London, Switzerland, Lake District - Travels With My Art

London, Switzerland, Lake District - Travels With My Art

So where were we? If it was last Friday, then I must have come to the end of a week when I'd visited schools in Milton Keynes, Sutton Coldfield, Birkinhead, Milton Keynes again, then Dartford in Kent, and on Friday night I was off to Brick Lane to do a Socks preview gig, setting off home at midnight and getting to bed at 3 in the morning.

Which means Sunday was the start of the proper travelling. Sunday morning (April 29 now you're asking) I flew to Geneva, and from there took the train ride to Villars Sur Ollon for two days of classes at Aiglon College. This is the same alpine ski-ing village I'd visited a couple of years ago, working at a different school to which I'll be returning later this month. This time the weather was good so I got some marvellous views of some rather impressive alps which, of course, look like nothing at all when you try and photograph them.

The school days were lovely, textbook, with Aiglon taking the prize for Best School Dinners ever. When the fish and chips includes a pea puree instead of mushy peas, and desserts are the work of a five star pastry chef, you realise you're in a place where the words "wasted on kids" have no real meaning. Annual fees are 111,000 Swiss Francs, or £82,000. Once more I come home realising I could have charged more.

No sooner had I got back home (after a flight that was supposed to go at nine o'clock and ended up setting off some time after eleven, frustratingly short of the three hour mark after which they have to pay you compensation) than it was time to set off on my travels again, this time to the Lake District. I knew I was to do a school there on Friday, paid for by DC Thomson who had given me as a prize in a Beano competition. When I worked out it was going to be a 6 hour drive to get there, I realised I was going to have to use up all of the day before to get there in time.

Therefore it was the most fortuitous stroke of luck when Authors Abroad, the lovely people who'd just taken me to Switzerland, rang up asking if I could do another school in the Lake District. So it was that, at one day's notice, I did a bonus half day at Arlecdon Primary near Cockermouth. 

Hev and I set off at 6 in the morning, getting to Cockermouth for midday, and I did a half day at the school (they only have 34 pupils, so half a day was all they needed), and we stayed over. The next day, as planned, I did the full day at Beckstone Primary near Workington, and then it was off on another long drive. A swift and uninterrupted 5 hour drive to Milton Keynes which, given that this was the Friday before a Bank Holiday, and a sunny Bank Holiday at that, was quite remarkable.

After a night at the Holiday Inn in MK, which is becoming a bit of second home, this is the 3rd or 4th time we've stayed there, it was the 90 minute drive to London for a Top Secret assignment. I've actually signed a Non Disclosure Agreement about the job I did, which involved quite a few hours of sitting around chatting with my fellow Beano creator Nigel Auchterlounie, after which the two of us did something which involved drawing a couple of comic pages which will be appearing in some form or other later in the year. I look forward to filling you in on all the details sometime in October or November. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek.

I shudder to think how many miles I've driven in the last fortnight. But, for the record, here's my list of destinations from the past month:

Wellingborough, Milton Keynes, Chingford, Potters Bar, Walthamstow, Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire, Malvern, Milton Keynes again, Sutton Coldfield, Birkinhead, Milton Keynes yet again, Dartford, Brick Lane London, Geneva & Villars Sur Ollon Switzerland, Cockermouth, Workington, Fleet Street London and home. 

Next week I take it easy with a school in, would you believe, Clevedon. Then, of course, it's the Isle of Wight, then Switzerland again, but let's think about that when we have to, eh?

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. 

Fred Astaire & Chief Wiggum - comics by kids in Switzerland

I was delighted this week to get the chance to return to the Swiss Alps. In fact I liked it so much, I'm going back again in a fortnight. All thanks to Authors Abroad who, this time, arranged a two day visit to Aiglon College, which is in Villars Sur Ollon in Switzerland, the same village where you'll find Beau Soleil, the school I visited three years ago, and whence I'll be returning later this month. Here are the comics produced by two groups of Year 8s. Fred Astaire wasn't their idea, that was my indulgence.

My second day at Aiglon saw me working with years 4 through 7, and here are their various productions. The college looked after me marvellously, feeding me three times a day if I needed it, to the highest standard. I think the prize for Best School Meals ever has been won, if only by the desserts made by their pastry chef. It puts crumble & custard in the shade.

The previous week I journeyed to North Kent College in Dartford, where I worked with one group all day, all college aged. This is a fun variation on my usual routine of working with mostly primary school kids, giving me the chance to up my game, do something more than the same old same old, and work with students who, in some cases, can draw better than me.

Here's an example of some of the stuff I did on the flipchart with the North Kent students. The left hand page shows me helping them break down their stories. I'm chuffed with myself when I can help them in this way. With younger groups, either they don't understand what I'm talking about when we get on to montages, different angles, and more sophisticated techniques, or maybe there's just not enough time. Here, clearly, there was. Oh, and that's a drawing of a dinosaur, for reasons I can't now remember.

The celebrities these five groups chose to appear in my legendary demonstration strip were Vladimir Putin, Eddie Redmayne, Gigi Hadid (I'm told she's a model, m'lud), David Beckham, and Pablo Escobar.

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. 

Jack Kirby Song - new from the Socks

Brand new from The Socks (edited in my hotel room in Switzerland while working at Aiglon school, now you ask), is a musical tribute to Jack Kirby. Intended to be part of the audience-in music for the new show, Superheroes, it might not even make it that far. But it was fun to write, I hope you enjoy it.

The 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:
May 26 3.45pm & May 27 5pm Komedia Brighton

June 16 - Zion, Bristol

June 20 - Ludlow Fringe

July 11 - Neath
July 19 - Bedford Fringe
July 29 - Derby Bar One

 - with more preview dates to be announced

Superheroes 6th Preview - London April 27

Superheroes 6th Preview - London April 27 2018

Thanks to Juliette Burton, who gave us a slot after her Happy Hour show at the Canvas Cafe just off Brick Lane, the Socks were able to do an extra Preview of Superheroes, ahead of May's shows in Brighton, and following on from March's Bath show (which in turn followed 2 nights in Glasgow and 2 in Leicester). This was an invaluable preview, getting me back up to speed with what needs improving, while letting me test out the material I've written this month.

The audience, only about 15 strong but lovely, had already watched an almost 3 hour show featuring Juliette and three other comedians (Rik Carranza, Lorna Shaw, and Lost Voice Guy), being the surviving hardcore of a larger crowd, staying on after 10.30 on a Friday night. The Socks eventually started at just short of 11pm. They were what I'd call 'An Edinburgh crowd', being above-average comedy-savvy, younger and more cosmopolitan, so a very good testing ground. Here's what we gave them and how it went.

Opening gags - Wayne/Robin/Flash. Good. Opening with quickfire gags is a good start.

Opening gags continued - Awards (new). However, continuing with 7 more puns, no matter how good (and I'm pleased with this batch) isn't so good. It sets the show up as a night of puns and is not the best way of building their engagement. These should appear later in the show and even be scattered through it.

I'm A Sock song - The usual test of a new audience (only 1 of whom had seen the Socks before). They laughed in all the right places and we had them.

Cosmopolitan - Excellent.

Bob Kane gag - Good. One isolated arcane pun works fine.

Motion Capture - Brilliant. Delivery a bit messy, but the core gag works. Ending needs improving.

Ang Lee / Ditko gag (new) - Good. Two puns together work fine

Comedy Award / Nursery Rhyme gag - Good (excuses the gag).

Spiderman Song - Now seems a bit weak. Should replace this.

Plot / Maguffin gags (new) - Brilliant, and make the structure clear

Science Faraday/Sagan - Shortened by one gag, v good

Hulk gag (new) - First groan of the night, but good

Brother 1 - Excellent. Fewer prop laughs, all from the lines & characters

Your Racist Brother Song - V good, good laughs throughout

Batman - V good. New gag okay. Teeth - brilliant.

Urine/Nuts/Crazy gags (new) - Very good

Crossover inc callback (new) - Good. Needs to be called back later

Steed & Mrs Peel Song - Another weak song. I think I'm the only person who likes it, it'll have to go.

Avengers (moved) - Excellent. Much better in the middle of the show than as a finale.

Avengers Reel - Needs improving. (Failed to re-record it since Bath, will be better when shortened and keys changed)

Fantastic Four Appeal - V good, laughs in the right places (Needs callback later)

Brother 2 - Excellent. Good laughs from lines again, not so much from props

Shroedinger/ Tyson gags - Okay but spoil the flow slightly

Superman - Origin gag (new) v good.

Jor El/Kal El to The Kents - Excellent. First time an audience has properly gone with this routine. Need callback later.

Glasses - Not as many prop laughs as before, but that's fine as the lines funny

Dead Ringer Song - Excellent

Harley & Ivy - Messy start so audience puzzled for first half, then laughing for the rest.

Daredevil (new) - Very good, brilliant laughs for the new prop. Punchline disappointing.

Brother 3 - Very good.

If I've Learned speech - good

All By Myself - Very good, but need to perfect those prop changes

And we ended the show there, which was doubly fortuitous. Firstly, because I haven't written the finale properly (though it has a handful of new gags that didn't get tried), and also because the show was over-running and, unbeknownst to anyone, we had to get out of the venue by midnight or we'd get fined. So me finishing after, I think, 55 minutes was perfect.

So, in conclusion, and in advance of Brighton: I now have a good story structure that holds it together and enables me to lose and insert material. We have lots of great one-liners, but need:

Replacement for Spider-man song, ideally with a strong routine

Replacement for Steed & Mrs Peel, again with a strong routine

Reduced and re-recorded Avengers Reel

Proper Finale (with callbacks to the running jokes set up already)

Tightened up props (especially Brother, whose mouth is not so funny it can be allowed to never work properly)

... and anything that tackles the many superheroes that haven't had a look in to the show yet. Wonder Woman and the X Men, for example (Brexit Men hit the cutting room floor this time round).

Onwards and upwards. Next stop Brighton Fringe, May 26 & 27. Book now.

The 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:
April 27 - The Canvas, London E1
May 26 3.45pm & May 27 5pm Komedia Brighton

June 16 - Zion, Bristol

June 20 - Ludlow Fringe

July 11 - Neath
July 19 - Bedford Fringe
July 29 - Derby Bar One

 - with more preview dates to be announced

My Top 10 Influential Comicbooks

TOP 10 INFLUENTIAL COMICBOOKS

Folks are doing this, so why not. 10 comics that influenced me.

1 - Terrific

Before this I'd read Playhour & Robin and Pippin & Tog, but when Terrific (and its sister paper Fantastic) started reprinting Marvel strips I suddenly started paying attention to comics. I remember vividly a three panel sequence by Steve Ditko where The Hulk emerged from a hole or a tank (which I can't find online, so I've probably Maconied it). This was when I first 'got' comic strips. I was five years old.

2 - Asterix

Four Asterix books came free with Total petrol*. Though I've been aware of that fact for nearly 50 years, I've not till now asked the question: where on earth was there a Total petrol garage? I've never seen one. Whatever, four Asterix books came free, the rest you had to pay for. To be honest, their content may ultimately be better than any other comic I go on to mention in the rest of this list. (Update: I've looked at the rest of the list, Asterix is the best of the stuff on the whole list. Sorry rest of the list.)

*Asterix The Legionary, Asterix The Gladiator, Asterix & The Big Fight, and Asterix & Cleopatra.

3 - Lion & Thunder

A series of amalgamations, using the British "Hatch, Match, Dispatch" publishing tradition, meant that I ended up reading comics by default. Terrific had been swallowed by Fantastic, which then became Smash & Pow Incorporating Fanastic. And just as I was getting into the revamped Smash, with its Eric Bradbury lead strip and Leo Baxendale centrespread, it was sucked into Valiant & Smash. I'd started reading a new comic called Thunder and, within 6 months, found myself reading Lion &  Thunder which, with such strips as Geoff Campion's Spellbinder alongside Adam Eterno and Robot Archie, was such a delight I totally failed to notice the Marvel reprint strips had long since disappeared.

4 - Planet Of The Apes

Marvel came back into my life when I discovered the reprint strips based on my favourite TV show, Planet Of The Apes. I quickly discovered Marvel UK were producing about 10 comics a week, reprinting 40 pages of comic strips in black and white in every issue, meaning my generation was able to mainline every classic Marvel strip, from the early 60s superheroes through to the latest creations at a rate of over 300 pages a week. And you got change from a quid. The black and white litho printing of art from everyone from Neal Adams to Barry Smith, Gil Kane to Jim Steranko, enabled British readers to see the pages bigger, and clearer, than our American cousins had endured a few years earlier, buried in blotchy colours. This affected and nurtured a generation of comic artists who were about to flourish.

5 - Look-In

The highest quality printed comic art in the world at the time, by my reckoning. (As you can see from these copies in my collection, I treated them with scant respect, using them to decorate my diary). Though the stories only came in two-page instalments, the art by John Burns, Martin Asbury, Harry North & Mike Noble on such adaptations as The Tomorrow People, The 6 Million Dollar Man, Doctor In Charge and Black Beauty were devastating and put all other contemporary comic art to shame. Marvel art at the time looked so shoddy in comparison it convinced me that someday they'd be so desperate they'd even employ me.

6 - 2000AD

To begin with I dismissed 2000AD for not being as well written as the Marvel reprints, and new colour Marvel comics we were starting to be able to get (in particular Howard The Duck, which remains my favourite series of the period). But I got hooked when Starlord comic came out and, just like had happened in my earlier childhood, got subsumed into 2000AD. Early favourite were Dredd and Robo Hunter, with Bolland and Gibson being fan favourites. Then came Alan Moore and a proper revolution in comic book writing took place. See also Warrior.

7 - The Spirit

The longest delay between a comic coming out and me discovering it has got to be the forty years that passed between Will Eisner's Spirit appearing in American Sunday newspapers, and my starting to read it when it was reprinted by Kitchen Sink Press in the 80s. These strips, especially Eisner's artwork and storytelling, were as impressive then as they must have been when they first appeared. As I had the pleasure of saying when I gave a speech introducing Will at the 2003 Raptus Comic Festival in Bergen, I had for years attributed to lesser later copyists most of the techniques that Eisner had in fact originated. If my comic strips have draw on/ borrowed from one person more than any other, it's Will Eisner. (Also Doonesbury, I "do" Doonesbury so much!)

8 - Swamp Thing

That period in the early eighties, when American comics started using British talent, was something so momentous it's hard to describe to a younger generation used to an international publishing world. Just 10 years later I was to find myself working for Marvel, but in 1983 that was beyond our comprehension. DC and Marvel were so distant, so unreachable. And the fact that our own Alan Moore was then writing comics that made his American contemporaries look so primitive, derivative, old fashioned, it really was something to experience live. The post-modern approach to comics, whereby writers will "do an Alan Moore" and revive an old or rather silly character by bringing it into a gritty realistic world or deconstructing and remaking it, has become the norm, leading to the Christopher Nolan Batman films and the DC and Marvel Cinematic Universes, of which we're no doubt going to tire soon. 35 years ago, on a typewriter in Northampton, is where that glorious nonsense started. 

9 - Viz

Somewhere in a parallel universe, a guy called Chris who had no pretensions to being a comics creator and little or no interest in the world of comics started writing and drawing some nonsense that, quite possibly to his surprise, lots of people liked. Within a decade it became the biggest selling comics magazine in Britain, probably the world, and 40 years on it's still going. Viz remains possibly the only comic book that has genuinely made me laugh out loud (though Giles and Doonesbury are personal favourites, and make me smile, they've never made me spit a drink like Viz).

10 - Beano

I never read The Beano as a kid, having discovered Marvel reprints when I was five. But in 1999 I somehow noticed they were running long-form stories by writer-artist Mike Pearse and that they were excellent. The best storytelling I had ever seen in the Beano. I endeavoured to follow in his wake and, thanks to visionary editor Euan Kerr, found myself being able to write and draw a number of serialised comic adventures in the Beano, for a good few years, which remain the work of which I am proudest. Mike Pearse's work remains my favourite work I have ever seen in that comic, though the work of a recent generation including Gary Northfield and Nigel Auchterlounie has been of a similar high standard. I have my fingers crossed for its continued survival.

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. 

Fighting The Superhero Way - new from the Socks

A new song and video from the Socks, Fighting The Superhero Way. If it's lucky, this will be part of the audience-in music for Superheroes, so you'll only be subjected if you come and see the show live. Which you will be doing, won't you?

The 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:
April 27 - The Canvas, London E1
May 26 3.45pm & May 27 5pm Komedia Brighton

June 16 - Zion, Bristol

June 20 - Ludlow Fringe

July 11 - Neath
July 19 - Bedford Fringe
July 29 - Derby Bar One

 - with more preview dates to be announced

Parket? Radio sitcom joke cock up

Badly Done Joke Alert!

If you listen to the trailer for Radio 2's Funny Fortnight (on this iPlayer clip 10 mins in) you'll hear a gag that's not only unoriginal (of which more shortly) but also absolutely buggered up.

From new sitcom The Taylors, the exchange goes:
"That old flooring, what's it called?"
"Parquet?"
"It was, but it's much warmer now we've got the carpet down"

Now I know it's an old gag because I used it in my BBC radio sitcom pilot Meanwhile, recorded in the self same Radio Theatre in 1998. But that's not the worst crime. The worst crime is the delivery.

The joke works because "parquet" sounds like "parky", an old-fashioned word for cold. But in this clip, the actor pronounces the word "par-ket". Which renders the whole gag meaningless.

How someone could have let that slip into the recorded sitcom without noticing it - then used it IN THE TRAILER! - defies description and beggars belief.



If I'm so clever, why aren't I writing a new sitcom on BBC Radio you ask? Probably because I post bitter and twisted things like this. Even I wouldn't want to work with me.

Parket. Kids today.

The 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:
April 27 - The Canvas, London E1
May 26 3.45pm & May 27 5pm Komedia Brighton

June 16 - Zion, Bristol

June 20 - Ludlow Fringe

July 11 - Neath
July 19 - Bedford Fringe
July 29 - Derby Bar One

 - with more preview dates to be announced