Noe #2 launch

It's finally here! Noe: The Savage Boy #2 is launching at Forbidden Planet Belfast on the 15 November.

Mal, Rob and I will be in hand for doodles and signage, so hopefully we'll all see you there!

Multilingual comic creation

My comp copies of Ri Ra #2, the Irish language kid's comicbook, just arrived in the post the other day and looks great. I have a 3 page story inside and with not speaking enough Gaelige to write the script myself, I had an odd process with this one.

I started off with the basic idea for a story, following on from the same theme and characters from #1, based on a young boys first year at school. I broke the idea into panels and scribbled the layout down on paper.

Then I sent Desy Downey, a fiddle playing, Irish language teacher of mine, the layouts with a brief description of what was happening in the story/panels and the kind of thing that the character would be thinking.


For example:

PG1


Ttitle
1/ Close up on Boy, wearing hurling helmet
2/ Grumpy PE teacher is telling the boys about team spirit. The boy is the smallest in the line and is not looking forward to the match because in his old school he was really bad at sports.
3/ The teacher goes into a rant about how winning is more important than playing. 
4/ The boy is picked last (as usual)


Then Desy came back with a poem that would be laid over/incorporated into the art, with a rough translation of what he was writing. The verse obviously reads a lot better in Irish than it does in English, but the English text doesn't appear in the comic at all.


PAGE 1


1 NARR (Ar ais ar scoil agus anois corpoiliúint, (back to school and now PE)
 agus tá a fhios ag cách go mbeidh muid ag fulaingt! (and everyone knows we’ll all be suffering)
2 Múinteoir ;  anois a dhálta, an rud is fearr ná comh-oibriú (Now students, the best thing is team work)
Buachaill ; Tá sé cosúil le seanscoil s’agamsa, b’éigean dom éalú !(IT’s like my old school, I have to escape!)
3 Múinteoir ; agus rud is measa ná ag cáiliú an clúiche (and the worst thing is losing the game)
Buachaill, is fuath liom spóirt níor mhaith liom é chóiche! (I hate sport, I’ve never liked it)
4 Múinteoir: Tá mé dul a roghnú na foirne anois, seas suas go modhúil (I’m gonna pick the teams now stand up orderly)
Buachaill:  Mise an duine is lú, beidh mé ag fánacht go dtí an deireadh! (I’m the smallest person, I’ll be waiting untill the end)


After sending the text and layouts of for approval to Aidan Courtney for approval, I drew the finished art; Linework on paper, colours in photoshop then letters with Adobe Illustrator.

For example. page 1:

You can see I'm drawing in a more cartoony style for this comic as its aimed for ages 8-14 year olds. If you want to get a copy you can order both issues online here and its available in a lot of Irish comic stores as well.
If you know of any Gaelige speaking schools as well, you should let them know this is available as it works as a really great teaching aid.

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!