"Lionborn" - Sinhabahu Reimagined - Launching at Lanka Comic Con

Get Issue 1 at Lanka Comic Con

"Lionborn” is a 7-part comic miniseries that re-imagines the Sri Lankan legend of Sinhabahu.

"The legend of Sinhabahu is probably one of the most well known tales in Sri Lanka," said writer, Sachi Ediriweera,  "Yet, very little is known apart from few specifics which we learn from general folklore."

"Lionborn” Blends elements of hardboiled detective noir with action-adventure.

Synopsis: When his sister Sivali is wrongfully arrested in connection with the case of a missing girl, Sheerdas returns to Vanga to seek the truth. His investigation draws him onto the trail of secrets, betrayals and consequences stemming from the dark reign of his father, The Lion.

You may remember us writing about him much earlier, when his company Filmbox, joined as our design partner. I've seen some of his short films, and of late the design work he's done for Lanka Comic Con.

People, the man is thorough in everything he does. 

As such, I'm very interested to see how he handles a story he as passionate about. One he has been working on, for two years. 

“It’s truly gratifying to see the book come together and to share the first chapter at Lanka Comic Con.”

— Sach Ediriweera, Writer

From writer/artist Sachi Ediriweera with colorist Chris Lissman. Additional colors by Prabath Wijayantha (watc out for him, too!). Series covers by Sachi Ediriweera and Vinicius Townsend (Dynamite Entertainment’s Battlestar Gallactica). 

Sachi will be launching Issue No. 01 at 10:30am, on Saturday, 20th August, at Lanka Comic Con.   

There will be Fighting at Lanka Comic Con (so forget Inter-school Rugby)

We are bringing back Duelling. 

Mock duels and battles are what the LARP Guild of Sri Lanka are all about (LARP stands for "Live Action Role Play." Think of Dungeons and Dragons but with wandering around). Below are some shots of what they get up to. 

"Argue Wars"

The LARP Guild is organizing civilized, gentlemanly duels to settle long standing, geek arguments. Do you want to fight for your fandom? Sign up here if you are interested.

If your side wins a duel, then Lanka Comic Con will officially rule that your side is correct / better, for an entire year. 

The following arguments will be decided by duels:

1 - Jedi vs Sith

Side stakes: 
I) Admit the Luke-Leia kiss was seriously messed up. 

II) Kylo Ren sees a dermatologist. 

2 - Console vs PC 

Side Stakes: 
1) Accept that Halo is overrated (but should really come to PC). 

2) Delete Steam

3 - Lord of the Rings vs. Game of Thrones

Side Stakes: 
1) Admit "the Hobbit" movies sucked. 

2) Give up nudity

If you want to take part in the Argue Wars, you can sign up here.

To learn more about LARPing, you can contact Johann, the organizer, by email (johannbalasuriya@gmail.com)  or on Facebook. 

EAP is the Official Movie Partner for Lanka Comic Con 2016!

EAP Films and Theaters (Pvt) Ltd. has joined as our movie partner! 

Those of you who have been coming to the Geek Club movie premiers will not be surprised - we've been working with them for a while now. They have always been very supportive of us, and have a genuine passion for geek movies.  

They have something quite special planned - sorry, I can't say anything more than this :) . 

You can find their Facebook page, here.

Royal College Just Sent a Probe to the Edge of Space (and no one is talking about it)

Just 8 days ago, this Youtube video went up:

Did you watch it? Watch it. This is what a suborbital space program looks like. if it's giving you ideas, it's because it should. 

According to the video's boiler plate, a group of A Level students launched a "Ultra High Altitude Balloon" (UHAB). Solar powered, it gathered data form the edge of space environment, before returning safely.  It got to 131,800 ft (40km). 

Technology!

The craft - and it's instruments - needed to survive the extreme cold and near-vacuum of the upper atmosphere. They even used a two-stage parachute system. You'll notice separations happening - just like with rocket-powered spacecraft. 

They also transmitted the school song over radio: this was a telemetry exercise. Being able to send and receive information (and gather data) makes the difference between a KFC party balloon, and a research probe.  

If anyone has contact with this team, please email us and let us know.  

We'd like to feature their achievement at our Science, Technology, and Exploration booth. 

Royal College (clearly) loves Space

Royal College has been pro Space, for some time now. Astronomer Ray Jayawardhana went there.

Dean of Science at York University in Canada, "Ray Jay" is also a science popularizer, and author of Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System (which is brilliant, by the way). If you're interested in exoplanets, and want a book that actually treats you like a human being, give this a read. It's not every day you find a science writer, who actually writes well.  

Before he left Sri Lanka, Dr. Jayawardhana was also a active member of the Young Astronomer's Association.

Another space graduate is Doctor Kavan Ratnatunga.  Doctor Ratnatunga worked at NASA Goddard, and the Space Telescope Science Institute, where he worked on the Hubble Space Telescope.

Doctor Kavan will be coming to Lanka Comic Con, where he will talk about good (and bad) science, in good (and bad) scifi movies.

                            If you like Michael Bay, Doctor Kavan will make you cry.  

Disclaimer: I did not go to Royal College (though taxis keep going there, when I ask them to come to Royal Institute). 

A Podi Team coming to Lanka Comic Con

Last year, Oni Press (Invader Zim, Scott Pilgrim) accepted Podi, a Sri Lankan-written comic. Podi is about two bickering sisters who accidentally shrink themselves:

A page from "Podi." Out in 2018 by Oni Press.

And must find their baby brother and escape, or be trapped forever, in miniature.

"It was a long shot. We submitted; crossed our fingers; kept working," said Deshan Tennekoon, one of Podi's writers. "A few months and 2,571 entries later, Podi was one of the books selected. Daytime martinis, as you do."

Podi is being created by Isuri Dayaratne, Navin Ratnayake, and Deshan Tennekoon.  

Isuri Dayaratne "is an illustrator of books and maker of fine things. She wanted to grapple with sequential storytelling and – having no use for sanity – used this project to purge herself of it."

Though you may not have realized it, you've probably seen her work around Colombo (next time you're there, take a look at the Coco Veranda logo). Indeed, while I did not meet her till years later, I first got to know of Isuri from this logo she did for Colombo Comic Con back in 2012.

Her work has been exhibited at Gallery1988, Light Grey Art Lab and IAM8BIT Gallery.

The predecessor of Lanka Comic Con, circa 2012

Her previous work includes August in Pasikuda for the comics-poetry journal, Inkbrick (No. 4, 2015) and illustrated haiku in Lexicons, the Sri Lankan SFF anthology. 

She is a graduate of Columbus College of Art & Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration.

Navin Ratnayake "wrote for Colombo’s first city guide for five years and now writes terrifying, complex stock market analyses. He recently completed his first history book."

In school, what I remember most about Navin was how impressively well read he was. Very pleased to see he's writing his own books now.

Pub Quiz, like art, takes commitment. 

Many know Navin from his time cohosting the Colombo Pub Quiz, at the Barefoot Cafe. 

Now, you do too. 

 

Deshan Tennekoon edited the magazine Navin wrote for. As the father of two short humans (aged 10 and almost-12), he wanted to tell them a story they’d never heard before.

He has contributed to the poetry comics anthology Over The Line (Sidekick Books, 2015), the comics poetry journal, Inkbrick (2015/16) and the Sri Lankan SFF magazine, Lexicons(2015).

Occasionally he gets asked to write things that aren’t comics, like Traditional Culture and Aesthetics of Sri Lanka for the Encyclopedia of Asian Design (forthcoming, from Bloomsbury Publishing).

In school Deshan was always scribbling comics in his notebook, and often other people's notebooks (whether they knew it or not). He also taught me Dungeons and Dragons, which changed the very course of my life.  

Podi will be approximately 120-pages, and should be out in 2018.

However, you won't need to wait that long to see more of their work. Isuri and Deshan are also in the (fully funded!) Elements - Fire comics anthology. Elements will feature their story Metta Helmet. 

From the upcoming Metta Helmet.

Metta Helmet is a story set in post-apocalyptic Sri Lanka, where an eccentric octogenarian imparts an unexpected gift to a reluctant gang member. 

Elements should be out by December. 

You can meet the Podi team at their panel at Lanka Comic Con, Saturday 20th of August. 

TNL Radio joins as Official Radio Partner

We're happy to have TNL Radio onboard!

We've had a soft place in our hearts for TNL (who in this town doesn't?). Last year they invited us on to the morning show, where many people first heard about Lanka Comic Con. This year, they're partners. 

They have a lot planned. In the lead up, expect interviews, featured songs, and a TNL Radio cosplay competition. At the event itself, they'll promote local musicians whose music has been influenced by Geek culture. Musicians who will perform!  

It's going to be a blast :) . 

Running Low on Vendor Spaces...

Credit: Geek.com

“At Sri Lanka’s first ComicCon held in November last year, MadFan Clothing had completely sold out ... in three hours.They had stocked up for the event with a modest 150 t-shirts and the response they had received was overwhelming.”

— Sunday Times

If you're thinking about selling at Lanka Comic Con, you should hustle. We're starting to run low on spaces on the vendors' floor. 

Here's a Sunday Times article on how well MadFan T-shirts did, at last year's event:

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/160131/magazine/madfan-t-shirts-bringing-illustration-and-designs-to-comic-and-cartoon-fans-180836.html

At (if I recall correctly), about 1,000 LKR on average per shirt, and 150 shirts, well you can do the math. Divide by 3, and that's how much a single vendor table made, per hour. 

““We didn’t even get a chance to set up the table.””

— Nimesh Niyomal, MadFan Clothing

Vendor Spaces at Lanka Comicon 2016 are: 
- 10,000 / LKR for a table
- 50,000 / LKR for a booth

Tables are 6 ft x 3 ft
Booths are 10 ft by 10 ft

If you're interested, drop us a mail at lankacomiccon@gmail.com . 

She Climbed Everest. Now She's Speaking at Lanka Comic Con.

Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala, the first Sri Lankan to climb Mt. Everest.

At just before 5:00am on the 21st May, 2016, Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala summited the world’s highest mountain – Mt Everest (29,029ft). Johann Peries who was also attempting to summit that day made it to an outstanding elevation of 27,559ft. This makes Jayanthi and Johann the two Sri Lankans who have achieved the highest altitudes in mountaineering, and they did so as a team.

“As a woman I am extremely proud and honored to be the first Sri Lankan to reach the summit – woman and girls can do anything if they are given the opportunity”

— Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala, Superhero

“It was a dream come true to finally be able to stand on top of the world and wave the Sri Lankan flag,”  said Jayanthi. Johann added “To dream an impossible dream is comforting, but to live the dream is an achievement. Faith and trust in God made it a reality. This sums up my whole experience.”

The duo have worked towards this goal for many years. They have summited many peaks together, both in Sri Lanka and abroad, and trained intensively in the lead up to their departure to give themselves every chance of success. The left for Nepal in late March and spent close to 2 months climbing and acclimatizing to the altitude. International Mountain Guides was the company that they chose to partner with on this successful expedition. 

Jayanthi and Johann wish to thank their families, friends, and fellow Sri Lankans for the overwhelming amount of support and positive wishes that have been sent their way over the course of the expedition.

Jayanthi will be speaking at Lanka Comic Con on Saturday, August 20th, at 4pm (don't be late). 

Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala and Johann Peries

How Lanka Comic Con became a thing

Lanka Comic Con started when someone hit cc instead of bcc (seriously, that's how it started). There are more details though.  

Anim8 is the Official Printing Partner for Lanka Comic Con 2016!

The Official Printing Partner for Lanka Comic Con 2016

We are very pleased to be working with Anim8, who are taking care of all our printing needs for Lanka Comic Con. They're pretty hard core: how hard core? 

On the very day we closed the agreement with them, we asked if we could get 100 souvenir badges printed, within 24 hours.

Limited ed Lanka Comic Con badges, by Anim8

And they delivered. 

The owner, Dinesh Rajawasan, is a pretty cool guy, and a Geek himself. An engineer who built his own electric car (he is going to upgrade it to Hydrogen fuel cells), he also makes Sauerkraut for fun. I'm not kidding.

Thank you Anim8 for being a Geek-friendly business and for supporting Lanka Comic Con!