Magna Carta Barking - brand new comics by schoolkids

Hands up who just spent a week working with school pupils in Barking producing comic strips on the special theme of the Magna Carta in order to produce enough material to turn into a full colour professionally printed magazine that'll be given out in Barking next week to celebrate 800 years of Magna Carta. Just me then? Here's the front cover of the finished printed item, and along with it let's see the seven front covers of the comics the kids produced, shall we?

The pupils were almost all year 5s at Northbury Primary School (4 groups), Ripple and St Margarets Primaries (1 group apiece) and a record-breakingly small group (2 kids) at a church hall, and didn't they produce some great work? These, obviously, are the front covers I drew from their ideas, but trust me their comic strips were all world beating, as the finished printed item will testify.

As with any regular classes, they chose celebrities to tread on worms (long story, read earlier bolgs) and they chose Michael Jackson (twice), Taylor Swift, Ronaldo, Simon Cowell, and Barack Obama.

An extra twist on the week's work was having to include strips about St Margaret's Church, which is also celebrating its 800th anniversary. We didn't do badly, despite the fact that I wasn't sure whether she was St Margaret of England (left) or of Antioch (right). *

* It was of Antioch.

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.