2000AD and Batman writer Alan Grant and partner Sue have put together Moniaive Fights Back, a special fund-raising comic to help support their local Scottish village, which, like many rural communities, has been hit hard by the Coronavirus Pandemic and the resulting restrictions.
The small village of Moniaive in south west Scotland, known as the country’s “Festival Village”, has seen all festivals, shows and events cancelled.
The community realised they needed to start looking at ways of revitalising the village economy and planning ahead for a revival of the local economy and some return to normality. Looking for ways to kickstart this campaign, and alleviate the boredom of the lockdown, it was suggested to comic book writer, Alan Grant, who lives locally, that he put his skills into action and come up with a ‘fightback’ comic.
The result is Moniaive Fights Back, a comic telling the true story of how this amazing village pulled together to defeat the economic and social disturbances in locals lives.
Moniaive Fights Back – a comic with a real difference as all the stars and artists are residents of Moniaive, aged from four to 88 years old – portrays just a glimpse of the many amazing people who helped pull this community through these difficult times. It does not attempt to cover the danger to health, either – but rather shows the myriad ways people found to keep the community strong and to help it recover quickly from the effects of the pandemic on businesses, social events and our personal lives.
“Over 60 residents took part making Moniaive Fights Back a real community project,” says Sue Grant. “The fight back begins!”
With a career spanning over 40 years, Alan A Grant has worked for publishers at home and abroad including DC Comics and Marvel, is well known worldwide for his work on Batman, “Judge Dredd” for 2000AD, Lobo, Shadow of the Bat, The War of 1812, Judge Anderson and many, many more titles. His career spans over 40 years.
Moniaive, the ‘Hill of Streams’ (from the Gaelic monadh-abh), nestles in stunning countryside where the three glens of Craigdarroch, Dalwhat and Castlefairn meet. It’s usually a bustling village with a long history and strong community spirit. It has always been popular and notable visitors over the centuries include King Robert the Bruce, King James IV, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Robert Burns.
The village is currently home to a wide range of talented and highly skilled individuals including designers, builders, computer experts, joiners, artists, foresters, doctors, writers, teachers, photographers, farmers and musicians. They all have one thing in common – they enjoy life. That’s probably why the village usually has so many activities and events!
The Revitalise Moniaive Campaign began when Foot and Mouth devastated the area in 2001 and the village pulled together and re-invented themselves as a tourist destination with leaflets, a website, and the first Moniaive Folk Festival and Comic Festival.
Later, after an economic downturn, they re-invented themselves again as Moniaive Festival Village bringing in a £50,000 grant for winning the 2015 Creative Place Award.
Now they are launching Revitalise Moniaive, which aims to seek solutions for sustainable growth, business support and small sustainable festivals and events.
This comic is the first step to raise awareness of and funds for the campaign. A series of T-shirts, posters, mugs etc are also being produced to further this aim.
• Moniaive Fights Back costs £4 including postage. To get your hands on a copy, email revitalise.moniaive@gmail.com. Details of payment (by BACS) will be supplied. All proceeds to revitalise Moniaive Fund for the Community
• More about Moniaive at moniaive.org.uk
• Glencairn Community Council, Moniaive, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland on Facebook
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.
Categories: British Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
Great to hear about this! My parents retired to Moniaive in 1985, and we visited and stayed, many times, and it became a regular holiday destination.