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Travelling to Ireland and not wanting to leave.By James Bacon

Could not be easier. The time is good for the cheap fareoffers, with Ryan Air bringing prices down with their competitors.To Dublin, its a choice, Ryan Air, BMI and then Aerlingus, with

Aer Lingus frequently doing the best deal. It pays to shop around.As I write this piece, a ight to Dublin on the Friday beforeWexWorlds is just 39. While ights to Octocon, from Manchesteror London Gatwick were 39 all included, although you have10kilos of carry on, and thats it. And use the loo before you go. To be honest for all the mirth and mockery, OLeary doeswhat he says, its cheap and if you plan a bit, you can nd good deals,from Dublin Airport is a Bus and Train, and if you plan it cleverly,you can be on the quays, enjoying a pint in the afternoon, the glowof a heater keeping off the chill, after leaving home in the morning.

I recently travelled home from London using sail and rail.The 9.10 Virgin trains service from London Euston goes directly toHolyhead. Its a very pleasant journey. They stick on a ten car unit as faras Chester, so there is ample space, and there is nothing nicer than a plug,a table and the feeling that a coffee or loo is not a mission, but just there.

Its quite an old fashioned way to travel, yet there is something sedate about it. Passing through Creweand then along the north Wales coast, its relaxed, unhurried and comfortable. The train stops in Holyhead, thetrain station and ferry terminal are one and the same, and you are whisked onto a bus, heavy luggage stowed, andonboard and again, there is comfort and space and a decent meal if you want it on todays modern ships, whichare huge.

The route to Fishgaurd from London Paddington is equally nice, with just one change, and you are againin a ferry port. Rosslare harbour is just south of Wexford, and there are a number of connections. Wexford itselfis rather like the last major town before Rosslare, and it shows, the town has a marked polish and commercialcosmopolitanism that sets it aside from other similar sized towns, and I believe the tourists help provide this.Waterford also has a regional airport, so ying in with Aer Arann who y from quite a few UK based airports,makes sense.

There is a brand new Science Fiction shop opening in Wexford Alien8, and that is indicative of howdiverse the town actually is.

As I journey on the train, there is a philosophical aspect to a journey like this. Is it part ofthe holiday or is it the way to the holiday. I try to set my mindset into one where as soon as I closethe front door, or nish work even, I am on holiday, plan generously accordingly, and try and alleviate

pressure, self-imposed. Even once at Dublin ferry port, you get a free bus into the city centre. Theferry companies know RyanAir are there and are actually ghting for peoples business. A free shuttlesaves a lot of time and hassle, and also goes from the city centre (Westmoreland st.) back. Its busy. Unlike UK train fares, the rail and sail is regional, so it doesnt matter where you are travellingfrom, although the closer to Holyhead, the cheaper, it gets, and it is a set price no matter whenyou buy, although you need to buy at least the day beforehand, and if so by phone to Stena line.

Now, you can get a rail ticket that continues down to Wexford. A return normally is 28, one of the thingsabout Ireland is that Train Fares are quite reasonable, although there is also a bus which takes the same time, and

The Drink Tank 262 - Edited by James Bacon, Layout by Chris Garcia.

Comments? Garcia@computerhistory.org

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that is cheaper.The train journey to Wexford goes along the east coast, following the suburban route, and

is beautiful. Turning inwards a bit, and taking you through the garden of Ireland, and on south. Theline is steeped in history, especially around the time of the war of independence and the civil war. An armoured train - such as it was - was used in Enniscorthy in 1916, although it may have just been acommandeered troop train, and the line north of Enniscorthy saw a serious of audacious IRA attacks on the line,rolling stock and railway, including the spectacular destruction of 3 sets of trains in one instance, during the CivilWar. The stations and junctions where these incidents occurred, can be found, but only if youknow them, and today the trains are new, streamlined, but with 14 tables in each carriage, withdecent seats, meaning that some 52 passengers can sit in decent comfort, and all with Plugs.

Dublin as a city centre, is not a huge city. It is easily navigable by foot, and the few attractions on theoutskirts are reasonably accessible by bus or tram. The suburban landscape is quite the unplanned, sprawl thatplanners will claim they exist to ensure doesnt occur, and yet, when one looks at Dublin, the plan may have goneastray.

Wexford, is a beautiful town, and once in the town, everything is within easy reach by foot.The town is blessed with some excellent hotels, Whites, Talbots and The Riverbank, all offering deals to

the literary traveller, and offering a level of service and comfort that is refreshingly good.

A con such as Octocon in Dublin, means that one can stay at any hotel, although there is an urge to stayat the Con Hotel, where you are at the hub of the excitement. In Wexford, the nature of a festival means thatthere is a more relaxed programme and therefore no matter where you stay, you are close to its goings on, andthis means that there is no rush.

The idyllic image of a relaxed, lush green land, with a friendly people, despite how cynical I may feel, isdeserved. There is no doubting that a bowl of thick locally sourced chowder, in any of the pubs in Wexford,washed down with a creamy Guinness is unbeatable. Warm fresh brown soda bread and butter as it was intended,full of avour and taste, conjur up the realistic image of the moments in between the literary feast.

Ireland is Blessed somewhat, with its authors and creators. For twenty years now, there have beencontinous conventions, in Dublin, and the loyalty, hard work and commitment of local authors is part of thatsuccess. In Wexford likewise, there is Eoin Colfer famed childrens author, who is terribly entertaining and really

quite good fun, and obviously a master of the two levels of humour, Nick Roche a IDW transformers artist, whoat the moment is the Republics most eminent practitioner in the industry, and Herbie Brennan who lives buta short Journey away, who frequently masters the New York Times best sellers list. Its a bit mad. You sit havinga laugh, in a beautiful small town, and see these brilliant creative geniuses and its hard to contemplate that theyhave sold millions upon millions of books and comics.

The there are the Dubliners, Oisin McGann, Michael Carroll, Sarah Rees Brenann, who between themrepresent a number of genres, andwhose youth and vibrancy can be feltstrongly. And then from various counties,there are Kate Thompson, John Vaughanand Maura McHugh, all travelling alongthe spokes of a wheel, to the science

ctional and fantasy hub that for oneweekend is Wexford. With expertsindigenous and travellers from abroad,making up the remainder of the list, its ahard thing to do everyone justice.

Lucky is not good enough todescribe the situation, pretty brilliantdoes a better job.

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WexWorldsby Festival Curator and Editor James Bacon.

Photos by Filip Naum and Arek Wnuk WexWorlds rst Sci Fi and Fantasy Fiction Festival held in Wexford, a beautiful small town of 20,000

people, that is situated on the south east corner, of the island of-Ireland was a bit of a success, that exceeded myexpectations. The festival was the brain child of Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer and he also inputted ideas, desiresand suggestions into the mix.

Eoin worked with Elizabeth Whyte, director of The Wexford Arts Centre to create the and I was thenasked, to get involved and help, and was given the pleasant title of Curator. A nice title which Chris alreadypossesses.

Eoin Colfer is a science ction fan and reader although he doesnt go on about it, having read quite a bit,especially Phillip K. Dick and also liking movies of an SFnal nature, stating that Bladerunner is one of his favouritemovies. Interesting, as of course, like many fans, he likes the idea of reality and identity and what is tangibly real,although he is careful, I suspect to ensure his own works are never derivative and one can see when he is inaction, giving talks to 600 school children or a crowded room of adults, that the basis for his ction is in his own

life experiences, and how he has been able to capture them with a wry cynical smile, and repackage them forreaders, in a fantastical setting.

There are scared looks in the rooms, when he starts to mention that characters are based somewhaton people, as a realisation crosses many a face, with either horror or pleasure, that they may be the genesis ofsomething wonderful or nasty.

Because a festival is spread over the whole town, with activities and events in a variety of places, threebookshops, three hotels, a bona de Art Gallery, two goth clothes shops, the town theatre/hall, the town libraryand the Wexford Arts Centre, it forces people to get out and look around, and also allows the festival to createfocal points, while programming a relaxed schedule, that allows for movement.

Last year we had Cirque Du Freak author Darren Shan, Herbie Brennan author of the Faerie Wars, ,Paul J Holden, Judge Dredd comic artist for 2000 AD and Garth Ennis written Happy Valley. Nick Roche, ComicArtist for Transformers, Oisin McGann, Author of Small minded Giants, Strangled Silence, Sarah Rees Brennan,

author of The Demons Lexicon, Michael Carroll, 2000 AD comic writerand author of the The New Heroes series and Robert Curley, Writeron Freakshow comic and comic book publisher for Atomic Diner.Quite a varied and eclectic bunch, and lets be honest, quite a superbassortment, which I am grateful for and this year we have new author

joining us, including Kate Thompson, who seems to have won everyaward in book.

My favourite moments were Dr Emma J. Kings Liquid Nitrogentalk and instant Ice Cream session, I just love the excitement as the

experiments took place, the smashing of a frozen apple with a hammer,and how with fund we can help children enjoy and learn.

I really enjoyed a talk by Eoin and Andrew Donkin aboutthe mechanics of comics, and something I think that should be seenagain, elsewhere. Andrew had a whole presentation, which went intodetails of the creation of the Artemis Fowl comics, and both menknow their work. Eoin and Andrew had produced, free of charge,for all present an eight page comic, entitled The Last Crusadethrough water and re. A mix of legend and mythology as well asa beautiful twist in time. The comic was drawn by Giovanni Rigano,

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so essentially the Artemis Fowl team did a free comic, and it was produced to the highest of standards.You just cannot beat duct tape, plastic piping and foam, for shutting children up, yes the light sabre

shenanigans was very popular. Especially exciting was the more violent football jersey wearing kid who decidedhe was going to single handedly murder everyone, I was impressed with his energy. The big show of Saturday was Darren Shan and Eoin Colfer in conversation. This was Darrensidea, he thought they could entertain by having a more informal conversation, and he was dead right,they had the audience in stitches of laughter, and he was very insightful about his questions. Theyboth read some, and it was a great discussion the two of them are very funny, Eoin has the ability of astand up comedian, and paired with Darren it was great laugh out loud laughter. Then they signed andsigned and signed, long never ending queues. All types of books were signed, it was pretty awesome.

Caca Millis Cabaret is a regular light entertainment evening at the arts centre; rst off we had the hostess,looking French signing Duke Ellington and Edith Piaf. Then we had a belly dancer with a sword, Alexandra Dra lovafrom the Khelashi Dancers, it was, well, we had to stop men and women running to the stage to be fascinated. Local musician, on the acoustic guitar, Paul Creane was next, with Seamus, on mouth organand occasional guitar accompaniment, Sarah Rees Brennan made everyone laugh with a shortreading from her, book, and then a reading by Oran Ryan, one that was full of metaphor and insight,followed by some really great poetry readings (yes, I said that) by Patrick Chapman, I especiallyliked Darwins Vampire, Saint Dracula (which had everyone pissing themselves laughing) and his

reading of his title poem, from his book A shopping Mall on Mars, was very science ctional. But then, there was something really rare and delightful. Eoin Colfer had said a few times

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during the day that he would be reading something that he had never read out loud before,something that most people did not even know about, something that he could never read to kids. And so, he appeared on stage, with a book of crime stories, set deeply hidden away in dark pages about Dublin,he read a story he had written. This was not the Eoin Colfer we know. This was a different dark, Irvine Welsh sortof author, writing about track suited gueriers, a crime boss, and inner city life, but with a streak of black humourthat was impressive. There was a batman reference in the story, which drove the gathered crowd, who had beenguffawing and laughing to cheering and it was very good, violent, dark, full of vulgarity and abuse and dublinisms. More music, Jacques Brels the Port of Amsterdam, and some amazing footage by alocal teenager Chris ONeil http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywmpMQYojs who was onstage, and due to the baying of the crowd, was forced to endure an encore and replaying. Then, as things wound up, we had a humorous clip, and it went dark and quiet, and then we saw a man inan attic, scurrying nearly, being pursued, and a real hush befall the venue, and we say Rick Deckard, slip and fall, andgrip to a girder for dear life, and as Roy Batty saved his live a real tingle ran through the audience, and then, we allwatched, and some even cried, as we watched what must be the best science ctional movie moment of all time. No humour, no post modern ironic bull, no laughs, just the words as they were meant to be seen. Not much could follow that, really, and the night shortly drew to a close. Eoin again was involved in discussions about turning books, into visual imagery, whether it be comics, orillustrations accompanying a book, or the covers. All the authors attended a relaxed coffee meet and greet in

one of the book shops, where people just walked up and talked about their work, in a very informal and chilledway.Overall, the weekend went very well. A departure from conventions, yet with many good similarities,

and the majority of the items free of charge, a format allows people to pop in speci cally and enjoy something,without committing to a whole weekend, while those who encamped were able to get to everything.

The relaxed and genial atmosphere, and no stress attitude, that is an event in Ireland also came acrosswell, to those who had travelled from near and afar.

This year already there have been a number of efforts to improve, where we would like to and capitaliseon what went well. There will now be a Bazaar in a local Hall, and we hope to have life sized movie props set up,along with members of the Emerald Garrison, an Iris Star Wars costuming group and Cosplayers, from a local,

newly established Anime and Manga Club. That isnot the only thing newly established, a new shopAlien8 will be launching over the weekend. A zombie walk and art competition to joinour short story one is in the of ng, and as wellas science fun, this time with Chaotic Chemicalsfrom Doctor Emma, and also her Big Bangs, wealso have medical mayhem from Dr Heidi, who willbe talking about Poisons, Plagues and Pestilenceand about how we may just nd ourselves with aplague that zombi es people and what we should

do.Sick bags will be issued out to all children

as they enter, as a reminder that its OK to feelhorri ed.

For more details, check out www.wexworldsfestival.com

All wexworlds images are copyrighted to FilipNaum 2009 and Arek Wnuk 2009 whohave photographed Wexworlds 2009 onassignment from the Wexford`s Arts Centre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywmpMQYojs%22%20\t%20%22_blankhttp://www.wexworldsfestival.com/http://www.wexworldsfestival.com/http://www.wexworldsfestival.com/http://www.wexworldsfestival.com/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywmpMQYojs%22%20\t%20%22_blank

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for their ghost stories. We still await a lm of the greatest of all horror novels to use an Irish locationHope HodgsonsThe House on the Borderland.

Away from the homeland, Irish ex-patriots have done important work in horror: directors Rex(The Magician, 1926), Roy William Neill (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man , 1943) and Neil Jordan (Interview with theVampire: The Vampire Chronicles, 1992) and actors Arthur Shields (a werewolf inDaughter of Dr Jekyll , 1957), JaMacGowran (Dance of the Vampires , 1967), Gabriel Byrne (a Nazi inThe Keep, 1983, the Devil inEnd of Days, 1999Stuart Townsend (the Vampire Lestat inQueen of the Damned , 2002, Dorian Gray inThe League of ExtraordinaryGentlemen, 2003), Michael Gambon (a werewolf inThe Beast Must Die , 1974), Liam Cunningham (a werewoDog Soldiers, 2002), Brendan Gleeson (Lake Placid , 1999,28 days later , 2002), Stephen Rea (The Doctor and theDevils, 1985,FeardotCom, 2002,The I Inside, 2003) and Patrick Bergin (who has played Frankenstein, Dracthe Devil). Patrick Magee, famed on stage as a great interpreter of the works of Samuel Beckett eveas a minor horror star: with eye-rolling, beetle-browed, dialogue-savouring performances in the likesCormansThe Masque of the Red Death (1964), Freddie FrancissThe Skull (1965),Die, Monster, Die! (1965), Marat/Sade (as DeSade, 1967),The Fiend (1971), Roy Ward Bakers Asylum (1972), Peter SykessDemons of the Mind(1972), And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973),The Monster Club (1980), Lucio FulcisGatto Nero/The Black Cat(1981) and Walerian BorowczyksDocteur Jekyll et les Femmes (1981). Yet, for all this suitable talent, theredistinct shortage of Irish horror lms, and little which might be counted as an Irish horror or even f

tradition in the cinema.Most treatments of Irish folklore in the cinema have been benign enough to overdose a suga

usually buried under Hollywoods idea of Oirishness. Walt Disneys production ofDarby OGill and the Littl

Irish Horror Cinemaby Kim NewmanFirst appeared in The Irish Journal of Gothic andHorror Studies(http://irishgothichorrorjournal.homestead.com

/kimprinter.html)

Even setting aside the myriad lm versionsof Dracula, which range from purportedly faithfulversions of Bram Stokers novel to wild tangents likeBilly the Kid Versus Dracula (1966) andDracula Sucks (1979), Irish creative talents have had a signi cantrole in the history of the horror lm.The Jewel ofSeven Stars, Stokers other major horror novel, hasbeen of cially lmed several times (Blood From the

Mummys Tomb, 1971,The Awakening , 1980,Legend ofthe Mummy , 1997), unof cially several times more(La Cabeza Viviente/The Living Head, 1963) and is asource for almost all mummy movies. J. SheridanLeFanus vampire tale Carmilla and Oscar WildesThe Picture of Dorian Gray and The CantervilleGhost have inspired multiple lm and televisionadaptations. Like Dorothy Macardles novelUneasyFreehold , lmed asThe Uninvited (1944), these oft-told stories are notably not set in Ireland, thoughStoker and LeFanu frequently wrote about their

native land, drawing on Irish legends and folk-tales

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Dracula would be by garlic. Outside of theLeprechaun series, which reached its nadir in a brace of lms set iHood with Davis as a rapping monster taking on gangstas like Ice-T, Irish myth has gured in few hoCry of the Banshee (1970) is misleadingly-titled: its set in England, and its howling monster is a male werrather than the Irish wailing woman.Banshee (2006) is a contemporary American action lm about a gubanshee a vengeful, whining woman.

Occasional television episodes have been more to the point, though rarely with distinction: BansRayBradbury Theater , 1986) offers Peter OToole spoo ng John Huston in an elementary terror-by-spook e

while the occasional historical ashbacks which explored the title characters Dublin origins on Angel (19992004) served mostly to expose cruelly David Boreanazs inability to do an accent. John SaylessThe Secret of RoanInish (1994) is delicately touched with fantasy, though not in the explicitDarby OGill manner and deals withselkie, either a human raised by seals or a shapeshifter.Roan Inish is ambiguous about its selkie, but John GTV movieThe Seventh Stream (2001), with sherman Scott Glenn netting wereseal Saffron Burrows, iexplicit.Roan Inish and The Seventh Stream , essentially American productions, but use Irish locations and Irish supporting casts. This pattern turns up over and over in the few pre-2000 works that might counhorror. In 1963, Francis Ford Coppola persuaded Roger Corman for whom he was working as a minEuropean-shot lm calledThe Young Racers to nance a quickie horror lm that he might direct using sothe leftoverYoung Racers cast and crew. Always eager to squeeze an extra lm out of a budget, Corman

junior auteur have his head and the result was the Irish-shotDementia 13 (akaThe Haunted and the Hunted ) aPsycho knock-off about axe murders on the estate of the Haloran Family, one of whom is a homicidaCoppola, who would return to the genre with a vastly bigger budget onBram Stokers Dracula (1992), works faand creative inDementia 13 , making memorable, shocking little sequences out of the killings and the haunting, using his locations well and highlighting unexpected eeriness like a transistor radio burblinpop music as it sinks into a lake along with a just-murdered corpse. It takes place in Ireland for conveCorman had been shooting a Western instead of a European race track lm, Coppola would have set thTexas but Coppola uses the location well, and was among the rst to discover the horror potential ofMagee (who would work for Corman on other projects). Cast as the red herring local doctor, Magee self-deprecating, even delivering a speech about how his one-sided smile makes him seem too sin

People (1959) has (like most Disney fantasies) one genunightmarish sequence, in which the young hero is pursuethe Great Banshee. Otherwise, precious few chills can be in the likes ofFinians Rainbow (1968),Leapin Leprechauns (1995Spellbreaker: Secret of the Leprechauns (1996),The Last Leprechaun(1998) andThe Magical Legend of the Leprechauns (1999). Screeleprechauns tend to be cute, horribly-accented little felPerversely, the minor Leprechaun horror franchise puts a nastyon this image rather than mining the many more sinister stof the Little People. With Warwick Davis who plays it cut AVery Unlucky Leprechaun (1998) under the snarling make-up dressed like a demented Lucky Charms mascot with buckledand big hat,Leprechaun (1993) has the title character loose in LAngeles, in icting horrible fates and worse wisecracks uponill-advised enough to steal his pot o gold. Despite featuring a

Jennifer Aniston, its a totally undistinguished effort whicstop Trimark pictures from making a slew of sequels:Leprechaun 2(1994, akaOne Wedding and Lots of Funerals ), Leprechaun 3 (1995

Leprechaun: In Space (1997),Leprechaun in the Hood (2000) anLeprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003). In desperation, the lms coup with their own rules, similar to the lore which affects svampires, so Daviss cackling end is repelled by a four-leaf c

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on an offshore island but shot in Northern Ireland.Until the mid-1990s, homegrown (or even transplanted) Irish horror cinema consisted mostly of fo

Hilton Edwards, the Dublin stage director, made a short lmReturn to Glennascaul (1951) with Orson Welleplaying himself, being told an elementary ghost story (the one about the disappearing inn). Its an footnote to Welless career, and were it not for the mildness of its scary elements might count as I

rst horror lm. The Swedish director Calvin Floyd made two interesting Irish-Swedish gothic horrVictoFrankenstein (1977), a low-key relatively faithful version of the Mary Shelley novel (the chapters which inear-creation of the Monsters Mate are set in Ireland), andThe Sleep of Death (1981), based on LeFanus Room at the Dragon Volant (which had already been done on television as The Inn of the Flying Dragand The Flying Dragon, 1966, episodes of the American Dow Hour of Great Mysteries and the British Mystery aImagination series). Though set in France,Sleep of Death is a unique Irish-based adaptation of a story byof Irelands major horror writers, and furthermore features and Patrick Magee as a sinister Marquis

lms are seriously-intended, though they incline towards Merchant-Ivory respectability in adapting thrather than taking off on cinematic ights of fancy.

Interesting rather than frightening, Floyds lms are still a cut aboveThe Fantasist (1986), a Dublin-set serkiller mystery which was Robin Hardys disappointing, tardy follow-up toThe Wicker Man (1973), and GeorgPavlous below-average monster rompRawhead Rex (1986). Based on a Clive Barker story which is set inEngland,Rawhead was relocated to Ireland for budget reasons -- though the plot revolves around an A

church and awkward lines had to be tipped in when someone remembered there were no Roman rIreland.The novelist and director Neil Jordan usually brings a fantastical touch to his lms, and gets

genre horror in his adaptations of Angela Carter (The Company of Wolves, 1983), Anne Rice and Bari WoodInDreams , 1999). However, the comical ghost rompHigh Spirits (1988), which is set in Ireland, is among his satisfying lms, an effects-heavy pudding which ought to be a breezy comic fantasy but devolves intoThe Butcher Boy (1997), based on Pat McCabes novel, is closer to horror, entering the mind of a junior psy(Eamonn Owens) who has visions of the Virgin Mary (Sinead OConnor) and takes great delight in a neighbour (Fiona Shaw) he holds responsible for all the troubles visited upon his family. LikeThe FantasistThe Butcher Boy plays up the speci c Irish milieu, addressing the not-always-benign in uence of the C

con ded in.Ireland was and is occasionally used by British lms

other countries: Hammer never shot a horror lm in Irelanddid use its green, wet elds less blighted, apparently by elepylons and passing lorries than their English equivalents couple of their pocket-sized swashbucklers (Sword of SherwoodForest, 1960,The Viking Queen, 1967). Cyril FrankelsThe Very Edge(1962), a little-known, interesting early entry in the psycho/scycle, has maniacal Jeremy Brett persecuting ex-model/houAnne Heywood (with Magee down in the cast list); it unuuses a nondescript modern Dublin suburb to represent a houdevelopment in a non-speci c English New Town. Don The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) effectively uses locations in Dand the surrounding countryside to represent London in the 1and the wilds of Tibet and China. Robert Altmans psycho-chImages (1972) and John Boormans science ction lm Zardoz(1974) get a great deal of value out of misty widescreen visthe countryside, without con rming (or denying) that their s

are set in Ireland. This tradition is continued inReign of Fire (2002in which Ireland plays a post-end-of-the-world England rure-breathing dragons, and the slasher lmWilderness (2006), se

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all things: Hardy works on the rural Catholic upbringing of his imperilled, resilient heroine (Moira H Jordan and McCabe ll out the 1960s world of young Francie, in uenced by American popular cultuhis fathers repeated yarns and invented myths. Three decades on fromDementia 13 , Roger Corman set up his own unit in Ireland and backed a clugenre movies to feed the hungry maw of hisRoger Corman Presents series of made-for-cable movies, with anon ancillary video (later, DVD) rental and sales business. In rapid succession, Corman produced ScoHouse of the Damned (akaEscape to Nowhere , 1996), starring Alexandra Paul and Greg Evigan; Howard MThe Unspeakable (1996), scripted by Christopher Wood (who once wrote the Confessions books and Timothy Lea and a few Roger Moore Bond movies), starring Athena Massey, David Chokachi, Timotand Cyril OReilly; Mitch MarcussThe Haunting of Hell House (1999), starring Michael York and Claudia Chrand purportedly based on a story by Henry James; MarcussKnocking on Deaths Door (1999), starring Brian BloKimberly Rowe, John Doe and David Carradine; Michael B. DruxmansThe Doorway (2000), starring Roy ScheiLauren Woodland and Christian Harmony; and MarcussWolfhound (2002), which the director signed with pseudonym Donovan Kelly, from a script by novelist Scott Brad eld, with Allen Scotti, Jennifer CPlayboy Playmate Julie Cialini. Corman also backed a couple of anonymous action-thrillers in IrelaBlood stVIII: Trained to Kill , 1996,Dangerous Curves, 2000) using the same set-up.

These lms rely on lower-case American writers, directors and lead actors, but use Irish supportin frequently dubbed in an attempt to passoff Ireland as Maine or Massachusetts.Recurring presences include BrendanMurray, Mike ONolan, John McHugh, ColmOMaonlai, Brian Glanney and a surprisingnumber of veterans of the Irish language TVsoapRos na Run. OnlyHouse of the Damned and Wolfhound are set in Ireland: bothare about American (or Irish-American)couples who unwisely settle in hostilecommunities, to be pestered by spooksin one case and a pack of shapeshifters in

the other. Wolfhound , despite silly lesbianwerebabe scenes, is probably the pick ofthe litter, thanks to a few good lines fromBrad eld and local actor Brian Monahansimposing performance as an alpha malewerewolf. Not one of these lms, but easyto lump in with them (a few actors recur)is John HoughsBad Karma aka Hells Gate (2002), from a novel by Douglas Clegg,starring Patsy Kensit, Patrick Muldon andAmy Locane. This also passes off Irishlocations as New England, but its a littlenastier than the television-backed Cormanmovies, involving sado-masochist murdersand the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper.

The American Michael Almereydarst tackled Bram Stoker in the unusual,

low-budget, black and white New Yorkvampire movieNadja (1994), in which hecast Irish actor Karl Geary as Ren eld, the

y-eating minion of Dracula. Almereydas

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slightly more conventional second horror lm isEternal (1998) akaTrance or The Eternal: Kiss of the MummyThis uniquely connects Stoker with his homeland, trotting out yet another variant on Bram Stokers o

Jewel of Seven Stars but with the novels Egyptology background stripped away in favour of more unuDrudiry. It works on atmosphere and character, developing its plot in surprising lurches, and gets aits old-hat story of a heroine under threat of possession by a distant or recent ancestor by dint of ostorytelling, unusually convincing performances, a whole-hearted embrace of gothic blarney and shvagueness. Nora (Alison Elliott) and Jim (Jared Harris), an alcoholic New York couple with a young Goldschrafe), return to Noras childhood home in Ireland, where her blind academic uncle (Christopherand bedridden grandmother (Lois Smith), assisted by a little girl (Rachel ORourke) who shares narratwith Jim Jr, preside over a house haunted by the spirit of a two-thousand-year-old Druid priestess, whpreserved corpse is kept in the cellar and who manifests herself looking either like Noras mother (Sineaor Nora herself. The uncle is killed at the half-way point by the revived mummy and the old lady callex-boyfriend (Geary) and some semi-terrorist gunmen to deal with the revenant, which is worming itsNoras family almost by accident.

In the end, mother love and a bottle of Irish whiskey get through and the priestess recreates her drowning, leaving the smashed family to reform. Elliott and Harris are an unusual hero and heroine fo

lm, troubled by booze and simmering family resentments and yet still credibly a couple, and the actthe roles with unusual but unshowy depth -- Harris, while lampooning the resident mad professor, eve

credible impersonation of Walken, whose Irish accent is wobbly but livens up the exposition.Almereyda is rare among modern horror directors in neglecting straight action, though a confrbetween the dazed, resilient mummy and the gunmen is interesting, but works hard on an air of dis(here, slightly boozy or druggy) menace. LikeNadja, Eternal uses home movie-like snippets to ll in the nequite-de ned idylls and horrors of the protagonists childhood. Far more than the Corman implants, Auses the Irish setting and locations in an interesting way, with the bog-tanned princess an intriguingspeci c alternative to the usual wrapped Egyptian mummy. Meanwhile, Irish lmmakers began to make their own horror lms mostly outside the mainsthe small Irish lm industry, whose tentative approach to genre yielded only odd, arty, whimsical itemsBarronsRat (2000), Robert QuinnsDead Bodies (2003) and John SimpsonsFreeze Frame (2004). In NortherIreland, Enda Hughes directed, wrote, edited and photographedThe Eliminator (1996), a hand-to-mouth mo

in the spirit of Peter JacksonsBad Taste (1987), similarly put together over a lengthy shoot by enthusiastirreverent young lm-makers. While Jacksons movie has a pace and con dence which bely its oTheEliminator capitalises on its ramshackle feel, sometimes staging stunt or action sequences with a dclumsiness that dovetails seamlessly in with budget-enforced choppiness (8,000). It opens portentoa quotation from an ancient Irish necromantic text that suggests this, like seemingly every other lm ein Northern Ireland, will be a serious lm about the troubles. The Organisation - presumably thconcerned because the British security services have kidnapped OBrien (Michael Hughes), a studwho has on disc the plans to a super-vehicle the Viper. The eye-patched, claw-handed, limping, geeoveracting Hawk (Mik Duffy) sends his one-time friend Stone (Barry Wallace), a supercool superspy hat, to rescue OBrien and bring back the plans. However, because of bad blood between Hawk and Stois set up to fail in his mission, having been given a map of Vietnam rather than Cornwall.

OBrien is tortured in a disused cardboard box factory by cackling Brits who have built the tank-like effort resembling a carnival oat version of the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle fromCaptain Scarlet and the

Mysterons - and need the codeword to make the on-board computer work. Stone frees OBrien and the Bwiped out in a knockabout battle, during which OBrien commandeers the Viper and drives it aroundsite, ploughing through strategically placed piles of cardboard boxes. After some gore, Stone defeats the chief nasty, Scorpio, is burned up in a Mad Max -ish car smash - but is killed by Hawk when he complainsbeing sent into action without back-up. Then the spy/s-f/action plot winds down and the horror movie kStone returns from the dead with a white curly wig and aDarkman hat-and-mask arrangement, picking up s

repower from an arms dump and heading off to the Irish Rebel Warrior Graveyard to invoke a cuthe Celtic Book of the Dead and raise the zombi ed remains of Irelands heroes to see off the Organ

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balaclava-helmeted goons. Theres a bitching zombie ght in the graveyard, complete with sneezed-oFulci-like facial maggots, plenty of stumbling around, and a lot of amiably silly gore. In the nale, Osettle things by summoning up disappointing Irish heroes - Cuchullain, who turns out to be a spotty ythe giant Finn MacCool, who has shrunk into a prancing leprechaun - and then St Patrick himself to sosquabble. St Pat delivers a speech about how Irishmen should turn to the ways of peace and everyocowed, but the zombie Stone condemns everyone present as hypocritical bastards and pulls the pingrenade. The last line has St Patrick muttering oh shit; then its a rousing chorus of Alternative Ulste(long) end credits.

One-man band Hughes may not have been able to get audible dialogue recordings - much omanic yattering is white noise - but he still manages something distinctive. The most Jackson-like

Meet The Feebles , 1989) is the jokey Vietnam ashback - set up by a hilariously a-historical speech thathe dates wrong - with yellow-tinted frolics and gore in the jungle. The two major set-pieces are the Vchase and the zombie battle, both of which are packed with gags but go on too long. Its very rough-hHughes cannily gets laughs from things like mistimed punches or obvious stunt dummies. The cast moutrageously - Duffy is probably too broad even for this - but Wallace and Michael Hughes deliver sdecent work. It may be obscure, and its North-of-the-Border origins marginalize it even within a ma

lmography when the producers ofDead Meat (2004) andBoy Eats Girl(2005) were arguing over who coclaim the title of Irelands rst zombie movie, they either didnt remember or didnt countThe Eliminator , whic

undeniably got there rst. Though obviously a low-budget effort, writer-director Conor McMahonsDead Meat feels far more lia proper lm thanThe Eliminator , with funding from the Irish Film Board. It has a rural setting (incluimpressive ruined castle location) and makes vague topical references to the mad cow disease and mouth outbreaks, and characters who dont try to disguise their accents, but still feels like a run-ofzombie lm, a simple imitation of George Romeros work which dwells on disembowelling extras azombie chase sequences without tackling the sub-textural material which makes Romeros lms morebloody exploitation. It opens eerily with a farmer attacked by a mad zombie cow on a near-derelicsetting which recurs in the slender Irish horror lmography) and the living dead disease jumps the specfrom cattle to people, which turns loose the usual bloodthirsty, gut-munching ghouls on the countryside(Marian Araujo) and Martin (David Ryan) knock down a shambling derelict (Ned Dennehy) on a rura

assume theyve killed him only for Martin to sustain a bite and turn into a mindless, hungry zombie.Helena becomes the heroine-survivor, seeing off her dead boyfriend with a vacuum cleaner, and jwith spade-wielding gravedigger Desmond (David Muyllaert) to struggle across country towards thesafety of a rescue centre, picking up a few more stragglers (dead meat, in plot terms) to get bitten, tranor killed. Eoin Whelan, veteran of McMahons hurling-themed horror shortThe Braineater (2001), plays thliveliest character: Cathal, an obnoxious local with a tweed cap, a thick accent and a tendency to ramsequitur. The nale is cynical and downbeat, as Helena makes it through but is instantly penned in trother civilians, but it seems more like a straight lift from RomerosThe Crazies (1974) than anything felt.

Stephen BradleysBoy Eats Girl , scripted by Derek Landy, is an even more derivative zombie co(essentially a remake of Bob Balabans My Boyfriends Back, 1993). A lengthy series of contrivances to do nervous schoolboy hero Nathan (David Leon) and his attempt to tell a longtime friend (Samantha Mumin love with her lead to the teenager semi-accidentally hanging himself, whereupon his devoted motherOKane) uses a forbidden book of voodoo spells which happens to be stashed in the basement of church to bring him back to life. Thanks to a missing page, a crucial ingredient is left out of the spell, arevives as a potential cannibal. Without a pulse or blood pressure (this is perhaps the rst lm to dealproblem of erectile dysfunction among the undead), Nathan attends the school disco, where he is overzombie instincts and bites the rugby-playing bully (Mark Huberman), who proceeds to spread the usof esh-eating zombiedom among the locals. It contrasts poorly with Edgar WrightsShaun of the Dead (2004which wholly embraces its Britishness for contrast with the American conventions of the zombie stumbling imitation of lesser lms, to the extent of casting thirtyish teenagers and presenting a viewlife which is a cartoon idea of American teendom not remotely credible as Irish,Boy Eats Girl loses the cultur

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speci city (it was even mostly shot on the Isle of Man) that evenDead Meat takes pride in. It gets gruesomethe home stretch, with a combine harvester massacre rather like the one in Jake WestsEvil Aliens(2005) and goall over the oor but a handy snake, whose presence in famously snake-free Ireland is never explainedthe nal ingredient and restores the hero to normal life. Picking up on elements hinted at inDead Meat , two lms nally advanced the cause of a speci calmode of horror movie, albeit within familiar sub-genres. Director-writer Patrick KennysWinters End (2005is an entry in the captivity cycle of psycho-thriller (cf:The Collector , 1965, Misery , 1990,Calvaire, 2003). Slackphotographer Jack Davis (Adam Goodwin) attends an open-air concert the lm cant afford to decompletely drunk, has a brief argument with his more responsible married best friend Ben (Donie Rreturns to the eld to nd his car has been stolen. Farmer Henry Rose (Michael Crowley) lures himcountry road so he can use the phone and knocks him out, then chains him up in the barn. Gradually, it that the cracked villains plan is to have the victim impregnate Amy (Jillian Bradbury), his half-sisterfamilys 150 year-long tenancy of the failing farm can continue. Henry says hell let the lad go with a cbut Jack is smart enough to realise from the outset that the farmer has to kill him to have a hope of gettwith it. The set-up at the farm is interesting, with Henry given a bit of range and depth in his crazyand an uneasy balance between the meek, dependant girl and her other brother Sean (Paul Whyte), a siHenry keeps threatening to have put in an institution. Jack has to tell the girl, who has been cut offand newspapers, that Ireland doesnt have institutions in that sense any more, and hasnt for years. A

like this follow a similar pattern with the victim going from disbelief to pleading to desperate tryingvia bogus cooperation and the captor trying to hold together a scheme which keeps stumbling over thelement butWinters End is well-enough written and acted to get past familiarity. Theres a clever surprin the day, as the captive cannily gets the farmer to send out for an especially poncey Italian meal as a l

which turns out to be a signal to his best friend, the chef in the restaurant. The climax is protractrunning about and hiding behind hedges plus shotgun-waving and an obvious casualty but the coda, captive and wife together four years later, with a young daughter, is surprisingly affecting with a minoof creepiness.

Writer-director Billy OBriensIsolation (2006) offers anothdesperate, lonely farmer out to preserve his doomed businesssegues from rural misery and suspense to monster attacks.

strength of OBriens something-nasty-on-the-farm lm is thatenough con dence in the effectiveness of its special effects tothe knockabout slapstick found inThe Eliminator or Dead Meat (andUK-shot efforts likeThe Revenge of Billy the Kid , 1991, or Evil Aliens) andtreats its potentially ridiculous, Alien-variant story with the useriousness. In grimly-realistic, Irish rural mode, farmer DanLynch) is clearly close to cracking up and troubled by the dihis pregnant cows are having in coming to term. Dan tries tooff a traveller (Sean Harris, ofCreep, 2004) and his runaway girlfr(Ruth Negga, ofBreakfast on Pluto, 2005), but in a crisis calls the kin to help him haul a calf out of its mother with a winch and The local vet (Essie Davis) and a lone scientist (Marcel Iures) aaround the farm, and it turns out that the cows are being usefringe unethical experiments that have a nasty side-effect. Theare born pregnant with inside-out little freak foetuses which get after an autopsy and grow rapidly into voracious monsters. Thoffers a long, atmospheric build-up, full of pregnant pauses, wexplanations and desperate characters who never quite explain

awful situations but the last half-hour is a high quality monster runabout, with the well-realised darting out of the shadows to in ict horrible damage on the dwindling human cast.

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OBrien follows examples like28 days later and Wild Country (2005), telling a familiar story in an unmanner, with a lot of work on the nuanced but unfussy performances (Lynch, in particular, does sometalmost no scripted material to go on) and a sense of real characters in a crisis to ground the basic mmovie business in mucky credibility. The effects by veteran Bob Keen are ne, and sparingly-used nice moment as the biggest of the monsters has a sudden full reveal, and stays on screen a few seconthan expected without losing its shock value. Without overstressing its origins, Isolation also offers Irish take on its story the motor of the plot, as inWinters End , is the economic plight of traditional farmleft behind by the Celtic Tiger boom and clinging to the land with all the tenacity of Richard Harris The Field(1990); and theres uncomfortable truth in the treatment of the traveller couple, jovially advised with mmove on by the Garda and instantly suspected of any crime or horror.

There are still too-few Irish horror lms to perceive a tradition, though the preponderance oagricultural miserablism as opposed to, say, Dublin-set urban ghost stories, is striking. Pegarty Long The IrishVampire Goes West (2006), the rst Irish vampire lm, is forthcoming, and may take another direction. Aare still a great many Irish or Irish-set horror stories, and a wealth of sinister folklore, which could probrought to the screen. Finally, this survey would not be complete without mention of the most purely friten minutes in Irish cinema, writer-director Brendan MuldowneysThe Ten Steps (2004) which combines anci(a house where the Devil was once seen) and modern (a mobile phone-call) with psychology (fedark, sibling tensions) and the supernatural (a hell-dimension in the basement). Here, at last, is the tr

Chiller.

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IRISH COMICS-FUN OR PROFIT?By David McDonald

There have never been as many comics produced in Ireland as thereare now, with genres ranging from Horror and Sci Fi to Irish legend and sliceof life. I myself have produced a couple of reprint volumes of British comics,Doomlord and the 13 th Floor . I got the idea for these when I was involvedwith Titan publishing in a small way producing theSteel Claw and The Spider collection a few years back.

I had the raw material so I went and procured the rights to reprintthe material and produced two comics, which received very favorablereviews. Both sold well considering that I had no distribution deal in place,Doomlord was a nancial disaster, but a great school, I learnt a lot about thepublishing industry from the mistakes and my naivety.The 13 th Floor sold welland was a moderate success, i.e. I didnt loose too much money! Im back in the saddle again after a few years and Hibernia, the name

which I have brought out the comics under before, will be publishing asmall press2000ad fanzine, with an Irish avour,Tales from the Emerald Isle ,featuring Irish2000ad stories. This will hopefully be out towards the end ofOctober. This will feature characters such as Judge Joyce and Sinister Dexter,and feature talent from Ireland, the UK and the US. This has again been a learning ground, and the mechanics of puttingtogether a new comic as opposed to a reprint are surprisingly different.With reprint comics I had to deal with contracts, and conditions, contactingoriginal creators, scanning and restoring the pages of artwork, whereas thefanzine is a much more relaxed atmosphere, I threw out the concept, thewriters came back with the ideas, and the artists do their own thing. Much less labour intensive on me so far, but when I get to the nal stage ofdeciding whether print or PDF (I was imaging some sort of small print run,Im a luddite when it comes to reading comics on a screen) the work is goingto be much the same as the reprint volumes organizing print and distributingetc .

Most comics produced in Ireland are lovingly produced small presstitles, put together for fun and hopefully not to lose too much money.

Here are some exceptions- Bob Byrne has been plugging away for years, his comic Mbleh! wasthe rst Irish produced comic to be distributed by Diamond distribution,and his original Graphic novel Mr. Amperduke has received great reviews.His work has also appeared in2000ad as Bob Byrnes Twisted tales. http://clamnuts.com/ Colm Raghallaigh Graphic Novels featuring stories of Irish legendas Gaelige have been around for a few years and by all accounts are doingvery well. http://www.leabhar.com/ Gerry Hunts Blood Upon the Rose is the rst Irish graphic novel Iveseen in bookshops all around the country given prominent display. Greatreviews too.

Berserker comics have been publishing comic with names such as AlanGrant and Simon Bisley working for them. http://www.thedeadcomic.com/

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Ri Ra, an as Gaelige pocket comic, aimed at Irish speaking children, featuring reprints material from Europe and new material, Boband Al Nolan among other have contributed.http://www.coimicigael.ie/ Rob Curley, the prop of Sub City comic shop, has been publFreakshow and the upcomingRosin Dubh under the Atomic Diner imprint. These are all very well produced, with high production valuequality content, I dont know their nancial situation but Id say they to make a pro t/living. For Irish comics to be a nancial success most of the above arethe right thing. There are a few different format of publishing that wfamiliar with in Ireland.

The British format of newstand comics which once was thesuccessful in the world has shrunk to a very small niche market and trbreak into that market really is impossible. Only recognizable brands bnursery titles and TV tie-ins still survive like theBeano, Commando and thalways-excellent2000ad .

The American format is the direct distribution of monthly comcomic shops. It might be easier to get on the ladder and get you produc

these shop, but it is a fast shrinking market, with most comics shop hadiversify into Toys and Wargaming to help keep them going, its goinharder to get your comic seen. As well there are only a handful of thesein Ireland which will limit sales further The Graphic Novel/ European album format is, in my opinioway to go. Comic shops will take your books, more and more bookshostocking Graphic Novels. Libraries are interested in stocking Graphic Nespecially if produced by Irish creators. These also give a much longlife than regular comics and the possibility of selling abroad if the magood enough. Web comics are a newer development. With the spread of Broad

across the country over the last decade, it makes viewing image lademuch more practical, and comics creators have taken full advantage oam not a big fan of reading comics on screen; I prefer to have a bit ofThis leaves me at a disadvantage, Im not familiar with much of the been produce in this way from Ireland, with one exception, Paddy BrowTheCattle Raid of Cooley , done in red Biro and is great reading. Paddy is currcollecting these as comics.http://paddybrown.co.uk Web comics do give an advantage over paper in that they are cheaper to produce, and a lot easier to promote and distribute, but therstill a lot out there that like me are not resistant to the idea, but it just doappeal. There is also a chance that it could be picked up by a publishEdginton and DIsrealisScarlet Traces and Simon FrasersLilly MacKenzie; bothwere produced as web comics and both were picked up byThe Judge Dredd

Megazine . The small press will always be here giving the comics industry crafted comics and the new talent of tomorrow. Irish comics so far hbeen caught in the superhero rut, not that there is anything wrong with sbut if a edgling industry is to appeal to as many people as possible to have as diverse a range of genres as possible, so far so good.

David McDonald - Hiberniabook@eircom.net

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The Best

5. DARBY O GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Yes its the singing Sean Connery lm but its also

lm for its day, using cutting edge cinematic Illusions in its tale of Darby O Gill and his struggLeprechaun King (Jimmy O Dea). Its also quite a dark tale for a Disney Film with the Little People bemalevolent in their dealings with Darby.

4. KING ARTHUR: Antoine Fuquas 2004 lm may have opped at the Box Of ce , but its realistof the Arthurian legend does have some fantastic battle scenes as it trys to capture the collapse of theEmpire and the birth of a legend.

3. THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMENS APOCALYPSE: Yes Ireland stood in for Royston Vasey whenbig screen adaptation of the popular series, hardly anyone saw this lm which was actually a brillian

Location, Location, LocationBy John Vaughan Ireland , land of myth and legend , its literaturculture is steeped in folklore and fairytales, yet whcomes to cinemahardly anything , Irish cinema seechoose reality instead of myth when it comes to tellintales on the Silver Screen even foreign productions Ireland as a location seem to ignore the more fantelements but fear not, there are those lm makers wsee the potential of using Ireland as a base for tellingof the fantastic be it Horror, Fantasy or Science FicHere for your delectation is a brief sample of the bestworst and the most downright bizarre to come out of Emerald Isle.

lm making, fame, comedy, writing and the perceptions of realityitself.

2. REIGN OF FIRE : Ireland once again stood in as England forthis Wyndhamesque tale of survival in a world dominated bydragons. Stand out moments include Matthew McConaugheysperformance as a crazed dragon hunter, a retelling of the EmpireStrikes Back and a lovely moment where other survivors arediscovered to be French.

1 EXCALIBUR: Still the daddy of lms of the fantastic shot in

Ireland, this is yet to be beaten as the best telling of the KingArthur legend. Brilliant performances all round from an all starcast Including Nichol Williamsons take on Merlin, Gabriel Byrneas Uther Pendragon and a young Liam Neeson as Gawain. It evenincludes a very shouty performance from Patrick Stewart thatsomehow works.

The Bizarre

4. SPACE TRUCKERS: Once seen as the great white hope of IrishCinema, this opped losing millions, a mess but when seen as

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what it is, the b-movie tale of a space trucker(Dennis Hopper) who has to transport squarepigs while ghting space pirates, it isnt thatbad. Most bizarre moment: Charles Danceas the cybernetic pirate leader starting hisgenitals like a chainsaw (yes, you read thatright!) as he prepares to seduce his latestfemale prisoner.

3. ISLAND OF TERROR: Directed by TerenceFisher and starring Peter Cushing, this is thetale of an Island off the coast of Galway beingterrorised by Selenoids, genetically createdbone eating monsters. Really, do you needmore of a story?

2 GORGO: The British monster movie shallwe say inspired by Godzilla. It tells the tale of

GORGO , a poor sea monster captured off thewest coast of Ireland and sold into the slaveryof an English circus (No, I am not makingthis up!) Once in England scientists discoverGORGO is in fact a baby! And its enragedMother is coming to rescue it (there is nothingmore terrifying than a 200 ft enraged IrishMammy!) After destroying London Motherand child head back out to sea leaving thecapital burning and hundreds if not thousandsdeadthe lmmakers actually lmed this as a

happy ending?!?!?

1 ZARDOZ: The gun is good, the Penis isevil! Set in a post-apocalyptic world (Co.Wicklow) Zardoz is the story ofwell I dont think any

knows even 36 years later! Its director John Boorman has admitted it migworked better as a novel, all we know is that its partially based on the WizOz (ZARDOZ , gettit!) and has Sean Connery in a fetching one piece napand ponytail. Most bizarre moment the entire bloody lm!

And nally the down right awful

RAWHEAD REX: Ahhh, what can be said about this utter mess of a Starring some of Irelands nest actors in some of their worst roles, t take pages to describe just how awful this is, somehow managing to be its actually good. Poor scriptwriting, misguided performances and hilmiscued music are just a fraction of its problems. The only good thing tout of this was Clive Barker was so upset by the screen adaptation he vowadapt his own stories to screen. His rst feature length lm? Hellraiser! Wevery cloud doesnt have a silver lining?

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The Phoenix ConventionByPeter McClean

2011 will see the Northern Ireland-based Hugo Award winner Ian McDonald appearing as GueHonour at the eighth Phoenix Convention in Dublin. This annual event, better known as P-Con, wasbrainchild of long-term fandom a cionado, Pdraig Malid. Pdraig had always thought the Ashling Hotel would be a wonderful venue for a convention, anits proximity to the Phoenix Park he named the event, The Phoenix Convention.

No, it was nothing to do with rising out of the Ash. So he says P-Cons I, II & III were held in the Ashling, but due to impending renovations the convention haseek a new home for P-Con IV. Wynns Hotel in Abbey Street, just off OConnell Street, and right in tof Dublin, was the base for P-Con IV which took place in March 2007. The Central Hotel, across the rand closer to the eateries and watering holes of Dublins nightlife, became the home for P-Cons V, VI, 7Chairman liked the gure, 7), and VIII. Ken MacLeod was the rst P-Con Guest of Honour, and he was followed, in sequence, by JulieMcKenna, Susanna Clarke, Kim Newman, C.E. Murphy, Paul Cornell, and Nick Harkaway, with, as meabove, Ian McDonald appearing as Guest of Honour in 2011 at P-Con VIII.

The Phoenix logo used by the convention was designed by Ferag NicBhrde, and it has provedan enduring symbol, for which the organisers are eternally grateful to Ferag. According to the people who return to the convention year after year, its success stems from itsintimacy and welcoming ethos. Not just members, but many of the guests also return. Juliet E. McKethe record for being a guest at every P-Con. She won this accolade when her rival for the title, Charlewas unable to attend P-Con 7 in 2010. P-Con III saw the rst charity auction held at the convention. The Oesophageal Cancer Fund wbene ciary, selected because a close friend of Pdraig Malid, and of Irish fandom in general, Davwas suffering from this ailment at the time. It was hoped Dave would be well enough to attend the aubut this proved not to be the case, and sadly, Dave passed away in October of 2006. It was also at P-Con III that Pdraig approached Frank Darcy with a view to Frank taking overreigns as chairman. Frank agreed to take on the task with the support of others and consequently he wconvention chairman for P-Con IV and V. During the summer following P-Con IV, Frank was diagnohaving cancer. He put up a strong ght against his illness and by P-Con V, in March, 2008 he had been

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that his treatment appeared to be working. The cancer, however, did not surrender so easily and Frank July of that year. P-Con VI was co-chaired by the triumvirate of Niamh and Aidan Darcy (Franks daughter and Peter McClean. Michael Carroll, a longstanding friend to Frank, James Shields, webmaster extraordinthe rest of the Darcy family, helped ensure that P-Con VI happened. Peter McClean, with the support of James Shields, and the other McCleans (Caitrona, Deirdre,Donal & Andrew), chaired P-Con 7 and is currently organising P-Con VIII.P-Con 7 was the rst Phoenix Convention at which the face of Irish convention registration tables, BrNisbet, was not taking memberships and handing out badges. Caitrona McClean took on this role ana great way of getting to know people and of having very interesting conversations. The Darcy Award, in honour of Frank, was introduced at P-Con VI. This was a less-than-drabbwriting competition held during the weekend of the convention. Paul Cornell, as Guest of Honour, judentries and Jennifer Delaney became the rst every winner of a Darcy. In 2010, at P-Con 7, Nick Harkaway judged the competition and Julian West took the honours, as the beautiful phoenix statuette that is the physical symbol of The Darcy Award.

P-Con VIII will be held in The Central Hotel on Exchequer Street again in 2011; 4th, 5th and 6th of Marchwith Hugo Award-winning writer, Ian McDonald as Guest of Honour.

The Boundry Stone photo by Fin McAteer

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A New Frontierby Robert Curley

Storytelling is rooted deeply in Irish culture and even more importantly in our very fabric. Whtoday and how we see ourselves stretches back centuries, before television, before radio, before theatrthe only means of communication was the spoken word and tales were told across the land of brave women heroes and villains, gods and demons. Tales of a mythical Ireland, lled with magic and bloods Some of these heroes have survived over the centuries and their names remain somewhereconsciousness dormant, but not dead. Heroes waiting for their chance to come back to into our lives. for the mist to lift and for us to see clearly again beyond the trappings of the modern world, waiting anthat one day soon we embrace our past and our culture and learn again how to connect with our heritahow to understand who we are and what we are capable of. This need to know ourselves is inherent in all walks of life and all societies. As we told tales of Cuand Finn Mac Cool, other heroes came to life across the globe. Baba Yaga in Russia, Sigmundr in GeKibuka in Africa. All with one common goal, to know ourselves by expressing our deepest fears and ouhopes in the form of mythologies big and small. But as society moved on, the magic of old, lost its wthe dark forests that held so much fear and fascination were cleared to make way for a new world, one

steel and concrete. This new world had little time for the stories from old. People left in their thousands in search of and prosperity, leaving behind the shackles of religion and monarchy. There was gold in them there hillwaiting to be claimed. Americas rst real mythology appeared in the shape of the cowboy, presented to the America

by journalists of the time as rugged, courageous mena high moral bre. The perfect representation of wAmerica was supposed to stand for. This image spreadtime with the introduction of mass media. One of the most popular forms of entertainmof the time being the frontier melodramas and none wmore effective than those presented by Buffalo Bill Cthe form of Wild West shows. These shows toured Ameand Europe right up into the early part of the twentcentury helping to create the cowboy myth worldwide As the image took hold, cowboy characters bto appear in dime store novels, no longer herding cthey now took on the even more romantic image of cr

ghters, saving the damsel and righting wrongs even tthey themselves, more often than not, were operaoutside of the law.

Two of the most enduring and relevant characto emerge from this tradition (even though created alater) were the Lone Ranger and Zorro. Their popularity proved so great, their adventwere serialised in TV shows and made into motion picincreasing their popularity and more importantly expothe image of the American hero around the globe on a never before seen. These two characters may have been the bribetween Americas rst and until recently, its identi able mythology, the cowboy and its mo

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counterpart, the superhero. And over the next three decades, the American public were witness to a pof new heroes, each one representing the time and place of its creation. Superman, an alien from a far

nding a new home in the new world, the ultimate immigrant. Captain America, champion of justicthe Nazi horde in a blaze of patriotic propaganda. By the 1960s things had begun to change again anre ected in a new wave of heroes most notably, Spiderman. A shy teenager with real, human problems, hre ecting his hidden potential unseen by the rest of society. Or the Uncanny X-Men, mutants feared andthe world around them, they can be seen as an attempt to highlight the racial tensions of the 1960s. Like these characters helped their readers to understand the world around them and how they themselves to it. America had nally created its own myths in the shape of those colourful do-gooders, gods for world. A world that spread its message across the globe, affecting millions of teenagers and how they thviewed society around them. And while there are still great merits to those wild adventurers from a foreign land, there is alsoto pay. Over the years our own myths have been forgotten and with such a constant in ux of stories in aof media there seemed to be no need for new heroes of our own. It is this lack of Irish characters in the comic medium that has been on my mind for some time n

am hoping over the coming years to help the tide in my own small way by introdunew creations along with breathing new

into heroes long forgotten. Some of AtoDiners new titles due for release areRoisiDubh, a young woman living in NineteCentury Ireland who has the world tofrom beneath her and is forced to becomchampion against the oncoming darknes The League of Volunteers is a WorldWar 2 adventure book and centres aroua Government sponsored super team calin to keep the balance of neutrality durone of our countrys most interestiperiods. And then hopefully later on in 2or early 2012, Jennifer Wilde, Glimmerman andThe Emerald Scorpion. Im not so deluded as to think thcharacters will have the same kind of imas their American counterparts Im simhappy to be involved in creating an alternative and hope that somewhere althe way, these stories if not inspire, at leentertain.

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Dublin City Comic Conby James Bacon

17 th and 18 th November 2007Tara Towers Hotel, Booterstown, Dublin, Ireland This event had the guest list that would have many a comic fanboy salivating at the gums. In awas a selection of the cream of European and American comic writers and artists.

Dublin has had a variety of comic conventions and multi media events over the years, but thislike there was a real step forward being taken, it was a well run altruistic event and the guests complimeDublin has seen a sudden and rapid increase in comic book activity, in the last few years, and this wasbe seen in The Tara Towers, and there was a nice feeling to this convention, at times intangible.

The event was run by John Hendrick, who used to run 3rd Place Comic shop in Temple Bar, this wasecond such convention, the rst he used as a learning tool it seems, as he described to me what he waimprove upon, obviously a man happy to re ect upon his achievements and develop. He also worksThought Bubble crew an awesome Comic Festival in Leeds, and I have personally seen him there, ashelping out.

I got to the convention venue which is on the southern coast of Dublin bay early enough. The h

a fantastic view and across the main coast road and bird sanctuary there is the bay. The nearest train sBooterstown, and this is about two thirds between the city centre and Dun Laoghaire. It was a grey Noday though as I joined friends in the queue outside. Immediately there was camaraderie among the hardwho stood and waited, I reckoned a good fty or so. It was great to catch up.

The hotels function spaceis quite nice, two long rooms, onefor dealers and one for talks, and aconservatory. Signings were due totake place in both the conservatoryand the dealers room. There was

an ample bar, lounge space and anice restaurant. I again joined a queue,shorter this time as I had paid uponline and then joined anotherqueue for Jim Lee signings.

Mr. Lee is currentlyworking on DC Universe Onlinea multi media online role playinggame, with DC and Sony OnlineEntertainment, as the gamesExecutive Creative Director. At thetime of the con, he was workingon All Star Batman and Robin, wasin good form despite a reportedexuberant night on Friday. He isa very slight man in build, verypleasant and I asked him aboutthe times he has written stories. Itwas apparent that he sees writingas the harder task and another day

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job in its own right.He was producing some very satisfying sketches of ne quality for fans as well as busily sign

Its hard to explain how wonderful it was to encounter such a famous artist in such a warm andenvironment. This is a man who at San Diego Comic con will start a queue hours before he is due to ain the hundreds.

The dealers room was peppered with both regular shops, individuals selling their own collectthis is a good source of great bargains, one chap selling his collection from the last couple of years acomic. A large presence was the small press comic community, publishers, artists and writers selling thesometimes quite excellent wares, from Ireland, and from the US.

A purchase could illicit a sketch and who is to know, where budding artists will end up. Dublin has been on an upward spiral when it comes to comics. Another comic shop ownerpublisher now has comics listed through Diamond Distribution This is Atomic Diner Comics anCurley. Robert wasnt here unfortunately, but many of the people who have drawn for him were, he is tof guy with an eye he sees good artwork, and is soon saying farewell as artists move into full time w

Comic artist John McCrea who has been working onThe 99 , a comic produced for the Middle Emarket for a Muslin readership was in good form and set up a sketch table in the dealers room. Ofollowing the release of his JLA/Hitman cross over, and he was busy drawing sketches for about eight hoursdays, nonstop.

Marvel EditorC.B.Cebulski was on hand and accepting submissions to his ChesterQuestinitiative. In his own words; ChesterQuest was conceived as a talent search for pencilers and paiChesterQuest is meant to be fun for us all. Im out here looking for 12 artists who have the skills to icomics professionally for Marvel. And so he was.

As one can imagine there were a number of budding artistsalong, leaving in portfolios and C.B. Cebulski had a private call backsession. I have no idea how successful this was, but the opportunityalone is desirable I imagine.

He also had an exclusive panel with news from the Marvelbullpen. I asked him afterwards about one aspect that interestedme. Apparently Garth Ennis will be writing a new war comic series,

calledWar is Hell . This will be a series of arcs, the rst one is goingto be called Phantom Eagle, staring a World War One Marvel hero,with artwork by Howard Chaykin. It was obvious the details C.B.had were hot off the printer and he was unsure if the rst arcwould be four or ve issues, but knew that the series will star avariety of characters in various war settings of differing eras. I wasvery pleased with this news.

Panels were well attended, I reckoned about 300 peoplehad turned up over the weekend and the discussions provedinteresting. I heard from comic artist Jock that he will be workingon a stand aloneHellblazer comic celebrating 20 years of thecomic, written by Jamie Delano which will have an Iraq setting,which seemed topical.

Mark Millar was very entertaining and insightful; especiallyinto the business and where he sees the business going and what hereckons the genre of comic superheroes going to, and he discussedother comic genres such as cowboy and war comics coming into popularity. He was also very patient him gladly sign a very tall stack of comics without hesitation and he was also kindly doing the odd srequest. I was quite pleased that he did me a Captain America in a G.I> styled helmet.On Saturday evening there was a pub quiz arranged in the restaurant of the hotel, a very comfortable venreckoned there were about 24 teams, with well over 100 participants. This was in aid of charity and a qu

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guestimate calculation means this raised a grand euro.There was much craic and laughter during the evening and the drink owed freely as competing teamMark Milar and Paul Cornell seemed to take the game personally. Humorously, despite much pretend and mock bravado neither team won, but they created an excitement in their own right. Drinks continuthe quiz nished at midnight.Carlos Pacheco who has just nished a run onSuperman with Kurt Busiek was using some wonderful maand presenting full colour sketches for fans. He was using colour letterset pro markers, these twin tippedallow a transparent effect and because they are alcohol-based can be layered to produce deeper colours his controlled and skilled hand, images were incredible.He was pleased to mention that the second series of Arrowsmith, was on the cards, a story he created wKurt Busiek, a beautiful First World War story, where magic, mythical creatures and men ying withDragonets exist, all to great effect. In must admit now three years later, I have not yet seen it, and woulThis is the nest alternate fantasy history work that I have read, it really is so clever, and deserves muattention.

I was impressed to hear Adi Granovs wife who was talking about Thought Bubble a receSequential art convention, that they were both involved with. Mr. Granovs artwork is so detailed, demand, he is currently on design for the Iron Man suit for Jon FavreausIron Man lm. Fantastically he recounhow he did not draw the concept piece for the trailer; rather a piece he had painted was used as the con

it captured what the movie makers wanted. He loves cars and plane and trains and one can see this in hisartwork which would impress any professional mechanical draughtsman.Overall, there was a real relaxed and pleasant atmosphere for the whole weekend. Queues we

mannered and also patient and pleasant as spontaneous conversation broke out. The volunteers whhelping had the right balance of friendliness with empathy for those queuing as opposed to anal securimanagement that I have encountered at some events which only added to the good feeling.The simple schedule of panels were balanced with continual signings and I spent as much time chewinthe dealers room as in the Bar. Personally I thought the event was comparable to a SF convention than aevent I have been too, it was just too well run and relaxed.

The accessibility was the real key; one could speak and chat with the cream of comic creators,questions without fear of annoyance to those around you and that added with bad weather outside, load

rain, it felt that no cloud cover could occlude the brightness of the convention. From the Of cial Facebook Page regarding this years event:

photo by Fin McAteer

Dublin City Comic Con rides again!On December 3,4,and 5th we bringthe convention to a whole newlevel by doing things festival style!With events on between AndrewsLane Theatre, The Mercantile and TheVillage over the 3 days and a run of preevents the week before you get morebang for your buck than ever before.Guests con rmed so far! SimonBisley, Ben Templesmith, LiamSharp, Rufus Dayglo, Dave Ryan

ht tp: / /dubl incomicconvent ion.blogspot.com/ for all updates

http://www.thoughtbubblefestival.com/

http://dublincomicconvention.blogspot.com/%22%20/t%20%22_blankhttp://dublincomicconvention.blogspot.com/%22%20/t%20%22_blankhttp://dublincomicconvention.blogspot.com/%22%20/t%20%22_blankhttp://dublincomicconvention.blogspot.com/%22%20/t%20%22_blank

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stay a few days and see a bit of the beautiful Irish countryside. I spoke to just a couple of people at home about the idea before leaving for New Zealand and AAt that point it was just an idea running around in my head. Someone ought to do it. Id certainly helpno intention that it would be me running it. But once an idea gets inside your brain it has a tendency to take hold. It moves in and rearrafurniture and starts to get comfortable. It gets to the point where you stop owning the idea and it owns The idea came bubbling to the surface with a few people at Au Contraire. Just a few. And then at AI spoke to a few more. Everyone I mentioned it to was extremely enthusiastic about the idea. Everyone wto come to Ireland. And some of these were big name science ction authors. The idea in my head wapainting their names onto the posters.

And somewhere along the way, my speech patters changed. I stopped saying there ought convention in Dublin and started saying Im planning to hold a convention in Dublin. Im not sure this happened, but I realised I owned it. Or rather, it owned me. It was kind of scary and exciting at ttime. Then something unexpected happened. Someone said to me, whats this I hear about you bidding for Eurocon? Eurocon? I said, Im sure I never said that. Now the last two U.K. Worldcons both incorporated the Eurocon the year they were held, soassumed that this would also be the case for London in 2014. But things have changed there too. Worlmoved to a 2 year bidding cycle, so at the time when London would need to bid for Eurocon, it wont hthe Worldcon bid yet, so it wont actually be a convention. This makes things tricky. So I quietly put the question to members of the London bid committee, would they have any oto Dublin bidding for Eurocon? Once again the reaction was very positive. Not only were they happy to proceed, there seemed to be a lot of excitement about the idea. And the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me. I was vaguely aware that the 2005 Wwas also the Eurocon, but I never heard about any Eurocon events at it, and even if I had, I doubt Id havto get to them. Having a separate Eurocon close to the Worldcon allows people to take part in both propestops either from getting overwhelmed. A Dublin Eurocon close to the Worldcon could be the ideal oppto showcase Irish science ction to Europe, and European SF to the World.

So the day after Aussiecon nished, I found myself busy setting up a Facebook page, and sendin

Dublin 2014 Eurocon Bidby James Shields

When I heard that the New Zealand nationalconvention was being held a week before theAustralian Worldcon this year, my rst thought waswhat a fantastic idea. Apart from offering attendeestravelling to Australia an excuse to also take in NewZealand, it was potentially the clincher for anyonewavering over whether to make the trip downunder. My second thought was, we should do thesame thing in Dublin. In case youve been hiding under a rock,London is currently bidding to hold the Worldcon in2014. Dublin is just a short hop away by plane, withconvenient train and ferry links also available. Andonce in Dublin, it will be easy for people extend their

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of emails to anyone who I thought might be interested. There was an immediate and very positive respa little confusion no, I was de nitely not bidding against the UK Worldcon). A lot of people said thecome along, and several expressing interest in helping with the organisation. Discussions about possible venues followed. Theres a lovely new convention centre in Dublin - almost certainly be far too expensive for us to consider using. August, being the peak tourist season, cogood deals with hotels hard to come by. However, there are several universities in the city, which are likrelatively quiet at that time, and have inexpensive student accommodation convention attendees might bavail of. And, of course, there are the more traditional hotel venues. All of these shall be investigated thover the next few months, though its likely to be well into 2011 or even 2012 before a venue is announca few venues arent even capable of taking a booking so far ahead. Whatever venue we eventually settle on, I would like to have several streams of programminstrong emphasis on European SF writers. I have a couple of guests in mind, but I also know I have to more about European writers. I think its also important to have a European lm programme. I would aoffer a relaxing atmosphere, especially for all the people wholl just have run a worldcon, so I intend toarea with comfy seating, close to the bar, for people to chill and have a chat. For me Dublin seems to be the perfect follow on to the Worldcon. There are airlines ying tofrom all ve London airports, with ights from as little as 1p (plus taxes), which in real terms youll g

ight for less than a hundred pounds return, including a modest amount of luggage. Alternatively there

across the Irish sea, with low cost rail and sail tickets for around 61. The ferry can also be a great wayif you want to stay a bit longer and see a bit of the Irish countryside. I want to build on the successes of the last Dublin Eurocon, which was hosted by Octocon Despite one or two challenges, it was a very enjoyable event with an attendance of about 450 peoalready spoken to some of the committee of that convention with a view to learn as much as possible frexperience.

Back in Ireland, I began talking to interested parties, and arranged a meeting of Dublin based crunners, mostly involving representatives from the two main conventions, to gather ideas. We had a ve

rst meeting, and thrashed out a lot of ideas, and gured out what needs to be done before Octocoat Octocon there are plans for a wider discussion about future Irish conventions, so well be soliciti

support and assistance. I expect that over four years, well expect some turnover of people. Indeed, the idea of taking a long-term project is likely to be off-putting to some. So I plan to divide the time into shorter periodspeople to help out for just a few months at a time. That should give us a chance to assess progress, andmove on, theyll generally do so at a time thats not critical to the bid, so their replacement will have timtheir feet. Theres a lot to do, but weve got some great people come forward already, and Im con dentassemble a strong team to bring the bid to a successful conclusion. Well be launching at Octocon, and will be aiming to have good progress made by Swecon,Eurocon, when well be making a pre-bid presentation. Its likely that this could be the biggest general SF convention Ireland has seen. There are challenges to overcome, but Im con dent that we can put together a team to meet them. Im certainly looking forward to it.

You can nd out more information at http://2014.sci .ie/