Thought Bubble 2013 (and DICE Sketches)!

I'll be at Thought Bubble this coming weekend, 22nd - 24th November. It's my only English convention of 2013, so looking forward to catching up with the UK comic scene. You can find me at table 120 New Dock Hall, sharing with those other Irish rouges, Lightning Strikes Comics, and wedged between my partners-in-crime Cy Dethan/Nic Wilkinson and artist extraordinaries Dave Strokes/Marc Laming.

I'll be drawing a limited number of sketches over the weekend, but I'll start up a small pre-order list that I will draw over the weekend:

£15 for a character head sketch
£30 pre-order price for full body sketch (£40 on the day)
£30 for Sketch + 6 Comicbook bundle (Jennifer Wilde 1-3, Wilde Hunt, Noe #1, Black Scorpion)

Send an email to stephen [@] stephendowneygallery.com to pre-order

Here's a load of sketches from DICE a few months back, so you know what to expect (taken with my iPad, so apologies for the photo quality):

             

We're also launching Jennifer Wilde: The Wilde in the UK, written by Young Adult Author Kaz Mahoney! Come get your mitts on it!

STAILC - TG4 Documentary 30th October

I've been working on some comic pages for a STAILC, a documentary directed by Brian Gray recounting the events of Big Jim Larkin and the 1913 Lockout.

The people at Esras films and Design for Life have done some lovely post production work on my layered artwork. There's a trailer for the documentary below and you can see how the artwork merges with the actors around 35 seconds in. 

The documentary airs tomorrow night, 30th October at 21:30 on TG4.

If you're not in the south of Ireland, you may be able to access the livestream on the TG4 Player.

DICE Sketch Pre-orders

I'm opening up a list of A4 sketch commission pre-orders for DICE.

Character head sketch - €15
Full figure/elaborate sketch - €40 pre-order (€50 over the weekend)
Comic Bundle: Jennifer Wilde 1-3, Wilde Hunt, Noe #1 & Head sketch) - €25

Contact me stephen [@] stephendowneygallery.com to be added to the list.

Here is some examples of what you can expect from previous cons:

Cyclops, Wolverine v Deadpool 

(Enquire via email for multiple character price)

Deadpool

Booster Gold

Hulk

Cyclops

Daredevil

Con Schedule

It feels like a while since I've been to a proper comics convention. The 4-cons-in-5-weeks burnout of 2012 really left me exhausted, but I'm making up for event months with a healthily spaced out 3-cons -in-3-months. 

D.I.C.E 28th-29th September

First up, I'm a guest at D.I.C.E this year. Dundrum's finest comic convention. The guys from The Big Bang comic store has really pulled in some great local and overseas guests, including marvel talent scout C.B Cebulski and Image Comics publisher Eric Stephenson. If you're an aspiring Irish comic artist, you really should make the time for this con. 

Octocon 12th-13th October

Octocon is the long-running National Irish Science Fiction Convention. I always hear good things about the convention, but this is the first year I'll be able to attend. I've been invited along as a guest and have confirmed on 2 panels 

11:00 Sun - Abbey - Cinematic
Has cinematography over influenced other visual media, and what can cinema learn from Comics and Video Games

16:00 Sun - Pavillion - Video Games and Comics - How the two media overlap, and how they inform each other.   

Thought Bubble Leeds 23rd-24th November 

I'll be flying over and setting up as an exhibitor at Thought Bubble again this year. It's my only overseas convention this year, so hoping to meet up with a lot the UK comics scene. I'll be sharing a table with Dan McDaid, so come along and say 'Hi'. 

Belfast Comicbook Workshops

Following on from successful comic book creation workshop in Derry last month, I have several more lined up in the coming months. 

The first is a 4 week course with Cinemagic, the details below:

The Cinemagic International Film and Television Festival for Young People invites you to join in an exciting and innovative creative opportunity in Belfast this summer! With support from Belfast City Council Arts & Heritage Funding, Cinemagic’s “Drawn In” project will teach 30 young people, aged 16-25, the skills required to get started in the competitive comic book industry!
From August to September, participants will attend four workshops hosted by industry professionals Mal Coney (The Darkness, Holy Cross) and Stephen Downey (Torchwood, Jennifer Wilde) before creating their own individual 1-page comic strips. The completed comics will then be collated and released digitally online and showcased in an event as part of Cinemagic’s festival activities in 2013/14.
The four workshops will give participants an excellent insight to writing, pencilling, colouring and lettering, and ultimately give them a chance to practice their new skills and produce work for their own portfolios.
Participation in the project is free of charge and art supplies will be provided but please note, attendance at all workshops is compulsory.
 Workshops will take place on 6-9pm Monday evenings from August 19^th – September 9^th!
To apply, please contact Sean Boyle sean@cinemagic.org.uk and for further information please contact the Cinemagic office on 02890 311900. Places are limited so apply quickly to avoid disappointment!

In the midst of this, Andy Luke and I are returning for our 3rd Bounce! ADF workshop on the 31st August. The Arts and Disability Forum Bounce! Festival showcases and specialises on art and talent from people with disabilities. The one-day workshop is again free and people with all levels of ability are welcome.

Comix WorkshopGrand Opera House • 31st August 1pm – 4pm
With Andy Luke and Stephen Downey. The workshop is free – please book in advance via ADF.
Captioning, audio description and BSL available.
Web: www.adf.ie    E: info@adf.ie    Tel: 028 9023 9450
Tickets from Grand Opera House
Online: www.goh.co.uk    By phone: 028 9024 1919

 

Come along to one, why don't you?

Jennifer Wilde: The Wilde Hunt

Fresh off the printing press is a Jennifer Wilde one-shot from Atomic Diner.

Written by Karen Mahoney, the brilliant novelist behind The Iron Witch trilogy and Falling to Ash (Random House). Kaz has done an amazing job keeping the tone set by Maura McHugh, while weaving a really unique tale that brings Jennifer back to Ireland only to be caught up in a supernatural encounter.

A really fun and exciting script to work with. I think if you're a fan of Hellboy or BPRD, you'd be in for a real treat.

The one-shot may also act as a subtle mini-crossover if you read Rob Curley's League of Volunteers, but you'll have to read the book to find out why.

Jennifer Wilde #3

I'm a little delayed in announcing the release, as I was off on Honeymoon as Jennifer Wilde #3 came back from the printer. To make up for it, here's few preview pages and the cover to the issue, which wraps up the first mini-series.

Irish readers may spot a few familiar locations as Jennifer's 

journey's bring her to the emerald isle in #3.

You can pick up Jennifer Wilde #3 at Sub City Comics, select comic stores or direct from Atomic Diner's Web Store.

Jennifer & Oscars's 'origin story', written by Maura McHugh, based on Rob Curley's concepts, was such a great story to work on, with clever character work, noir trappings and supernatural aspects that were so much fun to draw.

It won't be long before you seen Jennifer again. Very soon in fact, and there may even be another book at the printers right now...

Sub City Signing

I'll be signing at Sub City Comics, Dublin this Saturday, 20th April, 1-3 pm.

Sub City Comics is owned by Rob Curley, publisher of Atomic Diner and the mastermind of Noe: The Savage Boy, Black Scorpion and Jennifer Wilde.

It's my first Dublin signing, so quite excited to see some new faces. Hopefully see a few of you there!

Spotter - Creator Owned Day 2013

One that looks for, locates, and reports something, as:   a. A military or civil defense lookout.
   b. Informal A person hired to detect dishonest acts by employees, as in a bank.
                                        Spotter - The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition  

East Iasia 2025 

Deep in hostile territory, the two man sniper team had simple orders - locate the hostages, execute the kidnappers and call in the extraction team. The Spotter's calculations were precise, his targeting and location mapping were perfect, but when his Intelli-Sniper partner starting shooting the hostages, the Spotter's role turned from protecting his partner to eliminating him.

With the secure extraction line destroyed in the fight, and his traitor partner escaped into the night, the Spotter completed a manual extraction of the remaining hostages. With no weaponry, and equipped with only his Vision Tech, InterMapping tools and CalcU training, the Spotter must lead the hostages out of the vast continent of East Iasia and to safe embassy to complete his mission.

Little does he know, the people who gave the orders don't want him to succeed...

Creator Owned Day 2013

Creator Owned Day returns Tuesday 5th March 2013! Last year's challenge saw comic creators writing and drawing up new characters, readers celebrating their favourite creator-owned series and a trending topic on Twitter.

A quick recap of the challenge details:

Create a sketch of an original character or concept and and post it on your Blog, Twitter etc on Tuesday 5th March. It should be a concept completely owned by the artist (or co-owned with the writer/collaborators permission to post).

Why? A number of reasons:

1. A lot of reader and creator focus is on characters owned by larger corporations. Let's bring a little spotlight on creating brand new, creator owned concepts.
2. Bringing a little awareness to the business side of co-creating original content. Take a look at Jeff Parker's article and follow up comments on the subject. Co-creators can take this opportunity as a little trial run, just make sure to have a mutual agreement in advance.
3. Fun! A few creators discussed the idea on Twitter and thought it was a great opportunity to create something entirely new, while bringing attention to these sketches. 

The details:

1. Create a sketch of a new character/character you own. We're doing this primarily to get our imaginations running, so a concept specifically created for Creator Owned Day is probably ideal. It should NOT be a character owned by either a company eg. Marvel's Wolverine, OR owned by other creators e.g. Todd McFarlane's Spawn. It also shouldn't take distinct features from characters owned by others e.g. Wolverspawn You must own the character.
2. Post it on your blog, or Facebook, Twitter etc.
3. Share your post using the Twitter hashtag #CreatorOwnedDay.
4. Help us spread the word by retweeting your favourite new characters.

Let's see what we can come up with!

You can follow Creator Owned Day or my own account on Twitter to see retweets of the best from the day. Here's my example from last year if you need a little inspiration.

Promotarious Pt 2

The promotional whirlwind for Noe: The Savage Boy continues with a chat on the 2D Comics podcast. Some of you know I usually speak at the speed of light (your brain just need to catch up) but I think it's one of my slowest performances yet, so some of you might be able to finally break my brogue.

You can catch the chat with Ciaran over at Irish Comic News or download/listen directly here HERE.  

I'll also be attending the Heroes and Legends Imagine Nation event this weekend in W5, Belfast. There will be copies of Noe #1 and I'll be sketching all weekend. There's also a short Q&A panel with PJ Holden and John Paul Bove at noon on both Saturday and Sunday. 

Should be fun!

Promotarious

It's only a week until the Forbidden Planet Noe signing, so I've been making the promotarious rounds to get the word out.

Mal and I made an appearance on BBC Radio Ulster Art's Extra on Wednesday. We talked about the process of creating comics, themes involved in Noe the Savage Boy, and chatted about the comic industry in general. There's also an interview with Garth Ennis which make good listening. You catch up and stream the show here.

I was interviewed by writer Jay Faulkner on Following the Nerd Internet radio show. We had a nice long chat about comics and general geekiness, which was really fun to do. The show, which features great all-round 'nerd' topics, can be downloaded as a podcast.

There's a great review of Noe on Irish Comic news. Colin O'Mahoney writes

"...artist Stephen Downey, whose detailed pencils and gorgeous inks make this book a thing of real beauty. Credit to Coney for a script that plays to the strengths of his artist, as we are treated to some really amazing double page spreads and splashes in the book."

Here's one such spread from Noe The Savage Boy #1 that I haven't blogged yet, so hopefully it will entice a few of you to make it down on the 9th February. If you can't, tell a friend who can!

Noe The Savage Boy Forbidden Planet exclusive cover and signing

I'll be signing copies of Noe The Savage Boy #1 alongside my collaborators Malachy Coney and Rob Curley in Forbidden Planet Belfast on the 9th February between 1 - 3pm. We've created a Forbidden Planet exclusive cover for the event, seen below, and it should be good fun all round. Come along if you can and tell all your comic-loving friends.