Thursday, January 10, 2013

The Sun-Herald Comic Supplement Jan 30 1977


Selection of comic strips from a Herald Sun Comic Supplement from the seventies. Featuring a selection of syndicated American strips as well as Australian comics strips and the long running adventure strip, Air Hawk,  by John Dixon.


















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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

More Kolynos Toothpaste Advertising

  Syd Miller's Red Gregory and The Little People

 I wrote about Kolynos Dental Cream advertising here, suggesting their print campaign was likely the work of an Australian cartoonist. Comics Historian Kevin Patrick has suggested it may have been the work of Syd Miller who produced an early fantasy series for Smith's Weekly, Red Gregory and the Little People, which was collected as two comic books in the 1940's. Stylistically the work on Red Gregory is very similar to the Kolynos advertisements. Miller also had a strong record in doing comic strip advertisements, most notably as co- creator of "Chesty Bond", in the mid-late 1930s. Kevin suggested Miller as a the likely artist, "... Based on similarity of linework, depiction of curvaceous women, etc."


 Syd Miller's Fatty Finn's Comic

 
Red Gregory and The Little People Page 5

In response to a suggestion from myself about the disparity between lettering/calligraphy styles in Red Gregory and the Little People and Kolynos work, Kevin commented, "The quality of lettering/calligraphy would have to have been of higher standard for a business advertisement client like Kolynos. Comic books/strips would have been a nice sideliner earner for Nicholls, no doubt, but wouldn't have paid as much as advertising work, I suspect."

 Red Gregory and the Little People comic circa 1940's

Red Gregory and The Little People Page 4


Samples of Kolynos advertisements from the Australian Woman's Weekly






 
Red Gregory images sourced from the Rare Books Collection, Monash University Library (Melbourne, Australia) [http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/rare/). Thanks to Kevin Patrick for additional information.
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More Ernest Heber Thompson Cartoons From The Sketcher


I previously wrote about the work of Ernest H Thompson here.

From The New Zealand Truth 6 June 1914 a review of the third issue of The Sketcher produced by Dunedin cartoonist Ernest H Thompson.

Artist Thompson has just published no. 3 of "The Sketcher," a casual, but worthy, album of clever caricatures of Dunedin's dour denizens embellished by various verse and pointed prose. The elusive ads have been well snared and arranged artistically, and should easily pay the printer's bill. We have not previously seen much of E. H. Thompson's black and white, but the present number reveals a prospective Phil May.


Ernest H Thompson illustrated advertising form the back cover of the Sketcher #2
 
From the New Zealand Truth issue 546, 4 December 1915 an article on Ernest Heber Thompson departing New Zealand to serve in World War Two. 

For The Front

On Thursday of last week Mr Ernest H. Thompson, the well known and highly-popular Dunedin artist, left with the 10th reinforcements for Trentham, where he is now undergoing war training, preparatory to tackling "the real thing". Mr. Thompson, though quite a young man, is one of Dunedin's most talented artists. In all-round black and white, and especially caricature, Mr Thompson easily leads in the far southern capital. His spicy, hard-hitting magazine, "The Sketcher" will be missed. No spasmodic critic was ever more welcomed. With a brimming future before him, and endowed with talent and youth, Mr. Thompson has risked all to serve his King and country on one of the far-flung battlefields where Britain's tattered but waving banners flutter defiantly in the teeth of a hostile gale. At great personal sacrifice he has torn himself from his parents home and assured prosperity 'to do his bit'. May luck and glory attend him. "Truth" knew him well and appreciated his work, and trusts it shall be our duty to add a leaf to the laurel circlet that shall await the return of the conquering soldier-artist.
Further selection of  Ernest Heber Thompson cartoons from New Zealand Magazine The Sketcher 1913.






 




Source: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Betty Roland - Girl Comic


A couple pages from serialised strips in 1950s English comic Girl written by Australian writer Betty Roland and illustrated by her frequent collaborator Dudley Pout.

 Samples of other Roland written strips for Girl,

 The Conways and Angela and the Runaway Heiress
The Purple Pagoda
The Rajah's Secret
Vicky and the Painted Emperor



Scans by slinky/josemas and andysocial/josemas from http://comicbookplus.com/
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Noel Cook's Deeds that Thrilled Australia!

 
Deeds That Thrilled Australia! was an illustrated feature in the Australian Woman's Weekly that ran for fifteen weeks from it's first appearance on August 16 1941. Readers were encouraged to mail in their own wartime experiences and tales of unsung heroes to the magazine with a selection of them then vividly Illustrated by Noel Cook, a regular contributor of gag cartoons and painted illustrations to the Weekly.

November 22 1941

November 1 1941

November 15 1941
November 8 1941

October 25 1941

Deeds That Thrilled Australia © Estate of Noel Cook Source: trove.nla.gov.au
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Monday, January 7, 2013

Paper Trail

Roger Langridge shares a comic for his daughter's tenth birthday. The Popeye series Langridge is currently writing for IDW will be concluding with the twelfth issue. Langridge has also set a goal to post a comic or illustration on his blog daily for 2013 so keep an eye on frequent updates at Hotel Fred.


Sarah Laing dissects the making of a book cover.

 
Brandon Graham teases a forthcoming Fil Barlow wraparound cover for Prophet #33

 
Bob Temuka at the Tearoom of Despair writes about Murray Ball's Footrot Flats.


Josh Santospirito is interviewed by Framed magazine here.


Tim McEwen reviews Chris Downes The Littel Dragun.


Steve Holland serialised a John McNamara illustrated Paul Temple strip over at Bear Alley over December, first episode here.

 © Evening News courtesy Bear Alley

Holland's Bear Alley Books has announced their latest publication, a 262 page Index and history of the Almalgamated Press/IPC comic Lion. Pre-orders available here.

 
From late 2012, Daniel Best at 20th Century Boy, ran a fascinating series of articles on Australian comics and comics in Australia.

 Comics or Classics?

Samples of the work of Tom Glover, at one time heralded as New Zealand's leading cartoonist. I'll have a feature on Glover's work on the Pikitia blog next week.


Tom Glover's Skeeter and his Magic Ring from Sydney Sunday Sun circa 1930's.
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Saturday, December 29, 2012

E noho rā 2012

 Bluff Hill Lookout, Napier (Photo - Anna-Mai Hoek)

A big thank you to all the New Zealand & Australian cartoonists and comic makers who contributed to the 2012 in Reviews. My focus was on folk that have had comics and cartoons published in print or online this year and I really only scratched the surface of folk producing work down this end of the world. There are also many folk who are busy producing work in their homes and studios that may not be seen publicly until next year or even further into the future. Apologies to any folk I did not approach for the review I hope to achieve a wider review next year. I'm off for a week but will be resuming at least a month of solid bloggage from 7 Jan 2013.

 2012 In Review Index

Jonathan King
Matt Emery http://bit.ly/YsrSt6
Matt Nicholls
Arthur Strickland
Matt Kyme
Ben Michael Byrne
Alisha Jade  
Paul Bedford  
Jesca Marisa  
Darren Koziol  
Sorab Del Rio
Marc Pearson
Justin Randall
Andy Conlan  
Theo Macdonald
Michael Hawkins  
Steve Sparke  
Li Chen  
M. P. Fikaris  
J. Marc Schmidt
Christopher Downes  
Matthew Hoddy and Caitlin Major
Cory Mathis  
Dean Rankine  
Mat Tait
Bruce Mutard Part One
Bruce Mutard Part Two  
Doug Holgate
Gregory Mackay  
Kelly Sheehan
Sarah Howell  
James Andre - Milk Shadow Books  
Jason Chatfield  
Gary Chaloner  
James Davidson  
Ive Sorocuk
Simon Hanselmann
Richard Fairgray  
Jase Harper  
Jerome Bihan
Karl Wills  
Brent Willis
Anton Emdin  
Philip Bentley
Bobby N  
DRAW
Tim Danko  
Ben Stenbeck  
Pat Grant  
Daniel Reed
Colin Wilson  
Paul Mason  
Scarlette Baccini  
Rebecca Clements  
T-Rex Jones
Darren Close http://bit.ly/VD8Io0
Andrew Fulton  
Ben Hutchings
Roger Langridge  
Mandy Ord  
Toby Morris  
Hayden Fryer
David Blumenstein
Joshua Santospirito
Ant Sang  
Frank Candiloro  
Tim Gibson  
Marijka Gooding  
Damon Keen  
Dylan Horrocks  
Jason Franks
 
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2012 in Review: Jonathan King

Jonathan King

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

I've been working my way through Edgar P Jacobs' Blake & Mortimer series -- taken up in later years by others. While I admire Jacobs for not standing still in his style, i like some of his work more than others. His later ones are horribly coloured and the drawing has got harsher and uglier. Following Jacobs' death in the 1980s, the series was resurrected in the 90s by various artists. I like Ted Benoit's warm ligne claire style very much.

http://www.cinebook.co.uk/index.php?cPath=156

While I'm pleased that Tintin didn't continue after Hergé's death -- the Blake & Mortimer books show how it could be sensitively handled.
A new work influenced by Hergé and Jacobs is Garen Ewing's The Rainbow Orchid. A ripping yarn told in a beautifully executed ligne claire style, The Rainbow Orchid was split over three volumes -- not ideal for what is really one story. The third volume was out this year, however, and it's now available as one complete story. Ewing's artwork has really hit its stride in the last volume and the story is great old fashioned fun (if a little more wordy and complicated than it needs to be!). I can't wait to see what he does next!

http://www.garenewing.co.uk/rainboworchid/

Recently I finally got a hard copy of a book I adore, and have only previously had as Spanish-language scans -- the second volume of Yves Chaland's Adventures of Freddy Lombard. Chaland would undoubtedly have ended up the equal of Herge and Jacobs if he hadn't been tragically killed in a car crash in his 30s in 1990. His Freddy Lombard stories are my favourites of his work, and in these last two -- Holiday in Budapest  and F-52 his ligne claire / 'atom style' artwork is breathtaking -- especially in the hilarious character details on the edges of F-52, a story told almost entirely on a long plane journey (and revolving around a horrifyingly heartless premise).

For years I've (literally) dreamed about finding an unpublished Tintin story … this is almost the next best thing, with a two-page Freddy Lombard story I'd never seen before appearing in the back of this book.


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

A few new films like Looper I've enjoyed … but mostly older ones like 60s new wave films, Breathless, Alphaville, Last Year in Marienbad, 70s paranoid thrillers like The Parallax View. I devoured Breaking Bad when I belatedly discovered it and have been loving Boardwalk Empre. Most new movies suck ass though.

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

It's only been about a year since I got my Cintiq -- a screen I can draw on with a stylus. It felt like an outrageous indulgence when I first got it, but i've really, really enjoyed drawing with it. I pencil and 'ink' in Manga Studio, colour in Photoshop. I'm glad I spent a while trying to draw in real pencil and ink with dip pen (Hunt 102) and ink … but I must admit I love the freedom the undo key gives you, as well as the flexibility of being able to tweak and rearrange elements digitally.

It's also been a year or so since I've collaborated with a writer on some work -- the City Lights series I've been doing with Chad Taylor. I've loved having it be my 'job' to illustrate what he writes; to work out how to 'block' on the page the story we're telling.

I've also been experimenting with animation -- 2D cartoons, 3D CGI and stop motion -- something I'm really loving. I'm currently working on a stop motion music video for my band, The Dickens.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

I'm making a low-budget film with Chad Taylor -- I'm directing from his script -- called Realiti. I wish I could get more time to draw comics -- it's more satisfying and productive than filmmaking which takes so bloody long for anything to happen … but I find to get with done, I have immerse myself in it at the expense of other things. But once this film is done, I really feel like I'd like to try a more substantial comics project -- like a book-length all-ages adventure story … not unlike the stuff I was talk about above.


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