A perfect Sunday with... Dylan Shipley

Every week, a top writer, artist, actor or creator reveals how they’d fill their perfect Sunday, sharing their favourite comfort reads, movies, food… anything that would make their weekend great.

Today, it's the turn of animator and artist of Volcano Island, Dylan Shipley.

Dylan's perfect Sunday… brunch

I love tomatoes, I love eggs, I love bread, so it has to be shakshuka and a nice coffee for me! Either made at home or in a brunch type cafe.

Dylan's perfect Sunday… read

I'm currently reading the first Blackstone Fortress novel by Darius Hinks, just a short novel based on the board game, but I've got back into playing the game recently and want to find out more about the setting to help with our gaming adventures. My gaming group is close to taking on the final expansion.

Dylan's perfect Sunday… comic

Hard to come up with just one, but I'll have to say the whole Lone Wolf and Cub series. An amazing set of stories with an epic scope, detailed historical accuracy and masterful artwork. Most of the stories left me with a feeling of awe and reflection afterwards. 

Dylan's perfect Sunday... movie

I've not seen the Lord of the Rings movies in ages and would love to watch them again. For comfort, I would binge the special extended DVD versions with all the making ofs. You can see the huge passion and craft put into those films, I think they stand up as well, if not better nowadays—just amazing.

Dylan's perfect Sunday... TV binge

That would be Ulysses 31. I'm looking forward to introducing it to my kids. It's an emotional, animated show from the early eighties that combines Greek mythology into a sci-fi setting. The great music, themes of Ulysees as a father protecting his family and friends, his integrity and bravery in the face of the mighty god Zeus himself make it all totally epic.

Dylan's perfect Sunday… podcast

I'm really enjoying the Square Window podcast, which goes over the golden era of Saturday morning cartoons. I'm very much into this era and just love the way the stories were back then, heroic and imaginative. The basis many worlds which still are relevant today and others which are hidden gems.

Dylan's perfect Sunday… album

Probably the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack to play during to make my games of Blackstone Fortress even more atmospheric.

Dylan's perfect Sunday… treat

This is quite far removed from comics, animation or anything like that, but I really like to tinker on small electronic projects, mainly modifying and upkeeping old video game consoles. Working with a soldering iron is very therapeutic, I find. My latest project was to add a new backlit screen and a brightly coloured shell to an old beaten-up Gameboy Advance. This kind of thing is completely out of my comfort zone. I'm very slow and careful, nervous I'll mess it up, but it's an amazing feeling when your work improving an old console comes together and it all works, like magic. 

ISSUE ONE OF VOLCANO ISLAND WILL BE AVAILABLE TO ORDER SOON!

In the near-future on a mysterious island in the North Atlantic Ocean, a multi-national company Humanity Forever has launched a high-tech mission to prove that humans can thrive even in the most hostile conditions on the planet. As the thousandth day of the mission approaches Commander Maximilian Jones gives a speech to commemorate their achievements.

However, all is not as it seems on Volcano Island with strange fossils of undiscovered lifeforms appearing in the rocks, people experiencing hallucinations and the lava flows getting increasingly agitated.

Soon a disastrous event will threaten all - their only hope lies in rebellious engineer Pepper Rose finding the truth behind the attack. Will anyone survive the fury of Volcano Island?

The artist on Volcano Island, Dylan is just a big lover of all things to do with drawing which has now led him to be an experienced professional animator and animation director. Training in animation at the Glamorgan Centre for Art and Design, he has since worked as a freelance animator before co-founding Sun & Moon animation studios in 2009, earning his stripes on commercial shorts and longer-form series' such as Hammer and Bolter for Games Workshop and Square Enix’s Just Cause 3.

Japanese anime and manga have always guided Dylan’s work, with the animation director Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust) having an especially large impact on him. Dylan likes to create detailed comic artwork with clear staging and storytelling combined with strong poses, clear facial expressions and dramatic camera angles.

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