Countdown to Bloomsday 2016

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Well, its that time again. Joyce’s birthday is today (February 2nd) and that’s the time we start gearing up for another Bloomsday. To get people in the spirit I usual do a series of drawings, bookmarks really, released daily over twitter. 135days from now until Bloomsday itself this makes for a nice little birthday gift to the Old Fella.

This year, 2016, also marks the centennial of the Easter Rising in Dublin, an important moment in the struggle for Irish Freedom and a date close to the heart of many fans of Joyce’s work. To honor and commemorate that date I’ve changed the format of the bookmark drawings this time around.

I’ll be drawing portraits of one hundred “Heroes of Irish Freedom” from now until Bloomsday based upon a list developed by good friend Pat Callan. So far they’ve been great fun to do and have given me a chance to learn more Irish history each day. I hope people use them as I have, as a window into study. We’ll try to figure out a way to drop some links to good biographical information onto the tweets for people encountering them that way, and our hope is to collect the group of them somewhere once all is done.

“But that’s only 100drawings,” you may say. And “what about the other 35?” you may say.

Good question. Don’t worry. I’ve got something more Joyce in mind as we draw closer to Bloomsday.

So let’s get started, and we’ll see you on Bloomsday,

-Rob

MotherMaryAugustineWeb

THE DEAD: Limited Edition Prints by Robert Berry

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THE DEAD: limited edition prints by Robert Berry

A portfolio of five letterpressed illustrations by Robert Berry of James Joyce’s story.

Each print is letterpressed in an edition of 75 and signed by the artist.

The complete portfolio is available from Stoney Road Press for €800.

Individual prints are available for €275 each. Read more…
Plate size: 36 x 27cm, Sheet size: 50 x 38cm
.

An illustrated book of THE DEAD is published in 2014 by

Stoney Road Press

in collaboration with the James Joyce Centre, Dublin,

to celebrate the

centenary of the publication of Dubliners.

Featuring 13 illustrations by

Robert Berry and an introduction

by Senator David Norris,

it is letterpressed and

limited to an edtion of 150 copies.

It is available from Stoney Road Press

for €1,250.

 Read more…

For enquiries please contact Stoney Road Press on

01 887 8544 or email

mail@stoneyroadpress.com.
Stoney Road Press, Stoney Road, Dublin 3, Ireland
t / f: +353 (1) 887 8544
mail@stoneyroadpress.com
www.stoneyroadpress.com

ULYSSES “SEEN” is moving to Dublin!

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It is true. We’re Dublinbound.

When this website first began in 2009 all of us here at Throwaway Horse tried to envision it as a place where interested people could come to learn about and discuss the work of James Joyce through his novel ULYSSES. We set up a pretty large challenge for ourselves with the initial idea of adapting that novel into a comic with the hope that each page and panel could serve as a window into Joyce’s deeper mysteries and his world of Dublin on June 16th, 1904. As the cartoonist behind that crazy idea, this website, and the people we’ve met through it, have been invaluable to me in understanding and interpreting the novel for a new audience. I couldn’t have done the work without it.

But running a website, a good one, can be a full time job in itself and Josh and Mike and I have never really had the time to manage the regular and recurring content this kind of a forum deserves. With the release of our iPad app and other delivery methods now in full swing we’ll be spending a lot more of our time making the comic. Blogging is all very fun, but I’ve got to concentrate on making the work.

So I’m very pleased and excited to announce that the comic, readers’ guide and blog forum on this website will continue as a part of the James Joyce Centre in Dublin with the reboot of their website next month. We’re all very happy to working more closely with the Joyce Centre in bringing this project to Dublin and the world in an open and free environment. Now we can deliver the kind of regularly updated and ongoing content this kind of a website deserves.

So what does this mean to you, our readers and subscribers?

Well, it means that starting September 24th the comic and reader’s guide pages will move over to the Joyce Centre website. The comments sections will remain intact, but we’ll be starting from page one of “Telemachus” again to give new readers a chance to catch up and add to the conversation. Along the way we’ll be dropping in additional blogposts on the Joyce Centre site about what’s happening in the new chapters we’re working on, “Nestor” and “Lotus Eaters”, and a whole lot of news from Joyceanna around the world. I’ll also be asking fans for help in solving some deeper visual mysteries of the novel like, “what stamp might’ve been on Martha Clifford’s letter?” or, “what, exactly, does a ‘cheeseparing nose’ look like?” (I really couldn’t draw this thing without your support on questions like those…)

It also a chance for this work, and all of you Joyceheads who’ve been such a big part of building it, to interact with the very real Dublin of today; to see ways of sorting the fiction and allegory of Joyce’s view of the city from the very real experience of Dubliners living there now. We are in a fairly interesting time now as this novel is being more openly embraced by the city of it’s origin than it ever has before and my suspicion is that this will make for new and exciting discourse.

But mostly it means that this project gets to live and breathe in the environment of Joyce’s imaginings. It gets to be more about Dublin and about understanding and discussing the city as Joyce saw it.

Exciting times for all of us,

-Rob

Tomorrow in the Twitterverse

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I don’t know how many of you have been following the very cool Modernist Versions Project’s “Year of Ulysses” but, obviously, we’re pretty excited about it. So much so that Josh worked up this jazzy new “ineluctable” image to show our support. Moreover, it’s got me stepping away from the studio for the day tomorrow to talk about how the comic is going, some of the difficulties of the process and some of the reasons why Joyce is so damn fun to draw. I’ll be doing one of their twitter chats tomorrow, Wednesday, August 15th, beginning about 2PM EST and going, well, as long as it goes (twitter is like that, you know; 140 characters at-a-time is a fun way to talk.)

There will be a blog post going up on their site as well that will show off some of the new “Lotus Eaters” pages Josh and I have been so diligently working on since Bloomsday. Oh, and we’ll have some news about big changes looming for this very website (yes, we’ve been busy on that front as well).

So follow us tomorrow on twitter @ulyssesseen or through the hashtag #yearofulysses. And bring your best 140character questions. I’ll defend decisions I’ve made, waffle on positions I’m unsure of, and give you plenty of fresh links to think about while all the time happy to get out of the studio and hear some feedback for the day.

-Rob

Ulysses “Seen” Original Art at The James Joyce Centre

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Dublin, Ireland — 23 Jul. 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The James Joyce Centre is delighted to present an exhibition of original drawings by illustrator Rob Berry from the ‘Ulysses “Seen”’ project, an adaptation of Joyce’s Ulysses. The work will be on display at the Centre until Thursday 20th December 2012.

This exhibition is made possible through the continued support of the James Joyce Centre by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and marks the beginning of an important transatlantic collaboration between the team behind ‘Ulysses “Seen”’ and the Centre.

‘Ulysses “Seen”’ is a web based comic adaptation of Joyce’s masterpiece, developed with the aim of reinvigorating an appreciation for a work which has established a reputation for inaccessibility. The project offers itself as a unique companion piece to the novel, transposing the subtlety and humour of the book into a comic narrative form which will be familiar to 21st Century readers. The result is what the Huffington Post has called a “breathtaking adaptation”.

Mark Traynor, manager of the Centre, says: “The Centre has long admired ‘Ulysses “Seen”’ and this is precisely the sort of work that we want to show to the public. Without dumbing down the novel, Rob Berry’s drawings cut through the academic gobbledygook that turns off so many readers and refocuses on what makes the book great: its playfulness, humanity, and extraordinary ordinariness.”

“By the same token,” he says, “it also appeals to the sort of reader Joyce would have loved: someone willing to embrace new forms, someone comfortable with popular culture, and above all someone with a sense of humour and imagination.”

See www.jamesjoyce.ie for further details.

For additional information, pictures or interviews please contact Mark Traynor at (00353)-1-8788547 or mark@jamesjoyce.ie.

It is true. I’m finally going to Dublin.

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True, there hasn’t been much info about it here. In fact the blog seems rather, well, quiet for the week before Bloomsday, doesn’t it? I mean there must be new pages coming out soon, right? There must be new events from Bloomsday the world over that you, as subscribers, are interested in hearing about, aren’t there? And what about a print version of the comic? Or some more t-shirts or pint glasses?

Yes, all of that’s true and in the works as well. We’ve been really busy on putting together those pages and keeping on top of new developments. But this Dublin trip, long over due, came as something of a surprise and we’ve been too busy getting ready for it to bring any of you up to speed. My apologies. But don’t worry we’ll have plenty to talk about all week long, I promise.

For those of you who will be in Dublin this this Bloomsday, c’mon down to The Bailey (original home for Bloomsday, by the way) and say hello. Mark Traynor, our friend at the James Joyce Centre, has been welcoming me to the town and helped make all the arrangements for this informal exhibit with the good folks at The Bailey. We’ll have original art from the comic as well as posters to sell, but I’ll also be using it as a sort of beachhead for my forays into Dublin. I’ve got a lot to see if I’m going to do this comic rightly, so I’m happy to meet any Joycefans who want to bend my ear and send my feet and eyes of in the right direction of reference material. Or just share a pint.

-Rob

Getting ready for BloomsDay?

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Looking to get your Joyce fix before Bloomsday? Hoping you can slip a bit more easily in to the deep waters of modernist literature and, maybe, get a few really good bellylaughs along the way? Well, Tom Stoppard and some of the very talented folk at Plays&Players here in Philadelphia have got you covered. And, believe me, this will get you ready, happily, joyfully ready for all the lifeaffirming comedy Joyce’s work can bring.

Plays&Players is presenting Tom Stoppard’s TRAVESTIES, a fantastical romp through the art culture of Zurich during World War One when Joyce, Vladmir Lenin and DaDa poet Tristan Tzara may, or may not,  have met. In typical Stoppard fashion it gives you a wild, frenetical glimpse at how art, literature and politics all intersect. Sure, you may leave the theatre wishing you read more, but that’s just typical Stoppard as well. Don’t worry. No one is going to check your library card when you come in, but I guarantee  you’ll be looking to use it a lot more once you leave.

But, to make things a bit easier still, Plays&Players has schedule some great supplementary and educational “talkbacks” with the cast and some guest speakers after some of the performances:

JUNE 8

“Talking Stoppard and Joyce”

Join us for a pre-show happy hour at our Quig’s Pub, from 6:30-7:30pm on Friday, June 8 for an informal conversation about the work of Tom Stoppard and James Joyce with Professor Janine Utell of Widener University, author of James Joyce and the Revolt of Love: Marriage, Adultery, Desire.  Read more. (many of you will know Janine from her  fantastic Readers’ Guide to the “Calypso” chapter on this website.)

JUNE 10
“Meet-the-cast talkback with a guest star!”
The cast and creative team of Travesties join Professor Joseph J. Feeney for a talkback immediately following the show, to talk about the work of James Joyce, Tom Stoppard, and to answer questions about the production. Read more.
JUNE 15
“Bloomers on the Limmat”
Join us for a pre-show happy hour at our Quig’s Pub, from 6:30pm-7:30pm on Friday, June 15, with Professor Jean-Michel Rabaté of the University of Pennsylvania, as he discusses the reality behind the imagination of Tom Stoppard in Travesties, transporting us to 1917 as privileged witnesses to the radically modern, a time when Vladimir Lenin, James Joyce, and Tristan Tzara were busy changing the world of art and politics. Read more.
JUNE 17

“Meet-the-cast talkback with a guest star!”
The cast and creative team of Travesties join Professor Elizabeth Mannion of Temple University for a talkback immediately following the show, to talk about the work of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and to answer questions about the production. Read more.
As you may’ve guessed by now, I did the poster for this production you see above and most of the drawings used on stage. This means I’ve had a chance to see the rehearsals of this really difficult play and can tell you that I’m really excited by what thew cast and director Candace Cihocki are doing. Can’t suggest it highly enough and, well, I’m a bit of a tough audience for Joyce-related theatre by now!
Hope you’ll join us for this glimpse into the modern age and the wartime lightheartedness that only real men of genius are granted the time for. Heavy politics and art? Maybe. But the deeper question is, “what has any of that got to do with life and love and memory?”
Hope to see you there,
-Rob

What you should do while you’re waiting for Bloomsday

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Hello and welcome back!

If you’re a regular subscriber  on on our facebook or twitter feeds you may know that I and the original pages from the comic will be in Dublin for the first time this BloomsDay.

(Yes. I will be in Dublin for the first time. Yes. My wife as well. Anyone no where to buy a good seedcake?)

You may’ve therefore heard that there will be new pages of the coming “Nestor/Lotus Eaters” chapter going online for the holiday… but I’m not allowed to tell you where yet.

Today’s news isn’t about the comic, however. Today it’s about telling you all how I and my partners at Throwaway Horse are getting behind the folks at Boston College who are developing an smart-phone based walking tour of Dublin with ULYSSES as the key. It’s called JoyceWalk and it looks fantastic.

Professor Nugent and his students have created a tour of the town that accesses the paths of Stephen and Mr Bloom and gives you all of the relevant spots, the deeper histories, the most significant monuments and the truly outstanding pubs, complete with related images and quotes, all in time for my first-time visit to dirty, dirty Dublin. Now we need to help him out a bit so we can get it on our phones by Bloomsday.

The tech has been designed and the content work is done, but there hoping for a little kickstarter push to get code written and submitted in time. As someone who’s dealt with this before… I feel the worry.

So I’m sending out this call for help to all of you who have helped us so much before. Making this novel more accessible relies strongly on making people see how Mr Joyce’s love and humor is still part of our everyday experience and that his Dublin and our own modern cities are not so very far apart. Bringing that idea to a new audience means meeting them, intelligently and calmly, in the forum digital application, something I believe Joyce would’ve loved.

I’m committing new drawings and original art from the comic as rewards to this wonderful kickstarter drive and I’m hoping all of you who have supported us in the past will send the love to Professor Nugent and his students. You can receive original drawings from my Dubliners sketchbook there for a donation of just $35. There will also be pages of original art from our “Calypso” chapter offered there for a $300 dollar pledge of support.

I really, really would like to see this project make it. As a Joycehead like yourselves, I really want someone to just say, “hey, sure it’s hard to understand. But if you bring it up on your phone there then I think we can give you a little glimmer of just why you’ll want to read it.”

Thanks so much and standby for further updates as Bloomsday draws nearer,

-Rob