Building Stories: A Summer of Comics
The Project
Our first project as Comics Youth SCIO has been Building Stories: A Summer of Comics - a free two-week comics summer school delivered in collaboration with The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum, kindly funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.
The summer school consisted of two age groups – 8-13s and 14-18s, and each group spent a week in the museum learning about all things comics! Each day had a specific focus, and the young people explored different ways of telling stories and creating characters, collaborated on comics as a group, and toured the galleries gathering inspiration in their sketchbooks. We also had our own gallery wall within the Creative Learning Studio which evolved day by day as the young people created more and more amazing comics.
The young people also reflected on what’s important to them in their own lives through a zine-making task called Museum of Me – where they imagined themselves as a museum or gallery and illustrated what would be displayed. We also used story prompts to get them to think about their lived experiences and hopes for the future, which they developed into short comics.
Each group was fantastic, and we were blown by how many amazing drawings and stories everyone came up with! Seeing them proudly sharing their work with each other and becoming more talkative as the weeks went on was a joy.
We are now delighted to present Building Stories: A Summer of Comics Volumes 1 and 2!
Volume 1: 8-13s
This collection contains real life experiences, epic battles, interdimensional portals, football, rainbows, penguins, robots, and an evil flower named Daisy who has nefarious plans…
Cover artwork by Rebecca Horner
Volume 2: 14-18s
This collection contains some relatable slices of life, spooky encounters, the end of the world, budding friendships, and an all-powerful spider named Greg!
Cover artwork by Hannah Maclennan
