News

Special Guest: Liam Shalloo

02/06/2017 by

Cyprus Comic Con 2017 is delighted to announce that the talented comic artist Liam Shalloo will be one of its esteemed Special Guests!

Liam Shalloo is a London-born colourist, best-known for his work on various Transformers projects since 2006, as well as IDW’s Doctor Who and G.I. Joe.

He describes himself as “the bandanna-wearing artist with a decade in both the Comic Book & Video Game industry – wielder of big mouth and pencil, using both liberally for titles such as Transformers, Spider-Man, Sony PlayStation, Harry Potter, God Of War, SingStar, Godzilla and Doctor Who, as well as producing variant posters for Picture House Cinema”!

To see more of Liam Shalloo’s work, visit his DeviantArt profile and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram! Visit his online shop for a selection of prints, posters and original sketches!

Comic Art

Shalloo has worked with Penciller Simon Williams on the cover art for the Marvel and Clearvision classic animation DVD box sets of both the 90’s and 60’s Spider-Man Cartoons, as well as Season 1 Vol. 2, Season 2 Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 and Season 3 Vol. 1 Vol. 2 of the 60’s show.

He was the colourist for a lot of IDW projects, including Transformers Spotlights: Hot Rod (which was also his debut!), Doubledealer, Grimlock and Mirage (Cover), as well as Beast Wars, Transformers Animated the Arrival, Godzilla, G.I. Joe and Doctor Who.

He also worked on a number of Titan Comics‘ Transformers comic books as well as a series of Transformers – ‘I Can Read’ children story books by Harper Trophy / HarperCollins Publishers.

 

Video Game Art

More recently, he has been active in the video game industry, in a variety of roles, including graphic designer, UI artist, concept artist and storyboard artist for Sony PlayStation.

He has worked on various popular video game titles, including SingStar, DanceStar, Diggs NightCrawler, Harry Potter’s Wonderbook: Book of Potions and God of War.

Furthermore, he has worked on a number of casual simulation games, including Train Sim, Flight Sim, Euro Fishing and Pure Pool.

 

Cinema

Liam Shalloo illustrated variant posters for Picture House Cinema, for the blockbusters  Guardians of the Galaxy 1 & 2, The Wolverine, Star Wars, Suicide Squad and Beauty and the Beast.

Pre-Order Sketch List

Liam Shalloo’s Sketch List is now open! Liam has over 50 sketch cover titles to choose from (a free comic with every sketch) but can only bring a limited amount of stock to Cyprus so make sure you pre-order what you want! You can order your prints via iamshalloo@gmail.com.

Artist Profile: Tony Tzanoukakis

27/05/2017 by

Meet our next Featured Artist for CCC17, Greek-Australian illustrator, Tony Tzanoukakis!

Tony has been working as a professional illustrator for the last 6 years. Born in Australia, in 1984, he quickly showed his drawing skills at the early age of 6 by winning a local art competition! At the age of 10, he returned to Greece with his family where he is currently living and working. He completed his studies in Graphic Design at the Technological Institution of Athens in 2008.

Make sure to visit Tony’s DeviantArt profile for more of his illustrations!

He is mostly recognised for his pin-up themed illustrations, where he combines characteristics of comic book art, together with the beauty of the female form. Over the years, he has created hundreds of images, with over 30 illustrations for e-book and novel covers, for self-published authors. He also maintains a partnership as an illustrator with the Greek board game company ‘Desyllas Games‘ and online game ‘Criminal Case‘. His future goal is to break into the world of comics as a penciler, colourist and cover artist!

 

Artist Profile: Nicolas Stefadouros

25/05/2017 by

We are delighted to announce the first Featured Artist for Cyprus Comic Con 2017, comic book illustrator Nicolas Stefadouros, who is returning to our convention for a second consecutive year!

Nicolas was born in Athens, in 1980. His parents were born in Alexandria, Egypt, with roots from Kalymnos and Cyprus. He originally studied Civil Engineering in the N.T.U.A., and subsequently worked as an engineer, but was soon drawn in to the field of illustration and comics. Since then, Nicolas has produced illustrations for major companies such as Desyllas Games, MAC Cosmetics and FAB Sportswear and created comics and editorial cartoons for magazines and newspapers such as “Casa e Gente”, “CITY FREE PRESS Cyprus”, “The Machine” etc., as well as various websites, including TVXS.gr, SOCOMIC.gr and ANTOULASTORIES.gr.

Nicolas has also illustrated for various browser games, books, fairy tales, CD covers, and posters for great Greek artists like Giannis Zouganelis and Stamatis Kraounakis. He studied comics in Vakalo College of Art and Design, under the guidance of Nikos Koutsis.

To see more illustrations by Nicolas Stefadouros, pay a visit to his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

Nicolas Stefadouros’ work abroad include digital inking for Chozen Studios comics in Canada, participation in the 3-day conference on 50 years of ASPHER as the official cartoonist of the event in Athens 2016. Currently he is illustrating a graphic novel (script: Effi Gavrilou) for Neurinox and University of Geneva. He frequently collaborates with SOCOMIC.gr of ION, TEESNEY.com where he creates designs for t-shirts, FAB Sportswear, and has also created the graphics for the TV show “Animaniac” of ALPHA TV.

Some of his recent publications include OMG, Zombie! #1 (Webcomics 2014), Memory Lane (Jemma Press 2015), OMG, Zombie! #2 (Webcomics 2015), Gramers: The Comics (Webcomics 2016), Out of the Blue (Neurinox 2016) and OMG, Zombie! #3 (Webcomics 2016). Nicolas was also a participating artist in GC Fanzine (GreekComics 2015), Say it with Comics (ADDArt 2016), Comic Book Bubble (CBB 2016) Urban Mysteries #2 (ADDArt 2016)

Nicolas received numerous awards in various art competitions, including the 3rd prize at Artifesto, One Salonica Outlet Mall in 2015, the 3rd prize at Ornerakis School of Art in 2014, the 2nd prize at the 2nd National Cartoon Contest of Nafplio in 2014, as well as the Best New Artist Award at Comicdom Con Athens 2016!

Artist Profile: Costas Sklavenitis

23/05/2017 by

Cyprus Comic Con is pleased to present its next Featured Artist for CCC17, illustrator and comic artist Costas Sklavenitis!

Costas Sklavenitis was born in Lefkada in 1984. He studied at the department of Plastic Arts and Art Sciences of the University of Ioannina and continued with a Master of Arts in Design at AKTO – Middlesex University.

In 2009 he started working as an illustrator and comic artist. He has collaborated, among other things, with the magazine “Ταχυδρόμος”, the newspaper “ΤΟ ΒΗΜΑ” and the publishers “Έννοια”. Since 2010, he has been working as a cartoonist for the newspaper “Τα Νέα”. He also collaborates with the magazine of Books’ Journal and socomic.gr, for which he creates comics and illustrations.

Check out ERT channel’s feature on Costas’ work, by visiting this link. You can see more of his comics and illustrations on his profile on Facebook, as well as on the newspaper “Τα Νέα” and of course socomic.gr.

He has published the following comics: Σαν Όνειρο (“Like a Dream” published by Webcomics), Σπάρτακος (“Spartacus” – 2 issues in collaboration with D. Savvaides. published by AddArt), Εικόνες στα Σύννεφα – “Images in the Clouds” and Στη Σκιά της Ακρόπολης -“In the Shadow of Acropolis” (published by Jemma Press).

Costas has participated in various exhibitions and festivals, both in Greece and abroad, including the Athens Video Art Festival in 2008 and 2010, the Milano Film Festival 2008 and the Leskovac Comics Festival 2014, where he won the 2nd prize for the best short story in the Balkans, and more.

The CCC16 Film Festival Winners!

18/05/2017 by

Cyprus Comic Con is proud to announce the winners of the CCC16 Film Festival!

Andreas Sheittanis won the prize for the best local production for his film Y.K.AN., while Syni Pappa won the international award for her film titled WHACK.

The winners are awarded with €2500 in production services and €2500 in post-production services respectively, both of which are generously donated by GeekOtopos.

Andreas Sheittanis

Andreas Sheittanis is a young upcoming filmmaker from Nicosia, Cyprus, born in 1991. From an early age, he became interested in video-making and started creating his first videos on Youtube, which further fueled his passion and led to his decision to study film-making. Andreas graduated from Bournemouth University with a Film Production & Cinematography degree, however he quickly found himself more drawn to directing, which has been his main area of expertise for the last few years.

Sheittanis has directed five short films until this day, with Y.K.AN. being his fourth, while his latest film was only shot recently and is currently in post-production.

Visit Andreas’ website and YouTube channel to see more of his projects and upcoming work!

In 2015, his short film ‘The Storyteller’ won Best Short-Film, Best Direction and Best Cinematography at the Cyprus International Film Festival. Currently, Sheittanis has an impressive 7.5 million views on his YouTube channel and nearly 10,000 subscribers!

Y.K.AN.

Sheittanis fondly remembers the initial brainstorming sessions of Y.K.AN. as a “silly idea between friends”, for which he collaborated with Demetris Kafataris who produced and also starred in the film as KotsinisMan! The concept was first written as a short skit, until eventually evolving into a short film. The project was partly funded by sponsors who covered the basic costs, while the remaining expenses were paid for by the team itself. Sheittanis describes Y.K.AN. as a “passion project”, made by people that have a real passion for their craft that were willing to work without any pay for a project they believed in and wanted to share with the rest of the world!

Funnily enough, when Sheittanis was asked what he wanted to do with the initial script for Y.K.AN., a film about Cypriot superheroes, he would always reply that his goal was to participate at the Cyprus Comic Con! It took an entire year of writing, shooting and post-production but Y.K.AN. finally had its premiere at CCC where it belonged and even won an award, “surpassing any expectations” that Sheittanis had! Since then, Y.K.AN. was selected to feature at other film festivals across Cyprus, Greece, UK, Romania and Canada.

Watch the trailer for Υ.Κ.ΑΝ.:

Syni Pappa

Film director and screenwriter Syni Pappa was born in Cologne, Germany and, after finishing school in North Greece, she majored in Film at the Raindance Filmschool in London, and Social Anthropology at the Panteion University in Athens. Syni is also a classically-trained dancer.

Her work features a large body of experimental fiction, as well as short narratives that have been screened and awarded at several festivals internationally.

Whack was the winner screenplay of  the SEE Cinema Network Funding Award in 2013 and was presented at Euroconnection, Co-Production Forum in 2014. In 2015, the film was realised and co-produced with the Greek Film Center, the Croatian company Kinematograf and the EMMY nominated VFX studio Yafka.

Following Whack’s success, Syni Pappa completed her short film titled ‘The National Garden’ in 2016, which was granted a funding award by the Athens Film Lab, AIFF’s screenplay competition and development program. Syni is currently living in Berlin and working on her debut feature film, ‘Wrong Island’.

Make sure to visit Syni’s personal blog, as well as Whack’s website!

WHACK

Whack is a short film that takes place in a dystopic Athenean cityscape of the near future. At the year of 2027 suicide, the city’s trend of despair for years, becomes illegal. The state defines it as a horrible crime and people who get caught trying to commit are being imprisoned, sent for life in breeding camps.

The camera follows a quest around a highly guarded dystopic cityscape. We meet our heroes on their final or what they wished to be their final moments.

The inspiration for this film comes from the the city of Athens, the potent, violent combination of it’s First & Third World realities.

It’s hardcore everyday living and it’s chaotic cityscape. As suicides have already become a big happening on the city’s public space in reality, the film starts questioning about it and begins an existential quest, in a place where terror is life itself and people have no other will but to die.

 

Watch Whack’s trailer: