What’s better than making comics? Helping other people make comics!

We’ve been busy running comics workshops (like, structured comics making) and drop-in activities (like, have a go and stay as long as you like). Here are some photos of comics-in-progress and some finished comics too.

From our Spineless half-term workshops at the Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle:

From our Creepy Crawly Comics workshops at Cramlington Library and Morpeth Library, as part of the Spellbound events series (thanks Spellbound for letting us share photos from your Facebook page):

Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/spellboundworkshops

Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/spellboundworkshops

Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/spellboundworkshops

Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/spellboundworkshops

Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/spellboundworkshops

From our comics making and an exhibition of pages from our comic Asteroid Belter as part of Discover Science Through Comics, organised by the BritishScience Association West Yorkshire Branch, in Leeds:

 

Most comics creators were mysteriously anonymous and didn't put their names on their comics. If you spot your comic here, let us know and we'll gladly add your name to it. 

Mega thanks to our workshop co-facilitators Michael Jeffries and Emily Rose Lambert (for Spineless at GNM: Hancock), and Jack Fallows (in Leeds).

Yeah SCIENCE! Yeah COMICS! As always, we love to see your science comics – keep in touch!

Comics on the radio?

We're very excited to be on Paul Hudson's Weather Show on BBC Local Radio this weekend. His show focuses on climate change, so our Editor in Chief was happy to have a quick chat about our science + comics collaborations... including comics on climate change.

This would be a good time to reread Asteroid Belter: The Newcastle Science Comic. Click on the cover image at the right of our blog homepage, then have a look at:

• Climate Change and Extreme Weather (comic by Adam Murphy, science by Hayley Fowler)
• Adventures in Carbon Capture (story/science by Carla-Leanne Washbourne, art by Glynnis Fawkes)
• ...and well, why not reread the whole comic?

Listen out for us on BBC Radio Leeds, to be broadcast in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire this weekend. Times may vary, but here's a link to the iPlayer page http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016jv8d - the programme will be available to listen again for 30 days after it is broadcast this weekend.

If you're inspired to make your own science comics we'd love to see them! Keep in touch online, and/or come see us in Leeds on Sunday 13th March.

Discover science through comics - Leeds 13th March

We're part of this British Science Association West Yorkshire Branch exhibition 11am-7pm on Sunday 13th March 2016. Come along and read some of our Newcastle Science Comic comics, and make your own comics in our drop-in workshops. All suitable for children age 7 to 107 and their families.

What's that? You want more?! Well alright then... at 5.30pm our Editor in Chief Lydia Wysocki and Co-Editor Jack Fallows will give a talk on the science anthologies we've made so far.

Full info: https://www.britishscienceweek.org/event/discover-science-comics/ 

Creepy Crawly Comics at Morpeth and Cramlington Libraries, Wed 17th Feb

What are you doing this Wedesday 17th February?

Coming to our Creepy Crawly Comics workshop at Morpeth Library or Cramlington Library?

And you've already phoned the library to book your place?

Well that's just awesome.

Half-term family comics workshops

Attention all Spineless comic fans!

Join our FREE drop-in comics making workshops at Great North Museum Hancock this half term.

On Saturday 24th, Monday 26th, and Friday 30th October we'll have comics making activities from 11am-3pm.  Come and work with comics artists to draw your own comics, all with a Spineless invertebrates, minibeasts and bugs theme.

These drop-in activities are for children age 6-11, with their families. You're welcome to stay for as long or short a time as you'd like - just turn up on the day, there's no need to book.

Want to make a day of it? Here's a link to other Spineless activities at Great North Museum: Hancock https://greatnorthmuseum.org.uk/whats-on.

Take our Spineless reader survey!

Dear reader,  you'll have seen Spineless: The Newcastle Science Comic, our free comic about invertebrates in partnership with the Spineless exhibition at Great North Museum: Hancock.  Please could you fill in our Spineless reader survey to tell us what you thought of it? 10 questions, should take about 5-10 minutes, works on desktop/laptop computers and mobile devices.

Here's the link: www.surveymonkey.com/r/MVTYRHC

Your feedback will help us make even better comics in future, so is reeeeeally important to us.

Spineless-the-comic is free and launched in print on 1st August 2015 - get your free copy at the Spineless exhibition.  The digital version is available here on our blog - just click the cover image at the top right of the page

Spineless-the-exhibition runs from 1st August to 1st November 2015 at the Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle.

Spineless published today 1st August 2015

Spineless: The Newcastle Science Comic

We're jumping up and down excited to launch Spineless, our new comic in partnership with the Great North Museum: Hancock. 

Pick up your free copy (we've printed 20,000) at the museum's free Spineless exhibition this summer, 1st August-1st November.  And/or read it in full for free here on our blog: click the cover image on the right of the screen. 

Here are links to our marvellous reviews so far: 

• Richard Bruton at Forbidden Planet International says: 'every comic works, all of them doing the simple things very well, keeping the storytelling through the art nice and simple, straightforward. An outreach project such as this relies on clarity, on getting the message across really well. And that’s precisely what Spineless does very, very well.'
• John Freeman at Down The Tubes says: 'The strips are fun and informative and all the creators involved were, importantly, paid for working on the title (as well as clearly enjoying themselves in the process).'

We've published Spineless with a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.  This means you can share the comic (physical and digital versions) with others as long as you credit our project, but you can't change the comic in any way or use it commercially. We hope this will make it easy for children, adults, teachers and other professionals to read and share Spineless. Keep in touch if you use Spineless with schools or other groups - we'd love to hear from you! 

ISBN: 978-0-9574570-4-1.  Published by Lydia Wysocki, Applied Comics Etc. 16 pages, full colour, mini newsprint format. 

We Have Comics

Attention all comics readers, comics makers, science doers and that. We have comics. This is not a drill. 20,000 comics are now printed and ready for the Great North Museum: Hancock's Spineless exhibition, opening on 1st August 2015. Our Spineless comic is full of collaborations between comics makers and exhibition curators.

For those keeping score Asteroid Belter was 10,000 comics, two pallets on delivery. Spineless is printed on Newspaper Club's Mini format, a bit smaller, meaning the 20,000 copies fitted on just the one pallet. We sent our top people to track down the comics for the traditional pre-launch celebration/inspection.

The Spineless comic was printed by the brilliant Newspaper Club. It was made on one of their massive newspaper printing machines. Like real grown up newspapers. Woosh.

Then the comics were loaded onto a big pallet and shipped to the museum where they are now in maximum security storage awaiting launch day.

Luckily we were able to acquire access  early on Monday morning for that previously mentioned tradition.

And it wouldn't be a pre-launch celebration/inspection without vines. Unfortunately Lydia wasn't able to dance on the comics this time, so we're going to re-share the Asteroid Belter dance. Because we can.

Hello John Gatehouse and Dave Windett

Who are you?

Writer - John Gatehouse, Artist – Dave Windett

Why did you get involved in Spineless?

We got involved in the Spineless project because we are both interested in using comic strips as an educational tool.
We contributed to Applied Comics Etc's previous project Asteroid Belter and have created a number of other comic strips with educational content such as The Wacky World of Animals.

Tell us about your comic.

Our feature shows the reader how to identify and encourage insects in their garden.

The picture of a wasp's nest was chosen as it is a good representation of the garden feature.


John and Dave are working with Environmental Records Information Centre North East.

Little Lemming Books
@l_lemming_books

Nearly there! Getting ready for Spineless launch day 1st August

We're counting down to launch day for Spineless: The Newcastle Science Comic.  Spineless is our free comic about invertebrates in partnership with the Spineless exhibition at Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle this summer.  The exhibition and comic are all about minibeasts: where they live, what they do, and why they’re important.

This blog post offers you 3 simple steps to comics enlightenment (or, info about what's going on around our launch day on 1st August):

1. read our cover comic
2. who's who: remember to meet our contributors
3. here's some launch day info

Step 1: let's all sit down and have a read of our cover comic by Jess Bradley

Pretty awesome, innit. Here are some people who think so:

L-R: Contributor & guest curator Vivek Nityananda, Managing Editor Britt Coxon, Editor in Chief Lydia Wysocki.  Photo by @paulxthompson

Step 2: remember who our six comics creation dream teams are:

• Jess Bradley
• Terry Wiley, with guest curator Irene Brown
• Emily Rose Lambert, with guest curator Dan Skerritt
• Samuel C Williams, with guest curators Vivek Nityananda and Erica McAllister
• Sigmund Reimann, with guest curator Fiona Ware
• John Gatehouse and Dave Windett, with the Environmental Records Centre North East

Some of our 20,000 comics. That's 450 kilograms of comics, right there.   Photo by @paulxthompson)

Step 3: join us on launch day
Spineless-the-comic is free and launches in print on 1st August. There are 20,000 print copies and we're proud of every last one of them.  It has 16 pages and is full colour throughout, all comics no messing. It's aimed at children age 6-10 but probably suitable for ages 6-110. We're also planning a digital version which will be available right here at newcastlesciencecomic.blogspot.com 

Spineless-the-exhibition at the Great North Museum: Hancock runs from 1st August to 1st November, but launch day is of course a special day.  On Saturday 1st August the Museum is open from 10am-4pm, with free cake for the first 200 children and activities all day - and, of course, your first chance to grab a free print copy of our Spineless comic.  Yes, you can take an extra one for your friend, and yes teachers can take extra for their class.  The exhibition is free but donations are welcome.  Info: https://greatnorthmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/spineless 

Spineless comic contributors and friends of the project will be at the exhibition from 3-4pm to have a good look around and marvel at all the people reading our comic.  We'll then be off to the pub to raise a glass to the comic. Say hello if you see us!

Can't wait until then?  Asteroid Belter, our first Newcastle Science Comic comic is still available to read in full free online: http://newcastlesciencecomic.blogspot.co.uk/p/asteroid-belter-project.html.

Hello Emily Lambert

Who are you? 

I'm Emily, a Greetings Card Designer and Illustrator based in Newcastle.

Why did you get involved in Spineless? 

I had a particular fascination with invertebrate creatures growing up - even keeping some (like Stick Insects, Giant Snails and Jewel Beetles) as pets! I was excited to have the opportunity in 'Spineless' to combine both my interest in invertebrate creatures and my love of comics into something with an educational element.

Tell us about your comic.

My first comic follows Claude the Lobster as he is tagged and tracked by researchers. Scientists are still learning new things about Lobster behaviour and my comic was inspired by the possible adventures Claude could be having underwater.

My second comic is all about Mussel Byssus - a sticky glue-like substance Mussels use to stick to rocks which has potential surgical uses and was used to make fabric in the past. The story follows Zizi and her robot pal Pixel as they explore the underwater 'Musselopolis' and travel back in time in their Submarine Time Machine to learn about the uses of Byssus in ancient Egypt.

Top - this is the panel where Zizi and Pixel travel back in time to ancient Egypt to find out how Byssus was made into luxurious 'Sea Silk' material. After using a lot of blue for both comics, it was nice to shift the colour palette to warmer colours for the section where the characters explore Egypt, this panel shows that transition.

Bottom - Claude finds a rocky crevice to call his own and spends a few weeks relaxing there after a rather traumatic predator encounter! I like the expression of Claude as he's munching on Plankton in this panel. It was fun to try and characterise a lobster and create Claude's different expressions to get across his mood as the story progresses.


Emily is working with Guest Curator Dan Skerritt.

Emily Rose Illustration
@DooferTree

Hello Sigmund Reimann

Who are you?

My name is Sigmund Reimann and I am a freelance illustrator.

Why did you get involved in Spineless? 

I love any and all animals, including the unappreciated spineless denizens of our planet. When an opportunity to teach young people more about these lesser known species arose I was happy to offer my skills to make it happen. If we can educate children today then there is hope that in the future they will care about the plight that these species face in this changing world, and will show them the admiration and mercy they deserve. It would also be great to educate some of the adults that read the comic too!

Tell us about your comic.

My comic explores the invertebrates dwelling in cave systems, specifically limestone caves, and is based on the research carried out by Fiona Ware. It focuses mostly on the encapsulated habitat, what dwells within it and how. It also touches on the danger human quarrying of limestone imposes on the species living in them.

My favourite section of my comic is in the first section where the diver is exploring the limestone cave system. I especially like the part where she swims through the rock formations. Limestone caves hold some of the most beautiful natural formations on the planet and I find them truly captivating.

Sigmund is working with Guest Curator Fiona Ware.

SReimann Artwork

Hello Samuel Williams

Who are you? 

Samuel Williams

Why did you get involved in Spineless? 

I am really interested in my comics serving a purpose, they are such a great format for conveying information and I knew it would be a great challenge. Also getting to work with people with a more academic background and sharing ways of presenting their work!

Tell us about your comic.

My first comic see's two girls parachute in to one of the few remaining church forests of Ethiopia to discover what kind of insects still live there! The second comic is all about an Art loving Praying Mantis showing off his superior sight.

There is a panel in my Mantis comic where the face of the mantis is camouflaged behind long grass, and all you can see is his dark eyes poking through while he speaks to some other confused insects. I think it shows how dangerous they can be to their prey when they can't be seen.

Samuel is working with Guest Curators Vivek Nityananda and Erica McAlister.
Samuel Williams Design and Illustration
@samuelcwilliams

Hello Terry Wiley

Who are you?

Terry Wiley

Why did you get involved in Spineless?

Because I remember how much fun it was absorbing science info when I was wee, everyone should get some science in.

Tell us about your comic.

It's called Reef Beasts, it's all about the squishy animals that live at the bottom of tropical seas, and their amazing abilities.

This is a sub-species of Sea Cucumber called a Sea Apple - I picked it for the Sea Cucumber section because of its interesting red-white-blue colouration, most other Sea Cucumbers are greenish-brown and look like an underwater poo.


Terry is working with Guest Curator Irene Brown.

idcm
@terrywiley_idcm

Hello Jess Bradley

Who are you?

 I'm Jess Bradley and I'm an illustrator and comic artist from Bristol.

Why did you get involved in Spineless?

 I had the pleasure of working on Asteroid Belter and jumped at the chance to work on another science comic!

Tell us about your comic.

I've drawn the cover for Spineless which was a lot of fun. I'm a big fan of squishy creatures and as soon as I knew that I could draw sea cucumbers, I couldn't wait to get going!

I like the back cover with all of the different invertebrates on it - it was fun to be able to draw something from every other comic in the book.


Jess Bradley Illustration
@VenkmanProject

A Spineless Update

Work has begun on the Spineless comic. It's just like old times, this time we're teaming up with Great North Museum:Hancock to make an awesome comic companion for their Spineless exhibition. We've received our first proof and it's looking pretty smart.

You might recognise some of our comic makers from Asteroid Belter, others you might not so in the next posts we'll be getting to know our contributors and what brought them to the project:

Jess Bradley

Terry Wiley

John Gatehouse and Dave Windett

Emily Rose Lambert

Sigmund Reimann

Samuel C Williams

Spineless Artists Needed

Expressions of interest to be in our new anthology are now CLOSED. Thanks to all. 

We’re making a comic about invertebrates, in partnership with the Spineless exhibition at Great North Museum:Hancock in Newcastle in summer 2015. Spineless is about invertebrate communities and habitats (or, as I've scribbled in my project planning notes, spineless minibeasts: where they live, what they do, and why they’re important).  Each section of Spineless will spark one section of our comics anthology for children age 7-11, building on our superawesome Asteroid Belter: The Newcastle Science Comic (2013).  For Spineless we'll be focussing on five habitats: coral reefs/tropical oceans, the seashore, rainforests, caves, and gardens.  There might be beasties that talk, dance, fight, and have adventures.  There might be puzzle pages or backyard activities to do. All that will depend on our comics creators and the exhibition's guest curators.

We need six comics creators for this paid project.  The Spineless subject specialists are raring to go, and most of the comics making will happen in May 2015.  

Interested?  Email lydia@appliedcomicsetc.com to ask for more details. 

Asteroid Belter and Applied Comics Etc

Comics are awesome.  Comics are also a powerful tool to engage audiences of all ages with factual information.  This is a blog post wrapping up all things Asteroid Belter and introducing Applied Comics Etc to show where we’re going next. 

Our beloved Asteroid Belter is just over a year old.  Here are some facts:

• We launched Asteroid Belter as part of the British Science Festival 2013 hosted by Newcastle University.  This included 10,000 printed copies of a 44-page full-colour newsprint comic (now available to read in full for free online), two exhibitions, a day of workshops, and a school activity pack (free PDF download)
• As editors we've given 3 conference presentations (Graphic Medicine at John's Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Comics Forum in Leeds, and Engage 2013 in Bristol), two other talks (Laydeez Do Comics and Sparks North East), and written one article (Comics Forum).  Full links: http://newcastlesciencecomic.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/tell-me-about-it.html
• Presenting at Graphic Medicine led to receiving this proper awesome email from Eisner Award-winning comics creator Brian Fies: "Asteroid Belter is the best! I’ve never seen anything like it and am happy to know it exists. The breadth of topics covered is astonishing, from poop to quantum physics. It seems to me that everyone who reads it will pick out different comics they like and others they’re not interested in, and those choices will be different for everyone … I also like the tabloid format and pulp paper; they keep it from being too precious. Asteroid Belter is meant to be read, scribbled on, torn up to make science projects out of! Very nice."
• Google's Blogger stats say our project blog (including the online Asteroid Belter) has been viewed over 18,000 times.  We're particularly popular in the US, UK, Ukraine, and Germany.  The plan is to keep the Newcastle Science Comic blog largely as it stands, as an archive of the project.  Our blog posts have started to move on to new projects, which brings us to The Future.

More projects are happening.  This means that MORE COMICS are being made and MORE FUN is being had.  

Our business identity for this is Applied Comics Etc.  You're very welcome to have a look around the new website http://www.appliedcomicsetc.com/.  All this is still led by Lydia Wysocki and we’ll still use our Newcastle Science Comic branding when appropriate.  

Applied Comics Etc does collaborative projects that integrate comics and factual information, particularly comics + research/education/engagement collaborations.  This is very much the same approach we took with the Newcastle Science Comic project: we’re now looking at projects in all subject areas not only science, and all geographic areas.  We’re ‘applied' in the sense of applied arts, applied mathematics, or anything else with an express practical purpose; we also have comics scholarship and educational practice, theory, and research in the mix.  We're 'comics etc' because whilst comics are central to what we do, not everything we do will result in the creation of sequential words and pictures.  Comics is an excitingly broad and experimental medium, and 'comics etc' shows it can go further still. 

Snapshots of our past projects - including Asteroid Belter - are on our website.  We’re currently working with Newcastle City Libraries as a follow up to the Comics Chaos summer partnership between Newcastle, Gateshead, and Stockton libraries.  We’ve also run workshops that use comics - both finished comics, and some of the mechanics of how comics work – to develop communication skills.  We’ll announce new projects when the ink’s dry on the project briefs.

We aim to use local, national, and international networks of comics creators to bring together the right artist, writer, and editor for each project.  This offers the flexibility to find a voice and art style that works for what each project wants to communicate: the only ‘house style’ is awesome comics.  Some projects will be by invitation and some will be open to new collaborators.  Our past collaborators have been fantastic, and we know that there is interest from equally fantastic people we haven’t yet met. 

This has been a long time coming.  The first meeting for what became Asteroid Belter was in January 2012, with the comic launching in September 2013.  Since then we’ve been running projects and workshops as pilots, presenting about our work, and wrangling Applied Comics Etc into its current form.  We’re grateful to everyone who has been part of this process. 

The ‘we’ of this blog post is important in showing that Applied Comics Etc projects are inherently collaborative projects.  Stepping aside from that for a moment, I (Lydia) would like to thank all Asteroid Belter collaborators (click here for a list of all 76) and editors: Paul Thompson, Brittany Coxon, Mike Thompson, Jack Fallows, and Mike Duckett.  It’s been fun so far, and I’m excited about what comes next.

---

Lydia Wysocki is an educator, artist, editor, and publisher.  She was Editor in Chief of Asteroid Belter:The Newcastle Science Comic and is the founder of Applied Comics Etc.  All that wouldn’t fit on her business card, so it says Comics Boss.

Lydia has extensive experience of teaching, development, and public engagement in Higher Education in the UK, US, and China.  She has also worked in social and market research, as a retail buyer, and as the voice of English language textbooks.  Lydia’s Master’s degree is in Education and she is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

For more about Lydia’s artistic practice in comics, drawing, and printmaking, visit her website.

Tell me about it

A wee* round up of us talking about comics (or if you prefer, us disseminating the work done by our editors and collaborators on Asteroid Belter: The Newcastle Science Comic).

Comics Forum
Open access to comics scholarship?  Part of Thought Bubble?  Yeah, we like that. Our editors Lydia Wysocki and Mike Thompson's paper EPIC THEMES IN AWESOME WAYS: How we made Asteroid Belter: The Newcastle Science Comic, and why it matters is now up on the Comics Forum blog.

• Paper by Lydia Wysocki and Mike Thompson, published 23rd September 2014 
• Interview with Mike and Lydia by Graphixia 

Graphic Medicine
Healthcare professionals, academics, comics creators, and other folks?  With a conference at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland?  Yeah, we like that too.
Our editor in chief Lydia gave a presentation on Epic themes in awesome ways, or the wee and guinea pigs in Asteroid Belter: The Newcastle Science Comic, looking at the wee (urinary tract infections) and guinea pig (cancer drug trials) pages as case studies.  This focussed on how our collaborators made these comics, and what making these comics meant to our collaborators.

• Conference programme 
• Social media reports from the conference 
• (Our session might have been recorded - we'll update this when we know more)

National Coordinating Centre for Public 
The Engage 2013 conference for people involved university public engagement?  In Bristol?  Yeah, we'll go for a bit of that.  Our editors Mike and Lydia led a workshop about using comics in public engagement.

• Conference programme 

Sparks Science Collider 
Giving coders, artists, and artist-coders (coder-artists) a chance to play with scientific data?  In Newcastle?  Aye, go on then.  Our editor in chief Lydia gave a presentation on comics-science collaboration, and led a workshop using comics to set up creative collaborations.

• Sparks Science Collider report and archive of tweets 

Comics conventions

We had stalls at Thought Bubble comics and sequential art festival in Leeds, Comica Comiket in London, and Canny Comic Con events in Newcastle.  We gave free copies of Asteroid Belter to comics fans and creators, met some of our awesome collaborators (some new friends, some old friends), and talked with people about our project.  

The Comics Grid blog

Our editor Lydia and our friend Ernesto Priego co-authored a letter in response to Matthew Reisz's piece The hero in all of is (Times Higher Education, 24th July 2014), and shared it on The Comics Grid academic blog.  Ermesto and Lydia clarified the difference between on the one hand academics and academic researchers as characters in comics, and on the other hand combining academic research with comics.  They also highlighted some key comics, events, and academic journals in this field. 

And finally
We haven't listed all the conversations, presentations at Newcastle University events, emails, meetings, 'can I just ask you a quick question' chats.  These all mean just as much to us as the conference presentations and academic paper.  We're still knocked-out delighted every time people tell us they've read Asteroid Belter, and are proper chuffed that it's still being read and shared online (click on the top right of our homepage).  If you haven't already read it, this corking review from Richard Bruton on Forbidden Planet International tells you what you're missing out on.

We might even have enjoyed talking about Asteroid Belter.  If you ask nicely we might even talk to you about it: at an event, over a cuppa, by email... we're versatile.

We're setting up new comics + research projects and will tell you about them just as soon as we can. Hopefully these links will keep you busy until then.

*haha very funny

Well now that was informative.

Here’s a quick roundup after our infographics workshop at Newcastle City Library as part of the Comics Chaos festival on Saturday 9^th August 2014.

We used examples from digital and print media to identify exactly what what makes good, bad, and misleading infographics.  Our infographicers were great at spotting what it is that makes an infographic a infographic. 

Then we focussed on what comics can teach us about combining words and pictures.  Yes, panel grids are part of this, and there’s a heck of a lot more besides. 

By the time it came to making their own infographics our infographicers (if I keep writing it it’ll become a real word, right?) were rather too good at, umm, not exactly telling lies with information, but certainly being selective about what they chose to emphasise.

Thanks go to our anonymous evaluation form filler-inners for the positive and encouraging feedback.  This is a workshop we can adjust to fit different groups’ needs*, so your comments will help with the fine tuning. 

Thanks also go to our friends at Newcastle City Library for coordinating the Comics Chaos Festival.  There are other comics events for children and for adults throughout August – pick up a festival guide at the library for more information.

Thanks also also go to our friends at CCCCCCC (The Canny Comic Con Comic Chaos Creative Collaboration).  @CannyComicCon’s twitter feed has a rundown of cracking ideas for comics to read, as a good and true record of the Best Comic You’ve Never Read debate. 

*aye, that’s an advert.  You’re welcome to get in touch to to discuss the comics + science (or comics + scientists) workshops we could run for you.  We have many, we do bespoke workshops, and we'll have a web page all about them soon.