Paddy Brown’s The Cattle Raid of Cooley collected!

By John Freeman on September 10, 2019

The Cattle Raid of Cooley, Belfast-based illustrator, cartoonist and musician Paddy Brown‘s much-praises comics adaptation of the ancient Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, is now available in a single volume.

Paddy – whose work has also appeared in Lightning Strike, Romantic Mayhem, Sector 13, Futurequake and other anthologies, serialised The Cattle Raid of Cooley on the web from 2008 to 2015. The story centres on Cú Chulainn, a teenage rookie border guard alone against an invading army – and the machinations of the gods.

Paddy previously sold the story in print as ten comic book issues. Now, with minor revisions, it’s in the format it was always meant for: a 284-page oversize paperback, printed as it was drawn – in red ink.

Some of Paddy Brown’s distinctive red ink art for The Cattle Raid of Cooley

“An exceptional feat,” noted Irish Imba Books of the story. “Realistic, extremely well researched and avoids all the fantasy clichés by focusing on the characters … effectively capturing the violent reality of inter-tribal warfare and feuds.”

Ness, the prequel to Cattle Road of Cooley, starring Cú Chulainn’s grandmother in her youth, has also been collected before as an A5 black and white volume.

When her father, the king of Ulster, is powerless to stop a murderous outlaw, she turns outlaw herself to hunt him down. But will her father’s house still be there to come back to when the job’s done?

Now out of copies of Ness as previously published, Paddy has reprinted it in the same oversize, red ink format as the Cattle Raid.

• The Cattle Raid of Cooley and Ness are both are available to buy online from Paddy’s Comicsy shop

Omagh Comic Fest 2019

• Paddy also has a table next Saturday, 14th September 2019, at the Omagh Comic Fest in the Strule Arts Centre, Omagh, where the books will be on sale in the real world for the first time

All art copyright Paddy Brown. With thanks to David McDonald of Hibernia Press for the heads up

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.