Wednesday, December 22, 2004

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"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

err.. graff? hahaha

It's "Fritzlaff"!

But thanks, man. Much appreciated.

Mark Selan said...

aaarghh - i do it everytime!

Sorry - its been edited.