Mini Paper Trail

Siobhan Downes writes about Jem Yoshioka’s Sunshine.

 
I love Moonbeard.

 

Tom Scott lauded in French newspaper Le Mond.

Happening this afternoon at All Star Comics Melbourne:
 
Milk Shadow Books, Squishface Studio, NonCanonical Comic Podcast and All Star Comics present the YOU STINK AND I DON’T - VOLUME 1 AND 2 LAUNCH.

For 20 years Ben ‘Hutcho’ Hutchings has been creating one of Australia's best funnybook comic series, You Stink and i Don't. From the Woden Bus Interchange to the beautiful streets of Brunswick, and over 10 issues (plus lots of other mini comics collected here!), Hutcho has been smashing the piss out of all conventions such as growing up, other comics, modern medicine, pop music, sport, organised religion, and other unimportant things.

From 4 – 5pm there will also be a Q & A with Hutcho by the crème of comics podcasting, the fellas from NonCanonical!

Cakeburger comments on the recent 'formation' of a Pakeha Party in New Zealand.

Sarah Laing: I <3 bookshops

Trailer for Larry Boxshall's new doco Drawing Dicks on the Herald Sun.




Upcoming Tim Molloy Exhibition Strange Pageant.

New Paintings, Comics and Sculpture by Tim Molloy. Opens 6pm Tuesday August the 20th
 
DRIFT away and off into Hypnagogic landscapes drenched in sunset psychedelic hues, as you listen to the far-off piping of strange flutes. JOIN the procession marching through your frontal lobe, monstrous and altogether (un)familiar... there are AWFUL mysteries to celebrate. Life and death and horror and joy merge into one.BEAR witness to the STRANGE PAGEANT.


First 100 Attendees shall receive an exclusive FREE 36 page mini comicbook, HOT off the searing grill of Molloy's subconscious!!!

Gary Chaloner updates on his various projects.

I lost a few piles of links which was probably a blessing but here's one I refound. Bob Brockie receives Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in Queens Birthday honours.

  
Jacqui Taffel writes about Smaller comics Minicomics of the Month. Read my Beard Spotlight with Smaller Comics CEO Andrew Fulton here. Sign up for a MOTM subscription here.

Occasional cartoonist Bobby N's photo essay from Melbourne Comic Con 2013.

New Zealand Flash Gordon comics from Feature Productions circa late 40's early 50's. Covers drawn by unknown artist, interior art by Alex Raymond.

Paper Trail masthead courtesy of Toby Morris.

Beard Spotlight: Andrew Fulton

 

Smaller Comics are soliciting subscriptions for a third round of Minicomics of The Month. I signed up for the last years dozen and was pleasantly surprised to receive a variety of minicomics in the mail each month. Minicomics of the Month are posted anywhere in the world and economically priced, I heartily recommend you sign up for a subscription here.

Artists featured on the 2013 roster for Minicomics of the Month are: Neil Sanders, Mel Stringer, Sarah Catherine Firth, Katie Parrish, Christopher Downes, Soft Science, Rebecca Clements, Wendy Mclean, David C Mahler, Erin Hunting, Andrew Fulton, Ben Hutchings.

I asked Smaller Comics Impresario Andrew Fulton a few questions that I really should have put more effort into.

 

Can you talk a bit about the appeal of making minicomics for a cartoonist and utilising a subscription basis for distribution?

For me minicomics are pretty much the perfect thing - I don't know if I'll ever have a "graphic novel" or whatever in me. The subscription model works out pretty great, both I think for the artists and the audience - they've really taken off in the last couple of years. I subscribe to a couple and it's always a delight to find something new and interesting in the mail, especially when it's something where I'm not quite sure what it's going to be. As an artist it's comforting to know that there is a guaranteed audience for the story I am drawing and they aren't going to sit on the bottom shelf. Last season we had about 100 subscribers, and I don't know about other minicomickers, but it takes me a heck of a long time to sell 100 of any other thing I do.

 

This year you're expanding the subs model past 100 subscribers, is there a cap this year? Is there a point that too many subscribers would make the model 'unwieldy'?

Yeah, although I'm not too sure what that number is. I was concerned that 100 would be too many, but that worked out okay for everyone, I think. Part of the appeal of a project like this is the personal touch - people are drawing and printing and folding and stapling and cutting. I wouldn't want to expand too much to the point where that labour becomes onerous and no one wants to do it. Most of the artists are Melbourne based so we might have to organise a monthly stapling party if it becomes to successful.

Tell me about some of the new cartoonists contributing this year around?

First comic out this season will be from Neil Sanders, who I know more as an animator - I'm not sure I have seen him do an actual comic. He does these crazy animated loop things on his tumblr (http://neilsanders.tumblr.com/), all these goofy animals and monsters, it will be cool to see what kind of comics he makes.

Katie Parrish is someone I haven't seen a lot of work out of but would like to see a bunch more. She's one of a few younger cartoonists that I think I mostly became aware of through Marc Pearson, who was in the current subscription round. She does these comics about life and sex and draws these weird lumpy people with pokey noses. It will be great to see what Wendy makes, too - to me her drawings are always crying out for some kind of narrative, but I'm not sure she's ever made an actual comic. And Hutcho always delights.

Read any good comics lately?

I've been enjoying my Oily subscription - the surfing comic from Marc Geddes and Warren Craghead was great, as was The End of the Fucking World, and this thing called Young Dumb and Full of Cum was super funny. Also Maré Odomo's Internet Comics came in the mail recently. He has this sort of messy, pencilly style and comics about everyday things and "feelings". And I really like David King's Crime World series - I got the last one recently - I think it's called The Story of Cop Lopez? It's up on the the Studygroup website, I want to say his style is slightly old-timey and deadpan but that doesn't sound right at all. It's funny anyhow.

Which comic was the worst out of last years twelve?

Well we aren't quite done yet - Sarah Howell should be sending hers out any minute now and we close out the current season with Sacha Bryning. He may disappoint us all horribly. [Editor's note: I've met Sacha and he's lovely bloke and a fantastic illustrator.]

--

Minicomics of the Month - Andrew Fulton Interview

Melbourne cartoonist and Smaller Comics Capo Andrew Fulton has launched Minicomic of the Month an initiative to get Australian comics into the hands of readers that might not otherwise be able to find them.

I asked Andrew a few questions about Minicomic of the Month and the folk involved.

Andrew Fulton

If I recall rightly this is the second year of Minicomic of the Month (MOTM)? What was the initial response like? What has it been like this time?

Yeah this is the second time we are doing this - the first one Pat Grant kicked off in 2009. You can still see his original pitch here: http://www.patgrantart.com/mcotm/page.html I got an email one day asking if I wanted to be in it. At that point I had been doing the webcomic for a while but really hadn't done much physical printing of stuff. I think I might have been in a Tango? It ended up being the first proper mini I actually made and stapled for real.

What inspired the use of a subscription format for getting your comics to prospective readers?

The first time sold out pretty much overnight, so the response was great. I think this time it has been a little slower, but still a great response, and spread a bit wider too - we have a larger percentage of international subscribers this time around, which is great.

Not sure that I can answer directly to 'inspiration' as I have just stolen Pat's idea, but I think the subscription is a great way to spread work around. It's a pretty cheap up front cost from people, there's a sort of energy and excitement that's different from buying something in a store. And people probably get a mix of things from people whose work they know, and some they are less familiar with. And just on a practical level it helps keeps costs down - you know exactly how many you need to print, you don't end up with the World's Saddest Cupboard, Overflowing With Unsold Books.

Azza McKazza and Andrew Fulton

 

Gregory Mackay and Rebecca Hayes

Pat Grant and Ive Sorocuk

Mandy Ord and Megan Nairn

 

Sacha Bryning and Jase Harper

Marc Pearson and Sarah Howell

Are the mini-comics in a uniform format? Are the physical comics produced by each individual creator?

Initially I had thought to do a uniform format, and kind of centralise the production and logistics of things to make it a bit easier. But in the early stages of discussion we decided that that took a little bit of the magic out of it. Part of the fun is that someone is making this little minicomic with mostly their bare hands, stapling it up and licking the stamps. There's a personal connection there.

  

Is the subscription model for MOTM set at a limited run? Will each installment of Minicomic of the month be mailed from the individual creators?

Yeah, we are planning to limit the subscriptions. We kind of agreed on 100 being the most we wanted to have to physically put together and mail. I don't really want it to become a burden, but also I also know it sold out super quick the first time around and a lot of people missed out.

And yeah, each month the individual is responsible for getting it together and mailing it out - although a large chunk of us are in Melbourne so we could get together for a stapling party or two.

 Australian Cartoonists in America: Caravan of Comics

Did you take anything from your experiences on the Caravan of Comics from the American indy/alt/minicomic scene that could be applied to Australia?

The Caravan was probably the biggest inspiration for getting this thing rolling again, and kind of sustain that momentum of getting Australian Comics out into the world. It's kind of a downer but one of the big things I "took" from the Caravan was a reminder of how far away we are from everything. There's a much larger audience for our work that it's not all that easy to connect with from here, Facebook and Twitter and all that aside - $5 shipping on a $3 or whatever is kind of a hard sell. And I guess even worse if someone wants one of my books and one of yours, that's even worse maths. I think I may have lost my point in here. I guess it's maybe that giving people a single point Get a bunch of things from different people at once is a way to combat that? But then, in some ways the answer to that is digital distribution- sensibly we should be doing something like this as ebooks or whatever? Forget about distance. But that comes back to what I was saying about magic. It's the personal touch or whatever that makes a project like this work.

Some of the creators involved in MOTM have books published through large above ground publishers, What do you think is the appeal in producing comics at a minicomic scale?

You'd probably have to ask someone like Pat or Mandy, but again I think it is about the personal touch, about being able to do something quickly and send it out directly to your audience. It's not something you have to spend years toiling over, it's quick, dirty and fun.

Images © 2012 respective artists.