COMICS
Newcastle, Gateshead, & Stockton Libraries
Summer 2014
Introduction
IIntroductionIntroduction
© Tyne Bridge Publishing, 2015
City Library
Newcastle City Council
ISBN: 9781857952254
Published by City of Newcastle Upon Tyne
Newcastle Libraries
Tyne Bridge Publishing
www.tynebridgepublishing.co.uk
Edited by Lydia Wysocki, Applied Comics Etc
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
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stored or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any
way or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise) without the prior permission of the
publishers.
Newcastle, Gateshead, and Stockton libraries joined
forces with local comics artists in summer 2014 to host a
great comics festival for children and young people. This
scrapbook celebrates work created by everyone involved
and highlights their shared experiences, reflecting some
of the enthusiasm and fun that was had by all.
Thanks to funding from Arts Council England, comics
artists engaged with young people across the North East
region, bringing comics to life and helping to create new
ones.
The festival linked with the British Library exhibition
‘Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK’. Our
Libraries ran a Comics Chaos competition to design a
comic character and win a trip to London to visit the
exhibition. A lucky group of winners, librarians and the
young people taking part in the Art Heroes Summer
comics’ residency travelled to London to enjoy a great
day. Comics artist Hannah Berry led a ‘hands on’
illustration workshop and inspired all ready for entry to
the exhibition.
Newcastle City Library hosted its own comics
exhibition displaying local comics artwork during the
festival and creating more interest about comics events
across the north east.
An Anime Attacks summer social brought the festival
to a spectacular close, however, the work goes on and
more exciting new comics events are planned across the
region.
Judy Zajac
Service Specialist: Children & Adult Reading Team
Newcastle Libraries
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Partners
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Partners
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Art Heroes
Art Heroes
Gateshead
Central Library
and Newcastle
City Library
June-August
2014
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Art Heroes create all-ages comic books and engage young
people in literacy and creativity activities using the comics
medium. We (Art Heroes writer Daniel Clifford and artist Lee
Robinson) worked with Gateshead and Newcastle Libraries to
engage 10 to 18 year olds in creating their own characters and
comic strips.
We began with 1 hour outreach sessions in schools around
Gateshead and Newcastle. These sessions involved an
introduction to the comics medium, tips on creating engaging
comics characters, and helped students create their own
characters.
From these sessions we identified a number of young
people who could benefit from taking their comics work further.
We based this on their interest in comics, drawing, and writing,
and their enthusiasm for the sessions. These young people
were invited to a 6-week summer school at Gateshead Central
Library or Newcastle City Library. Each session focused on a
different element of developing a comic: creating characters,
writing a story, learning about visual storytelling, then pencilling,
inking and lettering a comic.
All participants worked towards an Explore Arts Award
(QAF Entry Level 3). This involved looking at the work and
processes of comics professionals and Art Heroes as an
organisation, as well as taking part in workshops, completing
their comics and reflecting on their experiences.
The residency gave young people opportunities to work
with relatable and professional local artists. They developed an
understanding of an artistic medium they were not familiar with,
created their own work, and achieved an accredited award. The
confidence and excitement of the young people increased as
the weeks went on. It was great to see young people truly
committing to achieving the very best work they could and
helping their peers do the same.
The completed comic is available to download from library
websites and ArtHeroes.co.uk.
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Kapow! and Mythical Maze
Kapow! and Mythical Maze
Stockton
Libraries
June-August
2014
Eleanor Taggart
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Amy Wilson
Emma Lowry
The workshops Kapow! Make your own Comics and Mythical
Maze were led by the Icelandic illustrator and cartoonist Ingi
Jensson. Ingi ran his own comics school in Iceland, and when
he moved to Stockton began offering courses in schools and
libraries under the name TeesToons (www.teestoons.com). Ingi
jumped at the opportunity to be involved with Comics Chaos to
further his goal of bringing the joy of comic making to the
children of the North East.
Ingi Jensson worked with Year 6 pupils in four primary schools
in and around Stockton to deliver a series of comic-making
workshops. Through the workshop Ingi explored the various
characters in mythical fairy tales, the magic of visual storytelling
and how to create a comic from script to sketch and all the way
to a finished inked comic.
To achieve this Ingi created a booklet that he could work
through with the children so that within the two hour workshop
they had built on their skills and created their own comic strip.
After the session Ingi gave each school a PDF copy of their own
comic which the class had created.
These schools workshops were so popular that in August Ingi
delivered another four sessions in libraries for children aged 5
to 12 years old, adapting the same content for these younger
artists.
The overall aim of Stockton Libraries is to provide a quality,
relevant, accessible and modern service which is responsive to
the needs and lifestyles of the users it aims to serve. Stockton
Libraries wanted to be involved in this project as we wanted to
offer new and creative opportunities in a shared celebration of
graphic art. These sessions brought the magic of comic making
to over 200 children in Stockton-on-Tees and opened up to them
the inner workings of practical comic making.
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Comics Unmasked
Comics Unmasked
The British
Library
6th August
2014
The winners of our Comics Chaos Competition to design their
own comics character won a trip to London to visit the Comics
Unmasked exhibition at the British Library.
The 2014 Comics Unmasked exhibition was the UK’s largest
ever exhibition of mainstream and underground comics. It was
curated by Adrian Edwards, John Harris Dunning, and Paul
Gravett, and was an ideal opportunity to link our thriving comics
scene in the North East with this showcase in London.
Our competition winners had an early start to travel to London,
then were welcomed by the British Library’s Learning
Programmes Manager. They toured the Comics Unmasked
exhibition and worked with comics artist Hannah Berry to create
their own collaborative comics.
This visit to Comics Unmasked was much more than a day
out. It was a chance to work with a leading comics artist and to
understand more about the history of British comics from its
earliest pioneers to today’s digital innovators. We hope that
exploring the challenging and complex world of comics in this
way helped inspire our competition winners to continue their
comics success.
Quote from Abi Barber, British Library Learning Programmes
Manager:
What a lovely group it was today! It was a pleasure meeting you
all and I hope you enjoyed your visit to the Library. I’ve read
everyone’s collaborative comic strips – I think they’re fantastic!
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Geek-Con
Geek-Con
Gateshead
Central Library
9th August
2014
The Anime Attacks committee of Marie Scowen, Emma Robson,
Billie Wilson, Liam Taylor, Alfie Bungay, Michael Larkin, Craig
Dixon, Laura Hillary, Aaron Dimes, Daniel Dixon, James Mercer,
Emma Fordy, Liam Michael Yates and Gateshead Librarian
Andy Hodgkinson created Geek-Con to engage all ages with
comic books and libraries.
The convention brought comic books, sci-fi, fantasy, video
games, manga , anime and more together for people to enjoy
and explore. On the day we had several special guests including
comic book creator Robert Deas, manga artist Chie Kutsuwada
and sci-fi novelist Joe Kipling. We also hosted talks on such
diverse topics as Doctor Who and guests’ geeky influences, plus
a costume contest, quizzes, game shows and geek food
workshops. Over 300 people attended and we received some
great feedback:
Had a great time today! Met some epic cosplayers before I got
there and walked up with them... on the tea duels... never tea
duelled before... didn't even know such a thing existed but there
you go... dressed as a Storm Trooper... a very short Storm
Trooper. All in all pretty good day! Totally coming back next
year!!!!
Twas a fun little convention!
Had a great time, the dancing at the end was loads of fun
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Canny Comic Con Comics Chaos Creative Collaboration
Canny Comic Con Comics Chaos Creative Collaboration
Newcastle City
Library
9th August
2014
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The CCCCCCC was a one-day free drop-in event for everyone.
People of all ages and all degrees of comics-reading and
comics-making experience were involved.
CCCCCCC involved a variety of inventive comics-related
collaborative drawing activities including Broken Telephone,
Redraw-a-Comic, and art jam. The day culminated in a
freewheeling knockout debate about the Best Comics That You
Probably Haven’t Read Yet, in which speakers tried to convince
the audience of the underappreciated merits of comics that most
people probably hadn’t yet read (but perhaps should!).
The Canny Comic Con got involved with Comics Chaos
because it seemed like a fun project worth supporting. We’re
always keen to help get folks talking about comics and making
comics. We always like to try new ideas: this time, with the
always-brilliant support of the Library, we decided to get
technologically adventurous and set up a live table-cam and
electronic voting system to help make our debate really
participative and engaging.
The Canny Comic Con is a mutating series of entirely free
comics-focused events organised by volunteers and hosted by
Newcastle City Library. All Canny Comic Con events are as
inventive and inclusive as possible. Our inaugural event in 2011
was the first comics festival in the North East for fifteen years.
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Use Comics! An infographics workshop
Use Comics! An infographics workshop
Newcastle City
Library
9th August
2014
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Newspapers, websites, and documentaries love using graphs,
symbols, and pictures to present information. Do these
infographics help us understand complicated information?* Are
they a way of playing tricks with numbers?** Is anything that
combines numbers, words, and pictures an infographic?***
Newcastle Science Comic and Applied Comics Etc ran a
workshop about infographics and our participants decided that:
*sometimes **often ***no. We used examples from digital and
print media to identify exactly what makes good, bad, and
misleading infographics. Our infographicers were great at
spotting what it is that makes an infographic an infographic:
they’re not pictures, they’re not graphs, and they’re not comics,
but infographics often use some of these elements.
We also investigated what comics can teach us about
combining words and pictures, and how to present complex
information in appealing and understandable ways. By the time
it came to making their own infographics our infographicers (if
we keep writing it it’ll become a real word, right?) were rather
too good at not exactly telling lies with information, but certainly
being selective about what they chose to emphasise.
This was a workshop where you didn’t have to be good at
maths or art. It was about asking questions about information
that is presented to you, and deciding what information you want
to present to other people. We aimed this workshop at age 14
and over as it needed some experience of reading graphs, and
this turned out to be about right for a general interest workshop.
In future workshops we’d like to try focussing on one subject
area or try working with different age groups.
Applied Comics Etc was founded by Lydia Wysocki, building
on the Asteroid Belter: The Newcastle Science Comic project
she led with a team of seven editors. Applied Comics Etc
continues to work as a team to harness the power of comics and
apply it to education, engagement, and awesomeness.
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Comics Chaos Exhibition
Comics Chaos Exhibition
Newcastle City
Library
16-31 August
2014
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As part of the North East Comics Chaos festival, Newcastle
Libraries hosted an exhibition of original comic art by national
and local artists.
The artwork – kindly loaned by members of the local
community – included sketches by Grandville and Batman artist
Bryan Talbot, V for Vendetta artist David Lloyd and Walking
Dead artist Charlie Adlard. Also on display were original inked
pages by Hulk artist Ed McGuinness and Star Wars and 2000AD
artist Cam Kennedy.
From the North East we had VIZ artist Nigel Maughan’s
sketches and VIZ memorabilia, and Jack Fallows’ original
Asteroid Belter: The Newcastle Science Comic cover.
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Anime Attacks: Charlyvonkarma
Anime Attacks: Charlyvonkarma
Gateshead
Central Library
21st August
2014
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This web comics workshop was for anyone who has ever
wondered ‘how on earth do I start a web comic?’ The aim was
to show people of any age or artistic ability how to create a web
comic. The workshop was hosted by artist Charlyvonkarma, aka
Charlotte Fletcher.
Charlyvonkarma led us through three intense hours focusing
on the craft of cartooning. We started by creating characters
and received some great tips on how to draw them. Then the
session looked at making your our own comic panels, and
examined the world of comics from Marvel/DC superheroes to
independent slice of life comics. We also looked at how to
publish your comics online, what software to use, and the best
online sites to publish your comics.
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Do you want to be the next Stan Lee?
Do you want to be the next Stan Lee?
Stockton
Central Library
22nd August
2014
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John Lee Taggart
Comics legend Stan Lee is a key figure in the comics industry
so was an easy choice as the inspiration for our workshop with
13-16 year olds.
‘Do you want to be the next Stan Lee?’ was an in-depth
comic-making course during the summer holidays. We aimed
to reach teenage comics creators and to help them bring their
existing skills to a new level, whilst challenging them with new
ideas and approaches to their established ways.
The course was led by Icelandic illustrator and cartoonist Ingi
Jensson. Ingi’s passion for comic making began at an early age
with comics such as Asterix and Tintin. For seven years Ingi
worked solely as a comic maker for various Icelandic
newspapers and magazines as well as running his own comicmaking school for three years. Ingi is passionate about helping
young people to develop their skills and igniting enthusiasm and
creativity in young people around comics. In this workshop Ingi
set group assignments and then worked individually with each
participant.
Stockton Libraries exist to serve our community and provide
a welcoming environment, open and free to all. As a library
service we have moved on: we still do the books bit, ensuring
that we always have the very latest titles, and we do so much
more. Our library events run throughout the year with something
for everyone. This is why we wanted to provide young people
with the opportunity to engage with Comics Chaos and have the
opportunity to explore and develop their own skills.
During the workshop individuals broke their boundaries and
expanded their horizons. We challenged their working methods
and introduced the young people to digital drawing equipment
that many comics artists use today in their practice. It was
encouraging to see that Teesside has many future comics artists
in its midst.
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Anime Attacks Summer Social
Anime Attacks Summer Social
Gateshead
Central Library
29th August
2014
The Anime Attacks Summer Social was the finale for the Comics
Chaos festival. It was organized by Gateshead’s Anime Attacks
committee with the simple aim of having a fun end to the festival.
The event featured comic book inspired costume contests,
video game tournaments, geek foods such as the Harry Potter
inspired butter beer, manga art sessions with artist Ingi Jensson,
and karaoke and quizzes. The event was well attended by over
80 young people aged 12 – 23.
We had some great feedback about the Anime Attacks
Summer Social on Facebook:
Today was absolutely amazing!~ Thank you so much for running
this, I am very much looking forward to the next one!
Had fun!
Today was brilliant! Thank you to everyone who put this
together, can't wait for the next one!
Thanks for such an amazing day guys!
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An evening with Simon Donald
An evening with Simon Donald
Newcastle City
Library
August 2014
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The young audience were in for a treat when Mr Donald retold
the story of VIZ’s beginnings, emergence, and success. Simon
gave us the ups and the downs, the shed where it all began,
and colourful reminiscences of a buzzing Newcastle.
Some of audience remembered Newcastle back in the day,
when they had hung about the splendid Handyside Arcade
(sadly, no longer with us) waiting to buy the latest copy of VIZ
from the Kard Bar.
Leah Chan:
It was amazing to hear how you had to type everything over and
over again and use carbon paper. It was really funny when
Simon said the Central Library got a photocopier and then they
were in business!
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Anime Attacks: Japanese Cultural Festival
Anime Attacks: Japanese Cultural Festival
Gateshead
Library
24th-25th
October 2014
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Gateshead Libraries hosted the fourth Anime Attacks: Japanese
Cultural Festival. Gateshead Central Library has one of the
largest collections of Japanese manga comics in the UK.
Gateshead also has many links to Japan, which inspired us to
celebrate Japanese culture. Over 350 people of all ages
attended the weekend which was organised by Gateshead
Libraries’ young people’s group: The Anime Attacks Committee.
The convention kicked off with a celebration of Japanese
cinema, screening the last film from the legendary Japanese
animator Hayao Miyazaki and the comedy Instant Swamp. The
main convention day packed a lot of activities and chilling into
its eight hours. We featured a Japanese Idol pop concert
courtesy of J Pop Go, art sessions with Ingi Jensson and Kate
Holden, Japanese Calligraphy with Jayamini de Silva, food
demonstrations and workshops with renowned cook Jill
Weatherburn, parasol making, Japanese soft drink and candy
sushi workshops, quizzes, Japanese video gaming, a fourteen
metre manga mural, costume and talent contests, East Asian
crafts, steampunk-inspired tea duelling, Japanese language
culture sessions by Newcastle University, a ball pit, lots of fancy
dress and much much more!
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Contributors
Contributors
Art Heroes residency, Gateshead Central Library and
Newcastle City Library, June-August 2014
Daniel Clifford
Lee Robinson
Kapow! and Mythical Maze comics workshops,
Stockton Libraries, June-August 2014
Ingi Jensson
Lucy Carlton-Walker
Mill Lane Primary School
Pentland Primary School
Billingham South Community Primary School
Harrow Gate Primary School
Comics Unmasked visit, The British Library, 6th
August 2014
Hannah Berry
Abi Barber
Judy Zajac
Competition Winners:
Emma Lowry (Miss Chi)
John Taggart (Dr Fuzuii)
Eleanor Taggart (Patrick Punk)
Amy Wilson (Mortal Stone)
Geek-Con, Gateshead Central Library, 9th August
2014
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Gateshead Library
Anime Attacks Committee:
Liam Taylor
Liam Michael Yates
Marie Scowen
Craig Dixon
James Mercer
Emma Fordy
Emma Robson
Laura Hillary
Daniel Dixon
Michael Larkin
Aaron Dimes
Alfie Bungay
Billie Wilson
Geek-Con, Gateshead Central Library, 9th August Gateshead Library Staff:
2014
Sandra Clemens
Caroline Elder
Moira Dawson
Marie Wisson
Adam Taylor
John Connolly
Rachael Horton
Chris Myhill
Andy Hodgkinson
Other contributors:
Robert Deas
Chie Kutsuwada
Joe Kipling
Canny Comic Con Comics Chaos Creative
Collaboration, Newcastle City Library, 9th August
2014
Canny Comic Convention
Alexi Conman
Use Comics! An infographics workshop,
Newcastle City Library, 9th August 2014
Lydia Wysocki
Christian Perfect
Anime Attacks, Gateshead Central Library, 21st
August 2014
Charlotte Fletcher aka Charlyvonkarma
An evening with Simon Donald, Newcastle City
Library, August 2014
Staff of Newcastle, Gateshead, and Stockton
Libraries
Tyne Bridge Publishing
Arts Council England
Simon Donald
Leah Chan
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Newcastle, Gateshead, and Stockton libraries joined forces with local
comics artists in summer 2014 to host a great comics festival for children
and young people.
This book celebrates work created by everyone involved and highlights
their shared experiences, reflecting some of the enthusiasm and fun that
was had by all.
Thanks to funding from Arts Council England, comics artists engaged with
young people across the North East region, bringing existing comics to life
and helping to create new ones.
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