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Resistance is Fruitful
It should comes as no surprise to any readers of my blog or Twitter that I’m not a fan of the soon-to-be elected President of the USA. I have taken a policy on social media of not posting any of the stream of prophesies of doom of what’s coming over the next four years, but I’m making an exception with this segment from the recent episode of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. This show has provided exceptional, pointed, satirical reporting since it was first aired, and I think it’s essential viewing (you can find it all on its YouTube channel, including extra online material). At least you can laugh while…
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New Play Reading part of Galway Theatre Festival
I mentioned recently that my short play The Love of Small Appliances had been selected to be part of the Waking the Feminists West New Play Reading. Last night the programme for this year’s Galway Theatre Festival was unveiled, and our event is going to be part of the schedule – hurray! It’s happening in the Town Hall Theatre Studio, Galway from 6pm on 6 May. You can book tickets now for this staged reading of six writers’ work via the web site. Last week I had a feedback session with several dramatruges associated with WTFW, including Justine Nakase, the director of my excerpt. It was a helpful, and inspiring,…
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Women Can Jump
I’m not particularly into winter sports, but today I discovered a fact that will have me tuning into today’s Women’s Ski Jump at the Sochi Olympics. This is the first Olympics where women are allowed to compete in the Ski Jump competition. Let’s just consider that, shall we. It was only in 2011 that the Olympics committee gave women the right to participate in a sport that men have been competing in since 1924. Of course, nothing changed until 15 female jumpers from five countries sued the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the right to compete in the 2010 Winter Games. Which failed because the Canadian court decided it couldn’t impose…
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Irish Comic Book Month
We’re mid-way through March, and I figured I should mention that this month has been designated Irish Comic Book Month. You can keep up with what’s going on at Irish Comic News, which is the best web site for news/information/sneak peeks of the work of Irish comic book artists & writers. Last night, to celebrate Irish Comic Book Month, Lightning Strike organised a talk discussing Irish Comic Book production. The guests included Declan Shalvey, Stephen Mooney, Robert Curley, Darrin O’Toole, Robert Carey, and Ciarán Marcantonio. The Lecture was held in Trinity College, Dublin, and from what I understand there was a great turn-out for it. (The audio from the event…
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Kapow ignores women again
Tickets for the 2012 Kapow! comic book convention went on sale today, with the first version of the guest-list announced. After the controversy from last year over the lack of representation of women guests at the convention I expected it would lead off with a better showing on its subsequent line-up. How wrong I was. There are twenty-three ‘star guests’ listed so far, all of them men. If you dig into the programming you’ll find there are a few actresses mentioned, but in the ‘hot’ film writers/directors section there are no women listed either. Not surprisingly, I tweeted about this as soon as I noticed and several people retweeted it…
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women in comics at Thought Bubble
At Thought Bubble in Leeds last weekend there was a Women in Comics panel, which has been a regular feature of the event since the festival started five years ago. It was one of the panels I was very much looking forward to seeing, and guessing it would be a popular event I decided to get on line early. By the time the doors opened there was a huge queue making its way back almost to the door of the hall itself. While I didn’t attend every panel at Thought Bubble it was the longest line for a panel I saw that weekend. The line-up, from left to right is,…
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Nelson reflects the scene
Last weekend I was in Leeds for the Thought Bubble Sequential Art Festival, a mecca for comic book artists and writers in the UK and Ireland – with a number of well-known Americans attending as well. The event was extremely well-run with a friendly atmosphere. The range of talent on display was quite staggering, and after a while a certain level of guilt kicked in because it was impossible to support everyone. I did my best to visit as many stands as possible, spread around my cash and buy work that really caught my attention. I was lucky to know a few people at the event, and I quickly met…
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but women don’t want to write superhero comics…
I attended the British Fantasy Society‘s annual conference, FantasyCon, in Brighton at the beginning of the month. The weather was glorious and everyone was in good form. Being able to eat outside every evening, like I was holidaying in Spain or Italy, added to my enjoyment of the event. Brighton is a cool city, and it’s a wonderful location for an convention like this (roll on World Fantasy Con in Brighton in 2013 I say!). The event ended on a bit of sour note, alas, due to a controversy over the administration of the BFS Awards at the end of the conference. The BFS has since posted an official statement…
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Womanthology
I’m sure many of you reading this blog have heard about the Womanthology project: it’s the brainchild of artist Renae De Liz, and is an all-woman anthology comic book that will be published by IDW Publishing this December, with all proceeds going to the charity, Global Giving Foundation. You can read a long interview at Bleeding Cool with Renae about the project and its evolution. With the aim of raising $25,000 Renae set up a Kickstarter campaign for the project, and by the end of the first day that goal had been achieved. Now, with just five days to go until the campaign ends, the amount of money pledged stands…
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sunset, then the lesbian aliens
I snapped this image late this evening down by the River Corrib in Galway city. The Film Fleadh kicked off tonight, so I passed a long line of people, some dressed up smartly, waiting to get into the Rowing Club. That’s the official after-movie venue for the Fleadh, and it has a lovely section at the back that overlooks the River. It’s a splendid spot to quaff a few drinks and take cinema if the weather is good. Those were the film buffs who’d been in to see the opening film, Parked (written by Ciaran Creagh and directed by Darragh Byrne). I was on my way to watch a black…
