Irish Immigration..

Oops, missed blogging yesterday. I've no internet in my studio/bedroom now because of the wireless router's new home in the hallway of the main house and any internet relatedness must have slipped my mind.

The Irish are taking over the comicbook world and I'm going to share a few projects involving irish creators I think you should check out.

• Kronos City started in the mind of Andrew Croskery, a friend of mine and regular attendee of the Belfast comic creators meeting we have in the Garrick bar. Andrew told me a few of his crazy ideas for Kronos City and I take responsibilty for directing him towards Insomnia Publications. It's being brought to life in a quirky and cool way by Alex Willmore and Lauren Anne Sharp and you can check out the first 16 pages at the myebook link below. This should be out sometime in 2010 I believe.

• I've sure most people have heard of 28 Days Later, the zombie film with no zombies. Did you know that Irish artist Declan Shalvey is drawing the comicbook sequel (and prequel to 28 Weeks Later). The book should be out this week in comic stores from BOOM! Studios and as far as I know marks Declan's first work for an American Publisher. There's a preview of his pages here on Newsarama or visit his blog for some really interesting process stuff.
• Cy Dethan has been showing off some pages of his latest in-production graphic novel The Indifference Engine. You'll know Cy as my collaborator on Cancertown and Slaughterman's Creed and he's joined by another Irish artist Robert Carey. Its also being coloured by my other Cancertown colaboraters Mel Cook (check out her blog and website for her own fantastic artwork) and lettered by the always awesome Nic Wilkinson.
• Rí Rá is the only comic on the list that's actually printed in the Irish language. There are lots of irish comics creators involved in this comic, including myself, edited by Aidan Courtney. The first issue came out earlier in the year and a new one is due sometime around halloween. The website is still in production but for a more detailed look at the comic and creators you can have a look at the facebook page. The comic is aimed at 8-11 year olds, but the artwork from all the creators is lovely and you can follow most of the stories even without speaking a word of irish.

There are a couple of Irish webcomics you should definetley catch up on reading:

• Paddy Brown, another Belfast creator, retells the story of Cuhullan in his weekly Cattle Raid of Cooley strip. Unlike most comicbook artists, Paddy doesn't sketch out his work in pencil, but instead draws his finished piece with a red biro to lovely effect. He has also recently added the first part of The History of Irish Comics to his site, which is truely an indepth read.
• Road Crew is a strip from Tommie Kelley. I first met Tommie at the Dublin comic con last year and have been following the strip online since. Tommie has spent a lot of years in the music industry and the over-the-top comedy strip mixes sound crew experiences and outrageous adventures, such as the recent trip to the moon (almost). There are also some great promotional items on the website, such as an entire LP recorded by Tommie under the guise of a fictional band that appeared in the strip a while back.

Both Cattle Raid of Cooley and Road Crew are available as print comics from their respective sites also.

For something completely different:

• Have a listen to the sunnysidecomics podcast. It features Irish artist Paul Holden, along with Aaron Abernethy and Scott Ferguson. It's a new Belfast based comics podcast but I'm afraid my brain would explode if I tried to explain the content. Check it out anyway, highly enjoyable.

Well that's all for today. My selfishless-ness has over extended its welome and for the forseeable future this blog will be all about me. ME!