Bridgeen Gillespie is a cartoonist, illustrator and painter from Derry. She studied art at Manchester Metropolitan University in the late 1990s, and started creating small press comics while living in Cambridge in 2001, beginning with autobiographical stories. Her early comics include Fred's Cynical Rant, in which a girl called Fred complains about relationships, and Mercy Killing in London, about a punk girl and her squirrel who hate Cambridge and leave for the big city.
Her best-known comics are the Mr Maximo and Rabbit series (2004-present), in which a professorial cat and his rabbit companion discuss questions and issues of interest, most recently the history of the walls of Derry. Other comics include Rocket (2005), inspired by Kate Bush's song "Rocket's Tail". She has contributed to numerous anthologies, including the Accent UK anthology titles Robots, Zombies and Western, the Just One Page charity comics, the 24min Comic at the UKWeb&Minicomix thing 2005 and the 2008 GOAL benefit anthology Sorry I can't take your call right now but I'm off saving the world.
Her brother, Charlie Gillespie, is also a comics artist who has worked for 2000AD.
References[]
- "No Line on the Horizon" (interview), RedEye Vol. 2 issue 1, pp. 70-79, 2009
External links[]
Media[]
- Mr Maximo and Rabbit reviewed at Indie Review
- Fractured Visions, video documentary by Craig Smith, including the 2D Comics Festival, Bridgeen Gillespie, Malachy Coney, Declan Shalvey and David Lloyd
Online reference[]
Bridgeen Gillespie at the Comic Book DB
