BUDDING cartoonists were treated to a masterclass by a top illustrator in one of the highlights of the inaugural Bradford Literature Festival, which continued over the weekend.

Kev Sutherland, who has worked on a number of classic kids comics like The Beano, Marvel, Star Trek, and The Doctor Who Adventures, ran a workshop at Bradford College showing children how to create and draw their own comic strips.

At the end of the two hour session, the children went away with their own personalised story, each featuring a caricature of themselves, drawn by Mr Sutherland.

"Comics are a neglected art form which I try to champion, and I try to show kids how easy and fun they are to do," he said.

"They've each gone away with their own printed comic, where they have devised the characters, the title, and they've drawn a page of the story.

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"It's all done in two hours, which I think appeals to the attention span of kids."

One of the aims of the ten-day festival - organised by Syima Aslam and Irna Qureshi - is to boost literacy levels among children, and Mr Sutherland said reading comic books at an early age was a great place to start.

"Comics can really help kids to read, they're a real gateway into more difficult reading," he said.

"They're better than a picture book that young children may need a parent to read to them, as kids can read and follow the stories themselves.

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"I obviously like to encourage comics wherever I can, and showing young children how to create them is a great way of doing that."

The festival aims to "celebrate the written and spoken word in all formats", and Mr Sutherland praised the diversity of the 150 different events on offer.

"The Bradford Literature festival is an incredible event," he said.

"I've not seen any other city where something like this has happened, with the organisers really putting literature first, and not in a stuffy, bookish way.

"In Bradford, we've been reaching out through all the art forms - the spoken word, poetry, performance - and in my case an interactive session around comics, and bringing everything together, which is such an important thing."

Other highlights from the weekend included workshops in writing, poetry and stand-up comedy, conversations with authors, and various current affairs discussions.

The festival, which is funded by Arts Council England and Bradford Council, runs until Sunday at various venues across the city.

For more information, visit bradfordliteraturefestival.co.uk.