Zombies Hi And Amelia Earhart From Uproar Comics

Londonderry's Uproar Comics have been making a name for themselves in Northern Ireland with their regular publication of the anthology comic Zombies Hi, the main story of which is set in and around the walled city of Derry after a zombie holocaust. Uproar grew out of the free 2D Comics Festival, now in its sixth year at Londonderry's Visual Arts Centre, and the 2D Collective group of creators which we featured on downthetubes last year.

Zombies Hi issue 5 has just been released and is available from a variety of newsagents, bookshops and comic shops in Northern Ireland. Readers from further afield can order physical copies from the Uproar Comics website while e-copies are also available for download.

In addition, and in time for this year's 2D Comics Festival on Saturday 2 June, Uproar are releasing their first graphic novel about the American aviatrix Amelia Earhart. A historical biography may initially sound like an unusual topic for Uproar to cover, however when Earhart became the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo, she landed near Ballyarnett, just north of Derry, on 21 May 1932. This was previously commemorated in the now out-of-print graphic novel The Story of Amelia Earhart written by Felicity McCall with art by Joe Campbell and published in 2007 by Baird Publishing in association with Greater Shantallow Community Arts.

The new book entitled Amelia Earhart: First Lady of Aviation contains an updated version of that original GN and couples it with A Day in May, a text and spot illustrated account by Joe Campbell of Earhart's 24 hour stay in Derry.

The book is being released this weekend as part of the 2012 Earhart Festival and Festival director Oliver Green told downthetubes, "We believed that it was time for a new publication, as the 80th anniversary has already created a groundswell of public interest. I am conscious that the original graphic novel has all but sold out and is in circulation in the US, UK and Across Ireland as well as in Australasia. It is in regular use in classrooms in the North West, and beyond. With this in mind, it seemed appropriate not only to ask the original artist Joe Campbell and writer Felicity McCall to revise and update their work, but to commission what is effectively the next chapter in the story. With A Day in May, Joe Campbell has produced a marvellous combination of prose and pen and ink illustrations which perfectly evokes the atmosphere and ethos of that very special 24 hours in Derry. It is a work of outstanding talent, creativity and empathy with his subject matter and I am confident the new publication will not only match but better the success of the original book five years ago."

There are more details of Zombies Hi and Amelia Earhart: First Lady Of Aviation on the Uproar Comics website and Facebook page.

There are more details of the 2D Comics Festival which is free and takes place between 31 May and 2 June 2012 on the 2D website and Facebook page.

Comics Creators At Hi-Ex 2012: Part 2

Having taken a lot of photos of the various creators at the Hi-Ex comics convention, which took place at the Eden Court complex in Inverness last weekend, there was never going to be enough room in the main downthetubes review of the con to include all the images. Instead we present a selection of those images of the creators along with links to their websites, blogs and/or Facebook pages. They are in no particular order and the first part of this photo feature is here.

Artist Nigel Dobbyn has an eclectic selection of titles to his credit from The Beano's Billy The Cat to 2000AD via Thunderbirds and Transformers. The image he is showing here is entitled Primeval Priest and is available to buy from his website.

There are more details of Nigel Dobbyn's work on his website.

Glasgow's small press Team Girl Comic have four issues to their name as well as a selection of individual contributors' own titles and did a good trade, particularly on the Saturday. Shown here are editor Gillian Hatcher (left) with contributors Coleen Campbell (centre) and Clare Yvette (right).

There are more details of Team Girl Comic on their website and Facebook page.

French artist Michel Rodrigue is currently resident in Scotland and having been at the previous Hi-Ex was back this year on the Cinebook stand. His Cinebook titles are the two modern Clifton titles Jade and Black Moon which he was signing and sketching over the weekend. He is also the writer of the French series Sybil La Fee Cartable which is on its third book in France and the first book of which has just be translated into English by Papercutz as Sybil The Backpack Fairy and he was more than happy to sketch and sign copies of it as well.

There are more details of Michel Rodrigue on Lambiek.

There are more details of Sybil The Backpack Fairy on the Papercutz website and of Clifton the the Cinebook website.

From pink fairies to something rather darker and artist John Higgin's RazerJack, the death-bitch from the Twist Dimension. To promote RazerJack, John produces illustrations at each of the conventions that he attends and here is the image that he was working on on the Sunday at Hi-Ex.

There are more details of John Higgin's work on his website and of RazerJack on its Facebook page.

Write and artist Ian Sharman is also editor of Orang Utan Comics and AAM/Markosia as well as writer of Alpha Gods and Hero: 9-5. He took part in the Hi-Ex Pitching and Portfolio session on the Sunday. His latest title, as seen above, is Hypergirl.

There are more details of Ian Sharman's work on his blog and on the Orang Utan Comics website.

Perhaps the most unusual graphic novel available over the weekend was writer and animator Leslie MacKenzie's Gaelic title Cuir Stad Ak An Stoirm Shneashda which translates as Stop The Snow Storm. With art by Shona Shirley MacDonald, it uses the idea that the first peoples of Scotland were not from the south and Europe but from the north and the Arctic regions. As part of the publishing deal with the Gaelic Books Council the title will not be published in English for several years.

There are more details of Leslie MacKenzie's work on her website while Cuir Stad Ak An Stoirm Shneashda will be available from the Gaelic Books Council website.

A comic strip with killer STDs in it just sound like the sort of thing that should be in CLiNT magazine and the editorial team of CLiNT obviously thought so too. As can be seen above, artist and writer Monty Nero's Death Sentence started life as a small press comic but will get a new lease of life, and a lot more exposure, when it begins in CLiNT Vol 2 No 1 very soon.

There are more details of Monty Nero's work on his website and blog.

Artist Will Pickering worked on the Burke and Hare graphic novel published several years ago as well as contributing to a number of Glasgow based small press titles. He was also displaying Black Hearted Press' Gabriel title written by Jim Alexander.

There are more details of Will Pickering's work on his blog.

Londonderry's Uproar Comics came together through the city's 2D Comics Festival and its 2D Collective offshoot. They publish the Zombies Hi title which is an anthology of the main ongoing Zombies Hi story backed up with short zombie text stories and comic strip and has reached its fourth issue. Set after a zombie apocalypse within the defensive walls of the City of Derry, the comic is widely distributed within Northern Ireland. Artist Kevin Logue (left) drew attendees as zombies while writer Danny McLaughlin (centre) drummed up support and artist John Campbell (right) worked on pages for forthcoming issues.

There are more details of Zombies Hi on the Uproar Comics website.

Last and by no means least, especially since one of her titles is Eagle Award nominated this year as Best European Comic, is Irish writer Maura McHugh. Her two titles for Dublin's Atomic Diner Comics are the Eagle Award nominated 1920s mystery Jennifer Wilde and the supernatural Roisin Dubh as seen above.

There are more details of Maura McHugh's work on her website.

There are more details of Jennifer Wilde and Roisin Dubh on the Atomic Diner website.


The first part of Comics Creators At Hi-Ex is here.

The Hi-Ex website is here.

The downthetubes review of Hi-Ex 2012 is here.