2020 - along with everything else, I still didn't update my website.

It’s been a full year since posting on this site, (The last post was about “Pinchpot”. Since then, it was awarded Best Short Animation of 2019 by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. All the more reason you should watch it, for free, right below.) and not much needs to be said about that year that hasn’t been said already. Let’s just talk about comics and stuff, and the distractions and amusements we can offer here.

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Have some down time over the holidays that you’d like to fill listening to a podcast about comic-making? Or maybe you’re a teacher/home-schooler looking for resources to get the reading ball rolling with your young charges? Or you just like hearing a Canadian accent for an hour? (Seriously, not everyone gets that at home.) If “yes” to any of the above, head over to Sharon & Phil Callen’s Cue Learning website for episode four of their “Teacher’s Toolkit” podcast.

It was a hoot, and thanks again to Sharon and Phil for the invitation.

Something to look forward to in 2021 is the return of “Monkey, Bug, Rabbit and Goose!”. Delighted that The School Magazine has invited the foursome back into their stable. From February, readers of Countdown and Blast-Off! can enjoy their antics in “The Moult Revolt!”.

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My luck continues to hold out. People are still willing to listen to me and look at my pictures for another year running. I’m really grateful, this year more than ever, to anyone who has read my comics, sat in my classes, watched my films, or hired me to draw something.

I’m not expecting unicorns to suddenly come dancing over the horizon on January 1, but I hope there’s something for all of us to look forward to in the coming year.

Thanks, and take care.


Watch Pinchpot

After a nearly two year festival run (and I will post more about that sometime soon), I’m happy to be able to show this little film to absolutely everyone.

Pinchpot is about giving (among other things) and I’m happy to give the experience of viewing this animation to whoever wants it. (Just in time for Christmas!) Please share with your online friends; even better, your real-life friends as you crowd around a screen.

While Pinchpot is unashamedly sentimental, I didn’t set out to make a deliberately weepy film, but I’ve seen first-hand that it can have that affect. Maybe that’s a warning, maybe that’s an apology. I’m not sure. I just hope you enjoy it, and tell everyone else you know if you do.

Return of MBRG!

The School Magazine has selected another Monkey, Bug, Rabbit and Goose! tale as one of their comic serials for 2018! Following on from last year's "The Treasure of Numbskull Island" [scroll back a few posts for details] "Everything's Beachy!" will feature on the back cover of Countdown and Blast Off from the first issues in February and continue right through the year.

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This adventure starts with the friends looking forward to a quiet day on the beach, but that only lasts about 4 panels before the nefarious plans of the Angry Penguin sweep away the idyll (or at least what passes for it in their world).

Just delivered the final coloured pages this morning and still reeling from how much fun it is to make this strip. (Also reel when I think that the children who first heard versions of this as their bedtime stories now help me Photoshop the colours.)

There are now 30 pages of new MBRG material after their initial run in Snort Stories [still available]. Just may have to make plans for another book … let's hope we can keep going with this!

Un Australien à Gallipoli

I've been sitting on this news for awhile, fearful that speaking it aloud would jinx it, but it's on the internet now so it must be real!  Kramiek, a division of Swiss bande desinnée publishers Groupe Paquet are releasing a french language edition of 'An Anzac Tale', 'Un Australien à Gallipoli'.

Yeah, this is a little bit exciting.

Yeah, this is a little bit exciting.

I don't have a copy in my hands yet, but the proofs I was sent look great. Paquet have done a lovely job, seamlessly replacing the english text embedded in posters, newspapers, etc, throughout the artwork. The font chosen to replace my hand-lettering works a treat, and though my french comprehension lies somewhere between junior high and closing time in a Montréal brasserie, the translation maintains the banter of the protagonist's Aussie vernacular.

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'Un Australien à Gallipoli' will be released 6 September.

 

In For The Krill book 5!

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Old news to anyone who has visited my table at an Adelaide convention recently, but the rest of you might like to know the latest In For The Krill is now available in print. Jet black ink on 40 shiny icy-white pages for $9 postpaid anywhere in Australia.

In this chapter, Max learns about the "incident with the fish" three different ways, and it's no wonder he gets the cold shoulder everywhere he turns - but the bar fight is not his fault!

Monkey, Bug, Rabbit and Goose! - They're back! (this time without the oxford comma)

Behind me the ink is drying on the very last page of the new Monkey, Bug, Rabbit and Goose! adventure Treasure of Numbskull Island. It will start appearing monthly in Countdown and Blast-Off from The School Magazine right about … now!

Three panels in and there's buried treasure! Good grief, what's going to happen by page 3 ?!

Three panels in and there's buried treasure! Good grief, what's going to happen by page 3 ?!

Perhaps you've never heard of them, but MBRG have been around for awhile. Originating as the cast of bedtime stories made up for two not-quite-sleepy-enough boys, their adventures were first documented in two issues of "Snort Stories". These brilliant, ground-breaking books of unheralded genius failed to make an impact in the jaded world of publishing, but helped pave the way for another all ages comic by the name of Captain Congo.

Once that big gorilla and his penguin pal had finished their run at The School Mag, I found myself bumping up close to the deadline for submissions for the 2017 comic serials. With a tight turnaround required it was very handy to have these four characters ready to grab off the shelf and use one of their many adventures already rolling around in my head. Was absolutely delighted when told Treasure of Numbskull Island had been selected as one of the serials to run this year.

And it has been absolutely delightful to draw! Been awhile since I have drawn and written an extended story and forgotten how much fun it can be – and fast! No offense meant to any of the fine writers I've been privileged to work with, but I tend not to write myself lines like "They disembark onto the crowded train platform as the circus parade arrives and the helicopters fly overhead". Some might say that I'm lazy and don't like drawing complicated backgrounds with buildings. I just say that like our new hero Captain Brian, I'm drawn to the romance of the open sea.

Well said, Captain Brian

Well said, Captain Brian

Under Construction

I've flossed my teeth and colour-coded my sock drawer, so it must be time to overhaul and update the website. Expect some limitations and dead links while that's underway. It could get messy.

but he was safe!

Thanks for your patience!

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This is serious!

Good chance you're familiar with this landmark work of Australian cartooning:

"For gorsake, stop laughing! This is serious!"

"For gorsake, stop laughing! This is serious!"

Drawn by Stan Cross in 1933 and deemed "Australia's Funniest Cartoon", a sculpture version called a "Stanley" is the trophy awarded every year to the nation's best cartoonists. I was asked by Darren Kozial of DarkOz publications if I'd be interested in doing a version of it with "some 'sci-fi' elements added" for the back cover of Retro Sci-Fi Tales #3. Why not? I've played with one-point perspective in a retro-futuristic city before…

 

From "Dan Panic Funnies #1" 1987 (self-published looong before I came to Australia)

From "Dan Panic Funnies #1" 1987 (self-published looong before I came to Australia)

The start was the obvious place to start, and I did a rough sketch right over a print-out of Mr. Cross's original work.

2B pencil, approx 150mm x 200mm

2B pencil, approx 150mm x 200mm

Using the original as a template reminded me just how strong the drawing chops were of the average cartoonist/illustrator back in the day. Mr. Cross probably whipped out the drawing in a couple hours, but his obvious training and study of anatomy and the human form are evident.

There were things you wouldn't dare change. Stan's composition is perfect, the body language masterful, and the expressions hit exactly the right note. Thank you sir, you've already done the hard work.

A couple things seemed easy and obvious to change; adding those futuristic buildings and flying cars that Darren wanted, and making the second character female. Gender balance and greater embarrassment and humiliation for the other character - win/win!

But that building they were hanging off just didn't want to become futuristic without completely altering its style and making it unrecognizable. I wasn't satisfied, but plowed onto the pencils hoping it would either stop bugging me (never happens) or a solution would emerge (only happens when I'm very, very lucky).

I got lucky. Half-way through the pencils I decided to leave the building in it's original design, only in the process of demolition, not construction.

HB pencil on 2ply bristol board, approx. 300mm x 420mm

HB pencil on 2ply bristol board, approx. 300mm x 420mm

My two are here to wreck the building Stan's guys put up in 1933. Funny how the same thing goes wrong centuries later.

Moving on to inks, I reached for a crow quill pen, rather than the brush which is always my first inclination. I studied the originally closely while I worked, not so much to mimic Stan's style, but see what I could take away from his assured and skillful penmanship, hoping that there would be some kind of dialogue established between the two drawings.

In my enthusiasm, forgot to draw the falling hat. It's there on the bottom of the page, waiting to be cut and pasted in the composition.

In my enthusiasm, forgot to draw the falling hat. It's there on the bottom of the page, waiting to be cut and pasted in the composition.

The original was only ever black and white, and mercifully no clown has ever gone and coloured it, so this clown had to rely on his own nous to colour his. Started by giving them fluro garb, which led to the tested and true "cool background - warm foreground" scheme. Warming up the shadows and adding a green tint to the sky gave it a dank, polluted look over the clean "Jetsons" style buildings. Adding a glowing emboss on a copy of the line layer in Photoshop saved me the trouble of adding form shadows.

Made a publisher happy and I am not haunted by the ghost of Stan Cross, but rather felt something of a kinship with the great cartoonist during the pleasurable time spent on this. Of course I'm hardly the first cartoonist to riff off this work, and doubt I'll be the last.

(Retro Sci-Fi Tales #3 is available in comic shops throughout Adelaide, at just about every convention in the country (and this year's San Diego Con!) and direct from the publisher. )

Back to School!

The start of December means the end of the school year in Australia, so you only have a couple of weeks left to make sure your library has a subscription for next year's The Schools Magazine, because CAPTAIN CONGO IS BACK!

 

Ruth and I are thrilled to be returning with an all new Captain Congo adventure for 2015. 'The Mystery of Mau' will feature all your favourite characters, plus some new ones that perhaps the Captain and Pug would prefer not to meet. See you there!

A good week for 'An Anzac Tale'

'An Anzac Tale' received accolades from two different directions the other week. On Tuesday April 8, the Children's Book Council of Australia listed it as a Notable Book of 2014 in an unprecedented THREE categories; Picture Book, Information Book, and Books for Younger Readers. Three days later, the book was awarded a Bronze Ledger for excellence in Australian Comics.

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The Ledgers have been revived after a five year hiatus and the recent awards ceremony in Melbourne gave out gongs to work published in the interim years. I was absolutely gobsmacked to hear the news 'In For The Krill' #1 was given a Gold Ledger for 2008.

A Gold Ledger hits us right out of left field.

A Gold Ledger hits us right out of left field.

Bruce Mutard's seminal 'The Sacrifice' was also given a Gold for that same year. It's a humbling honour to share podium space with such an important and powerful graphic novel. If you haven't read it yet, get it here.

Then, and only then, go read IFTK #1 while you wait for the post to arrive.

Premier's Reading Challenge Poster

The rest of that goggled bird in one of the shards of my facebook cover photo can now be fully revealed. This Friday it was unveiled by South Australian premier Jay Weatherall as the poster chosen by primary students for the 2014 Premier's Reading Challenge. Yay!

The image "in the raw", without the banners and logos that will be incorporated into the final poster.

The image "in the raw", without the banners and logos that will be incorporated into the final poster.

Thanks to all the students who voted and congrats to Jack Bagshaw whose work was selected for the secondary school poster.

The Captain Returns!

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Ruth and I are very excited to announce a new Captain Congo adventure for 2014! 

"The Perils of Pug" will be the next feature comic serial in The School Magazine.  10 chapters of 2 pages will be published in every issue next year.

This is fantastic news for CC readers that have been thirsting for more since "Captain Congo and The Klondike Gold" in 2011 and great news for an illustrator happy to be drawing his favourite characters again. Good times ahead at the drawing board!

Visit The School Magazine to learn more about this great publication and how to get your school to subscribe if it doesn't already! (Individual subscriptions also available.)


 

SA Writers and Readers Festival Workshop

As part of the SA Writers' and Readers' Festival I'll be conducting a FREE (!!!) workshop talking and making comics (or graphic novels, if you insist). This is not meant to be a drawing lesson, so don't be put off if making pictures is not your strong suit, rather the emphasis will be on effective storytelling, regardless of the sort of stories you wish to tell. Might be safe to assume narratives with a Halloween theme will be popular.

When: 6pm, Thursday, 31 October (costumes optional)

Where: The Hub Library, Aberfoyle Park

More info:
http://www.onkaparingacity.com/events/2013/10/31/the_art_of_the_graphic_novel_with_greg_holfeld.jsp

 

Era Publications

Readers of Adelaide's Sunday Mail newspaper this morning would have found a feature article on local children's book publisher Era Publications. The rest of you can see an online version here. 

It's disappointing to read of Rod and Sandra's current frustrations and just about anyone, anywhere working in publishing will relate to many of these problems.  

I owe much of my career in children's book illustration to Era. They were one of the first publishers to provide me with a manuscript and my dealings with this family run company have always been fair, transparent, and straight-forward. I'm proud of the substantial body of work we've created over the past 15+ years, and it was a real buzz to find my nieces, nephews, and sons bringing so many of these books home from school as they learned to read. I have to confess that the "Era" page of this website has remained "Under Construction" for so long because the volume of material makes for a daunting job!

On this cold winter weekend I'm still daunted by that job, but here's an image from one of our first books, "Here Comes the Sun", part of the "Tricky Truck Track" series written by the effervescent Amanda Graham. So many to choose from, and this one matches the weather!

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I urge you to check out more of the great books and other goodies on their site.  

www.erapublications.com

Comics Piece by piece

Several weeks ago I received an invitation from the IllustrateYourLIFE group to participate in "PIECES"; an ongoing, improvisational online comic book where each panel is done by a different creator, picking up from where the previous one left off. Or to put it more succinctly, an international comic jam. Talk about getting invited to a cool party!

Here's a slice of my panel, but I won't show you all of it. You'll have to go read the whole story, which has already moved along one panel since my contribution. It makes for an exhilarating read, like taking a taxi that suddenly goes off-road and has a new driver every 30 seconds.

Go see it here, but please be aware that some of the story's material may not be suitable for young school kiddies.

Drawn to drink

Several years back (or a few vintages back to use vintner's parlance) , First Drop Wines dragged me kicking and screaming into the worst proposition of my career: draw comics about wine. Every year since, Matt Gant and John Retsas have promoted their fine product through the four-colour pulp  medium in "The Adventures of First Drop", utilizing one-page scripts often parodying films and television.

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Those comics found their way onto their labels and a handsome bottled library is building up on my shelf, with the 2013 label on my desk this week.

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   Available in red and white the world over. Always read responsibly.

Big Illustration

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Earlier in the year I was contacted by the South Australian Department of Planning, Transport, and Infrastructure to provide illustration for "the big build", a campaign highlighting the various public projects going on in and around Adelaide. (www.thebigbuild.sa.gov.au) What started as an illustration for web and print soon became an illustration for web, print, and tram,  meaning I had to allow for my image to work at a scale variation of 15000% ( That's going from screen display of around 20cm to the 30m length of a tram. Feel free to correct my math.)

Not to mention having to rearrange everything to fit around all those doors and windows.  

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Even though the tram version of the illustration was the most challenging, that's the one I'm the happiest with. Maybe it's the terrifying thrill of seeing it so darn big, or maybe because when actually applied to a piece of infrastructure it most successfully achieves what I believed was the client's intent: depict what is basically a story of concrete and cranes in a lively and human manner. 

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I just take issue with that "one of the world's great small cities" line. Pfft. Adelaide is one of the world's great cities, full stop.  

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