Manga is my Life! Comics workshops at Kenmont Primary School

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 intoAdventure 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…kenmont-01An 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.
kenmont-02Examining 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
kenmont-03 kenmont-04 kenmont-05 kenmont-06 kenmont-07 kenmont-08 kenmont-09I 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…kenmont-10 kenmont-11Some of the children mastered the art of thumbnailing (making quick drawings to plan a comic) in devising storieskenmont-12…and some great comics were made!kenmont-13 kenmont-14 kenmont-15 kenmont-16 kenmont-17 kenmont-18I hope that many of the budding comic creators continue to develop their skills and never lose their love of comics!

Purley Manga Club – Comics Writing Workshop

I had a great time on Saturday, meeting kids at the Manga Club in Purley Library and running a workshop there on writing comics.

I’d heard good things about the club as my friends Chie Kutsuwada, Inko and Karen Rubins have all run workshops there before.  It’s enthusiastically run by Jayson Arago.  He’s created a perfect fun environment for kids to meet and talk about their passion for Manga, Anime, Cosplay and gaming.

Here’s the space ready to go….

Purley-Manga-01

How many libraries offer folders full of Manga reference material, eh?!

Purley-Manga-02

I wanted to talk about developing original ideas for stories.  The kids had fun using their skills to write six different endings for the same newspaper strip.

There were a lot of Pokemon references (no bad thing in my book)…

Purley-Manga-05 Purley-Manga-04 Purley-Manga-03

The pic below illustrated the obstacles characters must face in their stories, and how finding solutions makes the story!
One boy in the group added the Health Points bars – nice touch!

Purley-Manga-06

To end the workshop, the children all made their own comic pages.  The stories were based on their own Saturday mornings, often with a few fantasy elements thrown in…
They had a really good grasp of visual language.  I love the tummy rumbling here, an effective way to show the character’s wants and needs.

Purley-Manga-07

This story below was a beautiful poetic take on not having enough time to get things done…

Purley-Manga-08

There were some great Mangaka in the group…

Purley-Manga-09

Thanks Purley Manga Club!  Stop on by at my table when I’m at a con some time!