I've got a new website

Well, what do you know, I've got a new website. I know, it looks pretty much like the one I've had for the last few years. But now it's called kevfcomicartist.com and there's a link to where you can buy Findlay Macbeth. Preeeetty good.

Findlay Macbeth & Prince Of Denmark Street - now on sale

Findlay Macbeth, my debut graphic novel, and its successor The Prince Of Denmark Street are both on sale now on Amazon for just £5.99. Or, if you want a signed copy, you can order them direct from me.

Findlay Macbeth on Amazon

Prince of Denmark Street on Amazon

Signed copies - just apy £6.99 per book at paypal.me/KevFSutherland, making sure to include your address, and letting me know which book(s) you want, and a signed copy will be yours.

Libraries and schools can order copies from their usual supplier Askews and Holts. https://www.askewsandholts.com/


FINDLAY MACBETH

Findlay Macbeth is my comic strip adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy like you’ve never seen it before. I’ve brought my comedy storytelling approach to bear on the bard, in a comedy thriller giving the familiar take a unique spin.

Findlay Macbeth is a mild mannered unassuming salesman working for a small company in Scotland in 1977, and his wife Linda is an aspirational social climber. But a life of Ford Cortinas, shagpile carpets and fondue based dinner parties is turned on its heavily-hairsprayed head when the chance of becoming the new Managing Director passes him by, and Mr and Mrs Macbeth embark on a plan for success which turns out like no-one could have wanted.

This 125 page graphic novel is written and drawn by me, and aims to be suitable for readers of all ages - well, let’s just say, if you’re old enough to watch Macbeth you’re old enough to read this. Blending 1970s sitcom and crime dramas with the classic tale of ambition, it’s Abigail’s Party meets The Scottish Play meets Asterix, Naruto, Watchmen and The Beano and I hope you’re going to like it.

As well as the 125 page comic strip, you get the full text of Shakespeare's play illustrated by me. 

THE PRINCE OF DENMARK STREET

"Something's rotten, look at the state of Denmark Street" 

In the brand new graphic novel from Kev F Sutherland (Beano, Marvel), Hamlet is relocated to 1977, on London's Tin Pan Alley at the heart of the music business. A punk rock opera with a twist, when Prince Hamlet finds what happened to his dad, there's hell to pay. 120 pages of original comic strip drama, plus the full text of Shakespeare's Hamlet in one classic volume. The follow up to his debut graphic novel Findlay Macbeth. 

"A hit, a palpable hit!"

I Grown A Big Bum - comics by kids

The busy season of Comic Art Masterclasses continues, hopefully getting them all squeezed in before the clampdown on travel and schools begins because of the Covid 19 coronavirus pandemic, and included three whole days at Fir Tree Primary in Newbury. And it was only on the eve of my first day that I discovered, through crossed wires in our emails, that the Head had booked me to work with Year 1 and 2 as well as my usual Year 3 and older. I've only worked with Year 2 a couple of times, and after every previous time have vowed never to do it again as they're too young to understand what I'm talking about and do produce any worthwhile work. However this time, thinking it through, scheduling and planning the days well, I managed to get a good comic from them and, horror of horror, Year 1s. (Courtesy of the Year 6s, above, I learned of the trope of the Roadman. Apparently some sort of new "chav" stereotype, popular in memes.)

Day two at Fir Tree was year 3 in the am, then the dreaded year 1s in the afternoon. My trepidation in doing a class with pupils so young is that, since what I'm teaching is a combination of writing and drawing, the kids will struggle if they can't do either yet. But I managed to amend and extend certain parts of the class, made the demonstrations viewer-friendly without talking down to them (too much), and what do you know we did it. You can see from their doodles on the cover that the five and six year olds could in fact draw well enough to put something recognisable on the page, and the help of the teachers in the room was invaluable in making sure no one was struggling. I came away rather pleased with myself. On balance, though, I won't be offering the classes to the infants in a hurry.

Day three at Fir Tree was the safe ground of year 4 and 5, who came up with my two favourite titles of the week. No, the reference to Seal made absolutely no sense to them. Sometimes these things are thrown in for the benefit of me and the teachers.

The week began at Kirby Hill primary in Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, the longest drive of the week. Morgz is, I am told, a Youtuber. When it comes to selecting celebs for my demo strip, if I haven't heard the name they shout out (they shout out 4, from which we choose the one that goes into the strip) it's almost either a footballer or a Youtuber. In this case the novel name came in the comic's title, not the celeb, but the same principle applies.

The celebrities these eight groups chose to star in my demonstration strip on the flipchart were Elvis Presley, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Michael Jackson, Ariana Grande, John Barrowman, Justin Bieber, The Queen, and Charli D'Amelio (she is, I'm told, someone who does dancing on Tik Tok, m'lud).

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. His debut graphic novel Findlay Macbeth comes out in March. Follow Kev on Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here. 

My debut graphic novel Findlay Macbeth, available to order now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevfcomicartist/findlay-macbeth

Don't Mind The Dead Bodies In My Basement - comics by kids

My World Book Day/Week marathon continued with me getting back from Glasgow on a slightly delayed flight, getting five hours sleep, then driving to London for a day at Francis Holland School For Girls in Sloane Square, where these two inspiring comics emerged. The only downside of the day was the parking ticket that I got at the end (memo to self, you can't park near Boston Manor tube any more, unless you want to pay £55 for the privilege).

World Book Day itself, a date for which there was much competition, was bagged by Kimpton, Thruxton and Fyfield Primary near Andover in Hampshire. A luxury in this week of travelling, this school was less than two hours from home, and My Grandma Is In The Army must be my favourite front cover of the week.

The week ended at Woodlands primary in Tamworth, with me shoehorning a particularly bad picture of Cliff Richard into the front cover. Thursday and Friday's schools commemorated Book Day by having the kids dressed up as book characters.

That is to say, at least half of one school were dressed as superheroes - I saw three or four Black Panthers, two Deadpools, half a dozen Batgirls and as many Supergirls, a handful of Harley Quinns, and a football team's worth of Thors, Iron Men, Spider-Men and Hulks. Not one of the kids had read, or possibly even seen, a comic with these characters in. I suggested getting the kids to bring in a book containing whichever character they're dressed as, if we wanted this to really be a Book Day that was about encouraging reading. But then I realised the problem. Where would these kids, or their parents, find an Iron Man book? A Black Panther book? Unlike in my childhood when they could have simply gone to WH Smith and picked up a comic for 10p, now they'll be lucky to find the few Marvel reprint comics that remain, and won't get much change from a fiver for each one. I'll think on it.

Flipcharts from Thursday and Friday's schools. In both instances I had time enough to set up and do a nice bit of drawing before the class started. Both went on to have more detail, but I didn't get a photo of them in their final state.

The celebrities these six classes chose to star in my demonstration strip were Donald Trump (twice), Jennifer Aniston, Billie Eilish, James Bond, and Kobe Bryant.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. His debut graphic novel Findlay Macbeth comes out in March. Follow Kev on Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here. 

My debut graphic novel Findlay Macbeth, available to order now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevfcomicartist/findlay-macbeth

The World's Ending and No-one Cares - comics by kids

If it's March it must be World Book Day. Which, as usual, extends out into a book week and, very nearly, a book month. Thursday 5th was the day itself, and I could easily have appeared in a dozen schools if I could have cloned myself. The Book Day marathon began on the last Friday on February at Redlands Primary in Worksop where they spawned these two fab creations. (That's supposed to be Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys, by the way, not Chesney Hawkes).

The big week itself saw some big travelling, starting with me jetting up to Glasgow for a day at Craigton Primary, where the P4s and P5s created these gems. From there I drove down to the Lake District...

At Old Hutton Primary near Kendal, the kids produced these two coincidentally-linked titles. Our first mention of Coronavirus, history may like to note. From there I drove the two and a half hours back to Glasgow airport in order to fly home. And the week continued, in the next blog...

The celebrities these six groups chose to star in my demonstration strip were Dwayne Johnson, Michael Jackson, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Lewis Capaldi and Miranda Hart.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. His debut graphic novel Findlay Macbeth comes out in March. Follow Kev on Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here. 

My debut graphic novel Findlay Macbeth, available to order now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevfcomicartist/findlay-macbeth

Mom Wanted A Med Spoon - comics by kids

We've just had half term, so these comics come from classes at Bridgwater Arts Centre. A lovely little place with a sweet little pair of groups including parents and kids. And always nice to get a new cultural icon recorded in a front cover. Like I'll ever watch the show with Young Yoda in (which, at time of writing, hasn't even been on TV in the UK).

Two days at Avondale College in Rathdrum produced some top notch comic titles, these two the product of Transition Year. I've given up trying to understand what Transition Year is, but it's probably 4th Year, which is probably Year 10 in old money, but who can ever be sure?

The second day in Rathdrum, with 2nd Years (yr8) gave us the best title of the week, and a totally unintentional mis-spelling of "craic".



Back in half term week, these comics were produced by kids at Bexleyheath Library, and though the drawing of the covers is a bit rushed on my part, the end result is fun as always.

The celebrities these 8 groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Eddie Murphy, Lewis Capaldi, Kim Kardashian, Simon Cowell, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr, The Queen and Bob Ross.

My debut graphic novel Findlay Macbeth, available to order now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevfcomicartist/findlay-macbeth

Findlay Macbeth plugging continues

As I lose track of which screen grabs I have and haven't posted up here, the plugging of Findlay Macbeth continues. Though having got over the £500 mark in two days, another four days have only seen our total rise to £711, so more plugging is needed.

I've made the A5 pages, done some redrawing, and laid out the pages of the play itself. I've made the endpapers and the preface and frontispiece and whatever all those bits are called. Only the Thanks and acknowledgements are needed, which will have to wait till Kicky McKistarter has run its course, then into production we go.

In Kendal for my classes, which other hotel could I possibly stay in?

A new ad to go on my Comic Art Masterclass emails, that'll do the trick...

My debut graphic novel Findlay Macbeth, available to order now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevfcomicartist/findlay-macbeth