Wonderful video review of the new graphic novel Gone to Amerikay. Share and show your likes!
IMPORTANT! Serious spoiler warning. You might want to stop watching around the 3 minute mark.
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Posts Tagged ‘gone to amerikay’
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The Gone to Amerikay book launch party, courtesy of businessman and lawyer JP Delaney of Rosie O’Grady’s, O’Dwyer and Bernstein, and the Harbour Lights Restaurant, was held at Harbour Lights on the last weekend of March.
Harbor Lights on the 17th Street Pier has fantastic food and a fracking amazing view. We could not have asked for a better venue, and Derek McCulloch, Karen Berger, Joan Hilty, Joe Hughes, Jose Villarubia, Jared Fletcher and I are all so very grateful for the incredible hospitality of Mr Delaney and the staff of Harbour Lights! If you are ever in New York City, you should definitely try it. Beautiful, romantic view! YUMMY food!
Here’s fantasy author Ellen Kushner checking out the gorgeous evening lights!
About 100 people showed up for the benefit of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund with the kind support of Midtown Comics.
Check out the CBLDF link for more photos by our editor Joan Hilty.
Here at Midtown Comics, you can get one of the few remaining copies from the launch party signed by Derek and me, with sales going to benefit the CBLDF. Thank you, Midtown Comics!
Photographer Paul Flannelly has a large selection of photos from the event here.
Had the most fascinating talk with Mr Flannelly about his dad, the man responsible for the Irish Hunger Memorial, which you can visit about a half mile walk along the shore from Harbour Lights. The memorial appears briefly in Gone to Amerikay. I took reference photos of it years ago, hoping to use them in the book.
The memorial is built of Irish rock, earth, and plants, with the remains of a stone cottage flanking the end of an underground walkway with quotes on the walls and the voices of the Irish people echoing through the chamber. The simple memorial is a beautiful and haunting piece of history in the middle of bustling New York City. Mr Flannelly told me a fund is reserved to keep native Irish plants growing in greenhouse safety in case the ones planted at the memorial do not survive the harsh New York winters.
Irish Echo featured the event in their paper, which has a circulation of about 100,000. Thanks so much to Mairtin O Muilleoir and all the good people of Irish Echo for the kind support! We were delighted to see so many people from the Irish American business community come out in support of Amerikay!
I was delighted to meet all these exciting people, including lovely ladies from Heritage Bar and Restaurant, and Eileen’s Country Kitchen. Thanks also to Gahl Buslov of Midtown Comics!
I did the cover for the St Patrick’s Day edition of Irish Echo, and I was overwhelmed when Mr O Muilleoir told me a copy of the framed cover was presented by Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Northern Ireland to President Obama. Alas, I do not have a photo of this event, but am honored and grateful. Here’s a copy of the cover art.
Thanks to our many colleagues and the wonderful fans who showed to enjoy the party and lend support!
Look at these handsome dudes! John Cassaday, Jose Villarubia and Stuart Moore.
Nice crowd!
With my Mangaman collaborator Barry Lyga, whose new book I Hunt Killers is a must read. And he’s already got a TV deal, so he’s buying next time.
Laughing men folk.
Abby Denson and Ellen Kushner in foreground.
Quite a crowd of interesting people in this shot, including JP Delaney, Stuart Moore, TV Producer Matt Koed, a Broadway producer whose name escapes me at the moment (and don’t I feel like a kooz because DAYum was he fascinating to talk to,) Derek McCulloch, my literary agent Kathleen Anderson, Joan Hilty, and Paul Levitz.
In the far left of this shot, Wall Street Journal journalist Michael Rappaport. In the foreground, major huggies for my lovely art agent Spencer Beck. We have been working together for 23 years!
Mom and Dad held court all night long at a corner table. In this shot, with Derek McCulloch and Joe Hughes.
This photo is by Joan Hilty, and I am cribbing it, because dang, it’s me and John Cassaday.
The hand drawn original art is on the wall behind us. I’ve received a number of requests to purchase the art, but all is already sold. Yes, all of it.
The party lasted about an hour longer than scheduled. Just the loveliest evening. Everything you could hope for for a book launch event.
Also in attendance but not pictured here, Delia Sherman, one of my favorite writers and spouse of Ellen Kushner. The lovely and lively Kim Cox, partner of Frank Miller, and kind and sweet Elayne and Robin Riggs.
I can’t thank you all enough for a wonderful, memorable evening of good friends, great food, and lively conversation.
Thank you for helping us launch Gone to Amerikay.
Gone to Amerikay featured in Wall Street Journal, on sale today.
on March 28th, 2012Posted In: Blog, Colleen's Work
Gone to Amerikay, the graphic novel written by Derek McCulloch and illustrated by me, with lovely colors by Jose Villarubia, goes on sale today.
From Publisher’s Weekly:
Written by Derek McCulloch and illustrated by Colleen Doran, Gone to Amerikay is a story of Irish emigres in America which spans a century. It focuses on three characters: a penniless single mother living in New York City’s Five Points Slum in 1870, a young artist drawn to Greenwich Village’s counterculture in 1960, and an Irish billionaire, who in 2010 seeks the music that inspired him as a child. Gone to Amerikay will be released by Vertigo in comic stores on March 28th and everywhere on April 3.
Yesterday, writer Michael Rapoport wrote a handsome feature on the book for The Wall Street Journal.
It’s a sweeping, detailed, beautifully drawn story of love, betrayal and survival, with a small but crucial touch of the supernatural. It’s deliberately paced and slow to build, but the payoff, as the three stories converge, is worth it.
Comics Bulletin gave us some raves:
All throughout the book, characters make decisions based on optimism, ambition and pride. And all throughout the book, circumstances change, realty and seeming unreality intrude, and the much more interesting struggle begins: the real hard work of building up your successes in America.
Colleen Doran’s art is magnificent and often breathtaking in Amerikay. She has a glorious eye for detail that seems borne out in everything from the shoes that the immigrant men wear to the vast cityscapes that she draws. There are several cityscape views that are absolutely breathtaking. Despite that eye for detail, Doran is also terrific at drawing the characters in the book. Even secondary characters seem full of life and energy, occasionally threatening to jump off the page.
Well, dang.
On Friday, a book launch party for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Open to the public, books will be on sale to benefit the fund, and there will be free food and a cash bar, courtesy of JP Delaney.
The book was inspired by this song by The Pogues. Guitarist and singer Philip Chevron was kind enough to read the book in advance and say some terribly lovely things about it.
We’ve done our best. That’s all we can do.
I hope you like our book. And enjoy the beautiful music.
Thanks, everybody.
NO IRISH NEED APPLY: Gone to Amerikay previewed in Publishers Weekly
on March 13th, 2012Posted In: Blog, Colleen's Work
In the some things never change department, as God is my witness, a NO IRISH NEED APPLY advert. Wow. Just in time for St Pat’s Day.
Years ago, I complained about stuff like this and someone called me a liar. The Irish never knew discrimination!
Ho. Ho.
A four page preview of my new graphic novel Gone to Amerikay with writer Derek McCulloch. colored by Jose Villarubia is now online at Publishers Weekly.
We’re having a book launch party in New York City to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Naturally, there will be many cartoonists in attendance, because the food is free even though the alcohol isn’t. Books for sale, with a percentage of proceeds going to benefit the CBLDF are provided by Midtown Comics. Admission is also free, but the CBLDF appreciates your donations. Expect at least 100 people. The Facebook event page is here, and if you are on FB and plan to attend, help the organizers out by clicking the attend button. Lots of people are writing me directly and that doesn’t help the planners figure out how much food to make. The location is the swank Harbor Lights restaurant. March 30, 6 PM.
Irish Echo magazine features a cover by yours truly, and here is the black and white prelim.
You can see the final color work HERE.
UPDATE! Final cover with masthead HERE.
Be sure to let your comic shop know to reserve Gone to Amerikay for you, and thank you all for your support. All my work depends on YOU! And with your kind patronage, there will be lots more of it.
Thank you!
c
