Happy 29th Birthday Frank Candiloro

2014 Sticky Zine Fair

 
Blurry out-of-focus poorly lit photos of some comic people at the 2014 Sticky Zine Fair.

 David Blumenstein and Anthony Woodward

 People

More People

 Andrew Fulton

 Ive Sorocuk and Alex E Clark

 Jase Harper

 David Blumenstein

 Myles Loughran

 Frank Candiloro

 Phil Bentley

 Marc Pearson

 Michael Fikaris

 Simon Hanselmann

 Michael Hawkins

 Grant Gronewald

 Chris O'Brien and Joanna Anderson

Sam Wallman

David C Mahler

2013 in Review: Frank Candiloro

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

I published 4 books this year. I branched out a little from just straight ahead horror and explored other themes and genres, which has been taking me out of my comfort zone a little bit more. With the exception of one (Budd & Luu - Part II) I was able to get all my books involved in launches, from Big Arse 3, Ive Sorocuk's Halloween launch and the Over The Moon launch that I organised with Alisha Jade. I made my first all-ages comic -  Beyond The Moon, which has been received very well. I was also to be a part of the Cordite Poetry Review organised by Kent McCarter and featuring a lot of great local talent, visually interpreting poems into comic form, a new experience for me. I even got to meet my favourite writer in comics, Grant Morrison at the Graphic Festival in Sydney, and gave him some of my comics! (he commented on the "wood cut" style, which was heartwarming to hear). Seeing Art Spiegelman's talk at the same festival was also very illuminating, revealing a whole heap of german-expressionist and wood-carved comics that I never knew existed. It kind of validated my weird illustrating style!

The biggest highlight was the presentation I did about finding the right attitude and discipline to create comics at the ZICS convention in Brisbane, as part of the Skillz To Pay The Billz workshop, and I found it very humbling and inspiring to write and share with others. Not to mention that I've met some great people this year, who have motivated me to become a better artist. 2013 was quieter compared to 2012, but I still had a few small little victories here and there.

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

My favourite comic this year has been Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarksy, which has only had 3 issues so far but it's been pretty damn good. Another great find has been Thomas Ott and his great book - The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 (rolls right off the tongue!) Excellent dark, noir-ish drawings. Punk Rock Jesus by Sean Murphy came out last year but the trade came out in 2013 and it was an incredible read, really electrified me like no other comic. And would you know it, I actually managed to read Hellboy for the first time this year!

Of course I checked out a lot of great Australian comics that were released in 2013 as well, such as Mr Unpronouncable by Tim Molloy, Strange Behaviour by Marijka Gooding and My Sister's Voice by Alexis Sugden. Everything else sucked! (Joking, I swear!)

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

*stares at question*

Non.....comics? What is this?

Um, uhhhh, I had an apple the other day. That was good. I guess. 

What are you looking forward to in 2014?

What I'm looking forward to the most is the latest book that I'm working on - Onna-bugeisha. It's a 95 page samurai story which involves treachery, honor, revenge, love, lust, anger, blood, you know, everything that makes a comic good! I'm hoping for it to be finished around late April/ May (if I'm lucky) and although it's a bit early to say at this time I'm hoping to have a launch for it.

I'm also hoping to make 3 more books, continuing the tradition of 4 books per year, and I hope to push them a little bit more at conventions, in stores outside of Melbourne, and digital downloads on the internet. Here's hoping that FrankenComics becomes a bigger and bigger monster with each passing year!

frankcandiloro.com/

Oz Comic Con Melbourne 2013

 
After last years debacle of too many people in too little space this years Oz Comic Con in Melbourne was transported to the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton Gardens. I managed to snap a few pics from artist alley before my camera died. Are people getting sick of my holiday snaps? Seemed like a lot of mugging this year.

 Ben Hutchings and Dillon Naylor

 Alisha Jade, Steve Sparke and BMB

Justin Randall, Greg Maclean and Colin Wilson

Brendan Halyday and Frank Candiloro

Wolfgang Bylsma

 Henry Pop and Paul "The Beast" Bedford

 The Space Pyrates, Caitlin Major and Matthew Hoddy

Ryan K Lindsay

Larry, Curley and Moe

 Jin Chan Yum Wai

Queenie Chan

Dean Rankine

 Doug Holgate

Ginny and Darren Koziol

Fil Barlow and Helen Maier

Tom Taylor

Sorab Del Rio

Jon Sommariva

Ross Stewart and Matt Nicholls

Christian Read and Andrew Constant

Paul Mason

The best photo of T-Rex Jones out of the six I took.

 Public Emery Number One

Picked up a few gems from the locals and did a little bargain bin diving.

 I'm a sucker for cheap Mandrake comics

New Zealand editions of Flash Gordon from Feature Productions don't pop up too often. I'm hoping to complete a book on the reprint era of New Zealand comics by September.

This particular issue of the Wally Wood published Heroes INC featuring Cannon seems to turn up often at cons in recent years. A warehouse find of 70,000 uncirculated copies probably accounts for some of them. I know a similar story about an Australian equivalent to that find, I'll have to write it up one of these days.

Happy 28th Birthday, Frank Candiloro