Exciting new sequential art venture is launched

A TALLAGHT native has established an exciting new sequential art venture in the community, reports Stephen Farrell.

Eoin McAuley recently founded the Tallaght Academy of Sequential Art, which is located at The Edge, Avonmore Road.

“The Academy is opening up for May to August and enrolling in September,” said Eoin.

While the comic strip may be the most recognisable form of sequential art, there are other forms of this art too.

“Sequential art is based on comic book creation and you also have animation and other adjacent fields.

With sequential art you have a deliberate sequence through the medium of visual art.

GPS (Global Positioning system), would be an example, weather forecast is also a form of sequential art.

We will be focusing on pure sequential art,” said Eoin, who has been teaching animation and game creation for the last ten years.

The Academy will be located in unit A4 in the Edge.

“We will have access to the Black Box and the Apex, with seating for 90 people,” said Eoin, who is also Academy President.

To highlight the launch of the classes and courses at the Academy, which will be taking place over the summer and in September respectively, there will be a number of comic strips published in The Echo, in association with the Academy.

The strips will feature the characters the Phantom, Flash Gordon and Popeye respectively. “2016 was the Phantom’s 80th anniversary.

“The Phantom was one of the first archtype superheroes, it had all the typical attributes, for example the plain white eyes, the eye mask,” said Eoin, who is also founding publisher of Lightning Strike comics.

Flash Gordon is a similarly long-standing comic strip character.

“It is the 90th anniversary of Flash Gordon, who is a core sci-fi character.

“Dan Schkade, who is based in the US, will be writing and illustrating the strip [that will appear in the Echo],” said Eoin.

However, this strip will be translated into Irish and will be suitable for all ages.

Gary Moloney, who is a barrister from Cork based in Dublin, will be doing the translation and Robin Jones will be doing the lettering.

“The online response has been very positive, it’s very exciting to achieve [this],” said Eoin.

Similarly, the Popeye strip is 90 years old.

“Popeye was originally a back-up character, but it was so popular it was awarded its own strip.

The focus will be the original Phantom strip and Flash Gordon, rounded off with Popeye,” said Eoin.

The strips that will be appearing in The Echo are called ‘Sunday strips’.

“This ties in with the weekly publication of The Echo, it’s for The Echo readers, to fill them in on the narrative of the story,” said Eoin.

A Sunday strip if often used to round up what has happened during the week in the strip.

For those wishing to take part in the classes at the academy there are a couple of different options.

“There will be master classes in May which will be a one-off and will cost a couple of hundred euro.

“There will be certification for participation and an internationally recognised guest lecturer, this will be over a concentrated period of time on a particular day in the week,” said Eoin.

“Then there will be a sit in, an audit option where you don’t have to participate but you can use this option for networking opportunities, [and will be] much cheaper,” said Eoin.

The academy is also offering academy membership for a one-off fee.

Meanwhile, the courses are due to begin in September.

“The course will be hybrid, there will be some online, as some instructors are US based, and the final class will be in person,” said Eoin.

Those who would like further info may email info@tasqart.com