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Point Village Comic Book Festival
The first Point Village Comic Book Festival is taking place tomorrow at the newly-opened Point Village Market in Dublin, from 11am – 5pm.
There will be loads of people representing small press comics from all over Ireland, as well as workshops about comic books mostly geared at the under-18s.
Rob Curley, Stephen Daly and I will be at the Atomic Diner stand, representing Róisín Dubh, so feel free to drop by and say hello to the three of us.
Bristol Ahoy!
This weekend the Bristol International Comic & Small Press Expo is taking place – the annual comic book Mecca in the UK.
Both Rob Curley and Stephen Daly will be attending, promoting Róisín Dubh and handing out preview issues of the comic book. If any of you are going to the Expo, make sure to drop by the Atomic Diner stand and say hello to both of them.
Fingers crossed that the Icelandic ash cloud of doom decides to fume away from Ireland and the UK for the next few days!
Finally, a big thank you to screenwriter/author/comic book writer Paul Cornell for plugging Róisín Dubh on his blog last week. His kind words had us all ablush.
The Beginning
Here’s the first page of artwork from Róisín Dubh:
Copies of the preview issue of the comic were well received at both World Horror Convention in Brighton and at Eastercon in London. Most people immediately asked when and how they could buy the finished graphic novel, which was very gratifying.
The Irish Free Comics Day is taking place on the 15th of May, and copies of the preview issue of Róisin Dubh along with other titles will be available from various outlets around Ireland.
Strewth!
Forgive me if I sound like a Dickens character, but cor blimey mates, the strength of the response to our call for fans on the Róisín Dubh Facebook page has knocked the team for six.
We now have over 430 fans of the comic on Facebook.
We’ll do our best to live up to your vote of confidence.
Rob and I have been in a flurry of discussions about how to get the preview copies of Róisín Dubh to me in time for World Horror Convention. It looks like Rob will get delivery of the copies tomorrow in Dublin, but alas I’m leaving early the following day to catch a flight from Shannon airport to Gatwick. I’ll travel onward from there to Brighton.
We’re hoping the postal service will save the day! At least it’s more likely I’ll have copies to show people at the convention.
Brighton should be an inspiring location for me since much of its architectural character was established in the 19th century, as seen in buildings such as The Royal Pavilion, The Royal Albion Hotel (where the convention is taking place) and The Brighton Pier.
And since language interests me – and perhaps you might like to know – ‘strewth’ is a shortened version of ‘God’s Truth’, and ‘cor blimey’ comes from ‘God blind me’.
Preview at the printers
We’ve had a busy couple of days preparing the first ten pages of Róisin Dubh so they can be bound into a small preview comic. Stephen has been working flat-out, lettering and making tweaks to the final cover.
Up to this point I’ve only seen the pages with Stephen’s dramatic artwork, so it was a thrill to see the captions, character balloons and sound effects. It feels like a real comic now. Stephen, as usual, has produced excellent work. I’ll see if we can get a page or two up in the coming days.
At last today the comic went to the printers! I’m looking forward to holding our mini-comic book in my hands.
The mini-comic cover
Next week I’m attending the World Horror Convention in Brighton, UK. It’s the first time this convention has been held outside of the American continent. It will also be the first World Horror Convention I have attended. Both of these factors mean I’m very much looking forward to the event. I’ll also have copies of the Róisín Dubh mini-comic with me, to show off to the comic book aficionados.
The following weekend I’ll be going to Odyssey 2010, this year’s Eastercon, in glamorous Heathrow. Eastercon is the largest speculative fiction convention in the UK, and there will be 1200+ people at the hotel. It will be another great opportunity to get advance word out on the forthcoming graphic novel.
Róisín Dubh - The Comic 