By Neill Cameron
Publisher: David Fickling Books
ISBN: 9781910200032
The Phoenix presents another great little collection, this time on the theme of creating your own comics, packed with plenty of tips, tricks and ideas. Aimed squarely at kids (but there’s no reason keen adults won’t reap the rewards of reading too) this is a clever, involving and often humorous guide that covers everything from posture to character design and from story writing to physical production.
Your guides for this process are Professor Panels and Art Monkey, two characters to demonstrate the practicalities and possibilities of the art form. In my experience, kids usually just need a nudge to get creative, and Neill Cameron provides this page after page with inventive ideas and practical tasks. The tasks, for example, lay the ground work and ask the children to complete the exercise, so the more cautious are guided as much as they need to be while the bolder children can crack straight on – and don’t worry if you don’t want to damage your precious book as there are downloadable versions available from the Phoenix website.
A nice touch is Professor Panels’ formula for coming up with new characters. In a nutshell, you think of something awesome (say, a pirate) and then think of something else that is awesome (a T.rex) and merge them together to get something that is Totally Super Awesome: Captain T.rex, Scourge of Seven Seas This theme of blending is returned to often, and it’s a great way to encourage kids to think a little differently.
Anyone of school age who loves drawing or just enjoys reading comics is going to find plenty of interest inside this book. An inspiring and informative read.
And if you liked that: Check out the other Phoenix collections at the Phoenix bookshop at www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk Quote the code FIRST15OFF you’ll get a massive 15% off!
No comments yet.