The Drink Tank262 - Travelling to Ireland and not wanting to leave. By James Bacon

Could not be easier. The time is good for the cheap fare offers, with Ryan Air bringing prices down with their competitors. To , it’s 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 flight to Dublin on the Friday before WexWorlds is just £39. While flights to Octocon, from Manchester or Gatwick were £39 all included, although you have 10kilos of carry on, and that’s it. And use the loo before you go. To be honest for all the mirth and mockery, O’Leary does what he says, it’s cheap and if you plan a bit, you can find 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 glow of 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 to Holyhead. It’s a very pleasant journey. They stick on a ten car as far as 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. It’s quite an old fashioned way to travel, yet there is something sedate about it. Passing through Crewe and then along the north Wales coast, it’s relaxed, unhurried and comfortable. The train stops in Holyhead, the train station and ferry terminal are one and the same, and you are whisked onto a bus, heavy luggage stowed, and onboard and again, there is comfort and space and a decent meal if you want it on today’s modern ships, which are huge.

The route to Fishgaurd from London Paddington is equally nice, with just one change, and you are again in a ferry port. Rosslare harbour is just south of Wexford, and there are a number of connections. Wexford itself is rather like the last major town before Rosslare, and it shows, the town has a marked polish and commercial cosmopolitanism that sets it aside from other similar sized towns, and I believe the tourists help provide this. Waterford also has a regional airport, so flying in with Aer Arann who fly from quite a few UK based airports, makes sense. There is a brand new shop opening in Wexford Alien8, and that is indicative of how diverse the town actually is. As I journey on the train, there is a philosophical aspect to a journey like this. Is it part of the holiday or is it the way to the holiday. I try to set my mindset into one where as soon as I close the front door, or finish 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. The ferry companies know RyanAir are there and are actually fighting for peoples business. A free shuttle saves a lot of time and hassle, and also goes from the city centre (Westmoreland st.) back. It’s busy. Unlike UK train fares, the rail and sail is regional, so it doesn’t matter where you are travelling from, although the closer to Holyhead, the cheaper, it gets, and it is a set price no matter when you 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 things about 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? [email protected] 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. The line 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 a commandeered 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 Civil War. The stations and junctions where these incidents occurred, can be found, but only if you know them, and today the trains are new, streamlined, but with 14 tables in each carriage, with decent 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 the outskirts are reasonably accessible by bus or tram. The suburban landscape is quite the unplanned, sprawl that planners will claim they exist to ensure doesn’t occur, and yet, when one looks at Dublin, the plan may have gone astray. 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 stay at the Con Hotel, where you are at the hub of the excitement. In Wexford, the nature of a festival means that there is a more relaxed programme and therefore no matter where you stay, you are close to its goings on, and this 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, is deserved. 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 flavour 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 been continous conventions, in Dublin, and the loyalty, hard work and commitment of local authors is part of that success. In Wexford likewise, there is Eoin Colfer famed children’s 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, who at the moment is the Republics most eminent practitioner in the industry, and Herbie Brennan who lives but a short Journey away, who frequently masters the New York Times best sellers list. It’s a bit mad. You sit having a laugh, in a beautiful small town, and see these brilliant creative geniuses and it’s hard to contemplate that they have sold millions upon millions of books and comics. The there are the Dubliners, Oisin McGann, , Sarah Rees Brenann, who between them represent a number of genres, and whose youth and vibrancy can be felt strongly. And then from various counties, there are Kate Thompson, John Vaughan and Maura McHugh, all travelling along the spokes of a wheel, to the science fictional and hub that for one weekend is Wexford. With experts indigenous and travellers from abroad, making up the remainder of the list, its a hard thing to do everyone justice. Lucky is not good enough to describe the situation, pretty brilliant does a better job. WexWorlds by Festival Curator and Editor James Bacon. Photos by Filip Naum and Arek Wnuk WexWorld’s first 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 my expectations. The festival was the brain child of Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer and he also inputted ideas, desires and suggestions into the mix. Eoin worked with Elizabeth Whyte, director of The Wexford Arts Centre to create the and I was then asked, to get involved and help, and was given the pleasant title of Curator. A nice title which Chris already possesses. Eoin Colfer is a science fiction fan and reader although he doesn’t 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 favourite movies. 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 in , giving talks to 600 school children or a crowded room of adults, that the basis for his fiction is in his own life experiences, and how he has been able to capture them with a wry cynical smile, and repackage them for readers, in a fantastical setting. There are scared looks in the rooms, when he starts to mention that characters are based somewhat on people, as a realisation crosses many a face, with either horror or pleasure, that they may be the genesis of something wonderful or nasty. Because a festival is spread over the whole town, with activities and events in a variety of places, three bookshops, three hotels, a bona fide Art Gallery, two goth clothes shops, the town theatre/hall, the town library and the Wexford Arts Centre, it forces people to get out and look around, and also allows the festival to create focal 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 comic artist for 2000 AD and written Happy Valley. Nick Roche, Comic Artist for Transformers, Oisin McGann, Author of Small minded Giants, Strangled Silence, Sarah Rees Brennan, author of The Demon’s Lexicon, Michael Carroll, 2000 AD comic writer and author of the The New Heroes series and Robert Curley, Writer on Freakshow comic and publisher for Atomic Diner. Quite a varied and eclectic bunch, and let’s be honest, quite a superb assortment, which I am grateful for and this year we have new author joining us, including Kate Thompson, who seems to have won every award in book. My favourite moments were Dr Emma J. Kings Liquid Nitrogen talk 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 about the mechanics of comics, and something I think that should be seen again, elsewhere. Andrew had a whole presentation, which went into details of the creation of the Artemis Fowl comics, and both men know their work. Eoin and Andrew had produced, free of charge, for all present an eight page comic, entitled The Last Crusade through water and fire. A mix of legend and mythology as well as a beautiful twist in time. The comic was drawn by Giovanni Rigano, 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 wearing kid who decided he 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 Darren’s idea, 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. They both read some, and it was a great ‘discussion’ the two of them are very funny, Eoin has the ability of a stand up comedian, and paired with Darren it was great laugh out loud laughter. Then they signed and signed 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; first off we had the hostess, looking French signing Duke Ellington and Edith Piaf. Then we had a belly dancer with a sword, Alexandra Drafilova from 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 organ and occasional guitar accompaniment, Sarah Rees Brennan made everyone laugh with a short reading 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 especially liked Darwins Vampire, Saint (which had everyone pissing themselves laughing) and his reading of his title poem, from his book A shopping Mall on Mars, was very science fictional. But then, there was something really rare and delightful. Eoin Colfer had said a few times 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 sort of author, writing about track suited gueriers, a crime boss, and inner city life, but with a streak of black humour that was impressive. There was a reference in the story, which drove the gathered crowd, who had been guffawing and laughing to cheering and it was very good, violent, dark, full of vulgarity and abuse and dublinisms. More music, Jacques Brel’s the Port of Amsterdam, and some amazing footage by a local teenager Chris O’Neil http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywmpMQYojs who was on stage, 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 in an attic, scurrying nearly, being pursued, and a real hush befall the venue, and we say Rick Deckard, slip and fall, and grip to a girder for dear life, and as Roy Batty saved his live a real tingle ran through the audience, and then, we all watched, and some even cried, as we watched what must be the best science fictional 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, or illustrations 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 chilled way. 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 specifically 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 across well, 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 capitalise on 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 costuming group and Cosplayers, from a local, newly established Anime and Manga Club. That is not the only thing newly established, a new shop Alien8 will be launching over the weekend. A walk and art competition to join our short story one is in the offing, and as well as science fun, this time with Chaotic Chemicals from Doctor Emma, and also her ‘Big Bangs’, we also have medical mayhem from Dr Heidi, who will be talking about Poisons, Plagues and Pestilence and about how we may just find ourselves with a plague that zombifies people and what we should do. Sick bags will be issued out to all children as they enter, as a reminder that it’s OK to feel horrified.

For more details, check out www.wexworldsfesti val.com All wexworlds images are copyrighted to ©Filip Naum 2009 and ©Arek Wnuk 2009 who have photographed Wexworlds 2009 on assignment from the Wexford`s Arts Centre. Irish Horror Cinema by Kim Newman First appeared in The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies (http://irishgothichorrorjournal.homestead.com /kimprinter.html)

Even setting aside the myriad film versions of Dracula, which range from purportedly faithful versions of Bram Stoker’s novel to wild tangents like Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966) and Dracula Sucks (1979), Irish creative talents have had a significant role in the history of the . The Jewel of Seven Stars, Stoker’s other major horror novel, has been officially filmed several times (Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb, 1971, The Awakening, 1980, Legend of the Mummy, 1997), unofficially several times more (La Cabeza Viviente/The Living Head, 1963) and is a source for almost all ‘mummy’ movies. J. Sheridan LeFanu’s vampire tale ‘’ and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and ‘The Canterville Ghost’ have inspired multiple film and television adaptations. Like Macardle’s novel Uneasy Freehold, filmed as The Uninvited (1944), these oft- told stories are notably not set in Ireland, though Stoker and LeFanu frequently wrote about their native land, drawing on Irish legends and folk-tales for their ghost stories. We still await a film of the greatest of all horror novels to use an Irish location, William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland. Away from the homeland, Irish ex-patriots have done important work in horror: directors Rex Ingram (The Magician, 1926), Roy William Neill (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, 1943) and Neil Jordan (Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, 1992) and actors Arthur Shields (a werewolf in Daughter of Dr Jekyll, 1957), Jack MacGowran (Dance of the Vampires, 1967), Gabriel Byrne (a Nazi in The Keep, 1983, the Devil in End of Days, 1999), Stuart Townsend (the Vampire Lestat in Queen of the Damned, 2002, Dorian Gray in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 2003), Michael Gambon (a werewolf in The Beast Must Die, 1974), Liam Cunningham (a werewolf in Dog Soldiers, 2002), Brendan Gleeson (Lake Placid, 1999, 28 days later …, 2002), Stephen Rea (The Doctor and the Devils, 1985, FeardotCom, 2002, The I Inside, 2003) and Patrick Bergin (who has played Frankenstein, Dracula and the Devil). Patrick Magee, famed on stage as a great interpreter of the works of Samuel Beckett even counts as a minor horror star: with eye-rolling, beetle-browed, dialogue-savouring performances in the likes of Roger Corman’s The Masque of the Red Death (1964), Freddie Francis’s The Skull (1965), Die, Monster, Die! (1965), Marat/ Sade (as DeSade, 1967), The Fiend (1971), Roy Ward Baker’s Asylum (1972), Peter Sykes’s Demons of the Mind (1972), … And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973), The Monster Club (1980), Lucio Fulci’s Gatto Nero/The Black Cat (1981) and Walerian Borowczyk’s Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes (1981). Yet, for all this suitable talent, there’s a distinct shortage of Irish horror films, and little which might be counted as an Irish horror – or even fantastical – tradition in the cinema. Most treatments of Irish folklore in the cinema have been benign enough to overdose a sugar addict, usually buried under Hollywood’s idea of ‘Oirishness’. Walt Disney’s production of Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959) has (like most Disney ) one genuinely nightmarish sequence, in which the young hero is pursued by the Great Banshee. Otherwise, precious few chills can be found in the likes of Finian’s Rainbow (1968), Leapin’ Leprechauns (1995), Spellbreaker: Secret of the Leprechauns (1996), The Last Leprechaun (1998) and The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns (1999). Screen leprechauns tend to be cute, horribly-accented little fellows. Perversely, the minor Leprechaun horror franchise puts a nasty spin on this image rather than mining the many more sinister stories of the Little People. With Warwick Davis – who plays it cute in A Very Unlucky Leprechaun (1998) – under the snarling make-up and dressed like a demented Lucky Charms mascot with buckled shoes and big hat, Leprechaun (1993) has the title character loose in Los Angeles, inflicting horrible fates and worse wisecracks upon those ill-advised enough to steal his pot o’ gold. Despite featuring a young Jennifer Aniston, it’s a totally undistinguished effort – which didn’t stop Trimark pictures from making a slew of sequels: Leprechaun 2 (1994, aka One Wedding and Lots of Funerals), Leprechaun 3 (1995), Leprechaun: In Space (1997), Leprechaun in the Hood (2000) and Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003). In desperation, the films come up with their own rules, similar to the lore which affects screen vampires, so Davis’s cackling fiend is repelled by a four-leaf clover as Dracula would be by garlic. Outside of the Leprechaun series, which reached its nadir in a brace of films set in ‘tha Hood’ with Davis as a rapping monster taking on gangstas like Ice-T, Irish myth has figured in few horror films. Cry of the Banshee (1970) is misleadingly-titled: it’s set in England, and its howling monster is a male werewolf type rather than the Irish wailing woman. Banshee (2006) is a contemporary American action film about a figurative banshee – a vengeful, whining woman. Occasional television episodes have been more to the point, though rarely with distinction: ‘Banshee’ (Ray Bradbury Theater, 1986) offers Peter O’Toole spoofing John Huston in an elementary terror-by-spook episode, while the occasional historical flashbacks which explored the title character’s Dublin origins on Angel (1999- 2004) served mostly to expose cruelly David Boreanaz’s inability to do an accent. John Sayles’s The Secret of Roan Inish (1994) is delicately touched with fantasy, though not in the explicit Darby O’Gill manner and deals with a selkie, either a human raised by seals or a shapeshifter. Roan Inish is ambiguous about its selkie, but John Gray’s TV movie The Seventh Stream (2001), with fisherman Scott Glenn netting wereseal Saffron Burrows, is more explicit. Roan Inish and The Seventh Stream, essentially American productions, but use Irish locations and mostly Irish supporting casts. This pattern turns up over and over in the few pre-2000 works that might count as Irish horror. In 1963, Francis Ford Coppola persuaded Roger Corman – for whom he was working as a minion on a European-shot film called The Young Racers – to finance a quickie horror film that he might direct using some of the leftover Young Racers’ cast and crew. Always eager to squeeze an extra film out of a budget, Corman let the junior auteur have his head and the result was the Irish-shot Dementia 13 (aka The Haunted and the Hunted) – a Psycho knock-off about axe murders on the estate of the Haloran Family, one of whom is a homicidal maniac. Coppola, who would return to the genre with a vastly bigger budget on Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), works fast and creative in Dementia 13, making memorable, shocking little sequences out of the killings and the implied haunting, using his locations well and highlighting unexpected eeriness like a transistor radio burbling distorted pop music as it sinks into a lake along with a just-murdered corpse. It takes place in Ireland for convenience – if Corman had been shooting a Western instead of a European race track film, Coppola would have set the film in Texas – but Coppola uses the location well, and was among the first to discover the horror potential of Patrick Magee (who would work for Corman on other projects). Cast as the red herring local doctor, Magee is nicely self-deprecating, even delivering a speech about how his ‘one-sided smile’ makes him seem too sinister to be confided in. Ireland was and is occasionally used by British films to play other countries: Hammer never shot a horror film in Ireland, but did use its green, wet fields – less blighted, apparently by electricity pylons and passing lorries than their English equivalents - for a couple of their pocket-sized swashbucklers (Sword of Sherwood Forest, 1960, The Viking Queen, 1967). Cyril Frankel’s The Very Edge (1962), a little-known, interesting early entry in the psycho/stalker cycle, has maniacal Jeremy Brett persecuting ex-model/housewife Anne Heywood (with Magee down in the cast list); it unusually uses a nondescript modern Dublin suburb to represent a housing development in a non-specific English ‘New Town’. Don Sharp’s The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) effectively uses locations in Dublin and the surrounding countryside to represent London in the 1930s and the wilds of Tibet and China. Robert Altman’s psycho-charade Images (1972) and ’s science fiction film (1974) get a great deal of value out of widescreen vistas of the countryside, without confirming (or denying) that their stories are set in Ireland. This tradition is continued in Reign of Fire (2002), in which Ireland plays a post-end-of-the-world England ruled by fire-breathing dragons, and the slasher film Wilderness (2006), set on an offshore island but shot in . Until the mid-1990s, homegrown (or even transplanted) Irish horror cinema consisted mostly of footnotes. Hilton Edwards, the Dublin stage director, made a short film Return to Glennascaul (1951) with Orson Welles, playing himself, being told an elementary ghost story (the one about the disappearing inn). It’s an interesting footnote to Welles’s career, and – were it not for the mildness of its scary elements – might count as Ireland’s first horror film. The Swedish director Calvin Floyd made two interesting Irish-Swedish gothic horrors: (1977), a low-key relatively faithful version of the Mary Shelley novel (the chapters which involve the near-creation of the Monster’s Mate are set in Ireland), and The Sleep of Death (1981), based on LeFanu’s ‘The Room at the Dragon Volant’ (which had already been done on television as ‘The Inn of the Flying Dragon’, 1960, and ‘The Flying Dragon’, 1966, episodes of the American Dow Hour of Great Mysteries and the British Mystery and Imagination series). Though set in , Sleep of Death is a unique Irish-based adaptation of a story by one of Ireland’s major horror writers, and furthermore features and Patrick Magee as a sinister Marquis. Floyd’s films are seriously-intended, though they incline towards Merchant-Ivory respectability in adapting their sources rather than taking off on cinematic flights of fancy. Interesting rather than frightening, Floyd’s films are still a cut aboveThe Fantasist (1986), a Dublin-set serial killer mystery which was Robin Hardy’s disappointing, tardy follow-up to The Wicker Man (1973), and George Pavlou’s below-average monster romp Rawhead Rex (1986). Based on a Clive Barker story which is set in rural England, Rawhead was relocated to Ireland for budget reasons -- though the plot revolves around an Anglican church and awkward lines had to be tipped in when someone remembered there were no Roman ruins in Ireland. The novelist and director Neil Jordan usually brings a fantastical touch to his films, and gets closer to genre horror in his adaptations of Angela Carter (The Company of Wolves, 1983), Anne Rice and Bari Wood (In Dreams, 1999). However, the comical ghost romp High Spirits (1988), which is set in Ireland, is among his least- satisfying films, an effects-heavy pudding which ought to be a breezy comic fantasy but devolves into failed farce. The Butcher Boy (1997), based on Pat McCabe’s novel, is closer to horror, entering the mind of a junior psychopath (Eamonn Owens) who has visions of the Virgin Mary (Sinead O’Connor) and takes great delight in murdering a neighbour (Fiona Shaw) he holds responsible for all the troubles visited upon his family. Like The Fantasist, The Butcher Boy plays up the specific Irish milieu, addressing the not-always-benign influence of the Church on all things: Hardy works on the rural Catholic upbringing of his imperilled, resilient heroine (Moira Harris), but Jordan and McCabe fill out the 1960s world of young Francie, influenced by American popular culture but also his father’s repeated yarns and invented myths. Three decades on from Dementia 13, Roger Corman set up his own unit in Ireland and backed a clutch of genre movies to feed the hungry maw of his Roger Corman Presents series of made-for-cable movies, with an eye on ancillary video (later, DVD) rental and sales business. In rapid succession, Corman produced Scott P. Levy’s House of the Damned (aka Escape to Nowhere, 1996), starring Alexandra Paul and Greg Evigan; Howard McCain’s The Unspeakable (1996), scripted by Christopher Wood (who once wrote the ‘Confessions’ books and films as Timothy Lea and a few Roger Moore Bond movies), starring Athena Massey, David Chokachi, Timothy Busfield and Cyril O’Reilly; Mitch Marcus’s The Haunting of Hell House (1999), starring Michael York and Claudia Christian, and purportedly based on a story by Henry James; Marcus’s Knocking on Death’s Door (1999), starring Brian Bloom, Kimberly Rowe, John Doe and David Carradine; Michael B. Druxman’s The Doorway (2000), starring Roy Scheider, Lauren Woodland and Christian Harmony; and Marcus’s Wolfhound (2002), which the director signed with the pseudonym ‘Donovan Kelly’, from a script by novelist Scott Bradfield, with Allen Scotti, Jennifer Courtney and Playboy Playmate Julie Cialini. Corman also backed a couple of anonymous action-thrillers in Ireland (Bloodfist VIII: Trained to Kill, 1996, Dangerous Curves, 2000) using the same set-up. These films rely on lower-case American writers, directors and lead actors, but use Irish supporting players – frequently dubbed in an attempt to pass off Ireland as Maine or Massachusetts. Recurring presences include Brendan Murray, Mike O’Nolan, John McHugh, Colm O’Maonlai, Brian Glanney and a surprising number of veterans of the Irish language TV soap Ros na Run. Only House of the Damned and Wolfhound are set in Ireland: both are about American (or Irish-American) couples who unwisely settle in hostile communities, to be pestered by spooks in one case and a pack of shapeshifters in the other. Wolfhound, despite silly lesbian werebabe scenes, is probably the pick of the litter, thanks to a few good lines from Bradfield and local actor Brian Monahan’s imposing performance as an alpha male werewolf. Not one of these films, but easy to lump in with them (a few actors recur) is John Hough’s Bad Karma aka Hell’s Gate (2002), from a novel by Douglas Clegg, starring Patsy Kensit, Patrick Muldon and Amy Locane. This also passes off Irish locations as New England, but it’s a little nastier than the television-backed Corman movies, involving sado-masochist murders and the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper. The American Michael Almereyda first tackled Bram Stoker in the unusual, low-budget, black and white New York vampire movie Nadja (1994), in which he cast Irish actor Karl Geary as Renfield, the fly-eating minion of Dracula. Almereyda’s slightly more conventional second horror film is Eternal (1998) aka Trance or The Eternal: Kiss of the Mummy. This uniquely connects Stoker with his homeland, trotting out yet another variant on Bram Stoker’s oft-filmed Jewel of Seven Stars but with the novel’s Egyptology background stripped away in favour of more unusual Irish Drudiry. It works on atmosphere and character, developing its plot in surprising lurches, and gets away with its old-hat story of a heroine under threat of possession by a distant or recent ancestor by dint of oblique storytelling, unusually convincing performances, a whole-hearted embrace of gothic blarney and sheer mystic vagueness. Nora (Alison Elliott) and Jim (Jared Harris), an alcoholic New York couple with a young son (Jeffrey Goldschrafe), return to Nora’s childhood home in Ireland, where her blind academic uncle (Christopher Walken) and bedridden grandmother (Lois Smith), assisted by a little (Rachel O’Rourke) who shares narrating chores with Jim Jr, preside over a house haunted by the spirit of a two-thousand-year-old Druid priestess, whose bog- preserved corpse is kept in the cellar and who manifests herself looking either like Nora’s mother (Sinead Dolan) or Nora herself. The uncle is killed at the half-way point by the revived mummy and the old lady calls in Nora’s ex-boyfriend (Geary) and some semi-terrorist gunmen to deal with the revenant, which is worming its way into Nora’s family almost by accident. In the end, mother love and a bottle of Irish whiskey get through and the priestess recreates her original drowning, leaving the smashed family to reform. Elliott and Harris are an unusual hero and heroine for a horror film, troubled by booze and simmering family resentments and yet still credibly a couple, and the actors imbue the roles with unusual but unshowy depth -- Harris, while lampooning the resident mad professor, even does a 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 confrontation between the dazed, resilient mummy and the gunmen is interesting, but works hard on an air of disorienting (here, slightly boozy or druggy) menace. Like Nadja, Eternal uses home movie-like snippets to fill in the never- quite-defined idylls and horrors of the protagonist’s childhood. Far more than the Corman implants, Almereyda uses the Irish setting and locations in an interesting way, with the bog-tanned an intriguing, culture- specific alternative to the usual wrapped Egyptian mummy. Meanwhile, Irish filmmakers began to make their own horror films – mostly outside the mainstream of the small Irish film industry, whose tentative approach to genre yielded only odd, arty, whimsical items like Steve Barron’s Rat (2000), Robert Quinn’s Dead Bodies (2003) and John Simpson’s Freeze Frame (2004). In Northern Ireland, Enda Hughes directed, wrote, edited and photographed The Eliminator (1996), a hand-to-mouth movie in the spirit of Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste (1987), similarly put together over a lengthy shoot by enthusiastic and irreverent young film-makers. While Jackson’s movie has a pace and confidence which bely its origins, The Eliminator capitalises on its ramshackle feel, sometimes staging stunt or action sequences with a deliberate clumsiness that dovetails seamlessly in with budget-enforced choppiness (£8,000). It opens portentously with a quotation from an ancient Irish necromantic text that suggests this, like seemingly every other film ever made in Northern Ireland, will be a serious film about ‘the troubles’. ‘The Organisation’ - presumably the IRA - is concerned because the British security services have kidnapped O’Brien (Michael Hughes), a student rebel who has on disc the plans to a super-vehicle ‘the Viper’. The eye-patched, claw-handed, limping, geek-bearded, overacting Hawk (Mik Duffy) sends his one-time friend Stone (Barry Wallace), a supercool superspy in a snappy hat, to rescue O’Brien and bring back the plans. However, because of bad blood between Hawk and Stone, Stone is set up to fail in his mission, having been given a map of Vietnam rather than Cornwall. O’Brien is tortured in a disused cardboard box factory by cackling Brits who have built the Viper - a tank-like effort resembling a carnival float version of the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons - and need the codeword to make the on-board computer work. Stone frees O’Brien and the Brits get wiped out in a knockabout battle, during which O’Brien commandeers the Viper and drives it around a factory site, ploughing through strategically placed piles of cardboard boxes. After some gore, Stone defeats the Brits - the chief nasty, Scorpio, is burned up in a Mad Max-ish car smash - but is killed by Hawk when he complains about being sent into action without back-up. Then the spy/s-f/action plot winds down and the horror movie kicks in, as Stone returns from the dead with a white curly wig and a Darkman hat-and-mask arrangement, picking up some firepower from an arms dump and heading off to ‘the Irish Rebel Graveyard’ to invoke a curse from the Celtic Book of the Dead and raise the zombified remains of Ireland’s heroes to see off the Organisation’s balaclava-helmeted goons. There’s ‘a bitching zombie fight’ in the graveyard, complete with sneezed-out eyeballs, Fulci-like facial maggots, plenty of stumbling around, and a lot of amiably silly gore. In the finale, O’Brien tries to settle things by summoning up disappointing Irish heroes - Cuchullain, who turns out to be a spotty youth, and the giant Finn MacCool, who has shrunk into a prancing leprechaun - and then St Patrick himself to sort out the squabble. St Pat delivers a speech about how Irishmen should turn to the ways of peace and everyone seems cowed, but the zombie Stone condemns everyone present as ‘hypocritical bastards’ and pulls the pin out of a grenade. The last line has St Patrick muttering ‘oh shit’; then it’s a rousing chorus of ‘Alternative Ulster’ over the (long) end credits. One-man band Hughes may not have been able to get audible dialogue recordings - much of Hawk’s manic yattering is white noise - but he still manages something distinctive. The most Jackson-like aspect (cf: Meet The Feebles, 1989) is the jokey Vietnam flashback - set up by a hilariously a-historical speech that gets all the dates wrong - with yellow-tinted frolics and gore in the jungle. The two major set-pieces are the Viper/car chase and the zombie battle, both of which are packed with gags but go on too long. It’s very rough-hewn, but Hughes cannily gets laughs from things like mistimed punches or obvious stunt dummies. The cast mostly mug outrageously - Duffy is probably too broad even for this - but Wallace and Michael Hughes deliver surprisingly decent work. It may be obscure, and its North-of-the-Border origins marginalize it even within a marginalized filmography – when the producers of Dead Meat (2004) and Boy Eats Girl (2005) were arguing over who could claim the title of ‘Ireland’s first zombie movie’, they either didn’t remember or didn’t countThe Eliminator, which undeniably got there first. Though obviously a low-budget effort, writer-director Conor McMahon’s Dead Meat feels far more like a ‘proper film’ than The Eliminator, with funding from the Irish Film Board. It has a rural setting (including an impressive ruined castle location) and makes vague topical references to the mad cow disease and foot and mouth outbreaks, and characters who don’t try to disguise their accents, but still feels like a run-of-the-mill zombie film, a simple imitation of George Romero’s work which dwells on disembowelling extras and staging zombie chase sequences without tackling the sub-textural material which makes Romero’s films more than just bloody exploitation. It opens eerily with a farmer attacked by a mad zombie cow on a near-derelict farm (a setting which recurs in the slender Irish horror filmography) and the living dead disease jumps the species barrier from cattle to people, which turns loose the usual bloodthirsty, gut-munching ghouls on the countryside. Helena (Marian Araujo) and Martin (David Ryan) knock down a shambling derelict (Ned Dennehy) on a rural road, and assume they’ve 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 joining up with spade-wielding gravedigger Desmond (David Muyllaert) to struggle across country towards the supposed safety of a rescue centre, picking up a few more stragglers (dead meat, in plot terms) to get bitten, transformed or killed. Eoin Whelan, veteran of McMahon’s hurling-themed horror short The Braineater (2001), plays the liveliest character: Cathal, an obnoxious local with a tweed cap, a thick accent and a tendency to rambling non sequitur. The finale is cynical and downbeat, as Helena makes it through but is instantly penned in trucks with other civilians, but it seems more like a straight lift from Romero’s The Crazies (1974) than anything felt. Stephen Bradley’s Boy Eats Girl, scripted by Derek Landy, is an even more derivative zombie comedy (essentially a remake of Bob Balaban’s My Boyfriend’s Back, 1993). A lengthy series of contrivances to do with nervous schoolboy hero Nathan (David Leon) and his attempt to tell a longtime friend (Samantha Mumba) he is in love with her lead to the teenager semi-accidentally hanging himself, whereupon his devoted mother (Deirdre O’Kane) uses a forbidden book of voodoo spells which happens to be stashed in the basement of the local church to bring him back to life. Thanks to a missing page, a crucial ingredient is left out of the spell, and Nathan revives as a potential cannibal. Without a pulse or blood pressure (this is perhaps the first film to deal with the problem of erectile dysfunction among the undead), Nathan attends the school disco, where he is overcome by zombie instincts and bites the rugby-playing bully (Mark Huberman), who proceeds to spread the usual plague of -eating zombiedom among the locals. It contrasts poorly with ’s (2004) which wholly embraces its Britishness for contrast with the American conventions of the zombie genre. A stumbling imitation of lesser films, to the extent of casting thirtyish teenagers and presenting a view of school life which is a cartoon idea of American teendom not remotely credible as Irish, Boy Eats Girl loses the cultural specificity (it was even mostly shot on the Isle of Man) that even Dead Meat takes pride in. It gets gruesome in the home stretch, with a combine harvester massacre rather like the one in Jake West’s Evil Aliens (2005) and gore all over the floor – but a handy snake, whose presence in famously snake-free Ireland is never explained, provides the final ingredient and restores the hero to normal life. Picking up on elements hinted at in Dead Meat, two films finally advanced the cause of a specifically Irish mode of horror movie, albeit within familiar sub-genres. Director-writer Patrick Kenny’s Winter’s End (2005) is an entry in the ‘captivity’ cycle of psycho-thriller (cf: The Collector, 1965, Misery, 1990, Calvaire, 2003). Slacker photographer Jack Davis (Adam Goodwin) attends an open-air concert the film can’t afford to depict, gets completely drunk, has a brief argument with his more responsible married best friend Ben (Donie Ryan) and returns to the field to find his car has been stolen. Farmer Henry Rose (Michael Crowley) lures him down a country road so he can use the phone and knocks him out, then chains him up in the barn. Gradually, it emerges that the cracked villain’s plan is to have the victim impregnate Amy (Jillian Bradbury), his half-sister, so that his family’s 150 year-long tenancy of the failing farm can continue. Henry says he’ll let the lad go with a cash pay-out, but Jack is smart enough to realise from the outset that the farmer has to kill him to have a hope of getting away with it. The set-up at the farm is interesting, with Henry given a bit of range and depth in his crazy schemes, and an uneasy balance between the meek, dependant girl and her other brother Sean (Paul Whyte), a simpleton Henry keeps threatening to have put in an institution. Jack has to tell the girl, who has been cut off from TV and newspapers, that Ireland doesn’t have ‘institutions’ in that sense any more, and hasn’t for years. All stories like this follow a similar pattern – with the victim going from disbelief to pleading to desperate trying to escape via bogus cooperation and the captor trying to hold together a scheme which keeps stumbling over the human element – but Winter’s End is well-enough written and acted to get past familiarity. There’s a clever surprise late in the day, as the captive cannily gets the farmer to send out for an especially poncey Italian meal as a last supper – which turns out to be a signal to his best friend, the chef in the restaurant. The climax is protracted, with running about and hiding behind hedges plus shotgun-waving and an obvious casualty – but the coda, which finds captive and ‘wife’ together four years later, with a young daughter, is surprisingly affecting with a minor undertone of creepiness. Writer-director Billy O’Brien’s Isolation (2006) offers another desperate, lonely farmer out to preserve his doomed business, but segues from rural misery and suspense to monster attacks. The strength of O’Brien’s something-nasty-on-the-farm film is that it has enough confidence in the effectiveness of its special effects to avoid the knockabout slapstick found in The Eliminator or Dead Meat (and UK-shot efforts like The Revenge of Billy the Kid, 1991, or Evil Aliens) and treats its potentially ridiculous, -variant story with the utmost seriousness. In grimly-realistic, Irish rural mode, farmer Dan (John Lynch) is clearly close to cracking up and troubled by the difficulty his pregnant cows are having in coming to term. Dan tries to shoo off a traveller (Sean Harris, of Creep, 2004) and his runaway girlfriend (Ruth Negga, of Breakfast on Pluto, 2005), but in a calls the kids in to help him haul a calf out of its mother with a winch and rope. The local vet (Essie Davis) and a lone scientist (Marcel Iures) are also around the farm, and it turns out that the cows are being used in fringe unethical experiments that have a nasty side-effect. The calves are born pregnant with inside-out little freak foetuses which get loose after an autopsy and grow rapidly into voracious monsters. The film offers a long, atmospheric build-up, full of pregnant pauses, withheld explanations and desperate characters who never quite explain their awful situations – but the last half-hour is a high quality monster runabout, with the well-realised creatures darting out of the shadows to inflict horrible damage on the dwindling human cast. O’Brien follows examples like 28 days later … and Wild Country (2005), telling a familiar story in an unusual manner, with a lot of work on the nuanced but unfussy performances (Lynch, in particular, does something with almost no scripted material to go on) and a sense of real characters in a crisis to ground the basic monster movie business in mucky credibility. The effects by veteran Bob Keen are fine, and sparingly-used – with one nice moment as the biggest of the monsters has a sudden full reveal, and stays on screen a few seconds longer than expected without losing its shock value. Without overstressing its origins, Isolation also offers a specific Irish take on its story – the motor of the plot, as in Winter’s End, is the economic plight of traditional farm folk left behind by the ‘Celtic ’ boom and clinging to the land with all the tenacity of Richard Harris in The Field (1990); and there’s uncomfortable truth in the treatment of the traveller couple, jovially advised with menaces to move on by the Garda and instantly suspected of any crime or horror. There are still too-few Irish horror films to perceive a tradition, though the preponderance of rural agricultural miserablism as opposed to, say, Dublin-set urban ghost stories, is striking. Pegarty Long’s The Irish Vampire Goes West (2006), the first Irish vampire film, is forthcoming, and may take another direction. And there are still a great many Irish or Irish-set horror stories, and a wealth of sinister folklore, which could profitably be brought to the screen. Finally, this survey would not be complete without mention of the most purely frightening ten minutes in Irish cinema, writer-director Brendan Muldowney’s The Ten Steps (2004) – which combines ancient (a house where the Devil was once seen) and modern (a mobile phone-call) with psychology (fear of the dark, sibling tensions) and the supernatural (a hell-dimension in the basement). Here, at last, is the true Celtic Chiller. IRISH COMICS-FUN OR PROFIT? By David McDonald

There have never been as many comics produced in Ireland as there are now, with genres ranging from Horror and Sci Fi to Irish legend and slice of life. I myself have produced a couple of reprint volumes of British comics, Doomlord and the 13th Floor. I got the idea for these when I was involved with Titan publishing in a small way producing and The Spider collection a few years back. I had the ‘raw’ material so I went and procured the rights to reprint the material and produced two comics, which received very favorable reviews. Both sold well considering that I had no distribution deal in place, Doomlord was a financial disaster, but a great school, I learnt a lot about the publishing industry from the mistakes and my naivety. The 13th Floor sold well and was a moderate success, i.e. I didn’t loose too much money! I’m 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 a small press 2000ad , with an Irish flavour, Tales from the Emerald Isle, featuring Irish 2000ad stories. This will hopefully be out towards the end of October. This will feature characters such as Judge Joyce and , and feature talent from Ireland, the UK and the US. This has again been a learning ground, and the mechanics of putting together a new comic as opposed to a reprint are surprisingly different. With reprint comics I had to deal with contracts, and conditions, contacting original creators, scanning and restoring the pages of artwork, whereas the fanzine is a much more relaxed atmosphere, I threw out the concept, the writers 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 final stage of deciding whether print or PDF (I was imaging some sort of small print run, I’m a luddite when it comes to reading comics on a screen) the work is going to be much the same as the reprint volumes organizing print and distributing etc . Most comics produced in Ireland are lovingly produced small press titles, 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! was the first 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 in 2000ad as Bob Byrnes Twisted tales. http: //clamnuts.com/ Colm Ó Raghallaigh Graphic Novels featuring stories of Irish legend as Gaelige have been around for a few years and by all accounts are doing very well. http://www.leabhar.com/ Gerry Hunt’s Blood Upon the Rose is the first Irish graphic novel I’ve seen in bookshops all around the country given prominent display. Great reviews too. Berserker comics have been publishing comic with names such as and working for them. http://www.thedeadcomic.com/ Ri Ra, an as Gaelige pocket comic, aimed at Irish speaking school children, featuring reprints material from Europe and new material, Bob Byrne and Al Nolan among other have contributed. http://www.coimicigael.ie/ Rob Curley, the prop of Sub City comic shop, has been publishing Freakshow and the upcoming Rosin Dubh under the Atomic Diner imprint. These are all very well produced, with high production values and quality content, I don’t know their financial situation but I’d say they are in it to make a profit/living. For Irish comics to be a financial success most of the above are doing the right thing. There are a few different format of publishing that we are familiar with in Ireland. The British format of newstand comics which once was the most successful in the world has shrunk to a very small niche market and trying to break into that market really is impossible. Only recognizable brands besides nursery titles and TV tie-ins still survive like , Commando and the always-excellent 2000ad. The American format is the direct distribution of monthly comics to comic shops. It might be easier to get on the ladder and get you product into these shop, but it is a fast shrinking market, with most comics shop having to diversify into Toys and Wargaming to help keep them going, it’s going to be harder to get your comic seen. As well there are only a handful of these shops in Ireland which will limit sales further The Graphic Novel/ European album format is, in my opinion, the way to go. Comic shops will take your books, more and more bookshops are stocking Graphic Novels. Libraries are interested in stocking Graphic Novels, especially if produced by Irish creators. These also give a much longer shelf life than regular comics and the possibility of selling abroad if the material is good enough. Web comics are a newer development. With the spread of Broadband across the country over the last decade, it makes viewing image laden files much more practical, and comics creators have taken full advantage of this. I am not a big fan of reading comics on screen; I prefer to have a bit of paper. This leaves me at a disadvantage, I’m not familiar with much of the material been produce in this way from Ireland, with one exception, Paddy Brown’s The Cattle Raid of Cooley, done in red Biro and is great reading. Paddy is currently collecting these as comics. http://paddybrown.co.uk Web comics do give an advantage over paper in that they are much cheaper to produce, and a lot easier to promote and ‘distribute’, but there are still a lot out there that like me are not resistant to the idea, but it just doesn’t appeal. There is also a chance that it could be picked up by a publisher, like Edginton and D’Isreali’s and ’s Lilly MacKenzie; both were produced as web comics and both were picked up by The Megazine. The small press will always be here giving the comics industry lovingly crafted comics and the new talent of tomorrow. Irish comics so far haven’t been caught in the rut, not that there is anything wrong with supes, but if a fledgling industry is to appeal to as many people as possible it needs to have as diverse a range of genres as possible, so far so good.

David McDonald - [email protected] Location, Location, Location By John Vaughan Ireland , land of myth and legend , it’s literature and culture is steeped in folklore and fairytales, yet when it comes to cinema…hardly anything , Irish cinema seems to choose reality instead of myth when it comes to telling it’s tales on the Silver Screen… even foreign productions using Ireland as a location seem to ignore the more elements… but fear not, there are those film makers who see the potential of using Ireland as a base for telling tales of the fantastic be it Horror, Fantasy or Science Fiction. Here for your delectation is a brief sample of the best, the worst and the most downright bizarre to come out of the Emerald Isle. The Best

5. DARBY O GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Yes it’s the singing film but it’s also a rather clever film for it’s day, using cutting edge cinematic Illusions in it’s tale of Darby O Gill and his struggles with the Leprechaun King (Jimmy O Dea). It’s also quite a dark tale for a Disney Film with the Little People being close to malevolent in their dealings with Darby.

4. KING ARTHUR: Antoine Fuqua’s 2004 film may have flopped at the Box Office , but it’s “realistic” retelling of the Arthurian legend does have some fantastic battle scenes as it try’s to capture the collapse of the Roman Empire and the birth of a legend.

3. THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN’S APOCALYPSE: Yes Ireland stood in for Royston Vasey when it came to the big screen adaptation of the popular series, hardly anyone saw this film which was actually a brilliant satire on film making, fame, comedy, writing and the perceptions of reality itself.

2. REIGN OF FIRE : Ireland once again stood in as England for this Wyndhamesque tale of survival in a world dominated by dragons. Stand out moments include Matthew McConaughey’s performance as a crazed dragon hunter, a retelling of the Empire Strikes Back and a lovely moment where other survivors are discovered to be French.

1 EXCALIBUR: Still the daddy of films of the fantastic shot in Ireland, this is yet to be beaten as the best telling of the King Arthur legend. Brilliant performances all round from an all star cast Including Nichol Williamson’s take on Merlin, Gabriel Byrne as Uther Pendragon and a young Liam Neeson as Gawain. It even includes a very shouty performance from Patrick Stewart that somehow works.

The Bizarre

4. SPACE TRUCKERS: Once seen as the great white hope of Irish Cinema, this flopped losing millions, a mess but when seen as what it is, the b-movie tale of a space trucker (Dennis Hopper) who has to transport square pigs while fighting space pirates, it isn’t that bad. Most bizarre moment: Charles Dance as the cybernetic pirate leader starting his genitals like a chainsaw (yes, you read that right!) as he prepares to seduce his latest female prisoner.

3. ISLAND OF TERROR: Directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing, this is the tale of an Island off the coast of Galway being terrorised by Selenoids, genetically created bone eating monsters. Really, do you need more of a story?

2 GORGO: The British monster movie shall we say “inspired” by Godzilla. It tells the tale of GORGO , a poor sea monster captured off the west coast of Ireland and sold into the slavery of an English circus (No, I am not making this up!) Once in England scientists discover GORGO is in fact… a baby! And its enraged Mother is coming to rescue it (there is nothing more terrifying than a 200 ft enraged Irish Mammy!) After destroying London Mother and child head back out to sea …leaving the capital burning and hundreds if not thousands dead…the filmmakers actually filmed this as a happy ending?!?!?

1 ZARDOZ: “The gun is good, the Penis is evil!” Set in a post-apocalyptic world (Co.Wicklow) Zardoz is the story of…well I don’t think anyone really knows even 36 years later! Its director John Boorman has admitted it might have worked better as a novel, all we know is that it’s partially based on the Wizard of (ZARDOZ , gettit!) and has Sean Connery in a fetching one piece nappy suit and ponytail. Most bizarre moment… the entire bloody film!

And finally the down right awful

RAWHEAD REX: Ahhh, what can be said about this utter mess of a movie? Starring some of Ireland’s finest actors in some of their worst roles, t would take pages to describe just how awful this is, somehow managing to be so bad it’s actually good. Poor scriptwriting, misguided performances and hilariously miscued music are just a fraction of it’s problems. The only good thing to come out of this was Clive Barker was so upset by the screen adaptation he vowed to adapt his own stories to screen. His first feature length film? Hellraiser! Who says every cloud doesn’t have a silver lining? The Phoenix Convention By Peter McClean

2011 will see the Northern Ireland-based winner Ian McDonald appearing as Guest of Honour at the eighth Phoenix Convention in Dublin. This annual event, better known as “P-Con”, was the brainchild of long-term fandom aficionado, Pádraig Ó Méalóid. Pádraig had always thought the Ashling Hotel would be a wonderful venue for a convention, and given its 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 had to seek a new home for P-Con IV. Wynn’s Hotel in Abbey Street, just off O’Connell Street, and right in the heart of Dublin, was the base for P-Con IV which took place in March 2007. The Central Hotel, across the river and closer to the eateries and watering holes of Dublin’s nightlife, became the home for P-Cons V, VI, 7(the Chairman liked the figure, “7”), and VIII. Ken MacLeod was the first P-Con Guest of Honour, and he was followed, in sequence, by Juliet E. McKenna, Susanna Clarke, Kim Newman, C.E. Murphy, , and Nick Harkaway, with, as mentioned above, Ian McDonald appearing as Guest of Honour in 2011 at P-Con VIII. The Phoenix logo used by the convention was designed by Feòrag NicBhrìde, and it has proved to be an enduring symbol, for which the organisers are eternally grateful to Feòrag. According to the people who return to the convention year after year, its success stems from its intimacy and welcoming ethos. Not just members, but many of the guests also return. Juliet E. McKenna holds the record for being a guest at every P-Con. She won this accolade when her rival for the title, Charles Stross, was unable to attend P-Con 7 in 2010. P-Con III saw the first charity auction held at the convention. The Oesophageal Cancer Fund was the beneficiary, selected because a close friend of Pádraig Ó Méalóid, and of Irish fandom in general, Dave Stewart, was suffering from this ailment at the time. It was hoped Dave would be well enough to attend the auction, but this proved not to be the case, and sadly, Dave passed away in October of 2006. It was also at P-Con III that Pádraig approached Frank Darcy with a view to Frank taking over the reigns as chairman. Frank agreed to take on the task with the support of others and consequently he was convention chairman for P-Con IV and V. During the summer following P-Con IV, Frank was diagnosed as having cancer. He put up a strong fight against his illness and by P-Con V, in March, 2008 he had been informed that his treatment appeared to be working. The cancer, however, did not surrender so easily and Frank died in July of that year. P-Con VI was co-chaired by the triumvirate of Niamh and Aidan Darcy (Frank’s daughter and son), and Peter McClean. Michael Carroll, a longstanding friend to Frank, James Shields, webmaster extraordinaire, and the rest of the Darcy family, helped ensure that P-Con VI happened. Peter McClean, with the support of James Shields, and the other McCleans (Caitríona, Deirdre, Éadaoin, Donal & Andrew), chaired P-Con 7 and is currently organising P-Con VIII. P-Con 7 was the first Phoenix Convention at which the face of Irish convention registration tables, Brian Nisbet, was not taking memberships and handing out badges. Caitríona McClean took on this role and found it a 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-drabble” writing competition held during the weekend of the convention. Paul Cornell, as Guest of Honour, judged the entries and Jennifer Delaney became the first every winner of a “Darcy”. In 2010, at P-Con 7, Nick Harkaway judged the competition and Julian West took the honours, as well 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 March; with Hugo Award-winning writer, Ian McDonald as Guest of Honour.

The Boundry Stone photo by Fin McAteer A New Frontier by Robert Curley

Storytelling is rooted deeply in Irish culture and even more importantly in our very fabric. Who we are today and how we see ourselves stretches back centuries, before television, before radio, before theatre when the only means of communication was the spoken word and tales were told across the land of brave men and women heroes and villains, gods and demons. Tales of a mythical Ireland, filled with magic and bloodshed. Some of these heroes have survived over the centuries and their names remain somewhere in our consciousness dormant, but not dead. Heroes waiting for their chance to come back to into our lives. Waiting for the mist to lift and for us to see clearly again beyond the trappings of the modern world, waiting and hoping that one day soon we embrace our past and our culture and learn again how to connect with our heritage and how 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 Cu Chulainn and Finn Mac Cool, other heroes came to life across the globe. Baba Yaga in , Sigmundr in and Kibuka in Africa. All with one common goal, to know ourselves by expressing our deepest fears and our greatest hopes in the form of mythologies big and small. But as society moved on, the magic of old, lost its wonder and the dark forests that held so much fear and fascination were cleared to make way for a new world, one made of steel and concrete. This new world had little time for the stories from old. People left in their thousands in search of freedom and prosperity, leaving behind the shackles of religion and monarchy. There was ‘gold in them there hills’ and land waiting to be claimed. America’s first real mythology appeared in the shape of the cowboy, presented to the American public by journalists of the time as rugged, courageous men with a high moral fibre. The perfect representation of what America was supposed to stand for. This image spread over time with the introduction of mass media. One of the most popular forms of entertainment of the time being the frontier melodramas and none were more effective than those presented by Buffalo Bill Cody in the form of Wild West shows. These shows toured America and Europe right up into the early part of the twentieth century helping to create the cowboy myth worldwide. As the image took hold, cowboy characters began to appear in dime store novels, no longer herding cattle they now took on the even more romantic image of crime fighters, saving the damsel and righting wrongs even though they themselves, more often than not, were operating outside of the law. Two of the most enduring and relevant characters to emerge from this tradition (even though created a lot later) were the Lone Ranger and Zorro. Their popularity proved so great, their adventures were serialised in TV shows and made into motion pictures increasing their popularity and more importantly exporting the image of the American hero around the globe on a scale never before seen. These two characters may have been the bridge between America’s first and until recently, it’s most identifiable mythology, the cowboy and its modern counterpart, the superhero. And over the next three decades, the American public were witness to a plethora of new heroes, each one representing the time and place of its creation. Superman, an alien from a far off land, finding a new home in the new world, the ultimate immigrant. Captain America, champion of justice, fighting the Nazi horde in a blaze of patriotic propaganda. By the 1960s things had begun to change again and this was reflected in a new wave of heroes most notably, Spiderman. A shy teenager with real, human problems, his powers reflecting his hidden potential unseen by the rest of society. Or the Uncanny X-Men, mutants feared and hated by the world around them, they can be seen as an attempt to highlight the racial tensions of the 1960s. Like all myths, these characters helped their readers to understand the world around them and how they themselves fitted in to it. America had finally created its own myths in the shape of those colourful do-gooders, gods for a modern world. A world that spread its message across the globe, affecting millions of teenagers and how they themselves viewed society around them. And while there are still great merits to those wild adventurers from a foreign land, there is also a price to pay. Over the years our own myths have been forgotten and with such a constant influx of stories in all forms of 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 now, and I am hoping over the coming years to help turn the tide in my own small way by introducing new creations along with breathing new life into heroes long forgotten. Some of Atomic Diner’s new titles due for release are Roisin Dubh, a young woman living in Nineteenth Century Ireland who has the world torn from beneath her and is forced to become a champion against the oncoming darkness. The League of Volunteers is a World War 2 adventure book and centres around a Government sponsored super team called in to keep the balance of neutrality during one of our country’s most interesting periods. And then hopefully later on in 2011 or early 2012, Jennifer Wilde, Glimmerman and The Emerald Scorpion. I’m not so deluded as to think these characters will have the same kind of impact as their American counterparts I’m simply happy to be involved in creating an Irish alternative and hope that somewhere along the way, these stories if not inspire, at least entertain. Dublin City Comic Con by James Bacon

17th and 18th November 2007 Tara Towers Hotel, Booterstown, Dublin, Ireland This event had the guest list that would have many a comic fanboy salivating at the gums. In attendance was 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 this one felt like there was a real step forward being taken, it was a well run altruistic event and the guests complimented this. Dublin has seen a sudden and rapid increase in comic book activity, in the last few years, and this was clearly to be 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 was his second such convention, the first he used as a learning tool it seems, as he described to me what he wanted to improve upon, obviously a man happy to reflect upon his achievements and develop. He also works with the Thought Bubble crew an awesome Comic Festival in Leeds, and I have personally seen him there, as I queued, helping out. I got to the convention venue which is on the southern coast of Dublin bay early enough. The hotel has a fantastic view and across the main coast road and bird sanctuary there is the bay. The nearest train station is Booterstown, and this is about two thirds between the city centre and Dun Laoghaire. It was a grey November day though as I joined friends in the queue outside. Immediately there was camaraderie among the hard core fans, who stood and waited, I reckoned a good fifty or so. It was great to catch up. The hotels function space is quite nice, two long rooms, one for dealers and one for talks, and a conservatory. Signings were due to take place in both the conservatory and the dealer’s room. There was an ample bar, lounge space and a nice restaurant. I again joined a queue, shorter this time as I had paid up online and then joined another queue for Jim Lee signings. Mr. Lee is currently working on DC Universe Online a multi media online role playing game, with DC and Sony Online Entertainment, as the game’s Executive Creative Director. At the time of the con, he was working on All Star Batman and Robin, was in good form despite a reported exuberant night on Friday. He is a very slight man in build, very pleasant and I asked him about the times he has written stories. It was apparent that he sees writing as the harder task and another day job in its own right. He was producing some very satisfying sketches of fine quality for fans as well as busily signing comics. It’s hard to explain how wonderful it was to encounter such a famous artist in such a warm and familiar environment. This is a man who at San Diego Comic con will start a queue hours before he is due to arrive and in the hundreds. The dealer’s room was peppered with both regular shops, individuals selling their own collections, and this is a good source of great bargains, one chap selling his collection from the last couple of years at a euro a comic. A large presence was the small press comic community, publishers, artists and writers selling their raw and sometimes 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 owner turned publisher now has comics listed through Diamond Distribution – This is Atomic Diner Comics and Robert Curley. Robert wasn’t here unfortunately, but many of the people who have drawn for him were, he is that type of guy with an eye – he sees good artwork, and is soon saying farewell as artists move into full time work. Comic artist John McCrea who has been working on The 99, a comic produced for the Middle East market for a Muslin readership was in good form and set up a sketch table in the dealers room. On a high following the release of his JLA/Hitman cross over, and he was busy drawing sketches for about eight hours, both days, nonstop. Marvel Editor C.B.Cebulski was on hand and accepting submissions to his ChesterQuest initiative. In his own words; ‘ChesterQuest was conceived as a talent search for pencilers and painters, ChesterQuest is meant to be fun for us all. I’m out here looking for 12 artists who have the skills to illustrate comics professionally for Marvel.’ And so he was. As one can imagine there were a number of budding artists along, leaving in portfolio’s and C.B. Cebulski had a private call back session. I have no idea how successful this was, but the opportunity alone is desirable I imagine. He also had an exclusive panel with news from the Marvel bullpen. I asked him afterwards about one aspect that interested me. Apparently Garth Ennis will be writing a new war comic series, called War is Hell. This will be a series of arcs, the first one is going to be called Phantom , 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 first arc would be four or five issues, but knew that the series will star a variety of characters in various war settings of differing eras. I was very pleased with this news. Panels were well attended, I reckoned about 300 people had turned up over the weekend and the discussions proved interesting. I heard from comic artist that he will be working on a stand alone comic celebrating 20 years of the comic, written by which will have an Iraq setting, which seemed topical. was very entertaining and insightful; especially into the business and where he sees the business going and what he reckons the genre of comic superheroes going to, and he discussed other comic genres such as cowboy and war comics coming into popularity. He was also very patient and I saw him gladly sign a very tall stack of comics without hesitation and he was also kindly doing the odd sketch upon request. 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 venue, and I reckoned there were about 24 teams, with well over 100 participants. This was in aid of charity and a quick rough guestimate calculation means this raised a grand euro. There was much craic and laughter during the evening and the drink flowed freely as competing team captains, Mark Milar and Paul Cornell seemed to take the game personally. Humorously, despite much pretend posturing and mock bravado neither team won, but they created an excitement in their own right. Drinks continued after the quiz finished at midnight. Carlos Pacheco who has just finished a run on Superman with Kurt Busiek was using some wonderful markers, and presenting full colour sketches for fans. He was using colour letterset pro markers, these twin tipped markers allow a transparent effect and because they are alcohol-based can be layered to produce deeper colours and with 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 with Kurt Busiek, a beautiful First World War story, where magic, mythical creatures and men flying with the aid of Dragonets exist, all to great effect. In must admit now three years later, I have not yet seen it, and would love to. This is the finest alternate fantasy history work that I have read, it really is so clever, and deserves much wider attention. I was impressed to hear Adi Granov’s wife who was talking about Thought Bubble a recent Leeds Sequential art convention, that they were both involved with. Mr. Granov’s artwork is so detailed, fine and in demand, he is currently on design for the Iron Man suit for Jon Favreau’s Iron Man film. Fantastically he recounted how he did not draw the concept piece for the trailer; rather a piece he had painted was used as the concept as it captured what the movie makers wanted. He loves cars and plane and trains and one can see this in his fantastic artwork which would impress any professional mechanical draughtsman. Overall, there was a real relaxed and pleasant atmosphere for the whole weekend. Queues were well mannered and also patient and pleasant as spontaneous conversation broke out. The volunteers who were helping had the right balance of friendliness with empathy for those queuing as opposed to anal security minded management 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 chewing the fat in the dealers room as in the Bar. Personally I thought the event was comparable to a SF convention than any comic event 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, and ask questions without fear of annoyance to those around you and that added with bad weather outside, loads of Irish rain, it felt that no cloud cover could occlude the brightness of the convention. From the Official Facebook Page regarding this years event: Dublin City Comic Con rides again! On December 3,4,and 5th we bring the convention to a whole new level by doing things festival style! With events on between Andrews Lane Theatre, The Mercantile and The Village over the 3 days and a run of pre events the week before you get more bang for your buck than ever before. Guests confirmed so far! Simon Bisley, Ben Templesmith, , , Dave Ryan http://dublincomicconvention .blogspot.com/ for all updates http://www.thoughtbubblefestival.co m/

photo by Fin McAteer Dublin 2014 Eurocon Bid by James Shields

When I heard that the New Zealand national convention was being held a week before the Australian this year, my first thought was “what a fantastic idea.” Apart from offering attendees travelling to Australia an excuse to also take in New Zealand, it was potentially the clincher for anyone wavering over whether to make the trip down under. My second thought was, “we should do the same thing in Dublin.” In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, London is currently bidding to hold the Worldcon in 2014. Dublin is just a short hop away by plane, with convenient train and ferry links also available. And once in Dublin, it will be easy for people extend their 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 Australia. At that point it was just an idea running around in my head. Someone ought to do it. I’d certainly help, but I had no 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 rearranges the furniture and starts to get comfortable. It gets to the point where you stop owning the idea and it owns you. The idea came bubbling to the surface with a few people at Au Contraire. Just a few. And then at Aussiecon I spoke to a few more. Everyone I mentioned it to was extremely enthusiastic about the idea. Everyone would like to come to Ireland. And some of these were big name science fiction authors. The idea in my head was already painting their names onto the posters. And somewhere along the way, my speech patters changed. I stopped saying “there ought to be a convention in Dublin” and started saying “I’m planning to hold a convention in Dublin.” I’m not sure quite when this happened, but I realised I owned it. Or rather, it owned me. It was kind of scary and exciting at the same time. Then something unexpected happened. Someone said to me, “what’s this I hear about you bidding for Eurocon?” “Eurocon?” I said, “I’m sure I never said that.” Now the last two U.K. both incorporated the Eurocon the year they were held, so I had assumed that this would also be the case for London in 2014. But things have changed there too. Worldcon has moved to a 2 year bidding cycle, so at the time when London would need to bid for Eurocon, it won’t have won the Worldcon bid yet, so it won’t 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 objection to Dublin bidding for Eurocon?” Once again the reaction was very positive. Not only were they happy for Dublin 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 Worldcon was also the Eurocon, but I never heard about any Eurocon events at it, and even if I had, I doubt I’d have had time to get to them. Having a separate Eurocon close to the Worldcon allows people to take part in both properly, and stops either from getting overwhelmed. A Dublin Eurocon close to the Worldcon could be the ideal opportunity to showcase Irish science fiction to Europe, and European SF to the World.

So the day after Aussiecon finished, I found myself busy setting up a Facebook page, and sending out a lot of emails to anyone who I thought might be interested. There was an immediate and very positive response (and a little confusion – no, I was definitely not bidding against the UK Worldcon). A lot of people said they’d like to come along, and several expressing interest in helping with the organisation. Discussions about possible venues followed. There’s a lovely new convention centre in Dublin - which will almost certainly be far too expensive for us to consider using. August, being the peak tourist season, could make good deals with hotels hard to come by. However, there are several universities in the city, which are likely to be relatively quiet at that time, and have inexpensive student accommodation convention attendees might be able to avail of. And, of course, there are the more traditional hotel venues. All of these shall be investigated thoroughly over the next few months, though it’s likely to be well into 2011 or even 2012 before a venue is announced. Quite a few venues aren’t even capable of taking a booking so far ahead. Whatever venue we eventually settle on, I would like to have several streams of programming with a strong emphasis on European SF writers. I have a couple of guests in mind, but I also know I have to learn a lot more about European writers. I think it’s also important to have a European film programme. I would also like to offer a relaxing atmosphere, especially for all the people who’ll just have run a worldcon, so I intend to have a big area 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 flying to Dublin from all five London airports, with flights from as little as 1p (plus taxes), which in real terms you’ll get a return flight for less than a hundred pounds return, including a modest amount of luggage. Alternatively there are ferries across the Irish sea, with low cost rail and sail tickets for around £61. The ferry can also be a great way to travel if 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 in 2007. Despite one or two challenges, it was a very enjoyable event with an attendance of about 450 people. I’ve already spoken to some of the committee of that convention with a view to learn as much as possible from their experience.

Back in Ireland, I began talking to interested parties, and arranged a meeting of Dublin based convention runners, mostly involving representatives from the two main conventions, to gather ideas. We had a very useful first meeting, and thrashed out a lot of ideas, and figured out what needs to be done before Octocon. And at Octocon there are plans for a wider discussion about future Irish conventions, so we’ll be soliciting wider support and assistance. I expect that over four years, we’ll expect some turnover of people. Indeed, the idea of taking on such a long-term project is likely to be off-putting to some. So I plan to divide the time into shorter periods, and ask people to help out for just a few months at a time. That should give us a chance to assess progress, and if people move on, they’ll generally do so at a time that’s not critical to the bid, so their replacement will have time to find their feet. There’s a lot to do, but we’ve got some great people come forward already, and I’m confident we can assemble a strong team to bring the bid to a successful conclusion. We’ll be launching at Octocon, and will be aiming to have good progress made by Swecon, the 2011 Eurocon, when we’ll be making a pre-bid presentation. It’s likely that this could be the biggest general SF convention Ireland has seen. There are certainly challenges to overcome, but I’m confident that we can put together a team to meet them. I’m certainly looking forward to it.

You can find out more information at http://2014.scifi.ie/