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Andrew Luke

Andrew Luke (b. 6 December 1973) is a comics writer, artist and journalist originating from Bangor, County Down. After four years in Oxford, during which he served as secretary of the small press convention Caption, he is now living in Belfast.

Inspired by a DNA Swamp workshop in Galway, he started making and self-publoishing his own comics beginning with Brookside: The Comic, a "bootleg" of the Channel 4 soap, in 1997. He then began a series, the "bedsit-com" Bob's, about a flat in Bangor which acts as a kind of drop-in centre frequented by a regular cast of "dole-hacks, drug users and alcoholics", as well as a succession of characters from TV and popular culture. The series also featured "Bob's Dogs" by Stuart Luke, and work by guest artists, including Patrick Brown, Emmett Taylor, P. J. Holden, Dave Morris, Ralph Kidson, John Kirkham and Dek Baker. It lasted for six issues between 1997 and 2002.

In 2000-2001 he co-created the four issues of The Implausibility of Reason with Richard Barr, Stuart Luke, Malcy Duff and John Robbins. Between 2001 and 2008 he published seven issues of his anthology Andrew Luke's Comic Book, and the one-offs Jeremy Kyle vs the Neocons (2006), Gran (2007, a 24 hour comic inspired by his recently deceased grandmother), Sociology Comix (2008) and Optimus and Me (2008).

Between 1999 and 2002 he wrote and published the print version of TRS2, a review sheet for small press comics. Since 2004 TRS2 has been online at the Bugpowder website, with Luke contributing a large proportion of the reviews. He has also written reviews for Comics International and Silver Bullet Comics. He has written columns and articles for Comics International, Tripwire, Borderline, Comics Village and Alltern8. With P. J. Holden, he is also a founder member of the Shareware Comics initative.

In February and March 2008, Luke achieved the feat of publishing seven new small-press comics on a weekly schedule. On 24th May, he set out to review 24 mini-comics in 24 consecutive hours through a mixture of written, photo and video recordings. Luke achieved this in 28 hours, however some of the reviews have since been lost due to a hacking incident at one of the hosting sites.

Upon returning to Belfast, he serialised part of his graphic novel Don't Get Lost online. Published between February and April of 2010, it chronicled a tale of abuse and survival through the self and friendship. In October he reworked elements of the story into a 24 hour comic of the same name. At the same time he was publishing a webcomic series, Hold the Phones, It's Alex Jones! based on the cult underground 9/11 Truther. The series was co-written with Belfast-based Professor Octagon (Richard Barr) with Luke on art. Benjamin Stone from Illinois also contributed, creating the second strip himself and co-writing one piece with Luke and Barr.

In February, he also created his third 24 hour comic, Absence, about his experiences of living with epilepsy. The following year, he obtained a grant from the UnLtd Millenium Awards Fund to remake the comic for distribution around Northern Ireland. The script was partially re-written to a tighter 20 pages, and Stephen Downey commissioned to re-draw it. Published in print in April 2011, 7000 copies were circulated within the first three months with 3000 more to follow by the end of the year. The in-browser comic built by Downey has attracted over 3,000 readers. Norwegian based Oxicomics also released an Apple app version which gained 500 readers in the first few weeks, followed by a version for Android. The series received critical acclaim from individuals with epilepsy, and industry figures including Dan Jurgens, David Lloyd and Mike McMahon.

In late 2011, Andy was the driving force behind the Belfast Comics Barcamp, a partly-structured partly-improvised unconference event generated by participants. Speakers included Paddy Brown, Gareth Watson and Ciara Brennan, with Luke talking on Writer Pitching and Digital Distribution. The event was one of the world's first barcamps devoted solely to comics. Also in 2011, he wrote and presented the documentary The Invisible Artist on comics in Belfast for local station NVTV.

From 3 February to 15 March 2012 he had an exhibition of his work, "In Time", at the Arts and Disability Forum in Belfast. As part of the exhibition he created NewsZoom, a twice-weekly comic inspired by stories in the news.