Comics and cartoonists from England were my entry point to comics and are still an interest, particularly material from the 1950's to early 1980's. I've been wanting to write about some of the work of this period and share samples of art so rather than start another blog I'll be posting the occasional English Comics Diversion here. The impression I get from my Internet trawlings is that the history of English comics and cartooning are severely underwritten about in comparison to the wealth of material available on American comics.
Whilst researching Ian Dickson I picked up a box of Men Only magazine digests from the late forties and early fifties. Men Only in this era comprised stories, articles and dozens of cartoons and illustrations in each issue. Peynet, Ronald Searle, Norman Mansbridge, Wyndham Robinson were amongst contributors to the pages of Men Only with distinctive caricature covers provided by Irish cartoonist Edward Sylvester Hynes (1872 - 1982).
Had to take a break from the Paper Trail over the last few weeks for travelling, editing work, bereavements, and REAL LIFE...
Here is a summary of the entire Internet: The big Pikitia Press news is the release of our new comic Peter Foster's adaptation of For The Term of His Natural Life this Sunday at the Melbourne Writers Festival: Facebook it here.
This Saturday is host to another comics event in Melbourne, capital comics city of Australia. Exhibitchin’! is the title of Squishface Studios latest effort to get comics into everybodies lives. As well as works from David
Blumenstein, Marta Tesoro, Ben Hutchings, Sacha Bryning, Sarah Howell,
Ive Sorocuk, Arran McKenna and Jo Waite, they'll be bitchin' tunes,
crazy costumes, chocolate-infested food, tarot readings, body art, a
comics jam, badge-making, personality testing, portrait drawing... and
an entire leg of ham.
Pat Alexander conducts a tour of Squishface studios in prep for Exhibitchin’!
A flux of comic printing plates have turned up on the Australian ebay in recent months, some from Australian reprints of foreign material and some from honest-to-goodness Australian drawn material. Most of these were destroyed after they had served their purpose. At the time of posting, this auction for a plate of the cover to Fiction House's Indians #21 had a few days to run.
Auckland based biennial literary zine POTROAST are looking for contributors for a special comics issue, details here.
Vice comics man Nick Gazin reviews Karl Wills's recent comic Princess Seppuku here.
Special Nippon edition of Karl Wills's Princess Seppuku
Inverted Dawn: Exhibition and comics launch at Tinning Street, Melbourne. Opening night September 6th - September 16th featuring Html Flowers (Cougar Flashy) and Girl Mountain (Simon Hanselmann)
featuring...
brothers hand mirror and
girl mountain live
Simon Hanselmann
Tom Spurgeon writes here about the recently passing of art critic and historian Robert Hughes and his connections with comics as a cartoonist early in his career for the Observer in Sydney and in his appraisal of the work of Robert Crumb.
F.E.C Comics are launching three new comics at All Star Comics in Melbourne, 22 September, 6.30pm. Have a look on Facebook here. I can't find anything on the normal Internet but F.E.C Comics are located here. From the press release: KRANBURN #4 Ben Michael Byrne returns
with the beginning of his second chapter. Brand begins his war against
Lord. Blood spillage is a promise. FIRESIDE TALES A horror
anthology collecting three brilliant stories from some very talented
Australian creators; Alex Smith, Andrew Shaw, Billy Tournas, Mike
Wszelaki and Will Pleydon. SEVEN Fairy tales were once not so child-friendly. Alisha Jade delves into these origins and presents her interpretations.
Congratulations to Trevor Wood and Jen Breach for their recently concluded webcomic, Sawbones. After five years and 289 pages Trev recently posted the concluding page and a blog hinting at upcoming projects. Five years is a long time in webcomics, many don't last five months, so it's commendable to see the work Trevor and Jen have created and their decision to bring their story to a close.
Panel from Sawbones
Melbourne cartoonist Doug Holgate is amongst the speakers at the second Spotlight on Specialists seminars at NMIT, Fairfield, Melbourne on Saturday September 8th.
There was a kerfuffle on the net a few weeks back with some folk critical of a forthcoming GARO tribute anthology. This provoked an interesting discussion of Kickstarter and publishing in general here and here and here and many other places. Of note the SP7 Alt. Comics tribute to Garo Manga edited by Ian Harker and Box Brown features amongst it's contributors Benjamin Constantine, a fine cartoonist from Brisbane. Check Benjamin out here and here and here.
Pikitia Press will be publishing new editions of James Davidson's Moa #1 and #2 later this year and all being well issue #3 will be available for the Melbourne and Auckland Armageddon cons in October.
When I moved to Australia in 2007 I left behind several cubic metres of densely packed paper, twenty five years worth of accumulation, safely packed away in storage. Save for a Philip K Dick novel, I landed in Melbourne with just a bag of clothes and a keyboard. After a few years of mad collecting/spending in this wild land of opportunity I pared down my possessions and now try to keep only what I can fit in the space above which acts as an office/writing/drawing space.
As I get a bit older the books are feeling less precious to me. Do I really need that Barry-Windsor Smith Conan treasury? Over the last few years I've thought about getting rid of the lot when I turn fifty, save for my original art folders and a small bookshelf of the work I'm really fond of. There's no point in keeping all this stuff forever!
The national sport of New Zealand, Rugby, has had more than a passing connection with cartooning with books and exhibitions commemorating some of the fine work produced over the years. The All Blacks' Book for Boys by Pat Booth was published in 1960 by Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. and features the Adventures of Albie A Rising All Black by an uncredited artist.
As well as making a significant contribution to Australian comics with his work on Silver Flash, Punch Perkins and The Invisible Avenger, Virgil Reilly was a prolific illustrator of magazines, books, and newspapers. Here's a sample of Reilly's work for the Australian Woman's Weekly.
Kevin Patrick at Comics Down Under has a profile of Reilly's career here.
Skinny Arse Comic Launch 2012 - Illustration Bruce Mutard
The Skinny Arse Comics Launch at the 2012 Melbourne Writers Festival is the brainchild of Melbourne cartoonist Bruce Mutard who has been very proactive in comics events in Melbourne as well as travelling Australia and the globe to attend comics events and spread the gospel of Australian comics.
Five comic books are being launched at the Skinny Arse in conjunction with the 2012 Melbourne Writers Festival including Pikitia Press's third release; Peter Foster's adaption of the Australian literary classic For the Term of His Natural Life.
In this beautiful new book UnforgottenTohby Riddle brings to life
what remains largely unseen in the everyday. Exploring the idea of ‘who
helps the helper’ and ‘who gives to the giver’, Unforgotten is a
stunning book that both adults and children will connect with.
In a
time of chaos and constant distraction, Unforgotten reminds us of the
place of peace and calm, while at the same time including themes of
faith, doubt, friendship and compassion.
All You Bastards Can Go Jump Off A Bridge by J. Marc Schmidt (Milk Shadow Books)
Creator of of the cult classic graphic novels, Egg Story and Eating
Steve, and the co-creator of The Sixsmiths, J. Marc Schmidt furiously
rains down over 200 pages of comic stories covering art, romance,
religion, anger, pop culture parodies, sex and death in his latest
collection, All You Bastards Can Go Jump Off A Bridge.
Featuring over a year's worth of webcomics, plus loads of rare strips
from small press and anthology titles, All You Bastards Can Go Jump Off A
Bridge explores human behaviour, and why it can sometimes be so hard to
just get along with each other. Features a foreword by Tango's Bernard Caleo.
For The Term of His Natural Life by Peter Foster (Pikitia Press)
Peter Foster's adaption of Marcus Clarke's classic Australian novel For
The Term of His Natural Life. Depicting the hardships of convicts in
Tasmania in the early days of the colonisation of Australia. Sixty-four
pages of vibrant colour with several pages detailing the original
creation of one of Australia's first graphic novels and a foreword from
Marcus Clarke scholar Laurie Hergenhan.
"Showman?" The Bret Braddock Adventures Book 1 & 2 by David Blumenstein (Nakedfella Productions)
A webcomic since 2009, the tale of Bret Braddock, wealthy arsehole,
recently came to a poignant end. Now the whole story is collected
together in two jam-packed volumes. An essential read for anyone who's
ever been told "The cheque's in the mail". Created by David Blumenstein.
The Trials of Francis Bear by Gregory Mackay (Milk Shadow Books)
Melbourne indie comix legend Gregory Mackay's latest expedition into
the world of the his most beloved character, Francis Bear. This time
Francis has to deal with War, punishment, technology and the bottle, all
whilst never losing the beautifully sparse signature sarcasm or simple
style that makes the book so unique.
This is a free event,
and will feature MC-ing by the King of comics examination, Bernard Caleo. Also comics maestro Bruce Mutard will be popping by for some
hijinks!
All of the artists will be in attendance, so there'll
be lots of signings, short speeches and other fun. An after party will
be held nearby (Location, TBA).
