Home › Comics › British Comics › Oliver East talks “The Homesick Truant’s Cumbrian Yarn”

Oliver East talks “The Homesick Truant’s Cumbrian Yarn”

By John Freeman on November 5, 2014

Comic creator Oliver East will be at the Beach Hut Gallery at Kents Bank Station, Cumbria on Saturday 8th November 2014 from 11.30am onwards to talk about his railway-inspired drawings that formed his Lakes International Comic Art Festival-supported exhibition “The Homesick Truant’s Cumbrian Yarn” which was part of this year’s events.

The station is is located on the Furness Line from Barrow-in-Furness to Lancaster.

Oliver first started making comics as part of art school projects – many of which he gave away to friends. Finally deciding he was interested in drawing he started the Trains are.. Mint series. He self-published three issues of the much-praised project before teaming up with British publisher Blank Slate to produce a collected edition and its two sequels Proper Go Well High and, more recently, Berlin and That which form a ‘walking’ trilogy. His earlier self-published books like the House of Fire trilogy from 2005 are now pretty hard to find but not as rare as his hand made book of Trains are… Mint 4, which is stated to be his next release on the Blank Slate label.

The artwork on display is from the work produced during his Festival supported walk of Cumbria from Arnside to Carlisle that has resulted in seven Homesick Truant’s Cumbrian Yarn comics, on sale directly from Oliver’s official web site.

Oliver was also commissioned to produce ten large murals in The Factory building in Kendal for the Festival itself, all taken from his project “The Homesick Truant’s Cumbrian Yarn”. Each mural represented for each day of his walk.

Oliver used not only conventional paintbrushes to make the marks but he has also used a variety of objects found in The Factory whilst it was being renovated.

• For more information visit www.thebeachhutgallery.co.uk or telephone 015395 35959. The Beach Hut Gallery is open Friday to Sunday and Bank Holidays 11.00am – 5.00pm, Autumn/Winter sometimes open Thursday.

• To buy copies of The Homesick Truant’s Cumbrian Yarn visit: www.olivereast.com

• Read our interview with Oliver East about the Cumbrian Yarn project here

• You can watch Oliver working on The Factory murals in this film by Ben Barden: http://vimeo.com/m/96946454

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.