He met other young enthusiasts, swapped comics, and learnt a little about Korean comics culture: "The Asian children draw all their comics on a computer," he says. In August 2011, after its organisers spotted an article about him in The Hampstead & Highgate Express, Zoom was invited to represent Britain in the children's competition at the Bucheon International Comics Festival in South Korea, where he won an International Kids Cartoonist award – and an invitation to the 2012 festival, which he's taking up this month. "It's name is Zoom Rockman and we don't stand a chance." He has mingled with his Beano heroes at comics events, and been tweeted about by leading comics artist and illustrator Luke Pearson: "I've discovered the future of comics," Pearson wrote. He received a letter of encouragement from his local MP, Lynne Featherstone, and a letter of thanks from one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, written after he dedicated The Zoom! issue six to the Diamond Jubilee. He's already been interviewed by the BBC, and photographed by Nick Knight for i-D magazine. Zoom ought to be accustomed to all the attention by now. So in The Zoom! issue five he goes looting in the London riots, and ends up stealing some nappies." Zoom is proud of having included such topical subject-matter. "I made him really stupid, and I wanted him to get worse with every issue: naughtier and naughtier. "He's based on Dennis the Menace," Zoom explains.
His first character was Crasher, a naughty boy with a penchant for vandalism. Zoom comes from creative stock – his parents, Kate and Mark, are furniture designers – and, not long after he began his Beano collection, he was inspired to emulate the historic title with a strip of his own. He now has hundreds, he says his favourite characters are Dennis the Menace and Roger the Dodger. In March 2009, when he was eight, he started to collect vintage, pre-2000 back issues of The Beano. Which might sound like a long time, if not for the fact that Londoner Zoom is only 11 years old. Zoom Rockman, writer, illustrator and publisher of his own award-winning comic The Zoom!, says he's been drawing ever since he can remember.
0 kommentar(er)
