2014 in Review: Pat Grant

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2014?
Really thrilled to be involved in the group that produced the Serco story for the Gobalmail. Turns out it was a landmark piece of journalism — not just comics Journalism — in Australia. I also really enjoyed my role as a producer on a project, particularly with a cartoonist as good as Sam Wallman and the other geniuses involved. I started the drawing on a new book called Ambient Yeast which is, as always, unbelievably fucking difficult. I finished my Phd in comics studies and had my thesis marked by two of my heroes Charles Hatfield (swooon) and Gary Panter (gasp! hot-flush) who said nice things and, more importantly, passed the lousy fucken thing.

What are some of the comics you've enjoyed in 2014?
Andrew Fulton's mini comics about a room-mate who is an amazing ball of flesh. I can't remember what the mini is called but I got it in the mail as a part of the mini comic club and I read it on the toilet and then I tweeted at Fulto while I was on the toilet and he replied while I was wiping. This is the future we're living in.

I also loved the shit out of Sam Alden's book It Never Happened Again, Simon's Megahex, The new Jessie Jacobs one about this couple on a Safari Honeymoon in this amazing fleshy jungle, DeForge's new Lose is great as you'd expect. Jed McGowan's Control Room . Actually, one of the best comics I read this year was an assignment submitted by a student of mine called Meg Oshea she's one to watch. Also totally besotted by the utterly filthy work of another student Nikki Minus. She really stole the show at this comic book reading at the New South  Wales Writer's Centre the other day. Last one who impressed me this year is Chris Gooch who has been sending me stuff all year. Chris is always ambitious and interesting and just keeps getting better. I wish I could work and think as fast as that guy. A lot of my favourite cartoonists these days are younger than me which makes me feel old and past-it.

These lists are so breathlessly compiled so sorry to anyone who was amazing that I forgot. To be honest I spend more time reading non-fiction than I do reading comics, so, what the fuck do I know?

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2014?  
Fargo and True Detective were the most important stories of my year. I really liked seeing the Serial Podcast emerge as the biggest podcast of all time and then overshoot the mark and go a bit stale, all in 12 weeks. It's always thrilling to see a new format becoming what it is in real time. I liked the Chuck Close Exhibition at the MCA in Sydney. Dan Berry's Make it Then Tell Everybody podcast which I was delighted to be on this year. This great gaming podcast called A Life Well wasted. Oh man, I read a fantastic book about the aids epidemic called And The Band Played On which was an incredible and nightmarish journey. I really got into the novelist Lionel Schriver this year after hearing her speak at Ubud Writer's festival in 2013.

What are you looking forward to in 2015?
Me and my sweetie are having a baby in March so I'm expecting to be watching a lot mindless sitcom trash late at night while we poke the little monster to sleep with a soldering iron. Might burn through some nineties stuff like Friends or Seinfeld or something. Hey what about Alf?  That can't possibly be as bad as I remember, right? I'll have to revisit Alf.

I've been plotting and scheming all year to set up an artist-in-residence program for cartoonists based on my experience at the Atlantic Centre for The Arts in 2010. We'll be launching the project in Jan so I can't say much yet but the first event will be in late 2015.

Ambient Yeast

Pat Grant Art

2014 in Review: Jase Harper

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2014?

Finishing and launching my debut graphic novel Awkwood with Milk Shadow Books was a definite highlight. Releasing my travel sketchbook Sketchbound at the Sticky zine fair. Getting to be a guest at ZICS zine fair in Brisbane and Armageddon Expo in Melbourne. Getting to do a bunch of yet to be released work for Jase Frank’s Sixsmiths, including two covers. Being involved in Squishzine Brunstown and the Yeeha exhibition, both through Squishface as well as a page for Dailies through Silent Army.

What are some of the comics you've enjoyed in 2014?

Jesse Jacob’s Safari Honeymoon tops my list,  just amazing, plus Guy Delisle’s Burma Chronicles and Andre the Giant by Box Brown were solid reads.

I’m a bit behind in my local releases but the various Mini Comics of the Month Club, Scott Reid’s I’m Pretty Sure I’m Dying To Hell With It, and the first chunk of Pat Grant’s Ambient Yeast have been highlights. Looking forward to picking up Tim Molloy’s new book as well.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2014?

Sebadoh, King Buzzo and Adalita were highlights gig wise, King Buzzo’s acoustic set particularly blew my mind. Doing a bunch more gig posters and art for the local music scene. Getting to travel back to India with the addition of Nepal and Bhutan was a huge buzz.

What are you looking forward to in 2015?

Working on releasing my next book (or at least the first chapter), doing more collaborative work with other writers and artists and hopefully getting some pitches in front of publishers.

Jase Harper

2014 in review: S.C.A.R.

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2014?
Fuglies being published and its launch, along with the launch of Savage Bitch earlier this year. Our comic story, “Big Red” being published in Oi Oi Oi!

What are some of the comics you've enjoyed in 2014?
The Crossed volume 10, Tarzan – complete Russ Manning newspaper strips volume 3, Red Sonja Unchained, Craig Yoe’s Chilling Archives of Horror Comics series,  and Extinction Parade volume 1.
 
What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2014?  
Movies: 300 - Rise of an Empire, Sin City – Dame to Die For, Edge of Tomorrow.
Music: Art Zoyd, Miriodor, Syd Arthur and other off-beat prog bands.
- and meeting new and creative people after moving to Melbourne.  

What are you looking forward to in 2015?
Another productive year of creating new comics and art, and mixing with other creators!

Weird Wild Art

2014 in Review: Bruce Mutard

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2014?
It’s been a badly interrupted year. In fact, when I think about it, I drew zero comics pages for the entire year; that hasn’t happened since before I started making comics in 1989. The only things that came close to it was my ‘page’ for the Wally Wood 22 panels exhibition and a 3 panel Peter Pumpkinhead strip. And this from a bloke who supposedly makes his living as a comics creator. On the other hand, I did draw the bulk of my Masters exhibition work in the first half of the year. For those of you who don’t know, my thesis was on comics form, an area that has not undergone much academic scrutiny (unlike the content). My comic was created for a public encounter in space, not the intimacy of print, so it’s not likely there'll be a print version of it. And in any case, there were real objects in it, so how can I print them? The work was hardly seen thanks to it being an examination exhibition that was only up for 3 days and in an obscure part of Monash Caulfield campus. On the other hand, it got a H1, no amendments, which is the top mark, so I’m happy. I hope to do a PhD down the track. The other things I have been doing is tidying up the long delayed Alice In Nomansland, and a lot of writing and layouts for The Fight. In short, I’ve been working full time in comics all year (when not on other business), but with not much to show for it - or seen - yet.

What are some of the comics you've enjoyed in 2014?
I don’t think I read very much in the way of comics all year, so demanding was everything else. I really liked Rutu Modan’s The Property, but I can’t recall if I read it this year or last. I enjoyed Eddie Campbell’s The Lovely Horrible Stuff, which may have dissipated over its length, but he always manages to find a wry and unfamiliar take on the familiar. Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis 2, was a great read even if it’s not a particularly good comic (take the pictures away and the words convey nearly everything anyway). Of the locals, Jase Harper’s Awkwood, was enjoyable.

I’ve been really savouring the canapés of the Mini-comics of The Month Club - lots of savoury talent out there including makers I didn’t know. Similar kudos to Nat Karmichael’s OiOiOi! (name notwithstanding), but it promises to showcase new talent as much as old. I hope it lasts. I’m sure there’s more, but right now my brain is fried from other shit, so apologies to those I should have mentioned. One thing comics that should get a mention is the growth in non-pop culture comics shows around the country, like Comic Con-versation, Sugar Con, Homecooked, ZICs, Comic Gong and various zine fairs. These are the future of comics shows in this country and there will no doubt be more in the future, including the one I’m directing, ACAF (postponed until late next year or early 2016).

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2014?
I think I got to the cinema once - to see The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was pretty entertaining. I’ve watched plenty of films and box-sets on my Tv. I’ve been loving the nordic noir of  The Killing, The Bridge,  the gritty (though it peters out) True Detective, Masters of Sex, Downton Abbey, House of Cards, the always entertaining Game of Thrones (I wait for the box-sets), catching up with Breaking Bad after all these years. For films, there are too many to mention, but my staple viewing consists of old classics as put out by the best Dvd/BRD labels in the world: Criterion collection and Masters of Cinema (UK). If you ever want to know which are the best for any given year, head to Dvd Beaver, where they put out an annual top 100, and I pretty much get everything on it. I don’t know what this years list is yet, but it’s sure to have the Werner Herzog box set, the Alain Robbe-Grillet set, the Walerian Borocyzk set, the Jacques Demy set among them.

As for reading, well, I seem to do less of this every year, but I read the Economist weekly, since it is one of the best sources of global news one can get in a news environment addicted to fads, scandal, hype, spin, parochialism and of course, fewer and fewer cartoons and comics. Screw ‘em. I haven’t seen as many art exhibitions this year as I’d of liked. I tend to do more of that when traveling, and that I did little of outside of comics or family related motives. But I would draw attention to the fabulous Annette Messenger at the MCA, Sydney. She shows how stunningly temporal based installation can work making it mesmerising at times. I swear one of her works was as alive as any organic creature. I didn’t get to the theatre anywhere near as much as I wanted, either, but Frankenstein at the Malthouse was a provocative feminist reworking of the legendary story, and being a lover of musicals, I thought the amateur production of 42nd Street by the Clocktower Musical Theatre group would have done a professional outfit proud.

And I’m rapidly expanding my music collection as always - more than 13K tracks in my iTunes library. Loving CHVRCHES, Lady Antebellum, Kasey Chambers, Missy Higgins, Royal Blood, War on Drugs, Scarlette Baccini’s band Dear Plastic, The Audreys, She & Him, Arch Enemy, Devilskin, The Jezabels, Lady Gaga (and Tony Bennett) and the finger dexterity of Vladimir Horowitz. That doesn’t even scratch the surface.

What are you looking forward to in 2015?
I would love there to be far less distraction in 2015. That won’t be the case, but maybe less than 2014? I sincerely hope I can get a solid year of comics drawing in - hoping to draw/tone the first 100-150 pages of The Fight. If possible, get Alice In Nomansland published and publish the sublimely unseen work of Butcher and Wood’s Art Is A Lie. I may travel to see some UK shows like Thought Bubble, Lakes Festival, Comica and ICAF, but it depends. All I want to do is make comics again. And get out and see more art and life and the local comics scene more this year. One thing that is a must do is go to the NGA in Canberra and see the James Turrell retrospective. I cannot stress how amazing it is to immerse yourself in the environments of this master of light.

Bruce Mutard

2014 in Review: Gregory Mackay

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2014?
The biggest focus of my year was the completion of my first comic book for children for Allen & Unwin. It's titled Anders and the Comet, will be released early next year and comes in at 160 pages of grey toned art. The readership is 6-9 years, which has been a welcome change.

I really enjoyed the editing process over a long story, and problem solving as I went. Working with editors is a great experience and I'm super proud of my book. It's going to be part of an ongoing series of books featuring the same characters.

Working on Francis Bear comics for VICE United States was also great, it kept me thinking of short stories for my old characters. Publishing existing work for the the French Turkey Magazine was also good, as was coming up with new work for Squishzine Brunswtown called  An Architectural Tour within the Confines of Brunswick Victoria, which I think is some of my better work for the year and I'm hoping to develop this style into a broader project.

Working on a book cover for a separate upcoming Allen & Unwin book from a different author was also great, as was doing spot illustrations for various websites and projects.  Exhibiting with and designing the poster for the art studio show I'm a a part of was also a highlight.

What are some of the comics you've enjoyed in 2014?
I've enjoyed some rare Miyazaki stuff, including Tiger in Schlamm, the entire Nausicaa Saga, his weird collaboration book Mushime To Anime. I also liked 'Best American Comics 2014', Logicomix, The Comics Journal 2013, as well as the ongoing minicomic of the month books. I also liked reading old copies of St. Nicolas and books by Hansi. I  liked Black Paths by David B. and the story boards book for The Wind Rises. Honestly, most of this year was spent focused on writing and drawing my own stuff and expanding what I'm trying to do with my work.
 I enjoyed learning how to make resin figures of my comics book characters as well as working on numerous short films to promote the book.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2014?
 I traveled to Perth, Sydney, Alice Springs and Hobart. Mainly for work, but I'd always seek out odd or fun things to do. These include seeing 'Rubber Duck' by Florentijn Hofman in Sydney, photographing Hobart from a distance with a telescope as well as visiting the closing night of Dark Mofo and hanging out in the replica Space Shuttle. I saw the beaches of Mandurah and Coolongatta within days of each other, taking long ocean swims. Seeing highlights of the Adelaide festival was fun, as was traveling to Alice Springs and seeing the West McDonnell Ranges. I enjoyed seeing the 'Behind the Myths' tour with my nephew and also building the newly tooled 1/72 A6M2b Zero model plane from Tamiya.

What are you looking forward to in 2015?
I'm looking forward to working on the next Anders book, as well as numerous other book projects and illustrations. I'm also looking forward to traveling more and producing more figurines and short films.

Gregory Mackay tumblr