The History of Irish Comics

hailtothechimp

Chaps/Chapesses,

Trying to do a bit of casual research into the history of comic production in Ireland. The scene has, obviously enough, been largely dominated by imports from the UK & US for as long as I can remember, but was it ever thus?

I know that small press/"underground" stuff has always been around (and is thriving today) but has Ireland ever produced something akin to an Eagle? Or a Beano? I'm really struggling to think of any that would have made any kind of mainstream impact.

The most popular (and well-know) indigenous publications of this sort were probably (as least to my knowledge) the Spraoi and Siamsa comics they used to distribute in primary schools. Were these produced by Folens? Precious little about them online that I can find.

Anyway. Hope this kicks off a discussion. My guess is that what I'm looking for has simply never existed - though board members with longer memories than mine may correct me. I hope so.

livingtargets

The closest thing to what you`re describing that I can think of would be RiRá,an Irish language comic anthology that came out recently and has work from a lot of Irish small press artists alongsides translated comics from France.

That`s the only one I can really think of.

ztoical

The Irish comics wiki has tired to cover as much of the history of comics as they can but there's still alot of holes. Paddy Brown has taken on alot of the filling in the blanks but it is a small scene. Pádraig Ó Méalóid has also written a bit about the subject.

Has there every been anything like the Dandy here? Not really on that scale, we simply don't have the population for it, that just doesn't go for comics but most areas of printing in Ireland. There's only a handful of magazines that sell high enough numbers, there's a bunch of niche market mags that are mainly kept going on grants more then sales. Same with books, you've a few publishers like O'Brien press and the like but once a book goes above x amount of sales it's usually taken on by one of the bigger uk publishers. RiRa the new irish language comic is aiming to be something like what your taking about but they are only on issue 1.

Patrick Brown

Thanks for linking to the Wiki, Cliodhna.

Prior to the seventies I've found a handful of artists, like Paddy Brennan and Paddy Nevin (and even Jack Butler Yeats) drawing for British comics, and lots of political and gag cartooning, but so far no actual professionally produced and published comics in the sense you're talking about. The earliest small press stuff I'm aware of dates to the mid-70s (which makes sense, because that's when photocopying became available).

I think a professionally produced comic magazine might be more viable now than it used to be. Thanks to desktop publishing and digital printing the cost of publishing seems to have plummeted, and there are tons of magazines published now that serve niche markets. There are five or six about family history, for example, and when I was in a newsagent in Markethill in County Armagh a couple of months ago I counted nine magazines about tractors. On the other hand, the DFC in England couldn't afford newsagent distribution and went subscription-only.

Patrick Brown

I've had a few thoughts about publishing a comic in Ireland, and rather than derail this thread I've started a new one on the Comic Production board.

hailtothechimp

Lads, Lassies.

Thanks for the responses. I know all about Ri Ra...and you've just reminded me that I'd promised Aidan Courtney I'd give it a plug on the blog. Dang. Forgot. Sorry, Aidan!

Anyway, situation is much as I'd thought. Small population, overshadowed by big neighbour, existing talent presumably moving to where work was more readily available etc. I'd sort of hoped that some enterprising local publisher might, during comics' Golden Age, have taken a punt on cracking into the nascent Superhero/Adventure market. Even if it were only short-lived.

I guess the ready supply of quality British comic imports has always meant there hasn't been an obvious gap in the market, other than for Irish language titles. Speaking of which, anyone have any more info/scans etc on Spraoi, Siamsa et al?

ztoical

hailtothechimp wrote: »

Anyway, situation is much as I'd thought. Small population, overshadowed by big neighbour, existing talent presumably moving to where work was more readily available etc. I'd sort of hoped that some enterprising local publisher might, during comics' Golden Age, have taken a punt on cracking into the nascent Superhero/Adventure market. Even if it were only short-lived.

You have to look at the history of the state - we only became a country in the 1920's then it was straight into WW2 and coming out of that we weren't in the best shape so harder for niche markets to develop. We didn't have the newstand set up that was really the source of the American comic industry and as mentioned several times the population just wasn't there.

If your interested in doing a study it's worth looking into the history of Korean comics as they have suffered from alot of the same issues as Ireland, being overshadowed by a bigger neighbour, history of internal conflict between north and south and several years of poor economy. It's only recently with their growing economy that the local scene has really started to develop there. I can give you the email of one of the main domestic publishers, if you like, he has done a number of talks around asia taking about developing the comics scene in other asian countries and trying to get away from the whole "manga" scene and label.

darkdubh

I remember in the mid 80s there was an Irish produced kids comic.I cant remember the name of it though.

sorcha_shell

The National Library has a full back catalogue of the Siamsa and Spraoi comics/magazines - you can find them on their online catalogue: www.nli.ie

Aidan Courtney

Well years back and I had even forgotten it, was Clann Disney, a Disney comic in Irish. A friend of mind had it in his house I oicked it up and got flashbacks there recently. I remembered it because I used to pick up the weekly Donald Duck mags and Mickey Mouse mags when I was a kid and remember picking it up but not quite going for it. It was a very and I mean very short lived Irish translated comic of Disney comics. That comic was made in the late eighties and early ninties but god knows who read them. They weren't marketed properly and no one knew about them. The mag itself was badly put together really. The stuff they were taking from was mostly textual with a box illustration over the text. Which is fine but very stale when you think of the quality of the Disney comics they had to choose from from all over Europe and the States. It lacked a bit of fun seemed more like work. Also Comhlaudar an organisation who promote Irish in the home have also brought out a comic of sorts called Splunc for their members. It features three or four comics from a Welsh publisher within it's pages but is more magazine than comic really but nice effort for young kids.

Dustball

An English magazine, REDEYE, will be doing regular features on Irish comix. The first one is out now and it's a kind of potted history. Not fully comprehensive but should be enough to get you started.

ztoical

Dustball wrote: »

An English magazine, REDEYE, will be doing regular features on Irish comix. The first one is out now and it's a kind of potted history. Not fully comprehensive but should be enough to get you started.

Niall Kitson wrote the artical about Irish comics for red eye, it was up over on his blog but I just saw he's revamped his site and no clue if it's still up or not....too lazy to dig this morning.

livingtargets

ztoical wrote: »

Niall Kitson wrote the artical about Irish comics for red eye, it was up over on his blog but I just saw he's revamped his site and no clue if it's still up or not....too lazy to dig this morning.

here it is.Very good article.

Geranium

I remember seeing some thesis written about Irish comics when I was looking stuff up in my college library before. Checked it online and there are at least two of them in there. It's the national college of art and design on Thomas Street, you can check it out here, www.ncad.ie/ncadonlinelibrary/ .

Patrick Brown

I've read Niall's piece in RedEye, and it's good, but it only goes back to 1992. I've started my own history of Irish comics, beginning with Part 1: Before the 20th Century, in which I run through everything I know about about 18th and 19th century Irish cartoonists, from Henry Brocas drawing British atrocities in the wake of the 1798 Rebellion, to William O'Keefe and John Doyle in London, to the anti-O'Connell cartoons of "the Presbyterian laureate" William McComb in Belfast in 1841, to John Fergus O'Hea, J. D. Reigh and Thomas Fitzpatrick (grandfather of fantasy artist Jim Fitzpatrick) in nationalist papers in the 1880s, to Jack Yeats' early career in British comics. There will be further installments, although I'm not promising when.