Minx Review: Re-Gifters

This week's Minx Review is dedicated to my friend Len. I trawled the whole of London to find a copy of Re-Gifters for her and it got 'lost' in the post (being a parcel I had weighed at the post office that means someone stole it grrrr). I know a review isn't the same but perhaps we can live vicariously through it. Re-Gifters is written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel.

 

Re-Gifters is about Korean-American hapkido competitor Dixie. She blows her $200 entry fee for a big championship on a birthday present for fellow martial artist and crush Adam only to discover that not only is he disinterested in her present but also her! Completely off her game, Dixie must now fight the street rounds to get the chance to re-qualify for the championship where she takes on tough guy Dillinger. Re-Gifters is also the story of the warrior statue Dixie buys for Adam and its journey around LA.

 

Re-Gifters is the most accessible Minx comic if you're a guy: it features sport, tough guys, girls who act like tough guys and eye candy Megan. That is not to say it's not also entertaining for young women, in fact it is perfect for young women who are bored of the weak, bland, overly-girly lead characters that often appear in young adult media: Dixie and her very charming best friend Avril are tough-talking city girls who are more than capable of standing up for themselves (though the male characters do spend a lot of time talking down to them). Dixie is also trying to battle with her teenage hormones resulting in a volatile temper and a giant crush on Adam. When Avril makes Dixie over for Adam's birthday party Dixie is literally stripped from her armour revealing her more fragile side. This provides a nicely balanced heroine you instantly want to root for.

 

Adam is a douchebag. Not as much as a douchebag as Jake from Water Baby (Water Baby is probably the most adult of the Minx titles) but he gets pretty close. Not only does he not realise that Dixie is crushing on him (even when he makes her give him advice on how to get closer to Megan) but he gives the warrior statue to an equally unappreciative Megan without a second's thought and even plays mind games with Dixie when he thinks she might beat him in the hapkido championship. Apart from being blonde he really has very few redeeming features.

 

Though Dixie harbours feelings for Adam for the majority of the book  the last thing you want is for her to get together with him. Enter Dillinger. Dillinger is the rather unbelievable bad boy. He's a tough guy with morals (not always logical morals) who, when he's not beating up Megan's brother is helping Dixie get out of her Adam-induced funk and win the championship. He is much more likeable than Adam but does feel strangely motivated. He's there to prove that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover (aka just because he's a street kid it doesn't mean he's out to murder you) but his desire to pound on Megan's admittedly annoying brother (a device to get the statue to continue to circulate LA) somewhat sullies it and makes when he is being nice a bit cheesy. The men in Dixie's family are always spot on though, in particular her twin brothers who are lively little monkeys and very endearing.

 

The ending is pretty predictable however because you're rooting for Dixie from the very beginning and she gets the ending she deserves (rather than the one she thinks she wants at the beginning) it has that warm, cute, satisfying feeling.

 

Much like the subject of Re-Gifters the art feels very male centric - it doesn't have the smoothness and artiness you expect from a graphic story aimed at young women - if anything it looks perfect for a comic aimed at pre-teen boys. I appreciate that a young woman new to graphic stories might reject it for something more elegant however if she is already into graphic novels she'll appreciate its indie feel and obvious quality. It somehow manages to balance simplicity with detail and is wonderfully lively - which is perfect for a story about martial arts. Also a quick thumbs up to Jesse from Good as Lily for the shading. It might just look like a bit of grey but that bit of grey adds so much dimension to Sonny and Marc's lines.

 

Re-Gifters is about learning to expand your horizons and by attempting to blend boys comics with a female protagonist it mostly succeeds on both physical and thematic levels. It is also a story about not only people but things going on journeys...so if you see a copy of Re-Gifters floating about it's probably the one I sent to Len. Do a blogger a favour and gift it on to someone you care about and maybe, like Dixie's statue, it might also eventually find its way back to Len.

You'll like Re-Gifters if you like:
Confessions of a Blabbermouth, My Faith in Frankie, The Next Karate Kid, Bamboo Blade, Peach Girl and being a tomboy.

Selected graphic novels also by Mike Carey:
Lucifer, The Sandman Presents: Petrefax and The Furies, various Hellblazer volumes, Batman: Gotham Knights #37: "Fear is the Key", Detective Comics #801-804: "The Barker: When You're Strange", My Faith in Frankie, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, various Crossing Midnight volumes, God Save the Queen, Faker #1-6, Confessions of a Blabbermouth, The Unwritten, Ultimate Elektra: Devil's Due #1-5, Spellbinders #1-6, various Fantastic Four volumes, various X-Men volumes, Ultimate Vision #1-5, Ender's Shadow, The Torch #1-8, Thor: Wolves of the North, Sigil #1-4, Red Sonja #0-6, Vampirella: Revelations, Wetworks: Worldstorm, Voodoo Child and The Stranded #1-5.

Novels also by Mike Carey:
The Devil You Know, Vicious Circle, Dead Men's Boots, Thicker Than Water, The Naming of the Beasts and The Steel Seraglio (co-written with Linda Carey and Louise Carey).

Also by Sonny Liew:
Fighting Turtle, Malinky Robot: Collected Stories & Other Bits, Marvel's Sense and Sensibility, Au Pays des Merveilles, Le Tour du monde en bande dessinée vol 2, Marvel Adventures Spiderman #50, Wonderland, Liquid City (Vol.1, 2), Flight (Vol. 2, 5, 8) and My Faith in Frankie.

Also by Marc Hempel:
Sandman: "The Kindly Ones", Breathtaker, Mars, Blood of the Innocent, Gregory, Tug & Buster, Marvel Fanfare, Epic Illustrated, Heavy Metal, Jonny Quest, Tarzan the Warrior, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, Flinch, My Faith in Frankie, The Dreaming, Lucifer, and Disney Adventures.

Oblivion

I'm very proud of being a natural blonde (though it comes with so many negative connotations) however ever since playing Dead or Alive 2 I've always wanted to have pink / lilac hair like Ayane.

Naturally then I was so excited to see that Schwarzkopf now offer a Live Color XXL Ultra Brights range in Electric Blue, Shocking Pink, Pillar Box Red, Purple Punk, Raspberry Rebel and Fiery Copper. I've sort of dabbled with hair dyes bought over the Internet before but always been a little wary / unsatisfied with using a brand I'd never heard of before. Seeing that such a trusted brand was now offering semi-permanent unnatural colour dyes and that I am always so envious of people like Popi Atom and the girls who appear on Tokyo Fashion News I thought I'd try again!

Here are my Grimes-esque blonde-pink ombre braid results:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earmuffs - Claire's

Button hair bands - a gift from a birthday party I went to back in the 90s

Glasses - Vogue (they use UV reactive lenses so double as sunglasses)

Vest - Pull and Bear

 

To get pink eyelashes I used Boot's No 7 Extreme Length Waterproof mascara in 'brown/black' on my top and bottom lashes then went over the top lashes with Barry M's Shocking Pink Lengthening Mascara. If you are going to use the Barry M mascara over another mascara I recommend applying a lot as it has a tendency not to show up. It applies better to lashes without any other mascara on however I've found coloured mascara doesn't show up on pale skin unless you use dark a base coat. People with darker skin shouldn't find this a problem though!

 

To carry the pink motif through I used Rimmel's blush in 'Pink Rose', Rimmel's 1000 Kisses lip tint in 'Timeless Tango' and went over the top with Boot's Natural Collection Sheer Natural Lip Colour in 'Sorbet'.

 

If you could dye your hair any colour which would you choose?

 

Undefeated - Drawing

This is the third and final part of my guide to creating your own short graphic story.

First let's do a checklist. Have you:

1. Planned your story?
2. Written your script?
3. Left your script?
4. Returned to your scripted and edited it?
5. Designed your characters?
6. Practiced drawing your characters until you're happy with easily recreating them?

Good. Then we can continue!

I drew Undefeated using a digital program (I'm an old school cheapskate so swear by Photoshop 7, DON'T use MS Paint) however wherever possible I'll also explain each step as if I was drawing the comic traditionally. I'll put the traditional bits in pink.

N.B. I'm not a professional artist. These are tips from personal experience. Anything that doesn't fit for you, don't do!

Step One

Make a rough sketch of what your page will look like on a separate piece of paper. If you are creating a short comic / graphic story with a limited page count like me you will have already done this in the planning stage. If your story has an open page count you probably won't have already sketched a plan. Sketching a plan is not so much about how each panel will look but the over all page layout - panel placement, text placement, etc - it is purely for you and as long as you understand your plan it is more than allowed to look completely rubbish and incoherent to everyone else!

Here is what my plan looked like (I drew all four page plans on one piece of A4 paper):

Step Two

Make your document size really big (nothing under 200 pixel resolution and 1500 pixel length / width). It's much easier to resize a picture down if it is too big than increase its size if it is too small. If you plan on getting your comic published publishers require digital copies to have big resolutions so as to not look pixelated when printed. Working big then sizing down later also makes it easier to draw finer details.

When drawing a page using traditional materials pick whatever size paper feels right for you or is specified by the publisher. Generally publishers don't like receiving work bigger than A3 (also it's really expensive to send something A3 or above in the post).

Step Three

Create a new layer and draw your panel lines. Never draw directly onto the background. Always create a new layer for each step / set of colours! Think of drawing with layers like drawing on tracing paper. Each digital layer is like a layer of tracing paper and whatever happens on one layer does not affect the others. By drawing on separate layers you do not ruin everything if you make a mistake. You can just erase the mistake on that single layer rather than everything above, below and around it.

When using traditional materials I'm afraid you don't have the safety net of layers however drawing lines is easy, just draw guide lines with a pencil before going over with ink.

At this point I also place my text boxes / speech bubbles (in separate layers) because I'm lazy and don't enjoy the idea of putting a load of effort into part of a panel only to cover it with text.

Once again you don't get the luxury of this choice when drawing traditionally. If you haven't placed your text by the time you start inking you're screwed!

Step Four

Make a new layer and sketch in the design for your final picture / pencil your design.

It should look something like this:

 

Step Five

 

In a new layer 'ink' your lines. By ink I mean go over your sketch lines with a smooth black line. This is what your final lines will look like so take lots of time with them to make sure they're right. You won't want to be redrawing things once you start colouring. I mean it's completely possible to redraw your lines once you start colouring (and even I do it when I realise I've made a terrible mistake) but it's really inconvenient and I'm all about making this process as simple as possible.

 

Though it takes lots of practice try to draw your lines in single strokes rather than feathering then trying to smooth with the eraser. If you find it hard to draw smooth lines when your document is zoomed to its actual size try drawing whilst zoomed into 200% - I find it produces much smoother lines.

 

You may feel more comfortable drawing the background lines on one layer and the foreground lines on another. That way if you make a mistake it is less likely to affect the rest of your lines.

 

Once you've completely inked your page you can delete your sketch layer / reduce it to 0% opacity.

 

When inking traditionally take lots of time and have lots of patience.  You get one shot at this and you don't want to mess it up. There are such things as Tipex / liquid paper but any sort of correctional fluid will always show up (which is why people usually use it to add highlights rather than to correct mistakes).

 

Let areas dry before moving on - the last thing you want is to smudge the ink with your hand - and when drawing with a ruler lift it onto its edge when lifting it from the paper, don't drag it across the paper as it may drag the ink with it.

 

Try not to erase your pencilling until you've completely inked your page. Also try not to press too hard with your rubber / eraser. Too much rubbing will also remove the ink.

 

Your inking should look something like this:

 

 

Step Six

 

Using a new layer for every colour (or texture style if working in black and white) apply your base colours. Because you are drawing on separate layers the fill tool won't work - you have to scribble like colouring in a colouring book page

 

You'll probably create lots of layers at this stage so it's a good idea to name them as you go.

 

Colour in / shade, once again taking your time. Work on each panel as though it is its own piece of art rather than trying to colour all the page in one go.

 

Your page should now look something like this:

 

 

Step Seven

 

Shade your work, once again creating a new layer for every colour. Not being a pro I don't want to tell you my way of shading like it is THE way of shading however here are some basic things that I do:

1. I always decide where my light source is before I start shading
2. I never use the burn tool
3. I make one layer where I use a slightly darker version of the base colour to draw shadows then make a second layer where I use an even darker version of the base colour with the gradient tool (fading to transparent) to create an overall sort of dark glow. (This will be clearer from the example image!)
4. I keep a sample of the colours I use to shade so that the colour palette is uniform for each panel / page. Once the gradient layer has been added it tints everything and you'll never be able to properly recreate your original colour choices.

Once you have shaded and added any highlights your finished page will look something like this:

 

 

General tips:

1. Every so often take a break. Mistakes happen when you overwork yourself and carpal tunnel syndrome happens when you keep your hand clenched for too long.
2. If you find you're not having a good drawing day don't force it. Go clean the toilet and come back and try again.
3. Don't draw drunk / high / with a fever. You may think it makes you cool or an 'artist' but unless you're an absolute genius your work will look rough and generally crap.
4. I draw wearing a fingerless glove so as to stop my fingernails from biting into my palm. It makes you look like a super villain too XD
5. When working digitally the colouring stage can get really boring so definitely feel free to listen to music as you work. If you get bored of music listen to something entertaining but bland such as a Murder She Wrote marathon or all of BBC iPlayer's backlog of Bargain Hunt. Don't listen to (watch) anything that requires you to actually pay 100% attention to it such as a film you've been dying to see for ages or You've Been Framed.
6. When working with traditional mediums you may also get bored but don't be tempted to put on the TV! That is the instant road to making an irreversible mistake. Listen to calming music and if you get bored of your music listen to a radio drama / audio book. I especially recommend Radio 4 Extra's horror, fantasy and sci-fi section. If you come from a country which no longer makes radio drama you can listen to Orson Welles' wonderful radio dramas (including that infamous War of the Worlds recording) here. You can also listen to a podcast but don't pick one that will excite you too much or that your are desperate to listen to as you're more likely to make a mistake again.
7. And the obvious one...don't leave drawing your comic to the last moment.

Well done. You have just completed a short graphic story and got one step closer to drawing that five volume Batman epic.

Four Pages You'll Never Get Back 2013

It's that time of year again: the 2013 Cape / Comica / Observer Short Graphic Story Prize. For the past six months I've been planning my entry and I spent the whole of last month bringing my plans to life.

Please click on the preview to read the resulting story, The Undefeated.

And seeing as I've now finished my short graphic story tomorrow I'll finish my series on how to create your own short graphic story, concluding with the drawing stage! See you tomorrow with your pens and paper!

Minx Review: Good As Lily

This week's graphic novel in my Minx Review series is Good As Lily written by Derek Kirk Kim and illustrated by Jesse Hamm.

 

Good As Lily is about Korean American high school student Grace Kwon. After getting her head stuck in a magic birthday piñata Grace is visited by three versions of herself (a child, aged 29 and an elderly lady) who seem intent in ruining her life...which couldn't come at a worse time as she is desperately trying to keep her drama club from folding and also win the heart of her high school drama teacher. Through all these events she realises that turning eighteen is not the end of the world but just the start of a new one.

 

I need to address the elephants in the room: the story has nearly nothing to do with Lily and the cover art is drawn by Derek Kirk Kim whilst the inside art is by Jesse Hamm. I feel the only time a graphic novel should have a cover by an artist who has had nothing to do with the inside art is when the book contains art by multiple artists or if it is a trade paperback where each section was published separately using the cover artist. I mean I hate it when people buy a book then complain about the weird art when it is obvious from the cover what they're getting but in this instance I think it's fair to feel cheated. Though Derek is also an artist and quite obviously wanted a hand in the art of the story too nothing suggests a lack of faith in the inside art than to choose a separate cover artist (the biggest offender being using Kouyu Shurei's amazing cover art for standard western manga Return to the Labyrinth).

 

You can see more of Derek's art of Good As Lily here.

 

It is evident from the amount of story packed into Good As Lily that Derek is full of good ideas. Good As Lily is a fantasy with a subtext of embracing life, a slice of life drama about friends fighting to save their high school drama club and even a romance but thanks to the restrictions of the single volume format it feels like too much is going on to be full explored satisfyingly. For instance the first 28 pages (nearly a 1/4 of the entire page count) are dedicated to getting to know Grace's friends. Endearing as this set up is only Jeremy and Rona deserve such a detailed introduction as the other friends barely return again. Perhaps if there was no fantasy aspect we would be able to focus on the drama friends more but once the fantasy part kicks in and Grace's friends retire to the background it makes such a long beginning feel redundant and slightly wasteful. The rest of the story races to deal with the lack of balance and never really catches up.

 

Then there is the titular Lily. Lily is Grace's dead sister. She is supposed to be this heavy weight that Grace compares herself to throughout the story but she is barely referenced and when we eventually do find out who she is Grace's feelings towards her are resolved in a matter of panels in the middle of the story. Because the book is called Good As Lily you are on the constant look out for her or at least expect to be drip-fed hints about who she was. Because this does not happen it feels like the most unsatisfying aspect of the story.

 

The story is written in a friendly, sometimes even comical tone and Grace has good conflicts with her other selves (yet another reason why her friends are not needed). In particular she has trouble with her 29 year old self who also has a crush on her drama teacher. This finds a satisfying conclusion as does Grace's evolving friendship with Jeremy however her eventual friendship with her bully does feel less believable.

 

Jesse Hamm's art is detailed and very indie. I particularly like Grace's look. I can imagine her as a drummer of an indie rock band! There's the odd weird panel (and few too many floating heads for my liking) but it's mostly of the good quality you would expect from a Minx artist. It does, however, have a slightly stinted feel. At first I thought maybe Jesse was a new artist still trying to perfect his style but as I looked over Derek's notes on Good As Lily I realised Jesse was trying to recreate Derek's style rather than embrace his own which is a shame as you can tell there is something not quite comfortable about it. I would like to see something in his own style to see if it feels more relaxed and natural.

 

Good As Lily is probably the weakest of the Minx books though it is still worth a try if you have enjoyed the rest of the series. Despite its faults it is a perfect gateway for exploring the art and writing of Derek and Jesse. Just surfing around Derek's blog makes me want to read and watch more by him. I hope to feature more by both Derek and Jesse in the future.

You'll like Good As Lily if you like:
Freaky Friday, 13 Going on 30, 17 Again, Glee (and The Glee Project), Western slice of life manga, 1990s kids shows set in and around high school, cheesy Asian drama.

Also by Jesse Hamm:
Negative Burn, Hawkeye Volume Two and Hawkeye: Little Hits

Graphic novels written by Derek Kirk Kim:
Same Difference,  Flight Volume One, Bizarro World and Electric Ant Issue 1

Graphic novels drawn by Derek Kirk Kim:
Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, The Eternal Smile and Prime Baby

Online Media by Derek Kirk Kim:
Mythomania, Tune, Yesterday and Orange Tango

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a post apocalyptic sci-fi short story by massively prolific writer Harlan Ellison about a supercomputer called AM and the last five humans left on Earth. Despite being so short it is considered a classic, winning the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1968 as well as being adapted into a computer game, short graphic story and a BBC radio play.

"What does AM mean?" 

Gorrister answered him. We had done this sequence a thousand times before, but it was Benny's favorite story. 

"At first it meant Allied Mastercomputer, and then it meant Adaptive Manipulator, and later on it developed sentience and linked itself up and they called it an Aggressive Menace, but by then it was too late, and finally it called itself AM, emerging intelligence, and what it meant was I am - cogito ergo sum - I think, therefore I am." 

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a bleak vision of the future and a warning about Man's constant desires to play God and wage war. Ellison wrote the story when the end of the Cold War seemed a distant fantasy so envisions in his story that the war never ends, just keeps developing and expanding to the point that computers are designed to fight with each other on a technological level that humans cannot understand. One day one of the supercomputers becomes sentient and connects with all the other computers that the humans have now peppered the Earth with. It exists to kill so kills all the humans bar five. With the Earth uninhabitable it takes the last five humans into the centre of the Earth with it and gives them immortality. A fantastic gift, no? No. It gives them immortality because it hates them and everything they represent. For 109 years it torments them physically and mentally with no hope of freedom and no hope of death.

As the story progresses and the humans struggle to cope with AM's tortures we learn why it hates humanity so: humanity created it, created it with all the intelligence and power imaginable but without a physical form to be able to express or use its intelligence and power. It is as trapped as the last five humans and will inflict upon them all the torment its existence has brought upon it.

At last the humans find a stash of tinned food in an ice cave but when AM appears to suffer a lapse in concentration things take a turn for the darker. Enraged, AM punishes the remaining character, preventing him from being able to do what the other four managed, providing the quotation after which the story is named.

You can read the short story here and listen to the radio adaptation (featuring the voices of Ellison as AM and Starsky and Hutch's David Soul as Ted) below:

In the 1995 PC game you play as each of the five humans, put into situations AM has devised to torture them. Their personalities are vastly expanded with complex backgrounds and flaws. It is up to you to not only help them survive their situation / personal hell but to help them become better people. It is a point and click game and just as depressing as the short story (if not more so). Think of it as akin to Silent Hill with the puzzle solving and bleak story but none of the fighting. Once again it features the voice of Ellison as AM and a terrifying job he does!

The five humans are:

Gorrister - a bar owner who is severely depressed / suicidal after believing it is his fault his wife was committed to a mental institution.

Ellen - a once promising engineer whose life fell apart twice. She finds intellectual interaction much easier than social interaction so when she suffered a miscarriage found it so hard to recover that her husband left her. When she finally began to enjoy life again a man posing as a maintenance man raped her in an elevator resulting in a phobia of the colour yellow. Apart from her phobia she is strong and feisty. She appears to be the only one who AM does not torture physically, deriving an almost sexual pleasure with abusing her mentally. AM also uses her lack of sexual interest in any of the other characters apart from Benny to torment them.

Benny - a physically proud military officer who killed his unit. In the original short story Benny is a gay scientist who AM turns heterosexual. In both versions he is the character who AM delights in physically damaging the most. One of the first changes AM made to Benny was to make him into an ape-man both mentally and physically, which is how he starts the story. 

Nimdok - an elderly ex-Nazi physician in denial of not only his own racial heritage but the hundreds of experiments he performed.

Ted - a con artist paranoid about being found out. Where once he would use his charm and looks to seduce rich single women he now only has eyes for Ellen, who despite all his best and heartfelt efforts does not love him back. He is offered the chance to escape AM if he lets Ellen be killed.

The game is very difficult to buy now however you can watch walkthroughs on YouTube.

I am a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes used to be. Rubbery appendages that were once my arms; bulks rounding down into legless humps of soft slippery matter. I leave a moist trail when I move. Blotches of diseased, evil gray come and go on my surface, as though light is being beamed from within. Outwardly: dumbly, I shamble about, a thing that could never have been known as human, a thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance. Inwardly: alone. Here. Living under the land, under the sea, in the belly of AM, whom we created because our time was badly spent and we must have known unconsciously that he could do it better. At least the four of them are safe at last. AM will be all the madder for that. It makes me a little happier. And yet...AM has won, simply...he has taken his revenge...

I have no mouth. And I must scream.

2013 Whitstable Oyster Festival

Yesterday I attended the first day of the 2013 Whitstable Oyster Festival. Whitstable is a fishing town on the Kent coast. The festival is inspired by ceremonies held back in Norman times when the folk of Whitstable gave thanks for the sea and everything they were able to harvest from it.

The festival lasts all week however the best days to attend are the Saturday and Sunday as that is when the food festival at the harbour is. The food festival is a showcase of traditional Kentish food including preserves, cheese, fudge, cider, beer, strawberries and of course oysters! There is also a separate beer festival.

Whitstable

 



(Right click and select 'open link (in new tab / window)' to see this panoramic in its full glory)

 

The Oysters - yum!

 

 

 

The students of Chaucer College

 

Chaucer College is part of Japan's Shumei University based in Canterbury. It allows Japanese students the chance to experience life in the UK (Kent in particular) for five months. There is a heavy influence in volunteering and getting to know the local community. It is a wonderful school as it teaches the students about traditional English life and also brings the magic of Japan to Kent. When I move to the coast I would very much like to help at Chaucer College.

 

The students performed traditional drumming and a soran bushi (traditional fisherman's dance).

 

 

The Landing of the Oysters parade

This man is great XD I hope he's a minor royal lol

 

Dead Horse Morris - Morris dancing is the most famous traditional folk dance of Britain. It is rooted both is Moorish dancing as well as British folklore. There are very traditional Morris dancing 'sides' (groups) who wear white, ribbons and bells as well as modern variations that mix Morris dancing with subculture fashion and music such as gothic Morris dancers. There are also sometimes characters dancers such as a green man, a giant crow, a 'molly' (man dressed as a woman) and a demon horse. British folklore is highly underrated but I think it's great! 

 

Captain Sam and his wife are giants created especially for Whitstable! Giants are also part of British folklore however recreating them in papier mache is a recent thing. I think they look great! His wife in particular is beautiful and reminds me of Toyah Willcox!