Paper Trail

Jerome Bihan on tumblr, A Strict Diet of Self.

Zen Pencils in Hindi.

David Blumenstein Flickr set for Camp Chugnut 2013.

Not comics: The Listener records remembrances of recently passed New Zealand artist Ralph Hotere.

Bookmarks catch up: Margaret Irvine writes about Eric Heath.

 

Becky Dreistadt & Frank Gibson guest on Panel Borders.

Jase Harper blogs the creation of his graphic novel at Awk-ward.

Wellington art gallery and zine/comic stockists Matchbox Studios.

 
 Nat Karmichael writes about Jackie Ryan's Burger Force.

 Ness interviews Bruce Mutard.

Callout for papers related to Australasian humour for the 20th Australasian Humour Studies Network Colloquium on 14,15 February 2014 at the National Library in Wellington. Ian Grant, Chair of the New Zealand Cartoon Archive at the National Libary, will give a keynote presentation on the history of New Zealand cartooning.

Details here.

 
Limited copies of Simon Hanselmann's St Owl's Bay broadsheet (with special deleted scene!) are now available from the Silent Army online store.

Lauren Davis destroys Dylan Horrocks website, writing about Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen.

Talking about New Zealand comics Panel discussion with  Dylan Horrocks, Sam Orchard, Adrian Kinnaird and Sarah Laing at ST PAUL St Gallery in Auckland.

2013 Zine and Indy Comic Symposium in Brisbane.
 

Facebook gallery of launch party for the collected book of Matthew Hoddy and Caitlin Major's webcomic Space Pyrates.

Cory Doctorow reviews Tim Molloy's Mr Unpronounceable Adventures, available now from Milk Shadow Books.

Bookmarks catch up: New Zealand Political Cartoon Annual 2012.

Bobby N photo blogs the April Melbourne comics meet up.

Alan Rose Cartoons and Caricatures.

Regular Show cover by Rebecca Clements.

Matt Huynh talks coffee.

Read three Matt Huynh comics debuting at this years Mocca Arts Festival.

   Paper Trail masthead courtesy of Toby Morris.

2012 in Review: Ive Sorocuk

Ive Sorocuk

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

Being a part of Squishface and having it be five minutes away from my home. Having my first solo exhibition in years, using it as an excuse to tighten up and show some process doodles. I brought out two zines made up of sketchbook drawings that I see no reason not to keep doing. Came out with The Diggables Handbook minicomic which got a nice response.

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

I recently read Sanctuary, a manga by by Sho Fumimura and Ryoichi Ikegami from the early 90's about the yakuza and Japanese politics. The cleanness and consistency in the art plus the over dramatic dialogue makes me want to seek out more by them. Checked out all the Brubaker/Philips crime comics I could find this year and they blew me away and made me really want to do my own noir stuff. Jason, Brandon Graham, DMZ, Fables, Darwyn Cooke's Parker are all things I hadn't read until this year.

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

Breaking Bad has never done me wrong. The Walt vs Gus season stressed my guts out every single episode. Adventure Time has always been good but it's really gone up a few notches in the last two seasons as it goes back on itself and creates a continuity rather than being as stagnant as most cartoons. I've been working my way through the original Twilight Zone and it's like a straight version of everything I love about Silver Age comics. I feel not enough people talk about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The Muppets made me bawl my eyes out both times I saw it. Beasts of the Southern Wild got me drawing horns on everything.

As part of my BrunswickArts duties I attended as many graduation showsas possible and that was pretty inspiring. There were a few stand out things but mainly just seeing young folk busting their butts as creatively as they can got me pumped and made me question why I'm not drawing all day every day.

The food at Squishface's Exhibitchin' will be hard to top.

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

Being at Squishface allows me to throw around ideas and jokes and get feedback on things in progress rather than just doing a page and hoping for the best. The biggest change I've made is starting to worry about whether my finished art actually looks good or not. I used to be all about visual short-cuts and as long as a reader could tell my drawing of a table is
meant to be a table then that was fine, where as now I try and draw the best darn table I can. I've barely implemented that in my monthly Comics Face strips but it was my main focus in my Diggables minicomic.

Also, I dressed as a cowboy at three separate special comic occasions.
I want to do more of this.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

 

I have a few vague ideas for my next comic and I want to lock one down before next year. Camp Chugnut, another exhibition both group and solo, Squishface 1st Birthday Spectacular, hopefully a con somewhere and a book launch.

http://nonstopive.tumblr.com/