Black Market and Pub Meet

Black Market this Sunday, 1 August, and The Black Panel will be there as usual, with its selection of comics by creators from all over Ireland, north and south. That's at the Black Box, Hill Street, from 12 noon to 5pm.

Then next Thursday, 5 August, it's the regular monthly comics creators pub meet at the Garrick Bar on Chichester Street from 9pm.

News from the neighbours - Summer Edition in Dublin

Summer Edition, a zine, comic and artists's book fair, is on at Filmbase in Temple Bar, Dublin this Saturday (24 July). Belfast will be represented at this year's not only by myself, but also by Fiona Chambers, one of the artists who make up Scissors Cuts Paper, alongside the finest cartoonists, book artists and zinesters from all over Ireland and beyond. It's free in, and a day return from Belfast on the train is only a tenner if you book online.

New comic on Tales of the...

The online multimedia anthology Tales of the... has a new comic, a horror western called "Welcome to Absolution". It's a collaborative piece, written by Andrew Croskery, drawn by Stephen Downey, inked and grey-toned by Andy Brown and lettered by David Withers.

Black Books, 18 July 2010

It's Black Books, the monthly book fair at the Black Box on Hill Street, this Sunday, and The Black Panel will be there with our usual selection of the finest comics created in Ireland, north and south - plus two new ones!

One thing that comes up a lot is we don't have many comics for younger readers. Hopefully we can remedy that, as we now have the first three issues of The Wren, a teen superhero book by Jason Connor, Mark Kirwan and Phil Roe.

As well as that, we have the brand new third issue of my own iron age epic serial, The Cattle Raid of Cooley!

Hope to see yez all there!

The Cattle Raid of Cooley page 87

My Iron Age Irish epic webcomic serial, The Cattle Raid of Cooley, updates today!

New Sunnyside podcast

PJ, Scott and Ron are back with a new Sunnyside Comics podcast! They're discussing the resurgence of the UK monthly comic (the forthcoming Strip Magazine UK, to which PJ is contributing, and Mark Millar's equally forthcoming CLiNT), PJ's complete lack of professional jealousy over Irish artist Declan Shalvey's new assignment at Marvel (not 100% safe for work), what Ron does for a living, beards, PJ's iPad (surprise!) and the price of comics apps for it, Brian K. Vaughan's Pride of Baghdad, and an amount of gratuitous personal abuse between the presenters.

The Cattle Raid of Cooley - new page

The latest installment, page 86, of my Iron Age Irish webcomic, The Cattle Raid of Cooley, is posted today!

Guest artists on Japandex

Martin Eden, creator of gay superhero comic Spandex, is running a special Japandex month on his blog, where guest artists offer Japanese interpretations of his characters. Local artists who've had a go include Stephen Downey, Andrew Croskery, David Withers, Jay Faulkner and Bridgeen Gillespie. Here's Stephen's and Bridgeen's.

(Via Stephen Downey)

New comic from David Withers at Tales of the...

Tales of the..., the online multimedia genre anthology thing, features a new zombie comic by David Withers, called Weapons of Mass Consumption:

New UK comics magazine

John Freeman reports that Bosnian publisher PrintMedia is planning to launch a new comics magazine onto the UK newstand - looks like it'll be called Strip Magazine, it'll be a combination of action, science fiction and humour, and it'll be launched later this year. Contents are still being finalised, but one of the contributors announced is our own PJ Holden!

The Black Panel, 4 July 2010

I suppose the first thing that we need to draw attention to is The Black Panel, the regular stall Andy Luke and I run at the Black Market, selling small press comics from all over Ireland, including our own, and others by such artists as Phil Barrett, Paddy Lynch, Deirdre de Barra, Mal Coney, Deirdre Ruane, Bridgeen Gillespie and many more. Here's me proudly displaying our wares.

The Black Market showcases the work of independent artists, designers, illustrators and crafters, and also has stalls selling collectible books and records and vintage clothes. It's free in, and is held on the first Sunday of every month at the Black Box on Hill Street, organised by Trans Belfast - here's the Facebook page for the latest market on Sunday 4 July.

First post

This blog will hopefully be an extension of the monthly comic creator pub meets on the first Thursday of every month at the Garrick bar, and a place to keep track of what's going on in comics in Belfast. More to come, but in the meantime check out the links over to the right.