NICK DODDS
Graphic Novel
Nick Dodds is course leader for Creative Writing at the University of
Cumbria where he lectures in critical and narrative theory. He trained
originally as a graphic designer and successfully combines a career in
teaching with a design and illustration practice spanning 20 years and
counting.
Nick's artwork has appeared in numerous
national publications and exhibitions. He is currently the in-house
designer for Cumbria based Matrix Art Projects who specialise in
live art events and artist exchange programmes. Nick is also the editor
and prime mover behind the anthology Bagatelle, a magazine
published annually and featuring 'comic strip tales'.
A longstanding passion for comic strips and graphic story telling feed
directly into Nick's own artwork and academic research. In 2001 he
exhibited a series of large scale sequential narrative paintings at the
Holden Gallery in Manchester. More recently he has worked collaboratively
on comic strip themed projects with organisations such as Tulle House
(running workshops as part of the touring exhibition Cult Fiction: Art
and Comics) and Copeland Arts in Whitehaven; the latter involved
designing public art installations for Whitehaven Civic Centre. Current
projects include a graphic novel called The Collector and writing
and performing film soundtracks with the band Pecker.
At Writ on the Wall 2010 Nick
will be giving an illustrated introduction to comic strip narrative. He
will be outlining some of the codes and conventions used by comic strip
artists, the hidden dynamic between text and image, exploring ideas on
timing put forward by key writers of the form (eg Scott McCloud
Understanding Comics). Nick will also be seeking to unpick common
misconceptions that comic books are either lightweight or 'just for kids'.
Links
www.matrixartprojects.org
www.myspace.com/peckeruk
www.scottmccloud.com
