Monday, December 16, 2013

2013 in Review: Brendan Halyday



What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013?
Putting out Graphic Narrative no. 1 which features PANIC!, my first (of several planned) comics on having an anxiety disorder. Am drawing issue 2 right now. Wrote a comic called Xtreme Champion Tournament which will be published by Comics2movies. I'm also taking my first stab at publishing someone else's work with 51% issue 1 by Chris Gooch.
 
What are some of the comics/cartoonists you've enjoyed in 2013?
Have enjoyed reading Hanselmanns comics when I decide I can deal with reading comics on screen (never lasts long). Like what Katie Parrish has been doing. Liked M. Emery's Adversaries. That guy needs to produce more.

Loved End of the Fucking World and Charles Foresmans new minis too. Really liked Mind MGMT. Read a couple of Lucy Knisleys self-published books and really enjoyed them. Loved what I read of Jezebel by Elijah Brubaker on study group. 
 
What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013? 
TV, definitely. The usual suspects like Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad, Rectify, The Fall.
 
What are you looking forward to in 2014?
Putting out more comics. PANIC 2 and Xtreme Champion Tournament 0 are both scheduled for release in early-mid 2014, publishing more by Chris Gooch, maybe adding one or two more creators to the publishing lineup.
 

2013 in Review: Ben Michael Byrne



What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013?
More Kranburn! And we published the first Kranburn to have a full colour cover. I did the first 7 issues with black and white covers as that's the way I like to draw, but #8 was screaming for colour so I did it, and now I'm pretty keen on doing colour from now on etc unless the artwork really feels like it wants to be left B&W.

More Job Dun! Written by Mark Hobby, plus I also did a short Job Dun story (full colour by Noelle Criminova) that will be in the next issue of South African/Australian comic Velocity that I'm still happy with the art I did (for now, you hate yourself soon enough... :-P )

Had a short story (written by Tim West) printed in the late 2013 issue of UK comic Something Wicked by FutureQuake Press.

Just recently started co-hosting (with Jason O'Callaghan from New Game Plus) a comic review show which is a blast, acting like a silly billy (tee hee) in front of a camera feels very natural to me.

My new 'Copping A Feel' initiative! When readers pose with writers/artists they enjoy, the writer/artist might do the bunny ears/pull a face/do the tongue in the ear thing, I invite my readers to cup my balls if they wish! What could be more bonding than to feel the warmth of
the balls of someone whose work you enjoy? Not much! So please, if you enjoy my work and ever want to get a photo with me, you're welcome to cup my junk! Any sex etc, just be of age and have asbestos gloves, my nuts run at about 87degrees celcius.

My fifth finished Comikaze challenge! If only I could create 24 pages every 24 hours rather than once a year, that'd be sweet. But it does have a tendency to burn me out for a week afterwards. It's so much fun and I really hope that although the website PulpFaction is now down, it will somehow/someway still exist in 2014.

Doing a mini Comikaze challenge for some students with Ben Hutcho and Martin Nixon, 8 pages in 8 hours! Was great to see teens keens on comics and was fun to do. Not as fun as what I imagine spending a day with my face between Yolandi Vissers legs would be, but quite fun!

What are some of the comics/cartoonists you've enjoyed in 2013?
I'll admit it, I'm a pretty simple chap, the highbrow is not for me and when people try to engage me into talking about coffee I want to pull out my cock and run screaming down the street, slapping old people on the face with it as I pass them. So I admit, I love Crossed, I reallllllly love Crossed. It just does it for me, yum yum.

I've also been squirting further than normal over the new style Prophet, man, its the business. Got to the end of trade #2 (yes I'm a trade waiter, I live out in the burbs and can't get to/afford floppies often enough, don't judge me lest ye be sodomised by an angry dove that thinks you're trying to eat its offspring) and wanted to cry knowing there was going to be such a wait for number #3. It reads/feels very...European? Something I'd be expecting in old Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal. Again, yum yum yum.

That Nick Fury Max trade. I don't read/care about Nick Fury normally etc, but after seeing some preview panels by the art-god Goran Parlov, I had to have it and I wasn't disappointed. Its feels a lot like the Punisher Max issues Goran illustrated and reads similar. That is the best way I can discribe it to people who might have been kept away from it thinking it was a superhero type book: it isn't. If you enjoyed Punisher Max while Goran Parlov was illustrating it, then do yourself a favour and grab this, its pretty much the same.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013?
My second Daughter was born, so that was pretty awesome, little bit more prepared this time whilst also finding out that babies are all different in a million little ways.

Also, I'm finally building a tank that I can drive, its a 40% scale King Tiger/ Tiger II/Koenigs Tiger and the hull is 3 metres long. Its a slow process and I've only just finished most of the hull frame and built the transmission. I have the gears/sprockets needed to connect the engine to the transmission but first I need to get the suspension built, that's a big job so updates are every few weeks, not every few days!

What are you looking forward to in 2014?
More Kranburn, more Job Dun, More Velocity, watching the kids get older, enjoying the rude bits of the female of the species (and any Thai ladyboys reading, I'm down with you in my pants, pom rah kuhn!) driving a 3 metre tank down the driveway to check the mail, having enough money to get horns implanted in my forehead, the usual.



Sunday, December 15, 2013

Paper Trail


More 2013 in Review surveys run this week. Cartoonist's featured so far:

Bruce Mutard
Stuart McMillen
Frank Candiloro  
Richard Fairgray  
Colin Wilson  
Jason Franks
Matt Kyme
Anthony Woodward
Caitlin Major
Sarah Laing
Sam Orchard  
Gavin Aung Than
Scarlette Baccini
David Follett
Simon Hanselmann
Michel Mulipola
Li Chen
Ryan K Lindsay  
Christopher Downes
Dean Rankine
Alisha Jade  
Theo Macdonald
Paul Mason
James Davidson
Tim Molloy
Jason Chatfield

Garth Jones writes about logo design for Home Brewed Vampire Bullets.


Dave Dye has been quietly blogging his progress on The Anzac Legend: A Graphic history.


New Zealand Phantom comics covers derived from interior artwork.


Jerome Bihan's Oakward Park.


Emmett O'Cuana guests on Sci Fi and Squeam.




Owen Leong interviews Matt Huynh.


Bobby N takes photos of Melbourne comic folk.

 




Gary Clark celebrated drawing his 10,000 Swamp strip this year.



Should have been mentioned earlier: Ronnie Scott reviews Dailies #3, Victoria Drug Scene and Blood and Thunder #2.


Wandering through Collingwood yesterday I spied some work going on around the Keith Haring mural down there. Has this been repainted in recent years? It seemed more vibrant than the last time I saw it. (Click to enlargenify)



Paper Trail masthead courtesy of Toby Morris.

18 Comics You Can Buy From The Sticky Institute Right Now

The Sticky Institute at 10 Campbell Arcade, Degraves Subway, Melbourne is a great place to pick up local and international small press comics with a steady intake of new goodies. Here's a pick of what they have on the shelves right now.


 Sure, Cinema Sewer's not comics but a steal for 4 clams, previous issue also available.




Michael DeForge Oily Minicomics! Only a few left!


Sticky keep a steady stock of recent Kuš! anthologies and solo comics.





 Still a handful of Steve Ditko's recent work available





Sunday Gem: Fane Flaws

A long Scrawl through the art of Fane Flaws.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Pikitia Press: 2014 Publishing Season

Taking a break from our 2013 in review surveys, here is a sampling of forthcoming comics from Pikitia Press for our publishing season during the first half of 2014.

Barry Linton's Lucky Aki - The first in a series of volumes featuring the stone age adventures of Lucky Aki.

 
Die Popular - Collection of new material and classic material from MVH's wonderful Die Popular.



The Art of Harry Bennett - Collecting the art and story of H. W. Bennett, a professional cartoonist in his teens who went on to create a one man publishing industry in New Zealand. Written and compiled by Tim Bollinger, Geoff Harrison, and Matt Emery.

 


 Tim Bollinger's Wellington Stories
 



Bob McMahon's Claire Melody - Bob's second Claire Melody book in the vein of DC Thomson and IPC adventure comics. Read about Bob's background in New Zealand comics here.


 

New Zealand Reprint Comics - A comprehensive survey and catalogue of comics published in New Zealand reprinting foreign material from the 1940's - 1970's. Written and Compiled by Geoff Harrison.

Friday, December 13, 2013

2013 in Review: Bruce Mutard


What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013?
Going on the Caravan of Comics to TCAF, CAKE and Fantagraphics. Making comics at Ragdale in Lake Forest at the same desk Audrey Niffenegger wrote The Time Traveller’s Wife. Same comic appearing as a catalogue essay at Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts exhibition Space Oddity. Adapting Microaviary by Amanda Johnson for Cordite: Pumpkin. Le Silence being published by Ca et la in August. Meeting a few comics heroes: Art Spiegelman, Chester Brown, Chris Ware and so many other great comics artists on the road both overseas and here. 

What are some of the comics you've enjoyed in 2013?
I’ve hardly had time. Some of the things I picked up on the road: Bernie Mireault’ To Get Her (swapped with him in Montreal). Elaine Will’ Look Straight Ahead (staggering talent); Judith Vanistendael’ When David Lost His Voice; mini comics by Luke Howard, Alec Longstreth, The Whole Hole by Anya Davidson… I brought back a bloody bookcase full of stuff and still haven’t got around to reading even 1/3rd of it. Oh, yes, may as well mention it: Building Stories by Chris Ware is remarkable in concept and execution. 

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013?  
Travelling to the USA and Canada for and about comics. But on the road I go to every big art gallery I can get to. Loved the Art Institute of Chicago - stunning modern art collection. Traipsing around Oak Park where all the Frank Lloyd Wright and then reading ‘Building Stories’ by Chris Ware, which was largely set there afterwards; bit of a trip to recognise it. Then being chased into Chicago on the El by a tornado (well, it was system than bred them). LA living up to all expectations: trashy, glitzy, tawdry, flat, bleached, but so very like TV and the movies. But all of the US is like that. Watching TV and movies about the USA is like learning about someone by going through their rubbish.

What are you looking forward to in 2014?
Ideally it should be mostly head down and bum up on making comics. I need to finish my Masters project by July and get a solid chunk of The Fight done. It probably won’t be out until 2016. I think I’ll be less peripatetic, but I always say that. Publishing Art Is A Lie by Carol Wood and Susan Butcher - you ain’t seen nothin’ like this. 
 

2013 in Review: Stuart McMillen



What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013?

My personal highlight was definitely publishing Rat Park. Wrapping up that science experiment into a 40 pages comic, and then sharing it with the world was a great feeling.

Bruce Alexander, the psychologist featured in Rat Park has told me that my comic led to a renewed interest into his 1970s drug addiction experiments. He was pleased to learn that he was the star of a comic book!

The audience response to Rat Park was almost 100% positive. Gratifyingly, many ex-addicts contacted me and mentioned that they had an emotional reaction to the final page of my comic. They thanked me for creating a sympathetic story which explained to others the emotional dead-end which led them to addiction. 

What are some of the comics/cartoonists you've enjoyed in 2013?

New stuff:
Pat Grant - Toormina Video
Hyperbole and a Half - Depression Part 2
Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco - Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (which is half comics and half prose)
Symbolia magazine (a new quarterly electronic comics-journalism publication)

Old stuff:
Chris Guest - Floating Horizon
Marjane Satrapi - The Complete Persepolis

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013? 

I'm a huge music fan, so here are some of my favourite albums of 2013:

The Drones - I See Seaweed
Kurt Vile - Wakin on a Pretty Daze
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
TV Colours - Purple Skies, Toxic River
Julia Holter - Loud City Song
My Bloody Valentine - mbv

The best book I read during 2013 was Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding by George Monbiot. It's about the concept of 'rewilding' nature: what this means for the ecosystems themselves, as well as what it means for us as humans living near the ecosystems.

What are you looking forward to in 2014?

Rat Park was my 40-page highlight of 2013. In 2014 I will be drawing a 400 page comic story. That's an extra zero on the end.

In 2014 I will be moving away from the 'drugs' topic I covered with War on Drugs and Rat Park, and drawing non-fiction comics about ecological and environmental topics. Things like Peak Oil, energy dependence and post-growth economics.

Trust me, it will be more interesting than it sounds! Join my email list for updates.