Chris Le Galle

Writer, Organiser and Comic Culture Promoter! Chris Le Galle was born in 1545 following a very close encounter between a Maltese working girl and a French Knight. He died while bravely fighting for his Country during the Great Siege of 1565. He then spent years in limbo awaiting the issue of his reincarnation permit. Apparently bureaucracy is rifer in the afterlife! After his first choice as a breeding pig was rejected amid fears of swine flu, he was finally reincarnated as a human in 1977. He soon found that his previous sword wielding powers weren’t going to get him far in life. He tried fencing for a while but found it too gay for his liking. Being a fan of comics, movies and art in general he bought a book called Drawing Stickmen for Dummies and tried his hand at drawing. He found the book too hard to follow and decided to spend the rest of his days watching TV. While gawking at Ira Losco in a local TV program he saw a man with an unusually large head called Fabio Agius. This guy said he was drawing some comics and needed a writer to come up with a story for him. Le Galle scribbled a few words and met Fabio in the hope that he could get him in touch with Miss Losco. This never materialized, but Fabio liked Le Galle’s writing and Le Galle discovered that he could pen a few words together if he put his mind to it. The first collaboration between Agius and Le Galle resulted in a one-shot comic called Dark Hearts which was displayed during the Big Bang. This was followed by a number of comics strips including Rocky and Rex published on Manic Magazine and Lovely published on the Virus website. At the time Mark “Douche” Ellul was the owner of Madhouse which was the first comic shop in Malta and the favourite hangout for a bunch of freaks and geeks. Agius, Ellul and Le Galle were involved in numerous conversations there in which words such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Conan the Barbarian occurred more frequently than shagging does in a brothel. It was through one of these conversations that Le Galle and Fabio discovered that they went to school together and were both taught by Gorg Mallia who some claim is the grandfather of Maltese comics. Le Galle claims that he used to bully Agius, a statement Agius strongly denies. Judging by their sizes, Le Galle’s claims do appear a tad far fetched, but then again Agius is presently Le Galle’s designated taxi driver so one cannot say for sure. As the friendship between Agius, Ellul and Le Galle blossomed so did their creative juices and the trio worked together on a comic strip series called The Prick published on Replay magazine. Then out of the blues Fabio had an idea. Now these guys rarely ever agree on something but they all agree that Fabio’s idea was a bad one which somehow resulted in something great; The Golden Lizard. So the trio formed Tin Can Comics and published the first graphic novel in Malta. Scripted by Le Galle, drawn by Agius (in a very short time) and coloured by Ellul (in a very long time), The Golden Lizard was launched at the Malta Comic Con 2010. British artist Tim Perkins and Maltese wannabe artist Sean Cini were cajoled into doing the cover and the lettering respectively. Tin Can Media a branch out of Tin Can comics (alternatively known as Agius vs Ellul with Le Galle in the middle) has also produced a series of semi-educational and supposedly funny sketches called “L-Avventuri ta’ Gahan u s-Sur Pastizzottu”. Fabio and Chris are currently writing the script for their second graphic novel called Zombie Grooves while also discussing a number of other projects which may or may not see the light of day. Le Galle who has also written Bar Mats a mini series for TV, two plays, a novella called Loving Ghosts and countless comic strips is also the co-founder of Wicked Comics, and regularly writes, edits and publishes comic related articles and reviews on the Malta Comic Con e-zine.