The Left Hand Book

I'll Explain the title of this post later.

9 years ago I had an exhibition, which was part of the residency I was offered after leaving art school, of prints I had done through the year. There were large multy state woodcuts, some crappy self portrait etchings and these (plus 2 others which I dont have a photo).

I was very plaesed with them and wished I'd done more. Ever since I've been thinking back to these etchings and wondering if I might do something like them again. Now the tittle is explained: I was recently asked if I would like to be in an exhibition by a Julian Davies (author and co owner of Finlay Press who published Roof Tops by Mandy Ord) at his new exhibiton space called The Left Hand. Julian had actually bought one of the above print at my exhibition. So after accepting his offer it got me thinking: Maybe I could continue on with the ideas I'd left all those years ago.

The brief was to make a book (of sorts) so I decided to do some more bone drawings (not etchings this time as I don't have the time nor the access to a workshop) but this time mix them up with various arthropods. Not having much time I've kept them simple. Also I've used watered down ink to give them a softer feel and the possiblity of building up various tones. The Moebius influence was not intensional but he being in my thoughts this past while I suppose it was unaviodable.

Here is the drawing process too. I have a whole bunch of bones and arthropods to look at, I make a rough sketch and then go for it.

Monster Addict

  

James Andre asked me to do some covers for a novel he had written called Monster Addict. He wanted a group shot of "vampires, rapists, etc". Vampires, no problem. But how do you draw a rapist? Anyway it wasn't really an issue, I just drew a bunch of monsterish creatures and chucked in a couple people.

For the back cover image I mixed a monkey with a lion and gave it some protruding fangs coz protruding fangs are cool.

Monster Addict should be out soon. Check out James' blog for updates.

Supanova Sydney

Last weekend saw the Sydney stint of Supanova, the huge 'pop culture' expo. I and other comic creators from all over Australia came to sell their wares to the not so interested public. Already you may note a hint of cynicism in my voice which I must apologise for. I knew I wasn't going to be getting an expo like those I attended in England but the punters here were not coming to buy comics. Everything else to do with comics outside the creation and collection of comics is the focus of this expo. TV stars of shows like Buffy, computer games, Manga (I apologise once again as Manga are comics but the comic side aren't the focus here), cosplay (a new word for me: a word to describe those who dress up as their favourite comic, TV, movie, anime, etc character) and wrestling??? All that aside Artist's Alley was a decent size and saw a decent amount of traffic and sales were close to what I expected.

I was sharing a table with Trevor Wood, illustrator of Sawbones, up near the edge of the expo opposite the 501st Legion. Jason Franks and J. Marc Schmidt were at a table to the left, Paul Abstruse and burlesque dance to the right and Burger Force and Brendan Halyday opposite. All together we made a nice little corner and boldly sold our comics, posters and drawings. Paul is a master salesman. There's no way I could do what he does, way too over the top for me, yet it works. All in all we had a successful weekend with Saturday serving some better while others faired better on Sunday. I covered my costs in terms of table rent, insurance and petrol (luckily I had a place to stay free of charge).

What it really comes down to in the end is critical mass. Australia just doesn't have the industry nor buying public to have a large expo designed specifically for comic creators. Or maybe that is what we all assume. An expo centred around comics and their creators may be able to garner enough public interest so as to make a reasonable platform for creators to make some real money, who knows. Avi Bernshaw is attempting this with Doujicon but there are conflicts of purpose in this convention and has thus far remained small. Other not comic specific festivals have been successful (checkout Bobby's Blog).

I have sounded very pessimistic in this post but I did have a really good time. Not only hanging out and catching up with my friends but the getting the satisfaction that people liked my work enough pay for it. I picked up a few local titles from some hot new talent including The Grave Shakers and a poster and sketch of wolverine from Gee Hale. Although I missed out on picking up a copy of Sgt Rock: Between Hell and a hard Place and getting it signed by the one and only Joe Kubert, I did manage, however, to give him a copy of the Dicks Anthology about which he said 'I want to spend time with this comic'. I was over the moon. A thoroughly worth while expo to attend and maybe in time we'll get a stronger position and punters will be there for us.

For Bobby's weekend click here and for J. Marc's click here.

Almost there

Well, it's taken almost 2 years of hard work (not 2 years of steady work coz when I was working on it i went pretty quickly) but Dicks the Anthology will soon be hitting a comic shelf near you. If everything goes according to plan (and so far everything is) I will be launching the anthology at Sydney Supanova on the weekend of June the 18th, 19th, 20th. I will be sharing a table with the illustrious Trevor Wood and selling Back issues of Dicks. All puchases of the anthology will receive a free sketch done on the spot!

The writers who contributed to this anthology are

James Andre - creator of Yuck!
Tom Taylor - writer of Star Wars Invasion
Jason Franks - writer of The Sixsmiths
Jen Breach - writer of Saw Bones and comic reviewer for The Age

Pinups contributed by

Trevor Wood - illustrator of Saw Bones
Daniel Reed - creator of The Crumpleton Experiments
Hayden Fryer - creator of Billy the Demon Slayer
Bobby. N- creator of Digested and Withheld
BMB - creator of Stark Reality
HPop - illustrator of The List

And here's the cover

Other Peoples Pinups

It's been a while since I did any work but luckily other people have been. In the Dicks anthology I'm working on I've got a pinup section which will (I hope) feature the talents of Hpop, Bobby.N, Trevor Wood and others. The others being Daniel Reed and Hayden Fryer who have just sent me their marvellous drawings.
Dan's.

Hayden's

All I have to do now is finish the last 4 pages of Jason Franks' story then I'm 3/5 of the way through. I was aiming to release at Supanova Melbourne but there was no way and Doujicon doesn't look good either so I hope I can get my act together for Supanova Sydney.

Canberra Meetups

Well, it's been a slow year for the old Canberra Meetup. We started off strong but seem to have dwindled down to 4 eager but seldom present participants. So a little bit of publicity may be in order. Here's the flier and poster that I'll put up in Impact comics tomorrow.


To go to the Canberra Comic Meetups on facebook click here.

Tango

Tango 9: Love and War was launched on the 10th with all the pomp and ceremony it deserves. My 12 page story adaption of All Quiet on the Western Front made it in along with Bobby.N, Bruce Mutard, Mandy Ord, Owen Heitman, Kirrily Schell and a host of other people too long put here. Sadly I missed the launch but accounts can be read here and here.

The Tango Collection was also launched which has been published by Allen & Unwin. The Tango Collection is a collection of Tango's greatest moments over its 8 previous publications. Sadly this is my first submission to Tango so I've not made it into the collection (and possibly I wouldn't have anyway).