If there’s one thing the Story Museum’s KA-BOOM: The Art of Creating Comics wants you to know, it’s that in this space, kids rule. This is clear from the moment of entry, when you are greeted by the beaming face of aspiring artist (and octopus) Octoboom. Octoboom was the winning entry in a competition ran by the museum for young people to design the exhibition’s mascot, which was then brought to life by comic illustrator Neill Cameron - you can find the other top entries on display in full Cameron-ised colour. It’s a deeply charming concept that reflects the exhibition as a whole; using professional resources to give kids the power and tools to create their own stories.
The layout is eye-catching, colourful and just plain fun. Keep in mind I am a 25-year-old adult, and even I caught myself "ooh"ing and "ahh"ing over the dynamic explosions of stylised sound effects and speech bubbles. You are taken through the display via – what else? – a comic strip. Octoboom is guided by the helpful Professor Panels on a journey through every aspect of comic construction, from story structure, character and genre to framing, inking and pencilling. It’s fluid and remarkably easy to follow for concepts that might otherwise by quite tricky to grasp for a younger audience.
The key is in making each section as interactive and engaging as possible – in the story section, blocks with a character, setting and action can be spun on a column to create dozens of potential story concepts (‘politicians’, ‘mirror dimension’ and ‘take over the world’, for instance). You can create a sequence using a set of blocks where the same dialogue is placed over different shots for each face, an ingenious and hands-on way to teach kids what an establishing, wide or close up shot can communicate in a panel. A set of printed speech bubbles can be attached to a pre-drawn comic to learn what can be expressed with different fonts or bubble styles.
Whole books have been written to try and communicate these concepts – Octoboom’s travels with Professor Panels reminded me quite a bit of Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics in their delivery – and I was genuinely impressed with how effectively the Story Museum has managed to convey them simply through the medium of play. Nothing about it feels didactic – you can follow a tutorial on how to draw something in a particular artist’s style (I opted for a dinosaur in the style of current Minnie the Minx artist Laura Howell), but there are also blank sheets for any kid that just wants to let loose with a felt tip. I drew a lot as a child and am now a part-time illustrator, and I know how much I would have benefited from an exhibition like this when I was younger; I’m very glad that the Story Museum’s younger visitors have the chance to do so.
That’s not to say there’s not something for the grown-ups too. Visiting parents are sure to get a nostalgia kick out of some of the archival comics featured – Dennis the Menace and his Beano colleagues feature heavily throughout, most notably in a display of original cover art and panel layouts from 1996. There are also shout outs to some more obscure fare – any longtime fans of Misty, Monster Fun or Jinty will be glad to know that they’re being exposed to a new generation.
I will say that if you’re expecting much airtime given to mainstream comic monoliths like Marvel and DC, or heavy-hitter auteurs like Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman or Art Spiegelman, you might not get what you’re after. The comics featured in KA-BOOM’s archive are largely sourced through the exhibition’s collaborators, The Phoenix Comic, Beano, and Rebellion, meaning that what’s on display is homegrown/local and largely aimed at a younger crowd (except for Judge Dredd; please don't give that to your toddler).
This does also place some limits on trying to provide a sense of a full comic ‘history’. There is a timeline set up across one wall, but there are some pretty significant stops and starts; several years get two comics each while elsewhere we jump from 1987 straight to 2012 with nothing to fill the gap. However, given that KA-BOOM's focus is much more on what could be created than what has already, this is pretty easily forgiven.
KA-BOOM is a delight from start to finish; accessible, artfully structured and bound to spark inspiration in any kid that loves to create (and I do include myself in that). Even in a space for which I wasn’t exactly the target audience, its whimsy is infectious. I left with my felt-tip stegosaurus in hand and a smile on my face, and I see no extended universe in which that’s not a ringing endorsement.