Comic Swap 2019!

On Friday 14th June, Hannah and Lydia met with Jayne Humphreys at Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books to carry out this year’s Comic Swap!

We received comics from 11 groups of young cartoonists, including our first ever international comic.

We had a brilliant time reading the comics, and we’re look forward to sharing extracts and inspiration from the comics.

The comics have been sorted, and five comics have been sent out to each of the groups.

Thanks so much to everyone who took part in this year’s swap!

 

Swap Dates for 2019!

We are very happy to announce the start of our third Comic Swap!

The deadline for this year’s swap is Friday 24th May 2019, which gives you lots of time to  make your comics and get them in the post.

We’re delighted to be working with the brilliant team at Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books again as the postal home for our swap.

Not sure what Comic Swap is all about? Head over to this page to find out all you need to know about joining in with this year’s swap.

Ready to sign up? Download the permission form (PDF) now!

We can’t wait to see your comics!

 

Image: Lola and Dan by Lucy (from Widcombe Comic Club’s 2017 swap comic)

 

Swap Comics: Sprays that do exciting things.

Sprays that do exciting things & other comics was a funny and original comic that made us all laugh. We loved the idea of sprays that do exciting things, and the bonus mini-comic.

Want to invent you own exciting spray? Head over to the the comic club blog for this month’s Comics Challenge and a set of templates.

You can read some reviews of this comic here.

Thanks to Stoneydown Park School Drawing Club and Ben Thompson for taking part!

Swap Comics: Adventure through Space!

Next up is Luna and Tweeny’s Adventure through Space! from the Inkpots Comics Crew.

This comic makes great use of visual storytelling. We loved the use of different angles and close-ups, as well as the heartfelt emotions on the characters’ faces.

We hope there will be more adventures for Luna and Tweeny in the future!

Thanks so much to the Inkpots Comics Crew and to Gill Pawley of Inkpots Writing Workshops!

Swap Comics: Intergalactic Comic-ness

Our next comic comes from the out-of-this-world Meteor Masters. The Meteor Masters are members of the Drawing Comics Club at St Aubyn’s school. You can read about their club here and here.

This funny and brightly coloured comic is full of jokes and great characters, including Dodo and Chipotato, the Crazy Unicorns, and Slimeman.

Top tip from the comic “Toaster”: you are often told not to repeat yourself when you are writing a story or making a comic, but in this panel the repetition in the caption and the speech bubble works brilliantly.

Many thanks to the Meteor Masters and librarian Rhiannon Cook for taking part in the swap!

 

Comic Swap reviews!

Check out DCCS Comic Club’s brilliant reviews of their Comic Swap comics!

Dundee Comics Creative Space

We were super excited to receive a parcel from Comic Swap this week. A few weeks ago we sent off some copies of Da Awesome Comic and in return we were sent 5 comics from other comics clubs around the country. The five amazing comics were:

Hadrian’s Cavalry Comic
Intergalactic Comic-ness
Widcombe Comic Club Volume 2
Eddy Tiles and the West End Loan Shark
Sprays That Do Exciting Things & Other Comics 2018

We decided that it would be really great for our Comics Clubbers to read the comics and then draw some short strips as reviews. See the wonderful results below!

Sprays That Do Exciting Things review by Conor

The Adventure of Marshmallow & Sun (from Intergalactic Comic-ness) review by Diana

Amelia’s Comic (from Widcombe Comic Club) review by Lana

Sprays That Do Exciting Things review by Shannon

Sprays That Do Exciting Things review by Darcey

Hadrian’s Cavalry Comic review…

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Swap Comics: Pizza Kittens!

This comic sent in by The Pizza Kittens! has a knockout cover. It compels you to turn the page to read the better-than-awesome comics inside!

This comic was made by members of Neill Cameron‘s Comics Club, which runs every month at the Story Museum in Oxford.

This publication lived up to its claim, and was full of excellent and very funny comics.

This extract from “Dave the Phantom Toilet” by Emile makes brilliant use of image, panel break, caption and thought bubble, allowing the reader to make the connection, rather than spelling out the joke.

We look forward to future comics from the Pizza Kittens!

 

 

Swap Comics: Dundee Comics Creative Space

Over the next few weeks we’ll be looking at the different comic clubs that took part in the Comic Swap and showing pictures of their amazing comics.

First up is Da Awesome Comic, sent in by the comic club at Dundee Comics Creative Space.

This club, who also took part in last year’s swap, sent us another brilliant publication full of funny, clever comics, showcasing a wide range of different drawing styles and narratives.

The comics include a magical computer, the day in the life of six different bugs and a cat who really, really likes pancakes.

Reading other people’s comics can give you great ideas for things to try out in your work. We loved the way that several comics in this compilation made use of limited colour in order to highlight the main characters or to draw attention to movements and sound effects.

Tomato and Potato!!! by Harry Higgins

You can find out more about the comic club by reading this interview with DCCS Coordinator Damon Herd on the Comics Club blog.

We can’t wait to read more comics from the talented members of this club!

Comic Swap at Seven Stories!

On Wednesday this week we had a meeting at Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books to open up the parcels sent to us by comic clubs from across the country.

Eight sets of amazing comics had been sent to us – from Dundee, Newcastle, Oxford, Bath, Essex, London and Sussex!

We had a brilliant time reading the comics. They were funny, clever and informative. We were also impressed by the sophisticated cartooning skills displayed in the comics.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be looking at each comic in more detail and getting to know the comic clubs that made them a bit better.

The comics are now in the post, and each of the clubs that took part will soon receive a package of five brilliant comics.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to all the clubs that took part, and to Rose Mockford and Seven Stories for supporting the swap!

Hannah and Lydia

Take part in the Comic Swap!

There’s still plenty of time to send us your comics!  The deadline for this year’s swap is Friday 25th May.

Comic Swap is open to all sorts of children’s groups.

Some comics come from dedicated comic clubs – like this one from Dundee Comics Creative Space:

Others have been made in schools, such as last year’s entry from Kingsholm Primary School.

Maybe you have made a comic with Brownies, Guides, Cubs, Scouts, or another out-of-school group?

Explorer Unicorn by Megan

Perhaps you have your own comic club at home, with your brothers and sisters, or your best friends? Whatever kind of group you belong to, we’d love to help you share your comics  with other groups. Go here to find out how to take part!

Smileys by Milo