Showing posts with label australian comics writer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label australian comics writer. Show all posts

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Cameron Laird Interview

 
In the last leg of it's funding campaign on Kickstarter the Crayfish is an adventure comic set in Australia created by writer Cameron R. D. Laird and artist Adam Rose.

From The Crayfish synopsis,

"The year is 1950. The place, King Island, Australia. Norman Williams -- a hearing-impaired, WWII veteran -- lives with his technologically and mechanically savvy younger brother Gerald on the failing family farm. Over the years King Island has become increasingly targeted for its abundance of natural resources, array of possibly bountiful shipwrecks and other such riches. Norman will do anything to stop those that wish to destroy the island, and its inhabitants' way of life. An aim which can only be achieved, by becoming The Crayfish."

The Crayfish on Kickstarter.

Via email I asked Cameron R. D. Laird a few questions about The Crayfish.

What inspired you to use a period setting for The Crayfish?

I’ve always loved the 30s, 40s and 50s eras, the fashion the music and the grittiness of technology amongst other things. The great thing about writing is that you can create anything you want and set your story at any time or place that you want. So I did. Also The Crayfish was always going to be set in a post-war era, so the 50s were a perfect fit.

Exploitation of natural resources is very relevant to modern Australia, what brought this element to your story?

I always wanted there to conflict on the Island, stories need conflict, but I didn’t want to necessarily have a “supervillian” or anything like that. Essentially, King Island is a place that has a lot of varied natural resources and I wanted to use that as a key reason for bad things to happen. It wasn’t until I had written the first issue and thought up a few more stories that I noticed how someone might think they were a commentary for current world events. I don’t mind that at all though.



Can you talk a bit about how your collaborating with artist Adam Rose?

I have actually never met Adam in person. Every contact we have had has been thanks to the internet. I’m talking hundreds of emails and thousands of Facebook messages. Our collaboration started when Adam sent me a couple of drawings of The Crayfish. I had posted a few times online desperately seeking an artist and he answered the call. We quickly got into our relationship of back and forth. He would send me sketches of characters and locations and ask what I thought, I would tell him what I thought and he’d go away and refine and refine. Before long we had a style and character designs that we were both happy with. He’s a really easy artist to work with. And his art is freakin’ good too!

Was kickstarter always a factor in getting the Crayfish made?

We decided quite early on that the plan was to crowd-fund the comic. We saw that a lot of other comics were having success with it and I thought, “Why not The Crayfish?” We eventually settled on Kickstarter and we couldn’t be happier with the support we’ve received.



How are will The Crayfish be distributed?

A good portion of the first print run will go straight to pledgers and then we hope to distribute through comic book stores throughout Australia and New Zealand. We already have a few stores that are keen to stock the book. We will also set-up an online store which people will be able to order the book through, so no matter where you are, you’re going to be able to grab a copy.

You've hinted at a second issue of The Crayfish on your Kickstarter, can you talk a bit about future plans for the comic? is there an end point or complete arc planned?

At the moment I’m working on Issue 2 and we’re looking to start production on that as soon as possible. Short answer: there is no clear end in sight for The Crayfish. Each issue will have a self-contained story but with an overall arc woven through. I want people to be able to enjoy every issue whether they’ve read the previous ones or not and I think the self-contained nature of the books will allow that. That’s the plan anyway!



Monday, December 16, 2013

2013 in Review: Jen Breach



What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013? 
Oddly and unexpectedly, 2013 turned out to be an on-the-cusp-of-years-worth-of-work-maybe-possibly-about-to-pay-off kind of year. 

I've been working on the script for Clem Hetherington and the Ironwood Race, a 220 page YA graphic novel collaboration with Doug Holgate, for four and a half years, but this year I won an Australian Society of Author's Emerging Writer's Mentorship to work on the book with an editor from Scholastic Graphix. (I also won an Australia Council Emerging Writer's Grant for the same book in 2010, so I guess I've been emerging for a while now...)  This is my first time working with an editor and it's had a massive impact on my (for want of a less wanky word) craft.  Each draft I am astounded at how crappy the one before was. My comics highlight for the year has been redrafting.  Sounds kind of sad when you say it like that.

Oh!  Okay, I've got another one, slightly less sad, I hope.  This only just happened this week, but it's still a highlight of the year: Doug and I are gluttons for something or other so a few months ago we started another major book together (called Maralinga and set in post-apocalyptic Melbourne).  Our approach is a little different for this one, though, and we are releasing ten page chapters every two or three months (schedules allowing). We released the first chapter in issue #1 of the Home Brew Vampire Bullets anthology and online and it got a huge, exciting, overwhelmingly warm response.  It was really unexpected and really, seriously cool. 
 
What are some of the comics/cartoonists you've enjoyed in 2013?
What with the amazing small press comics shows here in the States and the fact that my walk home from the subway each night takes me passed Desert Island (possibly the best comic book store ever?) it's been a big year for comics reading...

Not looking at my bookshelf and entirely off the top of my head, I liked: 
In minis and short stories, Pat Grant's "Tormina Video" and Joe Lambert's "Layaway", too.  The latest in Simon Moreton's comics-as-poetry series "Smoo #7" is the best work he's ever done and Lauren Barnett's "I'm a horse, bitch" is 16 perfect pages of a horse telling you how fucking awesome he is. John Pham's "Epoxy" was beautiful as well. 

Jesse Lonergan finished his "All Star" series which I thoroughly enjoyed picking up in bits and pieces over the year. Sam Sharpe's "Viewotron #2" was beautiful and touching and very special. Hellen Jo's Frontier #2 was just freaking gorgeous. 

Sam Alden's ouput this year was pretty remarkable - there were a lot of little books and they were pretty much all great.  Everything Michael DeForge put out this year was perfect, so just another ordinary year for him, then. Sophie Goldstein's work this year was exceptional - she makes comics that have a kind of Golden Age sci-fi feel to them and such smart storytelling.

I was really happy to see a few collections out this year of work that I had loved in previous incarnations: Ryan Andrew's "Everything is Forgotten", John Martz's "Machine Gum", Chuck Forsman's "End of the Fucking World", which was a joy to read in crappily photocopied eight page installments each month, and the Fantagraphics graphic novel version of it is really great. Brendan Leach's "Ironbound" is a great story about 1960s New Jersey toughs - his art knocks me out.  My favorite book of the year, though, might have been Dakota McFadzen's collection "Other Stories and the Horse You Rode In On" through Conundrum Press. 

There are a bunch of books from this year waiting in a nice, neat pile for the Christmas break - I suspect if I'd read them before I wrote this response they'd be in my list too: Ander's Nilsen's "Rage in Poseidon"; Rutu Modan's "The Property"; "The Encyclopedia of Early Earth" by Isabel Greenberg and Julie Delporte's "Journal" from Koyama Press. 

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013?  
Did you see Upstream Color?  Oh man, that movie...

Other than that, I found out about the noise that hedgehogs make when they eat (which is second in awesomeness only to the noise that turtles make when they have sex); and John Klassen's second tumblr is pretty much my favorite thing on the internet.

 
What are you looking forward to in 2014?
It's winter where I live right now and my hibernation strategy involves reading the entire Love and Rockets collection from Fantagraphics.  I've never read any of it, so I am pretty excited. (The other parts of the strategy involve blanket forts, stout and the entire series of Parks and Recreation).

Once the weather is fine again convention season starts up and that's always pretty much the best thing ever. I hope Doug and I will have another couple of chapters of Maralinga squared away by the time he hops a plane for TCAF in May. 

As a consumer I am pretty excited about Jase Harper's "Awkwood".  I've seen a few drafts of it and it's a corker. And Jesse Jacobs' has a new book coming out in the Spring from Koyama Press. Chuck Forsman's "Celebrated Summer" should be pretty great too.

Mostly, though, I am looking forward to making more comics. My comics work feels like that old chestnut of analogy of a duck on water - calmness above and furiously paddling legs underneath. I am a really, really slow duck paddling a really, really long way.  Next year it would be amazing if a couple of my projects - I have seven on the go right now - bubbled up to the surface. Just like little duck farts.
 

Monday, December 9, 2013

2013 in Review: Matt Kyme


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

This is a cinch. Working with author extraordinaire, Andrez Bergen, to produce Tales To Admonish. The three stories that Andrez concocted were all so varied and original. All three of them stem from his novels; The Condimental Op and Who Is Killing The Great Capes Of Heropa?.  Andrez is a breeze to work with and he is a brilliant wordsmith.

I’d be remiss to mention the fine work that Arthur Strickland has been doing on our ‘That Bulletproof Kid’ webcomic. Arthurs pages just get stronger and stronger

Being invited to participate in Darker Forces: Degeneration by the good folks at Gaining Velocity was a huge honour. My single page in this project will sit alongside work by an amazing group of artists from Australia and South Africa. I can’t wait to see that comic.

I’ve recently worked on a project with the awe inspiring Katie Houghton-Ward, which I’m hoping to be able to announce more details on soon. Her art is off the scale.

I drew a really fun project called Mercenary Dreams written by Fred Atkins. We hope to get it on shelves at some stage. Fred has a very unique, zany style. It was a lot of fun to collaborate with him.

Lastly, I recently finished a quirky little three pager for an upcoming issue of Darren Koziol’s DECAY. The story that Darren sent me is honestly my favourite story from any issue of DECAY I’ve seen.
 
What are some of the comics/cartoonists you've enjoyed in 2013?
Discovering (thanks to Andrez) Lone Wolf and Cub. It’s so addictive. The story is so beautiful in its simplicity, but each new test the protagonists face is so well crafted by Koike, he never repeats himself, each new challenge is so different from the last. It’s a very endearing tale of fatherly love in the most perilous circumstances. And don’t get me started on Kojima’s art.

Locally, I really dug new stuff from Matt Nicholls. His third issue of Collateral was as consistently excellent as its predecessors. His pace is perfect and the tension is really foreboding and palpable. Craig Bruyn exploded onto the scene with the debut issue of From Above which showcases his strengths in writing and art. I thought it was very impressive.

Marvel/DC/Image/etc offered up some treats: FF, Daredevil, Savage Wolverine, Superior Spiderman, Thanos Rising, Infinity, Batman, Batman Black and White, Batman/Superman, Batman Incorporated, Batman and Robin (THAT’S A LOT OF BATMAN), Injustice: Gods Among Men, Superman/Wonderwoman, The Walking Dead, Invincible, Saga, Jupiter’s Legacy, Mind MGMT, Hinterkind, X-O Manowar. A lot of these were hit and miss but all deserved a mention.

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

What are you looking forward to in 2014?
Darker Forces: Degeneration and my story in DECAY will be published early in 2014. Andrez and I will have Tales To Admonish 2 landing on shelves sometime. The way we work, you may expect a few issues. That Bulletproof Kid will also be making his first appearance in print early next year. Depending on Arthur’s wrists, we could very well have That Bulletproof Kid 2 out by the end of the year

Mid-year should see the launch of a big fat project I’ve half-jokingly/half seriously dubbed ‘That All Star Bulletproof Kid’. This will feature no fewer than 13 short stories featuring That Bulletproof Kid and his supporting cast buy some of the most amazing creators you could imagine. More details on this soon.


thatbulletproofkid.com

Thursday, December 5, 2013

2013 in Review: Ryan K. Lindsay


What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013?
Having issues on 3 different projects all start coming out was probably the comic making highlight (I released FATHERHOOD, my one-shot through Challenger Comics; GHOST TOWN through Action Lab's Danger Zone imprint; and the MY LITTLE PONY RAINBOW DASH one-shot through IDW). Seeing a lot of hard work drop in the one year was a highlight and I hope to keep it all moving along nicely. I would also list traveling to Seattle for the Emerald City Comic Con in March a highlight as I got to finally meet a lot of really awesome people, have a few drinks, and chat for real.

What are some of the comics/cartoonists you've enjoyed in 2013?
We're in a golden age of great comics right now and I'm stoked to be a reader amongst such quality. I've really dug on HAWKEYE, THE MASSIVE, SEX CRIMINALS, THE PRIVATE EYE, FIVE GHOSTS, EAST OF WEST, DAREDEVIL, THE WAKE, TRILLIUM, BATMAN '66, FATALE, STRANGE NATION, RAT QUEENS, SHELTERED, HIGH CRIMES, as well as smaller things like Ryan Ferrier and Chris Peterson's ULTRANOVA, and Louie Joyce's very recent A LIFE IN THE CITY.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013? 
Having my second child in February certainly ranks as a highlight. I super dug Stephen King's Hard Case Crime pulp JOYLAND, and I'm a ways into DOCTOR SLEEP which is shaping up to be pretty good. BREAKING BAD ended the only way it could. I discovered Spotify and through it a whole mess of rad new tunes (the OST to ENTER THE DRAGON being on the highest rotation). And PACFIC RIM was the place to send my heart to have fun this year.

What are you looking forward to in 2014?
I have two miniseries greenlit for 2014 - neither of which I can talk about but they are with insanely talented artists who are making the work look far better than it had any right to coming out of my head. I'm also putting together some DIY one-shot type stuff that I'm super excited about. The trade for GHOST TOWN should drop around March. I'll be attending a few conventions and am looking forward to getting around Australia to put some stories into hands, chat copious amounts of Daredevil with people, and just enjoy the rad atmosphere that comics people bring with them. 2014 is going to be another superb year of reading great comics, writing some new material, and having loads of fun with my family.