The fifth Glasgow Comic Con took place over the weekend of 4/5 July 2015 near the centre of Scotland’s largest city. downthetubes has already covered the convention with a preview and a review of the event and here we present the second part of our selection of the creators that were there over the weekend.
Cosplay is a big part of GCC with the cosplayers having their own area set aside but perhaps the most surprising cosplay of the weekend was this remarkable recreation of Glasgow’s own small press superhero Gangaman.
Gangaman’s creator Jim Stewart was also on hand. His drug themed superhero is a mainstay of the Glasgow comics scene with the character appearing both in Jim’s own Ganjaman Presents publications as well as Alan Grant’s ill-fated Wasted anthology.
There are more details of Jim’s work on his Facebook page.
There are more details of Ganjaman Presents on the title’s website (which unsurprisingly comes with an adult content warning).
Artist Conor Boyle and writer Lizzie Boyle are Disconnected Press and have produced a selection of anthology titles including three volumes of their Disconnected anthology, the political satire anthology Cross, two issues of their own Sentient Zombie Space Pigs (with two more on the way), while Conor has provided the artwork for the 3D historical graphic novel On Dangerous Ground: Bannockburn 1314.
There are more details of Conor’s work on his blog.
There are more details of Lizzie’s work on her website.
There are more details of all Disconnected Press titles on the Disconnected Press website.
Writer Owen Michael Johnson and artist John Pearson were at GCC with their new Beast Wagon title. This crowd-funded title with its striking cover tells the first part of a six part story of Whipsnarl Zoo, which is told as much from the point of view of the animals as the visitors and keepers. For me John’s internal artwork is very reminiscent of Arthur Ranson’s work in Look-In and 2000AD.
There are more details of Owen’s work on his blog.
There are more details of John’s work on his website.
There are more details of Beast Wagon on the title’s Kickstarter page and copies can be purchased from John’s webshop.
Writer/artist Adam Smith’s anthology title Khaki Shorts was a mainstay of the Glasgow small press scene for many years over a remarkable 28 issues. Adam, standing in front of a banner of John G Millar’s distinctive B&W art, is part of Glasgow’s underground comic scene who have banded together as Braw Books and it is good to see that the ease of modern printing has allowed him to create a best of edition entitled The Khollected Khaki Shorts: The Khream of Issues 1-28!
There are more details of Adam’s work on the Khaki Shorts Comic Facebook page.
There will be more details of The Complete Khaki Shorts on the Braw Books website.
Writer/artist/editor/instigator and all round head honcho of the Team Girl Comic collective is Gill Hatcher who continues to produce Team Girl Comic, Issue 11 of which was launched at GCC, as well as her own titles. Her latest self-published title is The Seagull Appreciation Society which is a twenty page, colour, CD size mini-comic is about how climate change is affecting Scotland’s seabirds.
There are more details of Gill’s work at her website.
There are more details about Team Girl Comic, both the title and the collective, at the Team Girl Comic website.
Team Girl Comic 11 and most back issues are available from the TGC Etsy shop.
One of the contributors to Team Girl Comic is MJ Wallace who like Gill has branched out into her own titles. Using a daily newspaper strip format MJ relates her life in the Rollerskates and Breakfast Dates comic and website which now has a spin-off in Sif Fox-Fighter also launched at GCC. This tells the true story of MJ and her flatmates adopting the most pathetic stray that the local Cat Protection League had, naming the male cat after the Asgardian (Lady) Sif, and gradually coaxing the petrified feline to trust them. MJ is donating £1 for every issue sold to the charity’s Glasgow branch.
There are more details of MJ’s work on her Rollerskates And Breakfast Dates blog.
Sif Fox-Fighter is available from MJ’s Etsy webshop.
Artist James Devlin won the GCC’s SICBA award for Best Cover for the first issue of Cult Empire’s Vietnam Zombie Holocaust, as seen on the banner behind him. Written by George Lennox, with both cover and internal art by James, VZH is now on its second issue of a proposed four. Cult Empire’s other title at the moment is the Horror Show anthology which has cover art by Alex Ronald.
There are more details of James’ work on his website.
There are more details of Vietnam Zombie Holocaust on the Cult Empire website.
Vietnam Zombie Holocaust on downthetubes:
Issue 1
Issue 2
On the Accent UK table publisher Colin Mathieson (centre) made it a family affair with sons Scott and Adam. Accent UK’s latest two titles are the silent all-ages The Troll written and illustrated by Martin Flink, and Book Five of writer Dave West and artist Gary Crutchley’s WesterNoir, both of which were available to buy with sketches by their artists. Other Accent UK titles that were published earlier this year and therefore new to the Glasgow audience were the steam-punk anthology Stephenson’s Robot and the WesterNoir anthology spin-off Tales Of WesterNoir.
There are more details of all Accent UK’s titles on their website, their blog and their Facebook group.
Accent UK publishers Colin Mathieson and Dave West both have their own blogs.
downthetubes reviews of Accent UK titles:
WesterNoir Book 1
WesterNoir Book 2
WesterNoir Book 3
WesterNoir Book 4
Stephenson’s Robot 1
Tales Of WesterNoir 1
With thanks to all the creators for posing for photos.
There are more details of the Glasgow Comic Con at its website and Facebook page.
The downthetubes preview and review of Glasgow Comic Con 2015 are here and here.
The first part of Creators @ Glasgow Comic Con 2015 is here.
News, reviews, interviews and features for print and on-line: Spaceship Away (since October 2005), Bear Alley (since February 2007), downthetubes (since June 2007), and Eagle Times (since October 2008). Plus DC Thomson’s The Art Of Ian Kennedy, Titan’s Dan Dare and Johnny Red reprints, Ilex’s War Comics: A Graphic History and 500 Essential Graphic Novels, and Print Media’s The Iron Moon and Strip magazine.
Categories: British Comics, downthetubes Comics News, Events, Reviews
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