13 March 2012
Anthology celebrates students' comic creations
An anthology of work from aspiring comic and graphic artists from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD) will be launched later this month.
Anthology One will showcase the range of creative work from the Comic Art and Graphic Novels module undertaken by Animation, Graphic Design and Illustration students at DJCAD, part of the University of Dundee. The 72-page, full colour comic is published by 'UniVerse', a new imprint specially created to provide exposure for the students' work.
The cover for Anthology One was provided by top comic artist Colin MacNeil, an alumnus of DJCAD. He was one of a number of leading industry professionals who hosted workshops with the students as part of the module.
Lecturer Phillip Vaughan, who designed the module and who himself has a great deal of experience in animation, computer game design and comic art, praised the students for producing such high-quality work.
"We created UniVerse to promote and publish up-and-coming work from the next generation of comic creators," he said. "This is the best of the work from the first cohort of the module, and the standard is there for all to see.
"Level 3 undergraduates from the Animation, Illustration, and Graphic Design programmes completed this work over a 12-week period, and we now plan to roll the module out to other areas of DJCAD. The Comic Art and Graphic Novels module is beneficial in a number of areas as it teaches students to think about their work differently and tailor their talents in a specific direction.
"Anthology One provides an opportunity for them to enhance practical skills related to the creation of comics, and it is a publication that will appeal to fans of the genre."
Far from being the exclusive preserve of children, modern comics and graphic novels are increasingly sophisticated texts which comment on culture, politics and values, and cross over into areas such as television, film, computer games and the internet.
Strong local traditions and expertise mean Dundee can lay claim to being the spiritual home of the British comics industry, and the University of Dundee helps to maintain this status.
The pioneering MLitt in Comic Studies programme, launched last September, is the first postgraduate degree of its kind in the UK, and has attracted local, national and international graduates determined to gain an understanding of the comics medium and industry, and their relation to different genres, cultures, and media.
An undergraduate module focusing on contemporary British comic writers and graphic novelists is also taught by Dr Chris Murray, one of the UK's foremost authorities on the subject and the organiser of the comics conference, which takes place as part of the Dundee Literary Festival each year.
Anthology One is a joint venture between DJCAD and the University's School of Humanities. It is the first in an ongoing series that will feature work from across the range of comics modules offered at the University.
Dr Murray also paid tribute to the work contained in Anthology One, saying, "It is an exciting time for Comics Studies at Dundee, and the DJCAD module has been hugely successful. The results are impressive, and the students clearly benefited from workshops with the industry professionals, which formed part of the module.
"Comics and graphic novels are becoming an increasingly important form of literature, art and field of study, and hopefully we'll see some of the artists featured in Anthology One progress to our MLitt course.
"We hope that the second issue will feature work from students currently creating comics as part of their MLitt programme, and future issues will contain work from next year's cohort of DJCAD and Humanities students working on comics modules.
"This showcase is intended to highlight the work being done at Dundee, and to help these up-and-coming artists to get some recognition in the competitive comics industry. This shows the commitment that we at Dundee have to employability, and ensuring that our students have every opportunity to turn the experiences they have in the classroom into careers in their chosen field."
To this end, copies will be sent to industry professionals, and the publication will be promoted across the country at various comics conventions, conferences and fairs, ensuring that those in the comics industry are aware of the talent that is emerging from Dundee.
Anthology One also features the winning strips from the first Dundee Comics Prize (also known as The Tartan Bucket Prize), which was awarded at the Dundee Comics Day in October 2011.
The cover price is £5.95, and the venture is not for profit, with funds from sales being put directly back into the cost of publishing promotional copies of the next issue. Anthology One will be launched at the Hi-Ex comics convention in Inverness on Saturday, 31st March.
For information, or to order a copy, please email: universecomic@gmail.com.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277 |
