October 20, 2008
Flashback to Comic-Con 2008 - one of the better panel discussions I attended at this year's show was the Kids Draw! panel that featured Nick Abadzis (Laika), Debbie Huey (Bumper Boy), Johane Matte (Flight Explorer), Scot Morse (Magic Pickle), Andy Runton (Owly), Kean Soo (Jellaby) and hosted by Dave Roman from Nickelodeon Magazine.
It was an early Sunday morning and the panel started with a room half full of kids and their parents. By the time the panel got into full swing the room was packed with enthusiastic would-be cartoonists listening intently to the advice of the group of creators and scribbling their own drawings to be share with the audience at the end of the panel. When you work in comics whether it's publishing or promoting sometimes you just get tired of hearing your own voice reminding everyone that kids love comics, too! But it's events like this where you actually see that this is true. A generation of kids is growing up witht the option of creating comics as a hobby, as a career aspiration and as a dream. Plus they know that there are others who want to create comics as well. There's a community.
I had the chance to test out my new youtubing camera and have a couple of videos to share from the panel:
Andy Runton, creator of Owly gives a basic lesson in drawing.
Scott Morse, creator Magic Pickle teaches kids about designing characters.
These two guys are absolute pros and if anyone is out there looking for creators for comic book/graphic novel programming and that are excellent with kids, I highly recommend both Andy and Scott. Enjoy!
