We’ve noticed new comic-making resources and activities appearing online in recent days, so we’re starting to keep a list of online resources here.
Make sure you don’t miss out on The Phoenix Comic’s #phoenixQclub or the great activities provided by Dundee Comic Creative Space’s Digital Comic Club.
Head over to our Online Resources section to find out more. And don’t forget, you can download comic templates here and find all our Comics Challenges here.
A concertina or accordion book is made from a long piece of paper that is folded backwards and forward like a spring.
Your challenge is to make a concertina comic.
You can use this template to make three short comics: Concertina comic
If you want to make a longer comic, just stick two or more strips of paper together.
Once you’ve finished drawing your comic, you can make a case for it: Concertina comic cases
Cut on the black lines, fold on the dotted lines, then glue or tape the tabs.
Please share pictures of your concertina comics with us @ComicsClubBLOG
Kingswood Comicals created some brilliant characters in response to the Cartoon Creatures Comics Challenge.
Thanks so much to Helen Jones and the Kingswood comic club members for sharing their drawings with us!
If you are making a comic set in an alternative world, then creating original creatures can help to make your world more convincing and could offer new ideas for stories and adventures.
The Hilda comics (and cartoons) created by Luke Pearson are full of strange and wonderful creatures, such as the Woffs.
The Usagi Yojimbo comics by Stan Sakai are peopled by anthropomorphic characters, including swordsrabbit Miyamoto Usagi. Instead of the animals found in our world, Usagi’s world is full of dinosaur-like lizards or ‘tokage’.
What kind of world will you set your story in – an alien planet, a fantasy forest, an underwater realm…? Once you have decided, make a Wildlife Spotter’s Guide to some of the most common, or most interesting, wildlife in your world.
Here’s one I made:
Now it’s your turn:
Download a a PDF of the sheet here: Wildlife Spotter’s Guide.
Please share your drawings and comics with us!
Helen Jones, Lecturer in Primary Education at UCL Institute of Education, told me all about the Kingswood Comicals comic club.
Name of your Comic Club: Kingswood Comicals
Where do you meet and how often? Once a week, after school.
Average number of members: There are about 20 of us.
How long have you been running? We’ve only been going a short while, since April 2019.
Tell us about your club: We are an after school club based in South London – our members are usually from Year 5, but occasionally a few other children from different year groups sneak in! We enjoy making our own comics, borrowing comics to read at home and working collaboratively to create shared publications.
Do you have a comic club activity you’d like to share: Our favourite thing we did was organise and run a comic fair – we worked together to make posters, advertise the fair and produced six different comics to sell. We invited parents, other children and teachers to come and purchase our publications, and all money raised has been invested back into new resources for the club.
We also loved being part of Comic Swap – we were thrilled when we received a comic from America, and all the other comics we received from other children taking part. Finally, our favourite activity from Comics Club Blog is the comic jam – we came up with some ridiculous storylines!
Which comics should we be reading right now? First and foremost – comics made by children! After that, we have a wide range of tastes… From our comic library at the club, some of the most borrowed authors are Raina Telgemeier and Vera Brosgol. We also enjoy Pokémon and The Phoenix. Finally, we like using books about Manga and Kawaii drawings to help develop out drawing styles.
What are your plans for the coming year? A new bunch of Year 5 children will be joining the club, with some of the old group (now in Year 6) coming to help as specialists. We plan to run another comic fair, and would love to be able to do this in conjunction with other schools or clubs in the London area!
Many thanks to Helen and the Kingswood Comicals for telling us about their club! Please get in touch if your comic club would like to take part in this feature.
QES Comics Club Members from Queen Elizabeth School in Kirkby Lonsdale told Hannah Sackett all about their comic club.
Name of your Comic Club: QES Comics Club
Where do you meet and how often? The Library, every Tuesday lunchtime
Average number of members: 20
How long have you been running? About 9 years
Tell us about your club:
We draw a lot. It’s a great place to do whatever you like (as long as it’s to do with comics) and express yourself. We discuss films and comics related stuff, and we do challenges, and games like White Board Pictionary.
Do you have a comic club activity you’d like to share: White Board Pictionary! Give everyone a slip of paper and ask them to write an idea on it (nothing too complex), collect them in and mix them up. Get into teams if you like. Then pick someone to start- give them one of the written down ideas at random for them to draw on the white board, while the rest of the group have a minute to guess what they’re drawing. The person who guesses correctly before the time runs out, is the next to draw, and their team gets a point.
Which comics should we be reading right now? Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, Attack on Titan (older teen), Death of the Family (older teen) Tokyo Ghoul (older teen), One-punch Man, any Marvel esp Cap America Civil War.
What are your plans for the coming year? We hope to ask our friends, writer Andy Diggle, and artist, Sean Philips, back in to school as guest speakers, and to help us with our own comics. We also hope to do some Arts Award, and finish some strips to contribute to an anthology comic in conjunction with another Comics Club in Portsmouth- all collaborations are welcome! We’re also looking forward to the Excelsior Award 2020!
Thanks so much to the QES Comics Club for talking to us, and for club member Seth for creating this Comics Challenge for the blog! And a big thank you to librarian Gemma Sosnowsky for getting in touch with us. We’ll keep you posted with further details about the anthology comic…
This brilliant Comics Challenge has been devised by Seth from QES Comics Club. Thanks so much to Seth and librarian Gemma Sosnowsky for sharing this with Comics Club Blog.
You are walking through town and you find a Superpower shop. You have no money.
Luckily they are having a clearance on the discount bin (all the discount powers are free).
What do you choose? (Must be a rubbish power – no super-strength, speed or flight.)
We’d love to see your bargain bin superpowers! Do get in touch with us if you’d like to be featured on Challenge Accepted or you can share your comics with us on twitter @ComicsClubBLOG.
I’m going to be at Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival in Harrogate at the weekend – find me at table 144a in the Ask for Mercy Hall (listed under the name Hannah Kate Sackett). Please come and say hi if you’re involved in running a comic club for children/young people or if you have any questions about starting a club.
All young cartoonists are welcome to come along and collect a free comics challenge sheet!
Hannah
This comics challenge involves making comics and comic characters using the Autumn landscape.
The challenge is to collect some Autumn leaves and use them to make new comic characters and stories. You can photograph the leaves, then print out the photos and doodle on them, like I did, or you can use the leaves to make collage comics, and then photograph or scan the finished comics.
Leaves, sticks and seeds can also be used to create landscapes, settings, buildings and vehicles for your comics.
We’d love to see your club’s Autumn themed comics, so please get in touch if you’d like to share them on the blog, or share them with us on twitter @ComicsClubBLOG
Here are some worksheets to get you started with your Autumn comics challenge!
This challenge was inspired by one of Jess Bradley‘s brilliant sketch book projects.
Jess has made her own miniature bookshop:
Your challenge is to work alongside other comic club members to make a comic shop.
The mini-comics you make could be tiny copies of your favourite comics, they could be comics you’ve written, or they could be brand new titles you’ve just made up.
You can create your comic shop in a sketchbook, or you could make a small model comic shop in a cardboard box.
Once the shop is stocked with comics, have a grand opening and read each other’s tiny stories.
Many thanks to Jess Bradley for sharing her ideas and photos with us!
Comics Club 