3rd Years getting ready

Degree Show Night Preparations

once again its that time of year when Cartoon and comic Arts students put on the degree show. The last 2 have been successful but small, with only 10-12 students exhibiting. This year we have 21 ready to go and sell their work. So this meant we needed a bigger studio to display their work. 

First job was to tape the joints in the boards to make the pace look as if it is one continuous wall 

this included taping the top of the boards as well, as you see Rob above doing 

 Zu leant his expert building skills to Kate and Maisy 

i think they got the hang of it ZU

Megan being ... Megan!

Some one missed a bit, but Tanra Studios were right in on it!

Almost done 

Nadia on her knees

Then here came the paint!

So many hands doing the job the white was soon on the walls... the floor... the ceiling and everywhere else.

Wanting to keep the show as it is intended as a gateway for students to sell their work to the members of the public meant we needed a space that was still in the main area of the degree show. 

The Boss came in to help/hinder us. Here is Becci who helped organise the whole show!

People turned up appropriately dressed 

Tasha found and interesting way to keep paint off her. Having handled one of her paint brushes you soon realised why and how.

Team work in action. Emily painted the bottom of the door and simon did the top 

Zu goes above and beyond

Nick at full stretch

Zu becomes the handy man!

Despite us moving to a new area behind Fine Art, it was generally decided that its not a great place for people to find, let alone create enough general foot fall for people to buy their artwork.

This year sees Cartoon and comic arts in the main Life drawing room, which in hindsight is adpt as they are some of the main people who use the space.

It was a great Team effort in the end and it was great to be able to go out and celebrate it in style 

Students at MCM

Well its that time of year again and staffs Uni students are back at London MCM.
Here are a few snaps from the day so far.

The students set themselves up as print houses Carta Ink, Far Point Comics, Mystical Ink, and Ark of the Cov.

All selling different work genres and stlyes

Degree Show Prep for 3rd Year

Degree Show Preparation for 3rd Year Cartoon and Comic Arts  

Its all kicking off as the end of the academic year draws near, the comic studio is as full as it ever is and students are working to produce their work for hand in and the final year show. This year we are hoping for a few more visitors as we advertised the event at a very successful StokeCon in April.

The main event happens on Saturday 11th June to Saturday 18th June with the private show on Friday 10th June from 6pm. This year we see 20 students graduate with the BA (Hons) Cartoon & Comic Arts Title.

StokeCon #4 Sold out

StokeCon#4

I'm happy to say that the next StokeCon on Sunday 17th April has already sold out. This time cartoon and Comic arts have a larger presence at the event. Not only is there more artist that ever attending the event but also the Comic Arts award has a dedicated area where the next generation of comic artist will be selling their work.

 

 

You can see some of the student artwork which is gracing the front cover of the event. We asked the students to draw some of the guest who were attending the event. The idea is we get the artist and the guest to sign the artwork and then raffle it off.

 

Tony Holdsworth Comic Review

2nd Cartoon and Comic Arts Comic Review By Tony Holdsworth 

STRIP.By Sarah Gordon

STRIP is a visceral experience. It features only one character, who begins the comic standing with hands crossed in front of her, looking at you. She is closed off. She opens up, and takes a full page to give us a seductive look before going into her strip tease. The woman takes off her blouse and casts it to the floor. She rests her hand on her stomach, still looking at you, savouring the look you’re giving her, how much you’re both enjoying it. She takes off her gloves with her teeth and drops them. She pulls her dress off, reveals her corset and lingerie. And then she pulls the corset open. This carries on, never breaking eye contact or her smile for too long, until she is completely nude.

Where can she go from here? How are we not even half way through the book?

She picks up a knife.

From there the book devolves into chaos and self-mutilation and the colour palette expands to include not just black and white now, but red too. While a later spread uses the 9-panel grid, it reads differently to previous pages using that structure. It’s now a strobing effect showing you gore instead of a nicely paced, rhythmic, erotic strip tease.

STRIP made me feel vile. It made me feel like a pervert. It’s probably the most genuine emotional experience I’ve had in a long time reading a comic. By using similar pacing and structure in both halves, the feeling of revulsion and titillation overlap and make you question yourself. Or at least it did for me, maybe I’m just a terrible person.

It’s just that the woman of Strip feels so real. Gordon hasn’t drawn her to be pornstar-perfect, the woman is clumsy sometimes. She falls over. Her lewd smile slips sometimes before she remembers she’s being watched. It’s because of this humanity that when it all hits the fan (which I’m deliberately being vague about) it really made a deep mark on me.

I can see why Sarah Gordon was nominated for a British Comic Award. I’m looking forward to seeing what she does next.

Sarah Gordon can be found at:

Website: http://sarah-gordon.com

Twitter: @notsarahgordon

Instagram: instagram.com/ratherlemony

Shop: sarahgordonartist.bigcartel.com/

2nd years write reviews of their favourite comics

Comic Reviews for 2nd year Cartoon & Comic Arts 

Last week we were very lucky to be visited by "The Awesome Comics Podcast"  http://awesomecomics.podbean.com/

Tony Esmond @ezohyez came and spoke to the students about the importance of reviewing comics and what they need to consider in their work and how they can use this knowledge to make for better work. 

An Easter project was set for students to review their favourite comics, here are some of them. 

 Samurai Genji : Volume 1 Review

Story and art by Geoff Trebs

10x7 in ,Soft cover,166 pages

Price: $29.99

Available to read from : http://tapastic.com/series/SamuraiGenji

Available to purchase from:  http://dinmoney.storenvy.com/products/13424154-samurai-genji-vol-1

Geoff Trebs can be found at http://dinmoney.deviantart.com/

Follow on Twitter @dinmoney

"Taste the power of flesh, at the cost of humanity." This phrase carries a lot of weight in this samurai fantasy epic. The story follows Genji Ryu, a samurai who has eaten the flesh of another human being and has been granted the power and long life that comes with it, but also at a price on his path of revenge. In this first volume, after finishing a job rescuing a water priestess for a village finds himself being hunted by the group of people originally sent to do the job he completed. Also the mysterious king of Tamerin has sent out men to get Genji for his own gain.

Coming from a webcomic into a printed collection, seeing the way the art has been transferred to being read online/on a mobile device to print is interesting as I didn't know if it would read as well.

The story is just beginning in this first volume and starts off with a bang, as you get an insight into the personality of all the individuals involved. It also gives off the feeling that there will be such a large world with a lot of depth to go into. We don't really get much about Genji's reasoning or motive behind his revenge fuelled adventure in this volume but I'm sure it'll become apparent within the next chapters/volumes. It's action packed, exciting and tense filled fight scenes make you just want to turn over to the next page to see what's going to happen next.

Trebs' art fits wonderfully with the story as well as its black and white, with all the blank space being black. Which helps add that extra darkness and tension to the work. It's a really beautiful digital style and some of his backgrounds are astounding. The full page images in-between chapters are a good way to break it up and you get to see some more of some of the characters.

The dialogue in it is quite modern compared to what most samurai comics include, but I think it fits into this fantasy world as its consistent and there's nothing out of place. Sadly there are a few spelling errors but not enough that it get frustrating but it is a shame that there's any to begin with.

On the whole though I thoroughly enjoyed this first volume and I'll be keeping up with the webcomic version over on Tapastic as well as buying the next volume when its released. So I say go buy it!

2nd years get ready to take MCM by storm

2nd year Cartoon and Comic Arts students getting ready for MCM London May 2016 

Once again its that time of year where the troops are getting ready to produce their comics and head off to London for the biggest comic con in the UK ... MCM. with over 100,000 people expected to visit during the 3 days the convention is open, it has grown in size. 

Along side this so has the Cartoon and Comic Arts award which will be taking 20 students to the event to sell their own original work and comics. 

here are their logos as they appear on the MCM Comic Village Website

Carta Comics Consists of Hanna Stanway, Phoenix Cooper-Morriss, Tony Holdsworth, Paul Walshaw, Isaac Hirshfield Wight

Covenant of Arcana - Alessandra Lombardi, Megan Strobb, Daniel Johnson, Tom Bickles-Guilfoyle

Farpoint Comics - Shaun Nichols, Mark Farnell, Zach Cobb, Michy Kahuya, Matt Fair 

Mythical Inc - Kale Mcleer, Lawrence Copeman, Oliver Humm, Natalie Burgher, Sam Megaw