Showing posts with label philip bentley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philip bentley. Show all posts

Monday, December 2, 2013

Paper Trail


Boy's Own adventure by Tony Thorne in Demons.


WIP: Jase Harper's Awk Wood.


Preview of Roger Langridge's L'il Ernie.



Preview for new comic from Katie Parrish.


A lengthy post on T.C. Denne’s soft drink and ice cream business by Darian Zam.

Recreation of a mid-1960s hand screen-printed poster for the Peter Pan Dazzle, by Bob Godfrey.

Philip Bentley has released a his comics memoirs A Life in Comics available from Second Shore.  Phil has been involved for much of the past 50 years with the Australian comics scene through fandom, retailing, writing and publishing. More info on A Life in Comics – a personal history of comics in Australia 1960-1990 here.

  
Phil also recently announced the end of his Australian comics publication Word Balloons.

"With the release of A Life in Comics it seems an appropriate time to draw a line under the publication of Word Balloons. It was not my intention from the outset to conclude its run here, but anyone who has been following the magazine’s trajectory will have seen that its frequency has slowed over the years. This is just the natural consequence of producing an work as labour of love. Eventually enthusiasm will run out. I had thought that perhaps at the end of producing the book I would feel energised and be enthusiastic about getting back into WB, but the opposite has been true, so I very much feel it is time to move on"

Back issues of Word Balloons can be purchased from Second Shore.



Emmet O'Cuana reviews Home Brew Vampire Bullets #0.



Eleri Mai Harris made a beautiful comic for the 2013 Caravan of Comics TCAF excursion.


Gallery of New Zealand reprint comics at The Library of American Comics Blog.


The Dominion Post profiles Murray Webb.



Simon Hanselmann's 2013 CAB report.


Daniel Best announces a Keith Chatto ebook biography.



Neale Blanden diagrams the Melbourne Comics Community.


Jem Yoshioka writes about the recent Women's Cartoon colloquium in Wellington.




Sarah Laing's commentary on the Women's Cartoon colloquium.

  
David Mahler writes about Marc Pearson.

Have you ordered your SAVAGE BITCH?


 Stephen A. Russell profiles Art Spiegelman for The Age prior to his recent Australian visit.


Paper Trail masthead courtesy of Toby Morris.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Newton Comics - The Rise & Fall - Daniel Best Interview


Daniel Best's pozible campaign for his book on Australian publisher Newton Comics book is in it's last twenty hours. Daniel has met his target but I'm sure would welcome any more contributions to support the production costs of the book. I asked Daniel a few questions via email about his background in comics and his forthcoming book.

Please consider supporting Newton Comics - The Rise & Fall pozible campaign here.

What were the first comics you read?

The first comics that I can remember reading was the Death of Gwen Stacey issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, way back when they were released in the early 1970s. My mother taught me to read, but insisted that I read books, not that she had anything against comic books.


 
When did you first encounter Newton Comics?
 
I first encountered Newton Comics when they were released in 1975/1976. They were cheaper than the American versions and usually contained far more interesting material.  The posters and swap cards, along with the iron-on transfers also sold me - I'd buy them and chop them up mercilessly - swap cards in school books, posters on walls and iron-ons on shirts. But, hey, that's what you did as a kid in the 1970s. I didn't know, nor did I care, that these things would be worth anything down the track. Newtons were perfect for children - the true disposable comics.
 
What attracted you to researching comics history?
 
I've always had a fascination with history in general and, more often than not, it's the stories behind the official or published stories that have interested me the most. I first became interested in learning about comic book history in the early 1980s when I discovered magazines like The Comic Journal, but my interest really picked up when I found a battered copy of All In Color For A Dime at a library book sale for ten cents. That changed my outlook on comic books and comic book history in general. From there I discovered some old Alter Egos and a few FOOMs at a second hand store and never looked back.

The same second hand store used to sell me comic books for between five and ten cents each - from 1981 to 1984. They'd get stuff in like the John Byrne X-Men, Iron Fist, old Gil Kane and John Romita Spider-Man's, Silver Age Marvels and the like for peanuts. But never any DC. Like an idiot I lost the lot.




At what point did you consider turning your research into Newton Comics into a book?

 
I started to get interested in Newtons again in the early 2000s when I found a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #1. I wanted to know what the story was behind these comics. I knew about the many Australian reprint comics, mainly the DC reprints that KG Murray did in the 1970s and 1980s, the Federal and Yaffa reprints of Marvel and the Gredown reprints of rare horror material, but these were new to me, in a way. Old, familiar comics, but new in their own way.  I hopped on the internet and did a search and found...nothing.

Then Robert Thomas did his brilliant Newton Comics article for The Sunday Observer (which used to be owned by Maxwell Newton, the same guy who owned Newton Comics) and I was hooked. I started collecting them and writing about them on my blog and there was a great interest. From there I began to interview people who were involved with Newton Comics and, once Robert and myself sat down and compared notes, I thought, "There's a book in here." That was in 2005.




I then caught up with Kevin Patrick in Melbourne. What he doesn't know about Australian comics isn't worth knowing, but he admitted that he didn't know a lot about Newton. I mentioned the idea of a book and he replied that nobody has ever written a book about an Australian comic book company, so why not be the first? By then I was really leaning towards it.  On the same weekend I was chatting to Philip Bentley, who founded Minotaur Books in Melbourne, who said, "You know, Maxwell Newton was named a spy in Parliament." That sold me. I started work on it in 2007, once I finished the Jim Mooney book, and I've been working on it ever since.  Now it's ready for publication!

Those three guys, Robert, Kevin and Phil, have been brilliant helps along the way, sharing ideas, research and allowing me to bounce things off them.



Daniel's blog Oh Danny Boy has a wealth of articles on Australian and American comics.

Images from the Newton Comics facebook here.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Sticky Zine Fair Melbourne 2013

Like a fool I tested my new camera on a bunch of comic folk at the 2013 Sticky Zine Fair in Melbourne and ended up with a bunch of pics taken with a low light setting. Please excuse the fuzziness and lack of focus, here's a bunch of comic folk snapped at the zine fair yesterday.












Melting Nazi Face

Milk Shadow Books' James Andre and Incredible Hulk Scholar Larry Boxshall






 

I picked up a sweet haul from the fair.
  
 


Contact/Tintin Mashup print from A Woodward and a hand-drawn Simon Hanselmann T-Shirt!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

2012 in Review: Philip Bentley

Phillip Bentley's Word Balloons - Australian Magazine of the Graphic Story Arts

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

The “Station Wagon of Comics” mini tour to Adelaide with Bruce Mutard. Met up with a host of comic types including some I hadn’t seen in 20+ years like Darrel Merritt, Dave Hodson and Brendan Boyd, and some I met for the first time like Greg Holfeld and Dave Follett. Unfortunately comic fans were significant by their absence at the Adelaide Supanova.

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


Greg Holfeld, in particular his Captain Congo books written by Ruth Starke. Although technically children’s books they seem to have all ages appeal to me much like Tintin. They are amusingly written and lavishly drawn.

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


City of Vice DVD: a BBC drama series showcasing the seamier side of London in the 18th Century. Too strong for our sets apparently.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?


Big Arse III.


Sunday, December 2, 2012

Melbourne Comic Meet Up 2012

My Camera died before I could snap the forty odd folk inside but here's a few of the comic folk at the December meet up in Melbourne. There were actually women folk there too.




Assorted Melbourne Comic Folk