Tag: dundee

Cryptography meets Comics

DCCS is very pleased to be hosting a Great War Dundee comics workshop this weekend as part of Cryptography meets Comics. See details below.

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Are you aged between 12 and 15 years old? Do you love cracking codes and puzzles, creating comics, or doing both?

Then come along to Great War Dundee’s unique event on Saturday 22nd June. The event will make you think differently about World War One, and how it relates to all of us today. Your ideas could even contribute to the development of a new comic about the Great War, which will be launched later this year.

The event will start outside The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum. Participants will then take a walk around different locations in Dundee city centre that link to Dundee’s war effort, locations they will identify by deciphering Caesar cipher clues released via Twitter. The walk will take around 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes, and participants will be accompanied by members of the Great War Dundee Partnership. Parents and carers are welcome to accompany the walk. After a short break for lunch you will then go to the Vision Building and work with a team from the Dundee Comics Creative Space to create your very own comic, with a Great War theme.

  • Date – Saturday 22nd June 2019
  • Time – 10am to 2.30pm
  • Location – Meet outside the main entrance to The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum. Event concludes in The Vision Building, Abertay University.
  • Cost – Free
  • Booking is required – Go to Eventbrite
  • Please bring snacks, lunch and drinks, as they will not be supplied as part of the event.
  • For further information contact Fiona Sinclair, Project Coordinator, at fiona@cfjassociates.com
  • For further information about the Great War Dundee Partnership, please go to www.greatwardundee.com or visit the Great War Dundee Facebook page.

The Great War Dundee Partnership secured money to deliver the Hidden Histories project from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project is engaging with groups and individuals from Dundee, to support them in learning how and why WW1 impacted both then and now on the city and its people.

Laydeez Do Comics Dundee

poster for laydeez do comics dundee event on 31st May
LDCD poster by Anna Morozova

Dundee Comics Creative Space is excited to be hosting the first ever Laydeez Do Comics Dundee on 31st May at DCCS HQ from 4-5pm and 6-8pm.

LDCD is a student-led initiative in partnership with the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies. Laydeez Do Comics is a women-led forum started by Dr. Nicola Streeten and Dr. Sarah Lightman to support UK-based comics creators. This event is open to all and welcome a variety of perspectives and identities.

The evening will start with a practical workshop on memory, led Rebecca Horner from 4-5pm. After a short break, we will reconvene at 6pm for a talk by Dr. Golnar Nabizadeh focusing on the themes of her new book, Representation and Memory in Graphic Novels (2019), followed by a panel of comics scholars and creators discussing various aspects of memory and comics. The panel will be moderated by Ashling Larkin and will include Hailey Austin, Megan Sinclair, and Catriona Laird. The evening will conclude with a wine and cake reception and a chance to discuss the talks with our presenters and other attendees.

For more information about the event or Laydeez Do Comics Dundee and to RSVP, go to the LDCD Facebook page.

Free Comic Book Day 2019

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Art by Mark Brown

We are delighted to announce FREE comics workshops for kids, in partnership with Rebellion, in Dundee and Glasgow on Free Comic Book Day 2019!

Free Comic Book Day on 4th May aims to encourage new readers to visit their local comic book store and Rebellion has a host of titles supporting this global celebration of comics!

To mark the release of its Funny Pages and Cor!! & Buster Special titles, 2000 AD and Dundee Comic Creative Space are taking over the studio at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, as well as DCCS HQ in the Vision building on Dundee waterfront, with special workshop events on 4th May.

Both running from 1.30pm to 3.30pm on Saturday 4th May, the workshops will give kids of all ages the chance to have a go at creating their own comics based on characters from the legendary titles Cor!! and Buster!

Happy Holidays!

Comics Club is now on it’s well earned Christmas break. What a year it has been! Over 100 comics workshops for young people, a summer school at The McManus, and library workshops in Dundee, Perth, and Fife, as well as schools workshops in Fife, Brechin, and Dundee. We also partnered with The Circle to run a workshop programme outside the city centre. We produced three anthologies of comics by our young Comics Clubbers, as well as several zine style comics.

Ink Pot artists continued to produce some amazing work, including the INKTHOLOGY, as well as working with the University of Dundee to produce comics raising awareness of suicide, organ donation, the University archives, and the history of The Brittle Bone Society among others. The was even a short comic explaining the Dundee City Council participatory budgeting initiative!

So time for a break and this time it will be a little longer than usual. There are a few changes happening behind the scenes at DCCS including a move to new premises so we need a little longer to prepare. Don’t fear though we are not moving far – just to another unit in the Vision Building! Workshops are scheduled to start up again the first week of February in Unit 10 just across the landing from our current space, Unit 7. Keep an eye on our website and sign up to our newsletter if you want to keep up to date with the changes.

Have a great holiday and see you next year!

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Buster 26th December 1981 © IPC magazines. Scanned by Lew Stringer.

Comics Club at The Circle – anthology launch 25th November

Art by Katie Fotheringham

Each Thursday for the last three months we have been running one of our popular after school Comics Clubs at The Circle in Staffa Place. The Circle is a hub for charities, social enterprises, community groups and socially aware businesses in Dundee. They provide affordable offices, co-working and community space. By bringing organisations together, they are promoting collaboration and fostering innovation that does social good in the city.

It has been a pleasure working with The Circle to help make our Comics Clubs accessible to more young people across Dundee. We are proud to be able to launch a new Comics Club Anthology at The Circle featuring comics by the young people who attended the workshops there.

On Sunday November 25th The Circle is partnering with their tenants to host a Yuletide Fair. It will be an afternoon of festive fun, including food and drinks, local business stalls, Santa’s grotto and much more! And DCCS will be there! Come along between 12-4pm to pick up a copy of the comic and see what else The Circle has to offer.

‘Frankenstein Returns’ comic launch – Dundee Comics Prize 2018

Frankenstein Returns cover detail – Art by Dan McDaid, colour and lettering Phillip Vaughan.

2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, who lived in Dundee briefly as a teenager, partly inspiring her in writing her best known Gothic novel. On Thursday November 22nd at DCCS we are hosting the launch of Frankenstein Returns – the comic produced during the Being Human Festival celebrating the legacy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The comic features stories by Professor Chris Murray with artwork by Norrie Millar, Elliot Balson, and Ashling Larkin as well as a comic by David Robertson, and illustrations by Cam Kennedy and Dan McDaid. The comic also contains the winning entries from the Dundee Comics Prize 2018 and stories by young artists from DCCS’s weekly Comics Clubs. Chris Murray will open the event with an illustrated talk on a history of Frankenstein comics.

Part of the University of Dundee’s Being Human 2018 series “Frankenstein Returns“.

Suitable for all ages. The event runs from 6-8pm.

Close to the Heart Comic Launch

Inspired by the memory of her beloved father, University of Dundee PhD student Megan Sinclair has created a new comic that explores bereavement while raising both awareness of heart disease and funds for vital medical research.

Close to the Heart will be launched at a symposium at Dundee Comics Creative Space on Wednesday 21st November. The publication centres on the sudden death of Megan’s father, George, who suffered a fatal heart attack in his sleep at the age of 53 in April 2014. She says the event turned her family and life upside down but her determination to do her father proud helped drive Megan towards First Class Honours and a Masters degree with distinction before embarking on her PhD in Comics and Education.

Despite its origins in tragedy, Megan says the overall message of Close to the Heart, which explores the importance of communication in helping people cope with grief, is one of hope.

Wednesday’s symposium focuses on public information comics produced by the Comics Studies team at the University in collaboration with academic and non-academic partners and aims to explore the impact of comics as a mode of public engagement as well as a research methodology.

The event begins at 10am with guest speaker Nicola Streeten, an illustrator, graphic novelist and author of Billy, Me and You, discussing her own experience of comics and grief. Other talks centred on graphic health will follow, along with a workshop, and roundtable discussion.

Close to the Heart will be officially launched at 7pm that evening and members of the public are welcome to attend both the symposium and the launch event. The comic is free but donations, which will be given to the British Heart Foundation, are welcome.

People can register for the symposium here and to attend the launch of Close to the Heart here.

Comicsopolis – Launching Dundee’s new comics – Thursday 18th October

chronicle cover web2
Chronicle cover – art by Letty Wilson

Dundee is the city of comics – The Comicsopolis!

Join Professor Christopher Murray and his colleagues on Thursday 18th October 2018 5-7pm at DCCS to discuss the surprising history of comics in Dundee, and learn about the future of comics in Dundee, with a look at the new comics being produced by the University.

These include Chronicle, a comic conceived and edited by PhD student Hailey Austin in conjunction with the University of Dundee’s Archive and Museum Services which explores the University’s collection of comics related archival holdings and original artwork.

Chris Murray will be launching Superhuman Futures, a science fiction superhero comic that examines the superhuman as a metaphor for scientific advancement. Created for the Humanities module Human Futures, it demonstrates the innovative link between research, creative work and teaching that is being developed at the University of Dundee. Hailey and Chris will each give a brief presentation on the fascinating process of creating their comics.

Join us in the Dundee Creative Comics Space in the Vision Building, where we will have free comics, an exhibition, and a wine reception!

Under 18s to be accompanied by an adult.
This event is free but must be booked in advance. More details here.