London October 2017

1st Years in London 

this year as every year we headed off to London (the Big Smoke!)

We had spent a lot of time writing up a full itinerary for the students to make sure they got their moneys worth and it was definitely action packed!

Arriving in the city and booking ourselves into the Royal National Hotel, we quickly headed off to the British Museum. Here we encouraged the students to look at sequential art through the ages and also launched our new brief about students discovering Myths and Legends of the Big City. This could potentially include something from the Egyptian artefacts or any of the other collected in the place. 

After that we met up and headed off on a tour of the comics outlets and heading down to China Town for a meal.

first port of call was Forbidden Planet just off the Shaftsbury Avenue. After a fire alarm disrupted the visit we lost vital time getting to the other places we wanted to visit. 

This included Orbital Comics

And GOSH Comics where we arrived just as they were closing up, so making this the second year on the trot we got turfed out!

The meal in china town was good, then we headed off to The Champion Pub to meet up with ex student Rob Cureton from Orful Comics. Rob has worked on many animation productions and that is what his full time job is and he does comics in the evening and sells them at conventions up and down the UK

Day 2 Cartoon and Comic Museum

Going to the Cartoon and Comic Museum is one of the high lights of the visit to London. This year Steve Marchant, the man now in charge of the Museums lottery collection was a very busy man. But he gave up his time to have a talk to the students about the new comics the museum had brought and potential areas in which the collection was looking to buy.

After this we had a drawing challenge for the students in Covent Garden... Where was the garden?

We then headed up the road to Trafalgar Square and gave the Students a challenge to enter the National Gallery, and find a selection of images.

Day 3 MCM London Expo

                

 

Heading off early to London docklands this was going be a challenge but fun day. Once we got into the event it was murder to find anyone again till we met up at the location 

       

                 

what was good, a couple of our members of staff are also independent artist and they had stands at the event selling their work. Awkwardbex - Becci Such and Talburt Comics is our own Claire Smith. 

It all ended up with a mad dash for the train and a long ride home, which seems to be a reoccurring thing now on these trips!

Busy Busy Busy!

Cartoon & Comic Arts 

From here to Infinity 

Its been a few months since my last post and you seriously would believe how busy I've been. We managed to get through the semester just about, and I reckon from a university point of view it was extremely successful. It has been the first year that all the modules have run for a couple of years and we've had the opportunity to tweak them and I think, thanks to the help of the other specialist staff, getting there! So I really hope everyone appreciate how much hard work went into making it so fun. But as ever, the student drive the award.

There have been a few things happening that I haven't reported in the previous pages. Once again the 24 Hour Comic Challenge was accepted by students from 1st, 2nd and 3rd Years. Obviously the picture above was taken at the start of the event. They looked very disheveled at the end of it.

As always we held our Drink and Draw session, this time it was based around Christmas so the drink was flowing a little better than the sketching was.

 A bit of Steam punk Cosplay was needed to enlighten the crowd

 We also awarded prizes for the best piece of art work submitted and John Charles also took part and helped out.

Below is a picture taken of the Public relations team, who rushed down at the last minute to have a picture drawn of the team as the new Super Six, before they dropped down to 5!

Just to finish off and put it in the headlights, We've recently went into partnership with the Cartoon Museum in London, where we are to encourage more use of the medium and get people talking about it. Our first event will be on Saturday 7th March and I will post all the information up during the next couple of Days. It is a drawing Masterclass by some freelance comic artists.
I'm also flying out to Erlangen in Germany in the next few days. This is to build on our twinning with the city with Stoke-on-Trent and off the back that I found out they have their own internationally recognised Comic Festival (Comic Saloon) I'm hoping to develop links with the area and also build a relationship where we can invite them to our convention in the coming years and vice versa.
Which brings me nicely on to the Stoke Con and the Cartoon & Comic Arts Sponsored area, where we are getting a range of visiting comic artist to talk and sell their work, as well as offering something slightly different to the people at the event, from caricatures and drawing lessons. so keep your eyes open for that in the coming weeks....Phew!

Staffordshire University's 1st Ever DRINK N DRAW

Staffordshire University's

Drink & Draw

 

Thursday 27th February sees the first ever Drink and Draw being held at Staffordshire University. Asked for by the Cartoon and Comic Arts students, it is aimed at being a social out let for these rather shy and retiring individuals and an opportunity for them to develop their drawing abilities. Its open to both animation and illustration students as well. Students are expected to turn up in Coplay (Costume) of their favourite characters and allow other members of the cohort to draw them.

 

As this is our first event we are happy to have a few professional industry experts to help out and add a bit of prestige to the event. They include MarvelUk and 2000AD artist John Charles and Jason Brindley. Both giving up their free time to be part of this epic new venture to the comic arts award. As well as that Kevin Gunstone, writer for Markosi, Marvel Dark Horse etc, will be sharpening his pencil as well to take part in the event. No event would be complete with out our own AGL Mark Garner as well! 

Pop Up Comic Shop

Pop Up Comic Shop

Wednesday 19th February 

10.00 - 4.00

 

Henrion Gallery

 

New stock will be on Sale this Wednesday in the Henrion Gallery from 10.00. This year we see students tackle Shakespeare and make comic books of a range of his plays. This Wednesday sees a selection of artwork on sale in the Henrion Gallery by 2nd Year Cartoon & Comic Arts, Illustration and Games Concept Design Students. 

 

 



Pop Up Comic Shop

Pop Up Comic Shop

Well the Pop Up Comic Shop was finally finished. This is a picture of the final shop front with the range of Comics that were for sale at the event.

As you can See Jack Baker was there selling his comics which included "Spore" "Return to the Beagle" and his own creation "The March Of Winter!"

The price list of the comics where the average price is £2.00 though there were some cheaper and we also had discount if you brought the work in bulk. The Spore and War of the Worlds comics were £1.20 each, but if you wanted to buy all three copies of a series we offered them at £3.00 rather than £3.60.

A big thanks to all those who stayed and helped make the Comic Book Stall the success it was. From Left to Right Millie, Jack, Verity, Tom and Becci. I should also mention Esme and Henrietta who also tagged along for the ride. Obviously there were some quiet days where we didn't really sell that much but other days we had a good turn over. Overall we raised £230

I think it gave the students present a real life encounter into the industry that they want to enter. It got them talking to people about their work and more importantly it got them practising their selling technique to an audience who wouldn't be the normal demographic of comic book readers! 

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!