Comic Book Afterschool Club

This term pupils from Rolls Crescent Primary School in Hulme and St Edward's Primary School in Moss Side have been working with Comic Artist David Birchall to develop and draw their own comic strips. Starting with well known comic book characters we thought about their personalities and just how these are brought to life through drawing. We learnt how to give a character emotion and expression through simple sketches and the children thought about what sort of escapades their character might get into. The children then created their own characters and learnt how to make them 'feel, 'move' and 'speak', one of our favourite characters was Dreamgirl (created by Kemi from St Edward's), a girl who becomes a superhero when she falls asleep and saves the world! We then developed and drew a storyboard for our characters which would be published in the finished comic. The finished stories are then taken and printed by The Black and White Cat Press into an anthology booklet which the children and school get to keep.

 

 

Teachers

Comics are a useful educational and creative tool. Comics develop literacy through their use of visual clues which strengthen the meanings found in words. This is in turn supports and encourages reading. The workshops give children and young people the chance to access the skills to constuct their own narrarives as well as providing a fun opportunity to explore their creativity and artistic talents.  The open nature of comics means they can cover virtually any topic and are an excellent means to look at decisions making and choices that may lead to different outcomes i.e how will the story finish?

If you would like to run a comic book project contact Vicky Clarke:

vicky@zionarts.com or ring 0161 226 1912

About the Artist

David Birchall is one of the founding members of The Black an White Cat Press and runs comic and cartooning workshops with children and young people across Manchester. For more information please visit:

http://www.blackandwhitecatpress.org/index.htm

Check out our Gallery for more pictures of the Rolls Crescent Comic Club!