2020 Visions

At this particular point in my life, I'm extremely lucky, because everything I do is about stories. And in addition to my own writing, and work with digital storytelling, I also run Magic Torch Comics CIC, which works with schools, community groups and organisations, to tell stories using comics.

Magic Torch Comics are looking forward to a busy 2020, and it’s off to a flying start, as we were named one of The Big Issue’s Top 100 changemakers for 2020. It’s a great list, full of amazing people and projects, and we are delighted to be a part of it.

Magic Torch Comics have lots of projects happening and comics launching in the first half of 2020, and I thought we would share them with you now, so you know what to look out for. 

In March, we have two books launching on World Book Day (Thursday 8 March) – a collection of Gaelic Folktales created with the Callander’s Landscape project, and a story book of Syrian, Somalian, Kurdish and Scottish folktales produced with Inverclyde Community Development Trust and local ESOL learners supported by Inverclyde Community Learning and Development. And later that month, we'll be showcasing the work of the young people we've worked with on Inverclyde Libraries Making Waves project.

In April, we’ll be launching 1820 – The Paisley Radicals at Paisley Comicon. The book is illustrated by Dylan Gibson and the project was funded by Paisley CHEF fund. It will be previewed at Paisley Book Fest at our Make Comics History workshop on Sunday 23rd February.

In July, we will be at Glasgow Comicon, launching the first of our Outside The Box anthologies. Outside The Box works with marginalised young people in the Inverclyde community, to create comics which share their ideas and lived experiences. The project is supported by National Lottery Community Fund and you can see a promo video for the project below.

Back in 2018, we lost our colleague, Andy Lee, who had worked with us since we started making community comics. We had completed a comic with Andy about the life of Scottish Pirate Captain Kidd, but decided to shelve it. However, with the blessing of Andy’s family, we will be releasing the book, I Thought I Was Undone later this year as a charity publication. More details soon.

We will also have a huge range of information comics releasing – created with schools and community groups and sharing information and stories from the Scottish Parliament, Health and Social Care Partnerships and the Poverty Truth Community. We are so delighted with the diversity of projects that we are asked to get involved with. Please keep them coming!

And in the unlikely event that’s not enough comics for you, Magic Torch Comics also hope to launch our first Kickstarter this year, for a comic which explores the story of The Stone of Destiny, released in time for the 70th Anniversary of the theft of the stone this Christmas. Fingers crossed.

There’s more on the slate, but that’s what we can tell you for now. As ever, if you are interested in getting involved in our projects, would like to know more about what we do or even have a potential idea for collaboration, please get in touch.

We'll share lots more on the projects over the next few months, so keep an eye on the blog, twitter and our facebook page to stay up to date.

Magic Torch Comics - Community Comics

Magic Torch Comics Team delivering on Project 22 last year

I'm so pleased to be able to say today that Magic Torch Comics CIC have received support from Young Start (National Lottery Community Fund Scotland) for our Outside The Box - Community Comics project, which will be delivering across Inverclyde from 2019 - 2021. To find out more about the project contact Magic Torch Comics or follow on twitter. I'll be sharing a few bits and pieces from the project on here as well. Read all about the projects supported by Young Start below...


YOUNG SCOTS DANCE TO THE TUNE OF £1.3 MILLION FROM THE YOUNG START FUND 

An intergenerational dance company that helps young people creatively connect with older generations through dance is amongst a number of groups sharing in 1.3 MILLION of dormant bank account funding. 

Across the country 19 youth-led projects are celebrating £1,334,561 from the Young Start fund, which aims to help young people build confidence, skills and take an active role in realising their own potential. See a full list of projects here. 

Young Start is delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund and awards dormant bank and building society cash to projects led by and for young people.

One of the groups celebrating today is Barrowland Ballet, based in Glasgow, which receives £98,314 to deliver intergenerational dance workshops and performances. The project, which is called ‘Wolf Pack’ will also provide three young associates places to volunteer and gain group facilitation and leadership experience.

Natasha Gilmore, Artistic Director of Barrowland Ballet, said: “We are thrilled to have been awarded three-year funding from the Young Start Fund. We passionately believe that dance is for everyone and Wolf Pack is a celebration of different generations collaborating. We provide a chance for young people to creatively engage alongside other members of their local community, develop new skills and create dance performances that give each of them an opportunity to express themselves.”

Also welcoming the funding is Isaac, 10, whose confidence has come on leaps and bounds since joining the dance company in 2017, he said: "Before I started in Wolf Pack, I didn’t really think I could dance but now I know I can. I have so many good friends too. I feel much more confident than I used to. Last week I stood up in front of 100 children at my school and gave a speech because I wanted to be house vice-captain of my school house. I was up against seven others and I won the vote! Without the confidence gained at Wolf Pack I wouldn’t have gone for it.”

Also sharing in today’s cash boost are Magic Torch Comics in Inverclyde. Their £62,708 award will enable them to run Outside the Box – Community Comics, which will empower young people from marginalised groups to create comics that reflect the imagination, lives and stories in their community. The young people will design, create and distribute their comic books at this year’s Comic Con.

Paul Bristow, Director of Magic Torch, said: “Magic Torch Comics are absolutely delighted that we have this new opportunity to provide free comics workshops across the Inverclyde community. Over the next two years our Outside the Box - Community Comics project will work with young people to help them share their stories, life experiences, hopes and ideas using comics. We're looking forward to discovering lots of new writers and artists - everyone has a story to tell."

Announcing today’s funding, National Lottery Community Fund, Chair, and Maureen McGinn, said:
“Young Start aims to support projects that are led by, and for, young people, giving them the best possible start in life. All of today’s projects share an ambition to help young people grow in confidence and play an active part in realising their potential, and so it is with great pleasure that we announce this latest investment totalling £1,334,561.

Groups wanting to know more about Young Start should visit https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/young-start or contact 0300 123 7110.

Autumn Adventures

I'm looking forward to lots of events, visits and activities over the next few weeks...

With the support of the Scottish Book Trust Live Literature scheme, I'm visiting Mayfield Primary School and Dykesmains Primary School during the fabulous Tidelines Book Festival. And after that, I'm visiting Hillhead Library as part of the Byres Road Book Festival, which would be awesome enough on its own, but I also get to judge a Design A Superhero competition at the Oxfam Byres Road Superhero Day. A few days later, I am delighted to be heading up to the Glencoe Folk Museum, to work with school pupils to create some folk tales and comic stories. While we're on the subject, it's worth saying that there is still some time left for your school, library or community group to apply for Live Literature funding to help you host an author event in 2018 - the next deadline is Wednesday 27th September. Go! Now!

In between times, I'll be out and about with Magic Torch Comics...

At the Scottish Learning Festival Exhibition, you can come say hello and find out about how Magic Torch Comics work with schools and community groups to tell stories using comics. We're at Stand E110, up by the Exhibitor Seminar Theatre and the Local Authority Attainment Village.

We also have a stall at the MCM Comicon Scotland on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th September. We're at table CC9 in the Comic Village with our books, comics, winning smiles and potentially some sweeties - if we don't end up eating them all.

I've more school visits and seasonal storytelling happening over the next few months, but with Autumn now upon us, I'd like to suggest that now is also exactly the right time to start rehearsing your Galoshans performances for going round the doors at Hallowe'en. Here's a link to the new Inverclyde version of the Galoshans play which I wrote last year for our Heritage Lottery Fund supported Galoshans project.

And finally, Magic Torch Comics also have a new community project starting - creating comics with people over 65. The project is supported by the Peoples Postcode Trust. If you, or someone you know might be interested, there's some details on the Magic Torch Comics blog.

Artwork by Mhairi M Robertson

The Stowaways

Last year, myself and artist Mhairi M Robertson, worked with Primary 6/7s in Ardgowan Primary School Greenock, to adapt a local story into a comic. The story we chose to adapt, was the tragic tale of the Stowaways on the Arran; seven young boys hid aboard a ship for Canada in 1878, and were horribly mistreated by the crew, before being left to fend for themselves on the ice fields of Newfoundland. Not all of the boys survived the ordeal.

The tale has been told many different times locally, but we chose to adapt the text of Greenock writer John Donald, who had published his version in 1928 in the book The Stowaways and Other Sea Sketches.

Our work with the class was great fun, and in addition to helping us break down the story into the eventual script for the comic, the kids also created their own comics about being stowaways.

Just before launching the book in January 2017, I thought I would see if we could get a bit of wider interest in the story and the project, and so contacted a journalist at The Scotsman. Alison Campsie did a really nice story previewing the book, but also exploring the tragic history of the stowaways.

The Scotsman story, was read by a lady called Nancy Banner, a resident of New Hampshire USA, and the great granddaughter of one of the boys, John Paul. In fact, her own father, was named after John Paul. Nancy contacted us to ask if we could send a copy of the book, and of course, we were delighted to do so.

At the book launch for The Stowaways, in January 2017, I told the kids about the amazing connection that had been made by retelling the story. Our local paper, the Greenock Telegraph were along on the day, and spoke to all the kids about their work writing the book. This story, was read by another branch of John Paul’s family, living down in Southhampton where he had eventually settled. They had never met the American part of their family, and so got in contact with Nancy, to explain lots more details of family history, including the fact that poor John Paul had been buried in an unmarked grave. Together, the family resolved to locate the burial plot of John Paul, and next year, 150 years after the tragic voyage of the boys on the Arran, John Paul will finally receive a gravestone, which celebrates how the survival of one wee boy is remembered generations later by his grateful family.

We were then contacted by more descendants of the family, by writer Patrick Collins who had written his own version of the tale and we heard from Don MacInnis, the great grandson of the woman who took The Stowaways in at Newfoundland. Don hopes to have a plaque mounted for the boys next year. All these people, connected by one story.

I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in lots of wonderful history and heritage projects over the years, you can never tell where a project will end up or how it will be received. This one surprised us all. It’s proof, if any were needed, about the wonderful power of stories to connect people. The whole time we worked on this project, I thought we were telling a story, but it turned out, we were in one

You can now read The Stowaways for free online.

Read more about Magic Torch Comics work with schools and community groups.

The project was funded by Heritage Lottery Fund Scotland, as part of the Heritage Inverclyde A Quest for Learning programme, an Inverclyde Council project delivered by Inverclyde Community Development Trust.

Largs Viking Book Festival

By Odin's beard, it's Largs Viking Festival time again!

Always a cultural highlight - there's lots to see and do, you can check out the full programme online.

This year, I'm delighted to be taking part in the Viking Book Festival. I'll be at the Woodhouse Hotel on Sunday 28th August at 7pm, discussing comics, folklore and heritage - with a sprinkling of spooky stories and Superpower Project.

There's loads of cool events at the Book Festival, but if I had to pick another "must-see" it would be an afternoon of polite Viking Mayhem with fellow Kelpies authors Robert Harris and David MacPhail - you can catch them on Sunday 28th August on the Festival Stage at 3.30.

Hope to see you at the festival.

Magic Torch Comics

Magic Torch Comics create comics and graphic novels based on history and folklore. All our books and comics are available via the Magic Torch Comics online shop - from pirates and mermaids to zombies and sea monsters...there's something there for everyone.

There's also lots of our comics you can download for FREE, featuring superheroes, space discos, historical battles, folk ballads and even Slenderman...

As well as creating our own comics, Magic Torch Comics can help you tell your story too - we deliver sessions and classes for schools and community groups, and can also deliver sessions for teachers on using comics to develop creative writing and developing a graphic novel library for class. If you are interested, drop us a line...