Paper Trail

Rejected Pat Alexander 4 pager from Dark Horse Presents here.

 

Andrew Fulton's Smaller Comics have a pay what you want sale on here.

Chromacon is a new Illustration and Comics Art convention in New Zealand launching on 12 May at the old Armageddon stomping grounds, the Aotea Centre. A fine line up of illustrators and cartoonists have already been announced on their site and unlike other conventions down this way entrance to Chromacon is free. More information here.

Jason Franks writes about crowdfunding.

 Art by Jan Scherpenhuizen and story by Jason Franks from Sixsmiths vol. 2

Toby Morris has a tumblr!

What if money was no object - Alan Watts at Zen Pencils.

Hamilton comics alert: www.cakeburger.com

(I once saw Mr Cakeburger walk into a comic shop, swipe an issue of Gaiman/Romita Jr's Eternals off the shelf, pay for it and then roll it up and shove it in his back pocket. Cakeburger ain't precious about his comics, I like that in a comics creator.)

The Duluxe Tiny Kitten Teeth Hardcover is now available from Topatoco.

 The Beardy and the Geek podcast interview T-Rex Jones.

The latest issue of The Lifted Brow #15 is available and continues their run of featuring fine cartoonists from Australasia and around the world. Cartoonists featured int he latest issue are, Ben Sea, Blaise Larmee, Noel Freibert, Tin Can Forest, Ben Juers & Bailey Sharp, Simon Hanselmann.

  

The Melbourne comics scene documentary Graphic Novels! Melbourne! film makers Daniel Hayward and Bernard Caleo have announced a screening at the 2013 Angouleme Comics Festival in France (French article here), with screenings in Berlin, Hamburg and London to follow. Focusing on the work of Pat Grant, Mandy Ord, Nicki Greenberg, Bruce Mutard, Graphic Novels! Melbourne! also features Scott McCloud, Dylan Horrocks, Paul Gravett and Shaun Tan amongst others.

 Pat Grant's poster for Graphic Novels! Melbourne!

Another screening in Melbourne will be at Cinema Nova (380 Lygon Street Carlton) on Wednesday 23 January at 6.30pm, with a Q & A afterwards.

Photos from the Carlton Readings laneway premiere are here.

2012 in Review: Matt Kyme

Matt Kyme

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?

In Sept I launched That Bulletproof Kid where I upload my ongoing superhero web comic; That Bulletproof Kid. It’s a full colour comic illustrated by an awesomely talented friend, Arthur Strickland. In October I began uploading a second web comic which I wrote and illustrated called The Ace. In Nov I also uploaded an 8 page story called Secret History which was illustrated by Gareth Colliton and coloured by Joe Roberts.
 

Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the first time in 2012?

There are sooo many talented people out there! I was totally blown away by Hidden by Mirranda Burton. It was so tender and heartfelt, when you read it you feel as if you are listening to an old friend. I enjoyed the creepy and psychological atmosphere of The List by Paul Bedford. Fred Russell-Atkins had me laughing with his action packed, typo filled Spitfires, McBlack comics by Jason Franks are clever, surprising, genre challenging, 4th wall breaking meta which are a hoot to read. Thomas Tung’s Rent My Seal and Jake Harrison, Relationship Detective are a heap of fun as is High School Romance by Jin Chan Yum Wai. Guzumo by Matt Emery kept me and my high school students entertained and slightly confused.

Endlessly prolific writer, Matt Nicholls delivered 3 amazing comics this year; 2 issues of Collateral and my personal favourite, Our Love Will Never Die But We Will, which has to be the most romantic zombie story ever. Matt also has a wicked web comic called Vesper that is illustrated by Ross Stewart. One of my biggest highlights was discovering work by the amazing Frank Candiloro. His work is something else. His stories are all so different from the last and his artistic style is so original and unmistakable. My favourite of his is Behind The Crooked Cross. It is a harrowing comic which is testing and moving. I should mention the amazing artists and writers that I have been lucky enough to work/collaborate/brainstorm with this year, Franco Pollizzi, Eros Harries, Annerleigh Pappos, Gareth Colliton, Joe Roberts, Simon Wright, Steve Partridge, Andrew Fitzgerald and Arthur Strickland.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2012?

My wife and two kids are a heap of fun. We have had a heap of laughs together this year and I’m very lucky to have them. Outside of family stuff, I’m really digging the new albums by The Cribs and Cat Power. I finally gave into peer pressure and started watching Breaking Bad. The new series of The Walking Dead has been great. Avengers and Batman movies were really cool. I liked The Artist and Argo too. My kids have discovered The Aquabats Supershow which is super rad. That Kony video was good. The world not ending was pretty good too.

Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?

Pretty much everything is new this year.  I did all the art for The Ace (my first ever comic) after I finished writing it and it drained my life. I enjoyed writing it far more than illustrating it so I decided that from now on I would avoid doing comic art like it was the plague. The only thing I enjoy as much as writing comics is getting fresh pages of art in my inbox. Working with Arthur of That Bulletproof Kid is a dream. I give him some rough sketches when I send him the scripts. It’s up to him if he wants to use them or not. I have never had any complaints with his pages, the dude knows how to draw and I love his colours! As far as my working methods go, I have sketchbooks with ideas and design/sketches all over the place, I have files with all my random ideas for stories/plots and characters,  a file with the rough story lines and a separate file where I type out the finished scripts. I do a heap of cutting and pasting, tweaking, refining, reading, re-reading etc before I send the scripts off top the artists. Did that put you to sleep?

What are you looking forward to in 2013?
 

I look forward to working with Arthur on That Bulletproof Kid and perhaps some other projects. I look forward to meeting more creators and discovering their work. I hope the new Superman movie is good. I don’t know what else will be on the cards next year, just have to hold on tight and see what happens.

http://thatbulletproofkid.com/wordpress/

2012 in Review: Jase Harper

Jase Harper

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?

I’d have to say collecting and printing my comic strips at this year’s Sticky zine fair, was a lot of fun and I got lots of positive feedback which is always nice. Another highlight was visiting the Small press Expo in the states and getting to see comic Gods, Ware, Burns and Clowes all in the same room.

Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the first time in 2012?

Joseph Lambert. I picked up his book ‘I will bite you!’ at SPX this year. His stories are playful, beautiful and surreal. ‘Turtle keep it steady’ from that book is probably my fave thing this year.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2012?

I saw a retrospective of the Quay brothers at Moma that was amazing.  After pouring over their animations at art college it was mind blowing to see their stop motion sets first hand, So beautiful and creepy.

Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?

I came to a realisation that doing super clean artwork is painful and I just don’t enjoy it anymore, for my personal work at least. Swapping to brush pens was a big step, It gave my line work a bit more of a lively feel, plus I’m able to produce a page much quicker now.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

For those who are members of the Mini Comic of the Month club I’ll be releasing my 16 pg mini in January. I'm a few pages in and really enjoying it. I also have a chapter in Jason Franks next Sixsmiths book, which I’m pretty chuffed about. I’m also looking forward to finishing my long form comic sometime next year as well, it’s well overdue. As for other people’s work. I’m super keen to see Tim Molloy’s next book as well as more of J Stew’s Giants.

 http://www.jaseharper.com/

 http://guhcomics.com/

2012 in Review: Jason Franks

Over December I'll be running some brief year in review interviews with Australian and New Zealand cartoonists and comic folk. Kicking things off today with a good friend of mine, Melbourne writer/cartoonist Jason Franks.

Jason Franks

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?

Without question, the highlight for my own work has been McBLACK TWO SHOT. It's not the first time I've worked with Bruce Mutard but it's the first of our work together that's seen print. Putting his highly polished and traditional art style next to Luke Pickett's brilliant crayon-and-notepad sequence, then Rhys James' super-modern digital painting and J. Stew's atmospheric, underground nightmares... I am ridiculously proud of this combination of artists.

Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the first time in 2012?

This year has been all about Image for me. I've been mates with Justin Jordan for many years, so Luther Strode probably doesn't count, but a lot of my favourite new mainstream books have been Image stablemates. Green Wake by Wiebe and Rossmo. Who Is Jake Ellis? by Edmondson and Zonjic. Also this is the year I finally cottoned onto Locke and Key by Hill and Rodriguez.

My other big find has been Naoki Urasawa. I tried Pluto a couple of years ago and it wasn't my cup of tea; but this year I discovered that three of the manga books I was most interested in (old and new) are by Urasawa. Monster and 20th Century Boys are every bit as good as they are reputed to be, and I'm dying to get my hands of an English version of Billy Bat.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed this year?

I've probably found myself reading more prose than I have for the last few years. This year it's been a lot of Richard Morgan, John Steinbeck, Greg Palast, Evan Wright, China Mieville and Richard Stark. Some of these are old favourites, some are something new. On TV the only thing I've really cared for has been Breaking Bad.

Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?

I'm trying to put out a bit more prose fiction than I have in the last few years. Publishing my first novel has sort of opened my eyes to the opportunities in that world and the comics business is a bit sickly right now. I mean, when using Kickstarter to avoid the entire traditional marketplace is the great white hope for original comics you know there are problems. That said, I have a LOT of comics projects in the works and hopefully a lot more of them will drop in 2013 than we've seen in the last 2 years. I'm focusing on longer work--graphic novels and miniseries, as opposed to short stories and anthologies--and it takes a lot of time to get these bigger projects up and running.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Putting out more comics. There should be more McBlack and more Sixsmiths, but also, if things go well, a bunch of completely new stuff in a variety of genres. Hope to sell my second novel, too. I'm also looking forward to watching the continued growth of the local scene and to reading awesome new comics from local publishers. 

http://www.jasonfranks.com/

Melbourne Comic Meet Up 2012

My Camera died before I could snap the forty odd folk inside but here's a few of the comic folk at the December meet up in Melbourne. There were actually women folk there too.

  Ben Hutchings and James Andre

  Philip Bentley and Daniel Reed

 Jason Franks

Assorted Melbourne Comic Folk

Tristan Jones and Tom Taylor

Armageddon Melbourne 2012

Some of the cartoonists in attendance at this years Armageddon convention in Melbourne.

Frank Candiloro

Jason Franks

Richard Fairgray

Jin Chan Yum Wai

Henry Pop

Dean Rankine

 Sorab Del Rio and Paul Bedford

 Milk Shadow Books - Grizzly Adams, James Andre and Ben Hutchings

 Brendan Halyday

 Tom Taylor

Helen Maier and Fil Barlow

Space Pyrates - Caitlin Major and Matthew Hoddy

 Fred Atkins

 Bruce Mutard

 Pedobear

Oz Comic-Con Melbourne 2012

The Inaugural Melbourne Oz Comic Con was plagued with issues, mainly stemming from the overselling of tickets, creating an overcrowded Exhibition Centre with many ticket holders locked out while entry was temporarily closed on both days to ease congestion.

The OZ Comic Con facebook page was rife with negative feedback over the weekend from many disappointed punters. Negative comments were going up faster than Oz Comic Con could delete them with threads reaching at some points 400-500 comments.

The news wasn't all bad though. Many punters enjoyed the show and appreciated the rare opportunity to meet pop culture icons and made their thoughts known online. Also every guest and creator in artist alley I've heard from have reported positively about their Oz Comic Con experience with the general impression being this convention attracted more comic readers in contrast to other pop culture events. Perth publisher Gestalt Comics sold out of three of their titles, with James Brouwer and Tom Taylor's The Deep: Here Be Dragons marking three weeks of sellouts after the Sydney and Perth Supanovas. There was also a substantial turn out of comic dealers and stores hosting booths with several out of state appearances and swarms of people actively digging through long-boxes.

Hopefully the negative publicity of this convention will not effect future Oz-cons. I'm certain the organisers have taken these teething problems on-board and will be better prepared in future. In the last few years the amount of good local comics being produced has vastly increased and conventions like this are the perfect place for them to find an audience.

David Holloway writes about the Oz-comic con here.

Bobby N has a round up and photos here.

ABC footage here.

YBNews blog post here.

Sky news video here.

Herald Sun story.

Andrew Constant

Darren Koziol

Dom and Mitch

Doug Holgate

Steve Sparke and Ben Michael Byrne

Tom Taylor

Jin Chan Yum Wai, Matthew Hoddy and Caitlin Major

Paul Mason

Larry Boxshall and Joe Morris

Gary Lau and Jason Franks

Tristan Jones

Hayden Fryer and Brendan Halyday

John Stewart

Jackie Ryan

Left To Right: Jackie Ryan, Tim Molloy, Scarlette Baccini, Ben Hutchings, James Andre

Sydney Supanova 2012

This years Sydney Supanova was the largest convention to date with 28,400 attendees. Here's some of the comic folk from artist alley.

 Sorab Del Rio

 Paul Abstruse

Darren Koziol

  Richard Fairgray

Bruce Mutard

Jason Franks and his PA Joel

  Gee Hale

 Jan Scherpenhuizen

Paul Mason

 David Yardin

 

Christoff, Carl Purcell and Patrick Purcell

Hayden Fryer

Statler and Waldorf