Published at 11:54, Wednesday, 21 May 2008

A BEANO artist has created a very special comic for a South Lakes attraction.

COMIC CAPERS: Writer Kevin Jackson (right) and cartoonist Hunt Emerson at Hunt’s exhibition in Brantwood, former home of John Ruskin MILTON HAWORTH REF: 0429978

Cult illustrator Hunt Emerson has drawn a comic for Brantwood, the former Coniston home of visionary writer and artist John Ruskin.

The comic book has been created as part of the gallery’s new educational project, the How to See campaign.

The aim of the How To See Campaign is to encourage people of all ages, but especially young people, to look more carefully at the world around them.

As well as publishing the comic, How to See, Brantwood is also hosting a retrospective exhibition of Hunt Emerson’s often surreal artwork. The show, Thirty Years of Big Noses, will run until June 25. The Birmingham-based writer currently draws the Ratz comic strip for the Beano.

Brantwood began working with the artist back in 2005, and thousands of the How to See comics are now set to be distributed to special schools, pupil referral units and young carers across Cumbria and Lancashire.

The comic was officially launched at Brantwood, on the east shore of Coniston, last Wednesday. Coniston Primary School pupils were invited to be the first children to get a glimpse of the comic.

How to See, written by Kevin Jackson, is a humorous exploration of John Ruskin’s ideas. It features a pessimistic man, Darren Bloke, and his dog Skittle.

The pair are taken on a voyage of the imagination by the spirit of Ruskin, and learn to see the world in a different, more positive, light.

Coniston Primary pupil Thomas Stegiakis, six, said: “Hunt Emerson was amazing. I wish I could draw cartoons like him.”

Charlie Kelly, also six, added: “I read the comic to my teacher, it was funny.”

A website www.ruskin.org.uk, has also been launched to provide free interactive resources for families and schools to use.

John Ruskin bought Brantwood in 1871. He wrote a myriad of books on many different subjects, from nature and geology to art and architecture.

The Victorian writer was a great advocate of the artist Joseph Turner. As a result, he became an inspiration to a generation of younger artists, most notably the Pre-Raphaelite painters.

He was also an early champion of social justice, his ideas influencing the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi.

He inspired the founders of the National Health Service and the welfare state, as well as the formation of public libraries and the National Trust.

Ruskin even predicted climate change by observing the sky from his window at Brantwood.

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