Cliodhna Lyons

Cliodhna Lyons, also known as Ztoical, is an Irish illustrator, cartoonist and animator born in Galway. She graduated from the Ballyfermot College of Further Education in Dublin with an HND in Classical Animation and then relocated to New York City where she earned her Bachelor's Degree in cartooning/illustration from the School of Visual Arts, studying under artists such as David Sandlin, Gary Panter, Peter Kuper, and Seth Tobocman. While studying in New York she worked as an intern for World War Three Illustrated, a political comics anthology. In 2006 she moved to Kilkenny to work at the Cartoon Saloon on their first animated feature film, the Oscar and Annie award nominated 'The Secret of Kells' and also contributed the digital lettering to volume 1 of Brendan et le secret de Kells

She has self published a number of mini comics and hand bound books, including The Green Fields of France (2004), Nightswimming (2005), The Art of Cake Diving (2007), Cheap Thrills (2010) and Threes (2010) with Maeve Clancy and Phil Barrett, contributed work to several anthologies, including Kineso, The Thing anthology, and The Whores of Mensa and is a contributor to the Irish Comic Challenge. Cliodhna has been one of the main organizers of 24 Hour Comics Day in Dublin since 2006, and edited and published the 24 anthology to tie in with the 2009 event, and the October Anthology to tie in with the 2010 one. She published a comic book anthology, titled Sorry I can't take your call right now but I'm off saving the world, to raise money for the Irish international development charity GOAL, released on September 12th 2008. The book is in memory of her father, a former aid worker for GOAL, who passed away suddenly in 2007. In September 2008 she was chosen to take part in the Asia-Europe foundations 3rd installment of the Lingua Comica project which included a residency at the International Manga Museum in Kyoto Japan, where she and partner Tsuyoshi Ogawa created The Comics Foodpedia, a 56 page full colour collection of short comics on food and food culture in Japan and Ireland. In 2010 she began working for Endemol on 'The 99', an animated tv series based on the Islamic comic book series of the same name. She currently lives and works in London with her two cats Joda and Jack.