Will Simpson art in focus at W5, Belfast

Will Simpson at the W5. Photo: W5 Centre

The work of Will Simpson is the focus of an exhibition at Belfast's W5 Centre until 28th April 2013, highlighting the work of this internationally-known artist, whose career began in comic strip art.

Will grew up in Prehen, near Derry, and his earliest work was for the Belfast anthology Ximoc in the early 1980s. This led to professional work in the UK, drawing Big Ben in Warrior in 1984, and a run on Transformers for Marvel UK in 1985-1987. His first work for 2000AD, a Future Shock, came in 1985, and he was a regular on the magazine from 1987 to 1991, drawing Universal Soldier (1987), Judge Dredd, including episodes of the epic Oz (1987-88), Tale of the Dead Man, and Tyranny Rex (1988).

He provided painted art for several Judge Dredd stories, as well as the Rogue Trooper reboot The War Machine in 1989-90. In 1991 he created Sex Warrior with writers Pat Mills and Tony Skinner for Toxic!

In recent years he has developed his work in the film industry providing conceptual art and storyboards for a variety of feature films, such as: Reign of Fire, directed by Rob Bowman, Freeze Frame, directed by John Simpson, Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto, and most recently, Game of Thrones for HBO, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride's Your Highness for Universal, Lord Richard Attenborough's 2006 production, Closing The Ring and the Tom Hanks produced City Of Ember.

This exhibition showcases some of William's incredible concept artwork for film and television. His original pencil drawings will be on display in the Centre's level 5 gallery and the exhibition gives visitors of all ages and backgrounds a truly unique opportunity to see these wonderful images up close.

Some of Will Simpson's Game of Thrones art will also be on display at the upcoming 2D Festival at the end of April (see news story)

• More info: www.w5online.co.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/item/14/the-art-of-william-simpson/

2D Festival to host William Simpson art exhibition

Game of Thrones storyboard art by William Simpson
Read an interview with Will about his work on Game of Thrones on the official production blog here

(Updated 14th February): 2D, The Northern Ireland Comics Festival, returns in 2013 for a special edition and will take place from the 30th May – 2nd June in the Verbal Arts Centre and the Millennium Forum in Derry/Londonderry. 

The festival is organised by the Verbal Arts Centre, an educational charity, and is a celebration of comic book culture – and this year 2D is part of the official 'Derry/Londonderry - City of Culture 2013' programming' and will be an extended event.

2D will feature an exhibition, workshops, signings, sketching, panel discussions, portfolio review sessions and a themed movie exhibition. All events are free.

The exhibition will highlight acclaimed comics artist William Simpson's work on the TV series Game of Thrones.

Workshops will be held mainly on Thursday and Friday in the Verbal Arts Centre; panels will be held in a local event space on Friday and Saturday evenings and the festival will culminate on the Saturday and Sunday with the 2D Comics Fair in the Millennium Forum.

• Free table space is still available (full table booking details coming soon on the Festival's web site - www.2dfestival.com). If you would like to enquire about anything regarding the festival, need help with travel and accommodation information, or have any suggestions please feel free to email david@2dfestival.com

•  Verbal Arts Centre is at Stable Lane and Mall Wall, Bishop Street WithinDerry / Londonderry, Northern Ireland BT48 6PU Telephone: 028 7126 6946 Fax: 028 7126 3368 Email: info@verbalartscentre.co.uk Website: www.verbalartscentre.co.uk

Comics @ Belfast Urban Arts Academy

With its own comics convention, 2-D, at the start of June and the Belfast Telegraph newspaper having just given away a second set of free DC Thomson reprint comics over the course of a week, Northern Ireland has an active comics culture. To add to this the Urban Arts Academy are running a summer course in comic book art.

Taking place at the impressive Waterfront Hall in Belfast from 19-23 July 2010 the Urban Arts Academy Comicbook Illustration course will be lead by brothers William and Ken Simpson of Rogue Rocket who produce animation, storyboards and comic strips. Will Simpson of course has worked on titles such as Warrior, 2000AD, Batman and Hellblazer as well as storyboards for films shot in Northern Ireland such as City Of Ember and Closing The Ring.

The course is aimed at participants of 15 years and older with some experience of storytelling, design and drawing and will teach the students not just penciling and inking techniques but character development and storytelling as well. The cost is £60 and more details can be found on the Belfast Waterfront website.

In addition there will be short comicbook illustration workshops for children at the Belfast Waterfront on the weekend of 29/30 May 2010 as part of the Festival in a Weekend Urban Arts Akidemy. These four workshops run for half a day each and allow the children to design their own comic book hero and story. The two workshops on the Saturday are for ages 8-11 and on the Sunday for ages 12-14 and tickets are £7 for each workshop. Again more details are available on the Belfast Waterfront website.

Will Simpson will also be appearing at the free 2-D Comics Festival which takes place at the Verbal Arts Centre in Londonderry from 3-5 June 2010.