Brighton to Bradford, a tour diary

It's called a panorama fail, a brilliant feature of my new iPhone, which I've had for a month and a bit now and am as enamoured of as everyone is of theirs. I got it partly because I'd just lost my camera in Guildford (newsflash, they found it this week) but mostly because my previous pay-as-you-go phone had got too expensive for what it was. In the month Mar-April I paid £70 topping up my phone! Now for £40 a month I get everything, it's fab. Kev F shakes hands with the 21st century. So what have I been up to in this last month?

Travelling. The usual combination of touring with the Socks, visiting schools with the Comic Art Masterclass, and a bit of caricaturing has seen me travel hither and thither. Thus...

Glasgow (my iPhone was brand new when the Socks played at Eastercon in Glasgow in April) then home then back to Falkirk, to Redhill, to Woking & Moreton-In-The-Marsh, Leek, Exeter, North Wraxall near Chippenham, Camden, Brighton via Worthing, Halwill in Devon, London, Bournville, Keighley, Bradford, Appletreewick and home via Howarth, all in the space of the last four weeks.

The new Socks show is shaping up nicely, with last week's UKIP Song (tested in Brighton and London) having been replaced by a brand new Noel Coward styled UKIP Medley, which has gone beautifully in the non-preview environments of Keighley Exchange and Appletreewick Village Hall. If material works in front of people who've never seen the Socks before and aren't already Socks fans, it really has proved its mettle. So that's 3 minutes of solid material, only 57 other minutes to perfect.

Hotel fun has seen Hev and me in Worthing for my Brighton gigs (the nearest place we could afford); the two of us being awoken at 6.45 this morning by a strange man with no trousers barging in through the door of our Bradford hotel room; and my having an unexpected overnight stay in Paddington having missed my train home by less than one minute (making the Camden preview officially the least profitable show of the month in one fell swoop).

I've also managed to squeeze in a morning teaching NQTs (newly qualified teachers) all about my comic art masterclasses, hopefully alerting them to the importance of comic strip in literacy teaching; I've been to the launch of the Edfringe Comedy Festival spinoff brochure; and I've spent an evening caricaturing the great and the good of the Licensing industry, courtesy of the Beano.

The Beano itself has seen a constant flow of my writing for the past 5 months which has been a joy to present to the pupils in schools. There's more still to come, but a little less regularly, especially as I have to devote every spare moment to writing the new Socks show.

Not that I'm resistant to the distractions of the internet..

 May 5  Where does Batman go ski-ing? Arkham A-slalom.

 May 11  I got my Adele classes and my Peter Benchley classes mixed up. Turned out I was enrolling in The Deep.

 May 13  Assembled hordes at launch of @gildedballoon @pleasance @AssemblyFest @underbelly brochure

I've nailed the casting for the new Dads Army film: I have the casting. It's: Capt Mainwearing - William Hartnell,  Corporal Jones - Patrick Troughton, Sgt Wilson - Jon Pertwee, Walker - Tom Baker, Pike - Peter Davison, The Verger - Colin Baker, Godfrey - Sylvester McCoy, Mrs Fox - Paul McGann, Hodges - Christopher Eccleston, Frazer - David Tennant, The Vicar - Matt Smith, and German Officer with notebook - Peter Capaldi #DadsArmyFilm 

 May 4  Now these are fun - Medieval Memes http://www.cracked.com/article_21133_7-insane-r-rated-trends-you-never-noticed-in-famous-art.html … Jesus crucified in a Wine Press? Jesus as a Unicorn? #whathewouldhavewanted

 May 5  What's Batman's favourite Constable painting? The Bruce Haywain.

 May 6  I've put my Hohner Guitar for sale on eBay, starting price a fiver. Collect only. Here's me playing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1doaSvSaENU … And...

  

 10h  We've stopped all the tennis balls and the tennis racquets getting into the country. Now we need to stop net migration.

 May 10  Just looked up the word sepulchral. At first glance I thought it said "relating to the tomb or the internet". Internment. It said internment

 May 12  Hi @EE, I've got a text from 7626: "You've used up your data, buy more for £1.99 ..data allowance will refresh 15/5. Why? a) My data has far from run out, and b) 15/5 is day after tomorrow! #EEFail @EE Why do I keep getting these texts? Who is 7626? #EEFail

May 6  Vague Batman jokes? We dinnae dinnae dinnae dinnae dinnae dinnae dinnae dinnae know what you mean.

 ‏@MJHiggins498 May 15  @falsettosocks doing #BreakingBad at the @CamdenHead

 

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour... NOW!

Bananaman Retro in this week's Beano

This week's Beano comes bagged with toys (I got a catapult) sweeties (didn't think they could still do that, but damn glad to find they still can) and Star Wars stickers (kids today) and inside not only is there the latest fabby Pansy Potter by me (did I mention the first question I was asked on Monday morning at the school I visited was "can you draw The Strongman's Daughter"? He didn't remember the Pansy Potter bit, just the doesn't-quite-rhyme subtitle. I, of course, obliged) but also an amazing fourth-wall breaking paradigm-shifting time-travel conundrum from Bananaman.

As well as being the first Bananaman written by someone else for a while* (I started writing them back in October last year, and don't worry kids, there are more of mine to come - Wayne is drawing one called Teddy Bear as I type this) it sees a radical change in the Man Of Peel's appearance. After a few years of being in Wayne's dynamic animation style (since before the strip transferred from The Dandy to The Beano), Wayne is now ghosting the style of the strip's original artist John Geering, on whose designs the 1980s TV series were based (and who died in 1999). I would imagine this will be so that Bananaman strips will blend in with the video rereleases, old reprints and merchandise that will come in the wake of the forthcoming film. A shame to lose a look that I personally was so fond of but, like Jamie Smart's Roger The Dodger before it (a look which had a 6 month run before being retired last month) it may have proved too radical for some readers.

(*Here's author Cavan Scott's blog on this week's Bananaman)


For other interpretations of Bananaman, don't miss my Bananaramas (as Mark from the Beano christened them last week on Twitter) here, here and here.



As well as writing Bananaman and drawing Pansy Potter in The Beano, Kev F Sutherland has worked for everyone from Marvel to Doctor Who & most points inbetween, and 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.

Killer Bad Shiva - new comics by kids

Here we have some brand new comics by pupils in my Comic Art Masterclasses, and two hits from the pit. In order to have enough to post up here, I dug out two comics from way back in 2008, to bulk up the four we've produced in the past week. Can you spot which two are the golden oldies?

The new comics are from Brookfields in Reading and Halwill Primary in Devon, the two oldies from Edinburgh and North Somerset. (And in case they don't stick out like sore thumbs, the 2008 comics are 8 Faced Freak and Spotty Pants. Looking at the folder of examples from that era, these are above average, and I'm pleased to see how many times better the current comics are. I've learnt a lot about how to use my time well in the classes and use break times and spare moments to make sure that the front cover looks good. It's the most prominent feature of the item the kids take home, it often ends up displayed on the walls at the schools, and for quite a while now I've been blogging them and putting them on the website, so it's worth the time spent.)

The celebrities they chose for the "treads on a worm" demonstration (see blogs passim) were Simon Cowell (three times) and Daniel Craig (an above average hit rate for Simon Cowell ending up in the demonstration, though he is almost always suggested). The 2008 comics don't record who was suggested, though I was, I'm sure, doing the routine back then.

If you'd like me to come to your school, library or art centre to share some of the wisdom I've gleaned from my 25 years writing and drawing comics, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Kev F's Comic Art Masterclass - make a comic in a couple of hours. Suitable for kids age 7 and older, Taking bookings now

.

Graphic novels:

Comic Tales From The Bible - 90 pages, colour, only £8.99 paperback

Findlay Macbeth

Prince of Denmark Street

The Midsummer Nights Dream Team

As well as writing Bananaman and drawing Pansy Potter in The Beano, Kev F Sutherland has worked for everyone from Marvel to Doctor Who & most points inbetween, and 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.

Edinburgh Previews, 3 down, getting there

Here we see a pair of backstage selfies, taken by the Socks as the audience filed in for the first of our two Edinburgh Previews in Brighton this week. Following The Camden Head in London on Wednesday we now have three previews under our belts and, purely for future reference, here's a look at what we've done and what's working so far.

This time last year we'd been trying bits of Socks In Space ever since February, and had wound up trying lots of material which ultimately didn't make the show, whereas in 2012 we were at about the stage we're at today, having used Brighton as pretty well the first preview. I can confirm that this year's going better than the Boo Lingerie year, if only because my friends Stephen and Nick told me so. They reminded me, and I'd flushed from my memory, that the Boo Lingerie preview they saw wasn't very good. Well, this week's three shows were good, and bode well.

On Wednesday in Camden we gave them a 90 minute show, with 45 minutes devoted to as much new stuff as we had and 45 minutes of Socks In Space. So they got Scottish Independence Pros, Noah, Barman, UKIP Song, Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey and random gags, and some improv which I'm hoping to see on video cos I can't remember any of it.

On Thursday and Friday I developed and recorded Eurovision song which Brighton heard on Saturday and Sunday. Parts of it are very good, half needs to change. Brighton's shows were only 60 mins long (in theory, they both overran between 5 and 10 mins) so they got approximately half an hour of Socks In Space at the end (only Sat got Fireball XL5, Countdown and Ding Dong, they also got Sweary Poppins only Sun got Green Screen and Star Wars). Luckily most of the Socks material still hadn't been written by this time last year, with Alien, Dr Who, Green Screen, Star Trek and most of the gags being a long way away then, so it was fresh to our Brighton returnees.



Saturday got Scot Indy Pro, Noah, Eurovision, Breaking Bad, UKIP Song and random gags; Sunday got Scot Indy Pro, Eurovision, Downton Abbey, a revival of Change The Key and random gags, and somehow, with adlibs with the audience that filled the 'new' half an hour.

So we know what's working, and we can see what's needed: the framing structure, the twist towards the end, something using the piano and a killer finale. We're getting there.

This blog has been for the benefit of the Socks, and their writer and performer who will look back on this in the future. Don't be surprised if it has made no sense whatsoever to you.



The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour... NOW!
May 23 - Keighley Exchange
May 31 - Aylesbury Limelight
June 6 - Hazlitt Theatre, Maidstone
June 7 - Butlins, Bognor
June 11 - Camden Head, London 
June 19 - Phoenix Arts, Bordon Hants
June 20 - Derby Assembly Rooms
June 21 - Halifax Square Chapel
June 22 - Derby (family show) 
July 4 - Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham
July 9 - Bedford Fringe 
July 11 - Beverley Puppet Festival 
July 13 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern 2pm
July 17 - Larmer Tree Festival, Wilts
July 18 - Leeds Carriageworks
July 19 - Cradley Heath Comedy Festival
July 22 - Comedy Den Cardiff
July 23 - Taurus Manchester
July 30 - Aug 25 Gilded Balloon, 10.30pm - Edinburgh Fringe 2014

Bananaman Supermarket in this week's Beano - see how it's done

Here we see the frabjuous Wayne Thompson effortlessly and deftly sneaking my name into the background of the Bananaman story Supermarket in this week's Beano, while still defiantly leaving his own name off the strip, leading posterity to allow me to take credit for it (I shall strive to correct posterity at every opportunity). And another fine strip it is, this week continuing the trend of alluding to silver-age comic superheroes by including a Plastic Man lookey likey (for which I have to credit Wayne, who's clearly as big a fan of the classics as I am - did you spot his Billy Batson last week?)

But how does a comic strip classic like this begin life? Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present for you an exclusive glimpse behind the scenes. A look inside the mind of one of the leading creative minds of our age. I have here in my hands a piece of paper... that I was about to throw in the bin before I realised it was the rough first draft for what became the typescript for this week's Bananaman story. Check. This. Out.

What did you expect? Leonardo? Also starting life this way was this week's Little Plum story, Totem Pole drawn by Hunt Emerson, and Pansy Potter The Strongman's Daughter - Notebook, which I've also drawn. And, yes, my name is hidden in the Pansy strip, but fiendishly subtly this week. Can you spot it? Can you? *

Update: Here's the original dialogue (unused) from the final panel of Bananaman Supermarket:

16               Final panel. BANANAMAN flies away from BEANCOS, carrying the 6 armed ARMED ROBBER  under his arm. Down on the ground outside the store, WOMAN from behind till shouts up angrily, while WOMAN 2 talks into her phone.

BANANA         I MADE A CLEAN SUPERMARKET SWEEP OF IT, WHEN I BAGGED HIM, EH READERS?

ROBBER          OH PLEASE, NOT THE AWFUL JOKES!

BANANA 2      AISLE BET HE DIDN’T DIS-COUNT ON THIS! NOW HE’S SHOPPING MAD!

ROBBER 2      GROAN – SIX HANDS, AND NONE OF THEM OVER MY EARS!

WOMAN 1      HOY, YOU NEVER PAID FOR THAT BANANA!

WOMAN 2      CHEEK! HELLO, POLICE? I’D LIKE TO REPORT A BANANA THEFT!

END

PPS: On Facebook, Barth Hulley posts:

I want you to know that my six year old son has been running around the playground shoving his cycle helmet in his friends faces yelling "Unexpected item in your face!"
— feeling proud.

 

As well as writing Bananaman and drawing Pansy Potter in The Beano, Kev F Sutherland has worked for everyone from Marvel to Doctor Who & most points inbetween, and 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.

* PS: I'm not claiming to be the first person to use that Pansy Potter idea. Readers of my vintage will remember Prohias doing the very same thing every month in his Spy Vs Spy strip.

Heroin Curate's Egg cartoon

"Adulterated heroin? Oh no, my lord, I assure you parts of it are excellent."

My attempt at a heroin-based cartoon which I sent off to Private Eye this week. Sadly it hasn't made it into print, so let's enjoy it here. (And, no, I'm sure no-one's done the gag before. Unless you know otherwise?)




As well as writing Bananaman and drawing Pansy Potter in The Beano, Kev F Sutherland has worked for everyone from Marvel to Doctor Who & most points inbetween, and 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.

Birth of an unoriginal original gag

Ever since I posted a blog about a cartoon in Private Eye and how the gag in it had appeared before, I've been thinking about jokes and their originality, a subject I've looked at in the past. And then an opportunity to investigate the phenomenon presented itself this morning when I dreamt up, as I do on a regular basis, a joke.

Now I'm not saying it's a good joke. I'd go as far as to say it's a cringeworthily awful joke, being a pun, and nobody likes puns. But here it is:

I keep all my notes written on sheets of flakey pastry. I call it a Filo Fax.

I thank you. Takes imaginary bow to rapturous applause. So, that's the joke the leapt into my head (as I walked back from the bank, past a shop doing a sale on Filofaxes). And my immediate thought after coining the gag was, I bet that's been done before. Was I right?

My betting, before having a look on Google and Twitter, was that the gag would have been done by a famous pun merchant like Tim Vine, and that it could have happened any time right back to the mid 1980s (my memory told me Filofaxes first appeared around 1983. In fact - first research point of the day - Filofaxes were first made by Norman & Hill in 1921!)

So, who's thought of that joke before me, and when?

First version I found on Twitter was by @ScottHoad: "Just bought a Filofax. Now I can send thin sheets of pastry down a telephone line!" From June 2013. But there must be earlier.

Here's Tiernan Douieb's version from Oct 13; "Swap your Filofax with Filo Pastry. It gives the perfect excuse for being flakey with appointments."

Here's @fishisthedish making the gag by accident in June 2013 "We just noticed we had 'Filofax' instead of filo pastry in one of our recipes! Ooops... What's your biggest digital faux pas?"

In fact Autocorrect seems to have a fondness for this, as these reviewers on Tripadvisor have, I think, not noticed: "...I ordered a goats cheese and caramelised onion Filofax pastry tart."

And here's the earliest version on Twitter, by comedy writer Andy Riley @AndyRileyish from June 2010: "my Filofax keeps falling apart, but then it is made of many thin sheets of pastry"

Here's someone throwing away the two connected words, but not making them into a gag, on a Filofax thread in a Woman & Home forum in 2008 "I have tried every style size and colour of filo thingy (isn't that pastry?)"

But that's the earliest I can find. Does anyone know better? Have I almost created an original gag, despite the fact that I'm sure it's not really? Let me know if you find Time Vine doing it on a TV show from 1998. I won't be surprised.



The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre ...And So Am I runs from July 30 - August 22 2014 at 10.30pm in The Gilded Balloon at The Edinburgh Fringe. Tickets are on sale already.