© Rachael House

Free cartoon workshops for all

Hastings Cartoon Festival opened with a big cartoon BANG! last Thursday at Hastings Museum. The extensive Martin Honeysett retrospective is the first temporary exhibition in the main gallery for over 20 years, and is supported by an excellent collection of cartoons about the Battle of Hastings by Honeysett’s contemporaries from the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation in the upstairs gallery. The shows deserve a couple of hours of your time, and will guarantee to put a smile on your face on the dullest of autumnal or wintery days. 

This week, in the lead up to the Big Cartoon Day in Stade Hall on Sunday 16 October, a busy schedule of free workshops begins. The programme has been funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, Awards for All and Sussex Community Foundation grants, and the Festival organisers have made sure that different communities across 1066 Country are catered for.

This Wednesday, 21 September, has a workshop with artist Emily Johns for users of the LINKS project in Concordia Hall and the workshop run by cartoonist Andy Willard for 8–12 year olds at the Engine Rooms, as part of the Belles Lettres Festival, is already booked up.

Thursday 22 sees the first of a 2-part workshop for students at Hastings Academy which is being run by Zeel a.k.a. comic artist, Geoff Coupland. He will be getting the students to illustrate the lyrics of a traditional folk song.

On Friday 23, the workshop at Battle Almonry for young people run by Battle-based illustrator, Jon Higham is also fully booked.

Next Tuesday, 27 September, Festival organiser Erica Smith is part of the Pecha Kucha event at De La Warr Pavilion. Go along to find out about the GirlFrenzy to CroneFrenzy project, which was part of SuperNormal Festival this summer.

Thursday 29 September sees an all-day cartoon and simple animation workshop at Sussex Autism run by father and son cartoonists, John and Robin Knowles (left) and a workshop for the residents of The Orangery in Sidley run by Brighton-based cartoonist, Ottilie Hainsworth.

Friday 30 September is the date for a workshop for young adults run by Festival organiser and Hastings Independent Press cartoonist, Pete Donohue at Xtrax.

Friday 7 October brings cartoonist and wheelchair user Dave Lupton, a.k.a. Crippen to lead a workshop at the Disability Inclusion office in Trinity Street.

SuperNormal zinester

On Saturday 8 October zine queen Rachael House comes to town to give a talk at Wow and Flutter about zines and women comic artists at 11am and in the afternoon she is running an LGBTQ workshop at Rock House.

On Sunday 9 October, the female comic theme is continued with a cartoon workshop for women at Rye Creative Centre led by Loulou Cousin.

The following weekend is the main focus of the festival. On Saturday 15 October there will be a special event at the Museum, with a panel of cartoonists, followed by a professional development event at The Beacon, with guest cartoonists from all over the UK and France attending. On Sunday 16 October, the Big Cartoon Day on The Stade will bring together the visiting cartoonists, people who attended the workshop series and members of the public. There will be workshops, caricaturists, talks and opportunities to see cartoonists creating giant-sized cartoons.

To see the full range of events which are part of the Cartoon Festival, visit the Eventbrite page. Nearly all events are free, but by reserving your ticket on Eventbrite, you can guarantee a place on the workshop.

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