Stabby Stabby Death Death - more comics by kids

On either side of my trip to Scotland to do classes there, my Comic Art Masterclasses have taken me from the Northampton/Oxfordshire border to deepest Hertfordshire to Dudley and to Highgate. On the way they've got a little bit death-heavy, which I've tried to rein back.

Croughton is, nominally in Northamptonshire. But having stayed over en route back from my weekend at the Leicester Comedy Festival, I can confirm it's much nearer to Oxford, and somehow manages to be even close to Milton Keynes. The South East Midlands will always be are area whose boundaries are hard to define. Whatever, I was delighted that one of the titles they chose was based on something I say in the class. When showing them my Shakespearean graphic novels, starting with Findlay Macbeth, I say "who'd like to see the stabbing and the blood and the death?". I then show them the splash page of Macbeth holding the knives, covered in blood, which I describe as "stabby stabby blood blood". They've paraphrased it here which is, if anything, even better.

Baldock art centre have had me back for Saturday classes for a few years now. In fact my class there on March 14th 2020 was my last before the pandemic lockdown cancelled the rest for the next year (hard to remember, isn't it?). This time round we opted to do the classes as a doorsplit, to take the pressure off Baldock themselves if we didn't sell out. As it happens, we did sell out, and I earned a little bit more than I have done in previous years when it's been a flat fee.

Blowers Green in Dudley have had me back a few times too, the last time being same time last year. I fear the cover about killing Mrs Williams will have caused a bit of discussion. The head mentioned it when she saw it and, though I tried, belatedly, to make the rifle look like a water pistol when I coloured it, I'm fooling no-one. Trouble is, the school's in an area which has had real life problems with gun crime, so the kids' innocent choice of title and imagery was something they'd rather avoid. Oops. Let's see if they have me back again.

St Josephs Primary is in Highgate North London, which is quite the journey of a morning, but worth it. They produced some cracking comics. That said, following the sensitivity of the rifle and death-themed cover above, this class's title was even more delicate. Because it's a Catholic school, the teacher was extra worried about the parents' reactions, so the original winning title (probably something about killing teachers) and even the original runner-up had to be withdrawn, and we had a recount before ending up with Go Crazy. I'm not all that sure that Dingle Berry was as innocent as it sounds (doesn't it mean clags of poo around the backside of a sheep?), but no-one raised any concerns, so the kids have taken that home with them.

The celebrities these 8 groups chose to star in my demonstration strip were Ed Sheeran, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson (twice), Ernest Shackleton (best suggestion for ages), Paul McCartney, Cristiano Ronaldo (twice), and John Cena.

My Books and where to get them:

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy 
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Amazon

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Vol 1 - Amazon -  Lulu  - Etsy 
Eurovision Colouring Vol 2 - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
Doctor Who Colouring - Amazon - Lulu  - Etsy 
Punk Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
70s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
60s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper