“I was the only girl in the comic book store”

“When I went to comic book stores, I was the only girl there.”

Comic books played a big role in Marianna Mooney’s childhood and she believes the stereotypes have changed in recent years.

Originally from Kildare, Marianna moved to Belfast in 2021. She is one of numerous local artists featured in the first print edition of the comics anthology Low Intensity.

The graphic designer said she loves storytelling, but when it comes to comics, it’s “definitely harder to make a career out of it.”

“Writing and drawing comics has definitely shaped my whole life,” she told BBC News NI.

In her contribution “The Liberation of Eve” she deals with the experience of separation, viewed through the prism of the biblical story of Adam and Eve.

Marianna said her work often deals with “difficult emotions or life experiences and the reasons why we think the way we think.”

Andrew Pope, founder of Low Intensity, said the aim of the publication is to showcase comics and sequential art from this part of the world.

“It was really important to me to have it in print,” he said. “Now the market forces are against us and it’s completely understandable why print media has evolved in this direction.”

“But having comics in print, I like that, I really like that.”

Andrew hopes that he will eventually be able to print older archive material for Low Intensity and include it in the anthology.

“I would like to reissue some stuff from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and ‘2000s and show it to a new audience in the anthology,” he continued.

Low Intensity is published by Local Colour Comics, which also hosts the Belfast Comic Jam, a collaborative comic-making event in which many of the artists on the project were involved.

One of those artists is Kathryn McGrane, who hopes the anthology will “be widely distributed” and show people that “there is a comics community here and we have many stories to tell.”

When Kathryn started drawing as a woman, she felt intimidated by the comics industry. But as you get used to it, “you realize that your prejudices are only superficial,” she explains.

“You can see that we all really enjoy drawing and getting to know each other.”

“You think of Marvel, you think of DC; Superman or Batman, very masculine characters. But actually it’s women at the base of every art movement,” she said.

“The first Star Trek convention was organized by women. If you Q-con in Belfast, Many of the artists are women.”

Kathryn uses her art to show “fun and a sense of humor,” even when dealing with difficult topics.

Her post is about a little monster who becomes infected with Covid-19, “but he somehow makes the whole thing humorous, as opposed to this horrible disease.”

Titch Dixon also worked on Low Intensity and said her biggest source of inspiration was her father.

“My father is very artistic, so he would have taught me to draw as a child,” she says.

“We have a matching tattoo that he designed.

“I’ve been drawing since I was a kid and it’s only in the last year or so that I’ve started to be quite open about it.

“I just started posting stuff on Instagram,” she added.

Titch’s comic for Low Intensity focuses on homelessness in Belfast, drawing on her experiences as a social worker.

She wants to show that there are “employees who don’t earn much money, who deal with pretty serious incidents and who care deeply about the people they have trampled on for most of their lives.”

“I do other illustrations and drawings,” Titch added.

“Whether it’s social issues or nerdy stuff like dragons. I’m a nerd too, so I’ll include things like that too.”

Titch told BBC News NI she hoped to create a comic strip in the future detailing her experiences as a carer to make it available to “nurses, doctors, care workers and frontline workers”.

“There is still a need for a certain level of support, a truthful and honest representation and recognition of the work that people do.”