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The Semester Kicks Off Again

Face the Comicsequences!

It's a brand new semester with a brand new intake of Cartoon and Comic Arts students!
Today was their first session with me (Claire) where the Fundamentals of Cartoons and Comics module was introduced.

After this the students split into groups and spoke about their favourite comics to each other- there were a huge range of different titles being spoken about: Watchmen, Clumsy, Blankets and many variants of Batman including Dark Knight Returns and The Court of Owls.

This was a great way to get to know the students even better, because now we know their taste in comics (and what good taste they have!).

After this I set them off playing a comic drawing game I invented called "Comicsequences" - basically this takes the basic idea of the game Consequences; where everyone takes a turn writing the next line to make one story together. I took this concept and applied it to comics, so each student drew one panel and then passed it onto the next person, creating group comics together!

There were some brilliant results covering a range of different themes, including a comic about a criminal chicken, a lovestruck robot and a familiar face during a heist!

Below are some of the examples from today's class!

-Claire

 

The Building of of a Comic Empire

Building a Comic Empire

"Et Tu Brutus!"

 

 

 

As part of the 2nd year project, I decided that we needed to raise the anti a bit and allow the students to experience the real life side of comics. After all there are suppose to be adults! 

The plan was to get the student produce work which they felt passionate about and then in May go and sell it at the MCM Comic Con in London Docklands. To give the best possible experience in both work and education, I called on two stalwarts of the comic industry, John Charles and Kevin Gunstone to help out with the idea generation and the overall quality of the product being produced.

 

The cohort was split into 2 groups of 6 and they have set about producing the ideas, concept designs for their comics that they will be selling at in the Comic Alley at MCM in May. I'll try and keep you up to date with their progress and also give you the links to their blogs and artwork.

 

Potty Anthology

Gareth Cowlin has edited together the best of a childrens comic called Potty (Over flowing) Here 2nd year students were asked to think about their intended audience (children aimed between 7 & 10) and to wrote and produce several short comic strips. Here are the best. Once again for sale at the London Super Comic Con in March.

UCAS success

We had a great time recruiting for the award at the 2 UCAS events in both London and Manchester. Interest in the award was up by about 300% with knowledge of the award growing. We look forward to seeing all those students interested in the award.

London Feedback

Orbital Comics

Last week I took some of the more successful comics from the Pop Up Comic Shop to London to see if Orbital Comics would stock them for us. 

We met Karl at the London Super Comic Con in Feb 2013 and he suggested that once we were up and running properly to pop down and he would see if he could stock them for us.

On sale was the 2nd years Anthology of Hitchcock. We found that this sold particular well as it was a collection of peoples works, and also it was a subject matter that people were generally familiar with.

Esme Baran Mischief & Marauder was one of the few children friendly work produced and this went particularly well at LSCC and also the Pop Up Comic Shop. Some time we forget who the potential audience are for our work. The Pop Up Comic Shop is aimed at people who probably wouldn't usually buy comics, and had a preconception of what there are.

We also sold the 2nd year work. Spore was very popular and we basically sold out of those copies, so I had to take my copies down on sale. Also War of the Worlds was very popular and I took the remaining 3 copies of these for sale at the shop.

Comics and Magazines

Cartoon & Comic Arts are in Print

This is just a quick round up of where you can read more about the exploits of the Cartoon and Comic Arts Award. The Fringe Festival had its own magazine out where we were interviewed by a range of journalist students to gather information about the award and what were had done and what we are going to do in the future years. 

I was also delighted that we were allowed to have an article published as part of the degree Show magazine.

Some time next week I'm going try and do a summary of what we did as an award from September 2012 to May 2013, so that we've got a record of whats happening and how we can go on and improve the award.

Later on this week I'm in London where I'm hoping to meet up with some independent artists as well as visiting Orbital Comics to try and get them sell the Students work. A visit to the cartoon Museum and also booking a table for the MCM Expo in London in October. When we hit London with the new intake I want to be in a position where we can blow them off their feet and show them what we've managed to do in 2 years and what they have to live up too.

Big Times Ahead !

 

UniQ Selling Comics

UniQ Comic Stall

As well as the Pop Up Comic Shop, we also had an attempt at selling work at the first university UniQ market stall.

This was a place where other students with a range of work on sale were also encourgaed to try and sell their work as well. It was a good day though it started off slowly, but using our enterprise and entreprunerual skills we managed to over come the slow start and got a range of people coming overand showing and interest in our work.

We also attempted face painting and doing caricatures of people in various Super heroes costumes.

Overall it was a fun experience just doing the carticatures and chatting to people who wouldnt usually have thought about buying comics

Pop Up Comic Book Shop

With the degree show fast approaching for 3rd Year Students. With Cartoon and Comic Arts only being 2 years old we've not got a degree show as such... But instead we are working along the Universities Fringe Show and have started to put together a Pop Up Comic Book Shop that will be open from 6pm Friday 7th June till the 12th June. The aim once again is to get the students to sell their work, this time to a home grown audience and over the next few days I'll be attempting to do a quick introduction to the material and the artists who have contributed to the stall.  

Jack Baker working on Stanley Staffordshire (aka Captain Staffs) New costume design as a homage to Batman!

Initial ideas for the walls around the pop up comic book shop.Students came in and drew their characters from the comics that they will be selling at the stall.

Many Thanks to the Technical staff who helped to put the shop together. Stu Porter inspired and Mark the new member to the faculty excellent team added the know how to put it together.

Here Ryan Moss and Becci Such work on the front of the shop.  

Tom Stephens was given the job to do the front of the shop

Verity Hall brings to Life the bigger that Life hero of War of the World comic Lance. A comic book not for the faint hearted.

Hectic Times for Cartoon & Comic Arts

I cant believe its been so long since I've posted anything on line with the blog. Many apologise but you'll be getting a few updates in the coming months about why and also what we've been doing.... and what we are going do!

The first thing to report that we've got a new member of staff starting in September. After advertising it for a week we were quite literally inundated with applications. I had the very hard job to whittle the 19 applicants down to a few to interview. The job caused interest in other areas of the media as well. I received a phone call from the Birmingham Post to ask about the job and said it was one of the most unusual ones they had seen. 

Another job we had involved turning around work for "The Big Issue" in less than 24 hours for a Dustin Hoffman illustration to accompany the interview. Lex Harford's image won in the end But there were some very good ones produced. 

Alice Urbino

Alice Urbino

Becci Such

Becci Such

Claire Smith

Claire Smith

Claire Smith

Claire Smith

Lex Harford

Lex Harford

Lex Harford

Lex Harford

Lex Harford

Verity Hall

Verity Hall

Verity Hall

 
  

London Super Comic Con

We came, we saw, we conquered!

Well its been a few weeks since the London Super Comic Con. I've been flu-ed up to the eye balls, but it is time to report back on what happened and if we were successful. 
The aim was to go to London to see if we could sell Comics. Having received a grant from the University to pay for the table etc, the aim was to recoup the money for the table. We brought an expensive one compared to the Artist tables which sat at £50. Having a publishers table at £150, we set our sights quiet high to try and recoup that amount of money!!

The trip down was exciting as we took a wooden cut out of the awards Mascot Stanley. It caused a moment of interest on the tube down to the Excel Centre

The stand 

was set up in the exhibition centre and it is fair to say we were quite happy.

 

Jack went missing so I had to take a picture of him on his own.... when he finally returned!
With our goal being £150 to clear the costs of the table I'm happy to write that we sold more than £160 worth of comics and we made a slight profit (From the table not counting printing costs) The biggest seller was the Anthology "Hitchcock" which was also the most expensive comic retailing at £5 a copy. We sold out of them. But we have more than enough other copies to be sold at the Pop Up Comic Shop as part of the End of Year Degree show. I'll also be doing a second run of the "Hitchcock Anthology" and there will be new work on sale as well. This year the students are also producing a promotional animation of their comic to make people aware of it and get the word out there! So stay tuned!