History of Irish Comics??

ztoical

Hey Guys I need some help. As some people on here know I'm currently taking part in the Lingua Comica which is a sort of comic book residency run by the Asia Europe Foundation. They pick 7 cartoonists from Europe and 7 from Asia and they're put into pairs to make comics. In November we all go to Kyoto, Japan, to finish the comics and there's a big display/show in the Manga Museum of the finished work. Today the organizers sent out an email asking that everyone write a 2 to 3 page essay about the history of comics in our own country to display in the Museum beside our work and to bring two examples of comics from your country that aren't our own. The bring comics part of it is easy I'm going to bring Mr. Amperduke, cus Bob is the Mcdaddy and An Tain as I'd like to have something that's in Irish.

The writing the essay part I'm not so confident about - the irish comics wiki is a handy resource but I'd like some feedback from people as to what has to be included and maybe a rough history timeline- how far back should I start?

This is what I was emailed about the essay:

The essay shouln't be too long (2-3 pages), explaining in general terms what's the comic production in your country (if there are lots of comics, or if its something only for minorities, what kind of comics are the most popular...) as well as a quick look at its history (big names in the industry, classics...). If japanese comics (manga) are popular in your country, you could also explain briefly which are the most popular ones, what image people have of manga, etc... These essays will allow you to think on how to present your country's comics to a japanese audience

Patrick Brown

Good question. As far as I can tell Ireland doesn't really have an indiginous comics history distinct from Britain. Our earliest cartoonists, like Jack Yeats and George Morrow, worked for British publications like Comic Cuts and Punch. It's a bit like football - we produce some great talent, but they all have to go and play elsewhere if they want to make something of themselves.

Davy Francis has recently pointed be in the direction of Dublin Opinion, founded in 1922, as possibly the earliest specifically Irish outlet for cartooning, but so far I haven't been able to find out much about the work it published, beyond Bill Glenn's "Ballyscunnion" scraperboard cartoons. Grace Gifford was a cartoonist involved in the republican movement at the time of the 1917 rising and the civil war, but I haven't been able to find out much about the cartoons she drew or where they were publshed. I think she did political cartoons mainly. There must have been some kind of tradition of cartooning in Irish newspapers, but the earliest I've found so far is Rowel Friers, who started in the forties.

Getting into more recent generations, My generation and my parents generation all read British comics, and a few Irish artists worked for them - Paddy Brennan from the 40s, Paddy Nevin from the 50s, no doubt others I don't know about, to Garth Ennis, Will Simpson and John McCrea from the 80s.

There's a definite line of small press publishing in Belfast going back at least to Ximoc and Ciderman in the early 80s. Some of the people who came out of that fed into British comics - Davy Francis in Oink and some of the Viz ripoffs, Will Simpson in Warrior and 2000AD, Dave Morris into the British small press. Malachy Coney's done some work in American comics, but he's a writer (and now a writer-artist) who's very much interested in writing about Belfast, and that keeps him local. There may be something similar going on in other cities, but I don't know much about that. There was a anthology called The Yellow Press in Dublin in the 90s that seems to have generated some interesting work.

When I got into small press publishing in the 90s, it was definitely British based, with me and Andy Luke and Emmett Taylor keeping the Irish end up. There seems to be a stronger Irish small press now. In commercial comics we're less an adjunct to Britain now than an adjunct to America, with guys like Stephen Mooney and Nick Roche going straight to American publishers, and PJ Holden's iPhone experiments feeding into a mainly American market.

Don't know how much help that'll be for your essay, but good luck with it.

pau8lieskins

There was a Pat Kenny Show back in 1994 that had a discussion about Irish Comics Industry with Nick Roche, Lee Kelly and ... I think Wayne ??? the 3 lads from Wexford had produced there own comic Alternative and sold well in Forbidden Planet which was in Dawson St back then the Pat Kenny show got such a positive response that a regular monthly comic would be produced but funding fell apart and the plan was shelved

I never read Alternative there was only one issue but Nick Roche did his own mini series Captain Ireland in 1995 and nower days he works for IDW