As a fun part of my Comic Art Masterclasses in schools and libraries, in which I teach kids how to write and draw comics, and send them home after a morning or afternoon clutching a comic containing a strip by every single one of them plus an individual caricature by me, I do a demonstration strip in which a famous celebrity treads on a worm.
(Now you ask, this part of the session covers close-ups, wide shots, enlarging and reducing artwork, composition, detail, perspective, shadow, foreshortening and probably a dozen other key bits of visual storytelling and lasts around 10 minutes. And it makes kids laugh, which is reason enough to keep doing it).
I ask them to suggest celebs, take the first four suggestion from hands up around the room, get them to choose their fave from the four and that winner becomes the character in the demonstration strip. In those first 4 suggestion, one name is mentioned about 80% of the time, can you guess who? Answer below*.
Here, then, are the names suggested by the pupils in my classes this year, who age from 7 (the youngest I work with) up to year 10 and the occasional 6th former or adult. The average age of the kids I've worked with this year would be 10. Their favourite celebrities are:
Runners up, getting drawn and mentioned just the once:
Andy Murray, Angelina Jolie, Ariana Grande, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bear Grylls, Bradley Wiggins, Christopher Lee, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, George Lucas, Gok Wan, Ke$ha, Michael McIntyre, Nicolas Cage, Peter Gabriel, Rita Ora, Rowan Atinson, Robert Downey Jr, Russell Brand, Tulisa, and Usain Bolt.
These included the most entertainingly obscure suggestions of the year:
Slash out of Guns & Roses
Jon Fruscanti of Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a footballer
Richard Armitage out of Robin Hood (the uncle of one of the pupils)
Nidge from Love Hate (very big TV show in Ireland)
Barry Scott from the Cillit Bang adverts
Slightly-closer runners up, these got drawn once but suggested a few times:
Adele, Barack Obama, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, David Walliams, Emilie Sande, 50 Cent, Gary Barlow, Jimi Hendrix, Justin Bieber, Matt Smith, Megan Fox. Niall from One Direction, Olly Murs, Prince William, and Rihanna
Drawn twice were:
Daniel Radcliffe, Ed Sheeran, Elvis Presley, Joey Essex, Lady Gaga, Lionel Messi, Miley Cyrus, Miranda Hart, Nicki Minaj, Psy, Richard Hammond, Robbie Williams, Rolf Harris, Susan Boyle, and Will Smith
Drawn three times we have:
Bob Marley, Boris Johnson, Jesse J, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Will I Am, and Winston Churchill
And the Top Eight are
Cheryl Cole drawn 4 times
Johnny Depp 5 times
Harry Hill 6 times
The Queen 6 times
Harry Styles 7 times
Keith Lemon 7 times
Michael Jackson 7 times
And the outright winner...
Simon Cowell drawn treading on a worm an amazing 25 times, and *suggested in almost every class of the year.
Here's to a 2014 with more kids learning how to do what it is I do for a living. Feel free to enjoy again the front covers of the comics they created, sprinkled liberally throughout this blog.
Slap The Teacher - kids comics from Nov 2013
One Direction vs The Doom Monster - more Nov 13 comics
Don't Believe Everything You See In A Comic Done By A Child - Oct 13
I Borrowed Hitler's Brain - Sept 2013
The Dog Did It - Aug 2013
Bunny Dood Defeats King Lettis - July 2013
Free Cheese For Sale &
The Story Of Susan Boyle - June 2013
That Peanut Stole My Bedroom - May 2013
Who On Earth Is Elvis - May 2013
Ouch The Chilli Sauce Is In My Eye! - April 2013
I Flushed My Magical Penguin Down The Toilet - Mar 2013
The Bean Men - Feb 2013
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