2004, huh, good lord, what was it good for?

A lot actually. It was a good year, a very good year.

Highlights include
Me and Emma bought a house together after searching on and off for 2 years. Have spent the last 3 months doing it up and i'm incredibly proud of the work I've done. Thank god, for 2005, we (or more imprtantly ME) also now have our weekends free.

I got promoted twice at work (well actually once, the other is a weird government temporary promotion - that may get extended).

Went on a very nice holiday to Bali.

My best mate got married and though i ruined every single wedding photo (i don't smile well and i had a prison haircut) it was still good. Not as good as the buck's night that went on for a weekend but there was a severe lack of strippers at the reception (taking pictures with the provided disposable cameras of one's geneitals does not count).

The magazine did well and I was quite proud of the 24 Hour Comic Challenge.

Emma got a promotion at her work.

And we have recently sponsored a 8 year old girl from Chad.

Lowlights include;
(You need the odd lowlight to make the highlights better.)

The various election results, the war and recent natural disasters. Totally out of my hands to varying degrees, but still something that weighs on my mind. But stuff like that, makes everything else seem piddly.

So other piddly stuff;
-moving out of my unit of 4 years. Had a lot of fun times and it was my own space so it was sad to leave. But now I'm renting it out to a visiting Indian Doctor and his family so its in good hands.

-renovating is a horrible process which involves a lot of fights (me and em beforehand had only argued 3 or 4 times in 9 years, renovating brought that up to 3 or 4 times a week which made everything even more stressful) and a lot of hard work. The hard work - i grew up doing (but god - will never enjoy) but the fighting I can leave behind.

-working at a place with the dumbest short sighted management I've ever seen, thankfully i was able to jump ship to a better place.

-the winding up of a private business i had with buddies of mine. It never made a mint but it was still good.

So
i hope everyone has had a good year and if you haven't well there's a whole new year to improve with.

Nominate, don't lactate

On the whole, there are very few comic strips that get my attention, I only check Zippy the Pinhead daily, and if i get a newspaper, I look at Farside, Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts and maybe Zits, and its sad that Zits is the only 'new' strip out of that lot. Everything else that I've read is naff (except that one where they use old office illustrations 'get your war on' something like that, i like that but can't make the effort to find it).

I'm only considering stuff that is serealised regularly. If you want nominate stuff like Weber's my dream girl orSocial Comment 1 and 2 which I would link to but those bastards at webcentral gouged poor frank and now he has no website to show his brilliance.

COMIC STRIP OF THE YEAR

So the only comic strips I'm going to recommend from first hand experience are
Raymondo Person by Patrick Reid.

I've seen one or two strips by Dean Rankine, from the GrossGirl and booger boy series, as published in Mania. Go to http://www.phatkidcomics.netfirms.com/ for some samples. Not bad stuff but clearly not aimed at me - though i do the odd booger joke like everyone else.

Otherwise, Dillon Naylor's Batrisha appears in Kzone, I've read the books but not the individual strips. I haven't read Rock 'n roll fairies which appears in Total Girl.

Other stuff by Locals whose other work i've enjoyed but whose strips i haven't seen, is Phunky Monkey by Alex Major and Da n' Dill by Dillon Naylor.

Again, can we get some samples of the final nominees when they are announced?

Nominate, don't fixate

it seems that i'm leaving all the hard ones till the end, and with one week to go before Ledger nominations close, I have a feeling i'll be spending the long weekend outside under a tree reading Australian Comics making sure I make the right decisions.

With Categories like Best Writer and artist, its tricky - the field is so wide and varied - its really hard to compare a Blumenstein to a Read; a Templesmith to a Soehardi; styles are so hard to quantify and taste is so subjective. Please fogive me if my opinion differs.

BEST WRITER

Ben Hutchings - You Stink and I Don't #8
I definetly know that "You stink and I Don't" came out this year and if you want to include the Trade of Issues 1-5 as a 2004 release then its even more proof that Ben is a great writer. The only way i can describe him in comic terms is imagine the absurdness and 8 page attention span of Dan Clowes mixed in with the laugh out loud jokes of Pete Bagge. Sometimes Ben gets a bit too weird but this makes his more realistic stories even funnier. What really makes Ben stand out is that he doesn't rely on autobiographical stuff (well not explicitly) so its not funny because "heh, i can relate to that" its more "hah, i had never thought of that, how clever".

David Kerr - World's Away, Days of Asha
i don't know what it is but there is something so magnetic about David's writing, its so charming and sweet. I'm a fan of stuff like Dawson's Creek and OC, I'm comforted by teen soap cliches but World's Away took those cliches and freshened them up. Imagine a pizza, something you've had once a fortnight since forever, now imagine it with an ingredient you've never considered being pizza topping before but trying it and thinking "wow how good is that!". That's how I'd describe Dave's work. And I think its one of those things that its up to people's taste - someone is bound to say "ew - cummin on pizza! Gross!".

Jason Rand -Small Gods
It was a hard decision if i was going to include creators involved in internationally released books but I think with writers being less visible in comics I think its Ok (I'm still making my mind up if I'll include international artists but that'll be next weeks problem).

Anyway, Jason made pyschics interesting, he has a great sense of plotting, he knows how to set up a cliff hanger and has a good ear for dialogue. Small Gods is not electrifyingly great (but very few comics are these days) but its a solid good entertainment.

Daniel Reed - Crumpleton Experiments
Daniel does employ weird ideas, which under the hand of other writers sometimes has a habit of swamping the narrative (endless backstory, pointless explanation, blah blah blah - i just want set up, crisis, and resolution). But Daniel keeps it simple, using a few main characters and letting the story unfold on its own.

Daniel Lawson - Azrath
I think Daniel's writing goes in the same boat as David Kerr, in that he presents an endearing and funny little story. The larger story is probably on a grander scale than World's Away; from experience fantasy comics are usually saddled with a massive backstory that usually bore me, but so far that's not an issue with Azrath, the story is progressing nicely (maybe a bit too slowly - but that might be building up tension -i dunno), humour is used at the right time as is tension. A good read.


So close
It pains me that i couldn't include David Tang but it was a bloody close call. If we don't include Jason Rand (as he works for an American Company) David would be in. Knee Pockets #2 wasn't as conisitent as #1 in terms of writing but the good stories (far away star, when we were friends, all the girls I loved/had crushes on before) are exceptionally good, while the rest were missfires (sakato, boy band, stealing panties from ODied girls is funny) (sorry for paraphrasing the titles - don't have the book in front of me) and that's what tilts it for David the wrong way.

I discovered that the Batrisha books were released this year (i thought it was so long ago that it must have been 2003) so consider Dillon Naylor's writing on the two books (if you haven't bought it I'm sure you can pick them up from Target or Kmart for 20% off - don't take my word for it but they are well worth it). Slippery Shadow is great, it even has a little moral to the story which is sweet. The other book Strange new visitor is actually very creepy in the realistaion that Batrisha's parents seem to be suggesting that she suck blood from her foster family. But for kids books they are kind of engrossing and fun to read.

And David Blumenstien for Naked Fella #8, an interesting book with some good bits (Jewfro, Culture Jamming), but i gotta admit I liked the Herman issue better since it was something different.

But its a tough field with lots of competition and picking 5 is hard, and God knows, i'll probably change my mind to the final 5 tomorrow.

Nominate, don't salivate

There once was an awards called the Ledgers
That was about recognition and not sledges
Named after Pete
To win would be sweet
I've got my beer where are my wedges!

I'd like to accept the Ledger for best Ledger inspired limmerick on a comics related blog, it was great to be nominated but wow what a treat.

-ahem-

I think this early on for these awards there are too many categories, it probably would have been better to let the awards grow a bit to accomadate new categories and whatnot. My fear is that people have a tendency to try and fill in every box presented on a form, in this case for every category and if they can't come up with something for each they may just give up. (well that's my theory anyway).

Anyway

So when it comes to webcomics, I know stuff all. have nothing against web comics, not at all, I think that the web is a great medium to tell stories to a huge group of people. Problem is I spend a hell a lot of time in front of a computer and I don't really like it. I fear that if i get addicted to webcomics, there will be that little kernel of hate that will fester and I'll end up a bitter old person who hates comics.

Plus i really can't be arsed looking at comics on screen, since i read most of my comics on the dunny, bed, or train so until webcomics can be read at these places it will be a struggle to get me to click.

but I have seen a couple.

Webcomic of the Year
I don't mind one off or gag strips, its the serial web comics which i find difficult to visit regularly

Raymondo Person
Raymondo is down and out the funniest thing ever. Its perfection.

Platnium Grit
Mainstay of the Australian scene, innovative, funny, sexy. I wish it wasn't shockwave but I'm hard to please.

5031 -
Sometimes a bit cute, needs more cheese fucking. But sometimes its clever so it balances out.

Criss Cross Jazz
Thankfully the interface for this got useful, it sucked when this started. I like the art but its 2 damned slow at one or two panels a week, its hard to bother. Its a matter of let me know when its finished and I'll read it in one hit.

I'd like to include some of the entries from the 24 Hour challenge, like Jase's and Doug's but they've receieved their accolades. Also the excellent Crab Allan is getting some play at Modern Tales, but thats a couple of years old now. So I can't even fill out 5 nominations, the last couple were a mind racking struggle but when the final nominations come out i'll make sure I'll give'em a visit.

procrastinate, and deviate

I wish i had this before Xmas,
Scary Santas Galley
Seven and Nine are personal favourites (and seven of 9 is hot as well)

I did some post-xmas sales shopping before work yesterday, pretty happy with the bargins i got. Then got an email from Emma about the Tsunami and it kind of dawned on me, I'm happy about 40% off a jacket whilst there are people that have lost everything. Thanks to Doug, the money I saved on clothes has now been donated to the Red Cross Asia Quake and Tsunami appeal.

And from that there is no real segway so hey Toys are cool!
Top 100 toys
I think I have a good ten of those, i might go over to mum's and see if i can find my old Viewmaster, Rubics cube and remember

I hope people are watching "Andy Ricter controls the Universe" on Monday mornings around 2. Very funny stuff, more laughs than Arrested Development but not as clever. Its like Herman's Head but funnier. @ weeks back they had an episode about Black Irishmen and it was one of the best sitcom episodes ever.

And i went to see De La Soul last night. This year was pretty slim for concert going - i think less than five, which is pretty lame. When they actually got there it was a good show - before that, sheesh, had to wait 3 hours listening to dodgy DJs, with no "pass outs", drinking over priced (and foul) beer in plastic bottles. Me and Em had a good possie to enjoy the show with the exception of the bouncy yet unbalanced dreadlocked fellow who got in the way at times and the young fellow on e who kept trying to give Em a hug. Sigh. Thankfully his friends pulled him away and he went to bother other people. But De La Soul was great, a good mix of songs from their half dozen albums, only problem was that there was only 2 of them - one seemed to be missing which is disappointing. Same as last time Public Enemy toured and Terminator X stayed at home, I'm guessing because of arthritis. Anyway - still good. I'll post blurry photos of pasty white arms being held in the air obscuring rappers soon hopefully.

Nominate, don't salivate

Some of best friends are colourists.

-sigh-

Look!
Over there!
Its the Ledgers!

Sorry for the big downloads and for stealing bandwidth. If I can make a suggestion; when the final nominations have been made - can we get a small set of samples for each nominee to help us judge the best - this would be a good idea for best inker, penciller, colourist, letterer, etc, etc

COLOURIST OF THE YEAR

Annette Kwok

A lot of the colourists we see in Australia just do the odd pin up or front cover, so its good to see someone do a whole comic in colour and colour all the 'boring' stuff. Shows a bit of professionalism.

Matt Huynh

Just check the stikman's blog there's much good colour stuff there (the beastie boys one is a bit flouro green but maybe that's the point). The MooQuack pages are just phenomenal.

Doug Holgate

Doug's been quiet this year, mainly because he now belongs to Image and Kevin Patrick.
But his gallery shows the bits and the bits are good. A lot of his stuff is too big to link to here but
http://www.f1-comics.com/gallery/LaikaFinalLarge.jpg
http://www.f1-comics.com/gallery/Corsairsfinal.jpg
http://www.f1-comics.com/gallery/lifeofpi.jpg
is worth the effort

That Cosmic Corsairs piece is probably the best piece of art this year.

Jason Badower

The colour job he did on the Killeroo Book 2 story was pretty good.


Sean E
http://sean.sevspace.com

Did a alot of TopCow softporn stuff which in itself wasn't that exciting but he did some neat stuff with it. He seemed to use a limited palette (reds, oranges, browns) but did some decent work with them. I rememebr he did a non-topcow peice which was really nice. Also worked on a book about colouring if memory serves me right.

So close - I think Komala does some nice work (check her blog), Sean E just pips her for quantity, not quality.

Nominate, don't incubate

Yesterday i was away from my computer and the internet did shudder!

So, onwards with the march of the ledger's

Inker of the Year

Jesus Christ
Had to live under the shadow of his dad for awhile, a nice bloke who really has come along in the last couple of millenium. Even though he injured his hands when he was young he has a generous style he's a bit over exposed maybe. A couple people ape his lines and do it damage, but he's ok, really forgiving.

God
An old school inker, in the early days his ink work was really jaggered and his weight lines varied alot. Then when his son came around, it got a more gentle and let the penciller shine through. Still has a traditional following.

Muhammad, peace be upon him
New school, a disciplined but gererous style. Plenty of followers, which is a real bother if you want something signed at a convention.

Buddha
Getting popularity because of the whole manga explosion. A well meaning but deliberate style, becomes one with the lines of the penciller. But needs a harder work ethic, contemplates the art too much and regularly misses deadlines.

Satan
Has his following too with cost cutting publishers, but many people don't like his digital enhancement of pencils as a form of inking.


ahem
I know stuff all about inkinglet alone what's good inking, and its harder in such a small industry to fathom who is a good inker since artists usually ink themselves. Simply put I don't have the info to seperate the inker from the penciller. I like Darren's, Stikman's, Nate's, Jase's and Rodrigo's ink work but I'm not artistic enough so don't take my word for it, i'll prpobably be leaving this section of the nomination form blank and letting the smart people to decide for me.

Nominate, don't cheesegrate

Gary Chaloner is the main fellow putting together this whole Ledger's Awards thing and he should be congratulated. But there are a couple of things wrong with the award; for example Letterer of the year; first of all its bad grammar its not letterer - its letter writer of the year. Secondly you have to understand that Gary used to subscribe to the Yellow Kid, he's pretty old and therefore not up to date with technology speak - no one writes letters any more its all blogs. There's a third point but I've forgetten it, hopefully I'll remember it later. So when Gary says letterer of the year he must mean "weblog of the year".


http://lfrankweber.blogspot.com
L. Frank Weber's blog is updated daily and funny as hell. a good mix of 'what i had for breakfast - (invariably pizza)' and "this is what's wrong with you all (you aren't frank)"


http://www.f1-comics.com/blog.htm
Doug Holgates, not as frequent - i preferred the cartoon ranting of Cartoon Prophet of Rage, but the current one is good to with nice piccies and everything.


http://www.livejournal.com/users/zpxlng/
Patrick Reid
Just bloody funny, it went queit while Patrick was being tortured by Sydney siders. Its good that its back.


http://www.livejournal.com/users/mrtang/
probably one of my favourites, its a shame David doesn't update daily because its one of the better "this is what i did today" blogs especially when he uses words like 'booby' that makes me laugh. Its like knee pockets by without the pictures, paper and so on.

Distinguished reviews of 4 colour fancies
I've lost the web address of this but it was reviews of australian comics done by turn of the century (the one before the last one) and it was quite funny, but like the great Comic robot 400 a flash in the pan.

Oh I rememebered the third point - i don't pay that much attention to letterering in comics; since even bad lettering doesn't phase me - as long as its readable I'm happy. Subsequently my usefulness in discerning good letterering is void but I needed to type something.

urgh - aaah - woo

Well THAT was Xmas in our new house. Both families, dined, wined and wined some more. Emma has no appreciation for the concept of portions so we have a whole turkey as left overs.
But the day was good, we had a dinner so we had the whole day to relax and slowly get ready.

AND I GOT A MOTHERFUCKING FOOSBALL TABLE BABY!

I have pictures but they all involve me in my jammy-jams and bad hair.

I hope everyone else got what they wanted and more importantly had a good day.

Nominate, don't celebrate

On to as important stuff. Nothing says Xmas like retail.

And though I think a publically polled best retailer category heavily favours big city stores - i think some sort of recognition is needed for the smart and sexy retailers who support the local gear.

www.phasetwocomics.com
I hope these guys win, though George orders more and i think Bricks and Mortar stores are invaluable to local creators in trying to get more readers, Gavin and Emma have taken a big leap. The actual store is great, the functionality is well thought out (my only wish is if i could skim thrugh titles without having categories, and the front page is an annoying click thru.). Their service is excellent. As a customer and publisher, i'm nothing but very pleased. Hands down - coolness.

http://www.kingscomics.com/
George is the man, I've been in the store once and it was very good, clean, decently laid out, books by genre and though I couldn't find Sandman Mystery Theatre #25 (arrgghhh) they regularly order and reorder OzComics magazine with little begging.

www.pulpfictioncomics.com.au
I have to give props to my local boys. Peter runs a very cool shop, walls of Trades in genre, couches, respectable interior decorating, an australian section right by the door, and innovative marketting - a breath of fresh air in Adelaide comics. (they'll have a proper site in the new year)

www.impactcomics.com.au
Any store that has face painting has got to rock. Having regularly signings and festivals featuring local creators is great - i hope these guys stick around and grow. I don't see myself going to canberra anytime soon but if i do - i'll definetly drop around and look for Sandman Mystery Theatre #25.

www.comicswarriors.com
Ian is also a great supporter of australian comics and a smart guy at that. I haven't had as much contact with Ian as I would have liked though but i have an order ready to go. I haven't been to his new shop but the old one was ok, decent selection of back issues, good selection of trades, it needed a bit of a sprucing up but I'm sure the new place is good and I hope to visit it this year.

Merry Xmas People

Well it xmas morning, Em's still asleep, the house smells like chocolate and pine and I just got off the phone with my dad.

Probably left it all a bit late but I'm answering all my xmas emails, so thanks everyone that has dropped me a note, drawn a picture, sent a card or generally thought "hey i hope that Mark Selan has a good xmas".

I just want to thank everyone that's helped out with the magazine this year, with the 24 hour challenge or the messageboard in general. Your help and support has meant a lot and I appreciate it immensely.

A special xmas wave to Doug, Darren, Liz, Ian, Dillon, Avi, Tonia, Matt, Owen, David - you guys rock.

Keep doing the good work and I'll keep supporting it.
If any of my non-comics friends are still reading this ("Why is there are comics award named after Heath Ledger?"), Merry Xmas and thanks for the fun. Me and em were to lazy to do cards this year but we plan on having everyone over in the new year.

Stay safe and slightly tipsy

Nominate, don't hesitate

I'm one of those beautiful people who sees an australian comic buys it, no matter the content, no matter the cover. (please don't send me emails offering me $50 australian comics - that only worked once).

But covers are important, in the overcrwoded environment that is the comic shop, covers play an important role in attracting browsing readers. In Australian comics this is even more so important since there is a lack of name recognition or marketting for the stuff local people release.

Now the actual ledger award is for Favourite Cover Artist but i don't think there would be many artists working locally who would have done more than 2 covers in the year. I'm also ignoring the Woods, Templesmiths, Wilsons, Chaloners because 1)they already get their limelight and 2)I'm only familar with Ben's Singularity 7 covers.

So looking at the covers of this year, which ones looked good and gave me a sense of what the book is about?

Cover Design

Hairbutt the Hippo; Soft Boiled Tales - Jason Paulos
Stylistically its got some nice line work, good use of colours, a van goghey background but the cool thing is you know what type of book you are getting with a cover featuring a mean looking hippo holding a smoking gun - humour and violence. The other thing I like is that if the comic is racked like at a newsagent (half the cover hidden) the browsing customer will still see either the title "Soft Boiled Tales" or the cover image and in both cases get the gist of the book.


Knightesdge #3 - Gary Lau
The actual reproduction is a bit grainy if you get the magnifying glass out, but bloody hell, its a dude licking a bloodied sword - this isn't an adaption of Breakfast at Tiffanys. The smart inset of the hero and lover on the cover gives a nice hint of danger and romanace too. The colours pop something fierce of the rack. Top Notch.


BellyFlop - Nathan Soehardi
2 colour printing at its best and look how cute it is! The perfect shades of blue and a great use of text. i think the only problem is that in a rack, with the title halfway down, this mini-comic would just look like a square of blue. That out the way - look how cute it is!


Bloom - Matt Huynh
The kids would say that the colouring on this is 'da bomb', then those kids would get punched for sounding like an old man trying to be cool. There's so much cool stuff going on; the sun, the moon, the flying lightbulb, the bunny rabbit, the HORDES of sheep, a nice sense of movement showing a sense of 'journey'. It seems random but it all ties in nicely, plus its a thick shiny stock which is always nice.


Once Upon a time - Various
The actual image is pretty - it does show its an anthology with all its little thumbnails, its not incredibly eye popping but the border around the thumbnail draws in the eye, and as i said in the Design category - i do like the glossiness and
thickness of the cover.


Others
I didn't mind the Watch covers by McKenny, the individual images themselves don't do much for me but in concert they look ok - giving a sense of evolution, and the margins are a good design feature.
Artistically, Reed's Crumpleton covers are good, but a bit too detailed and subsequently busy to distinguish on the rack. And though self serving Sommariva's cover for Issue 3 of the OzComics Magazine is hard to go by.

Nominate, don't rotate

I love new stuff. New stuff is cool. Everyone loves new stuff that's why xmas is so popular - they get new stuff. If people liked old stuff there'd be a holiday were you'd run down the stairs and under the tree would be nothing except an arrow and a sign that said "look around this stuff already belongs to you - enjoy".
But that would suck and would never catch on, except the pinkos they'd love it.

So we like new stuff, but I like to see new talent, especially new comic talent, watching them grow, seeing what they bring new to the table.

Problem of course is with australian comics and creators, especially those starting out, they tend to hide in their rooms and not show anyone their art, subsequently actually discovering new talent is hard.

But that aside,
So who's comics work excites me, who have i got my eye on for the future. Who deserves recognition in the Ledger's awards? Well everyone! but specifically

NEW TALENT DESERVING WIDER RECOGNITION

Chelsea Fritzlaff

The thing I like about manga is that it brings female creators to the mix, Chels doesn't do manga but she's female and i want to read the stories she has to tell, she's not some 30 year old, D'n D playing, scifi junkie fellow, we've had enough of those (me included). Chels is different from most creators around and i'm sure has some wickedly interesting stories to tell. Plus her art is funky as, so she's got the skills as well.

Loren Morris

http://onegreyelephant.deviantart.com/
(I don't think Deviant art allows for art linking - check out her account for stuff)
Loren is a girl too and she DOES do manga, her series "Interior" is pretty cool, a bit Matrixy (reality within reality) but the art is great. She's released about 5 minis with limited distribution, been in Moshi Moshi but I still think she's flying under the radar of some. Her 24 hr challenge peice was pretty excellent too.

Wen Huang

Another female that does manga - people will talk!
Wen does one of the more interesting titles in Oztaku - Always Play. I find it dynamic and inventive, I wish that she'd pull in the reins every now and again (sometimes the asides, breaking the 4th wall is used too readily and cheaply - its distracting and amatuerish) but its cute and funny.

Rodrigo

(This pic was all I could find but I've seen better, if anyone can point me to a better example, please do so)
Oh my god, a fella! I don't think Rodrigo is his real name but he used to post on the Ozcomics board and at www.phosphorescent.com.au. At first he was branded a Mcfarlane/medina clone, but for a 16 year old I expect that. But in the last year the spawn look has slowly drained from his pages, he is getting a style of his own and its pretty cool, I can see him at Marvel or Dc at some point.

Troy Keally

Troy does some good work, the best car chases and crashes in the business. His heads always seem to be too big and his stories seem a bit melodramatic (uncomfortably so) but the "Cook off" story in "eat Comics' showed a different side to his skills and I hope he pursues this or at least brings those sensibilities to his future "Owen" series

Close calls
David Li
"gaz"

Nominate, don't eat whitebait

Wow, going to do something completely unoriginal and talk about the Ledgers. You know about the Ledgers - its an award for Australian comics and I'm talking them; I'm talking about the books I've enjoyed, the people who have done good work and need congratulating.
If you haven't heard of a title or creator - look'em up, hell, do something crazy like buy them - it'll be appreciated. Phase2 has the majority of titles I've mentioned.

Anyway, anthologies are cool when they work, and risky and tedious when they are crap. The next issue of ozComics Magazine (pluuuug) is all about anthologies and people working together to create comics. So with that in mind, what anthologies did me likes in 2004;

ANTHOLOGY OF THE YEAR
Killeroo; Book 2

Much better than book 1, in terms of content. i prefer Killeroo in short stabs, having some sort of big overarching and serious story with Killeroo is a bit dumb; unless Darren goes all Dave Sim on us and has Rufus go on some sort of 300 issue meta-odyssey; where author and creation become less and less distinct (madness optional, but preferable) but I can dream. The first story with Badowers art was quite good even great, and though the story cliched and slight, it still worked because it got in late and left early. Damien story was a bit of OK, nice art but pretty forgettable, same with Andie Tongs piece. Paulos did some madcap stuff, that was funny so it can't be ignored. On the whole all the stories held their own to some degree (translation none of them were total crap); there was laughs and thrills and it featured many different styles of work by a wide range of people. its a bloody well rounded book.

Dark Woods

It was a freebie at the Dark Woods exhibition, the actual exhibition was OK, but i would have preffered to see comic art presented as comic art and not some sort of comment on the reproductivity of comic art, but that's beside the point. But the catalogue is good stuff, alot of creators i hadn't heard of doing some interesting stuff. tabloid newspaper size and free and that ain't bad. As you can imagine, some of it was arty, and with a total lack of people hitting each other may make people say its wanky. But i liked it.

Knee Pockets; book 2

I was a big fan of book 1 and i had real high expectations for Book 2. i think the majority of the work is high quality but i think there are some big errors in there that really hold it back. The 'drink spiking/panty stealing' story sticks out like a sore thumb and i think was an error in judgement, the pages and pages of contributor notes, quotes and pics were a bit much and it gets a bit much telling the same 'oh girlfriend number 3 broke up with me' story a couple of times in the same issue. But the highlights are just brillant. i keep saying it everytime i talk about Kneepockets 2, but 'far away star' is the best short story ever, "when we were friends" is gold. Tang's art is just so cool, his writing is great; he can write about the small things so well and interestingly you can't but help smile. I am fully hanging out for Knee Pockets #3, so Tang get a girlfriend and break up with her quickly. (and get your stuff to Phase2 already; its avaialable at Kings though)

Sporadic #4

This is another quality book but it suffers from 'the art is great, the writing is ok' syndrome. Its too sporadic, if it wasn't for the varied but incredibly good art it wouldn't have been in my top five. Its an enjoyable read, that just needs some focus (ie just for me)

Eat Comics

Man its a toss up between Eat Comics and Tonia Waldens' "Once upon a time", but i think this pips the other by being longer (page count) and having more substantial stories. Troy's Iron Chef thing is probably the best, but Liz's and Stikman's piece is hard to go by, Jase Harper always delivers and the Cuisine Cops muppet story is great. Some were a bit of meh but on the whole it was enjoyable.

the rest
Otherwise Oztaku is good because its great, if not excellent, value, the distribution is top notch and some of the stories are really good; Li's and Kerr's and some have good art or writing but not both which is hard to get through, but the major let down is the editorial aspects, its amatuer and embarrassing, in book 2 its expressed that its meant to be amatuer but thats a bullshit excuse; amatuer sports people don't go out and fuck around on the grounds; the creators are doing good work and taking it seriously, so should editorial.

Ink 2 is also ok, but i preffered issue 1. Book 2 didn't leave much impact on me. I'd like to nominate "you stink and I don't" but since its a single creator that'll appear in other categories.

Tommorrow, more stuff

Nominate, don't gestate

I started out in multimedia as a cameraman and then programmer. I then tried my hand at design but generally sucked, now a big part of my job is criquing web designs and whatnot. i think know good design; my shirts always match my ties and um sometimes I can look at stuff and say "hey i like that, that's good design" and people will nod and murmur agreement.

Design and Presentation of the year

The Watch: Casus Belli

Nice glossy pages, full colour, consistent 'themed' cover art. Nice professional editorial content. Can't go passed it. It may not be 'different' or special compared to Marvel's or DC's output, but when you consider how many full colour books there are outside of the Big 4, its quite the achievement.

Killeroo; Book 2

Its a close call between this and the Watch. Stylisticly, where the WatcH travels a regular road, Darren has made more choices to try and compete with the 'big guys' by being different from other B/W books. Yes, make your jokes about 'shite brown' but you know what else is 'shite brown' - heaps of cool stuff like dark beer, weathered leather and cool rocks. While the cover image is a bit 'meh'(but i think it'll always be hard to compete with Templesmith's first cover), the cover stock is nice and thick, the paper stock nice and hardy and there are some really good pinups pieces.

Keychain comics

Mini mini comics. a great idea, its cheap, effective and kind of cool. It would make a great gift. I hope these become a regular release.

Once Upon a time

Probably the best Do it yourself mini comic I've seen; card stock, glossy photo papee, glue, nice interior paper, it's all stuff you can steal or have people steal from work. And togerther its all effective and gives the reader something extra; like Donald Bookers Cesspool, The xray covers just set it out from the pack.

Domino Joe

Its not A5 but its still half A4, ohhhh, mysterious. I think there was only a handful printed and its a bugger to store but its cool just by the fact that its different. And the pencil toned colouring is pretty cool as well.


Knee Pockets was a close call, but the 12 pages of contributor notes was a bit wasteful, though the Contents page was very cool, the cover was ok but nothing special - though the cover stock was nice. The Batrisha diecut coffin shaped books are way cool but I think it was released in 2003 and not eligible. And from what I saw Generations was a nice looking presentation but I only flicked thru it and my memory is hazy.

Nominate, don't gyrate

The Ledger march continues - one of the weird categories in Ledger land was Best/Favourite Person.

I don't understand the difference between Person and Achievement; especially the person behind the acheievement is getting the award - unless 'Supanova' gets the award and gets to put it on the 'supanova mantle' in the 'supanova house'. But I'll play along, I know how to play along.
(images are the courtesy of respective google image search)

Person of the Year

Me

Bloody hell, I'm great (i think i'm getting a handle on this blogging thing). I like myself heaps and you would to, if you were me.

Tonia Walden

Her work on producing the "Once upon a time" and "Eat Comics" anthologies needs to be commended. Its clear she's not doing it for profit or even to break free it seems (i'm guessing) - I can only assume she's doing it for love and we need more of it. Looking forward to the Pirate anthology.


Dillon Naylor

For being enterprising and creative chap. Look, its all been said before so there is no need to rehash.


Doug Holgate

Like Donald Duck; bum up - head down, scouring the sludge that is comics looking for opportunities and avenues to GET STUFF DONE. And every now and again he makes a squabbling sound in RAGE but is still kind enough to always give Huey, Louie and Dewey (and other comic creators) advice. And apparently he looks cute in a sailor outfit.


Jason Rand

Comic Creator Rule #23 - To write comics for the American market you have to go to America, know someone in the biz and then beg, cheat and steal. Jason breaks the rule. His debut in writing comics is for one of Image's more acclaimed titles, Small Gods, and that's pretty cool.

Nominate, don't await

Same as yesterday, to award the ledger's Gary needs nominations, these nominations then form a list that people vote for; whoever and whatever gets the most votes wins.

International Title of the Year
There was a nice big list on ozcomics telling me which oz creators were working on what - but it wouldn't have helped much since writing done my list of international titles I bought only gave a list of 7 or so.


Order of the Beasts

The first couple of Elseworld stories were good; Norm's Holy Terror, mignola's Gotham by Gaslight, but then they just got dumb. Order of the Beasts takes back the Elseworld line to goodness. I saw Eddie's painted pages for this last year and they looked lush, printed even better. The story itself is good, but it seemed short, that either they got pages taken away by editorial or Daren was trying to fit too much in or maybe I'm just wrong, I dunno. It was still written very well and I hope the Brisbane trio; Daren, Eddie and the other Bloke get to do some more work for DC.

Egg Story

A little graphic novella (with a spine!) released by Slave Labour by J. Marc Schmidt, unfortunatly this went under most local's radars, and its a shame because its a great cute book. The life story of an egg captured and taken from its mother escapes the fridge and becomes a ninja. The ninja stuff (this is hard for me to say) is a bit dumb but the book is so sweet you can't help but smile. Hope we see more work from mr j.

Singularity 7

You know when you go to a film and you expect it to be crap and when its not, its a pleasant surprise and you end up liking the film. Well I wasn't expecting Ben Templesmith's Singular 7 to be crap, i just wasn't expecting too much. Ben's art is really great, i think his story telling is a bit dodgy and subsequently didn't hold much stock in his writing. Fears banished - it was really good. Its a simple story, end of the world apocalypse stuff and the characters aren't spectacular or well defined but there are enough twists and "oh cool" moments to carry it along. All the good bits of the Matrix trilogy (all 45 minutes of them) in a comic. And the presentation by IDW is really nice. Hunt this down in single issues because IDW tends to have expensive trades.


Small Gods

Another Surprise, written by Sydney Lad, Jason Rand. I was turned off by the psychics aspect of the story, I think that sort of stuff is too much of a crutch, but reading the first story arc, guess what, i was surprised. The telepathy and whatnot is just a trigger, that the story flows from not a cheap device that keeps the plot moving and tries to be interesting. The characters are well rounded, dialogue crisp - all in all good writing. The art is ok, not keen on photo-realism that it sometimes leans towards, makes it a bit flat, but its ok. A trade will be out next year, if memory serves me correctly.

District X
David Yardin did some nice work in this, you can tell its been well reasearched because every detail seems important, it all gives atmosphere. The plotting was a bit slow for my tastes and it felt stretched out too much but that might be just me. I didn't mind the ending even if it felt slightly hollow. David did issues 1,2,4,5 (I think) and Medina, the fill in artist, wasn't up to scratch. Yardin at the moment is working on some graphic Novels , for the really nice Realm of the Claw series which looked beautiful when it was first released.

Also consider, Nicola Scott's great art in Star Wars 27 and 28 (or 28 and 29), Gary Chaloner's John Law trade from IDW (shipping hopefully 31st of December), PC's the watch and if you are desperate Doug Holgate did some grey washing in Daisykutter #3. I haven't read it but Shane McCarthy did some Batman work (I think in Detective and Legends of the Dark Knight) and Ashley Wood did some work for IDW this year (popbot and solid snake). And I keep meaning to pick up Hawaiian Dick but I'm slack but the art looks right up my alley.

nominate don't procrastinate

Nominations for the Ledgers ends January 7th and I hope people plan on nominating books and then when the times come - votes. I think its important books and creators get the recognition; especially at an industry.

At this point my suggestions for Achievement of the Year or Person of the Year (i'm still not sure what the difference is)

1) Dillon Naylor getting Batrisha merchandising into Target.
People say that Dillon is making his own road, i dunno, i think he's looking at what other people outside of comics are doing, proper businesses and then adapting what he finds. Next year he'll most likely get nominated for either the Batrisha ride at MovieWorld, the Batrisha live action film starring Natalie Portman or his deal with Pixar.

2) Gavin and Emma for Phase 2
We all bitch and moan about distribution and here two great people have done something to fix it. I know from OzComics Magazine point of view its been quite successful. It incredibly well thought out (technically and functionally).

3) Ryan Vella for the 'he died with a fallelfel in his hand' graphic novel
I usually don't think nominating people publishing books as an achievement; since thats what creators are supposed to be aiming for and doing. But Ryan got a graphic Novel out by a proper book publisher in all book stores. Here's hoping its a first.

4) Avi and the Oztaka distribution.
Say what you will about the actual books (and the actual contnet isn't that bad its more the editorial decisions that are suspect - but i may get in to that later). Getting it in Borders and Electronic Boutique, getting Madman ads, its pretty bloody impressive.

5) Leigh Rigozzi and Sarah Howell for the Dark Woods Exhibition
Taking comics and comic art to regional Australia. Though I think it didn't show much of a range of art; essentially Tassie alternative types I think more people saw that exhibition than those who visited Artist Alley at Supanova.

Otherwise I think in a business sense Danny is doing great things with Supanova, George should get props for Kings Comics and the support he gives local publishers. Ben Howard for publishing Australia's first completed full colour mini series - quite the achievement and more importantly the Creator Owned Line.

Comics, more like comehics

Actually, it wasn't all that bad.

Picked up a couple of series that did rock my world and made me think, yes comics are ok.



Planetes
Just brilliant. Young man in space trying to find direction; finds love instead. Its just like The Graduate, but instead of boning an old woman he floats around in space picking up garbage. The art is really nice but the storytelling is just phenomenal! The story telling devices Makato uses are quite diverse but spot on for each situation.
Its a real joy to read, and i think its going to be a classic.



Street Angel
I like this cause its published consitently but more than its actually clever. Usually I'm not keen on genre mixing; its a western on the moon! i find its usually just fanboy wankery, covering up bad punchlines and poor characters. But i'm boring like that.
Anyway, Street Angel is good, really fresh, Issue 2 features an Irish astronaut that speaks in an Australian accent because everyone likes Australians. And there's ninjas, nintendo playing ninjas. Each issue has gotten darker and darker - which gives me hope that there is a reason for the madness in the first couple of issues. If not played right this could be one the biggest dissappointment of 2005. Until then, bring it on.


Y - the last man.
Vertigo was starting to look stale and once Preacher finished nothing was really striking me as interesting. The first couple of Transmetropolitan trades were OK but then i read they got worse so i didn't bother to go past volume three. I'm having trouble getting into Morrison's Invisibles, more so because of the art. I picked up the first couple issues of Losers and it was 'meh', the Hunter magician books looked lame. So i didn't go rushing towards the Vertigo stand at the comic shoppery. Then (god i'm long winded) I picked up the first 2 Y trades cheap. And it was good, the pace is cracking the characters are varied and feel true. Whilst i'd like to see some bigger picture stuff - not just centred around Yorrick (and I can do with the fanboy pop culture references) looking forward to volume 5.


Usagi Yojimbo
Its kind of embarrassing admitting that i read comics about a samurai rabbit but i went cold turkey after the ending of Lone Wolf and Cub I needed some samurai action. Ebay gave me the Usagi love cheaply. Been grabbing trades since and loving it. The pacing, dialogue, the plot - all gold. If it didn't have a cute little bunny rabbit as its main character people would be stepping over issues of Ultimates trying to get a copy.


Wildcats
Casey seems to always try something different, in popbot he tried too hard and alienated people. Wildcats , though, hit the spot. Dustin Nuygen's art is beuatiful and the cover design is the best in the field. I wish this got the acclaim and sales that ex machina is getting and i hope people see the stylistic connection between the 2 series and hunt down the Wildcats trades, giving DC the message to finish off the series in trades.

Otherwise other great reads are Palomar, Blankets and Summer Blonde (I'm a sad git)

Legion of the meh
-sleeper; season 1 rocked, starting season 2 was a mistake
-blade of the immortal; the art is just gorgeous but its dragging on a bit and would read so much better in trades
-Iron Wok Jan; its wearing a bit thin
Otherwise not a lot really since i don't mind dropping crap comics, which is different from me in the 90s were i'd hope "it'll get better, it'll get better"

Comics are for kids and everyone else.

I only recently figured, as of this month (roughly) I've been collecting and loving comics for 15 years.
There's very few things I've done/ had/ known consistently for 15 years.
1) I've known my parents for longer
2) I've had hair on my balls for longer (just)
3) I've had the same country road coat in my closet for longer
4) I've been a nail biter for longer

My first comic I bought was the first Predator comic in late 1989


(Truth be told my first comics I bought were the Star Trek III and Last StarFighter movie adaptions in 1983)

I was 14 and a graphitti artist, an incredibly shit one, who was only allowed to do fill-in work, I was much too impatient and uncreative to do any line work (except tags). I may track down some pics of stuff I did. Anyway, i thought i would boost my cred and track down some Vaughn Bode stuff. Ending up at the adeliade comic shop, i met the crankiest comic shop ever - who called me an idiot (but later gave me a job) and found some cheech wizard comics. Walking out I spotted the Predator comic.

And it was cool, or KEWL and RAD as was the trend of the day.

The Predator series took its time coming out, so i'd visit the shop daily. This was also the time of Batman hysteria, which i got caught up in. I bought Trades of the Dark Knight Returns and Arkham Asylum. Simply blown away.



And I was hooked, I started collecting.
The first series I collected was Detective Comics, Norm's art just rocked my brain (it still does). Looking back Grant's stories were a bit hookey but I was easily amused.


I then branched out into Batman, Legends of the Dark Knight (the other DC heros did not really interest me), then skipped over to the Marvel side of the shop, X-men, Spiderman, Hulk.

I then grabbed stuff like eightball, hate, the tick, sandman. My love was well rounded.

Funny thing; this year i almost quit. I was growing bored of everything. With the cancellation of X-statics, its the first time in that 15 years I haven't collected a Marvel comic. Previous to that my last DC Universe comic was Lanning and Abnett last issue of Legion.

There were few comics I wanted to commit to as a monthly purchase. And nothing from the majors really captured my interest. Wildcats was cancelled, Bone finished, Eightball and Sin City irregular, all the superhero titles were all tired and dumb. Those titles from my youth that got my interest had gone or simply didn't (wanker alert) grow with me.

I would just pack up my long boxes and cancel my subscription.
Thankfully, I found something new.

Movies, more like mehvies

I went to the cinema 10 times this year.

According to the IMDb site; release for 2004 I made the effort and so 8 films. In the year.
And it wasn't much of an effort, i think more than half of those i saw because i had free tickets.

Me and em used to go once a week. Em goes more often now; because of her job she gets lots of free tickets but usually to crappy films or horror so i stay home.

Anyway, picking five good films out of the 10 is going to be embarrassing.


Big fan of the first one and of Matt Damon. Though the car chase at the end was ok, it was bit of a rehash of the one in the first film. This was not a disappointment.


Just spectatcular, gets a bit dull at the end. The better fight scenes are at the beginning so the end drags slightly, but still very good. And Zhang ziyi is the hotness. Paid to see this one and it wasn't even tuesday.


I have no problem with Tom Criuse, he on the whole makes entertaining films. And though this is white man saving other people, its got samurais in it. Samurais make everything good! And the Ken Wannabe dude is great.


Shut Up!
It was surprisingly good. I'm a sucka for dance scenes in movies and this had a great one in the middle. The ending was sickeningly sweet though, but the male actor, Mark ruffalo (i think) did a great job of not looking like a tool and Jennifer Garner is cute as a button.


Some nice action scenes. Will Smith just played himself which was disappointing. The effects were nice. Needed a dance scene.

Otherwise, just a lot of meh
- hellboy; meh
- spiderman 2; meh
- van hesling; meh
- troy; ; meh
I left the cinema on those occassions completely 'meh'. Not bored, angry, satisfied, entertained - just 'meh'. Sigh.

And the worst film was Underworld. The crappiest thing I have ever seen. Absolutely no redeeming features.

On the other hand; films i want to see but didn't
Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
Day after Tommorrow
Shaun of the dead
Anchorman; legend of ron burgundy
Shrek 2

do these make my ankles look big?

As always I'm conflicted;
Designer elephants
in one way it could be argued that this is some horrible joke directed at those that say that designer clothes modelled on skinny women invokes an unreal and sometimes unattainable portrait of modern women "right you don't want skinny models, here!"
or
its another example of the explotative use of animals for our wown banal entertainment.

But then come on its elephants wearing really big clothes; the elephants modelling the manolo shoes is the best.

Democracy is so cool until...

people get it wrong.

Sure a couple wrong political parties got voted in this year, but casey totally won Idol this year and that dude from Broken Hill won Big Brother so public taste is trustworthy.

But just in case,
vote for Batrisha by Dillon Naylor
or
Phunkie Monkey by Alex Major (I think, can anyone confirm?)

at the Kzone Comic Poll thingy

Now i'm not sure if this always the case but when there is an sms line and an internet poll; smsii are worth more. But don't quote me on that i most likely am wrong.


And also go nominate books at the Ledger Awards, there was a lot of good books that came out this year and it would be a same if they weren't recognised. And though I think that because Australian comic distribution is poor Juries should be voting winners not the public, its still an effort that needs supporting.
There's a month left to nominate.

I just got a whole load of books from Phase 2 comics so i may be posting some suggestions later

Korea Haim was Cool

So i sent off the package of books and uploaded the flyers. During that particular month i was also working on issue 5 of the magazine, trying to get it ready for supacosplay in Brisbane and renovating my new house so it was a hectic month.

The Bucheon Comic book fair took place in the middle of october and in terms of what I know this is it;
-the books and promotional material were recieved and liked.
-people around the office liked Batrisha
-eclectica press sent 80 books, i'm not sure if that was 80 different titles or 16 different titles (with 5 copies each=80)
-I had talked to Ben Howard from Phosphorescent to give their books a translated traetment but Ben was hitting the convention curuit and I believe heading of to a P.Diddy party. Nonetheless I think he sent some books over.
-The eclectica stuff was well recieved by the local artists
-Oni comics also had a presence.
-Again Batrisha was well recieved by kids and families
-very few international creators got publishing deals, and those that did were all there in person, specifically a creator with the first name daniel from canada.

I still intend to try and get some more info but that's all I got, so sorry for those involved.
Your books, if they weren't picked up for reading by a publisher, are now residing in the Bucheon Cartoon library, i did also ask for any excess books be sent to any English language schools in the area but have no idea if this was done.

But I was invited to go to next years event, not "here's a room and a plane ticket" invite though. I was told that it would be romantic, i'm guessing that this a error in translation, but i'm hoping. I may do it all again next year , if i do I'll most likely try and get my own booth and print out all the materials locally and ship them with the books. I probably won't go next year, the plan is to go to the US but in 2007 I want to do some of the Asian countries and may try and fit in the Book fair.

My Brilliant Korea

I had arranged with Joelle, the representative from the Bucheon Comic Book fair to print out some posters and flyers for the Australian books I was sending over and upload them to a file server.
As was the Deal with Joelle, i had five copies of each book that i was sending over (i was quite astonished that it only cost $110 to send a massive box overseas) featuring;
-Batrisha
-Crib Allan
-Hairbutt the Hippo; Softboiled Tales
-How to save the world; a beginners guide
-Killeroo (1 and 2)
-Knee Pockets (1 and 2)
-Tales from Under the Bed.

Unfortunately Matt Huynh sent Bloom in too late for me to translate and design promotional materials for; as did Dave Kerr and World's Away. But they were included anyway.

Ok, onto the stuff (remeber some of the files are large and these are not final versions)

Hairbutt Poster - This was a tricky one that involved a bit of photoshopery. It could have been easy to ask the various creators if i could have their working files but 1) time was of the essence 2) i didn't want to waste people's time just in case it was for naught. I don't mind the top text (translated means soft boiled tales) the bottom text is a bit 'meh' but it needed to say Hairbutt the Hippo somewhere on the poster. With translation theres a matter of trust; i'm hoping that Sunny translated "soft-boiled" tales to be a pun of whatever Koreans call "hardboiled" stories. Though i think it would be cool if publishers expected stories about runny eggs and got hippo violence.
Hairbutt flyer - I was actually kind of worried doing stuff for Jason Paulos, afraid that he would rip me a new one for creating crappy work. i had just finished doing an interview with him for issue 5 of the Ozcomics Magazine (cough plug) and he was not afraid to let loose in his responses. But in the end he was really happy with it. This was the last one I created and i had very little in the way of images to fill it up with.I think all of the flyers would have been better as a5s instead of a4s but i didn't want Joelle have to be cutting up pages for the annoying australian fella.

Tales from Under the Bed poster - again an early translation,that had the problem of Doug being actually creative and hand lettering the cover. By not using the products of Richard starkings or Blambots its obvious Doug hates comics.
Tales from Under the Bed flyer - me and doug chat pretty much daily and is an incredible cool fellow and not the bastard he comes across as; he's like a food that's all crunchy and tough on the outside but all soft and spongy on the inside but with more hair (first person that names that food wins a prize!). With this in mind, i feel like a wanker that i buggered up the pamphlet; its way too busy but i was trying to show off the really good story telling inherent in Doug's work. Note that in the final version the bottom right side of the flyer had Doug's bio and on a whole the text was darker and more readable.

How to save the World poster - me and Owen meet up and drink once a month; well I drink and Owen looks nervous. At this stage i was really comfortable with using the Korean alphabet and was able to create characters pretty quickly. The best bit is that "How to save the world" comes out to 9 different shapes, very efficient.
How to save the World flyer - the hardest part of the flyer was getting decent images to make it look interesting. I think i sort of achieved that, i think you get a sense of each of the characters. Probably needs more colour but all the art i had access to was B/W and though i haven't tried my colouring skills most likely are crappy.

Crib Allan poster - I think this came out the best. Frank Weber is the coolest; he even lets me call him by his real name every now and again without berrating me. I owe him $100 for crib allan sales and dinner so i made a decent effort with his work; like 111% effort instead of like 110% for everyone else. It doesn't hurt that Crib Allan (look Frank he comes the pity party) is probably one of my favourite australian comics and at least top ten favourite graphic novels (hmm idea for future post).
Crib Allan flyer - this flyer is probably my favourite, everything looks just right. It took me ages to find the right art but i was able to pick some of my favourite bits of the book. I had the "Cmon Jojo" dialogue translated, and even Jojo's 'ook' got the Korean treatment. Thing is though that Frank sent me original colour art to include in the flyer or poster and for the life of me i couldn't fit it in. I'll post it up one time, maybe but it was some good stuff.

Whoop - tommorrow if i'm not hungover, the results of the Korean thingy

The Korean job

In the middle of this year I was approached by a representative (Joelle) of the Bucheon Comic book Fair in Korea to source some Australian books for the show. The Bucheon Insititute is essentially the Korean Comic University and every year they have a bookfair where publishers from all over Asia check out books and artists. Sounded interesting,I posted something up on the Ozcomics board and was met with tumbleweed and chirping crickets.

Fast forward to July, i start corresponding with Sunny Kwon, a Korean student in Sydney to do her Masters in Art Management, specifically in Australia to study Australian Comic books. Unwisely, she was using me for an insight into Australian comics.

Then the penny dropped and while i looked under the couch looking for said penny, i thought "hey, i don't need a penny". Later, when i was taking a dump, I thought "Hey, maybe i can get Sunny to help me with the whole Korean bookfair thingy".

Emails back and forward between Sunny and Moi, between Moi and Joelle (Bucheon representative) and Moi and cool comic people, i had organised a bunch of books to be sent over to korea, had dodgely created some posters and flyers and had them translated.

Some of these will have large file sizes so beware and most of these are not final versions so cut me some slack. The posters were a3 sized, flyers a4.
Killeroo Poster - a bit shit, this was the first one i did and the whole Korean font thing was not working for me
Killeroo Flyer - way better

Knee Pockets Poster - I flipped David's cover around, the was a reason at the time - trust me, and because my timelines were so short ( i left everything to the last minute) when he asked to have it flipped back i couldn't comply, no offense was intended, Sorry David.
Knee Pockets Flyer - Without doubt, 'Far away star' is my favourite short comic ever, i tried to buy the original for my collection but silly technology-savvy Tang does it all photoshop style. In the story, theres a reference to Eddie Murphy in the Golden Child, i had asked Su nny to replace the media reference to something more Koreanccentric and her reply was "Koreans should know who eddie murphy is, get da fuck outta here, hergh hergh hergh". The actual text on the flyers, in all cases, is a description of the book and a bio of the creator.

Batrisha Poster - The biggest hurdle with redoing the covers to include the korean text was that the korean font I had was pretty boring so I had to push my Illustrator skills to the limit; which in reality means using more than 3 colours and changing the stroke width. Batrisha was one of the last ones i did and subsequently is not as great as it should be, thankfully Dillon is a good sport and will not be unleashing his horde of fans on me.
Batrisha Flyer - The weird, (but highly innovative!!) shape of the book pushed my shit design skills, but i don't mind the final result. I think in the final version the dialogue on the page was translated (it was 3 months ago - i can't remember what happened yesterday). Trying to remember but i think the translation of the title is something like; "Vampire girl Batrisha" - instead of "Batrisha, the vampire girl". Language is a beautiful, multilayered thing.

So I don't blow my load early and look like a wanker, part 2 tomorrow; Crab Allen, How to save the World, Hairbutt the Hippo and the feedback.

Welcome, as accustomed as i am to public speaking

Well then. That's simpler than it should be.

I had always, well in the last 2 months or so, intended to start a blog, the date i had in mind was for the new year. With the closure of the ozcomics forum i no longer have a place where i can rant, pass judgement or attempt humour in public.

So.....

ahem...

hello.

Welcome.

I'm hoping that this blog will uphold the beauty of online publishing where i can tell you about what i had for breakfast, share really bad poetry and not look like too much of a wanker. And I fully intend to post more than 8 times.

fingers crossed