Monday, December 16, 2013

2013 in Review: Brendan Halyday



What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013?
Putting out Graphic Narrative no. 1 which features PANIC!, my first (of several planned) comics on having an anxiety disorder. Am drawing issue 2 right now. Wrote a comic called Xtreme Champion Tournament which will be published by Comics2movies. I'm also taking my first stab at publishing someone else's work with 51% issue 1 by Chris Gooch.
 
What are some of the comics/cartoonists you've enjoyed in 2013?
Have enjoyed reading Hanselmanns comics when I decide I can deal with reading comics on screen (never lasts long). Like what Katie Parrish has been doing. Liked M. Emery's Adversaries. That guy needs to produce more.

Loved End of the Fucking World and Charles Foresmans new minis too. Really liked Mind MGMT. Read a couple of Lucy Knisleys self-published books and really enjoyed them. Loved what I read of Jezebel by Elijah Brubaker on study group. 
 
What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013? 
TV, definitely. The usual suspects like Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad, Rectify, The Fall.
 
What are you looking forward to in 2014?
Putting out more comics. PANIC 2 and Xtreme Champion Tournament 0 are both scheduled for release in early-mid 2014, publishing more by Chris Gooch, maybe adding one or two more creators to the publishing lineup.
 

2013 in Review: Ben Michael Byrne



What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013?
More Kranburn! And we published the first Kranburn to have a full colour cover. I did the first 7 issues with black and white covers as that's the way I like to draw, but #8 was screaming for colour so I did it, and now I'm pretty keen on doing colour from now on etc unless the artwork really feels like it wants to be left B&W.

More Job Dun! Written by Mark Hobby, plus I also did a short Job Dun story (full colour by Noelle Criminova) that will be in the next issue of South African/Australian comic Velocity that I'm still happy with the art I did (for now, you hate yourself soon enough... :-P )

Had a short story (written by Tim West) printed in the late 2013 issue of UK comic Something Wicked by FutureQuake Press.

Just recently started co-hosting (with Jason O'Callaghan from New Game Plus) a comic review show which is a blast, acting like a silly billy (tee hee) in front of a camera feels very natural to me.

My new 'Copping A Feel' initiative! When readers pose with writers/artists they enjoy, the writer/artist might do the bunny ears/pull a face/do the tongue in the ear thing, I invite my readers to cup my balls if they wish! What could be more bonding than to feel the warmth of
the balls of someone whose work you enjoy? Not much! So please, if you enjoy my work and ever want to get a photo with me, you're welcome to cup my junk! Any sex etc, just be of age and have asbestos gloves, my nuts run at about 87degrees celcius.

My fifth finished Comikaze challenge! If only I could create 24 pages every 24 hours rather than once a year, that'd be sweet. But it does have a tendency to burn me out for a week afterwards. It's so much fun and I really hope that although the website PulpFaction is now down, it will somehow/someway still exist in 2014.

Doing a mini Comikaze challenge for some students with Ben Hutcho and Martin Nixon, 8 pages in 8 hours! Was great to see teens keens on comics and was fun to do. Not as fun as what I imagine spending a day with my face between Yolandi Vissers legs would be, but quite fun!

What are some of the comics/cartoonists you've enjoyed in 2013?
I'll admit it, I'm a pretty simple chap, the highbrow is not for me and when people try to engage me into talking about coffee I want to pull out my cock and run screaming down the street, slapping old people on the face with it as I pass them. So I admit, I love Crossed, I reallllllly love Crossed. It just does it for me, yum yum.

I've also been squirting further than normal over the new style Prophet, man, its the business. Got to the end of trade #2 (yes I'm a trade waiter, I live out in the burbs and can't get to/afford floppies often enough, don't judge me lest ye be sodomised by an angry dove that thinks you're trying to eat its offspring) and wanted to cry knowing there was going to be such a wait for number #3. It reads/feels very...European? Something I'd be expecting in old Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal. Again, yum yum yum.

That Nick Fury Max trade. I don't read/care about Nick Fury normally etc, but after seeing some preview panels by the art-god Goran Parlov, I had to have it and I wasn't disappointed. Its feels a lot like the Punisher Max issues Goran illustrated and reads similar. That is the best way I can discribe it to people who might have been kept away from it thinking it was a superhero type book: it isn't. If you enjoyed Punisher Max while Goran Parlov was illustrating it, then do yourself a favour and grab this, its pretty much the same.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013?
My second Daughter was born, so that was pretty awesome, little bit more prepared this time whilst also finding out that babies are all different in a million little ways.

Also, I'm finally building a tank that I can drive, its a 40% scale King Tiger/ Tiger II/Koenigs Tiger and the hull is 3 metres long. Its a slow process and I've only just finished most of the hull frame and built the transmission. I have the gears/sprockets needed to connect the engine to the transmission but first I need to get the suspension built, that's a big job so updates are every few weeks, not every few days!

What are you looking forward to in 2014?
More Kranburn, more Job Dun, More Velocity, watching the kids get older, enjoying the rude bits of the female of the species (and any Thai ladyboys reading, I'm down with you in my pants, pom rah kuhn!) driving a 3 metre tank down the driveway to check the mail, having enough money to get horns implanted in my forehead, the usual.



Sunday, December 15, 2013

Paper Trail


More 2013 in Review surveys run this week. Cartoonist's featured so far:

Bruce Mutard
Stuart McMillen
Frank Candiloro  
Richard Fairgray  
Colin Wilson  
Jason Franks
Matt Kyme
Anthony Woodward
Caitlin Major
Sarah Laing
Sam Orchard  
Gavin Aung Than
Scarlette Baccini
David Follett
Simon Hanselmann
Michel Mulipola
Li Chen
Ryan K Lindsay  
Christopher Downes
Dean Rankine
Alisha Jade  
Theo Macdonald
Paul Mason
James Davidson
Tim Molloy
Jason Chatfield

Garth Jones writes about logo design for Home Brewed Vampire Bullets.


Dave Dye has been quietly blogging his progress on The Anzac Legend: A Graphic history.


New Zealand Phantom comics covers derived from interior artwork.


Jerome Bihan's Oakward Park.


Emmett O'Cuana guests on Sci Fi and Squeam.




Owen Leong interviews Matt Huynh.


Bobby N takes photos of Melbourne comic folk.

 




Gary Clark celebrated drawing his 10,000 Swamp strip this year.



Should have been mentioned earlier: Ronnie Scott reviews Dailies #3, Victoria Drug Scene and Blood and Thunder #2.


Wandering through Collingwood yesterday I spied some work going on around the Keith Haring mural down there. Has this been repainted in recent years? It seemed more vibrant than the last time I saw it. (Click to enlargenify)



Paper Trail masthead courtesy of Toby Morris.

18 Comics You Can Buy From The Sticky Institute Right Now

The Sticky Institute at 10 Campbell Arcade, Degraves Subway, Melbourne is a great place to pick up local and international small press comics with a steady intake of new goodies. Here's a pick of what they have on the shelves right now.


 Sure, Cinema Sewer's not comics but a steal for 4 clams, previous issue also available.




Michael DeForge Oily Minicomics! Only a few left!


Sticky keep a steady stock of recent Kuš! anthologies and solo comics.





 Still a handful of Steve Ditko's recent work available





Sunday Gem: Fane Flaws

A long Scrawl through the art of Fane Flaws.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Pikitia Press: 2014 Publishing Season

Taking a break from our 2013 in review surveys, here is a sampling of forthcoming comics from Pikitia Press for our publishing season during the first half of 2014.

Barry Linton's Lucky Aki - The first in a series of volumes featuring the stone age adventures of Lucky Aki.

 
Die Popular - Collection of new material and classic material from MVH's wonderful Die Popular.



The Art of Harry Bennett - Collecting the art and story of H. W. Bennett, a professional cartoonist in his teens who went on to create a one man publishing industry in New Zealand. Written and compiled by Tim Bollinger, Geoff Harrison, and Matt Emery.

 


 Tim Bollinger's Wellington Stories
 



Bob McMahon's Claire Melody - Bob's second Claire Melody book in the vein of DC Thomson and IPC adventure comics. Read about Bob's background in New Zealand comics here.


 

New Zealand Reprint Comics - A comprehensive survey and catalogue of comics published in New Zealand reprinting foreign material from the 1940's - 1970's. Written and Compiled by Geoff Harrison.

Friday, December 13, 2013

2013 in Review: Bruce Mutard


What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013?
Going on the Caravan of Comics to TCAF, CAKE and Fantagraphics. Making comics at Ragdale in Lake Forest at the same desk Audrey Niffenegger wrote The Time Traveller’s Wife. Same comic appearing as a catalogue essay at Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts exhibition Space Oddity. Adapting Microaviary by Amanda Johnson for Cordite: Pumpkin. Le Silence being published by Ca et la in August. Meeting a few comics heroes: Art Spiegelman, Chester Brown, Chris Ware and so many other great comics artists on the road both overseas and here. 

What are some of the comics you've enjoyed in 2013?
I’ve hardly had time. Some of the things I picked up on the road: Bernie Mireault’ To Get Her (swapped with him in Montreal). Elaine Will’ Look Straight Ahead (staggering talent); Judith Vanistendael’ When David Lost His Voice; mini comics by Luke Howard, Alec Longstreth, The Whole Hole by Anya Davidson… I brought back a bloody bookcase full of stuff and still haven’t got around to reading even 1/3rd of it. Oh, yes, may as well mention it: Building Stories by Chris Ware is remarkable in concept and execution. 

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013?  
Travelling to the USA and Canada for and about comics. But on the road I go to every big art gallery I can get to. Loved the Art Institute of Chicago - stunning modern art collection. Traipsing around Oak Park where all the Frank Lloyd Wright and then reading ‘Building Stories’ by Chris Ware, which was largely set there afterwards; bit of a trip to recognise it. Then being chased into Chicago on the El by a tornado (well, it was system than bred them). LA living up to all expectations: trashy, glitzy, tawdry, flat, bleached, but so very like TV and the movies. But all of the US is like that. Watching TV and movies about the USA is like learning about someone by going through their rubbish.

What are you looking forward to in 2014?
Ideally it should be mostly head down and bum up on making comics. I need to finish my Masters project by July and get a solid chunk of The Fight done. It probably won’t be out until 2016. I think I’ll be less peripatetic, but I always say that. Publishing Art Is A Lie by Carol Wood and Susan Butcher - you ain’t seen nothin’ like this. 
 

2013 in Review: Stuart McMillen



What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013?

My personal highlight was definitely publishing Rat Park. Wrapping up that science experiment into a 40 pages comic, and then sharing it with the world was a great feeling.

Bruce Alexander, the psychologist featured in Rat Park has told me that my comic led to a renewed interest into his 1970s drug addiction experiments. He was pleased to learn that he was the star of a comic book!

The audience response to Rat Park was almost 100% positive. Gratifyingly, many ex-addicts contacted me and mentioned that they had an emotional reaction to the final page of my comic. They thanked me for creating a sympathetic story which explained to others the emotional dead-end which led them to addiction. 

What are some of the comics/cartoonists you've enjoyed in 2013?

New stuff:
Pat Grant - Toormina Video
Hyperbole and a Half - Depression Part 2
Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco - Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (which is half comics and half prose)
Symbolia magazine (a new quarterly electronic comics-journalism publication)

Old stuff:
Chris Guest - Floating Horizon
Marjane Satrapi - The Complete Persepolis

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013? 

I'm a huge music fan, so here are some of my favourite albums of 2013:

The Drones - I See Seaweed
Kurt Vile - Wakin on a Pretty Daze
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
TV Colours - Purple Skies, Toxic River
Julia Holter - Loud City Song
My Bloody Valentine - mbv

The best book I read during 2013 was Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding by George Monbiot. It's about the concept of 'rewilding' nature: what this means for the ecosystems themselves, as well as what it means for us as humans living near the ecosystems.

What are you looking forward to in 2014?

Rat Park was my 40-page highlight of 2013. In 2014 I will be drawing a 400 page comic story. That's an extra zero on the end.

In 2014 I will be moving away from the 'drugs' topic I covered with War on Drugs and Rat Park, and drawing non-fiction comics about ecological and environmental topics. Things like Peak Oil, energy dependence and post-growth economics.

Trust me, it will be more interesting than it sounds! Join my email list for updates.

2013 in Review: Joshua Santospirito




What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013?
Well ... publishing the feature-length graphic novel/comic/sequential art thing - The Long Weekend in Alice Springs was the biggest highlight. That was pretty rad. Did a bunch of launches ... and was pleasantly surprised to find that some people actually read it! And BOUGHT it!! So that was pretty freaking great. You can check it out at www.sankessto.com 

I had about five launches in different places - the Alice Springs one was the best! It was in Watch This Space gallery - and the launch was on the same night as the exhibition opening - there was sooo many people there - it was slightly insane. Craig San Roque (the bloke who wrote the original essay) was the MC, and did the catering based on the themes of the book (he did it quite well actually, I didn’t know he could cook - man of many talents) and there was guests of honour. It was very exciting to see the excitement in the town, especially given the content of the book is so raw and difficult. 
 The other thing that I'm finding really fun is publishing comics by other artists here in Tassie that I think are really interesting - its a curated-type project I've called Down There. A different artist does a booklet with each issue: I did the first issue in July (Sleuth: there's somethin rotten on the Apple Isle) to get the ball rolling whilst I asked a few other people to contribute - the next issue is by Tricky Walsh which (at time of writing) will launched in the next fortnight - December 2013. It's called Hoppers 1: the 'manias. It's a totally different experience publishing other people's comics and I love what she's made. Next year there will DOWN THERE comics by Tom OHern (a nutter from Hobart, really - google him - he's great), Gary Chaloner (who now belongs to Taswegia, hands off) and Lindsay Arnold (old comics guru, jazz drummer extraordinaire). Watch out for future issues through San Kessto Publications (my wife and I also started this publishing venture this year). 

What are some of the comics you've enjoyed in 2013?
I just read The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg - it charmed my pants off. I am currently naked from the belt down. 

I read Alex: The Years Have Pants by Eddie Campbell - he’s just ... he’s ... I ... oh stuff it - it’s good. Real good stuff. 

Myself and a few other blokes in Hobart have started a Graphic Novels reading book group where we meet up every two months and eat chips and talk about a specifically chosen book that we all read - it’s really fun! Just last time we read Jason’s Athos in America. That guy is really great. Such a strong visual language which has such amazing effect. 

I reread Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks ... I read that every year though. It’s important to read that at least once a year. I hope you do too. 

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013?  
Dark MOFO: The Winter festival in Hobart - was OUTSTANDING!!!
Particularly Ryoki Ikeda’s Spectra - which was this public art “sculpture” which involved 49 lights beaming up 15 kilometres into the sky at the Anzac Memorial in Hobart, allll night long. The whole town came to life at night-time, there was little kids up way past their bedtime running between the lights throughout that beautiful sound installation that made it seem like there was a UFO landing ... and there was hundreds of people HUNDREDS - just standing there at midnight, in the pouring rain, staring up into the sky in wonder. Every night for a whole 10 days!! it was really great! Amazing to see a whole town come out of its shell. Art can bring people together (aww). But the whole festival was a bit like that - come down next Winter! 

I finally watched the film “Wake In Fright” ... don’t know why it took me so long. Possibly the best film I’ve seen from Australia. 

What are you looking forward to in 2014?
I’m looking forward to getting cracking on my next medium-length project which I haven’t quite named yet - but it involves some history of my hometown of Melbourne and my family’s interaction with the city - the Aeolians who came in the 1890’s. It’s based on my Dad’s research into his father’s life - which was really fun to read. Hopefully it works well as a comic. I’ll keep ya’ll up to date as best I can.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

2013 in Review: Frank Candiloro



What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2013?
I published 4 books this year. I branched out a little from just straight ahead horror and explored other themes and genres, which has been taking me out of my comfort zone a little bit more. With the exception of one (Budd & Luu - Part II) I was able to get all my books involved in launches, from Big Arse 3, Ive Sorocuk's Halloween launch and the Over The Moon launch that I organised with Alisha Jade. I made my first all-ages comic -  Beyond The Moon, which has been received very well. I was also to be a part of the Cordite Poetry Review organised by Kent McCarter and featuring a lot of great local talent, visually interpreting poems into comic form, a new experience for me. I even got to meet my favourite writer in comics, Grant Morrison at the Graphic Festival in Sydney, and gave him some of my comics! (he commented on the "wood cut" style, which was heartwarming to hear). Seeing Art Spiegelman's talk at the same festival was also very illuminating, revealing a whole heap of german-expressionist and wood-carved comics that I never knew existed. It kind of validated my weird illustrating style!

The biggest highlight was the presentation I did about finding the right attitude and discipline to create comics at the ZICS convention in Brisbane, as part of the Skillz To Pay The Billz workshop, and I found it very humbling and inspiring to write and share with others. Not to mention that I've met some great people this year, who have motivated me to become a better artist. 2013 was quieter compared to 2012, but I still had a few small little victories here and there.

What are some of the comics/cartoonists you've enjoyed in 2013?
My favourite comic this year has been Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarksy, which has only had 3 issues so far but it's been pretty damn good. Another great find has been Thomas Ott and his great book - The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 (rolls right off the tongue!) Excellent dark, noir-ish drawings. Punk Rock Jesus by Sean Murphy came out last year but the trade came out in 2013 and it was an incredible read, really electrified me like no other comic. And would you know it, I actually managed to read Hellboy for the first time this year!

Of course I checked out a lot of great Australian comics that were released in 2013 as well, such as Mr Unpronouncable by Tim Molloy, Strange Behaviour by Marijka Gooding and My Sister's Voice by Alexis Sugden. Everything else sucked! (Joking, I swear!)

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2013? 
*stares at question*

Non.....comics? What is this?

Um, uhhhh, I had an apple the other day. That was good. I guess. 

What are you looking forward to in 2014?
What I'm looking forward to the most is the latest book that I'm working on - Onna-bugeisha. It's a 95 page samurai story which involves treachery, honor, revenge, love, lust, anger, blood, you know, everything that makes a comic good! I'm hoping for it to be finished around late April/ May (if I'm lucky) and although it's a bit early to say at this time I'm hoping to have a launch for it.

I'm also hoping to make 3 more books, continuing the tradition of 4 books per year, and I hope to push them a little bit more at conventions, in stores outside of Melbourne, and digital downloads on the internet. Here's hoping that FrankenComics becomes a bigger and bigger monster with each passing year!