlist from their favourite comedy double acts.

It’s our tenth year doing a brand new show at the Edinburgh Fringe, so it’s about time we fessed up and revealed the comedy acts off whom we ripped our act. Though every line we write is sparklingly original and fresh from our hard-working comedy brains, it’s hard to help noticing all these other acts who, spookily, did most of our schtick first.

Bob & Terry, The Likely Lads

You know that routine the Socks do in every show where one of us mishears a word the other one’s said and it spirals through a series of similar misunderstandings to a hilarious conclusion? Yes you do. Oh come on, we’ve done it in every bloody show. Well, it turns out (we find, having seen it repeated on Yesterday) we totally lifted that from Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads. Also the whole Aspirational One v Complacent One schtick. Thanks Clements & LaFrenais.



Peter Cook & Dudley Moore

There’s no shame in admitting you’re wallowing in the shadow of two of the most respected comedians in history. Although what we took from Pete & Dud wasn’t the sparkling wit or the accomplished piano playing. It was what Cook called Happy Amateurism, which was his excuse for being an alcoholic and our excuse for perennial underachievement. And corpsing. We took that from them too.



Peter Glaze & Don Maclean

History has largely forgotten this pair, who live on only in the memory of people of a certain age. They were the comedy stars of Crackerjack, on children’s BBC from the mid 70s to the early 80s, by which time Glaze, who had been a member of The Crazy Gang in the 50s, was already one of the oldest people I’d ever seen on the telly. He’s the guy who coined “D’oh”, which sadly Homer Simpson went on to own. As a double act they perfected the Cheeky One constantly getting the rise out of the Uptight One, and Crackerjack ended every week with a musical parody. Sometimes they changed the lyrics, but the songs were at their most satisfactory when they just sang them straight. I say straight…



The Two Ronnies

Gerald Wiley, aka Ronnie Barker, may be the single most influential writer on our work. He did word play which may have become unfashionable in subsequent years but stands the test of time, and did the best Putting Words To Other Peoples Songs there is.




National Theatre Of Brent

Why doesn’t everyone know the National Theatre Of Brent? Now riding high on the success of The 39 Steps, Patrick Barlow’s Desmond Olivier Dingle was the ultimate Uptight Guy Who’s Trying To Put On A Play. And Jim Broadbent, now way famouser than Patrick Barlow in a way that nobody would have predicted back the the National Theatre Of Brent’s heyday, was the best Dopey Sidekick ever. “Might ine ask” is a phrase still used regularly in our home. If you’ve never seen the NTOB, that will mean nothing to you. On the plus side, though, you’ll think the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre totally invented our way of doing Shakespeare parodies and historic re-enactions.



Mr Show with Bob & Dave

Mr Show wasn’t, strictly, an influence on The Socks because, to be honest, we’d been going for five years before we even knew it existed. But it pre-dates us, so it counts. And has some of the most out-of-the-box original double-act sketch work we’ve ever seen.



Abbott & Costello

If there had never been a Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre then history would have to settle for these guys. I mean, contrived word play? Histrionic over acting in a high pitched voice? A straight guy who never gets a laugh? It’s okay. We’re here now, you never have to watch these guys ever ag - Third Base!

The Award Winning* Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 1st to 26th - ON SALE NOW! 

*Winners of the Bath Comedy Festival Lovehoney Best Joke Award 2018

Previews:

July 5 - Trinity Bar Harrow

July 11 - Neath Comedy Festival

July 19 - Bedford Fringe
July 29 - Derby Bar One
July 29 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern

Aug 1 - 26 - Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe

Bechdel Test - new from the Socks

Brand new from the Socks, two superheroes try and pass The Bechdel Test. Enjoy.

This sketch hasn't made it into the show, though the song that goes with it has. Stay tuned for that if you see the show live, or when it makes its way online after the show's had its time in Edinburgh. This is a lovely bit of fun and I do hope people like it.

The Award Winning* Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 1st to 26th - ON SALE NOW! 

*Winners of the Bath Comedy Festival Lovehoney Best Joke Award 2018

Previews:

July 5 - Trinity Bar Harrow

July 11 - Neath Comedy Festival

July 19 - Bedford Fringe
July 29 - Derby Bar One
July 29 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern

Aug 1 - 26 - Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe

Thor & Odin - new from the Socks

Brand new video from The Socks' Superheroes playlist, Thor and Odin. Enjoy.

This is a gag that I first did in one of my comic strips, in something like UT, Gag, Blag, Gas or some such comic of the time, at least 25 years ago, so I'm making no claims for novelty here. But I've always liked the gag and, though it's not made it into the show, it works well as a short video. If only more people watched these things than come and see us live, eh?

The Award Winning* Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 1st to 26th - ON SALE NOW! 

*Winners of the Bath Comedy Festival Lovehoney Best Joke Award 2018

Previews:

July 5 - Trinity Bar Harrow

July 11 - Neath Comedy Festival

July 19 - Bedford Fringe
July 29 - Derby Bar One
July 29 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern

Aug 1 - 26 - Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe

More Socks gifs

Having fun creating these gifs, here, let's file a few more for posterity

The Award Winning* Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are Superheroes at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 1st to 26th - ON SALE NOW! 

*Winners of the Bath Comedy Festival Lovehoney Best Joke Award 2018

Previews:

July 5 - Trinity Bar Harrow

July 11 - Neath Comedy Festival

July 19 - Bedford Fringe
July 29 - Derby Bar One
July 29 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern

Getting paranoid about portraits

A small thing maybe, but I've been sent into the weekend in quite a paranoid state of mind having received a Friday afternoon email from a school I visited recently. It's a school I've visited a number of times over the years, doing my Comic Art Masterclasses, as part of which every child has their caricature drawn. The caricatures, which take a minute each, are probably the most popular and sought-after part of the class, with many teachers also clamouring to be drawn, and my work being exhibited and displayed on walls and school reports in my wake.

So my heart sank when I read, from a school which I won't name, the following.

We wanted to share and highlight some recent feedback from a parent in relation to the Caricatures drawn.  As you are aware they tend to highlight and draw out certain features of a person and we have been made aware this has created insecurities this time around for some of the children recently drawn.

We are very much looking forward to your return next year at (the school) but feel it would  be best if we do not do the Caricatures in class next time to avoid this happening again, I hope you understand our reasons for requesting this.

Not do the caricatures? Because of something said, by the sound of it, by one parent of one pupil who, by next year, won't even be at the school? They're seriously asking that, after nearly ten years of making an annual two day visit to the same school, over which time I've drawn about 900 childrens' caricatures, they should deny next year's Year 6s (the current Year 5s) the chance to take away this treasured item, that their brothers and sisters already have, all because of a parent of a kid who isn't even there any more?

You won't be surprised that my blood's boiling at the moment. And my mood hasn't been helped been the words of consolation from the Head who, when I protested, let me know that:

I was simply responding to a concerned parent who shared a social media thread with me. On it there were a number of posts from parents, past and present, who had commented on your visit. Although they thought what you did was fantastic, a number of them claimed that their children were made to feel self-conscious of features that had been exaggerated for the purpose of the caricatures.

"Social media thread"???? There are parents, more than one, talking about me and my caricatures behind my back? Where? What are they saying? This is horrifying.

I am looking forward to a paranoid weekend, scouring Twitter and Facebook trying to find who's bad-mouthing me, and the dreadful things they're saying about me. I am really worried that people could be saying untruths about my caricatures and that this could affect me work at other schools.

For over a decade I've been spending about 100 days a year teaching about 60 kids a day, and drawing all their faces. That's 60,000 faces drawn without a single complaint. Now some parents from one school have got me paranoid that there's something wrong with my work, and a school is threatening to not let me do that part of my class. I guess I just won't be returning to that school again. But, god, I seriously hope this isn't something that's going to spread.

Look at the pictures above. Those are the kids I drew at that school when I visited. Who could have a complaint about those pictures?

Yours, a paranoid artist.

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 de