Hartlepool Art Gallery offers hugely popular, free, youngster’s ‘Dabble in Art’ sessions, organised and run by members of the Hartlepool Art Club, including Beano and Dandy artist Keith Robson.
Run fortnightly, with help from parents and grandparents, Dabble provides children with the opportunity to take part in exciting art activities in various media, to encourage and teach children from five years upward. Some of the results of the events are exhibited locally, in the Gallery.


Keith is best known for his longtime work on DC Thomson’s The Beano and Dandy titles, including “General Jumbo”, “Tricky Dicky Doyle”, and the 1990s revival of Ken Reid’s “Jonah”.
He also drew for the Fleetway’s girls’ comic, Jinty, and DC Thomson’s Starblazer in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Work outside of comics includes illustrations for school text books and Matthew Fitt’s book Time Tram Dundee, about a time travelling tram, and work as both illustrator and model-maker in pre-school and educational TV, including Jackanory and Scottish Televsion’s SQUEAK!
While illustrating a Heritage Lottery Funded history of Dundee, he made many local school visits, which inspired him to become a teacher. Qualifying in 2008, he initially worked with special needs children, and teenagers with emotional issues.
He currently teaches in local primary schools, running several drawing groups, including Dabble in Art, and has provided art for many charity and community projects, including calendar art for Epilepsy Outlook.
He returned to comics recently, as a contributor to the Wallop! annual, a hugely successful crowdfunded project.
• Dabble is run every two weeks on Saturdays from 10.00 am – 12 noon in Hartlepool Art Gallery, Church Square | For further details on upcoming Dabble sessions contact the Gallery Information desk on 01429 869706 | Web: hartlepool-art-club.co.uk/dabble-in-art
Children must be accompanied by an adult for the duration of the session
Hartlepool Art Club is a meeting place for all art lovers, offering a wide variety of activities including talks, demonstrations, workshops and exhibitions by practising professional artists and lecturers.
The Club aims to encourage the appreciation and practice of the visual arts amongst its members by holding regular meetings
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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