Photo Review: 2D Festival - Creators At The Comics Fair

This year's 2D Comics Festival in the UK's 2013 City of Culture, Derry-Londonderry, was the largest comics event ever held in Northern Ireland. With talks and work shops in the days running up to the weekend, the weekend itself had a family friendly cosplay event and a free comics fair during the day at the city's Millennium Forum plus evening talks in Sandino's Bar.

Organised as it has been for each year since 2007 by the Verbal Arts Centre (above), it has outgrown the 19th century former school and so this was first year that 2D has moved from its spiritual home, and into the much larger Millennium Forum theatre and conference centre also just within the city's defensive walls. This year the Verbal Arts Centre building was retained for an exhibition of local artist Will Simpson's film and television work including that on the biggest TV series to be filmed in Northern Ireland, Game Of Thrones.

The Millennium Forum (below) is a much more modern building with considerably more room to move around and generally be able to breathe. Built to cope with the hilly section of the city where the old wall actually runs beneath a road, the building has multiple levels with the main doors being, disconcertingly, at the top.

The main atrium of the building was used for the 2D Comics Fair with tables squeezed into every space, from the entrance hall via various bridges and landings, to the main lower floor and even beyond. The layout of this at first glance seemed a little chaotic but realisation soon dawned that the organisers had blocked certain routes to ensure that everyone walked past all the various tables before arriving at the main floor level. Indeed the various guests were spaced around the building with each area having several guest artists meaning that there really were no sections that could be ignored.

And the organisers were not ignoring their guests either with drinks and food being provided and even paper being offered to the artists in case they had run out. 2D has a good reputation amongst its guests and it was not hard to see why.

As it was free entry to the Comics Fair, there was a varied cross-section of punters around with, on the Sunday at least, few cosplayers to be seen other than those taking part in the Heroes and Legends event deeper in the building.

The city's local creators are Uproar Comics who came together through previous 2Ds and the 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 is widely distributed within Northern Ireland. Writer Danny McLaughlin (left) was more than happy to talk about both zombies and their new standalone title, The Ballad of Half Hanged McNaghten, while artist Kevin Logue (right) drew attendees as zombies.

There are more details of all Uproar Comics publications on their website.

From across the border, and the Atlantic, was Canadian artist and Co Donegal resident Tim Stampton who was displaying some lovely watercolours of folkloric figures which he had combined into a softcover book entitled Irish Faerie Folk.

There are more details of Tim Stampton's work on his website.

Also from the Republic of Ireland, yet a familiar face at UK conventions, was writer Maura McHugh. As well as books and plays, Maura writes two title's for Dublin's Atomic Diner comics, Roisin Dubh and Jennifer Wilde. The third and concluding issue of Jennifer Wilde was hot of the presses, as Maura shows above, while the third issue of Roisin Dubh is due imminently.

There are more details of all Maura's work on her website which includes her own thoughts on 2D 2013.

Back north of the border and Belfast artist Davy Francis who worked on IPC's Monster Fun and Oink as well as a wide variety of Northern Ireland small press zines. Like most of the artists at 2D Davy was providing quick sketches for free and here he provides one young fan with a image of Spiderman.

There are more details of Davy Francis' work on the Irish Comics Wiki.

Sitting beside Davy was Welsh artist Mike Collins perhaps best known these days for his Doctor Who work including the two Dalek graphic novels published by BBC Books. Here he is sketching an unusual mix of the eleventh Doctor and Dan Dare.

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

From Wales to Scotland and artist Gary Erskine who was there with his wife Mhairi Stewart who run workshops under the Perfect Spiral name. One of Gary's latest titles is the fourth Doctor and Leela episode of IDW's Doctor Who: Prisoners Of Time, while his own project, Roller Grrrls, skates closer to publication.

There are more details of Gary's work on the Scotch Corner blog and the Perfect Spiral website.

Marvel artist Herb Trimpe was a major US guest perhaps best known for his run on The Incredible Hulk during which time he drew the very first appearance of Wolverine in 1974. He was selling original Marvel artwork pages as well as doing sketches.

However why ask him to sketch Hulk or Wolverine when he was also the first artist on Captain Britain in Marvel UK's Captain Britain Weekly in October 1976?

There are more details of Herb's work on the Marvel Comics Database.

Artists and writers Emma Vieceli (left) and Kate Brown (right) were also there promoting, amongst other things, Emma's work on The Avalon Chronicles and Kate's work on The Phoenix. They decided that as downthetubes is a serious blog that they should do a serious pose - and this was one serious pose...

Of course to hold a serious pose you have to remain serious and as soon as Kate started to smile...

... that set Emma off.
 

Was it something I said? Sorry to disappoint, but I couldn't possibly repeat it - what happens at 2D stays at 2D!

There are more details of Emma's work on her website and Kate's work on her website.

(With thanks to both Emma and Kate for being good sports and agreeing to let us run these photos)

Yet these photos seem sum up the friendly and fun atmosphere of 2D for both the guests and the punters. That is the sort of atmosphere that organiser David Campbell and his team set out to achieve each year and, once again, in 2013 they have achieved it.

There is more information on 2D, the Northern Ireland Comics Festival, on the the 2D website and Facebook page.

Photo Review: Thought Bubble 2012 Part 2

Last weekend the two day Thought Bubble comic convention took place in Leeds as part of the week long film festival. It is a true celebration of the diversity of the modern British comics scene, from veteran professionals, via all the various levels of small press, to the lovingly crafted pieces that would seem as much at home in a craft fair. There was something for everyone, from the hardened con-goer wanting sketches or original art boards from a specific artist to the children who walked around collecting "Phoenix feathers" from the various contributors to that weekly comic to take back to the title's own table.

Thought Bubble 2012 was a great success and a very positive re-enforcement for attendees and creators that despite dwindling sales in the weekly and monthly publishing sector there remains a great passion in Britain for comics in all their various forms.

Rather than review such a large and diverse event instead we present a photo round up (in no particular order) of a selection of the creators that exhibited at Thought Bubble, plus a few others that caught our attention along the way. With the event split over two halls, part one covered (roughly) the Royal Armouries Hall while part two covers the New Dock Hall.

Steve Tanner of Time Bomb Comics was there showing that Thought Bubble is family friendly behind the dealers tables as well as in front as his wife Suzanne and their little bomblette Sasha helped him promote the latest Time Bomb title, the western The Last Ride Of Henry Holden.

There are more details of all Time Bomb's titles on their website.

Just across from Time Bomb was Garen Ewing with his Rainbow Orchid stand. As well as handing "Phoenix feathers" out the children, Garen also had copies of all three individual volumes of The Rainbow Orchid, the new Complete Rainbow Orchid omnibus which, if the number of people walking around the hall with copies under their arms was anything to go by sold very well over the weekend, plus for those who thought that they already had all things Orchid, his newly self published Rainbow Orchid Supplement, a "DVD extras" publication of notes on the story, early sketches, adverts and interviews.

There is much more information on The Rainbow Orchid on its website.

Artist Gary Erskine has many credits to his name over the last twenty years or so but the work that he is currently promoting is the Roller Grrrls concept with sketchbooks and posters currently available and the first issue of the comic due in 2013. Nuclear Miss-ile, Hot Wheel Roller Derby's number 17 (above), was one of the roller girls that was interested in his work..

There is more information on Roller Grrrls on the Roller Grrrls website.

 

Gary's fellow Scotch Cornerer Graeme Neil Reid was just along the isle with a wide selection of original art as well as prints available on his table. The "Zombie Maggie" illustration that Graeme produced as the cover for Overload issue 1 proved to be a major talking point over the weekend although it was his Star Wars and Doctor Who artwork that sold out first.

There is more information Graeme Neil Reid's work on his website.

Next to Graeme were writer Jason Cobley (left) and artist Andrew Wildman (right) both of whom were promoting Frontier, their "Weird Wild West" story that was originally published in The DFC weekly comic and then collected by Print Media into a hardback book. As well as copies of Frontier, Jason was also selling the first issue of his new A4 anthology Amnesia Agents while Andrew had copies of his new graphic novel Horizon. 

There are more details of Jason's work on his blog and of Andrew's work on his Horizon website.

Joining Jason on the Sunday was artist Grant Perkins who, as well as selling prints and postcards of his work, was sketching away for most of the day on a variety of different subjects including this one of a stylised Judge Death.

There is more information about Grant's work at his website.

Opposite Graeme, Jason and Andrew was the Improper Books table with two very industrious ladies giving away free preview comics for Improper's upcoming gothic fairy tale Porcelain. Written by Benjamin Read and beautifully illustrated by Chris Wildgoose (above with a copy of Porcelain and Butterfly Close) this graphic novel is due to be published in February 2013 and, based on the preview, should be worth the wait.

There are more details of Porcelain and Butterfly Close on the Improper Books website.

Also showing off a title that is not yet released was artist and writer Will Morris. Will has written and illustrated The Silver Darlings for Blank Slate Books which is due to be released very soon and, from the preview copy, looks lovely.

There are more details about Will's work on his blog and The Silver Darlings on the Blank Slate Books website.

From two books that are not out yet to two that are - the first two books in Accent UK's WesterNoir series. Among the many Accent UK titles on their table, WesterNoir Book 2 was getting its official release at Thought Bubble with writer Dave West (left) and artist Gary Crutchley (right) in attendance. Book 1 was reviewed on downthetubes here and the review of Book 2 will follow soon.

There are more details of WesterNoir on the Accent UK website.

The University of Dundee's comics imprint UniVerse is used to publish anthologies of the work of the students enrolled on the uni's comics courses with Anthology One covering work of the students of the 2011-2012 DJCAD Comics Art and Graphic Novels module and the new Anthology Two, shown above by DJCAD lecturer and Anthology Two cover artist Phillip Vaughan, covering the work of the students in the 2011-2012 MLitt In Comics Studies. UniVerse has also just published The Amazing Mr X in conjunction with DC Thomson which prints the winners and a selection of the other entries in the 2012 Dundee Comics Prize as well as some original 1940s Mr X stories from The Dandy.

Details of ordering Anthology Two and The Amazing Mr X by post are available by e-mailing : universecomic@gmail.com

From Dundee to Dublin and Robert Curley of Atomic Diner Comics showing off his latest title, The Crimson Blade. As much as downthetubes focuses on British comics, we are more than happy to extend that to the entire British Isles, and with titles like the supernatural Rosin Duhb, the excellent Jennifer Wilde and the 2011 Irish Comics News Best Irish Comic award winner The League Of Volunteers, Atomic Diner are a publisher to keep an eye on.

There are more details of all Atomic Diner's titles on their website.

 

Last but by no means least, two familiar faces to the British comics community, and the 2000AD contingent in particular, Richmond Clements (left) and Dave Evans/BOLT-01 (right) of Futurequake Press. The two 2000AD zines Zarjaz and Dogbreath may be the best known and widely distributed FQP titles but they also produce the SF theme Futurequake which has now reached its 22nd issue and the horror themed Something Wicked which has reached issue 8.

 

There are more details of all Futurequake Press' titles on their website.

Part One of this photo review of Thought Bubble 2012 is here.

Photo Review: Thought Bubble 2012 Part 1

Last weekend the two day Thought Bubble comic convention took place in Leeds as part of the week long comic art festival. The event has grown in leaps and bounds since its inception in 2007 and this year demand from sellers for its 300 odd tables meant that they sold out months in advance. Indeed the keenness of some attendees was shown on the wet Saturday morning when sellers entering the halls over 1.5 hours before the official doors open time were walking past people already queueing for the 10am start.

Thought Bubble is a true celebration of the diversity of the modern British comics scene, from veteran professionals, via all the various levels of what gets grouped as 'small press', to the lovingly crafted pieces that would seem as much at home in a craft fair. There was something for everyone, from the hardened con-goer wanting sketches or original art boards from a specific artist to the children who walked around collecting "Phoenix feathers" from the various contributors to the weekly Phoenix comic to take back to the title's own table.

Other events seem to get dominated by themes, such as MCM Expo with manga/anime and its cosplayers, or Kapow and the London Super Convention with the US superhero clique, but Thought Bubble, while having manga, anime and superheroes as part of it, gives the impression of a much greater diversity in its make-up. Of course attendees could buy manga books and Marvel and DC superheroes, but they could also buy Victor, Warlord, Blast, Deadline, 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine.

Thanks to Lisa Wood and her organising team, their red shirted volunteers, and the girls (and some boys) of the Roller Derby squads, Thought Bubble 2012 was a great success and a very positive re-enforcement for both attendees and creators that, despite dwindling sales in the weekly and biweekly publishing sector, there remains a great passion in Britain for comics in all their various forms.

Rather than review such a large and diverse event instead we present a photo round up (in no particular order) of a selection of the creators and sellers that exhibited at Thought Bubble, plus a few others that caught our attention along the way. With the event split over two halls, part one will roughly cover the Royal Armouries Hall (above) while part two tomorrow will cover the larger New Dock Hall.

Bandes dessinees publisher Cinebook were the first dealer that many people would have visited as they were just at the door to the Royal Armouries Hall. Here Cinebook's Aldous Russell shows off the excellent and brand new Berlin - The Seven Dwarves which was reviewed on downthetubes the week before Thought Bubble.

There are more details of all Cinebook's titles on their website.

Another Thought Bubble attendee featured on downthetubes in the week before the convention was Star Wars artist Tanya Roberts. Tanya gave us an interview about her work in which she told us about her first self published title Forgotten Muse which she released at Thought Bubble, and which she described on the Saturday night as "selling like hot-cakes".

There are more details of Tanya's work and Forgotten Muse on her website.

Writer and editor Paul Von Scott is well known in the British comics scene for the titles Solar Wind and OmniVistaScope. His latest title is The Last Days Of Man, a compilation of all the various work that he has done with artist Paul McCaffrey, and which is subtitled A Study Of Human History By Professor Brabblepap. Paul also creates role playing games as well as the range of Midlam Miniatures RPG figures and he had a selection of these for sale as well.

There are more details of Paul's comics, games and miniatures on his OmniVistaScope website

Glasgow collective Team Girl Comic were at Thought Bubble in force with a wide selection of merchandise from all six issues of TGC to branded bags, postcards and badges. Kat Sicard, Claire Yvette and Coleen Campbell (left to right above) were also joined by Iona Mowat, Mhairi Hislop and TGC editor Gillian Hatcher. 

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

With the Judge Dredd based fan made film Judge Minty being screened several times over the weekend to very positive reviews from those who were lucky enough to see it, it was unsurprising to see the Planet Replicas version of the judge uniform on display around the event with model Lauren Integra as their petite Psi-Judge.

However, as if just to prove that cosplayers do not need a huge budget, Martin and Frankie Currie were also attracting a lot of attention due to their remarkable ingenuity with cardboard and paint.

Saturday ended with a evening social event in the beautifully restored Leeds Corn Exchange, complete with enormous Christmas tree, which either went well if you gave in to the call of the dance floor or not so well if you wanted to talk over the increasingly deafening music and see people through the decreasing light levels. The walk back to the Royal Armouries area afterwards showed that the New Dock itself is perhaps even more striking at night than it is in the daylight.

There will be more Thought Bubble photos in Part 2 tomorrow.

Comics Talk: Six Questions For The Carlisle MegaCon Organising Team

Despite the number of comics shops in places like Lancaster, Middlesbrough, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Carlisle, the north of England seems to have few comics events. This is starting to be addressed at a local level with Newcastle's one day library-based Canny Comic Con in December 2011 and now Carlisle's half day MegaCon next weekend, showing that local comics fans do not need American guests or enormous London venues to enjoy themselves.

Levi McGlinchey, Owen Michael Johnson and Graham Barke are members of staff at the Waterstones bookshop in Carlisle city centre and are organising the Carlisle MegaCon event due to take place in the Richard Rose Central Academy on Saturday 18 August 2012. Guests scheduled to be there include artists Sean Phillips and Graeme Neil Reid, writers Jim Alexander, Andy Diggle and Gordon Rennie, and local crime and horror novelist Matt Hilton. Jeremy Briggs spoke to the organising team about the event.

DTT: As booksellers in the Carlisle branch of Waterstones, what books do you stock in your graphic novel and manga sections and which of them are good sellers in your store?
MegaCon Team: At Waterstones Carlisle we sell a wide range of main stream superhero titles, independent graphic novels and manga as well as the usual staples of science fiction, fantasy and related product. We have a huge market for manga in Carlisle, as such our store has one of the largest manga sections in the company! Umbrella Academy is one of our bestselling titles that appeals to a wide market, both our manga and teen customers. Characters such as Batman always sell well, Arkam Asylum, Year One and Long Halloween being the biggest. Comic book movies of recent years have brought both an influx of new readers and massive interest in those characters. In short, the nerd army of Carlisle has been very kind to us, that is one of the reasons we mounted Megacon!

DTT: Knowing what the local comics fans purchase from the store, how did that influence your choices of guests, dealers and the talks or workshops due to take place during MegaCon?
MegaCon: The tastes of our regular customers vary, but the unifying theme is genre books with a dark edge to them such as Vertigo. Those customers also prefer material not concerning superheroes. Our independent titles do well, which is why we are interested in hosting graphic novelists who practice both mainstream books and creator owned work. We have a huge growing trading card market in Carlisle. We are one of the top two stores in the company championing trading card games. To cater to this need in Carlisle we have decided to start holding trading card tournaments, and have such invited Konami along to MegaCon and providing areas for both Yu Gi Oh and Magic the Gathering players.

DTT: Having run smaller events in-store in previous years, why did you decide to expand this year and how did you end up using a local school?
MegaCon: MegaCon was previously ReCon in our store. We have held ReCon for a number of years in conjunction with Diamond Publishing (previously Tokyo Pop). Our ReCon audience has grown far beyond our shop capacity, so this year we decided to take the leap and take ReCon to the next level. Our branch of Waterstones has used Richard Rose as a venue for author events in the past. We loved the atmosphere and vibe of the place so much we though it would be the perfect place for a Con. The main atrium of Richard Rose is such an interesting and unique space and lends itself perfectly to such a fun large scale event.

DTT: You have a diverse selection of guests from comic artists and writers as well as local novelist. Was it a deliberate plan to get as wide a selection of creators as possible?
MegaCon: MegaCon is also a community project. We chose specifically local creators as a means of showcasing incredible talent form the North West. We hope that this inspires other artists, writers, and creators/nerds to be more active. This is the first event of its size and type in Cumbria's history, so we have tried to make the event as accessible and interesting to the widest audience possible. The diverse programme of competitions, tournaments and workshops should satisfy not just die-hard comic fans, but also gamers, cosplayers, collectors and casual fans of popular culture in general. We each grew up loving cult entertainment but felt isolated in such a rural area. There was never an event unifying the tribes. We intend to get young people appreciating, and more importantly, making great art, be that comic or otherwise.

DTT: Your selection of exhibitors/dealers seems to be a mixture of local businesses and local small pressers. Did you set out to have a good variety of stallholders or was it just the way it turned out?
MegaCon: There are a lot of niche businesses in the area. We didn't have to go very far to fill all the spaces available, but once word got out we were holding a Con, the response was overwhelming and we had an army of local businesses and artists at our door wanting a space. Sadly we didn't have space for everyone that wanted a stall, but next year we hope to make MegaCon even bigger to accommodate more local dealers.

DTT: How will you gauge the success of the event and, if it is successful this year, could you see the Carlisle MegaCon becoming a regular event?
MegaCon: It's our full intention to carry on in the tradition of ReCon and hold MegaCon annually. There is loads of budding comic book creators in the area, just itching to get started. If MegaCon is incentive for just one to pick up a brush or pen and make great art, we as organisers will be thrilled. Equally, if our attendees - be they 30 or 300 in number, 4 or 94 in age - have had a great day, we will have succeeded in our goals. The long term vision for MegaCon is to build upon it year on year. We have had big industry names confirm they would be interested in being on the bill for next year, so we very much hope attendance justifies further expansion in the coming years.

DTT: Thank-you all for taking the time to talk to us.

Carlisle MegaCon will take place on Saturday 18 August 2012 at the Richard Rose Central Academy on Victoria Place, Carlisle. Doors open at 1pm and the event will run until 6pm. Tickets cost £5 and are available in advance at the Carlisle branch of Waterstones in person on via the phone (01228 542300), as well as on the door on the day (subject to availability).

There are more details of Megacon on the Megacon Facebook page, their Twitter feed, and there is a also a Facebook event/discussion board page.

The MegaCon organising team were out and about cosplaying in Carlisle city centre in July to publicise the event and were photographed by the Carlisle News and Star.

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.