The Moon Girl

Our final project for Comics: Art in Relationship was to create thumbnails for a 6-8 page story. Never having done such a long comics story before, I nearly bottled out. But then the story of ‘The Moon Girl’ came knocking on my door and I decided to go for it. I’m so glad I did. It made me realise …

Comics Poetry

It's not the poem, it's not the drawing – it's a new beast altogether! - Bianca Stone, The New York Comics Symposium I love comics. And I love poetry. Recently, I have been concerned I might have to ditch one in favour of the other at the start of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month). However, when …

Austin Kleon on having several passions

If you have two or three real passions, don't feel like you have to pick and choose between them. Don't discard. Keep all your passions in your life. This is something I learned from the playwright Steven Tomlinson. Tomlinson suggests that if you love different things, you just keep spending time with them. "Let them …

The Creative Harlot

For the last few months I have been falling into love with comics. Yet when April comes around I'll be dancing my way through a month of poetry. What can I say? I'm a creative harlot! This comic explores the anxiety that can arise when shifting from one artistic form to the next.

Dancing our way through a month of poetry

April is National Poetry Writing Month, AKA NaPoWriMo. Each April, people from all around the world set out to write a poem a day for 30 days. There is something wonderful about a creative challenge in which so many people from so many countries are involved. All that energy and focus; it's like being invited to a big …

The perfect day: time and memory in comics

A single day. A single hour. A single second. This week, in Comics: Art in Relationship, our task was to explore the ways in which the same six panels could portray different stretches of time. For such an exploration, memories of summer holidays at my grandparents' house in Dublin seemed like the perfect subject matter. This is the house I go …

Tim Girvin on scribbling dreams and inspirations

My sense of the scribbling extends from the idea of reaching into the psyche, letting the lines unfurl in the manner of elastic gestures of opening — to the more long term and meditative examination. That might be in the personal script of your making — the secret code of you. The journal — that …

Tea with a good friend

This week, in Comics: Art in Relationship, we've been adding an interesting element to the daily diary. Each day, Matt Silady, our inspiring course tutor, has encouraged us to explore relationships both between the images in each panel and between text and image within each panel. I was at first a little daunted, never before having applied …