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!
Showing posts with label sacha bryning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sacha bryning. Show all posts
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.
Contact/Tintin Mashup print from A Woodward and a hand-drawn Simon Hanselmann T-Shirt!
Contact/Tintin Mashup print from A Woodward and a hand-drawn Simon Hanselmann T-Shirt!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
2012 in Review: Steve Sparke
Steve Sparke
What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
The FEC Extravaganza was my personal highlight. I've thrown together a few
comic book launches before but this one was a much bigger effort. It was
much more of an event than just a simple launch as we had sketches,
signings and a Q&A. The books launching were Kranburn #4 (by Ben Michael Byrne) and Seven (by Alisha Jade), which were both fairly
straight forward in their process as it was simply collaborating with
one person on their project. Whereas the third book launching, Fireside
Tales, was an anthology - meaning I collaborated with five people. That
kind of number means a lot more time dedicated to one comic as I try to
spend equal amounts of time on each story. So yeah - it really set a bar
for me.
On
top of all that, I was also organising my wedding at the same time (I
literally returned from my honeymoon the day before the launch). So this
required having most things organised and ready to go a month before
the actual event. I know a few people thought I was nuts to do it this
way...and they're right! It was insane. I didn't get much sleep
throughout the month of August. But holy shit was it rewarding!
Everything went off without a hitch and I was really pleased to see the
Fireside boys get a chance to show off their talents.
Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the first time in 2012?
Cullen
Bunn and Brian Hurtt, creators of The Sixth Gun. It was only just in
the last couple of weeks that I've read this and it's absolutely
outstanding! Great characters and some brilliant art! They've really
struck gold with this story and I can't wait to see where they go next
(after the first TPB).
Also, to keep it local, I got on to Sacha Bryning's work this year. I first saw a couple of his pieces online and was
already impressed, but then he went and floored me with his
self-published comic, Sam & Laz. He initially published it online
here but then did a small print run for the avid fans. He also slipped a story into Velocity #2 (Molly Mac), which was bursting
off the page with energy. I was able to get him on board for the cover
of Fireside Tales and I was blown away by the results (as were the
readers). I honestly can't get enough of his art. Sacha, if you're
reading this - more art please.
What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2012?
I
went to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform the entire score
of LOTR: Fellowship of the Rings. It was amazing! They had two choirs,
the whole orchestra AND the actual film playing behind them. I'm already
booked in for the MSO performing Two Towers next year and I'd recommend
everybody else do the same.
Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?
Not particularly. With editing, I'm always changing
my methods to suit the person I'm working with. It's necessary for
getting the best out of your creator. But significant changes? Nope.
What are you looking forward to in 2013?
More
Kranburn and Seven. Having already seen what Ben and Alisha have in
store for their readers, I'm incredibly excited to see the response.
I
think Alisha's second book will give readers a chance to settle into
the world she has created. The first book really threw the reader in the
deep end, which was great as I think the immediacy gave a strong sense
of action. But this next book will ease you in a little bit before it
takes hold.
Ben is going into some
crazy territory with Kranburn. I can't give too much away but it's
certainly going to leave some people a wee bit shocked. And, of course,
we get some more car chases which is always fun!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
2012 in Review: Darren Close
Darren Close (photo by Bobby N)
What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
Getting a new Killeroo book out after about 7 years hiatus was pretty good, but returning to the collaboration side of things for a BIG book next year would probably be the highlight - so much talent in this country that hasn't been given its due thus far. And continuing to develop my own artwork has been particularly rewarding as well.
Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the
first time in 2012?
What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2012?
Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?
What are you looking forward to in 2013?
Darren is also the founder of the weekly drawing group Ozcomics
Saturday, July 14, 2012
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.
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.
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.
Pat Grant and Ive Sorocuk
Mandy Ord and Megan Nairn
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.
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