Comic book creators visit St. Josephs Co-Ed
Comic book creators Rory McConville (writer) and Paddy Lynch (Artist) made a very special visit to our school this week. Rory and Paddy are the talents behind the graphic novel “Big Jim- Jim Larkin and the 1913 Lockout”, the latest in a series of historical graphic novels from O’Brien Press. Published in the year that we commemorate the centenary of the Lockout, the novel presents the events in a very accessible format, and packs a lot of detail into its 80 beautifully illustrated pages of story.
East Wall School is very historic, the location of the city’s first school boys strike in 1911, and during the Lockout most pupils and their families would have been involved. It was for this reason that O’Brien Press decided to hold this special event here, and it was brilliant that both Rory and Paddy took part.
Having first been welcomed by the pupils of 3rd class in the guise of school boy strikers, Rory and Paddy were introduced to the children who were fascinated by their presentation.
The children were treated to a crash course in the graphic novel creative process. How the story went from concept to script and onto the finished page were all detailed. Both writer and artist explained the necessity of research to achieve authenticity, both factually and visually. Pages from the novel were projected onto the wall to show the artistic process, from the initial sketches to the final full colour version.
The children were very much engaged and continuously questioned Rory and Paddy – the length of time taken over each illustration and the time spent on completing the project were popular topics, as was the repeated request to explain why they picked Larkin to do a comic about. After the Q+A session copies of the books were signed, ‘Big John’ (Mr. Mangan) ended the proceedings and Principal Niall Heneghan thanked Rory and Paddy for visiting the school.
We would like to thank Rory and Paddy for taking the time to visit St. Josephs Co-Ed, and also O’Brien press for organising the event. O’Brien Press have published a number of Irish History graphic novels, and kindly donated copies of each to the school library.
Signed copies still available
“Big Jim- Jim Larkin and the 1913 Lockout” has been described as “a great resource and a great way to encourage young people to learn about their own history”.
The book retails for €12.99 in the shops – a limited number of copies signed by both writer and artist are available from the school at a special price of €10, just ask at the office.