Nominate, don't advocate

huh, what? Oh yeah, sorry do advocate, that's the whole point to these Ledger posts. Advocation! Just like the channel 2.

Artist of the Year

Matt "stikman" Huynh

Picking a group of five for best artist is always going to be hard except i know that it doesn't matter who else is on the list Matt would be first. No question.

Why?

He's inventive - Matt creates stuff like MooQuack; and not just a funny little pin up, but a whole cartoon.

He's got output - last night the most inventive thing i did was put Milo and Ice Magic on top of my Ice Cream. Matt probably created a two page comic. While I'm fiddling with my mp3 player on the train Matt's done a pin up of his favourite band. you got to respect that output.

He's got style - you can spot a stikman comic a mile away; the fat wavey linework, the grey tones and washes, the exaggeration. Its stikman, stikman, stikman.

He's got skills - sure its easy to be inventive, style and have regular output but without the ability it means nothing. Well Matt has got skills, under all that style there's form, the right form, it all makes sense. You don't look at it and think "that doesn't look right" you think "that looks funky right".

http://www.stikman.netica.com.au/


Jason Badower

Jason's work on Killeroo book 2 was phenomenal. though I usually don't like digital artists, I've seen the man sketch and i was even more slack jawed than normal.

Its so dynamic and cinematic. big fan of his work.

Jase Harper

As new kid on the block, he's had a bit of an impact. Winner of the 24 hour comic challenge, producer of Sporadic, Jase leans towards the more cutesy wootsy school of Australian Comic Artists, but he seems to lean towards more of the Rawk side of the cutesy wootsy school, its got a cool darker edge which is pretty appealling.

http://www.jaseharper.com

Daniel Reed

The quiet man of Australian comics, rarely heard from - he'll release very polished issue of crumpleton experiements, give people a wave and then go back to work on the next issue. There's nice detailed realism in his line work but its not so true to life that its emotionless. Its not very dynamic but its a 19th century mystery comic, i'll look for car chases elsewhere. it kind of reminds me of editorials you would see in 100 year old newspapers. (the image is from issue 1, the stuff in 4 shows a lot of improvement)

http://www.crumpletonexperiments.org

Stewart Mckenny

I actually liked the looser cartoonier art style in issue 3, sure it looked a bit rushed but at least it got the story moving towards a conclusion. Stewart also did inks on Eddie Campbell's (god its gives me headaches when i think about it too hard) Captain America issues, that looked cool.

5 is not enough, dammit!
Dillon Naylor's work in the Batrisha books is really nice, the story telling is crisp and design eye catching.
Its been a quiet year for Doug Holgate with only "when we were friends" in Knee Pockets #2 and the "Chupachops wears purple pants" webcomic released this year. Next year will be bigger for Doug and his cutesy wootsey style.
David Li, who does the Magii comic in Oztaku is incredibly good and only misses out in my top 5.
Mandy Ord work would be in the top five but her recent output Dirty little creep and Sensitive little creatures were one panel per page mini comics and i feel a good artist needs to be recognised for their page layouts.