2013 in Review: Li Chen

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013? Reaching 300 comics on Extra Ordinary, and making my first long format comic to celebrate! You can see it here. It was so much fun, I really want to make more long comics.

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

I've been reading some Japanese comics, I've especially enjoyed Kiyohiko Azuma's comics: Azumanga Daioh, and Yotsuba&! They are both slice-of-life comics, my favourite genre.

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

Drinking lots of tea, going on long walks.

What are you looking forward to in 2014?

Hopefully publishing volume three of Extra Ordinary!

exocomics.com

Paper Trail

My last two months have been ultra mega busy and thus my paper trail links have piled up to oblivion. To get back on the horse I'll post a few mini Paper Trails this week. Maybe I'll even post that SPX report that I should have done last month...

Latest additions to the Pikitia Press Store,  Mat Tait's Love Stories and David C Mahler's Deep Park are still searingly hot from their SPX debut's and make great Christmas presents!

Extra Ordinary recently their posted 300th strip.

Panels from Simon Hanselmann's forthcoming Life Zone from Spaceface Books. Preorder now.

Early place holder cover preview for Simon's Fantagraphics book  MEGAHEX.

Bernard Caleo documents Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly's visit to Melbourne's Squishface Studios.

Teaser trailer for Karl Wills' Connie Radar short film adaption Over The Moon.

Over The Moon - Teaser Trailer from Media Design School.

David Mahler writes about Evie Cahir.

Andrew Nette's Pinterest of Australian pulp novels. Love all the beautiful painted Horwitz covers.

 
Gerald Carr offers an in depth look at the case for Australian cartoonist/animator Pat Sullivan as the creator of Felix the Cat.

Jason Chatfield writes about South Australian State Labor Minister Chloe Fox's  legal threat against The Adelaide Advertiser for publishing a cartoon and a story that she claims caused “distress, stress and damage to her personal reputation”.

Support your local comic shop so they can keep running their underground bare knuckle fight clubs.

Bobby N shares a page from the second volume of The Sixsmiths, a forthcoming collaboration with Jason Franks.

Campbell Whyte wrote an impassioned plea to whoever stole his families luggage in San Francisco.

I love Blakes 7.

After nine years PulpFaction administrator Maggie McFee will be retiring the Australian comics Pulpfaction message boards in the next few days. PulpFaction was notable for many things including hosting yearly 24 hour comic competitions and I believe introducing Tom Taylor to his frequent collaborator Colin Wilson.

"It's with a heavy heart, but a heart full of good memories, that I announce the closing of Pulp Faction and the forums. The forums will be put into read-only mode in the next couple of days, so please log in and say any goodbyes while you can. The forums will remain online in a read-only state for at least the next 12 months. †"

Roger Langridge suggests 10 rules for drawing comics.

Dylan Horrocks has been posting pages every few days lately from his serial Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen.

The Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum is one of the archival institutions currently threatened by bush fires in Australian. Australian has sadly been stricken by many natural disasters in the last several years with lives and property and likely many works of art being lost. I recall an ebay auction for an original R. Wilson McCoy Phantom daily strip being sold to raise funds for flood relief.

 Norman Lindsay

A new television series of popular New Zealand comic character Terry Teo has been funded by NZ on Air.

Mini Paper Trail

Preview of Simon Hanselmann's contribution to from kuš! #13

Pudge interviews Li Chen.

Pepi Ronalds takes a tour of the Melbourne comic scene.

 Panel from ‘Panic’ by Brendan Halyday.

Australian and New Zealand produced board and card games with vintage sci-fi images in a flickr set from Qilich.

 

Cory Mathis has won New Zealand's Young Cartoonist award.

Tim Gibson's Moth City is joining Mark Waid's Thrillbent webcomic line up:

"I am extremely excited to be involved with Thrillbent.com and very lucky to have been passed along to Mark Waid and John Rogers by some very supportive parties. Moth City has been greatly influenced by Thrillbent's work, and other digital comic pioneers like Alex De Campi and Dan Goldman, so this opportunity is akin to buying a Nirvana cassette, starting your own band and then being invited to tour with them. 

In an attempt to 'out-enthuse' Mark Waid all I can say is holy-s&!t, am I grateful for all the support Moth City has received from it's existing readers, and the comics community as a whole, and I can't wait to get my noir-crime-horror-genre-mash in front of more readers."

 

 

Dylan Horrocks shares a cute commission from more innocent times.

 

 

2012 in Review: Li Chen

Li Chen

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

Getting the chance to self publish my webcomic as books through funding from Kickstarter was pretty amazing. It allowed me to work full time on my comics and the books for most of the year, and it made me realise that I really wanted to make art and comics as a career.

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

 

I discovered Ryan Andrews work this year. He is a brilliant artist and has written some beautifully haunting comics. I love his style of artwork, it's very inspiring.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2012? (i.e. movies, film, prose, ballet, opera, fine art, exhibitions, etc)

 

I've really enjoyed watching a Cartoon Network show called Adventure Time this year. It has a really surreal sense of humor that I try to reflect in my own comics. I also went to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo this year and found it hugely inspiring. I love their films and they definitely influence my comics and artwork.

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

 

Not really. My comics are still drawn manually with pencil and scanned. Any colour in my comics is then applied digitally. I've just been practicing a lot, and I think that my work has improved throughout the year, which is good!

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

 

Making more comics, making more art. Petting cats.

exocomics.com