A rather interesting article from Irish Comics Wiki main contributor and cartoonist Patrick Brown on the history of Irish Comics. It’s only part 1 and charts its beginnings in mid 19th Century up to 1917.

“No doubt some would claim the carvings on some of the early Irish high crosses as comic strips, and some of the illuminations in medieval manuscripts (left) as cartooning, but that would probably be a little excessive. Let’s start with printed material. If we define “comics” in the McCloudian sense of images in sequence, excluding single-panel cartoons, we’d probably have to conclude that there are no true Irish comics or comics artists until the end of the 19th century.”

Looking forward to part 2!

Odosketch is an interesting flash drawing app and gallery that makes the process of drawing as much as the end result entertaining, as you can watch the sketches take shape in real time.

With the imminent release of  the movie check out this site ,Terrible yellow eyes,  for some great tributes to  Maurice Sendak’s classic. This should keep some people ticking over until Spike Jonze’s movie arrives.

Illustrator Maira Kalman’s latest illustrated essay for the NY Times features a trip to the mountaintop home of Thomas Jefferson in Monticello. Check it out here.

In this months contribution, Brian Fitzgerald takes us on a fanciful tale of high jinx with some wonderful wild-west illustration and storytelling. Thanks Brian (more…)

To Celebrate Faber & Faber’s 80th year of publishing they have issued 6 wonderfully illustrated books of selected poems by T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, John Betjeman, Ted Hughes, W.B. Yeats & Sylvia Plath.
Designer: Miriam Rosenbloom. Illustrators: T. S. Eliot (Clare Curtis), W. H. Auden (Paul Catherall), John Betjeman (Joe McLaren), Ted Hughes (Mark Hearld), W. B. Yeats (Nick Morley), Sylvia Plath (Peter Lawrence).
Thanks to Scalder for the link

This week’s New Yorker cover, illustrated by Jorge Colombo, was created on iPhone using the app Brushes while standing for an hour outside Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in Times Square. You can also record your drawings using Brushes Viewer. Full article here.

Working simply with woven paper, illustrator Christopher Niemann publishes another interesting visual essay for the New York Times, when he examines his own history with the Berlin Wall. Check it out here.

Acclaimed Australian Illustrator Shaun Tan has been in Ireland for the last few days for the Children’s Book Ireland conference. His inspirational talk at Saturday’s conference was followed by a relaxed coffee morning with Irish book illustrators in the CBI offices yesterday. Shaun is a real gent and an incredible talent. Here are a few pics from yesterday’s get-together along with PJ Lynch’s recent review of “The Arrival” for Inís. Many thanks to all the great staff in CBI.
L to R, Alan B, Donough O’Malley, Steve Simpson, Scalder, PJ Lynch, Joven Kerekes, Shaun, BrenB, Micheal Emberley, Marie-Louise FitzPatrick, Niamh Sharkey, Adrienne Geoghegan
(more…)

In collaboration with Touch My Pixel, illustrator/vinyl toy producer Nathan Jurevicius’ online game Scarygirl has just been launched. Explore the world of Scarygirl here.