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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:

Special Guest: Lee Townsend

13/05/2017 by

Cyprus Comic Con has the great pleasure to proudly announce talented British comics artist and illustrator Lee Townsend as its third Special Guest for CCC17!

Lee had his debut in the comic book industry in the mid ’90s as an artist for Marvel UK, for which he illustrated popular titles such as Transformers, Action Man and Death’s Head.

In the years that followed, Lee started working in the Animation industry, for the leading global entertainment conglomerates Disney and Dreamworks, before eventually returning to his first love – comics! He resumed his collaboration with Marvel and worked on Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers and Hulk!

 

 

Lee continued his comic book career with several projects for 2000AD, including Judge Dredd, Sinister Dexter, Flesh, Judge P.I. Demarco, Breathing Space, Bison and Synnamon.

Furthermore, Lee worked on a number of titles from DC Comics, such as Hellblazer, World Of Warcraft and The Family Dynamic. He also created work for the comic book limited series of Kin, by Top Cow Productions.

Make sure to visit Lee Townsend’s official website and to follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date with his work and upcoming projects!

Lee is currently working on storyboards for a film and TV project as well as character design for the Cartoon Network! His fans can anticipate the continuation of his collaboration with Marvel and DC, as he is in ongoing discussions about his next comic book project!

Pre-Order Sketch List

Lee Townsend’s Sketch List is now open! Pre-order your commissioned sketches via leetownsend@ntlworld.com.

Check out his online store for more examples:
http://www.leetownsendart.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

Price List
A4 Pencil: Head €25
                   Torso €35
                   Full Figure €45
A4 Colour: Head €35
                    Torso €50
                     Full Figure €60
Sketch Covers: €55
A3 Grey Tones: Full Figure €220 (See Joker & Harley image below)
 

Special Guest: Chris Achilleos

05/05/2017 by

Cyprus Comic Con has the honour of announcing Greek Cypriot illustrator, painter and concept artist Chris Achilleos as one of our esteemed Special Guests for CCC17!

Chris (Christos) Achilleos was born in a rural village near Famagusta before moving to London, United Kingdom in 1959 where he currently resides. He graduated from Hornsey College of Art, where he studied technical illustration, various drawing techniques, as well as airbrushing — a painting technique that proved very useful in his career later on, as it provided a sleek, realistic finish that eventually became his trademark. After graduating, Achilleos worked as an illustrator at a design studio, Brian Boyle Associates, where he perfected his skills at typography, layout, bookcover design and production, until 1972, when he started his freelance career.

For more of Chris Achilleos’ work, visit his website and follow his official page on Facebook.

 

Painting Fiction

Over the past 47 years, Chris Achilleos has created some of the best loved fantasy and glamour art and is widely considered as one of the most influential science fiction and fantasy artists in the world. His near photo-realistic paintings have illustrated hundreds of books, magazines and posters. Achilleos’ work is highly acclaimed and respected in the art and film industry worldwide, due to his unique interpretation of stunning Amazon women, epic dragons of fighting fantasy and illustrious paintings inspired by ancient civilisations and mythology.

In the late seventies, the science fiction and fantasy genres were immensely popular both in the US as well as in Great Britain and Chris Achilleos found himself flourishing as a fantasy artist. His works adorned numerous fantasy book covers for titles by Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Michael Moorcock. Achilleos is also well known for the graphic illustrations he produced for the original publications of Doctor Who novels at Target Books.

 

Fantasy & Film

Chris Achilleos contribution to the film industry started with the book covers he produced in the 70s for a spaghetti western featuring Clint Eastwood and in 1984 with the covers of a reissued series of twelve Star Trek books and later, promotional artwork for the films themselves. His first major commission in the film industry was for the cult 1980’s animated adult fantasy movie Heavy Metal, for which he worked as a conceptual/costume artist and also painted the promotional poster, as well as designed the look of its iconic heroine, Taarna.

Other movies he has worked on include the American fantasy film Willow (1988), the historical drama King Arthur (2004) and The Last Legion (2007).

 

The Collection

Achilleos’s work is collected in the following four art books and trading card sets:

Beauty and the Beast (1978) – a collection of fantasy book covers and pin-up art which sold over 100,000 copies worldwide and was translated into five languages.
Sirens (1986) – a collection of work including Doctor Who, Star-Trek, Fantasy, Science-Fiction and pin-ups. Another best seller which included a Polish and Japanese language editions.
Medusa (1988 and 2002) – a fascinating insight into Achilleos’s working methods and techniques, showing many of his working drawings from previous books.
Four sets of trading cards by F.P.G. 1993.
Amazona (2004) – a collection of new paintings inspired by Greek mythology, Amazons, images commissioned for role-playing/computer games pin-ups and others.