15 Minute Comic

On Tuesday night I went along to Karrie Fransman's Guardian Masterclass: "How to create successful comics and graphic novels". I was hoping for a bit of a creative kick up the backside and get some advice on how to approach publishers. Hearing Karrie speak about comics is always inspiring, and she has such a genuine love for the medium. I picked up lots of helpful advice, as well as reaffirming some things that I was already considering by myself. As well as going through the process of how she put together the pitch for her two graphic novels, The House That Groaned and Death Of The Artist, Karrie also set us some practical tasks throughout the evening, including drawing a 15 minute comic using different prompts that she called out as we went along – "Draw an angry character!", "And they choose a fancy dress outfit!", "Now they're going to a party" etc. It was certainly challenging, but fun to have to draw something quickly, without overthinking it too much.

Here's my (very scribbly!) finished comic! [click on the image to enlarge]

East London Comics & Art Festival

Yesterday I went along to the first East London Comics & Art Festival, held at The Village Underground in Shoreditch. It was very busy when I got there (and got even busier later, when people were queuing to get in) and it was a bit tricky to get around the narrow aisles and have a proper look at all of the stuff on sale, but I managed it eventually and saw some great work and chatted with some interesting people.

I also attended a panel discussion hosted by Becky Barnicoat, talking with Simone Lia, Darryl Cunningham and Karrie Fransman about the successful trend in comics of autobiographical or semi-autobiographical narratives. I drew a quick sketch of the panel while they were getting ready to begin the discussion...

It was very interesting to hear what each of them had to say on the subject, discussing their working methods and inspirations, as well as addressing the moral issues involved when the story you have chosen to tell features other people's lives. It was a very inspiring discussion and after looking at a lot of the comics that people had produced to sell during the Festival, I left at the end of the day keen to create more of my own comics work!