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Stories from a strange time
Paul Bristow • Dec 14, 2020
Comics in Lockdown
Before the year ends, we are sharing two publications created as part of our National Lottery Community Fund project, Outside The Box,
working with marginalised young people in Inverclyde to create stories which reflect their lived experience. And obviously, in 2020, there was one lived experience it was hard to avoid. One that we all shared in different ways. So throughout spring and summer of 2020, we continued to work with as many young people in Inverclyde as we could, to create comics which explored their experiences of lockdown.
Sometimes that would mean working via zoom, other times, with stories and text collected via other organisations or at school sessions set up for keyworker families. A whole archive of material has been collated across Inverclyde during lockdown and this is our contribution to that collection - some of those stories, retold and reimagined as comics.
What we enjoy most about them is how honest they are. And how beautifully colourful.
We would like to thank Inverclyde Libraries, Aileen Wilson - Childrens Rights Officer at Inverclyde Council, Erin Power - Children and Young Peoples Development Officer at Your Voice and Grace McKelvie at Great Place Scheme Inverclyde Council for sharing some of the material collected for their Lockdown Life Project from Saint Ninian’s Primary School and Saint John’s Primary School.
You can download the comic here
or read online on our ISSUU page.
Our second comic, Ghost Town, is a collection of ghost stories created during the Galoshans Festival and it will be shared later this week.
MTC Project Blog
Earlier this month, we were asked to produce some artwork for the Afrowegian Project , imagining an Afro-Futurist version of the story of real world cycling superhero, Marshall 'Major' Taylor. The comic display panels form part of an exhibition by the riverside in Glasgow throughout October. You can read more about the work of the project and how to get involved. We're looking forward to doing some more collaborative work with Afrowegian's Jim Muotone, down in Inverclyde over the next few months.
Earlier this year, our director Paul Bristow spoke to Tall Tale films as part of CVS Inverclyde's Digital Open Studios project. Check out the short video below to hear Paul chat about storytelling, communities and his creative process for his own writing and his work with Magic Torch Comics CIC. You can also see his fairly messy home office under the stairs...
Back in 2019, artist Mhairi Robertson and myself, spent some time with a group of women in Glasgow, who told us about their experience of the asylum process, and the welcome they had found in Scotland. The project was pit together by the Poverty Truth Community, and the women all wanted to focus on the positive things that had happened to them since arriving, and the actions that other could take while in the process. A booklet of their stories, which also shares information on the support which is available for people, was launched during Refugee Week 2021 at an online event. The book can be downloaded for free on our website or read on our ISSUU page . A narrated version of the book, recorded by one of the women is also available to view and there is a short preview below.
Magic Torch Comics CIC are asking local young people to get involved in creating a science fiction adventure comic online. The comic, Starbound, is part of our ‘Outside The Box’ project, supported by National Lottery Community Fund. Over the last year, the project has delivered online workshops and involved young people in creating comics about life in lockdown and a collection of spooky stories for Galoshans. For this project, we wanted to do something a little different. It’s a choose your own adventure comic, where local people help create and shape the story on instagram. Every Monday evening, a short video will introduce the story so far and offer people choices for what happens next. People have 24 hours to vote, the artist creates the page and the next week we choose again, spinning the story off in unexpected directions each time. Right now, it’s still impossible to deliver face to face workshops, but if you’ve been online learning all day, you maybe don’t want to come to another online workshop in the evening. So we wanted to provide an opportunity that was easy for everyone to engage in, whatever way they want. Some people might just vote or comment on the story, or email in ideas, other people might want to get more involved and share their creations which we’ll then put out on the blog or in the weekly workshop videos. Although the focus of the project is comic storytelling, we want people to get involved in other creative ways. We’ll have story prompts and tips in the weekly workshop videos, there’s a whole world to explore, so we hope people will get inspired to create and share all sorts of work – Minecraft builds, music, moments of drama – whatever you like. Part of the reason we decided on science fiction was to open up possibilities to imagine. The last few months have been really confined, and it’s easy for your imagination to become confined too, so we wanted to help people break out of that a bit. Starbound launched on Monday 8th March on instagram , there's a new story vote every week. People can get involved on Magic Torch Comics Instagram page or by submitting ideas and suggestions directly on the project page .
About us
Magic Torch Comics CIC
Company Number SC568827
Useful Links
Contact info
07757 112 332info@magictorchcomics.co.uk27 East StreetGreenockPA15 2RL
info@magictorchcomics.co.uk
27 East Street
Greenock
PA15 2RL