News

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.

Special Guest: Simon Furman

26/04/2017 by

Cyprus Comic Con is proud to announce its first Special Guest for CCC17, renowned comic book writer Simon Furman!

 

Comics & Graphic Novels

Furman is best known for his prolific work on the Transformers franchise, having written hundreds of stories for all major US & UK publishers (including most of the UK-original comic stories of Generation 1) – Marvel, IDW, Dreamwave and Titan, as well as the Transformers manga for Japanese publisher Million Publishing. He is also the author of the best-selling book Transformers: The Ultimate Guide (2004), which offers a detailed, in-depth look at the history and evolution of the Transformers characters.

Simon Furman is the co-creator of digital comic book saga To The Death, together with artist Geoff Senior. The online comic combines hard-hitting sci-fi action and sharp-edged satire and is a series of 18 episodes. Set on Earth in 2674, it tells the story of Aleksy Dryagin (aka Komodo), who is returning home to a hero’s welcome and a death sentence, as he finds an enemy in the Triumvirate (the joint heads of the ruling Tri-Corp). With nothing left to lose, Dryagin prepares to fight …”To The Death”!

Furman is currently working on a series of comics and graphic novels based on Dreamworks’ popular titles How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda. His extended list of comic book credits include StarCraft, Transformers: Regeneration One, Alpha Fight, Death’s Head, Doctor Who, Dragon’s Claws, Robocop, She-Hulk, Terminator, Torchwood, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and What If?.

To see more of Simon Furman’s work, visit his personal website and follow him on Facebook and Twitter (@SimonFurman3)!

Animation & Gaming

In the world of TV animation, Furman is currently serving as head writer and script supervisor of the hit Nicktoons & CITV show, Matt Hatter Chronicles (2011– ), which tells of the adventure of a schoolboy turned hero, that discovers a secret dimension called the Multiverse where must defeat a number of Super Villains in order to rescue his Grandpa! Additionally, Simon Furman has written for shows such as Beast Wars: Transformers (1996-1999), the science fiction animation program Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends (1999-2000), as well as the animated series of Dan Dare (2002), X-Men: Evolution (2000-2003), Alien Racers (2005) and A.T.O.M. (Alpha Teens on Machines, 2005-2007).

In the field of computer games, Furman has worked extensively with Space Ape Games on the mobile game Transformers: Earth Wars (released in 2016) as well as the recently released retro arcade shooter, Fastlane: Road to Revenge (19th April 2017) as well as another title, still in early development.

Simon Furman will have a selection of art prints and other signed works available for sale at his booth, so make sure to visit and grab yourself a limited edition signed print, or bring your own copies of Furman’s titles for him to sign!

Be a part of PopGen Asia at CCC17!

19/04/2017 by

PopGen Asia is an area within Cyprus Comic Con dedicated to Japanese, Korean & Asian culture! Short for Pop Generation Asia, this section hosts an array of shops with relevant products, community groups dedicated to Asian pop culture, arts and crafts, music and more!

This specialised area was created for fans of Anime, Manga, Asian music, food, cinema, fashion, etc to meet and hang out with like-minded individuals.

Does this sound like you?

Have you been dying to discuss all the latest anime? Been looking to find the right ingredients and utensils to make sushi or ramen at home? Want to learn how to spell your name in Japanese or Korean? Are you frustrated about 2NE1’s disbandment and need to vent? Does your room need even more Kpop-related goodies and posters? Do you like wearing those nekomimi ears absolutely everywhere?

If you answered yes in any of the above, then you clearly identify as an Asian culture geek and you will definitely meet like-minded individuals at the PopGen Asia booths and maybe even find a special souvenir to take home with you!

As for those of you with a sweet tooth – don’t worry we have you covered! Choose from a wide selection of delicious Japanese sweets and other Asian snacks, available for sale at some of the stalls throughout the section!

On the other hand, if you are new to the Asian pop culture scene, be sure to keep your eyes and ears open because PopGen Asia will be packed with vibrant colours and sounds! Expect to see fans dressed up as their favourite J-pop or K-pop idol, anime cosplay, music and dancing, as well as some beautiful fan art and other handmade crafts!

Want to take part in PopGen Asia at CCC17?

If you would like to exhibit at PopGen Asia this year,  please contact:
info@cypruscomiccon.org