Created by Jimmy Bancks in 1921, Ginger Meggs is currently being celebrated in an exhibition at the Sydney Museum. The Ginger Meggs comic below featured in the children's four page Sunbeams supplement accompanying Melbourne paper The Sun News-Pictorial published 9th December, 1944.
Mystery New Zealand Cartoonists #2 Dennis Clarke
Presumably self published by Bodgie Print Co. in Auckland, 1979, Pacer Comics by Dennis Clarke is one of the most fascinating New Zealand comics I've found from this era. Drawn in a scratchy line that brings to mind European cartoonists like Sergio Toppi and some of the loose experimental work of Alberto Breccia, Pacer Comics features three stories, ELX, The Enchantment of Pentreath, and The Kiwi Once Did Fly. The printing in this comic is a bit poor in places, making some of the scratchy images and text hard to decipher, regardless this is a quite an interesting comic and accomplished production, possibly not Clarke's first? It doesn't seem to be influenced by any mainstream comics available in New Zealand at the time either and very different from anything else I'm aware of coming out of New Zealand in the 1970's. Does anyone know Dennis Clarke? Or is anyone out there familiar with his work?
ELX is an adventure story with the lead character exploring fantasy realms in a clash with Death. Vaguely an Antipodean Doctor Strange with science fiction elements?
The Enchantment of Pantreath is a six page wordless almost abstract in places comic. I'm not sure but it could be from the perspective of a psychiatric hospital patient experiencing nightmare visions.
The Kiwi Once Did Fly is subtitled From Maori Mythology and features the most straight forward story featuring the son of a Tohunga Aorangi and the Birdwoman.
13 Comics you can buy at Sticky Institute Right Now
A selection of comics currently available from The Sticky Institute, 10 Campbell Arcade, Degraves Subway, Melbourne.
Mystery New Zealand Cartoonists #1 UPDATE: John Cecil Hill
Digging through boxes and folders of treasure that threaten to engulf my apartment, I've accumulated a few New Zealand cartoonists that I'm seeking information on. I have biographical notes for some of them but would appreciate any new information folk might have on these artists. I found these 1937 cartoons in a custom bound collection titled Political Cartoons. They were compiled for the New Zealand Minister of Employment in Labour's first cabinet, Hubert Thomas Armstrong. The volume contains cartoons from The Evening Post, The Auckland Star and The New Zealand Herald. The Collection is filled primarily with the work of Sir Gordon Minhinnick but there are also many examples from The Auckland Star that are signed J.C.H, a cartoonist completely unknown to me.
Update: Via a FB post by Dylan Horrocks, Kristian Thompson has identified J.C.H. as John Cecil Hill. Kristian pointed to a Victoria University page with brief biographical notes on Hill.
Advice Comics One
Advice Comics 1 is available from the Advice Comics store, I heartily approve of this finely crafted product. (photo yoinked from Three Thousand.)
Sam West writes about Advice Comics 1 at Three Thousand.
Object of beauty:
114pg book, risoprinted at caldera press in melbourne + a two sided dustjacket/poster (katie parrish///michael hawkins) screenprinted by walker mettling in providence, rhode island.
People who produced the solid form:
calderapress.tumblr.com
walkermettling.tumblr.com
What is in it:
new advice from BOYFRIEND (Michael Hawkins), SALLY (Katie Parrish), MULBERT (written by Andrew Connor, drawn by Carla McRae), NICKY MINUS (Nicky Minus), BABY W (Lee Lai), DR. ENTRAILS (Walker Mettling), IGNATZ LAB RAT (Ben Juers), MARY LEUNIG (Mary Leunig) & RAYMOND RAY (Marc Pearson)
