Wednesday 25 October 2017

Mickey Mouse's Monkey Club - comics by kids in Inverclyde & Grangemouth


Three consecutive days in or near Glasgow? That'll do nicely. My thanks to Inverclyde Libraries for lining up a day at Port Glasgow, teaching kids from two local primary schools, then two libraries in a day in Greenock and Gourock. Mickey Mouse's Monkey Club was fun to draw and colour, though I'm not sure that was the visual gag the little darlings had in mind.


It's Halloween season, so it was a treat to get some horror themed covers to draw this week. You'll recognise the Psycho house of course. And when have I ever held back when there's an excuse to do an EC Tales From The Crypt style header? Never, that's when. These two are from Bowhouse Primary in Grangemouth, whose booking I was able to tack onto my Inverclyde visit, making it a three day tour.





The last time I was in Gourock was en route to a Literary Festival in Tarbert when, through bad planning, I found myself taking the ferry to Dunoon, then getting marooned on Argyll & Bute, a five minute swim from Tarbert, having missed the last ferry over, and having to drive the long way round from there. Before that, apart from visiting the library for my classes, my only experience of Gourock had been when Gran took Jude and I on a ferry trip to Dunoon when I was 12. It was horrible. I am better disposed to the old place now.


And on Sunday I found myself driving all the way to Brighton (Hove, actually) to do a 10th birthday party. These are always unpredictable events, and given that this one had 28 nine and ten year old guests, mostly boys, it was likely to be a challenge. So I'm proud to say I kept them all focussed on the job, and they spent two hours designing characters, drawing comic strips, and having their faces drawn. The most surprising thing is that the birthday boy, Ben, hadn't seen me before. Usually kids have me in their school and have so much fun they inflict me on their friends at their party. In this instance Ben is a big Beano fan, and Mum just googled and found me. I'm delighted to say it all worked out, and everyone went for it.



The celebrities these seven groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Donald Trump (twice), Taylor Swift, Simon Cowell (twice), John Cena, and Jackie Chan.

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

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