Françoise et Art in Brunswick!

On the weekend just gone, Art Spiegelman presented a new work of images, text and music, WORDLESS, at the GRAPHIC Festival at the Sydney Opera House.

Today, Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly visited Squishface Studio in Brunswick, and a group of local comic book people were there to welcome them to Melbourne.

Nicki Greenberg and Mandy Ord speak with Francoise.

Outside Squishface - Matt Emery, Ben Hutchings, Nicki Greenberg with Coco in arms and Poppy standing, Mandy Ord, Mirranda Burton, Art Spiegelman, Francoise Mouly and Gregory Mackay.

Oh, there's Shaun Tan too!

Art Spiegelman chatting with Shaun Tan.

We went across the road to Ray and drank coffees and ate cake and talked some more. Francoise Mouly, Penny Hueston, me and Mirranda Burton (photo by Matt Emery)
 

Art and Ben Hutchings talk pens.

It was remarkable to meet these two legends of comics, and to discuss with them Art's most recent book CO-MIX and Francoise's children's comics imprint TOON BOOKS.

Many thanks to Text Publishing's Penny Hueston who lined up today's meeting.

Art speaks at the Melbourne Town Hall on Tuesday 8 October.  Francoise speaks at the Wheeler Centre on Wednesday 9 October. Both of them are brilliant.

Back on RRR, and Writers Fest 2012 wrap

I was back on 'Smart Arts' on 3RRR FM with Richard Watts this Thursday morning just gone, and I spoke about a few comic books which were part of the 'Skinny Arse Comics Launch', itself part of the Melbourne Writers Festival 2012.

'The Trials of Francis Bear', above, by Gregory Mackay, continues to follow the hapless, sometimes hopeless, inebriate and unemployed stuffed bear. Unlike the previous simply eponymous collection, this new book has more of a narrative arc running through the whole book. Similarly however to the previous book, it is hilarious and beautifully cartooned.

'All You Bastards Can Go Jump Off A Bridge! by J Marc Schmidt is also very funny and also cleanly and confidently drawn, but it is more varied in its offerings - it is a generous compendium of short stories that J. Marc originally posted to the web. Many of them are experimental, with some of them having an almost improvised sense about them.  Here we are watching someone experiment with the medium, stretching it and toying with it - there's great work in this book.

Both of the above have been published by James Andre's excellent Milk Shadow Books - go there and buy multiple copies of both!

Another Melbourne publisher is Matt Emery who publishes under the name of Pikita Press, and he launched 

at Skinny Arse: Peter Foster had his adaptation of the 1874 Australian convict classic published in black and white in 1986 by Greenhouse Press, and it's taken 26 years and a lot of work by Peter on the computer to get it out in colour.

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Also at the Festival I was honoured to be on a panel in the Schools Program, 'Drawn to Stories' with local cartoonist Oslo Davis

And London illustrator/cartoonist/pictorial theorist Joanna Walsh, aka Badaude, whose book 'London Walks' is a remarkable walking guide to many different areas of London.

Joanna, Oslo and I talked about drawing as a way of discovering, as a way of thinking, as a way of writing. Then I threw a whole lot of stalks of silver beet (which Joanna called 'chard') at the audience, which went down surprisingly well.

Big Arse Comics Launch- February 2011

Hello there! I'm going to play catchup for a few posts, as there are notable Melbourne comic book events over the last couple of months that need blooging, and I have some work deadlines breathing down my neck and need to distract myself from them.

Above, from the left, are: Bruce Mutard, Brendan Halyday, Bobby N., Jason Franks, Matt Emery and James Andre. No, not members of the 'Shaved Head and Glasses' League from a long-lost Sherlock Holmes tale, but the 6 comic book author/artists who launched the nine (yes 9, that's right NINE) comics, graphic novels and illustrated books on Saturday 19 February 2011.

To see Bobby N.'s eye-widening poster, and the covers of the books, go to Gary Chaloner's Comics Journal post about the 'Big Arse Comic Book Launch', as it was named.

Above: a happy punter (and there were MANY - a big arse night it was) leafing through 'The Loneliness Manifesto', written by James Andre and illustrated by Brendan Halyday.

The other place to read about the launch, and to hear a pre-launch chat between the creators, is the always-reliable Bobby N's blog, here.

There's me, who had the very happy job of launching this fine clutch (should I really use that word, given the title of the launch? perhaps not) of graphic fiction. As you can imagine, I made much of the 'big arse' metaphor. And I cannot now imagine why not tucking my purple (in Japanese, 'murasaki') shirt seemed such a good idea at the time. But unlike Han Solo, who can 'imagine quite a bit', there's quite a bit I can't imagine.

The crowd at Eydies (the bar that my lovely and only sister Anna manages) enjoying my 'Star Wars' references. Nah, not really - that speech, it was all about the comics.

Hey: there in the middle of the shot in the white t-shirt is comic book writer Jen Breach, now an resident of NYC - sob! - we miss you, Jen. Have a good time in that large cider town, but come back, y'hear?