Cartoon andic Arts trip to London

this week saw the cartoon and comic arts visit London. Along the way we visited the British museum to try and see early examples of sequential art.

First to Finish 24 Hour Comic Challenge at Staffordshire University

we had our first to finish in an impressive 14 hour stint, Will Keilloh followed in a time of 17 Hours Millie Harrop

Im currently on the inking stage with less than 6 hours left to go.

Half Way Point

Half Way Point

10pm - 12 hours left to Go

We are half way through the 24 Hour Event. I think a bit of madness has creeped into the studio. People are slumped in front of their work, or are drawing pictures on balloons. I think the lack of sunshine and the rush of sugar has finally taken its tole.

and still the hours tick by. 

Millie is inking her comic page by page

Tom seems a little embarrassed by his attempt

Jack is just Jack and hes getting on with the fun

Verity, loads of research, head down and go for it

Along with Claire they are going for it

Michaela working on the cintq has restarted the work again 8 hours into it 

Alice..... doing what Alice does

Esme encourages her... Poor Jack.

Connie working hard

Emma coming good.

Cartoonists number swell

Numbers in the Cartoon studios swelled this hour as the late risers arrived laden with Halloween goodies. 

I'm sure it did say something un-savoury at one point! Everyone now has blue teeth as the icing had some blue ingredient in there.

My story is still developing as you can see. This is the heroes call to adventure and his refusal etc. I'm still sketchin as a lot seem to be inking. Gulp. 

Hour 3 & 4

We are all beginning to realise what a quest it is to do a comic non-stop for 24 Hours. The deadline, even though 20 hours away seems imminent. We're drawing try to develop dialogue and plot and what you initially thought would take a page has now run over 3 pages. 

Any way here is my story continuing and here is some of the work being produced by the other members of the gang. 

This pages sees the death of the Hero's father in a valiant attempt to right the wrong. We also see the Young Hero transform 20 years in the end panel to prepare him for his quest.

Here we are given the insight to what Joshua has become. Following on in his fathers foot steps but he now takes unnecessary chances. But his knowledge seems to shine through. Here the hero is offered another job, will he accept it?

Below are what the others in the group are working on 

Hour 2 My Story

2 hours 2 pages roughly sketched out. 

What I'm trying to do with this page is introduce all the main characters who will go on to tell the story. Dr William Marcus is the chief mining expert and his Boss is Mister Jobs. We are also introduced to Williams Son Joshua Marcus who will basically go onto to tell the story. We are introduced to Williams wife, and she is also a doctor. So straight away the idea is set that Joshua is from an educated family with smart parents. 

Hour 1

So far so good. The sound of the concentration is deafening as no one is speaking everyone is so eager to get on with the comic. There is the soft sound of tapping of keyboards and people try and find reference material from the internet. The sound of pencils scratching against the paper and everyone tries to sketch.  

My Idea

I honestly didn't have an idea what my story would be about. I know I wanted to set it in space and being a big fan of Star Wars wanted it to have a theme of a Father and son coming together.

This is my brain storming session that took place in the first hour. The story started to form down the right hand side of the page and I think I have got it basically sorted at this stage. I just need to divide it up into the pages and sort of figure out the minor points as I go along. 

Page 1

I'm running out of time so I thought I'd do a big splash page to start the story off and try to keep to a page an hour. Aaagghhh! Between texting, tweeting and facebook and all the other social media I could easily go off the rails. Stay tuned as this could end up being the recorded log of that demise!

Runners and Riders for 1st Staffordshire University Comic Challenge

From Left to Right there is Jack "Breaker" Baker, Tom, Claire, Connie, Verity, Millie, Emma, Will and finally Michaela 

you can run but you cant hide Connie, i look forward to seeing a comic page on that board!

Here is the cartoon studio at Staffordshire University, where, in little under 30 minutes the 1st 24 Hour Comic Challenge will take place. I must admit that I had a restless night, tossing and turning as I was trying to put together some sort of idea for a 24 Page comic, and I must admit ... it was hard! 

The students have started to turn up, some still in their pajamas!!  

24 Hour Comic Book Challenge

The Supplies

Here is the supplies to keep the cartoon and comic arts students ticking over for 24 hours. Coffee, Tea sugar and Milk in Abundance as well as 6 litres of Energy drinks 4.5 Litres of Coke. 100 Jaffa Cakes 2 boxes of Celebrations chocolates as well as the health stuff to keep all parents happy, Bananas and Grapes. There are 10 students completing the full 24 Hours but there also seems to be an awful lot who want to come in and draw and keep the teams spirits up! The event starts tomorrow at 10am Saturday 20th October. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I'll be posting or trying to post every hour with stories about the cartoonists and their potential ideas, some examples of their artwork and at the same time I'll also be trying to do my comic book as well. (I'm making my excuses up in case I fail!) But the event is now becoming more real as the hours tick by to the deadline. Stay posted and Join in the Fun...Which is Staffordshire Universitys 1st 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge. 

24 hours

24 Pages! 



24 Hour Comic Challenge

24 Hour Comic Challenge up and running at Staffordshire University

Ok , we've got the names together for the 24 Hour Comic Challenge. Staffordshire Universitys first of, hopefully many. We've tried to keep the numbers manageable and included some 1st Year students to allow they to have the experience of creating their first comic. I believe that we have got quiet a diverse range of talents doing the project and I'm hoping to take part and also blog every hour with what the participants are doing. We've also some supporters or runners helping out, who will go and fetch us food etc from the shops and out lining facilities around the university.

Here are some of the participants.

Verity Hall

Claire Smith

Millie Harrop

Dominiqua Roberts

Thomas Stephens

Jack Baker

Emma Buxton

Michaela Betts

Constance Skerrett

William Keilloh

So stay in touch with the blog and follow the event on Saturday.



24 Hour Comic Day Comes to Staffordshire University

It is official, the management has given it the ok, the students have been sharpening their pencils ready for the first ever launch of the 24  Hour Comic  here at Staffordshire University. The demand from the first time it was quietly whispered in the darkest reams of the Cartoon Studio have all been positive and we are currently inundated with enquirers. 

Starting on Saturday 20th October at 10am all the way through to Sunday 21st October the event will involve the participants drawing from start to finish a 24 page comic. It is hope that we will get these printed and sold at our local International Forbidden Planet shop in Hanley Stoke-on-Trent (Still to be confirmed!)

I'll be posting regularly once we get closer to the event with some of the people taking part in the event.