Tales of the Oak - Storytelling Event

 

Tales of the Oak - Thursday 28^th October 2021, 6pm-7pm, free but ticketed

As part of this years Galoshans Festival, storyteller and author Paul Bristow shares his story map with us, and wanders through the folklore and urban legends of his home town, searching for a different way to tell stories about Inverclyde. 

Tales of bogles, pirates, monsters and mermaids are reinterpreted and retold by voices from across the community, with accompanying comic art illustrations. 

The event is part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2021 and supported by TRACS – Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland as part of the ‘Go Local’ programme.

Presented live and online in association with The Beacon Arts Centre - book now.

You can view some of the spooky stories Paul told last year during Galoshans on the Story Boat blog.

Scottish Gothic Storytelling - Haunted Voices

Fans of Tales of the Oak's spookier Scottish stories will definitely enjoy the extremely diverse team of writers and storytellers included in Haunted Voices - An Anthology of Scottish Gothic Storytelling.

The project is led by Rebecca Wojturska of Haunt Publishing, and is on Kickstarter now.

There are many awesome backer options for print, ebook and audio versions, all arriving just in time for the darker months - why not get yourself an early Halloween present? Why not get a bundle and terrify your friends and family too?

You can head over to twitter to hear excerpts from the audiobook - including one from me, a tale of one of Greenock's last lamplighters...

Support new indie publishing and support storytelling by backing Haunted Voices on Kickstarter today.

The Galoshans Play

Now that it's officially October, it's exactly the right time to start rehearsing your Galoshans Play.

In 2016, Magic Torch received funding from Heritage Lottery Fund Scotland to help revive the tradition of performing The Galoshans Play. I wrote a new version of the play which includes characters from the myths and legends of Inverclyde as the main characters, including Auld Dunrod, Granny Kempock and Captain Kidd. This year, RIG Arts have worked with local schools to create gigantic puppets of the local folk characters from the play - and you will be able to see them during the parade on Saturday 28th October.

Over 6000 free copies of The Galoshans Play were distributed to local primary schools last year, but if you didn't get one, fear not - you can still download it for free. Or there are a limited number of copies available from 7 1/2 John Wood Street - you can come in and pick them up for free.

You can see some of the videos from last year or read more about the history of the Galoshans on our dedicated page.

And of course Halloween is the ideal time to purchase and enjoy some of Magic Torch's award winning spooky books and comics featuring scary stories from Inverclyde and beyond, including our "Dad's Army with witches" all ages comic The Skeleton Key.

Have a frightful Galoshans.

From the Haunted Air project

Light Years

We are delighted to announce that our Light Years comic project has received £7250 of funding from players of People Postcode Lottery through Postcode Community Trust.

The project will work with a group of people from the Inverclyde area to create a new comic exploring hopes, dreams, stories and memories. So, if you, or someone you know is over 65 and would like to be involved in creating this comic - please get in touch for further information.

The sessions for the project will run in Greenock and Port Glasgow later this year, and be free to access thanks to the support of Postcode Community Trust. We'll be sharing our progress on the blog as the project develops over the next few months.

The Light Years comic will then be launched in March 2018 and be available at Greenock Comicon and on World Book Day.

For an idea of how our comic sessions work, why not have a look at this video exploring our Domate Comic Project, which was recently delivered with Notre Dame High School Communications and Language Department.

The Stowaways

In 2016 as part of the Heritage Inverclyde - A Quest For Learning project, Mhairi and I worked with pupils from Ardgowan Primary School, to begin adapting the tragic tale of the Arran Stowaways as a graphic novel.

Our version of the story is taken from the work of one of our favourite local writers of yesteryear, John Donald - author of Old Greenock Characters.

Free copies will be available from Inverclyde Libraries and 7 1/2 John Wood Street in Port Glasgow from Friday 20th January. It will later be made available to read for free online.

Amazingly, this week, as a result of an article in the Scotsman newspaper, we were contacted by the Great Granddaughter of one of the Stowaways - John Paul. She was delighted to hear that the story of her great grandfather was being retold. The story of the stowaways is a sad one, but it is heartening and humbling to realise, that some of those boys were able to build new lives and families for themselves - and that those families are still around today, remembering them.

Occasionally, it's a beautifully small world we live in.

Magic Torch 2016 Review

22 Pages Exhibition Artwork - Mhairi M Robertson

2016 was, lets be fair, a pretty rubbish year on many levels. However, in between the moments of inescapable darkness, teetering over chasms of endless despair, Magic Torch did have great fun with our projects.

There was our awesome 22 Pages exhibition at Paisley Museum - which reinterpreted key Scottish events and characters as comic book covers. Hopefully, more folk will get a chance to see the exhibition again next year.

22 Pages Exhibition Artwork - Andy Lee

Our First World War graphic novel Achi Baba - Gallipoli 1915, won a national award for innovation from the Community Archives and Heritage Group. You can still read Achi Baba for free online.

We were supported by Heritage Lottery Fund Scotland and Inverclyde Place Partnership to reinvigorate the tradition of performing a Galoshans play at Halloween. We created a new version of the play, which you can read and download for free, and film-maker David Newbigging filmed the projects workshops in schools and also a performance of the play by our new Galoshans Troop volunteers.






We published our first adventure of the Rowan Tree Legion - The Skeleton Key - a Dad's Army with witches romp, inspired by local legends and featuring a few local landmarks. Skeleton Key is available from the Magic Torch Comics shop.

Rowan Tree Legion - The Skeleton Key by Paul Bristow and Mhairi M Robertson

And of course, more than anything else, we made lots of comics this year, with Magic Torch Comics getting support from Firstport to develop into a separate educational social enterprise. We created comics with Whinhill Primary, Gourock Primary, Newark Primary and Ardgowan Primary. All this years comics, with schools and for various events, can be read for free on our Magic Torch Comics ISSUU page or below.

2017 is the Scottish Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology - and we have a few projects lined up already. Comic wise we have our adaptation of John Donald's The Stowaways created with Ardgowan Primary for the Heritage Inverclyde project. And we will finally be publishing our Captain Kidd graphic novel in May.

We'll also be working on a new comics project with Notre Dame High School. And hopefully, we'll be delivering on our new interactive fictions project IF / Then - with all sorts of unusual creative outputs. Fingers crossed.

For now, be merry, be safe, share stories and hugs with your nearest and dearest.

See you in 2017.

The Stowaways created by Magic Torch Comics and Ardowan Primary School for Heritage Inverclyde

From Heritage to Creativity / ECAF Community Comics

In November, we're delighted to be presenting on the work of Magic Torch Comics at two fantastic events.

On Saturday November 19th, we'll be up in Inverness at the From Heritage to Creativity workshop in association with Scotland's Urban Past and the Dare To Dream Storytelling Festival. We worked with the SUP team and Newark Primary School on our Ghost Train comic earlier in the year, and as well as showcasing some of that work, we'll be running a workshop on creating your own comics.

On Saturday November  26th, I'll be through at the Edinburgh Comic Art Festival, presenting on Community Comics and Cultural Identity.

Hope to see some of you around.

Yokai Work Experience

Alucard by Adam Leitch

Back in September, Magic Torch were delighted to have Adam Leitch from Inverclyde Academy along on his work experience. Adam is an artist, and so we gave him a brief script to work on - a lot to get done in a week...here's some of Adam's artwork, some thoughts from Adam and the finished piece Yokai - which is appropriately spooky for Hallowe'en.

SSJ4 Vegito by Adam Leitch

My name is Adam Leitch. I am 15 years old and I love drawing manga. I especially like drawing fan art of Dragon Ball Z. I worked with Magic Torch for my 4th year work experience because I want to do something related to illustration when I leave school. I have also attempted to draw my own manga using both traditional inking methods combined with digital drawing software for colouring.

Note : If you thought that creature was weird, explore some of the other Yokai. Gotta catch em all....

Go Yer Own Galoshans

 

We have been out and about distributing copies of our Galoshans Play to every Primary School in Inverclyde, every pupil will get a free copy - and hopefully some folks will begin performing their own versions of the play again.

Copies will also be available from The Beacon and The Dutch Gable House during the Galoshans Festival weekend - be sure to grab one.

And don't forget that we have two different versions of the play being performed at The Dutch Gable House this weekend, on Saturday at 12 and 3 we have a rehearsed reading of our new version of the play and on Sunday at 3 we have a puppet show performance from Sokobauno Theatre. Both are free but the puppet performance is ticketed - email aulddunrod@gmail.com for tickets.

The Going Galoshans project is supported by Heritage Lottery Fund Scotland and Inverclyde Place Partnership.

The Skeleton Key

There's a war on, well, two wars really. There's the one everyone knows about, with soldiers and bombers and then there's the other one, with spells, magical swords, zombies and giant ravens.

The Rowan Tree Legion are here to help us win both.


The Skeleton Key, by Mhairi M Robertson and myself is available on Saturday 29th October. You can pick up a copy at The Dutch Gable House from 2pm during the Galoshans festival. Shortly thereafter it will be available online from the Magic Torch Comics shop, amazon and comixology. 48 full colour pages for £5. Mhairi will be along to sign copies on the day, rendering it all the more precious.

We will also have a new print edition of our first book Wee Nasties, unavailable since 2013. The book introduces younger readers to the popular folk characters of Inverclyde. I will be along at Inverclyde Library on Friday 28th October from 4 - 5 to share some spooky local stories, including Wee Nasties, as part of the Galoshans Festival.

Galoshans Play Performances

We have two different versions of The Galoshans Play for you to enjoy during the Galoshans Festival this year. Our new version, presented by volunteers is on Saturday 29th October at The Dutch Gable House in William Street, Greenock. Performances are at 12 noon and 3pm. It's free to attend, but spaces are limited.

The second version, you can see on Sunday 30th October at 3pm in The Dutch Gable House. This is Shane and Stan's puppet theatre version, which has been performed around local schools over the last few weeks. Again, the performance is free - but this one is ticketed. Contact auld.dunrod@gmail.com to book your tickets.

And of course, you can download our new adaptation of the play for you to perform yourself.

The Galoshans Play 2016

Vintage clown craze terror

Merry Galoshans everyone.

This year, we've been working to help rekindle the Galoshans Play tradition, as part of our Heritage Lottery Scotland supported Going Galoshans project. We have created a new version of the play for you to read and download for free. A printed chapbook edition will also be delivered to schools and passed out for free during the Galoshans Festival.

The new version contains elements of the play which would have been performed in Greenock hundreds of years ago, as well as some new additions which feature folk characters and motifs specific to Inverclyde. It's a bit of fun really. Just as it was originally intended to be. Maybe you can even have a wee laugh staging your own version.

You will also be able to see and maybe even participate in a few performances of the play during the Galoshans festival, on Saturday 29th October at 12pm and 3pm in The Dutch Gable House.

What IS a Galoshan?

From the awesome Haunted Air project...

As part of the Galoshans Festival in Inverclyde, we're celebrating the roots of the term "going galoshans" and sharing new versions of the traditional play which used to be performed door to door at Halloween and New Year in Scotland.

Sokonbauno Theatre have been out sharing their puppet theatre version of the Galoshans Play with Aileymill Primary School and helping the school create and perform their own versions of the play.

Sokobauno and Magic Torch are also working with Trust Volunteering to recruit and train a new troop to create, rehearse and perform a new adaptation of the play throughout the Galoshans Festival, and to carry the torch of this reinvigorated tradition into the future.

Call Laura or Amanda on (01475) 553334 if you are interested in being involved. Volunteers must be 16+.

The video below sees our gallant Galoshaneers Stan Reeves and Shane Connolly explain the roots of the play - and share some Mighty Boosh style cardboard masks...

trailer from David Newbigging on Vimeo.

A big thank you to artist and film-maker David Newbigging for filming this short for us, David will be filming the whole Galoshans play process for a short documentary which we'll share later this year.

David is also working on his own film project just now - Benchmark 6. Really worth a look.

Going Galoshans 2016

We're heading into Magic Torch's favourite time of year - autumn leaves, crisp mornings, terrifying ghost stories...the season of the witch is almost upon us.

We've lots happening over the next few months, kicking off with our new Going Galoshans project, supported by Heritage Lottery - Sharing Heritage fund and Inverclyde Place Partnership.

As part of the Galoshans Festival in Inverclyde, we'll be celebrating the roots of the term "going galoshans" and sharing new versions of the traditional play which used to be performed door to door at Halloween and New Year in Scotland.

Sokonbauno Theatre will be sharing their puppet theatre version of the Galoshans Play with Aileymill Primary School and Newark Primary School, and helping the school create and perform their own versions of the play.

And we are working with Trust Volunteering to recruit and train a new troop to create, rehearse and perform a new adaptation of the play throughout the Galoshans Festival, and to carry the torch of this reinvigorated tradition into the future. Volunteers must be 16+. Call Laura or Amanda on (01475) 553334. More info below...

Here are the marvellous Sokobauno Puppet Theatre performing the play a few years back. As well as being performed in schools, there will be a one off performance of the play in the Dutch Gable House on Sunday 30th October at 3pm.

Plus! Magic Torch Comics will be launching our new graphic novel The Skeleton Key on Saturday 28th October as well. So it's all go. Hopefully see you around.

Inverclyde Doors Open Day Treasure Hunt

As ever, there's lots to see at this year's Doors Open Day on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September. This year, on Saturday, there's even a treasure hunt!

Start your adventure by collecting your treasure map from the McLean Museum. Follow the map to find the four different coin stickers at McLean Museum, Tobacco Warehouse, Fire and Rescue Museum and The Dutch Gable House - you can take part in arts and craft activities with RIG Arts along the way. 

The map features an exclusive comic strip from Magic Torch Comics. And if you collect all the stickers, you will get a prize at The Dutch Gable House.

The Dutch Gable House will also be sharing new work from the Heritage Inverclyde Quest for Learning project, including stained glass created by Alec Galloway and the volunteers of the HI Women's Group. And there will be a special appearance by Alex The Anchor, the popular Heritage Inverclyde Mascot.

So it's all good!

Plus, I'll be on the Dutch Gable ground floor signing copies of my children's book The Superpower Project. What's that? You don't have a copy yet?! Let these lovely reviews convince you ;)

Hopefully see you somewhere on the day.

Comics In Schools - Comic Launches

Gourock Primary 4/5 - The Doom That Came To Gourock!

From January to March, the Magic Torch Comics team got to work with Whinhill Primary and Gourock Primary, to create three brand new comics featuring a historic shinty match, a wizard princess in space and the revenge of a local witch. So, lots of variety there.

The project was part of the Inverclyde 1+2 Language initiative, and in addition to encouraging visual literacy, the comics also promoted French and Gaelic language. It's been excellent fun.



Whinhill Primary Comic Launch

On Thursday 16 June, we were invited to two totally awesome comic launches at the schools, with lots of parents and carers popping by to see all the hard work done by the classes. The Greenock Telegraph ran a couple of stories on both the Whinhill Comic Launch and also the big compliment which Gourock Primary received from the Beano Comic! (Beano thought their comic was funny!)



Jumping for joy!

You can read the full comics over on the Magic Torch Comics website, including all of the individual strips created by the classes...

Next year, we've more Comics In Schools projects in progress with Ardgowan Primary and Newark Primary. Watch this space!

And if comics, superheroes and local legends are your thing, then it would be remiss of me not to point out that my book, The Superpower Project, is part of this years Summer Reading Challenge.

In The Superpower Project, Megan and Cam discover they have superpowers and try to find out why, with the help of a forgetful steampunk robot built by inventor James Watt and using a mysterious map, left to Megan by her recently exploded grandmother. And it's all set in Greenock. You can read a free preview of the book on the Discover Kelpies website.

If that's not enough to convince you...how about this celebrity superhero endorsement below...

Award for Achi Baba Graphic Novel

We are delighted to be able to say that Achi Baba - Gallipoli 1915, our graphic novel about the Gallipoli campaign, has won a national award for innovation from the Community Archives and Heritage Group, part of the Archives and Records Association.

Achi Baba was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund Scotland, through the First World War - Then and Now programme.

The CAHG judges commented:

“Magic Torch has been helping create a record of important local events in an easily-accessible and highly-innovative comic-book format; eg, the experiences of a locally-based regiment during the First World War. The group has taken this format into local schools; it clearly has the potential to spark ideas in other groups… and fills a gap in presenting the past in a digestible format to the difficult-to-reach senior schools audience.”

You can read all about the awards and other award winners on the CAHG website.

You can read a digital version of the book online for free on our Magic Torch Comics website, and also via ISSUU. Our original run of print copies have been distributed, but we printed a short run second edition, which you can also purchase on our website.

Achi Baba was a challenging project to work on, however since then, we have been able to expand our comics and graphic novel work, within schools, but also with community groups. We're looking forward to sharing our new projects with you soon.

Every town has a story to tell, find out how Magic Torch Comics can help you tell yours...

You can read our progress / process blogs for the Achi Baba project here.

The Skeleton Key - Cover Reveal

Here's the cover for our "witches at war" comic, The Skeleton Key - which introduces the Rowan Tree Legion.

The 48 page all ages comic has been created by Mhairi M Robertson and myself, and it will be released in October 2016, during the Galoshans Festival. We can't wait to share it with you.

Comics In Schools - Ghost Train!

Across the nine arches...

We're delighted to report that we've been awarded £1950 from the new Scotrail Cultural Fund to work with a local school to create a spooky comic. This was the first time we had come across the Scotrail Cultural funding – and it’s a really excellent fund for smaller projects. We liked the challenge of creating something quirky that would fit with the Scotrail priorities, but also get people involved in our own areas of interest, comics and heritage.

We'll be working with Newark Primary School, Port Glasgow on the comic after the summer holidays. 'A Journey on the Ghost Train' will be released in time for Halloween, and will form part of our Galoshans celebrations this year, along with a few other projects still to be announced...

I'm really pleased that comics are increasingly recognised within school settings as a way of encouraging visual literacy and also as a creative way of engaging pupils who are less confident with traditional reading models. We've really enjoyed our Comics in Schools work over the last few months, we've tackled all sorts from French sci-fi mysteries to Gaelic songs and footballing robots. All the finished comics are being launched at schools throughout June, and we'll share the online versions with you soon.

We'll be expanding our comics work over the next year to include after school comic clubs, sessions for teachers and some community group sessions too. To keep up to date with all our comics news, and to read some of the work produced by local pupils, check out our Magic Torch Comics site. Or you can contact us directly on info@magictorchcomics.co.uk.

Pupils at Whinhill Primary in March, working on "Le Mystere de la Princesse Sorciere"

Character design with Artist Andy
 

Ales With A Tale...

Magic Torch are pleased to present the first in a series of local folklore themed ales, created with the assistance of Krafty Brew.

If you happen to be visiting the Cardwell Garden Centre Craft Fayre this Saturday, you will have the opportunity to get your hands on one of these limited edition promotional brews.

Magic Torch would of course encourage you to drink responsibly. And also to brew responsibly.

Magic Torch brewmeisters, creating the magic, much like Auld Dunrod etc

Needs more hops.