St Andrew live - new video from the Socks

A forgotten gem finally makes it onto Youtube in the form of St Andrew, a favourite sketch from the Socks' 2014 Edinburgh show ...And So Am I which we haven't uploaded until now. We do hope you'll enjoy it.

We never put it into the subsequent touring show because it felt a bit too Scottish, but looking at it again it's nothing of the sort. Jolly good fun. Remind us to retweet the ass off of it every St Andrews Day.

 

Oct 1 - Granary Theatre Wells Next The Sea
Oct 10 - Royal Spa Leamington
Oct 13 - Harrogate Theatre
Oct 22 - Clevedon Theatre Shop
Oct 23 - Salford Kings Arms
Oct 26 - Halifax Comedy Festival, Victoria Theatre
Oct 30 - Canterbury Festival
Dec 11 Aberystwyth Arts Christmas Special

It's Nice That - Kev F talks comics, a video lecture

Back in March I gave a short talk on comics, as part of It's Nice That's Nicer Tuesdays lecture series. Now you can see it in full on video. Click to play.

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. 

Uptown Funky Alien - new comics by kids & some flipcharts

I don't often get the excuse to draw Dicky Mint from Ken Dodd's Diddymen, so imagine my delight when the year 3-to-6 pupils of St Anne's Primary in Bewdley came up with the title on the above right. Bruno Mars with tentacles, however, I do every day. These are of course the covers of the comics the kids have gone away with from some recent Comic Art Masterclasses.

And these two, from Bradford On Avon, were both first person titles that cried out for voice bubble logos. I like to vary the logo designs, which I draw very quickly by the way, sometimes getting the luxury of break time in which to do them, but at least half the time having to draw the entire cover during the two hour class. Sometimes you end up with covers you could play snap with.

And here we have an almost-lost gem, from a one-off Comic Art Masterclass I did as part of Bedford Fringe at the end of July (prior to doing a Scottish Falsetto Socks preview gig in the same venue later that night). And a flipchart. Given the chance to name a celebrity to tread on a worm (see blogs passim) these 5 classes chose Simon Cowell (again, he is nominated in 75% of classes and ends up being chosen 15% of the time), Barack Obama, Jack Whitehall, and two names I've never heard before: Judge Rinder (a TV judge, real name Robert apparently), and Svina Schmidt (a racing car driver, who further research tells me is actually spelled Sabine Schmidt).

Talking of flipcharts, you know, I love getting set up before a class and having time to draw a nice flipchart, which I then leave behind for the school, library or whoever to cherish. Here are some more I rattled off this summer.

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. 

Socks Autumn Minging mini tour - dates and details

The Socks have a mini Minging Detectives (and best-of-the-rest) tour going this October. Want to know where and when? Here's a series of tinyurls for you to retweet, and ads for you to bandy about.

Oct 1 - Granary Theatre Wells Next The Sea - http://tinyurl.com/soxwells
Oct 10  Royal Spa Leamington - http://tinyurl.com/soxlemo
Oct 13 - Harrogate Theatre - http://tinyurl.com/soxharro
Oct 22 - Theatre Shop Clevedon
Oct 23 - Kings Arms Salford - http://tinyurl.com/soxsalf
Oct 26 - Halifax Comedy Festival, Victoria Theatre - http://tinyurl.com/soxhali
Oct 30  - Canterbury Festival - http://tinyurl.com/soxcant
Dec 11 - Aberystwyth Arts - http://tinyurl.com/soxaber

Aug 5 - 30  10.30pm Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe
Oct 1 - Granary Theatre Wells Next The Sea
Oct 10 - Royal Spa Leamington
Oct 13 - Harrogate Theatre
Oct 22 - Theatre Shop Clevedon
Oct 23 - Kings Arms Salford
Oct 26 - Halifax Comedy Festival, Victoria Theatre
Oct 30 - Canterbury Festival
Dec 11 - Aberystwyth Arts

Unboxing - Scottish Falsetto Socks new video

Unboxing is a thing. And now the Socks have had a go at doing it. Do please click & enjoy. Please RT if you like it.

 

Oct 1 - Granary Theatre Wells Next The Sea
Oct 10 - Royal Spa Leamington
Oct 13 - Harrogate Theatre
Oct 23 - Salford Kings Arms
Oct 26 - Halifax Comedy Festival, Victoria Theatre
Oct 30 - Canterbury Festival
Dec 11 Aberystwyth Arts Christmas Special

Pug Dog Doing A Poo (& other delights) - comics by kids

Here are some almost-lost classics for you, comics produced by the pupils in my classes at a series of Intu shopping centres at the end of July and start of August. The classes were slightly unusual arrangements, only an hour-long apiece (though I managed to stretch a few of them out to 90 minutes, which enabled me to come up with these covers in 4 of the 6 shopping centres I visited). Because we didn't have the usual facilities, the pupils went away with their caricatures by me, and with the strips they'd drawn, but without the finished photocopied comics. So these covers exist in isolation, and luckily I took a photo of them all on the day. The two above are from Intu shopping centres in Braehead and Derby.

Totally by coincidence, the kids in the shopping centres in Trafford and Uxbridge both came up with toilet related titles (because there was no printed comic for them to take away, neither class could have seen the other's finished comic). In upmarket contrast, their chosen celebs treading on a worm were Issac Newton and Albert Einstein.

This couple of covers also come from before we set off to spend the month of August in Edinburgh, from sessions in Darlington Library. Then, no sooner had I got to Edinburgh, than I was off to Greenock and Port Glasgow for these two workshops, both on the day of my opening night, as it were.

Pug Dog Doing A Poo and Fat Bob? Well done Greenock and Port Glasgow, well done. The kids from these various classes, when asked which celebrities they'd choose to tread on a worm (in my famous demonstration strip which, once seen, is never forgotten) chose Stephen Hawking, The Queen, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Harry Hill, Simon Cowell, Johnny Depp and Lewis Hamilton.

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. 

Obama Finds A Sausage Unicorn - comics by kids in Edinburgh

Throughout the month of August I was performing with the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre every night at 10.30, and spending the daytimes promoting the show. And yet somehow, somehow, I managed to squeeze in a series of Comic Art Masterclasses in libraries and schools. Here are the covers of the comics they all went away with.  Wester Hailes Library is not in the most attractive part of town but was a lovely class in a smashing new library, and Central Library itself is a magnificent building, whose class was sponsored by Tesco Bank no less.

I can safely predict I'm one of the very few Edinburgh Fringe entertainers who ventures as far afield as Oxgangs and Muirhouse. What, you haven't visited Muirhouse Library and its delightful adjacent shopping arcade? You haven't lived. Once more the kids produce cracking comics exceeding your expectations.

And from Muirhouse it's over to the Pan Loafy side of town, to Morningside and Newington if you don't mind, for the final comics of the Edinburgh season. And a delight they are too.

County Evil comes from a group of young adults in care with whom I worked just before we set off for Edinburgh, Obama from Balerno High School's summer classes.

When asked to choose a celebrity to tread on a worm (see blogs passim) these groups opted for Barack Obama, Michael Jackson (twice), Lionel Messi, Will I Am, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Roald Dahl.

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.