Cú Chulainn puts artist in the frame for success
Award-winning illustrator Will Sliney, who has dragged the legendary story of Celtic hero Cú Chulainn into the 21st century through a graphic novel laced with blood and guts would love to see box-office star Michael Fassbender taking on the lead role.
His bare-chested, muscle-bound Cú Chulainn dominates the novel to single-handedly face down an army led by a bodice-bursting Queen Maeve.
Sliney, who is working from his Cork studio with Disney-owned comic-book giants Marvel on a new superhero series, believes Cú Chulainn’s story has blockbuster movie and computer game potential.
“I know Michael Fassbender has been trying to do something on this legend for some time,” he said.
“And what movie executives in Hollywood are looking for these days is not so much a script — they want to know if a comic has been done, so they can see the visuals, the characters, the storyline, and the potential straight away.”
Sliney, 30, from Ballycotton, Co Cork, graduated from CIT with a multi-media degree and burst onto the worldwide illustration scene in 2007 after his work was spotted at a comic book convention.
He has drawn several comics spun-off from the science fiction TV series Farscape for Boom! Studios.
In Apr 2011, he drew the strip Dug Out for the British comic Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
It broke records around Europe, selling 250,000 copies in Germany alone.
Sliney is working on the new Marvel superhero series Fearless Defenders.
But he always wanted to produce his own graphic novel, based on the legend of Cú Chulainn, and will fulfil that ambition tonight when he launches Celtic Warrior: The Legend of Cú Chulainn, in Cork.
His first graphic novel focuses on the Táin Bó Cuailnge.
Celtic Warrior: The Legend of Cú Chulainn, published by O’Brien Press, priced €14.99, will be launched in Waterstones on St Patrick’s St, Cork, at 6pm tonight.
* You can view Will Sliney’s work at www.sliney.blogspot.ie
