This July we are running a FREE two-week Comics Summer School for 8-14 year olds! This Summer Special is aimed at young people who have NOT yet had a chance to attend the regular DCCS Comics Clubs.
There will be comics jams, zine making, character creation, comics reading, and more! You will learn about and create your very own comic strips!
The summer special runs each week from Monday to Thursday 10am-12pm from 15th – 25th July.
Comics Club is now on it’s well earned Christmas break. What a year it has been! Over 100 comics workshops for young people, a summer school at The McManus, and library workshops in Dundee, Perth, and Fife, as well as schools workshops in Fife, Brechin, and Dundee. We also partnered with The Circle to run a workshop programme outside the city centre. We produced three anthologies of comics by our young Comics Clubbers, as well as several zine style comics.
So time for a break and this time it will be a little longer than usual. There are a few changes happening behind the scenes at DCCS including a move to new premises so we need a little longer to prepare. Don’t fear though we are not moving far – just to another unit in the Vision Building! Workshops are scheduled to start up again the first week of February in Unit 10 just across the landing from our current space, Unit 7. Keep an eye on our website and sign up to our newsletter if you want to keep up to date with the changes.
Good news everyone! A new term means a new season of our regular after school Comics Clubs! This year we are keeping the venue, days and times the same:
TUESDAYS 4.30-6.30pm for 10-13 year olds WEDNESDAYS 4.30-6.30pm for 14-17 year olds
The workshops take place at DCCS HQ in The Vision Building, follow the link for details.
In addition to the regular clubs we have teamed up with The Circle in Staffa Place to run a 10 week programme of workshops beginning THURSDAY September 6th from 4.30pm. The Circle is a hub for charities, social enterprises, community groups and socially aware businesses in Dundee, and working with them helps make our workshops accessible for more people across Dundee. See the flyer below for more details, places can be booked here.
We have updated the timings of the Fife Libraries workshops next week, see the poster below for the new information. Remaining workshops this summer are:
3rd August Central Library Dundee 2-4pm 6th August Kirkcaldy Galleries 10-11am 6th August Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries 12.30-1.30pm 6th August Dalgety Bay Library 3-4pm 7th August Rothes Hall Library 10-11am 7th August Cupar Library 12.30-1.30pm 7th August St Andrews Library 3-4pm 8th August AK Bell Library Perth 2-4pm 9th August Ardler Complex Dundee 1.30-3.30pm
Our weekly Comics Clubs start again on Tuesday 14th August 4.30pm at DCCS
DCCS is running comics workshops as part of the Being Human Festival from 2-5pm on 22nd November in the Dalhousie Building room 2S14, University of Dundee. Details below. All Welcome!
What is the Google brain doing to our imagination? Are lie detectors always honest? What is bullet time? What is monster theory?
The Imaginarium, a showcase for the arts and sciences, comprises eight rooms in the Dalhousie Building at the University of Dundee stuffed with ongoing, drop-by activities (i.e. come by when you can). Ushers will be available to take you on a tour of the different rooms on the day itself.
(1) Telling Tall Tales (a creative writing workshop with Eddie Small) (2G14: 4-6pm)
(2) A Pop-Up Psychology Lab (1LG03: 2-5pm)
(3) The Mega-Knitting Room (2G13: 2-5pm)
(4) The VR Museum (2S17: 2-5pm)
(5) The Comics Studio (with pop-up book-making) (2S14: 2-5pm)
(6) A Gulliver’s Travels Art Installation (2S16: 2-5pm)
(7) The Green-Screen Film Studio (in the Drama Studio: 2-5pm) and
Various rooms will also include looped film screenings, such as Dame Sue Black’s Martian Autopsy and various classic animations of Gulliver’s Travels.
The Imaginarium Lightning Lectures – 2pm to 2.45pm
Daniel Cook (English) – Introduction
Keith Williams (English) – A Quick History of Bullet Time
Nicholas Wade (Psychology) – The Science and Art of Vision
3pm to 4.45pm
Karen Petrie (Computing) – The Growth of Artificial Intelligence
Hope Roulstone (English) – On Monster Theory
Anna Robb (Education) – Why All Schools Should Be Art Schools
4pm to 4.45pm
Dominic Smith (Philosophy) – The Tay Bridge Disaster
Roger (Ruo-Qian) Wang (Civil Engineering) – Crowd-sourcing Data and Urban Flooding
Adam Cuthbert (English) – On Camera-Eye and the Stream of Consciousness
Gulliver’s Worlds
4th November 10am-5pm
Dundee Science Centre
DCCS will be at Dundee Science Centre tomorrow running comics workshops during the Gulliver’s Worlds day of events (part of the Dundee Science Festival and the Being Human festival). There is a full day of events from 10am-5pm. Our artist/facilitators will be there between 10am-noon and 2-4pm. Come along and invent some wonderful creatures and make some comics!
Join Gulliver on his journeys through different worlds!
Follow the story of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ as written by Jonathan Swift and take a fresh look at our Environment from different perspectives.
What does it feel like from the perspective of a giant, do we realise how small we actually are and what might life look like if it were to exist somewhere else in the universe?
Find out all about these different ‘points-of-view’ – both in this world and out!
Marvel Comics adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Written by Chris Claremont, art by Yong Montano.
Next week at Comics Club we will be running special War of the Worlds workshops to tie-in with the H.G. Wells celebrations as part of the Being Human festival. Professor of Comics Chris Murray from the University of Dundee (who is also the DCCS Operations Director) will be here to talk out about comics adaptations of Wells’ famous alien invasion story. You will then have the opportunity to create your own Martians and make comics -they might even invade Dundee!
Tuesday 8th November 4.30pm-6.30pm (10-13 year olds)
Wednesday 9th November 4.30pm-6.30pm (14-17 year olds)
Coming up next week we have an exciting new project; a two-week workshop masterclass with comics artist Hari Conner.
Our workshop with Hari will be for 14-17 year olds and will take the slot of our Wednesday Comics Club – 4.30 to 6.30pm here in DCCS – on the 14th and 21st of September. At these events, our Comics Clubbers (and any other interested young people) will be able to learn from Hari and work with her to create their own characters or comics inspired by Dragon Matrix – a new augmented reality theatre adventure taking place in Monikie Country Park next month. As normal, the workshops are completely free with all materials provided – just bring yourself, your friends and some creative ideas!
Hari has recently been working on an interactive companion comic that will go hand in hand with Dragon Matrix. From the 5th to the 31st of October, the forest will be home to a computer generated dream world, with talking, magical creatures that will help you on your quest to find six missing dragon stones. The adventure will be enhanced by the Dragon Matrix app, and promises to be a fantastical experience!
– Caitlin Mitchell
The front cover of Hari’s comic for the Dragon Matrix event
Here is the final instalment of our collaborative web comic, produced by the incredibly talented Rebecca Horner!
Well, that’s my two week internship here at DCCS over! The time has flown by and it’s been an amazing experience. Over the past two weeks I’ve been introduced to the world of comics and in particular the busy world of Dundee Comics Creative Space. Thank you to everyone who has allowed me the chance to interview you, and especially thanks to the DCCS team and artists for never saying no to a photo shoot! I’ve worked with Rebecca Horner, an amazing artist, to produce this collaborative web comic detailing my time here – thanks Rebecca for never complaining about my lack of artistic input! I’ve also had the chance to sit in on some of the workshops that go on here at the Space – both the after school Comics Clubs with young people, and the workshops that are happening in partnership with a group from Advocating Together; the finished product of this project will be a comic about tackling disability hate crime, and I can’t wait to see it! No two workshops are ever the same and I’ve had the chance to see just how incredibly creative the Comics Clubbers are, and to enjoy some classic cheese jokes (what’s the best cheese to hide a small horse with? Mascarpone!). I’ve learnt some valuable life lessons from Damon – mainly to always always keep note of your passwords, and that a Snickers a day is a necessity – but I’ve also learnt about graphic design, and our finished products were the DCCS posters and leaflets that are now distributed throughout the libraries and community centres of Dundee! Keep an eye out for them folks! Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed my time here so thank you for having me – but you’re not escaping me and my incessant posting that easily! I’ll be back in the Space regularly to keep up to date with what’s happening and hopefully to keep broadcasting information about DCCS over social media. But for now, Caitlin Mitchell, signing out!
Dundee Comics Creative Space 