THE former Turner Prize building in Ebrington will mark Culture Night this Friday September 22nd by hosting a special showcase of the best of local comic art talent hosted by Building 80/81 in conjunction with Revolve Comics.
‘The Art of the Comic’ exhibition features contributions from artists from all over the Derry City and Strabane District Council area.
The exhibition is free to view and on Culture Night the artists themselves will be in the building to discuss their work and perform live sketches.
One of the event organisers, Danny McLaughlin from Revolve Comics has urged the public to come along to view the talent that exists locally and learn more about the medium.
“There is a lot of talent in Derry and Strabane and we have a great tradition of story tellers, which is what comic artists essentially are,” he said.
“It’s a great opportunity to see the different styles of comic art that are being produced locally.
“The public can view live sketches and some may even be willing to sketch portraits of the public.
“Some of the art will be on sale and it’s also chance for people to commission comic art.”
Danny’s Revolve Comics company are one of the success stories of a growing local comic scene here and it is his hope that this exhibition and a subsequent Comic City event at the Nerve Centre on October 28th will help the local industry realise its potential.
“We want this event to will help create the spark to help ignite the scene locally by bringing together all the best local comic artists under one roof,” he continued.
“The Comic City event at the Nerve Centre will feature internationally renound comic artists from established titles like Marvel and this exhibition will hopefully help tee up that event.
“The local scene has a broad range of ages, the youngest artists in the exhibition are in their early 20s and the oldest, Joe Campbell, won’t mind me saying that he is his late 50s.
“Joe was one of the first local people to get involved in comic art and he has inspired a lot of the new generation.
“David Campbell delivered a course at the Verbal Arts Centre and he gave a lot of us the motivation to pursue a career in the industry too.”
Revolve comics have made a significant impact since Danny, author of well known Derry based comic ‘Zombies Hi’ launched the company last year.
They have secured a number of high profile contracts to help companies and organisations to connect with young people and have collected a string of awards including the North West Chamber of Commerce Creative Industry Business of the Year.
“Revolve has gone really well,” he admitted. “Our business is about working with organisations to create a visual narrative for personal learning.
“People are really buying into the idea of using comic strips as an effective medium of communication particularly for young people.
“We have worked with Southampton and Portsmouth Hospitals to help them educate thousands of young people about Type One Diabetes.
“By telling a light story through a comic strip and dropping in harder information through it, young people are able to absorb the details more easily and are more likely to remember it than through a book.”
Culture Night events will be taking place right across the country on September 22nd. Other local highlights include a Highland Dance Open Night in the Sollus Centre, Bready, as well as a number of events in Derry.
For details on the full programme go to www.derrystrabane.com/culturenight.
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