Article:
Comics Pub Meets: Ireland

In the second of a four part article on creative and social networking and fandom across the UK, we're going to turn our attention towards Ireland.

After hearing about the success of pub meets in Birmingham in 1997 I fly-postered around local comic shops in Belfast for a monthly meet. Numbers were small, four to six creatives amid ramshackle crowd noise. It did serve as an opportunity to compare reading tastes and art tips and nurtured a few good friendships. Busy workloads meant the group drifted apart as many do. When I returned in 2009, I was welcomed into a new group, which was larger and better organised. The Belfast Comics Pub Meet takes place on the First Thursday of the month at the Garrick from around 9pm or so. For further details, drop myself or Paddy Brown a wee line.

Further down North in Derry, David Campbell, of the 2D Comics Art Festival writes, "We started the 2D Collective after running a comic art course through a local college here and then getting the students to contribute to an anthology title which they promoted at 2D 2009. The collective still chat informally and some of the crew are mates anyway, but I think that's the extent of comic meets in Derry at the minute unfortunately. It's a pretty small pool of people who are actually trying to create their own work. If there are any developments on that front I'll give you a shout."

The 2D Festival is great. It's free-for-all culture and comics, enjoying Arts body funding, quality guests, talks, workshops and activites for the family and a stomping, boozing good time. Yes, there are bars en route. What David talks about above is common pattern among pub meets: close-knit groups and organisational informality. The isolated nature of the cartoonist's lot means that lax attendance at these is sometimes symptomatic of success.