185: Pants of Lord of Rings

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In March 1993, I was half the age I am now. Half the weight, with a guitar, making tarot cards, and giving readings. Of course, there were comics.

hellblazer-63

In which occult investigator and mucker John Constantine expects a dismal 40th birthday, but finds a surprise party.

Manly friendship, blootered magicians, a Swamp Thing marijuana plant, a perfect shot of sitcom. It’s a great comic.

By the start of his Year 40 apathy, US comics were getting laid low by the speculator boom and bust. The morning after saw both Constantine and US comics generally claw long back to a balanced life.

At the end of this year, I’ll be forty. I don’t know if I’ll be alone, with four friends, or with thirty-seven. In Northern/Ireland, England or Delhi. Probably broke. I’m going to have a not disappointing time. No one who doesn’t want to has to attend. I’ll be on the internet.

I’m going to create something new each day, and share something I create online. Today, a comic I drew in a webcam chat room, about some friends of mine and a weinermeister user-named ‘LordOfRings.

lord of rings

On Sale Here! Best of Irish Comics – Courageous Mayhem

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Courageous Mayhem is a boy’s own adventure style compendium, a veritable who’s who of the Irish comics scene and I’m pleased to host the first website to offer this marvelous comic for sale.

Cover Courageous Mayhem

btnbuynow_s

 

PRINT VERSION (P&P INCLUDED) 8 EURO / £6.75 UK

btnbuynow_s DIGITAL DOWNLOAD  3 EURO / £2.53 UK

BUY EXPANDED DELUXE EDITION AND SEE PREVIEW AT BLURB.COM

My new strip ‘Underwater Billiards’ sits in the eighty-four pages alongside the critically acclaimed Paddy Lynch (Big Jim), Alan Nolan (And The Blood Flowed Green), Phil Barrett (Where’s Larry?) and Patrick Brown (The Cattle Raid of Cooley). There are the adept mystics of comicking like John Robbins (The Well Below), designer Archie Templar (The Pants Of), and editor/publisher Gar Shanley, author of Fugger, one of Ireland’s best comedy blogs.

Like any good adventure comic, Courageous has true facts and wild fantasies above and below the waves, in the streets and the fields. There’s bicycles, bombs, biplanes and bikes and The Bible. You can see the full-listing of contents at the Irish Comics Wikia page.

Order now though, your country is depending on you!

NB: AFTER PURCHASING DIGITAL YOU WILL BE REDIRECTED TO A PAGE WITH A SINGLE LINK WERE YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE PDF. GOOD LUCK!

CM_montage_page

Kick!

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When I was preparing for the Belfast Comics Fayre last year I put together three issues of a comic. It was modelled on Willie Hewes’ Goth Boy –  one sheet of paper becoming 16 pages. My usual mistakes: too much detail, and printed on poor stock.

Oddly, Kick! works brilliantly as a digital comic, and so I’m pleased to offer the first three issues as PDF files. And I think some of you will get quite a rise out of the contents.

(Despite the colour cover below, these pieces are black and white)

kICK 1 COVER

KICK #1

CONTENTS as above, including, “The A-Team” (reprint), “Cobra Commander Says” and “Allergy“.

BUY IT NOW 25p/38c

KICK #2   – BUY IT NOW 25p/38c

Includes “The Bill Have A Gun Siege At Xmas“, “The Youth of 2042“, and “Sounds Round Ere”

KICK #3 – BUY IT NOW 25P/38c

With Automan (reprint), Transformers at Glastonbury, Morrissey watches Irish Corrie, Noam Chomsky’s Cardigan, and Jessica Fletcher Is Innocent!

Sorry, there’s no option for all three. When you’ve made the Paypal payments, you’ll be taken through to the PDF were you can “Save as”. They’re small 2-3MB files, but this is some good work. I even inked it.

Reviewers can get in touch for a freebie.

Abrams Star Trek

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Around Christmas, I’d an art commission as a gift for a Trekkie, who did not like what JJ Abrams did. The brief was for a friendly wind-up: make it look like Abrams was the definitive version, with TOS to Enterprise pale in comparison.

Abrams Star Trek - andy luke

 

I’m taking a distance from making comics for a while, although you can buy issue 1 of Kick! online.

16 pages of brand new digital comics. Includes The children of Mow Street Mall, The A-Team, Doomlord X and Allergy, another tale about shopping.

Only 30p, available through Paypal.

Events

Galway University of Galway ComicsWest event was due to go ahead next week, but now it’s not, left until the summer. Everybody’s friends, The Emerald Garrison, are running the Heroes and Legends Con on 16th-17th February, at the W5 in Belfast.

Ahead of that, friend to my readers Stephen Downey, is signing his new comic Noe The Savage Boy with writers Mal Coney and Rob Curley at Forbidden Planet Belfast on February 9th, between 1-3pm.

Here’s Mal and Stephen on BBC Radio’s Arts Extra.

Hold The Phones, It’s Alex Jones! (Re-release)

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myebookalexI’ve been watching Alex Jones on and off for nearly a decade now, and I think this is the first time I’ve seen the one-man media corp trend on Twitter. Unfortunately, for nothing good. I’ve not seen the clip yet but I’d imagine it’s one dubiously opinionated a-hole scream at an opinionated dubious a-hole.

A year ago, I got together with five other comics creators to release a sitcom-spiracy based around Alex’s domestic life. In some respects, it was a success, with the fourteen page preview amassing well over 10,000 views, most of those on Myebook. From another view, we’ve sold not a single copy of the PDF, and I’m beginning to suspect somethings a little awry. Conspiracy? I’ve moved the Myebook sales back to my own control, just to be sure.

For the record, I think guns are the tools of aggressors, be they government or citizen. So it might seem callous of me to take advantage of the #trend to $cash in on Nutjob Vs Nutjob. Still, giving me your traffic and cash is better than giving it to anyone who promotes those two right now.

Hold the Phones

The pitch:

Follow the father of 911 Truth as he travels in time through American history, faces vaccination and innoculation, resists the attempts of big media to hypnotise his kids and join him. See him advertise water filters and gold seeds, fight enemies foreign and domestic: including Alex’s wife, their son Constitution, daughter Wrench, 1776 the family dog and Orwell, their deceased cat.

Co-created by Andy Luke and Professor Octagon
Includes: Swimming Pool of Death, Declaration of the Co-Dependents, Beck Vs Jones, Anger Management, Good Constitution Hunting and You Want Answers?
The Winged Head of Alan Watt and Alex’s Personal Guarantee! by Ben Stone
Super Bowl of Fascism by Geoffrey Wessel and Sean Duffield
Co-Opted! by Professor Octagon and Bisson
The Sound, The Fury and Alex Jones! by Luke and Bisson.

A bumper 44 pages of conspiracy comedy!

You can buy the PDF for the bargain price of 98 Cents (US) through Paypal by clicking on this link

You can also get the print edition of the comics mag through Indyplanet – costly 10 dollars or so when the postage is in, tho they’ve done a lovely job.

Here’s previews.

BONUS FEATURES

Columns on comics from the old Alltern8.com here 

ComicsWest convention in Galway (8th-10th February)

Heroes and Legends con in Belfast the following weekend.

More details in a while.

Happy Xmas Panto: The Last Noel

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It’s Monday night and I’m sitting on a big comfy seat in a warm house and blonde haired women are bringing me drinks and I hope you are too.  Tomorrow I’ll be breaking out the mulled wine again and I’m looking forward to finding out more about this invention called television.

There’s been a good reception to The Last Noel, this year’s Christmas card comic which was mailed out yesterday, although some won’t be getting it until the after-holiday letterbox.  Gar Shanley said,

“It’s as if telly and panto had a baby and then that baby had a dream and you drew it.”

So without further ado I present for your enjoyment….

Xmas Panto The Last Noel

You can see the previous Xmas Panto pieces on the Comiclets page. Merry Christmas and see you IN THE FUTURE!

Gift 2

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The Belfast Comics Fayre took place on Sunday, and as this week in Belfast would have it, was hampered by the bullcrap foisted on us by a small minority of troublemakers. People preferred to stay in, rather than risk travel being halted by little boys with dangerous toys. In a time where the rights of British-Ireland are called into question by international eejits, I can think of no way that the province’s status could be more sorely damaged than the violence of fleg-fighters. It’s a shame they devalued the identity of “being Northern Irish”. If only they’d take the short cut by actually shooting themselves in the foot, they’d save all of us bar the nurses some trouble.

For the guests that turned out we recouped something. We had some great craic with Bobby Best (The 2dcast), Stephen Downey (Noe The Savage Boy), Derm McGuigan (Potato Vampires) and I’m told Lightning Strike Comics Presents and Darrin O’Toole’s Tales From The Void are now on sale at FPI Belfast. Issue 7 of Paddy Brown’s Cattle Raid of Cooley is likely on his website bookshop any day now. 

A future event is planned.

The ADF’s annual open show is again dedicated to seasonal gifts made by disabled artists, enabling you to spend for Christmas with a conscience! The artists have supplied small-scale work of all kinds with a modest price range, and I’ve work in there along with Alice Burns, Andrew Cooke, Andrew Gahan, Jennifer Hanley, Johanna Lodge, Rachel McBride, Niall McCormack, Sinead O’Donnell, Roisin O’Hagan, Keith Sheppard, Deirdre Ward and Trevor Wray. December opening hours are Monday to Saturday 10am–4pm, with occasional extensions. The Arts & Disability Forum are based on the ground floor of 109-113 Royal Avenue (opposite the Mace), Belfast BT1. You can invite friends on Facebook and there’s a special seasonal celebration from 5-7pm on Thursday 20th

Here are some photos I took at the opening.

GIFT 2 - ADF 01 GIFT 2 - ADF 02 GIFT 2 - ADF 03 GIFT 2 - ADF 04 GIFT 2 - ADF 05 GIFT 2 - ADF 06 GIFT 2 - ADF 07 GIFT 2 - ADF 08 GIFT 2 - ADF 09 GIFT 2 - ADF 10

You can buy Issue 1 of my new digital comic, Kick! It includes The children of Mow Street Mall, The A-Team, Doomlord X and Allergy, another tale about shopping.

ONLY thirtie englishe pennies!

I’ll be stripblogging my new Xmas card comic here a few days before Christmas. In the meantime, you can buy it from the ADF, or the online shop.

Belfast Comics Fayre

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This Sunday, December 9th, in Haymarket Arcade, off Royal Avenue, the Comics Fayre comes to Belfast.

Orchestrated by Avalon Arts with some arrangement from yours truly, the event is billed as a family fun day with FREE admission. There are exhibitions of comics art, workshops, comics launches, panels, talks, face painting, fancy dress, a cafe and a bar.
We’ve a few special guests from across the border: Darrin O’Toole (Writer, Tales from the Void), Eoin McAuley (Editor, Lightning Strike), Ciaran Marcantonio (Writer, ‘A Clockwork Universe’ for Lightning Strike), Daryl Cox (Artist, ‘Monkey of Oz’ for Lightning Strike) as well as Belfast’s very own Patrick Brown (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) Odds are good other home-town comics pros are making surprise guest appearances.
The market, which usually hosts local crafts, will push a surge of comics and geek ephemera such as tables recovered in comics strips, gamer badges and knitted trinkets.
The Stack comics store will be there with a range of graphic novels, and partaking in the re-launch of The Black Panel, an initiative to bring Northern and Southern Irish comics to the viewing public. I’ll be hosting The Magnificent One Day ComicBook Factory. There are also a series of short talks, and I’m pleased to announce that Eoin McAuley will be speaking on developing a small press comic from an idea to publication.

[Facebook Event link]

BELFAST COMICS FAYRE 2012

My christmas card range and new comics will also be showing at the Arts and Disability Forum’s Gift 2 exhibition, (on Royal Avenue) until December 20th. There’s also a special “Seasonal Celebration” wrap soiree on the 20th, with details on Facebook.

Apocalypchristmas

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Hello again.

My new Christmas card selection is on sale through those luvvies at the Arts and Disability Forum in Royal Avenue, Belfast. The gallery is open Tuesday to Friday from 11-3pm, but if you see the lights on knock the door as they’re often busy working away behind the scenes.

There’s also a festive poster of Strictly Celebrity Apprentice on Ice With Bobbins And A Twitter Hashtag. And it’s rather good. If you’re not in Belfast, I’ve updated this site to include a Shop.

And here’s my newest one,

It won’t be in stock for a few days but you can advance order with other cards using the code APOC.

Elsewhere, I’ve been busy setting up Black Panel Distribution for a December re-launch. The Black Panel started by myself and Paddy Brown back in 2010 is now home to over sixty Irish comics. Check out the website for more information. If you have a shop where you’d like to stock Northern Irish comics I’m keen for you to get in touch, and I’m happy to take personal customers too.

Speaking of Paddy, here’s the results of his contribution to The Magnificent One Day Comic Book Factory back in September. And PJ Holden also threw in a piece in under an hour while tutoring.

Norma Thierfelder came all the way from Germany for TitanCon and drew this,

And an entry from Dawn Lennox (my new partner as of TitanCon)

You can read my report on the TitanCon goings-on here.

The Magnificent Factory is due to be repeated at the ComicsWest Festival, held at the University of Galway on 8-10th February. It was a great event last year and totally worth making the trip. Here’s their website.

Before that, Avalon Arts are launching the first Belfast Comics Fayre at the Haymarket Arcade on Sunday December 9th. I’ve been asked to be their “comics connect” so more news shortly. Meantime, the Facebook event page is here.