Showing posts with label Tim Bollinger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim Bollinger. Show all posts

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.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Chromacon 2013 and Assorted Auckland Ramblings


A couple months back I had the pleasure of tabling with Pikitia Press at the inaugural Chromacon Illustration and Comic Art Festival in Auckland. This was the first comics event I've made the trek from Australia back to New Zealand for and It was well worthwhile. For a first time comic art festival, organiser Allan Xia and helpers seemed to pull it off without a hitch. This is the sort of event I'd love to fill my calendar with. Amongst the highlights of the couple days I spent in Auckland for Chromacon:
  • Chromacon was a one day event which for my coming-into-middle-age is the perfect duration for a convention.
  • It was nice to attend an event down this part of the world with a focus on comics and illustrators, no commercial retailers, just local creative folk.
  • The audience which I think numbered around 1000 for the day keep a steady flow of people through the venue. Not too busy, but rarely a quiet moment.
  • Chromacon was a veritable who's who of New Zealand Comics, there were some notable absences and I don't believe there were any South Island cartoonists there but on the whole it was a great opportunity to meet and catch up with a large variety of comic folk at one event.
  •  I got to finally meet Tim Danko in person for a few minutes!
  • Getting to meet the cartoonists I publish. It's probably not so much of an odd thing in this day and age but I had never met in person, Sarah Laing or James Davidson, despite having published several of their comics by this point. Lovely hard working easy to deal with folk. They make my work easy.
  • The venue, one floor of The Aotea Centre, in the heart of Auckland, was an ideal place to have Chromacon, easily accessible and a comfortable fit for the amount of exhibitors and audience.
  • Grabbing pizza and gabbing comics with Kelly Sheehan, Ben Stenbeck and Chris Slane after the show. Heck, even the barman at the pizza joint was a cartoonist (look for a Pikitia Press comic from him sometime soon.)
  • Heading into the carpark after pizza this was waiting for us:
 
  • Grabbing coffee and gabbing comics with Timothy Kidd, Kelly Sheehan, Karl Wills and my little bro Sam at the Auckland Public Library.
  • On a quest of New Zealand comics archeology at the Auckland Public Library I found some real gems. Evidence that I suspected existed of a connection between two golden age NZ cartoonists surfaced and a NZ "Kramers Ergot" from the seventies? More to come on these developments...
 Interview with Chromacon Organiser Allan Xia.
 Fuzzy photography of some but not all of the comic folk at Chromacon.

 Theo Macdonald and Richard Fairgray

 Tim Gibson

 Tim Bollinger and Barry Linton

 Toby Morris

  Sophie Oiseau

 Czepta Gold

 Dylan Horrocks


 Chris Slane

 Chris Slane

 Ant Sang, Ben Stenbeck and Adrian Kinnaird

 Jesca Marisa

 Damon Keen

  Karl Wills

Marc Streeter


James Davidson


Michel Mulipola

Kelly and Darren Sheehan

Art in park



No visit to Auckland is complete without a visit to the St Kevin's Arcade Secondhand Bookshop. Piles of FP Phantom comics, Eric Resetar facsimile comics, the first 2000AD annual,  I've bought many a fine comic from here over the years. This time I snapped up some reading for my flight home, an Australian edition of Buck Rogers Annual No. 2. Hundreds of pages of early Buck Rogers adventures compiled in one aromatic pulpy volume.


Before heading to the airport I took a shortcut through the Auckland University Campus to pick up my luggage. My "eagle book eyes" spied a table of old books next to a reception office. A lifelong fascination with old books, (I lived in secondhand bookshop for several months) I was compelled to go in and have a look. The receptionist told me they were donated to the university, who didn't want them, and had put them out for folk to take away. All German texts from the early twentieth century, I couldn't resist the offer of free old books so gathered up as many as I could carry and made my way back through the winding alleys and paths of the University. I'd love to keep all the wonderful paper goods I gather, but I can't, so I sold a selection of these to antiquarian book dealers in Melbourne and Switzerland, which paid for my trip and my coffee bill for the next three months.


A tragic inscription from the inside page of Conrad der Leutnant.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Nga Pakiwaituhi: New Zealand Comics and Graphic Novels Panel

 
 Tim Bollinger

St Paul St gallery have posted a recording of the New Zealand comics panel conducted during the recent Nga Pakiwaituhi exhibition in Auckland. Speakers are curator - Dylan Horrocks, Sam Orchard, Adrian Kinnaird, and Sarah Laing.

Listen to the panel and view a gallery of the exhibition here.

Download an mp3 of the panel here.

Read an interview with Dylan about Nga Pakiwaituhi here.

 Barry Linton

Barry Linton

Chris Grosz

Colin Wilson
 
 Tim Bollinger

Photos by Sam Emery

Paper Trail


TONIGHT IN MELBOURNE: Sam Wallman's Pen Erases Paper exhibition and book launch.


Sam Orchard tumblr.


Darian Zam's faceboook group History Always Repeats: Remembering New Zealand
dedicated to vintage New Zealand pop culture features many gems of cartooning and commercial art including what I think is an A S Paterson children's book (I don't think that's a Paterson cover) I've never seen before.


Also some classic Marvel comic & gum packs. 


Pepi Ronalds writes about the Caravan of Comics currently traversing Canada and America.


Applications for the 2013 Auckland Zinefest close June 1st.


Robo Squid Inc. present a comic related exhibition in Wellington through late May and June.


Howard Johnson lyrics in comic form on Zen Pencils.


Those crazy kids at Squishface Studios are having another Exhibition in June.


Sarah Laing's Possum - part one, part two, part three.


In the lead up to last weeks Chromacon event in Auckland online magazine Vanguardred conducted some Q and A's with featured exhibitors. Visit the site archives for the all of them, here's a few, Toby Morris, Sophie Oiseau, Matt Emery, Jesca Marisa, and Michel Mulipola.


From last weekend's Chromacon in Auckland, Two elder statesmen of New Zealand comics, Tim Bollinger and Barry Linton.


 Paper Trail masthead courtesy of Toby Morris.