A few things struck me on my trip to Rome a couple of weekends ago. There seemed to be a promotion on of the period when Jack Meadows out of The Bill was emperor…

Also found sculptures of Robin Cook…

Mrs Doyle out of Father Ted…

And even the Ood out of Doctor Who, wearing a shower cap.

Andy and I will once again be running the Black Panel small press comics stall at the Black Box, Hill Street, Belfast (it’s in the Cathedral Quarter – here’s the Google map) on Sunday. As well as our own, we’ll have comics by Patrick Lynch, Philip Barrett, Deirdre de Barra, Hilary Lawler and the rest of the Longstone Comics crowd, the Berserker Comics boys, Stephen Downey, John Robbins, Gar Shanley and Cathal Duggan, Alan Nolan, Deirdre Ruane, Tommie Kelly, Edel Ryder and Gareth Hanrahan, Davy Francis, Aidan Courtney and friends as Gaeilge, Lee Grace and his band of illustrators and graphic designers, and, new to the Black Panel this month, Malachy Coney!  With variety like that there’ll be something to appeal to just about anybody. Hopefully see yez all there then.

Great Star Trek parody on Space Avalanche this week. Click through to read the whole thing…

The Irish Comics Wiki can now boast over 500 articles! The featured article for February 2010 is Belfast writer and cartoonist Malachy Coney (Ouija Board, Ouija Board, right), taking over from January’s featured article on Kilkenny animator and comics artist Tomm Moore.

Articles added to the wiki in January:

• The Age of Heroes, webcomic by Will Sliney (2010)
• W. G. Baxter (1856-1888), caricaturist and strip cartoonist on Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday
• Between Worlds, fantasy webcomic by Anna Fitzpatrick (2009-)
• Brendan et le secret de Kells, French language graphic novel adapatation of the animated film by Tomm Moore (2009)
• Celtic Rat, satirical webcomic by Graeme Keyes (2008-)
• Ellen Creathorne Clayton (1834-1900), magazine cartoonist and author
• Joseph R. Clegg (d. 1922), unionist journalist and political cartoonist of the 1880s and 90s
• John Cullen, artist on Irish language comic Rí-Rá
• Deirdre agus Mic Uisnigh, Irish language graphic novel by Colmán Ó Raghallaigh, Barry Reynolds and Audrey O’Brien (2008)
• Don’t Get Lost, semi-autobiographical webcomic by Andrew Luke (2009-)
• Paul Gray (1842-1866), illustrator and political cartoonist
• Edward S. Hynes, 1930s-50s magazine cartoonist
• In the Aquarium by Patrick Lynch (2009)
• Ireland: a Graphic History, graphic novel by Michael Scott, Morgan Llewellyn and Eoin Coveney (1995)
• Stevie Lee, cartoonist for The Belfast Telegraph
• Tom Mathews, cartoonist and writer
• Stephen McNally, illustrator and comics artist
• The Monkey-Head Complaint by John Robbins (2009)
• Robots Don’t Cry, picture book by Bob Byrne (2006)
• Ahmed Sanusi, 1990s/2000s small press comics creator
• Some Blind Alleys, an online journal of contemporary writing and art, including comics (2008-)
• Some Forgotten Part, graphic novel by Leonie O’Moore (2006)
• Liam Stack, small press artist
• Fintan Taite, illustrator and cartoonist

Is it still Wednesday? It is! Made it.

Rome was, as expected, full of stuff to fascinate an ancient history geek like me, and Simon, who is generally much less interested in the subject than I am, seemed to enjoy it, or at least indulged me graciously while I wittered on about how the M. Agrippa credited in a great big inscription with building the very impressive Pantheon is the same Marcus Agrippa as portrayed in I, Claudius. Which he hasn’t seen. He’s now off to Haiti to join in the aid effort with Irish humanitarian agency GOAL, and you can donate to their Haiti appeal by following the link.

Tomorrow morning I’m off to Rome on a long weekend with my brother, so chances are next week’s update schedule will be disrupted. There’s virtually no chance of being an installment of Under the Bed on Tuesday, as I’ll be in transit all day Tuesday, and a very slim possibility of an episode of The Cattle Raid of Cooley on Wednesday, although if I manage it it’ll be later in the day than usual. Your forbearance is much appreciated.

On New Year’s Day, a man attempted to kill Kurt Westergaard with an axe, because four years ago he drew a picture.  The man was a Muslim, and he was so upset that Westergaard’s drawing linked his religion with violence that he attempted to commit an act of violence in the name of his religion.

Today, an auction in aid of the victims of the Haitian earthquake rejected another cartoon, with no religious connotations, that Westergaard had donated.  His hairdresser has told him she will no longer cut his hair for fear of reprisals.

Freedom speech benefits everyone. I’m an atheist, and I’m glad I live in an age when I have the freedom to reject and criticise religion without reprisal from the state or the faithful. Not everyone thinks like me. Lots of people value their religion, and are upset when people like me don’t treat it with what they consider due reverence. But think: if you are offended by Westergaard’s cartoon, or The Satanic Verses, or the Life of Brian, or Jerry Springer the Musical, or Bezhti — freedom of speech means you can criticise it as volubly and vociferously as you like, and disseminate that criticism as widely as you can manage. Freedom of speech is as much yours as it is mine.  We must not allow fanatics the power to bully us into sacrificing that freedom. A fanatic with power is a tyrant, and tyrants don’t value the freedom of anyone but themselves.