2012 in Review: Ben Hutchings

Ben Hutchings

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

 
It would have to be opening the doors of Squishface Comics Studio.  I have barely left the place since it opened!  It has grown and become a household name nearly of it's own accord. (the houses of cartoonists)  I enjoy being there and sharing in the dramas surrounding the other cartoonists. 

There were also two cartooning trips - the Caravan of Comics, and a recent commercial job in Singapore with David Blumenstein, Pat Grant and Rebecca Clements.

Not to mention a trip to Japan where I visited the Osamu Tezuka museum for a second time, and got a personal tour of the Kyoto Manga Museum!
 

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

Nah not really!  I wasn't paying a huge deal of attention to anybody else's work, let alone their names, sorry.  That's not to say there was nothing good at all! 
I'm just slipping into senility or something.  Probably should be worried.  It could be that so much is happened that I haven't digested it all. 

But I did rediscover and get fresh inspiration from an old artist I have always loved. 
His name is Yamahami Tatsuhiko.  He is best known for a character called Gaki Deka.  What is funny about my work has been funny in his work for decades. 
He is fantastic, with a dirty, but detailed style. I have no idea what any of his comics are about, however.

I also discovered another manga artist by mistake because they have similar names and styles.  I was searching for Yoshiharu Tsuge, and mistakenly picked up some English
translations of the work of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, which looks similar.  This fellow does work of such poignancy, and gravity.  His themes include sexual frustration, loneliness and death. I very rarely do anything this heavy, but would love to.  So I would recommend seeking out both these manga artists.
 

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

Dredd 3D, Tintin, Avengers and many other excellent comic movie adaptations.  Seeing Avengers with the other Caravan of Comics dudes was a gas.  Americans know how to watch a movie.  They're so noisy.  And every one-liner they guffaw at so excitedly.  The floor at the end was covered in trampled popcorn and everybody was so darn excited about what they just watched.  When I watch a movie, we usually just walk out pretty much in silence and go for a wee.

I also discovered another band I love called Sparks.  I don't like any music ever, so they're like band #5.  It's good to have music to enjoy.  They repeat themselves a lot, with strange orchestral backing and hard rock riffs.  But mainly I just love the repetition.
 

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

Not significant changes, but I have noticed my skill slowly growing!  My lines are cleaner, my knowledge of anatomy is better, overall I think I've settled into a particular style that I really like. 
 

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Keeping commercial work to a minimum and finally leaping head - first into finishing the last ten pages of my graphic novel draft.  I will also have at least two trade paperbacks out through Milk Shadow Publishing, including two You Stink & I Don't collections, possibly a Glenjamin collection reprint too.

We talked about a book of serious, art-heavy fantasy and drama stories too, which might have to wait til 2014.  I have a selection of scripts which are very different than anything I've ever written before.  They are all melancholy and tragic, but the tone remains friendly and positive.  I'd love to see if I can pull that off.

http://hutcho.wordpress.com/

2012 in Review: Roger Langridge

 Roger Langridge

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

I guess the biggest highlight for me was winning an Eisner award for Snarked! I was first nominated for an Eisner waaay back in 2003 when I was doing Fred the Clown - so I've been banging my head against that particular door for a decade. It was especially gratifying to finally win it for something I originated myself rather than for a corporate property, too.

It was also a blast to finally get to do something with Tom Neely. Tom and I had talked about doing something together for ages, and this year we finally got to do an issue of Popeye together - the perfect vehicle for us both, as it turns out. I'd love to work with Tom again.

2012 is also the year I decided not to do any more work for Marvel. There are issues over the way Jack Kirby's heirs have been treated which tipped me over the edge, but really, I was heading that way anyway. I don't think I have anything Marvel wants, and Marvel don't really have anything I want, so I think we're both quite happy with the arrangement.

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

 Pat Grant's Blue was pretty wonderful, I thought. Really solid command of craft in the service of a compelling and personal story. Luke Pearson was another new discovery for me this year - I liked his book Everything We Miss for similar reasons. They're occupying similar aesthetic territory, I guess - it seems to be the territory that I find I want to explore lately. Measured, immersive storytelling and a kind of controlled restraint, with a fully-realised, polished style that still allows a degree of humanity. (If that makes any sense.)

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

I saw Daniel Kitson's stand-up for the first time earlier this year, that was great. There was some excellent comedy on TV - Sharon Horgan and Holly Walsh's Dead Boss, the second series of Simon Amstell's Grandma's House, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, The Thick of It, Dirk Gently, all pretty terrific. On the literary side, Dave Shelton's children's book, A Boy and a Bear in a Boat, has the makings of an all-time classic.
 

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

Yes - with writing, I've recently been doing little thumbnails in a notebook before typing up my scripts. I started doing it when I found myself getting blocked with writing The Rocketeer and it freed things up somehow, so I've carried on doing it.

On the artwork side, I'm trying to move away from digital trickery - I've had this bee in my bonnet lately about having the artwork look as much like the printed work as possible, so I'm moving back to hand-lettering and cross-hatching, and away from digital lettering and mechanical tones. I'm much happier with the pages I've done this way. Next is to get back to brushes and nibs; I switched to markers halfway through Snarked! to keep it on schedule, and the printed work looks fine, but I can tell the difference, even if nobody else can. So - back to traditional media. What can I say?... I like having inky fingers.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

 
Seeing my Mum and Dad. I'm visiting New Zealand in February for their 50th wedding anniversary - my Mum's currently recovering from cancer, so we're lucky they got this far. Counting a lot of blessings this year.

On the creative side, I'm looking forward to doing some personal work! Right now I'm doing Popeye and The Rocketeer, both of which I'm enjoying immensely, but nothing compares to putting your own creations down on paper and setting them loose into the world. More of that, please.

http://hotelfred.blogspot.com.au/

2012 in Review: Mandy Ord

Mandy Ord

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

 

Travelling with the Caravan oc Comics to NY MoCCA and Toronto TCAF to attend both festivals. Meeting a few canadian comic heroes of mine.

 

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

 

I discovered a wonderful graphic novel by Joyce Farmer...called Special Exits. The story of her aging parents reminded me of the scope for storytelling that comics possess. I found more Julia Wertz books....in particular The Infinite Wait...great stuff...very funny and insightful...honest..and well told....can't put it down once I've started.

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

 

I recently read Man's Search for Meaning by Victor E Frakl...a memoir of a Psychiatrist and holocaust survivor. Inspiring and eye opening. Also Stephen Crane....a writer published in the 1890's...wrote a short story called ' Maggie A Girl of the streets'. A candid piece of writing about the harsh lives of the poor living in the slums in New York. I recently saw the new Ken Loach film...The Angel Share...gritty drama with awesome humour and a happy ending- phew!. Boardwalk Empire has been an addictive TV series as well as watching detective Lund in Forbrydelsen..a Danish thriller/TV series.

 

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

 

I've been inspired to read more and write more to improve my storytelling.

 

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

 

Starting and finishing a new project with Finlay Lloyd. Educating myself more about visual literacy and comprehension.

 

http://mandyord.blogspot.com.au/

2012 in review: Toby Morris

 Toby Morris

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

I've had a great experience working on my book about my son, 'Don't Puke on your Dad'. That's been a really cool time and I've had a lot of fun translating that into drawings. I had a couple of exhibitions this year which were a good experience - gotta do more of those. And I moved back to NZ which has been a huge change, but a lot of fun to catch up with all the good stuff going on here, lots of good stuff happening here, it's exciting.

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

 
The first half of the year I was living in Europe and before I left I got really into the art of Bastien Vives, a young french guy. He has a lovely loose expressive style which can be quite different from book to book - I love 'Dans Mes Yeux' where he does this quite frantic loose coloured pencils thing, very human and beautiful, then in a book like 'Polina' its all black and white, blobby and sort of stilted. Quite primitive.

I'm told he's great writer too but my french is really basic so I'm 90% looking at the pictures really. But he is certainly a good storyteller, you can see that.
 

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

I've got a young kid now so I'm developing a new appreciation for children's books. I loved 'Where Is My Hat' by Jon Klassen - really simple and funny.
 

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

I've been trying to be looser and more expressive I guess. Less rigid, make sure I'm only drawing things I'm enjoying.
 

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

I want to have a proper crack at doing a kids book at the moment. I've done bits and pieces but never really gone for it. Try to get my 'Don't Puke' book publishers. More exhibitions. Getting married. Enjoying an NZ summer.

http://xtotl.blogspot.com.au/

2012 in Review: Hayden Fryer

Hayden Fryer

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

After many years of both being on the back burner and more or less in development hell, getting the ball rolling on my "Darkest Night" series through the release of "Act One".

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

That's a tough one, my shelves and boxes are literally overflowing with comics that I've picked up and really enjoyed this year! I'd say the biggest one was finally getting my hands on Mike Mignola's complete (to date) run of Hellboy TPB's. Delving into that world, watching the many layers peel back as Hellboy's character arc unfolded all the while in the midst of subverting story expectations was really a complete joy.

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

The beach, I most definitely enjoyed going to the beach earlier in the year! (The holiday and break at the time was well overdue.) That and finally getting a chance to really dig into HP Lovecraft's work; "At The Mountains of Madness" specifically was really an eye opener for me in terms of its scope, awe and naturally horror.

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

Visually I've stepped up the size of my original sequential pages from A4 to A3, the follow on effect being the introduction of heavier attention to the backgrounds/set locations, detailed shadows and various digital effects to "finish" the page. As a sideline to the heavier digital focus, I've also stepped out of my comfort zone a bit by experimenting with Indian Ink as a painting medium.

On the writing side, I've been lucky enough to give it a lot more focus this year through a couple of collaborative projects with Paul Abstruse and Ryan Wilton. Traditionally I've drawn from either my own outlines or other writer's scripts; so a core process that the needed to be re-defined this year was finding a different way to bring the smaller detail, movement beats and dialogue stages of the story that were being fleshed out either during or after the final art all the way back to the scripting stage.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Rounding out the first arc of "Darkest Night" with the upcoming release of "Act Two" and hopefully later in the year, "Act Three". Also those aforementioned two collaborative projects will either be hitting shelves or getting very close to it, "Enormis" with Paul Abstruse and "A Gun For All Seasons" with Ryan Wilton!

That's all assuming the world doesn't end...

http://www.billydemonslayer.com/

2012 in Review: David Blumenstein

 

  David Blumenstein and Andrew Fulton

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
 
Going on the Caravan of Comics and getting to know the other caravaners better.

Coming across an amazing comics scene in Ann Arbor, MI, thanks to (among others) Kids Read Comics' Jerzy Drozd and Dan Mishkin.

Seeing Sarah (aka my hot cartooning wife) meet some of her favourite comics artists (John Porcellino, Bill Messner-Loebs) and watching her slowly create a graphic novel right before my eyes.

Finishing 100 pages of my "Bret Braddock" comics and getting the kind of mixed response I hoped for (amused/angry/litigious).

Being newly in the Australian Cartoonists Association and, while it's an organisation in flux thanks to an aging membership and a crumbling print media, feeling quite at home with the people themselves, a great bunch of guys with amazing links back to Australia's cartooning history.

Being part of Squishface Studio, putting on many great, informal, events and some big-arse exhibitions. Hoping we can keep it going another year.
 

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

Bought minis at MoCCA Fest, favourites being ones by Greg Kletsel, Tasha Harris and Paul Hoppe. I like them because I like them, that's why. Met some brilliant artists in Chicago, the ones who collaborate on "Trubble Club", a jam comic that's that's really good. Enjoyed stuff by Jeremy Tinder and Sam Sharpe (and probably more because all the panels are by different people and oh god I'm confused and sleepy.)
 

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

I only enjoyed comics this year. Some of the TV shows I watched and pissed on include "Mad Men", "Boardwalk Empire", "Sons of Anarchy" and "The Newsroom", all shows with an incredibly high opinion of their characters, all portrayed much more nobly than the writing deserves.

"Breaking Bad" is still great, though. "Looper" was a good movie.

Loads of my friends are becoming big time published authors! Anna Krien is a lovely person and wrote a great Quarterly Essay about animals and ethics you could go pick up at a snobby-type bookshop.

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

Many. Thanks to people at Squishface I've loaded up on brushes, brush pens, colour, bristol board, art paper and all sorts of things I'd barely tried before.

I'm writing a graphic novel. That's not something I would've thought to do before this year.

I finally caved and bought a slate computer with Wacom capability and it's going to blow the arse out of my old storyboarding methodology. Good for on-the-spot digital illustration, too.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Getting better with all the new pens and brushes I've been trying.

Continuing to grow Squishface, do new things there and maybe even figure out a way to make it pay for itself.

More little steps forward for the attitude and quality of the Melbourne comics scene.

Maybe taking a Caravan-style trip to SPX if I can afford it.

Last two years have been packed with tons of comics stuff. More next year, thank you.

Oh, and I'm finally making a series of my animated cop show, "The Precinct". It's a little mini-series of shorts called "Be A Man" and it's coming out probably Mar/Apr.

http://www.nakedfella.com/

2012 in Review: Joshua Santospirito

Joshua Santospirito

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
 
Finishing drawing the Long Weekend ... which took me many years! And in November I had an exhibition of crazy comics that spread across an entire small room in a gallery - I worked on them for about a year so that was tops too.
Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the first time in 2012?
 
Anders Nilsen's "Big Questions" com...plete...ly turned my world upside down. I can't really put it into words though why. I KNOW why ... I just don't know quite how to put it into words ... other than to say it was quite breath-taking ... and perhaps I shouldn't even try any further to put it into words as it might cheapen the experience for me ... just read it.

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

Ryoji Ikeda's multimedia (possibly the weakest noun for what I witnessed) performance at the MONA FOMA in Hobart in January was mind-blowing. It was like he opened up your skull and placed the entire universe inside it and then shut it with a loud *clunk*.
 
Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?

Yes - the exhibition that I did involved me designing comics that were designed to be spread across the wall and read on the wall, as opposed to on the page in a book or even one single sheet. So that was quite radical for me! The Sleuth exhibit at Inflight Art gallery was all about surrounding the reader with the world so it was really fun and liberating - John Retallick pointed out that it was sort of related to McCloud's infinite canvas.
 
What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Doing Chris Downes and my performance of The Shipwright and the Banshee at the 2013 MONA FOMA in Hobart - it's a comics-related performance. AND Printing and promoting The Long Weekend in Alice Springs.

http://joshuasantospiritoart.com/

2012 in Review: Ant Sang

Ant Sang

 

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

 

Having Shaolin Burning selected as a finalist (Picture Book category) at the NZ Post Children’s Book awards was great. It won an Honour Award in the end, and it was a fantastic night spent with so many talented authors and illustrators at the event. Another highlight was seeing Shaolin Burning artwork up on the big screens at the Frankfurt Book Fair’s NZ Pavillion (though I wasn’t there in person).

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

 

I’m loving the artwork of James Harren and Becky Cloonan. Becky’s artwork has a beautiful fluidity to it, and James’ work packs a mighty punch… the guy’s really on fire at the moment.
 

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

 

I loved Robert Harris’ novel Lustrum. A great retelling of a politically tumultuous, five year period during the dying days of the Roman Republic (after 63BC). Focusing on Cicero and told through the eyes of his slave, Tiro, the book is an amazing look at the politics of the time. Had me googling the history of Rome for days afterwards. TV-wise, loved watching all of The Wire (crime series based in Baltimore). And currently digging Homeland (post 9/11 terrorist schnanigans). 

 

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

 

My working method hasn’t changed drastically this year. I’m still pretty old school and love working with brush and ink. I reckon my Photoshop colouring has improved this year though. I’ve been experimenting with more tones and depth and have been enjoying the results so far. 

 

What are you looking forward to in 2013? 

 

Planning to make comics and get into some filmmaking.