Yesterday afternoon saw the opening of the Cam Kennedy Comics Studio at the university, opened by Cam Kennedy himself! Cam is a highly influential comics artist, who has worked on titles such as Judge Dredd and Star Wars as well as a reworking of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped, so it was very exciting to go along to the opening and hear him speak about his various works.
My fellow MLitt-ers in Comics Studies and I went along to the opening at 3.30, and found ourselves in a room filled with some fantastic artwork (and free beverages!). We were then treated to a talk from Kennedy himself, taking questions from the attentive audience. He discussed his work with 2000AD, Lucasfilm and the Kidnapped project, and expressed a genuine passion towards his art. It was a delight to hear him speak so fondly of his career as a comics artist, and the works on display demonstrated the true skill he has.
We were then invited through to the Comics Studio itself. A lot of hard work has clearly been put into building this space for students specialising in comics to gather and put together their creative ideas. With artwork on the walls, a huge selection of comics to read and look at for inspiration, and plenty of space to completely get into the comics world – be it creatively or academically – it really is our own UniVerse!