Showing posts with label Pat Grant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pat Grant. Show all posts

Monday, February 17, 2014

Paper Trail

 



Trailer for Connie Radar short film

Jem Yoshioka on tumblr.


Robert Virtue writes about the 2014 Parkes Comics Fest, that happened a couple days ago at the Parkes Library and I'm posting late because the links pile up in no discernible order and it's hard to keep on top of things.


Dr Matt Finch and Tracie Mauro from the Parkes Shire Library. (Pic yoinked from abc.net.au).





INTERVIEW: Mary Tamblyn


 - Vibrations (after Fiona Wright)

 

Graphic! Novels! Melbourne! available on DVD.

Lauren Maier reviews Rooster Tails



Bruce Mutard - Microaviary (after A. Frances Johnson)

 

Garrick Tremain on cartoon censorship.

Paper Trail masthead courtesy of Toby Morris.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Paper Trail

 
More comics link blogging dashed off in a haphazard fashion... 

Michael Fikaris project, Arte Moris, is in it's last couple hours of crowdfunding.



Michael & Death Flatmates by Ralphie.


Josh Perks reviews James Davidson's Moa Vol One.
 

David C Mahler is currently on an international comics traipse through North America with a hobo's bindle full of a new anthology Flying Fox. Marc Pearson, Katie Parrish, Ben Sea, Leonie Brialey, Ruskidd, J.R Blue, Michael Hawkins, Merv Heers, Sam Wallman and David feature in this spunky little package. Read about Flying Fox on David's tumblr.

  
Roger Langridge writes about convention sketching.


Brian Lawry writes about Sarah Laing's The Fall of Light.



Bruce Mutard features on Double Spread.
 

Selection of Australian landscape reprint comics from the 1940's - 1950's on the Pikitia Press tumblr.


RM Rhodes dissects American Captain.

  
Aru Singh interviews Faction Comics' Amie Maxwell and Damon Keen



Daniel Best chronicles the production of the Pitt Brother's ill-fated adaption of Gully Foyle.


David Blumenstein writes up the 2013 Stanley Awards conference. Part one and part two.


Robert Smith reviews Adrian Kinnaird's From Earth's End: The Best of New Zealand Comics.


Elliot Francis Stewart: Back to the Wall.


Pat Grant performs Toormina Video at the Sydney Opera House.


Dylan Horrocks and Bryan Crump discuss children's comics including James Davidson's Moa.


Paper Trail masthead courtesy of Toby Morris.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

2012 in Review: Christopher Downes

Christopher Downes
 
What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
  
I went to the Australian Cartoonists Association's Stanley Awards weekend for the very first time. I had to crowd fund in order to get there, but it was really fun. I got to meet a lot of heroes of mine and they turned out to be genuinely nice people.

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

 
I really enjoyed Pat Grant's BLUE. I love to slip into his world - partly because I'm in love with his art, but also because his characters do things that (as a teenager) I would have never dared to do. They steal, they cuss and they wag from school.  I didn't have the guts to do any of that stuff in high school. Speaking of high school, I also read Derf Backderf's MY FRIEND DAHMER. I read it in an hour. It was that good.

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

I've got a 1 year old daughter. She's fantastic. I'm still in awe of watching the becoming of a little person - how she changes and learns. It's like an ultracool version of Pokemon! I've also gotten into Peppa Pig. It took me a while to warm to it, but now I look forward to it coming on. That and Shaun the Sheep. Wow, I'm really sounding like a new parent aren't I? GAME OF THRONES! I liked Game of Thrones a lot! I especially liked the episode where they all went to the dinosaur park and went down the dinosaur slide with Grampy Rabbit. That happened in Game of Thrones, right?

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


I procrastinate a hell of a lot less! That's one thing having a kid will teach you.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

I think there's a movie I'm looking forward to. I remember seeing the date on the end of a pretty riveting trailer (and yet not riveting enough for me to remember the name or even the subject matter of the movie) and I thought, "Well, the world better not bloody end, cause I'd really like to see that."


Friday, December 14, 2012

2012 in Review: Gary Chaloner

Gary Chaloner

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

Twenty-twelve started off being a very bad year (continuing on from an even worse 2011, filled with death and mayhem), but over the last six months, things have really turned around with a lot of work being done and cleared off the drawing board that should be seeing the light of day in the new year. I had a blast taking over from Emily Smith on Gestalt's Unmasked, written by Christian Read. By year's end I should be finished that. I've also got the first issue of The Undertaker Morton Stone in the bag for Gestalt as well. Issues two and three of the series are almost finished. On a good productive roll there. I've also been doing a lot of illustration work for a new series of adventure paperbacks featuring Doc Wilde by Tim Byrd. It was a very successful Kickstarter campaign that's now getting into high gear. The first book in the series should be available within the month. 

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

Kranburn by Ben Michael Byrne was a nice discovery. Enjoying that a lot. The story and characters have a lot of presence and Byrne's writing in general sucks you in and takes you along for the crazy ride.

Blue by Pat Grant was brilliant and totally deserves all the praise its getting. A well executed project from beginning to end. Utilising both web and print to maximum effect. Nicely designed, nicely drawn, nicely told.

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

Movies? John Carter, Prometheus, Dark Knight Rises (Bane's voice not so much), Avengers (Captain America's modern outfit, not so much). Yes, they're the usual suspects, but I didn't have much time to see too many flicks, so the big ones stood out.

Books? Went through a James Ellroy phase. Read the Underworld USA trilogy: American Tabloid (again), The Cold Six Thousand (again) and Blood's a Rover. I'm so over him now.

TV? The Walking Dead. Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, Bored to Death.

Music? Springsteen (The Promise and Wrecking Ball), My Morning Jacket, David Ruffin

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

God knows I try. But old habits die hard. Always searching for ways to speed up productivity while maintaining quality, but the older I get, the more comfortable I am with the old ways and the more unsatisfied I am with digital art, disposable pens, non-sable brushes. The big change is working standing up. The body knows no pain now.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Seeing all the stuff I've been working on recently getting out and about. An Unmasked print collection! More Undertaker!! Doc Wilde!!! I might even get around to finishing my Breckenridge Elkins adaption.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the revamped Ledger Awards (or whatever they'll be called) getting back up and running under the auspices of Supanova.

Now that the Australian Comics Journal website has been bubbling along with baby steps over the last six months, I'd like to see what the next phase for that is.
I've also got a secret graphic novel project for Gestalt to return to (working like a Trojan tin the meantime...) and a The Jackaroo collection to get out this year. So I hope another big, productive year is on the way.


Monday, December 10, 2012

2012 in Review: Pat Grant

Pat Grant

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

My first book came out, got reviewed all over the place and sold pretty well. That was a highlight. Also, going to America with the Caravan of Nerds was amazing. Michael Hawkins taught me how to eat doughnuts like a man and I came home with this massive belly. I've never done conventions before because fandom creeps me out a little bit, but I found it really interesting. I discovered some neat things about my drawing after being forced to draw in each book I sold. Doing this fast, high pressure, disposable art that I will never see again somehow liberated me from the clenched anus approach to drawing that I've always had.
 

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

 
I met some cool people in America. We met Sam Sharp and Jeremy Tinder in Chicago. They really do some great comics and I don't know that I would have met them had I not been in the States. Oh yeah, I've been enjoying watching my friend Sam Alden become this amazing comics ninja with every piece he finishes. I also had my honeymoon at his Mum and Dad's house in Portland which was strange but wonderful. Annie Koyama is possible the most fascinating person in comics. Who is she? Is she real? Or is she like, an angel sent down by the god of nerds to help up takeover the world?
 
What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2012?


Breaking Bad, really surprised me. I just popped out of the cliched trope , you know, the "unlikely suburbanite flirts with the underworld" and has become something entirely more interesting. My favourite thing about it is the setting in Albuquerque, this amazing blend of  ghetto, desert border town, and leave-it-to-beaver suburbia.

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


Normally I draw big, sometimes three times the size of the reproduction, but this year what little drawing I have done has been at the exact size that I am reproducing the work.Here's what I've learned: It fucken sucks balls. Comics are supposed to be drawn large, as large as possible, and don't let any silly miniaturist tell you otherwise.

I've also been writing for an hour every week day. A sprawling crime-adventure comic that may or may not ever get drawn. Sure is fun to write though.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?


World War Z? Nah, kidding. I just want to finish of my stupid PhD so I can get a brainless job and devote more time to the next book.


2012 in Review: Daniel Reed

Daniel Reed

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
 
I think Pat Grants 'Blue' was a great achievement, those spreads where the kids are on the rail line amongst all of the crazy vegetation were just amazing. I also liked Sam Wallman's 'Being Born is Going Blind' and lots of others.


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


I had seen bits and pieces of Charles Burns work before, but I read 'Black Hole' for the first time this year. Has to be said that it stuck in my head for ages. The line work is so clean, dark and emotive. The weird story marries perfectly to the images.

I also read 'Safe Area Gorazde' by Joe Sacco. It was certainly not as easy to read as 'Black Hole' but succeeded in many other ways. I think the reporting (of the war in Eastern Bosnia 1992-95), in comic format had a much greater impact on me than it would have done had I seen it in a documentary format. Not sure that I can put my finger on why...
 

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

Was introduced to "The Game of Thrones" TV series, which is cool. Gigs by 'The Mountain Goats', 'Bonnie Prince Billie' and Robert Forester were all really enjoyable. "Graphic Novels! Melbourne!" documentary was a hoot!

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

 
Working a lot in colour at the moment. Compositing together water colour, ink and pencil images in PhotoShop.


What are you looking forward to in 2013?

 
Getting to as many book launches, drawing nights and meet-ups as I can. Writing and drawing as much as I can. Seeing Hawthorn beat the Cats for the first time since 2008. Other than that, my title "Grubby Little Smudges of Filth" is due out in limited release hard cover sometime in 2013, so I'm looking forward to that too.


Saturday, December 8, 2012

2012 in Review: Ben Hutchings

Ben Hutchings

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
 
It would have to be opening the doors of Squishface Comics Studio.  I have barely left the place since it opened!  It has grown and become a household name nearly of it's own accord. (the houses of cartoonists)  I enjoy being there and sharing in the dramas surrounding the other cartoonists. 

There were also two cartooning trips - the Caravan of Comics, and a recent commercial job in Singapore with David Blumenstein, Pat Grant and Rebecca Clements.

Not to mention a trip to Japan where I visited the Osamu Tezuka museum for a second time, and got a personal tour of the Kyoto Manga Museum!
 
Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the first time in 2012?

Nah not really!  I wasn't paying a huge deal of attention to anybody else's work, let alone their names, sorry.  That's not to say there was nothing good at all! 
I'm just slipping into senility or something.  Probably should be worried.  It could be that so much is happened that I haven't digested it all. 

But I did rediscover and get fresh inspiration from an old artist I have always loved. 
His name is Yamahami Tatsuhiko.  He is best known for a character called Gaki Deka.  What is funny about my work has been funny in his work for decades. 
He is fantastic, with a dirty, but detailed style. I have no idea what any of his comics are about, however.

I also discovered another manga artist by mistake because they have similar names and styles.  I was searching for Yoshiharu Tsuge, and mistakenly picked up some English
translations of the work of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, which looks similar.  This fellow does work of such poignancy, and gravity.  His themes include sexual frustration, loneliness and death. I very rarely do anything this heavy, but would love to.  So I would recommend seeking out both these manga artists.
 
What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2012?

Dredd 3D, Tintin, Avengers and many other excellent comic movie adaptations.  Seeing Avengers with the other Caravan of Comics dudes was a gas.  Americans know how to watch a movie.  They're so noisy.  And every one-liner they guffaw at so excitedly.  The floor at the end was covered in trampled popcorn and everybody was so darn excited about what they just watched.  When I watch a movie, we usually just walk out pretty much in silence and go for a wee.

I also discovered another band I love called Sparks.  I don't like any music ever, so they're like band #5.  It's good to have music to enjoy.  They repeat themselves a lot, with strange orchestral backing and hard rock riffs.  But mainly I just love the repetition.
 
Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?

Not significant changes, but I have noticed my skill slowly growing!  My lines are cleaner, my knowledge of anatomy is better, overall I think I've settled into a particular style that I really like. 
 
What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Keeping commercial work to a minimum and finally leaping head - first into finishing the last ten pages of my graphic novel draft.  I will also have at least two trade paperbacks out through Milk Shadow Publishing, including two You Stink & I Don't collections, possibly a Glenjamin collection reprint too.

We talked about a book of serious, art-heavy fantasy and drama stories too, which might have to wait til 2014.  I have a selection of scripts which are very different than anything I've ever written before.  They are all melancholy and tragic, but the tone remains friendly and positive.  I'd love to see if I can pull that off.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Paper Trail

Had to take a break from the Paper Trail over the last few weeks for travelling, editing work, bereavements, and REAL LIFE...

Here is a summary of the entire Internet:

The big Pikitia Press news is the release of our new comic Peter Foster's adaptation of For The Term of His Natural Life this Sunday at the Melbourne Writers Festival:

Facebook it here.




This Saturday is host to another comics event in Melbourne, capital comics city of Australia. Exhibitchin’! is the title of Squishface Studios latest effort to get comics into everybodies lives. As well as works from David Blumenstein, Marta Tesoro, Ben Hutchings, Sacha Bryning, Sarah Howell, Ive Sorocuk, Arran McKenna and Jo Waite, they'll be bitchin' tunes, crazy costumes, chocolate-infested food, tarot readings, body art, a comics jam, badge-making, personality testing, portrait drawing... and an entire leg of ham.

Facebook it here.

Pat Alexander conducts a tour of Squishface studios in prep for Exhibitchin’!

A flux of comic printing plates have turned up on the Australian ebay in recent months, some from Australian reprints of foreign material and some from honest-to-goodness Australian drawn material. Most of these were destroyed after they had served their purpose. At the time of posting, this auction for a plate of the cover to Fiction House's Indians #21 had a few days to run.


Auckland based biennial literary zine POTROAST are looking for contributors for a special comics issue, details here.


Vice comics man Nick Gazin reviews Karl Wills's recent comic Princess Seppuku here.

Special Nippon edition of Karl Wills's Princess Seppuku



Tim McEwen has been working his way through his bedtime reading pile and offers reviews of Jill Brett and Greg Holfield's In For the Krill here, several Australian comics and a few international ones here, and Dean Rankine's Full Metal Chicken here, and his latest Andrew Fulton coverage is at The Australian Comics Journal here.

Andrew Fulton and other people

Inverted Dawn: Exhibition and comics launch at Tinning Street, Melbourne. Opening night September 6th - September 16th featuring Html Flowers (Cougar Flashy) and Girl Mountain (Simon Hanselmann)

featuring...
brothers hand mirror and
girl mountain live


 
 Simon Hanselmann

Tom Spurgeon writes here about the recently passing of art critic and historian Robert Hughes and his connections with comics as a cartoonist early in his career for the Observer in Sydney and in his appraisal of the work of Robert Crumb.

 Robert Hughes
 
Dylan Horrocks provides the cover for dystopic science fiction novel The Aviator by Gareth Renowden


F.E.C Comics are launching three new comics at All Star Comics in Melbourne, 22 September, 6.30pm. Have a look on Facebook here. I can't find anything on the normal Internet but F.E.C Comics are located here.

From the press release:


KRANBURN #4
Ben Michael Byrne returns with the beginning of his second chapter. Brand begins his war against Lord. Blood spillage is a promise.


FIRESIDE TALES
A horror anthology collecting three brilliant stories from some very talented Australian creators; Alex Smith, Andrew Shaw, Billy Tournas, Mike Wszelaki and Will Pleydon.


SEVEN
Fairy tales were once not so child-friendly. Alisha Jade delves into these origins and presents her interpretations.



Congratulations to Trevor Wood and Jen Breach for their recently concluded webcomic, Sawbones. After five years and 289 pages Trev recently posted the concluding page and a blog hinting at upcoming projects. Five years is a long time in webcomics, many don't last five months, so it's commendable to see the work Trevor and Jen have created and their decision to bring their story to a close.

Panel from Sawbones

Melbourne cartoonist Doug Holgate is amongst the speakers at the second Spotlight on Specialists seminars at NMIT, Fairfield, Melbourne on Saturday September 8th.

Details here.

   Doug Holgate

Mike Lynch has been posting galleries of cartoonists portraits including this one of New Zealand's most celebrated cartoonist Sir David Low.


Webcomic: Sigh Five



 Pat Grant's Blue

There was a kerfuffle on the net a few weeks back with some folk critical of a forthcoming GARO tribute anthology. This provoked an interesting discussion of Kickstarter and publishing in general here and here and here and many other places. Of note the SP7 Alt. Comics tribute to Garo Manga edited by Ian Harker and Box Brown features amongst it's contributors Benjamin Constantine, a fine cartoonist from Brisbane. Check Benjamin out here and here and here.


Pikitia Press will be publishing new editions of James Davidson's Moa #1 and #2 later this year and all being well issue #3 will be available for the Melbourne and Auckland Armageddon cons in October. 

Moa on Facebook here.

Moa blog here.