Friday, 23 November 2012

Fabulous Crabulous - comics by kids

I've been mighty busy this past couple of weeks teaching kids how to write & draw comics, in schools in Ireland, North & South. Every one of my Comic Art Masterclasses gets a group of pupils, up to 30 at a time, producing a comic containing a strip be every single one of them, and a caricature by me. And a front cover, of course, with a title they come up with, after everybody has written a title on a piece of paper and we've voted to find the best. Don't blame me, this is what they've come up with this week (click to enlarge)...



These comics come from pupils in Belfast, County Kildare, Wexford, Finglas Dublin, Dungarvan, & Enniscorthy, and included the most delightful thing of the season when two of the pupils at Aquinas Grammar in Belfast who had come up with "Fabulous Crabulous" came back after break to show me, and the rest of the group, a Fabulous Crabulous dance they'd devised. These were Year 9s (the equivalent of Yr 8 in England, 2nd Yrs in Ireland & Scotland), an age at which that kind of freedom of expression nearly never happens. So if your kids are lucky enough to be at that particular school, where it would seem the Tall Poppy Syndrome has been avoided, count your blessings. The following day I was teaching at a secondary school in Dublin where such behaviour would have got your head flushed down the toilet at the very least (Two Inch Killer is a much more typical title for 2nd Years to suggest). Here are some of the suggestions that they came up with from which we chose these final comic titles.

The celebrities they came up with in the "Treads On A Worm" demonstration were Keith Lemon, The Stig, Eminem, Chris Camara, Bertie Ahearne, Michael Jackson, 50 Cent, and my favourite of the week Albert Einstein.

For more examples of comics by Masterclass pupils, check this lot out:
Looks Like We Got Us A Badass Over Here - comics by kids in Ireland, Nov 2012
Granny's Back - comics by kids Oct 2012
The Hairy Bottom - comics by kids July 2012
There Are Idiots - comics by kids in Hanwell, July 2012
Help I'm A Superhero Get Me Out Of Here! - comics by kids April 2012
Dr Ghenki's Super-Ethical Happy Fun Time - comics by kids April 2012
Bilal's Mole - comics by kids March 2012
Who Stole Batman's Potty? - first comics by kids of 2012

If anyone wants me to come and show their kids how to do what I've been doing for a living for the last two decades in my patent Comic Art Masterclasses, drop me a line, a comment, a Twitter, smoke signals, the usual methods. Click below to see more, including video and contact details.

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