Last week as part of our three day trip to England and Wales, delivering graphic novel workshops, we had the pleasure of returning to Bishop Fox’s High School in Taunton, to give a talk on graphic novels and our own working methods to over a hundred Year 9 pupils. The talk was followed by a carousel of comic workshops. The pupils had to come up with a pitch, including character designs, story lines and so forth. We all had a fantastic time.
It was to our great surprise this morning that we received this certificate of appreciation from the school!
We will be delivering several comic workshops in the spring, with more to be announced for the summer.
Cardiff Central Library on May 27th for two sessions (1030-1130 and 1400-1500), for 9-14 years old. Free.
To book a place, phone 02920 780953 or email centrallibrary@cardiff.gov.uk
Tramway Family Day in Glasgow on May 8th for their Alice in Wonderland themed day, for two sessions: 1130 – 1230 (for 5-8 years) and 1500-1600 (for 8-12 years). Free.
Over the past few months we’ve been busy working on various projects and also delivering a variety of talks and workshops around the country.
We were particulary honoured to be invited to deliver three very different talks: one at the CCA for Words Across the Water last November (along with Alisdair Gray who was also giving a talk); then, last month, at the Glasgow School of Art where we discussed our work and the creative process, and also delivered a workshop; and as part of the Glasgow Film Festival, where we had great fun talking about graphic novel adapations.
A couple of weeks ago, we spent a day delivering workshops at Newington Library in Edinburgh. We had a fantastic time talking about comics and graphic novels to eager participants of all ages, and the workshops were long enough to allow everyone time to create their own comic pages and character designs. You can see some photos below.
The Tales of One City blog for Edinburgh City Libraries also posted some pictures on their photostream here.
Read the feature about the Newington Library workshops on the STV website here.
We gave a comic workshop at the Imprint Book Festival last night, and Sandra took some pictures of the banners for the festival – with the illustration she made. The brochures turned out really well too.
We’re delighted to announce that we have been commissioned to do the illustration for IMPRINT BOOK FESTIVAL 2010!
We were honoured and excited to be asked to produce an illustration for the Imprint book festival, and wanted to create an image that tried to capture the electrifying and thrilling possibilities of books.
The festival will run from November 8th to November 23rd, and will host many interesting talks.
Our own graphic novel workshop will be on November 8th from 17.30 at the Burns Monumnet Centre in Kilmarnock. Free but ticketed.
Imprint says:
2010 sees the 4th year of Imprint, East Ayrshire’s book festival, and another inspiring and entertaining week lies ahead.
One of the most exciting developments this year is the collaboration with Metaphrog, Glasgow-based graphic novelists, who have designed this year’s cover illustration. Metaphrog have received multiple award nominations and critical acclaim worldwide and we are delighted to have worked with them for Imprint.
The festival kicks off with author, actor and tv presenter Sandi Toksvig – guaranteeing to get Imprint off to a flying start. We can also look forward to another packed programme full of best-selling authors and poets with highlights including Tom Leonard, ‘The Two Sides of the Pass’ event where poetry and visual art combine and a whisky-themed finale. Imprint has become an eagerly anticipated highlight in Ayrshire’s cultural diary and we look forward to welcoming you throughout the week.
There’s lots happening this autumn. We’re just about to start a new wave of author visits and are continuing to promote our new graphic novel Louis – Night Salad!
Well, in fact, it all really started in September. After a summer jam-packed with illustration deadlines and working preparing for the release of our book, we visited one of our favourite North American comic conventions, SPX. We had the pleasure of sharing a panel on Comics for Younger Readers, with Aaron Renier, Raina Telgemeier and Drew Weing, chaired by Johanna Draper Carlson.
Back in the UK, we’re going to embark on a series of comic workshops at Shout About Books in Lancashire, before heading to the London Print Studio for the opening party of That’s Novel! Lifting Comics from the Page!!!, the exciting new graphic novel exhibition curated by Paul Gravett. Can’t wait to see it all! We’re so thrilled to be part of it!
We’ll be bouncing up and down the country in fact, as we’ll be visiting the Isle of Lewis for comic workshops at the Nicolson Institute and An Lanntair Arts Centre before going to Hawick where we are delivering a talk and workshop at the Eildon Tree Festival celebrating 10 years of the magazine!
Original pages from Louis – Night Salad will be on display, and previously unpublished, limited edition prints will be available along with signed copies of Louis – Night Salad.
The exhibition will also feature work from Charlie Adlard, Savage Pencil, Carlos Nine, Darryl Cunningham among many others (please see flyer).
‘Discover the latest, greatest and up-to-datest in comics by leading international innovators and the British cutting Edge’
Opening party: October 21nd 2010 6pm-9pm Show runs from October 22nd until December 18th 2010
We had a fantastic time in Aberdeen, both at WORD 10 book festival, where we conducted a couple of workshops, and also at Dyce and Northfield schools we visited in between.
The main event we did was on May 15th, and we had fun delivering a family comic workshop: parents and children of all ages (and a few comic and illustration afficcionados too) gathered in a university lecture hall, and we got a chance to have a go at the blackboard. Below are a few photos.
At the end of the workshop, we asked the children who wanted us to take a photo of their drawings to come forward, and to our suprise, everybody did!. In this link, you can see the fruits of their labour.
While we’re on the subject of workshops, we just wanted to mention the fantastic day we had at Bishop Fox’s School in Taunton last month for their graphic novel themed conference day. We did a talk and several workshops. They sent us a report of the day with the results of their work (pdf file).
Once again, we’ve a series of events lined up for the coming few weeks. Today, we’re flying to Bristol, as we’ll be delivering a talk about our work, tomorrow (April 28th), followed by a series of comic workshops at Bishop Fox’s school in Taunton for their annual Conference Day which this year will focus on graphic novels. Then May will see us participating in WORD 10 literary festival in Aberdeen, as part of the Children and Schools festival, with three worshops, on May the 12th and 15th respectively, with some author visits in schools in between at Northfield Academy and Dyce Academy. Then off to Cumbria on June 16th to deliver a comic workshop at Caldew School in Dalston. To view our full calendar of events, please follow this link: www.metaphrog.com/events.html
In early March 2010, we did a CPD illustrated talk for teachers on graphic novel adaptations as part of the Scottish Book Trust OTIR (Online Teacher in Residence). Teachers gathered in a class room at Inveralmond Community High School, and we talked briefly about our history as metaphrog, then explained what graphic novels are, before taking a closer look at The First Men on Mercury comic adaptation of Edwin Morgan’s poem we made last year. Next, we examined how several graphic novels were adapted from literature. Firstly we looked at three very different interpretations of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: by Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy, Klimowski and Schejbal, and Mattotti and Kramsky respectively. Then we explored how comic and visual storytelling techniques have been deployed, by P. Craig Russell, to bring out the themes and enhance the reading of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, before moving on to Peter Kuper’s version of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, and finally David Mazzucchelli and Paul Karasik’s adaptation of Paul Auster’s City of Glass.
Feedback from the teachers on the CPD was excellent, and some even said this was the best CPD they’d attended! For our part, we were really excited about (re)reading and researching these books and putting together the presentation. Michael Stephenson, English teacher at Inveralmond, talks about the session and his own experiences working in the classroom with graphic novel adaptations on the OTIR blog here: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/blog/teacher-in-residence/2010/03/michael-stephenson-graphic-novel-ideas
We now have created three bite-sized online presentations for everyone to view, extracted from this workshop. They have been hosted on the Scottish Book Trust website here: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/otir/metaphrog-voicethread (with an explanation of how to use voicethread), and you can also view them here, below. Do feel free to add your own comments to these voicethreads (you can do this – very quiclky – by registering for free on voicethread and either write or record your comment).
