2012 in Review: Damon Keen

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

Helping to get New Zealand's first crowd funded comic, Faction, out into the world! 

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

I made some great discoveries this year, so that's a tricky one. Finally got around to reading Charles Burns - and in particular Black Hole. It's always great when the storytelling and art come together so seamlessly, and Black Hole is beautiful and disturbing. I love stories that manage to include the surreal and dreamlike, but without becoming self indulgent and nonsensical, and Black Hole pulls it off brilliantly. Loving his new stuff too - the Hive is great.

Also finally read Dharma Punks by Ant Sang! Embarrassingly late I know - but well worth the wait. I think that it may just have catapulted straight to the top of my all-time favourite NZ comics. 

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

Freaking LOVED the Mars landing by the Curiosity rover in August. We watched it live on NASA TV. It's what I imagine sport fans must feel like when their team wins something. What a bloody awesome achievement, One of those rare moments it felt good to be a human being. The Higgs Boson discovery was also mind-numbingly awesome. 

Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?

It's my first year of being freelance - so I've had to do lots of boring changes - like figuring out how to do my taxes and invoicing. Blergh. More interestingly, my drawing and comic creation has gone nearly entirely digital, from sketches through to the final work - a fun experiment, but I think the results have been promising so far. I still thumbnail the story outline first in a notebook though, so not quite there yet!

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Rocket boots. Better instant meals. Otherwise, continuing to grow Faction, I think. It's an exciting challenge. Nationally, it'd be nice to see the disgusting government we've got crash and burn, and globally, it'd be good to see some action on climate change. Anything. Anything at all. But I'm not holding my breath.

http://www.factioncomics.co.nz/

2012 in Review: Dylan Horrocks

Dylan Horrocks

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

I'm currently drawing the last two chapters of 'Sam Zabel & the Magic Pen' volume 1, which is pure pleasure. Also: drawing a whole lot of watercolour commissions earlier in the year; hanging out with fellow NZ cartoonists Colin Wilson, Roger Langridge, Chris Slane, Ben Stenbeck, Greg Broadmore and Rufus Dayglo in Italy and Germany.

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

Simon Hanselmann. Requires no elaboration. His brilliance is self-evident: http://girlmountain.tumblr.com/

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

Mad Men. Been watching it obsessively (all 5 seasons) and it's become a serious addiction.

Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?

I now adore using watercolour, after years of being scared of it. So far, I've only been using it for sketches & commissions, but we shall see...

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Finishing 'Sam Zabel & the Magic Pen' volume 1. Starting volume 2. 

 http://hicksvillecomics.com/

2012 in Review: Jason Franks

Over December I'll be running some brief year in review interviews with Australian and New Zealand cartoonists and comic folk. Kicking things off today with a good friend of mine, Melbourne writer/cartoonist Jason Franks.

Jason Franks

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

Without question, the highlight for my own work has been McBLACK TWO SHOT. It's not the first time I've worked with Bruce Mutard but it's the first of our work together that's seen print. Putting his highly polished and traditional art style next to Luke Pickett's brilliant crayon-and-notepad sequence, then Rhys James' super-modern digital painting and J. Stew's atmospheric, underground nightmares... I am ridiculously proud of this combination of artists.

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

This year has been all about Image for me. I've been mates with Justin Jordan for many years, so Luther Strode probably doesn't count, but a lot of my favourite new mainstream books have been Image stablemates. Green Wake by Wiebe and Rossmo. Who Is Jake Ellis? by Edmondson and Zonjic. Also this is the year I finally cottoned onto Locke and Key by Hill and Rodriguez.

My other big find has been Naoki Urasawa. I tried Pluto a couple of years ago and it wasn't my cup of tea; but this year I discovered that three of the manga books I was most interested in (old and new) are by Urasawa. Monster and 20th Century Boys are every bit as good as they are reputed to be, and I'm dying to get my hands of an English version of Billy Bat.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed this year?

I've probably found myself reading more prose than I have for the last few years. This year it's been a lot of Richard Morgan, John Steinbeck, Greg Palast, Evan Wright, China Mieville and Richard Stark. Some of these are old favourites, some are something new. On TV the only thing I've really cared for has been Breaking Bad.

Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?

I'm trying to put out a bit more prose fiction than I have in the last few years. Publishing my first novel has sort of opened my eyes to the opportunities in that world and the comics business is a bit sickly right now. I mean, when using Kickstarter to avoid the entire traditional marketplace is the great white hope for original comics you know there are problems. That said, I have a LOT of comics projects in the works and hopefully a lot more of them will drop in 2013 than we've seen in the last 2 years. I'm focusing on longer work--graphic novels and miniseries, as opposed to short stories and anthologies--and it takes a lot of time to get these bigger projects up and running.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Putting out more comics. There should be more McBlack and more Sixsmiths, but also, if things go well, a bunch of completely new stuff in a variety of genres. Hope to sell my second novel, too. I'm also looking forward to watching the continued growth of the local scene and to reading awesome new comics from local publishers. 

http://www.jasonfranks.com/

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.

  Ben Hutchings and James Andre

  Philip Bentley and Daniel Reed

 Jason Franks

Assorted Melbourne Comic Folk

Tristan Jones and Tom Taylor

New Comics from Pikitia Press in 2013

With a few weeks left of 2012 I'm deep into work on comics and books for the Pikitia Press publishing slate in 2013.

The third collection of Peter Foster and James H. Kemsley's Ballantyne adventure strips from the Sydney Sun Herald is coming together. This collection will include a back up feature of an unpublished Foster and Kemsley newspaper strip, Sports INC. 72, Initially prepared during the nineties for a newspaper proposal that did not eventuate.

James Davidson's Moa #1, initially released as a black and white ashcan in 2010, has been revamped as a full-size colour comic and a collection of the first three issues of Moa with additional material will be available in 2013. James has posted a seven page preview of Moa #1 here.

I'll have release dates for these soon as well as news of several other comics due in 2013.

Ernest Heber Thompson

Ernest Heber Thompson was born in Dunedin in 1892 and as a cartoonist was the first contributor to The Sketcher, a Dunedin magazine composed of illustration and humourous writing. Thompson taught at the Dunedin School of Art in the early twentieth century and in 1915 enlisted to fight in World War One, serving as a sergeant in the 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade. Whilst stationed in France from 1916 to 1917 Thompson completed a large number of cartoons some of which featured in the fortnightly soldiers‘ magazine , Chronicles of NZEF, and in the annual, New Zealand at the Front,  published during the final years of the Great War.

Badly wounded at Messines on 7 June 1917, Thompson was transported to England for convalescence and remained there after the War. Thompson exhibited widely, including at the Royal Academy and recorded his travels throughout Europe drawing many of the people he encountered in his travels. Thompson served as representative of the New Zealand National Art Gallery in London, from 1951 to 1966. Thompson died in England in 1971.

Eric Bloomfield has a tragic account of a 1926 subject of Thompson's portraiture in London here.

A selection of Thompson's wartime art can be viewed here.

The following Thompson cartoons are from the second issue of The Sketcher published August 1913. As well as providing all the cartoons for the magazine Thompson illustrated several of the advertisements.

 

 

Sources:  http://warart.archives.govt.nz ,  christchurchartgallery.org.nz

Colin Wilson, Frank Bellamy, and Dan Dare

 Evan Jenkins and Frank Bellamy's Dan Dare via Colin Wilson

Several years ago I had the opportunity to have a rummage through Colin Wilson's studio and amongst his fine collection of European comics and art I found a folder of clippings from Frank Bellamy's run on Dan Dare from the Eagle in the late fifties. Colin professed to being a big fan Bellamy's work particularly another serial from Eagle, Fraser of Africa.

Recently Colin was contacted by Evan Jenkins in New Zealand who had bought a residence Colin rented in the late seventies. Jenkins discovered a large mural on one of the walls of the house, a recreation of a panel of Bellamy's Dan Dare. Someone told Jenkins "some comic guy" did it and Jenkins liked the painting so much he had it removed when he sold the house and it now resides in his garage down the other end of the country in Queenstown. Colin remarked on the painting, " It's obviously me copying a Bellamy Dan Dare panel from Eagle - November 7, 1959 to be exact - but how the hell could I have done this and not remember anything about it? And it turns up 35 years later in some guys garage!"

 2012 Dan Dare commission by Colin Wilson

Sarah Laing Interview

Auckland cartoonist Sarah Laing was recently awarded a six-month University of Auckland residency from the Micheal King Writers Centre to work on a graphic novel about Katherine Mansfield that is part-biography, part-memoir and part-fiction. Laing's comics have frequently appeared in Metro magazine and she is also a novelist, graphic designer and mother of three. A prolific output of auto-bio comics have featured on Laing's blog Let Me Be Frank in recent years. I asked her a few questions via email about her upcoming residency.

Are you the first author to receive a Michael King Writers Centre residency to work on a cartooning project?

I'm the first at the Michael King Writers Centre, but it's a joint University of Auckland residency and I see that Dylan Horrocks was awarded it in 2006: http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/dylanhorrocks  But yes, it's rare for a cartooning/graphic novel project to be chosen for a residency! It's great that such a project is now being considered a serious contender. 

When did you first experience Katherine Mansfield's writing?

Somebody read me 'The Dolls' House' when I was in primary school and it all came alive for me - she's such a visual writer; I can still picture everything she described.  I remember my grandmother telling us that Mansfield's family, the Beauchamps, lived down the road from her family when she was a child in Karori. My first writing prize was for a poem I wrote in 7th form, called 'At the (York) Bay', after Mansfield's story. I spent lots of summer holidays in Eastbourne as that's where my grandmother and great aunts lived. Later I lived in a little lane off Tinakori Road in Wellington, where Mansfield was born. My first book published by Random House was a collection of short stories, and I felt like I was following in a tradition established by her. She really is still the most amazing short story writer, the way that she sets up a scene and then disrupts it entirely. Her writing still feels very contemporary.

 

Will your project be purely comics or a combination of prose and cartooning?

This project will be a cartooning one - a book-length graphic novel. Language does play a big part in my comics though, and I will be working hard on that. There is so much of the visual world to explore - Mansfield was stylish - she had that great bob - and she lived in the 1920s and 1930s, and she hung out with all the modernists and the Bloomsbury set (Virginia Woolf, D H Lawrence) She pushed a whole lot of social boundaries, redefined literature, had lesbian affairs, was the only writer that Virginia Woolf was jealous of. She moved to France and Germany to try and cure her TB, but she died young, at the age of 34.  Recently I read Kiki of Montparnasse and I think graphic novels are such a great way of bringing historical figures to life.

What will your residency at the Writers Centre entail?

I will be given a studio to work in at the top of Mt Victoria in Devonport. It was built in the late 19th century, so I'm hoping it will get me into the right era. Also I will have an office at the university and access to the library, where I hope to read lots about Mansfield. I think I might have to give lectures at the English department too, so I'll be hustling comics and graphic novels.

Do you have a projected scope for the size of this project and when you'll complete it?

I'm hoping it will take me no longer than a couple of years. But then I'm still finishing an illustrated novel (to be published in July 2013) that I started almost 4 years ago! I want to explore Mansfield's life, and also I want to couple that with memoir, exploring how my own fascination with her. I imagine that this will be a reasonably big book - 300 pages maybe, and I want to do it all in inks and watercolour. I've recently been reading Brecht Evans and I love his style and his way of story telling. I'm also a fan of Joann Sfar and Vanessa Davis, who also use watercolours a lot.

How was the experience of your short term residency at the Michael King Writers Centre in 2008?

It was really great - it was just for 6 weeks but I really got to concentrate. At the moment I work at home, on the dining room table, and I have 3 kids, so when they're at home I have to clear everything away or else they'll want to augment my art. The other thing that I've done when I've been on residencies is minimise my internet access. I waste such a lot of time! Then again, it's a brilliant resource for picture references so I won't be able to cut myself off entirely.

You've indicated on your blog that you've had an interest in doing a longer comics work for a while, did applying for the residency help consolidate commencing this project or was it already underway?

I thought this would be a good kind of project for a University writer-in-residence - I'd have access to all the English department expertise and a library full of books! I also had a lot of other ideas jostling around - mostly memoir ideas. I still have a whole host of short stories I want to draw in comic form - I'm hoping to get a few of those started before the residency begins.

All images copyright Sarah Laing 2012