All The Fun Happening At London’s Cartoon Museum This April

London’s Cartoon Museum, a great place and somewhere you should definitely visit, has loads of exciting and fascinating exhibits and events to enjoy coming up over the next month…

 

It’s coming into April, we’re in the middle of Easter, and London’s Cartoon Museum has plenty to enjoy…

It all starts with them saying farewell to their Wallace and Gromit exhibition, celebrating 30 years of The Wrong Trousers. There’s a special double late event at the Museum for the occasion, on 11 April, beginning with a kid-friendly time of 4-5:30, a cheese bar (but of course), screening of The Wrong Trousers, and a competition for ‘the Best/Wrongest Trousers.’ Then the Museum will close for a quick setup for ticket holders for the evening event with full bar, cheese, cocktails and music from 6 – 9pm. The late event will have a guided tour of the exhibition, a screening of The Wrong Trousers and a “Cracking” Wallace & Gromit-themed standup routine from Tik Tok famous Luke Poulton (Vegan Luke).

 

The next major exhibition starts on 25 April 2024 as HEROES!: The British Invasion of American Comics opens to tell the story of the to and fro of influence between American and British comics, right back to the early American comics such as Buster Brown, Miss Fury and Superman and their influence on British artists and culture, through to how the Brits then took that influence and sold it back to America through legendary comics such as Watchmen and V For Vendetta.

Heroes! will feature plenty of art from many of the Brit creators who provided art for iconic US superheroes, including works by Brian Bolland, David Lloyd, Doug Braithwaite and Alison Sampson. There’s also chance to discover the early British attempts to imitate US strips in the ’40s, find out the story of the 1972 launch of Marvel UK, and view art by key figures from the history of British and American comics, including Jack Kirby, Jack Davis and Tarpe Mills.

Alongside the major exhibitions, the Cartoon Museum are putting on plenty of talks and workshops – and of course, given that it’s the Easter holidays in the UK and everyone’s looking for plenty of things to do with the kids, the Cartoon Museum are putting on a series of Workshops for Kids where the tickets are all just £12. And then there are the Museum’s relaxed events, designed for children and young people with autism spectrum conditions or sensory processing differences – a great idea.

So, have a look at what’s on offer below, and head to the Cartoon Museum site to book tickets.

 

Talk: Single Mothering – 7th April

Join comic book artist Anna Härmälä and editor Niamh Jones for a Q&A discussing the graphic novel Single Mothering. In this irreverent graphic novel, Anna offers a darkly humorous and unapologetically honest look at the realities of single parenthood and dating.

Book signings are available after the talk. £12.50 Tickets (Book Included with Entry)

Workshop: Life Drawing ‘Super’ Heroes Special – 9th May

Self-guided life drawing at The Cartoon Museum with assistance from the talented Chris Geary if required – focusing on super poses and costumes to celebrate the opening of Heroes!

£15 in advance, £20 on the door.

Kid’s Workshop – Create a Comic Strip – 2nd April & 10th April – tickets £12

Learn how to design your own cartoon characters and then draw them in a one-page comic strip story. Study best ways and bad ways to draw pictures for comics, and how to do proper speech bubbles. Great for beginners, and fun for those with a little more experience.

Kid’s Workshop – Superheroes – 2nd April & 10th April – tickets £12

Learn how to draw some favourite superheroes and create a brand new one of your own. Then we’ll showcase your character on a Marvel-style front cover.

Kid’s Workshop – Spider-Potato – 4th April & 12th April – tickets £12

A special fun workshop for children aged 5-7 – children must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian (at no extra cost). The session will include drawing some famous superhero faces using simple lines and shapes, then the kids will create a silly superhero and draw it onto a blank Marvel-style cover.

Kid’s Workshop – Make a Mini-Comic – 5th April & 11th April – tickets £12

Lots of comic creators got started by making mini-comics. Learn how to create your own characters and draw them into a special booklet that you’ll easily be able to make copies of to give to your friends.

Kids’s Workshop – Make Me Manga – 5th April – £12 tickets

What kind of manga character might you be? Stylish Shojo? Powerful Shonen? Cute Chibi? Perhaps you’d be a Pokemon-style creature. Find out in a fun session featuring your manga self in a page of artwork.

Kid’s Workshop – Manga & Advanced Manga – 9th April – tickets £12

Whether you’re new to the world of Japanese comics, or if you love manga and anime characters and would like to create your own, this workshop will be taking you through the basics of drawing manga, creating our own character, and then featuring them in a page of manga artwork.

 

Relaxed Events

Award-winning workshops designed for children and young people with autism spectrum conditions or sensory processing differences. We have a reduced number of tickets for this workshop so it’s a quieter environment, lower lights, drinks available, and workshop instructions emailed ahead of time.

Relaxed Aardman Model Making Workshop – 5 April

Come and make your own Wallace & Gromit characters to take home with you, ably assisted by Jim Parkyn – one of Aardman Animation’s own model makers.

Relaxed Monday – 8th April

The Museum opens as ticket only, without the distraction of other visitors, for youngsters accompanied by their families, carers or friends. Throughout each session there will be drop-in cartoon workshops with our cartoonist Steve Marchant, as well as a self-led trail of the museum.