Often when I go to a school and ask children if they read any comics I only get a few responses. On Tuesday I headed off to run two workshops in Kenmont Primary School in North West London. It was gratifying to see many, many hands shoot up letting me know a whole range of comics that the kids were into… Adventure Time, The Beano, Marvel, DC, Manga Dr Who and more!
One talented young artist said “Manga is my life!” and went on to tell me that she just loves comics so much. What a great environment to start creating characters like these…
An interesting twist to my usual workshops was that I was asked to incorporate this year’s Take One picture at the National Gallery.
The picture this year is Saint Michael Triumphant over the Devil (1468) by Bartolome Bermejo. I was deeply impressed by the knowledge the children had of the picture.
Examining the picture further, we discussed how the image shows three archetypes of adventure/superhero comics…
St Michael: Angel, Superhuman, Hero
The Devil: Monster, Bad Guy, Villain
Antonio Juan: Normal Human, Regular Joe, Everyman (relatively speaking)
Soon the talented kids were busy creating their own heroes, villains and regular human characters…
I asked the kids to think about what would happen if their normal human came across the hero and villain fighting.
The children started adding notes and speech bubbles to their character designs…
Some of the children mastered the art of thumbnailing (making quick drawings to plan a comic) in devising stories…
…and some great comics were made!
I hope that many of the budding comic creators continue to develop their skills and never lose their love of comics!
