TheComicSpot

TheComicSpot crew speaks to Superheroes and Schlemiels curator Jessica Rynderman about this wonderful exibition at the Jewish Museum of Australia. S+S explores the role of Jews in comics history and highlights some Jewish Australian creators too.(jewishmuseum.com.au)

We also speak to Rebecca Umlauf of Strip Billboard (stripbillboard.com) about her project that takes local comic artist's work and puts it on a billboard for the next year. Oh Yeah - good times!

It's a Rebecca filled hour of comics goodness.

Apologies for the hiss in the first 15 mins of the show - i did all i could to minimise it and it gets better the longer you listen.

The March 09 edition of TheComicSpot goes all capital 'L' literature! John Retallick and Jo Waite talk to the editors of literary journals Going Down Swinging and Meanjin about what it takes to includes comics in the world of literary journals. Are the journals ready to edit comics properly, what sort of content are they and their readers looking for and what barriers are there to publication? Lisa Greenaway from Going Down Swinging and Sophie Cunningham from Meanjin join in the discussion.

Pat Grant and Micheal Fikaris join TheComicSpot crew in the studio for talk about surf comics and comics from the heart. Two big hearted comic makers make this ep a great listen.

Bernard Caleo and myself sat in the studio and called contributors for issue 8 of his Tango anthology. We spoke to whoever answered the phone at the time we were doing it. Great fun!

Wesat done in the studio and i posed the following questions.

In 2008 what was your favourite 1) Australain Comic Creator, 2) Comic Published in Aust, 3)Aust Comic Published Overseas, 4) Self Published Work, 5)Discovery of 2008. We also looked at what happened in and around town in 08 and what was up for 09. Here's to another great year.

I was lucky enough to spend a long weekend in Hobart in October and decided to get to know some of the creators down there. I met some great people and managed to interview Christopher Downes (sirwdchosen.blogspot.com)about his 'Diary of a work in progress' and Matt Coyle (mattcolye.net) about his work in general and his book 'Worry Doll'. After these prerecorded interviews i spoke live to Sarah Howell (barleyhush.blogspot.com) about creating comics community in Tasmania and how moving to Melbourne has impacted on her own art.

In this show Bernard, Jo and I are joined by Pat Grant in the studio to talk about his upcoming show at Brunswick Bound and about his comic background, and via the telephony network I speak to Jess and Grug from Perth. The first couple of Perth comics talk about their works and being picked up vis the web by international publishers. The Bern, Jo and I do some R+R (read and recommended). We mention Word Balloons 8 by Phil Bentley, Something Wierd Quarterly 4 from the sadly defunct Local Act Comics, Guh!3 by Jase Harper, Hollow Fields by Madeleine Rosca and Jo talks about painting skulls!

Bernard Caleo joined me in the studio for a live interview with comic creating legend Eddie Campbell. We had a ball doing the interview. Eddie was gracious with his time and handled us well. Thanks Eddie. He didn't have to deal with us after the show when we gabbled on like teeneagers in excitment as we'd just spoken to our favourite Aust based creator. But after the 40ish minute interview with Eddie we still managed to fit in a Tango Anthology update, a review of J Marc Schmidt's 'Eating Steve' and we also had a chat about the Ugly Drunk and Stupid exhibition that was held during the Melbourne Fringe Festival

In this episode i'm joined in the studio by Jo Waite who tells us about her Tasmanian adventures and in prerecord mode with Bernard Caleo we discuss Bobby Ns new comic Digested. I wrap up the coverage of DoujiCon with interviews with Bobby N (bluetoaster.com), Paul Bedford (the-list.com.au)and Amber Carvan (comicrehab.wordpress.com). There was quite a bit of messing around with this audio file so as a bonus feature i've included some unaired audio i recorded as a back up but for one reason or another never went to air. There's an interview with Trev Wood and Jen Breach about their work Sawbones (sawbonesonline.com), and a couple of discussion Bernard Caleo and i had around Tango and Eddie Campbells new work.

This episode finds me reporting from DoujiCon3 which was held at Trades Hall in July. The small press expo was full of creators pitching their wares. It was a pleasure speaking to them all. This episode features interviews with Jason Franks of Blackglass Press(www.blackglasspress.com), Wen Huang with her book Sweet(spaemakesart.com), Tanya Nicholls and her Baby Books(stormpublishing.net), Ive Sorocuk's wonderful work(superteamnonstop.com),the Moder Gentle from Modern Gentlemen horroe comic (pleasant-productions.com, kiwi Matt Emery with his Let's Kill White People available at comic and other outlets aund the place, and finally Dave Cunning from the now sadly discontinued LocalAct Comics - though great to hear Dave is still creating. A packed show.

Bernard and I were joined in the studio by Manga artist Queenie Chan. We talked about her comic history, her Manga series 'The Dreaming' and working with mega best selling author Dean Koontz on her latest book 'In Odd We Trust'.

Jo Wiate joined me in the studio to speak with Bruce Mutard about his book 'The Sacrifice' published by Allen and Unwin. We were able to have a lengthy conversation about this first volume of the Robert Wells trilogy and to discuss Bruce's methods and thoughts behind the landmark work. It's a brilliant book by the way.

Also in the studio was Phillip Bentley to discuss his thoughts on The Sacrifice and about the latest issue of Word Balloons featuring an interview with Nicki Greenberg.

In reviews Jo and i hightlighted 'Lumpen 3' by Pat Grant (www.patgrantart.com), 'Slow Down' by Rowan Tedge, 'Dumpster' by Neale Blanden, 'Sunken' by Toby Morris and 'Below Tree Level' by Benny Walter and Leigh Rigozzi.

Bernard Caleo and Jo Waite join me in the studio for the first of the regular monthly shows. The DIY Arts program on 3CR were fantastic enough to open up a slot every month for TheComicSpot after the success of the summer series and the regular spot i had been doing on their show.

In the studio we had Mandy Ord speaking about her comic past, her book Rooftops and her methods and influences.

In reviews Jo highlighted 'Bear Hour' by Jennifer Tyers (www.jennifertyers.com) and 'Men of Charity and Reason: Trouble in the Colonies' by Anton McKay from Gestalt Comics.(www.gestaltcomics.com)

Bernard highlighted 'WWTTD'(What Would Tin Tin Do?) by Yanto Ware and 'The Comics Journal 289' featuring a Shaun Tan interview.

I highlighted 'Kickstart' by Jo Waite.

For the final episode of ethe 2007/08 Summer series we went live in the studio one Wednesday morning with a phone interview with Melbourne comic stalwart Mandy Ord and in the studio we had self publisher and animator David Blumenstein.

We thought after talking to publishers and outlining some of the histroy of comics in Melbourne annd for the past year in previous episodes that we wanted to talk to self publishers about there experiences, and about where they saw the playing field developing. With this in mind talking to Mandy about her transition from self publisher to getting published and Davids nakedfella comics work talking about the ego needed for self publishing seemed appropriate.

These initial 6 episodes were fun and paved the way for the monthly program on the DIY Arts program on the last Thursday of every month on 3CR.

Cheers

There's not really an Australian comic publishing industry, but there is a special group of people trying to create one within the confines of our little world. We decided we wanted to speak to these boosters of the medium and pick there thoughts.

Erica Wagner from Allen and Unwin and Dave Cunning from Local Act Comics joined us in the studio to talk about publishing comics in Australia and what they are on the lookout for.

A very interesting discussion ensued.

Enjoy.

For Episode 4 of the 07/08 summer series we decided to do a wrap of what had happened during the year. It was a good chance to put things into perspective and use it for a launching pad for 2008.

There were many good books and events in 07 and it felt like there was a bit of a shift happening in the comic world in Melbourne. We hope that we captured that feeling in the series.

Enjoy.

Listen to Episode 3 - Talking with Phillip Bentley.

If you listened to the first episode you'd know that i have only recently been active in persuing my passion for Australian comics. This wave of interest in comics came during a bout of chicken pox a couple of years ago.

When i started searching around for more information on Australian Comics i found that there wasn't a great deal to be had. There were snippets here and there but nothing that had an overarching narrative so that i could get my head around 'the scene'. I wanted to know what had come in the past, who the players were, who the boosters were, whose tradition i might find myself in the line of. I didn't want just a list of what had been published and when - though that is usefull in its own way. I wanted a riproaring yarn about the geeks, freaks, nerds, outsiders and outcasts that came before me and i wanted to hear tall tales and true. Difficult stuff to come by There was some genre nostalgia material online but that's not really my scene.

There wasn't and hadn't been for some time an Australian comics industry as such. There had been peaks and troughs of creativity. Boom and bust cycles where it looked as though a few voices had been heard above the fracas of the British and US comics flooding these shores. But comics in the literary, underground tradition? Where was i to go? How was i to know?

It was then that i came across Word Balloons. Phillip Bentley's fanzine detailing his time in comics as a reader, collecter, retailer and creator. It also featured long, informed, intelligent and in depth interviews with (gasp) Australian comic creators. I was a pig in mud and loving it.

Word Balloons is a brilliant publication - i've lapped it up. Ask Phillip for your copies - email secondshore(at)yahoo.com. Meeting Phil at the DoujiCon in July 07 was great as i actually got to question him first hand. Jo, Bernard and i took the opportunity to grill him even further when he came into the studio.

Listen to Episide 2 - Nicki Greenberg Interview.

In the second episode of the summer series we invited Nicki Greenberg to come into the 3cr studio to have a chat about her brilliantly executed graphic adaptation of 'The Great Gatsby' published through Allen & Unwin. This is one of the standout book comics published in Australia in 2007.

Nicki came in after Bernard, Jo and myself had the obligatory conversation about what we call these things that we like to read. Comic books, sequential art, grahic novels etc etc.

Nicki Greenberg is fantastic, her book is ace and we loved having a decent conversation with her about her work - including her adaptation of Hamlet that's in the works.

Listen to Episode 1 - Our Comic Origins.

Over the summer of 2007-08 i produced six episodes of TheComicSpot for 3CR 855AM Community Radio in Melbourne.

I enlisted Melbourne comic creators and boosters Bernard Caleo and Jo Waite as my co-hosts.

In this first of six episodes Bernard Caleo, Jo Waite and myself give our comic origin stories. Why we read comics, how we got into comics and what we love about comics - especially Australian comics. We had a ball in the studio. Considering it was the first time we'd sat together in one room to talk about comics i think we did a bang up job.

It goes for an hour, weighs in at around 25Mb and for clarity's sake the show went to air originally on Wednesday 26th Dec 2007 at 9am. It was an auspicious boxing day for all those involved.

On our very first show in December 2007 Bernard Caleo walked into the studio and delivered the delightful ditty unrehearsed and full of flu. I still laugh every time i hear it. And i love the fact that if you listen closely you can hear Jo Waite supressing her laughter in the background. I love it and wouldn't change a thing.