Aga Doo? A week of comics by kids in Dublin

Admit it, isn't this one of the last titles you'd have expected a class of 12 year olds in Dublin in the year 2018 to have chosen as the title for their group comic? But choose it they did, at New Cross College in Finglas, on the second day of my marathon week of classes in Dublin. My thanks go out to the JCSP Librarians of the fair city, especially Martina Flynn at St Aidans who led the co-ordination of the schools. It was quite an undertaking, what with the spectre of waiting for my Garda Vetting to be processed (about which, more here), but in the end it went swimmingly, and look at the great comics the kids produced.

Day one was at St Aidans themselves, and the Year 1 and 2s excelled themselves in being as archetypically teenaged as one comes to expect. Believe me, The Junkie Mushroom was among the more acceptable titles they came up with.

This picture, taken by Mairead at Killinarden, is a wide shot, showing how wide I currently am. What can I say, travel food!

Here are the comics produced by the pupils at Killinarden. They're in Transition Year, which is the mythical Year With No Name that exists in Irish schools. It's actually 4th year (that'd be Year 10 in England) but they don't call it that. They call it Transition Year, and no-one can ever explain why. Whatever, they came up with Finbar Ye Rat, which was my favourite cover drawing of the week. I do all these cover drawings, so it's a bit sad for me to have a favourite. But I do, so there.

And here was the delightful unexpected bonus day, at Beneavin De La Salle College in Finglas, arranged for me at last minute by one of the other librarians (Sarah at Margaret Sylward) whose school couldn't have me themselves, but who took pity on me after I was cancelled at short notice (by the school who shall remain nameless) and faced an unemployed Thursday in Dublin. As it was I had half a day in school, which was way better than none, and they went away with this cracking comic, and this nifty flipchart. Oh yes, the school isn't pronounced Beneavin as in "rhymes with believing", so the flipchart gag doesn't work. I didn't discover that till it was too late. It's pronounced Be-nevv-in. So now you know too.

The celebrities these 7 groups chose for my demonstration strip were Kim Kardashian (twice), Donald Trump, The Rock, Ronaldo, Hugh Jackman, and Beyonce.

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. 

Comic Art Masterclasses open to the public:
Feb 12 - Zion Bristol
Feb 13 - Salisbury Arts
Feb 14 - Baldocks Arts & Heritage Centre, Herts
Feb 15 - Angles Theatre, Wisbech
Feb 16 - Bexleyheath & Erith Libraries
March 17 - Prema Arts, Uley, Gloucs

Newcastle, Hannover, Dublin, the week of the cancelled classes

January 2018 will, hopefully, go down on the record as my worst hit-rate for actually completing Comic Art Masterclasses. So far 25% of the classes I've set out to deliver have ended up not happening.

First of all, on a one day trip to Ponteland near Newcastle, I started the day teaching pupils who'd been minibussed in from a nearby school, only to have them leave after 30 minutes because it was snowing up the Kielder valley, whence they came, for fear they might not make it back later. So, out of that day's two classes, only one went the distance.

Then on my two day visit to Hannover, the first morning went fine, only for the first afternoon class to be stopped, again after half an hour, as a storm was lashing Germany and the school had to close down. After two days I was looking at a 50% failure-to-finish-a-class rate. Luckily things improved the next day when, for the first time this year, I completed a full day of two classes. Hooray.

Next stop Ireland. And the Irish trip was to be quite the marathon. Four schools in five days. It was nearly five days, but sadly we failed to find a school that worked a full day on Wednesday (many schools take a half day) and could take my classes. But 4 days of schools, spread over a week, and all in Dublin, was a grand bit of management, and I have the assembled librarians of the JCSP libraries of Dublin to thank for the organisation.

The only spanner in the works was Garda Vetting. Not having been to Ireland since 2016, I've been away while Irish law caught up with the UK and Scotland and started asking schools to supply police criminal clearance for all teaching staff. I got my first CRB check (now called a DBS certificate) way back in 2003 and, though it's a convoluted rigmarole for self-employed freelancers to get in the first place, is simple enough when you've found out how. And now it updates itself every year for a small fee, rather than me having to re-register from scratch every three years, which was the previous set up. I got my first Scottish PVG certificate in 2015, which seemed to be an awful lot easier to arrange. 

Garda Vetting, as it's called in Ireland, works the same way in as much as it's a nightmare to try and work out how the hell you're supposed to get it if you're a freelancer. Even less explanation is given as to what a visitor from overseas is required to have. Helpfully the Principal of one of the four schools I was to visit sent me the paperwork to fill out, and then forwarded it to the Garda for me. But time was running out and it looked like the Garda wouldn't get it processed in time for my visit this week.

So I approached the Garda Vetting Bureau directly, and got a response from a very helpful Maurice Nolan at the Bureau who told me, "There would... be no obligation on a school to require vetting of a guest speaker, musician, etc. who is giving a talk or demonstration at a school on a once-off or very irregular basis." Hooray! Problem solved.

For three quarters of my schools, leastways. Three of my schools, on reading the authoritative decision from the official at the Vetting Bureau, agreed with the words of, let's face it, The Law, and gave my visits the go ahead. At time of writing I've just completed a grand day at St Aidans in Tallaght, and tomorrow I'll be returning to New Cross College in Finglas. Then on Friday I'll be making my debut appearance at Killinarden school in Whitestown. 

One school (who shall remain nameless) felt differently. Their Principal emailed me today to say that the Garda Vetting Bureau's (whose job it is to decide who needs vetted by the Garda Vetting Bureau) "opinion differs greatly from the advice given by our management advisory body" . He goes on to suggest that "the National Vetting Bureau needs to consult with schools' advisory bodies to ensure that there is complete clarity". So in his opinion (and in this instance it is an opinion, rather than, you know, the actual law), the police should consult the school on what the law is. 

While we leave them to argue that one out, he concludes "I'm afraid that we cannot proceed with Thursday's workshop". So I have an unpaid day in a hotel in Dublin, twiddling my thumbs (okay, getting on with work, of which I have plenty to do), and my hit-rate for completing classes as planned remains 75%. (The four schools were, of course, going to share the cost of my flights, car, and hotel, as a result of which I'm now commensurately out of pocket on all that*)

*UPDATE: On Wednesday, the marvellous Sarah Purcell, librarian at Margaret Aylward College, intervened and lined me up with a half day of classes on Thursday at Beneavin College in Finglas. So, hooray, I wasn't left thumb-twiddling and did a marvellous if unexpected class with the pupils there. All's well that ends well.

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. 

Comic Art Masterclasses open to the public:
Feb 12 - Zion Bristol
Feb 13 - Salisbury Arts
Feb 14 - Baldocks Arts & Heritage Centre, Herts
Feb 15 - Angles Theatre, Wisbech
Feb 16 - Bexleyheath & Erith Libraries
March 17 - Prema Arts, Uley, Gloucs

Who in Ireland wants a Comic Art Masterclass this week?

(*UPDATE: All sorted. On Wednesday, the marvellous Sarah Purcell, librarian at Margaret Aylward College, intervened and lined me up with a half day of classes on Thursday at Beneavin College in Finglas. So, hooray, I wasn't left thumb-twiddling and did a marvellous if unexpected class with the pupils there. Mother Father kindly disregard this letter).

On Monday I wrote:  Does anyone in Ireland want my Comic Art Masterclasses this week? I'm in Dublin right now, doing classes today (Monday 22nd), tomorrow (Tuesday), and Friday 26th. But Wednesday 24th was always going to be free, and now the school I had on Thursday 25th has fallen through 

So, are you a school in Ireland? Do you want me to teach your kids how to write and draw comics so that they go away with a comic containing a strip by every one of them, plus an individual caricature by me? Then please get in touch now. Either DM me here, or email kevf.sutherland@gmail.com (and I'll tell you what the costs are). 

I can work with two groups in a day, with up to 30 in each group, aged 7 and upwards. I need a minimum of two hours with each group. Please feel free to ask the JCSP Librarians at the schools listed below for what I hope will be glowing recommendations.

Yours with fingers crossed

Kev F Sutherland

Comic Art Masterclasses

Garda Vetting: My Garda Vetting is still in process and hasn't arrived yet. However I contacted the Vetting Bureau direct and Maurice Nolan from the Bureau wrote to say "There would... be no obligation on a school to require vetting of a guest speaker, musician, etc. who is giving a talk or demonstration at a school on a once-off or very irregular basis." (I can send you the whole email, and also my up-to-date UK and Scotland police certificates to show I'm fully cleared).

Schools in Ireland you can ask for recommendations:

St Aidans Tallaght Dublin - Martina Flynn

New Cross Finglas Dublin - Ciaran O'Doherty

Enniscorthy VC - Eadaoin Quinn

Wexford VC - Lee Dickerson

St Kevins Clondalkin - Peadar Cassidy

St Kevins Crumlin - Neil Kettles

CC Dungarvan - Jessica Whelan

Clongowes Wood College (not JCSP) - Jane O'Loughlin

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. 

Comic Art Masterclasses open to the public:
Feb 12 - Zion Bristol
Feb 13 - Salisbury Arts
Feb 14 - Baldocks Arts & Heritage Centre, Herts
Feb 15 - Angles Theatre, Wisbech
Feb 16 - Bexleyheath & Erith Libraries
March 17 - Prema Arts, Uley, Gloucs

Snow & Wind Stop Play - first kids comics of the year

This week I returned to the chalkface with three days of Comic Art Masterclasses, in the far flung reaches of Newcastle and Hannover. And things didn't get off to the smoothest start, with the weather deciding to come over all wintry. And in January, of all times. On Thursday I was in Hannover for the first time and, though the morning went smoothly, the afternoon class had to be brought to a halt after half an hour due to a storm (Storm Eleanor I think) which had swept across the UK and was now about to devastate Germany. As it happens, though it was a bit breezy on the way back to the hotel, and out again to their brilliant Sprengel Art Museum (about which I might write some time), Hannover seems to have been spared the worst of the storm, and normal service was resumed the next morning.

The next day two groups of 6th Graders (that's Year 7 in old money) produced the first two complete day's worth of comics this year. And what nice ones they were, despite one of them ending up with the most hackneyed and dismaying title you can ever get from a group of kids - I Don't Know. This is regularly one of the titles a member of the class will come up with (along with the equally dispiriting LOL, Yolo, and Your Mum), but it rarely wins the group vote. Let's assume they were being ironic shall we? They were nice kids, it being the International School in Hannover, so mostly middle class and well travelled for urchins.

The week's classes began at Ponteland in Newcastle, and the first class of the day was the one that suffered from the weather, in this case snow. The pupils had come by minibus from Bellingham, and some of them were from Kielder, which is up the valley. The valley that was being snowed on. So it was that, after 30 minutes, they all had to get back in the bus and return to school for fear that they might not be able to later. Thus the front cover, named and produced entirely by me, is all that came of the class. They hadn't even begun to start drawing when they had to go. They have the cover as a souvenir. A second group was found to have an ad hoc 45 minute session with me, and then in the afternoon we managed to complete the whole shebang.

So after 3 days and 6 classes in 2018, I so far have a 66% success rate in actually getting to the end of one.

And so far this year 20% of children have chosen Donald Trump as the celebrity to appear in my demonstration strip. Of the 5 classes who got that far, the celebs chosen were Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Dracula, Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber. All par for the course so far.



Comic Art Masterclasses open to the public:
Feb 12 - Zion Bristol
Feb 13 - Salisbury Arts
Feb 14 - Baldocks Arts & Heritage Centre, Herts
Feb 15 - Angles Theatre, Wisbech
Feb 16 - Bexleyheath & Erith Libraries
March 17 - Prema Arts, Uley, Gloucs

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 new show - teasers

We've done it before (last time, here, in 2016) and we'll no doubt do it again. We're keeping the name of the new Socks show under wraps until it makes its tentative debut in Leicester on Feb 17th. Here's a first tentative teaser of the advert.

Oh go on then, as it's you, here's another teaser to be going on with. Knock yourself out.


The process of writing the show has begun, in fact it began back last Autumn when I started taking suggestions from folks online and making some random sketches. You never know, some of those might make it into the show. And I'm quite pleased with a couple of the new things I've written. Though, I'll be honest, I'm not sitting on an hour's worth of gold yet, so more writing to be done. I'd best get busy eh.

I take great consolation from reading this, a breakdown of the first Leicester preview of Socks Do Shakespeare in Feb 2016. It went on to become our best show, but in Feb of that year we had hardly any of the material that went on to be the killer stuff. Mostly I was still giving them the previous year's show. Ha ha. Brilliant. Suddenly I feel ahead of the game. See also...
Minging Detectives 1st tryout Feb 15
Socks In Space full show Feb 14
Socks In Space 1st tryout Feb 13
Best of Feb 12
On The Telly full show Feb 11
5 day run of Goes To Hollywood Feb 09

 In the meantime, tickets are going nicely for the shows we have lined up so far, so get booking them if you haven't already.

Feb 17 & 24 6.50pm Kayal Leicester

Mar 14 & 15 8pm Dram Glasgow 

May 26 3.45pm & May 27 5pm Komedia Brighton

(In the absence of a new banner animation, here's one from 2009 you might enjoy)

Masterclassathon A Go Go

Blimey, I've certainly been filling up my diary without realising it. Coming up in half term week, Feb 12 - 16, I have a week of Comic Art Masterclasses, all open to the public. If you wished, you could help spread the word. They are...

Feb 12 - Zion Bristol

Feb 13 - Salisbury Arts

Feb 14 - Baldocks Arts & Heritage Centre, Herts

Feb 15 - Angles Theatre, Wisbech

Feb 16 - Bexleyheath & Erith Libraries (no advert for these, I'm sure they'll take care of themselves)

Consider these well and truly tweeted, let's hope they all sell out.

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. 

In praise of the Fudenosuke Brush Pen

The first week of 2018 has seen a small revolution in my comic strip artwork since I've discovered a new drawing tool - the Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen. I bought it between Christmas and New Year at the stationers on Park Street, having failed to find what I was looking for at a shop in Cardiff.

It turned out to be so good that, as I was halfway through my first page using it, I immediately ordered two more, not knowing how long they'd last. Have a look at the photo above. Can you see how, in the first instance, I had a little difficulty knowing what to reorder? That's right, everything is in Japanese.

Added to which, it's only having uploaded the picture above that I realise I've actually ordered the wrong pens. I've just been using the Soft pen and have ordered two Hard pens. When they arrive I'll see whether they're any use. (The difference between soft and hard, as far as the exterior of the pen is concerned, seems to be a slight difference in the pastel shade of two of the 4 boxes on the side. Boy, they certainly want to shift units in English speaking countries, don't they?)


Here's what the end result comes out like...

You might not be able to see a difference between this and my recent stuff, but it's giving me a much finer line than my ink and brush work has been achieving of late. And by god it's faster. So much faster that I've completed my latest job, Book Of Ruth, at the rate of nearly 5 pages a day, with much more detail than previous jobs. And I've so got up to speed that, this afternoon, I just wrote, pencilled, inked and coloured a three panel patch for Book Of Esther (which I originally delivered nearly a year ago, and which has yet to see print). Here, this now goes on page one...

It'll mean nothing to you, but it greatly improves the start of the story. I hope you're all going to see this Women Of The Bible graphic novel (featuring Esther, Ruth, Rahab and Jael) before too long. It's the best work I've written and drawn in years, and I'm inordinately proud of it.

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. 

Ruth & Rahab Work In Progress

Continuing my Work In Progress time sheet (started in December) for the two strips from Women Of The Bible, Book Of Ruth and Rahab.

To recap:
Feb 2 2017 - Book Of Ruth script delivered
Apr 20 2017 - Rahab & Jael Wife Of Heber scripts delivered
Dec 1 2017 - Jael Wife Of Heber art delivered (art & colour, just under 1 page per day)
Dec 22 2017 - Ruth 12 pages pencilled (at 4 pages per day)
Jan 4 2018 - Ruth 12 pages inked (at 4.8 pages per day)

Friday Jan 5th midday - Ruth 12 pages, all line art & lettering assembled, ready for colouring. (Assembling and tidying 12 pages of line art took approx 8 hours)
PM - Rahab, all 9 pages laid out. Plus, as a bonus, I drew and inserted 3 new panels into Book Of Esther:

Sat & Sun Jan 6 & 7, Rahab voice bubbles laid out and Page 2 pencilled.
Mon Jan 8, 10am - 6pm, Rahab pages 1, 3, 4 and 5 pencilled. 7pm - 11pm p6 and 2/3rds of p7 pencilled.
Tues Jan 9, 10am - 1pm, lots of time spent insuring the car and starting Garda Vetting for Irish schools, p7 and 8 pencilled. 3pm - 6pm, lots more Garda Vetting nonsense, page 9 pencilled.
7pm - 10pm all 9 pages borders & bubbles inked.
Weds Jan 10, 10am - 1pm, pages 2, 4 & 9 inked. 7 - 10pm pages 1, 3, 5 - 7 inked.
Thurs Jan 11, 9.30 - 10.30 (at Peugeot garage) page 8 (final page) inked. 1pm - 5pm, all pencil erased, pages scanned, assembled ready for colouring.

So Rahab 9 pages pencilled and inked in 4 and a half days, that's 2 pages per day.

Work in progress

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. 

My Predictions for 2018 (and how'd I do last time?)

 My Predictions for 2018 (and how'd I do last time?)

Having enjoyed reading about "Toward The Year 2018", written 50 years ago, I'm minded to do something similar myself.

Last time I tried making any predictions for the year ahead was 2016, when I looked at how badly I'd predicted the previous year, then had some stabs at the next one.

Then I forgot I'd done it, and didn't bother with any predictions for 2017 at all. So, let's have a look at my Jan 2016 predictions, and see how they panned out, given two years to do so. Then we'll make some fresh goes.



In Jan 2016 I wrote Ten Things I Would Like To See In 2016:

1 - Donald Trump gets excommunicated by the Republican Party so has to stand as an independent and loses humiliatingly.
- WRONG. So so wrong.

2 - Jeremy Corbyn becomes increasingly popular, winning byelection after byelection and the support of the entire country.
-  ALMOST RIGHT. Took till 2017's snap election, but sort of happened.

3 - Steven Moffat passes on the role of Doctor Who showrunner, amicably, and carries on writing new episodes.
-  HALF RIGHT. Whether he writes new stories, we have to see.

4 - Drones get strictly regulated following a fatal accident (due, probably, to someone doing something like this).
-  NOT YET

5 - ISIS become unpopular among their supporters and just, kind of, fizzle out.
- NOT QUITE YET, but the process could be starting (lots of articles from 2015 through 2017 suggest they're losing popularity, yet they linger)

6 - BBC Four runs out of 1970s pop groups to make documentaries about.
-  WRONG. The spring 2018 season is full of them.

7 - Eastenders goes a whole year with no-one dying.
-   VERY WRONG. Two years later, the undertakers have been doing a roaring trade. 8 deaths in 2016, 4 in 2017.

8 - Marvel superhero movies go all unpopular and plans are announced not to make any more (for a while).
-  WRONG, though this could still lie ahead.

9 - There won't be a referendum or general election of any sort in the UK.
-  TOTALLY WRONG. Brexit in 16, snap election in 17.

10 - Fingers crossed 2016 will be less terroristy than 2015, and we're all happy and bright by the end of it.
-  SORT OF RIGHT. In 2016 it was celebrities who died in abundance, the UK had the death of Jo Cox but no major incidents. Sadly 2017 made up for that with Manchester Arena, Westminster Bridge, Borough Market and other attempts.

And so to Ten Things That Could Happen in 2018 For Better Or Worse:

The Republicans do well in the mid-terms, strengthening Trump's power

Theresa May clings to power and even wins a byelection

The new Doctor Who sees its best ratings successes of the decade

Strictly contestants include Steph off of BBC Breakfast and a former Doctor Who

Brexit gets softer as the year progresses, and its deadline gets moved

Flying car goes on the market

Netflix suffers major financial blow and cuts lots of programmes

Price of litre of petrol goes up (from £1.20 to £1.30)

Average house price falls (from £225K to £215K)

Old TV show revivals: Rainbow, El Dorado, Catweazle, Quatermass

Let's see shall we? Here's to a sunny and bright 2018

Predictions for 2016

Predictions for 2015

Predictions for 2014

Predictions for 2012/13

Predictions for 2011

Predictions for 2010



PS: This is an interesting set of predictions, following on from a thing I posted yesterday "Toward 2018" a book written 50 years ago. What none of them predict is the really big unpredictables, inevitably. The 1968 book still talked about technologies that would affect the press & newspapers, never guessing that paper communication would become a thing of the past. Similarly this set includes "TV becomes extinct", which may well be the case, but the devil is in the detail.

It's always healthy to look at the things nobody predicted, from the last 10 - 50 years. Feminism, LGBT, race and human rights awareness would be the biggest advances I've seen. And smartphones and, in particular, the way we use them. Who could have predicted we would share our thoughts, photos, location etc, in an Orwellian thought police way? Well, I suppose Orwell did, but you know what I mean.

Anyhoo, it'll be fun to look back on these predictions, like seeing a 50 year old Tomorrows World, and laughing. Let us see.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here. 

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre return with a brand new show in 2018. Stay tuned.