Hayfever Report.

So, on Friday I journeyed down to Hay-On-Wye in Wales to join up with Ted Brandt, Anne Holiday, Tom Humberstone, Becky Luff and Anna Saunders for a weekend of Drop In + Draw at the Hay literary festival.  As part of the kids' Hayfever section of the festival, we had a much younger crowd than we did at Latitude last year, which had a very diverse range of ages taking part.

Still, all the kids were fantastic and really into the whole comics creation thing and we saw some amazing comics created over the two days we were there, including a Beyonce Lumberjack, some sort of Lady Gaga wardrobe dilemma, battling pirates and a guide to democracy in the animal kingdom.

As ever, the greatest part is meeting the kids who are showing those first sparks of interest in comics, and seeing a profound grasp of comics storytelling that they've learned without realising it.  It's a pleasure encouraging them to keep going with comics, and showing them that although teachers or even parents might think it's a waste of time, spending your time drawing comics is a wonderful thing to do.

All in all it was a great weekend.  The festival is a really lovely place, with a totally placid atmosphere at odds with my previous festival experiences.  Caught some stand up from Josie Long and a gig with the spectacular Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.  And most of all, it was a real pleasure catching up with Tom and Anne, and meeting for the first time the extremely talented and lovely Ted, Anna and Becky.

Finally, my favourite moment from the weekend was turning round during the afternoon on Sunday to find someone drawing this...

by Helena.