Armageddon Melbourne 2013

Some of comic folk at Armageddon Melbourne 2013.

All Star Comics

Colin Wilson and Tom Taylor

Colin Wilson sketches Star Wars

Fil Barlow and Helen Maier

Richard Fairgray

Craig Bruyn

Dean Rankine

Matt Kyme, Matthew Nicholls and Ross Stewart

Brent Anderson

Sorab Del Rio

Steve Sparke

Neville Howard and BMB

Paper Trail

Emily Dickinson at Gavin Aung Than's Zen Pencils

Luke Pickett and Gerard Dwyer close out chapter one of ACV with an epilogue. Read from part one here.

Nick Gazin reviews Karl Wills' Princess Seppuku in the Lower Depths for VICE. Wills' Jessica of the Schoolyard features in the forthcoming Michael Dowers curated, Treasury of Minicomics volume one, from Fantagraphics.

The Legend of Money Pig at Cakeburger.

Dylan Horrocks has started a new blog exploring spiritual belief, the year of belief. Horrocks' also featured in a creative commons case study for creativecommons.org.

Artic Circle cartoonist Alex Hallat talks to Soda magazine.

Tasmanian cartoonists Josh Santospirito and Chris Downes performed their live comic ghost story, The Shipwright & the Banshees to a sold out audience as part of MONA FONA 2013 in Hobart last night. Chris Downes' stunning poster is available here.

 J Caleb Mozzocco at School Library Journal interviews Roger Langridge.

Roger Langridge contribution to SATAN IS ALIVE anthology

The recently launched New Zealand comics anthology Faction Comics is now available in free digital form.

Fil Barlow is offering 5 day design tutorial sessions here. Series writer Brandon Graham shared Barlow's upcoming cover for Prophet #37. You may see it or you may not, Barlow shares via facebook an interview he did with Brandon Graham from Prophet #28.

Now sold out but keep an eye out for future opportunities to buy Simon Hanselmann's Artist Trash!

Hanselmann shared pages from his forthcoming “Australian” comics/art anthology Victoria Drugs Scene at Girl Mountain.

Our handsome Paper Trail masthead is courtesy of Toby Morris, here's his rendition of Joseph Dredd having a cuppa.

In the neverending quest of cartooning archeology I picked up a pile of old Auckland newspapers, The Weekly News, which my brother has been scanning and making notes on for me. Here's a couple samples,

The Ornate masthead of The Weekly News

Sir Gordon Minhinnick cartoon from Feb 9th, 1944.

Upcoming on Pikitia Press from the work in progress folder:

 Feature on Maori cartoonist Harry Dansey.

Wartime cartooning by Australian soldiers in Stand Easy after the defeat of Japan.

The early comics work of Tom Scott.

2012 in Review: Frank Candiloro

Frank Candiloro 

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

It’s been a big year for me comics wise – I’ve managed to put out 4 books ranging from 30-70 pages each, had a number of interviews and positive write-ups of my work, was involved in Big Arse 2, got featured in Best Art Ever on Comics Alliance a few times, Brian Michael Bendis bought one of my books.… it’s been very encouraging to say the least :P

But if I had to name one major highlight, it would be finally putting out Behind The Crooked Cross; it was something that I wanted to do for a long time and was reluctant to do so since it was a World War II story and it being so different to the comics I usually make. I'm glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone and made something that was very difficult and emotionally exhausting to create. In the long run, I think it paid off. I think it’s my best work to date. 

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

It’s been a big year for Image Comics, and in particular their reboot of Prophet was something of an eye-opener for me; it made me discover the work of Brandon Graham, Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon Roy. They each have different and unique styles but also work quite well together, delivering an awesome, dream-like sci-fi environment, reminiscent of Moebius. Another highlight was discovering some of the old stories that Steve Ditko wrote and drew, such as Mr A, the H. Series and Avenging World, reflecting his objectivist views. It just re-affirmed how great of an artist the man is.

Regarding the local comic scene I discovered a lot of great artists who I had known of for a while but had never sought out their comics until this year. People like Tim Molloy, Scarlette Baccini, Peter Foster, Fil Barlow, Matt Kyme and Matt Nicholls did some superb work this year, among many others, and it’s pretty inspiring.

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

I went on a trip to the US in July, and stayed a while in New York. I had always been interested and influenced by New York culture and it was an amazing, stimulating city, with so much character and history. The Museum of Modern Art, Greenwich Village, Grand Central, Broadway, Little Italy, I could have stayed there for a year and not get enough of the place; it made me think about a new direction for my future comics. It’s inspired me to make a story about it, which should be out at the end of 2013. 

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

I realised that if I wanted to make at least 4 comics a year, I’d have to get a lot more stringent about my creative process. So I decided that I’d draw for 6 hours each night, whether it be comic pages or just random artwork if I’ve completed a comic. It’s important that you’re always making art no matter what it is or how terrible you believe it may be.

I also decided that I’d begin writing the next comic while finishing the current comic I’d be doing. It’s not because I want to speed up the creative process, but simply that I have a lot of ideas for future books, and writing them down in script form ensures that I’ll get around to making them.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Naturally I’m looking forward to putting out more books, and also to see how much more the local comic scene grows. It’s still fairly small but the overall quality of the books is vastly improving, so I think there are bright days ahead. Here’s to many more great comics.

 http://www.frankcandiloro.com/

Armageddon Melbourne 2012

Some of the cartoonists in attendance at this years Armageddon convention in Melbourne.

Frank Candiloro

Jason Franks

Richard Fairgray

Jin Chan Yum Wai

Henry Pop

Dean Rankine

 Sorab Del Rio and Paul Bedford

 Milk Shadow Books - Grizzly Adams, James Andre and Ben Hutchings

 Brendan Halyday

 Tom Taylor

Helen Maier and Fil Barlow

Space Pyrates - Caitlin Major and Matthew Hoddy

 Fred Atkins

 Bruce Mutard

 Pedobear

Paper Trail

The Caravan of Comics yoinked from caravan of comics.

The Caravan of Comics cartoonists have completed their jaunt around American and Canadian comic events. David Blumenstein recaps their adventures here and Matt Taylor writes about the caravan here.

Melbourne Publisher of fine comic books, Milk Shadow Books, have announced a book of Fil Barlow's Zooniverse on their publishing slate. Barlow has been regularly producing animations for the monthly loopdeloop animation challenge, Have a look at his work here.

 Mr Unpronounceable Copyright 2012 Tim Molloy

Tim Molloy has teased an image from his follow up to his first book with Milk Shadow Books, It shines, It Shakes And Laughs. Molloy's new book will collect previously published Mr Unpronounceable Adventures and feature new material.

Dylan Horrocks is the featured cartoonist on Comic Strip Tees with a character, Alice Brown, from his current web serial The Magic Pen. In a recent blog Horrocks noted Alice Brown would be a featured character in books two and three of The Magic Pen trilogy. I'm not sure but I think this is the first he has mentioned of The Magic Pen being a trilogy. Eagle-eyed comic fans will recall this Alice Brown image featuring in Dunedin anthology Dud a couple years ago. Comic Strip Tees are only available for a month so order yours now.

Colin Wilson is featured on episode ten from series two of The Living Room.

Khulan copyright 2012 Katie Houghton-Ward

Katie Houghton-Ward has teased an image from an upcoming installment of her series Khulan. Khulan debuted in the July 2011 issue of Heavy Metal with inks by Simon Morse. Morse commented this was likely his last comic work before fully going full-time in the tattoo world.

 

A new publisher in New Zealand, Faction Comics, are producing an anthology and are looking for contributors here.