Pub Meet

Has it been a month already?

It's the first Thursday of April, so local  writers and artists will be meeting up in the Cloth Ear, Belfast as usual for drinks and chat. Anyone with an interest in  making comics should come along from 9pm.

Bob Curran's Bog Standard Comix

Back in the 80s there was a comic published in Belfast called Ximoc. Among strips by the likes of Will Simpson, Davy Francis, Ray McEvoy and Ivor Lavery, it included a science fiction adventure strip called "The Scavenger", by writer Bob Curran and artist Desi Hughes.

Haven't been able to track down Desi, but Bob got himself a doctorate and has written a slew of books on werewolves, fairies and other folkloric subjects, and worked in community relations and on cross-border initiatives at Stormont. And he's getting back in the comics game. He's set up Bog Standard Comix and is working on three forthcoming series with artists Adrian Lutton and David Dale (who worked together on a promo comic for the W5 Discovery Centre a couple of years ago). Bob and Adrian have put up a seven page preview of their alternate-history sci-fi series Space 1949 (pages 1-3, pages 4-8), which looks marvellous.

The other two titles in the pipeline are time travel adventurer Doc Lazarus, by Bob and Adrian, and 17th century witch-hunter Joachim Darke, by Bob and David.

Don't forget, tomorrow (Thursday 7 April) is the Belfast Comics Creators Pub Meet (Facebook link) at the Cloth Ear on Waring Street. We'll be there from about 9pm.

Stephen Downey on Jennifer Wilde

Stephen Downey blogs about his new comic, Jennifer Wilde, a 1920s supernatural espionage mystery in three issues written by Rob Curley and Maura McHugh. The three of them will be at FanSciCon at University College Dublin on Friday 15 April to promote it.

New PJ Holden series in the Megazine

Belfast's own PJ Holden announces on his blog that he's got a new series, Numbercruncher, co-created with writer Simon Spurrier, starting in the Judge Dredd Megazine issue 306 in the new year. It's about a dead mathematician trying to game the process of reincarnation to be reunited with the woman he loves, and a bailiff sent by the Karmic Accountancy to stop him. Here's a preview at Si's blog, and some promotional art from the Megazine:

Fionnuala's Irish History on Tales of the...

For those of you who missed Fionnuala Doran's very funny 24 Hour Comic Ireland: A History (Condensed) when she ran it on her own site, here it is again on Tales of the... Watch out for the Van Morrison cameo.

Glenn and Ann's 24 Hour Comic - Shmoo

Slightly belatedly ('pologies - haven't been well), here's the latest 24 Hour Comic from last month's event to go online - Shmoo, written by Glenn Davidson and drawn by Ann Harrison!

The Cattle Raid of Cooley makes 100 episodes!

This morning The Cattle Raid of Cooley, my serialised webcomic adaptation of the ancient Irish epic, reached a significant milestone - 100 episodes!


For those of you who don't know the story, the kingdom of Connacht, led by king Ailill and queen Medb, stages an invasion of Ulster, and all that stands in their way is a teenage rookie border guard called Cú Chulainn. He's a prodigy, and despite his small stature, in skill he has always been head and shoulders above his contemporaries in Ulster's youth corps - but he's never been tested against men. Among them, men he loves, including Fergus, former king of Ulster in exile in Connacht, and Cú Chulainn's former foster-father. He's issued a challenge of single combat, hoping to hold up the army's progress until his king can gather his army.

It's a story of war, coming of age and divided loyalties set in the pre-Christian Iron Age. The story is the centrepiece of a group of tales known as the Ulster Cycle, the oldest Irish legendary tradition and probably the oldest European legendary tradition outside Greece and Rome, which has been referred to as a "window on the Iron Age". The hero, Cú Chulainn, was the inspiration for 2000AD's Sláine.

24 Hour Comic: Ireland, a History (Condensed) by Fionnuala Doran

Another 24 Hour Comic from the Belfast event: Fionnuala Doran's very funny Ireland, a History (condensed).

24 Hour Comic: Rise at Sundown by Patrick Brown

My own 24 Hour Comic, Rise at Sundown, is now online. I've challenged myself by writing for kids, and working in colour, and I'm very pleased with how it came out.

24 Hour Comic: Don't Get Lost by Andy Luke

The latest comic created on 24 Hour Comics day to go online is Andy Luke's Don't Get Lost. It's a very personal, autobiographical piece, and, as Andy warns, "deals with themes of sexual abuse and may contain triggers that could be upsetting".

John McCrea in Strip Magazine

You may remember back in the summer we announced that Strip Magazine, a new newsstand comic anthology that's planned for next year, would feature a strip by Belfast artist PJ Holden. Today, Bleeding Cool break the news that John McCrea's doing a strip for them too - it's called Warpaint, it's written by Phil Hester, and as far as I can tell it's about a homeless girl and a trickster god taking on monstrous elemental forces, with the fate of the world at stake.

PJ in 2000AD

Pick up this week's 2000AD (prog 1699), because the Judge Dredd strip is drawn by Belfast's PJ Holden!

Stephen Downey on Torchwood

Pick up the new issue of Torchwood Magazine on Thursday - 'cause our own Stephen Downey's drawing the comic strip! Here's his blog post all about it.

Pledge money for anthology by former Insomnia creators

Insomnia Publications, a Scottish comics publisher, has, over the last couple of years, signed contracts with loads of writers and artists to create new graphic novels, and said writers and artists set to work. Unfortunately, Insomnia are going out of business, and the Comic Book Alliance are helping the writers and artists get our of their contracts so they can publish their work elsewhere. In return, a bunch of them have put together an 192-page anthology of short comics called Sleepless Phoenix Survival Stories, proceeds of which will go to the Comic Book Alliance.

They're doing this through Kickstarter, the online platform for funding creative projects. To cover the up-front costs of publication they need $3,600. There's a sliding scale for pledges - $5 you get an ebook of the anthology, $15 you get a printed copy of the book, and various points above that you get the book plus bonuses like a signed art print or an original page of artwork. You'll also get the knowledge that you helped free up Andrew Croskery's Kronos City, Bryan Coyle's Babble, Rich Clements' Corvus, Barry McGowan's Oz: Fall of the Scarecrow King, and many other exciting graphic novels, to be completed and published. Worthy cause I think.

Lingua Comica

Fionnuala Doran announces that Lingua Comica: Graphic Novels from Asia and Europe is now available to buy. It's a big book, the result of a project by the Asia-Europe Foundation which puts together pairs of artists, one from Asia and one from Europe, to create a comic between them, and it includes Fionnuala's collaboration with Malasian artist Sarah-Joan Mokhtar, among others.

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!

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!