Cyprus Comic Con welcomes back the team of LarLarLar Comics (Andreas Michaelides, Valia Kapadai & Pavlos Pavlidis) to CCC19 Artists’ Alley!

LarLarLar Comics is a Greek, multilingual (Greek, English and French) creators’ collective, originally formed by Valia Kapadai, Andreas Michaelides and Pavlos Pavlidis. There is a whole lot of story behind the name and it does have something to do with their logo, but details are best discussed face to face. After the three of them became frequent collaborators, since 2014, they decided it was more practical to self-publish their work under a common name. Together they have put out a number of projects in a range of genres, such as mythology (Nekyia), science fiction (Last Flight of the Swordbreaker) and historical fantasy (Iasis).The creators of LarLarLar Comics have vastly different tastes in comics, but a common enough ground that they can (usually) walk the fine line of synergistic storytelling. After all, comic books are just that: another form of storytelling, deceptively close to the art of its oral predecessor. Each one of them also pursues their own projects in the written and visual arts, be it writing, graphic design, poster artwork, editing, translating and everything in between.

Visit LarLarLar Comics’ website to see more of their work!

Valia Kapadai

Valia Kapadai is a full-time dreamer and a comic junkie. Currently working as a graphic designer at the University of Athens in the morning, she shifts into a watercolour thirsty creature by night, drawing comic pages, whenever her ghosts allow it.

Since 2008 she has been involved in various anthologies (for IDW, Insomnia, Accent UK, BLC, Dapshow Press, AyeSaw Comics, Markosia, ICCW, Εκδόσεις του Κάμπου and more), while six graphic novels she has illustrated or (water) coloured have been published by A.R.Sobati, Fotorama Publications, Markosia, and Comicdom Press.

She also enjoys self-publishing mini comics. She loves spending her little free time with beloved people, reading (comic) books, listening to music and dancing. Usually lost inside her own messy little bubble, she can also be found wandering through the web.

Andreas Michaelides

Words are the one true love of Andreas Michaelides – what they mean, the way they change, the stories they tell. Born in Greece in 1982, he has worked as a columnist, journalist and photographer; he has written detective stories and surreal tales which have been published in various Greek anthologies and newspapers.

For the past ten years, he has worked as a translator for Greek publishing houses, such as Alexandria, Polis and Metaichmio (having translated in Greek anything from popular science and history books, to Andy Lane’s The Adventures of Young Sherlock Holmes series, George R.R. Martin’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Joe Abercrombie’s The Shattered Sea Trilogy – among others).

In 2010 he entered the world of oral storytelling, as well as writing fables for an adult audience. His first two solo books were published in 2016: Tales From the Anvil of Songs by Mamaya and Love in Fhtagn, the first novelette in The Addiction of Christian Ambrose series (Nightread imprint of Ars Nocturna).

His relationship with comic books has been as wacky as his personality: from 2003 to 2006 he put out a Greek fanzine called Mangaijin, in collaboration with artist John Dalkides. In 2005 he started writing articles about comics as a member of the Comicdom.gr team. In 2014 he started writing for comics per se: from 2014 to mid 2015 he co-created and wrote BOTCH! with artist Maria Kouloubaritsi – a gag comic and webcomic presenting the (mis)adventures of a group of gamers.

He is also a founding member of the Greek Club of Crime Writers, as well as the Storytelling Cooperative, “Mythologion”.

He is currently involved in a number of projects, from translation, to writing – both for comics and not -to storytelling performances, mystery games and educational workshops which combine literature with science.

Pavlos Pavlidis

Pavlos Pavlidis is a comic creator interpreting the world through a black and white perspective. He likes to create scary, disturbing and dystopian images, touching on political and more personal themes. He loves his pentel brush with a passion and to him it feels like an extension of his hand!

He has self-published seven comics to date (Unstrung!, Fixed!, Such A Waste..!, Full Bloom, Just One Fragment, …and after this WHAT?, Don’t Shoot, I Am Already Dead). He is also the co-creator of Somewhat Damaged (with Valia Kapadai), Lamda (with Lee Grice and Valia Kapadai), Futuria (with the Hippo Theatre Group and Valia Kapadai), Last Flight of the Swordbreaker and Tit Quest of Uknown Cuntath (both with Andreas Michaelides), as well as Iasis (in which both Andreas and Valia were involved).

His work has also appeared in the pages of the British Something Wicked magazine (“Shambling Towards Bethlehem”, story by Sam Varall in issue #09 and “Plug”, story by David McCluskey, in the 2016 issue).

Currently he is working on various projects of his own and in collaboration with others.