ABC Fest Brings Together Art, Brew, Community

Looking for a fun way to close out your weekend?

Check out the 2012 Spring Seasonal ABC Fest at the Brick House Kitchen on James Island starting at 3 p.m. Conceived by ABC Fest President Justin Johnson, a tattoo artist at on Savannah Highway, the event is designed to foster the area's arts community.

"We wanted to get the community together and give them a chance to go out and see some great art," Johnson said.

ABC Fest will feature three area bands, Skye Paige, the Royal Tinfoils and the Folly Beach Reggae All-Stars, and a burlesque show in the evening. In addition to the musical entertainment area artists and crafters will sell their work from vendor tables. The Brick House Kitchen will supply plenty of beer for the event, and several of Charleston's food trucks will be in attendance as well, Johnson said.

One of those area artists is Elias Urie, a James Island native who has been creating an epic length graphic novel for the past two years.

"The idea started a long time ago, and then I had a son and that took up a lot of time," Urie said.

So Urie put his pencils down for several years while raising his child, but picked them back up to teach him how to draw.

"I was showing my son how to draw and I decided, 'hey, dad isn't done yet,'" Urie said.

He first had the idea for his story, Lion Wars, about a decade ago, but hadn't worked on it seriously until two years ago. The hiatus actually helped him put more thought into developing his characters, he said. The epic six-act saga follows the story of the wars between four kingdoms of anthropomorphic lions as a young cub on the run seeks to regain his birthright.

Urie says Disney's the Lion King was a major inspiration for his work.

"It was the first cartoon that made me cry," he said.

Urie also draws influences from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Wars and Dragonball Z. Eventually Urie hopes to see his work published either as a single graphic novel or in a series of single comic book issues, but for now he's trying to gain some recognition and support by selling some of the book's original artwork.