In the South Channel, a comic strip to develop children’s creative minds

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Seven schools from Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët, Grandparigny or Les Loges-Marchis in the South Manche, are participating in a major comic strip project, organized by the Office Culturel Sportif et Social (OC2S). This artistic adventure should raise children’s awareness of well-being at school, solidarity and how to live together. “It is on this theme that the comic strip will be built,” explains Cynthia Grignard, after-school facilitator of the OC2S and referent of this project called “Bulle de temps”.

Build the main character

Apart from this theme, no other instructions are given to the students. They are therefore alone to build this project, or almost. Because the cartoonist and youth animator Maxime Couasnon, known as Mookimax, intervenes in all the schools participating in the project to create this comic strip with them.

His role is to collect and bring together the big ideas from the classes in which he intervenes. “I teach them some techniques for drawing a character. We work together on its creation, its history, its life. Each child creates a drawing and I take the ideas they give me to build mascots. Then the students of each school will vote for their favorite mascot and it will become the character from the comic strip,” explains the 35-year-old author. This work must then be presented and distributed to schoolchildren during the next Dessinator festival in spring 2025.

Discover the drawing

Mookimax knows how to address a young audience. He created the comic strip Gaston L’Ourson where he ridicules current society and in particular the fact that young people are disinterested in politics. With his job as an animator, he also knows how to develop the creative spirit of children, even those who are most reluctant to practice this art. “They can take the time to apply themselves to their drawings. Even those who don’t like it at first get involved. This project is a great opportunity to introduce them to art. It’s something we don’t usually do,” says Anne Decosterd, CM2 teacher and director of the Lecroisey school.

It is in this class that Mookimax intervened on Friday November 22. He taught children the basic techniques of drawing a face. Together, they managed to imagine the typical profile of a pirate. “Each student reproduces the drawing on their sheet. It allows them to develop their artistic skills,” underlines Cynthia Grignard. For Mookimax, these children now have no more excuses to create beautiful drawings, because “watch out if I see you making stick figures again”.

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