Brent Willis - BD Zine

French publication BD Zine is published tri-monthly in full colour, each issue focusing on a comic maker from around the world. Comics featured are in french and english and freely distributed to various comic shops and libraries in France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. BD Zine is published by I.M.A., a French non-profit association. Their 38th issue features Wellington cartoonist Brent Willis. The 32 page zine features 20 pages of Brent's comics, an interview (translated in French) and some ads for other comics.
 
Along with other featured BD artists, Brent also recently designed a label for Koala Beer home beer. He described his contribution, " Mine is the one which looks like its been drawn and coloured in by a 12 year kid with cheap felt-tip pens and coloured pencils."

I asked Brent a few questions about what he's been up to lately,

Seeing as you have close to zero web presence, How did BD Zine become aware of you?

I asked the BD Zine people this and they say they found me by chance on the internet. Because of my "close to zero web presence" this is indeed surprising but in situations like this I don't delve too deeply.  Its just a happy little miracle of sorts.

How can people get a hold of your ongoing zine Wark or the recent Bristle Annual?

People can get hold Bristle (which is now the Bristle Annual) or Whark (which is now spelt with an 'h' as I have recently discovered there was a British sci-fi zine with the same name in the 70s) by emailing me at celfbw@xtra.co.nz 

The Bristle Annual is $10NZ and Whark is $3NZ, plus postage. If buying from outside NZ, I can accept a few other currencies so email me and we can work something out. Otherwise if you're lucky you might find them at a zinefest or comic convention near you.

Read any good comics lately?

The new Funtime comics collection is very good and I bought Lucky Luke and the Daltons for half price recently. And of course the comics that people send in to Bristle.

What are you working at the moment?

I have just finished editing and printing the Bristle Annual, which is like the Bristle Quarterly but bigger and less frequent. I'm currently working on a the latest edition of Whark and planning for a few comics beyond that. I'm also on the Wellington Zinefest Committee so we're working on organising a really good zinefest later this year.

English Comics Diversion: Wonder Jan 5 1946

Happy 32nd Birthday, James Andre

Pic by Bobby N.

English Comics Diversion: Tiny Tots and The Sunbeam December 15 1951

Les Tanner 15 June 1927 – 23 July 2001

Today marks 86 years since the birth of Les Tanner, Australian cartoonist and journalist. After his death, the Black and White Society of Australia described him as follows: "Les Tanner was pre-eminent as a social commentator in the medium of black and white art in 20th Century Australia."

I first heard of Tanner on tram ride when an elderly passenger spotted me reading a cartoon book and related the tale of Tanner's clash with media magnate Sir Frank Packer. In the employ of The Bulletin Tanner drew a cartoon featuring Sir Henry Bolte, then premier of Victoria, to illustrate Editor Peter Coleman's article on capital punishment. Packer ordered the entire print edition pulped but did not account for subscription editions and airmail delivery copies which nevertheless reached their many readers. Packer also banned the screening of a BBC program on capital punishment scheduled to air on one of his television stations. ABC television seized upon these events and ran a program about the cartoon and editorial Packer's efforts to censor the press further cementing Tanner's reputation for social commentary.

Happy 39th Birthday, Christopher Downes

Mandrake the Magician - Feature Productions

New Zealand comics publisher Feature Publications operated out of Petone, Wellington from the early 1940's with a line up of comics primarily reprinting King Feature Syndicate newspaper strips such as Popeye, Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom, The Katzenjammer Kids, Bringing up Father and others.

Lee Falk's creation Mandrake the Magician debuted as a daily newspaper strip in American newspapers on June 11th, 1934, with a colour Sunday strip following on February 3, 1935. Mandrake the Magician is one of the last surviving adventure strips still being produced in America with Mandrake artist of the last forty years Fred Fredericks assuming writing chores after the passing of Falk in 1999.

Feature Productions produced 222 issues of Mandrake the Magician from the late 1940's until the early 1960's. The Phantom, another creation of Falk is the only other New Zealand published comic to surpass Mandrake the Magician with 556 issues produced by Feature Productions.

The gallery below features covers of the first twenty issues of Mandrake the Magician. Feature Productions' cover artists were not credited, and covers typically featured a redrawn panel from the interior comic.

Source:http://www.mandrakewiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Australian Daybills

Australian daybill gallery amongst others at The Art of Movie Posters.