2012 in Review: Christopher Downes

Christopher Downes

 
What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
  
I went to the Australian Cartoonists Association's Stanley Awards weekend for the very first time. I had to crowd fund in order to get there, but it was really fun. I got to meet a lot of heroes of mine and they turned out to be genuinely nice people.

Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the first time in 2012?
 
I really enjoyed Pat Grant's BLUE. I love to slip into his world - partly because I'm in love with his art, but also because his characters do things that (as a teenager) I would have never dared to do. They steal, they cuss and they wag from school.  I didn't have the guts to do any of that stuff in high school. Speaking of high school, I also read Derf Backderf's MY FRIEND DAHMER. I read it in an hour. It was that good.

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

I've got a 1 year old daughter. She's fantastic. I'm still in awe of watching the becoming of a little person - how she changes and learns. It's like an ultracool version of Pokemon! I've also gotten into Peppa Pig. It took me a while to warm to it, but now I look forward to it coming on. That and Shaun the Sheep. Wow, I'm really sounding like a new parent aren't I? GAME OF THRONES! I liked Game of Thrones a lot! I especially liked the episode where they all went to the dinosaur park and went down the dinosaur slide with Grampy Rabbit. That happened in Game of Thrones, right?

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

I procrastinate a hell of a lot less! That's one thing having a kid will teach you.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

I think there's a movie I'm looking forward to. I remember seeing the date on the end of a pretty riveting trailer (and yet not riveting enough for me to remember the name or even the subject matter of the movie) and I thought, "Well, the world better not bloody end, cause I'd really like to see that."

http://sirwdchosen.blogspot.com.au/

2012 in Review: Jason Chatfield

Jason Chatfield

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

Personally I've been very grateful to have served out my term as President of the Australian Cartoonists' Association with a great team. I could have been lumped with a board of people who don't want to get anything done, but the great enthusiasm of people like Jules Faber and Peter Broelman have been a huge support. The addition of Comic Book Artist as a category in the Stanley Awards/Year Book/Membership Category is a very good indication of where the club is headed; a broader, more accepting association for not just newspaper cartoonists. Also taking the club online was something I'm proud of having achieved. It's a step in the right direction for the industry's future.

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

I finally got to meet Chris Wahl at the Stanleys Conference. I've been a big fan of his work for years -his line-work is enviably perfect. I also got to hang out with Sam Viviano, Art Director of MAD Magazine. His movie parodies in MAD were always excellent, and he's a great artist to talk with about having a successful career of growing as an artist, instead of stagnating and doing the same work over and over.

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

Glimpse, was a side-project I worked on this year of which I'm very grateful to have been asked to be a part of. It was a nice side-step from drawing a red-headed 12 year old all day. In short, it was a show with some incredibly talented Australian actors, with my work being projected and animated up behind them as they performed. I made a process video here: https://vimeo.com/54274483

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

Yeah - after spending most of my twenties as a night owl, working til 4 and waking at 12, I've gone to bed before midnight and got up early to work. I'm about as productive as before, but I don't feel like crap. I was dragging my body around and treating it like crap, slumped over the computer screen all night. I've switched to working at a Standing Desk now, with the Cintiq at about eye level. My neck pain has mysteriously disappeared.... How bout that.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Having more time to accept bigger projects, now that my time isn't as committed to the role of President. It was a rewarding position to be in, but it literally worked out to be like having a full time job for two years, on top of everything else. I'm doing my first solo show as a Stand-up in the 2013 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Integrating the technology I learned doing Glimpse, I'm animating my work live while doing comedy. Could bomb terribly, but I'm trying it anyway. It'll be at 7:15pm at the Portland Hotel from 9th - 21st April 2013.

http://www.jasonchatfield.com/

2012 in Review: David Blumenstein

 

  David Blumenstein and Andrew Fulton

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
 
Going on the Caravan of Comics and getting to know the other caravaners better.

Coming across an amazing comics scene in Ann Arbor, MI, thanks to (among others) Kids Read Comics' Jerzy Drozd and Dan Mishkin.

Seeing Sarah (aka my hot cartooning wife) meet some of her favourite comics artists (John Porcellino, Bill Messner-Loebs) and watching her slowly create a graphic novel right before my eyes.

Finishing 100 pages of my "Bret Braddock" comics and getting the kind of mixed response I hoped for (amused/angry/litigious).

Being newly in the Australian Cartoonists Association and, while it's an organisation in flux thanks to an aging membership and a crumbling print media, feeling quite at home with the people themselves, a great bunch of guys with amazing links back to Australia's cartooning history.

Being part of Squishface Studio, putting on many great, informal, events and some big-arse exhibitions. Hoping we can keep it going another year.
 

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

Bought minis at MoCCA Fest, favourites being ones by Greg Kletsel, Tasha Harris and Paul Hoppe. I like them because I like them, that's why. Met some brilliant artists in Chicago, the ones who collaborate on "Trubble Club", a jam comic that's that's really good. Enjoyed stuff by Jeremy Tinder and Sam Sharpe (and probably more because all the panels are by different people and oh god I'm confused and sleepy.)
 

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

I only enjoyed comics this year. Some of the TV shows I watched and pissed on include "Mad Men", "Boardwalk Empire", "Sons of Anarchy" and "The Newsroom", all shows with an incredibly high opinion of their characters, all portrayed much more nobly than the writing deserves.

"Breaking Bad" is still great, though. "Looper" was a good movie.

Loads of my friends are becoming big time published authors! Anna Krien is a lovely person and wrote a great Quarterly Essay about animals and ethics you could go pick up at a snobby-type bookshop.

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

Many. Thanks to people at Squishface I've loaded up on brushes, brush pens, colour, bristol board, art paper and all sorts of things I'd barely tried before.

I'm writing a graphic novel. That's not something I would've thought to do before this year.

I finally caved and bought a slate computer with Wacom capability and it's going to blow the arse out of my old storyboarding methodology. Good for on-the-spot digital illustration, too.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Getting better with all the new pens and brushes I've been trying.

Continuing to grow Squishface, do new things there and maybe even figure out a way to make it pay for itself.

More little steps forward for the attitude and quality of the Melbourne comics scene.

Maybe taking a Caravan-style trip to SPX if I can afford it.

Last two years have been packed with tons of comics stuff. More next year, thank you.

Oh, and I'm finally making a series of my animated cop show, "The Precinct". It's a little mini-series of shorts called "Be A Man" and it's coming out probably Mar/Apr.

http://www.nakedfella.com/