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Illustration Friday

12.04.2009
This week's topic is:
entangled
Suggested by Sara Lehto

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Comics Rehab is BACK



This round's sinners are Adam Ford, Miss Helen, Nicola Hardy, Amber Carvan.


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That's RRRight folks, we're back!


Lovely to be back on air with Richard Watts last Thursday morning on his weekly Melbourne cultural roundup 'SmartArts' on 3RRR, 102.7 FM. I join him for the monthly 'Drawn Out' segment, on which we discuss local and international comic book news and releases.



First up this time was 'The Book of Other People' (Penguin 2008), edited by Zadie Smith - a collection of 23 stories by tippety-top writers (including Smith, Nick Hornby, Miranda July, Jonathan Safran Foer, Colm Toibin, Johnathan Lethem and Dave Eggars) - and it's a benefit book, so some of the money goes to Eggars' 826NYC which helps kids to get reading and writing. As Smith says, it's a case of 'real people making fictional people work for real people'.
Each story's title is eponymous (does that work the other way?) and I'm writing about the book here because, in the great McSweeney's tradition, there's comics in them thar words, folks: in this case 'Justin M. Damiano' by Dan 'Ghost World' Clowes and 'Jordan Wellington Lint to the Age 13' by Chris 'Jimmy Corrigan the Smartest Kid on Earth' Ware. Folks, the Clowes 4-pager alone is worth the price of admission. Although I gotta admit, I was loaned the book by my mum after she discovered the comics floating amidst her sea of text. Thanks Mary Anne! Sorry illiterate urchins of New York City!

And hey there's an exhibition of installation comics work on upstairs at Brunswick Bound, the great bookshop at 361 Sydney Road Brunswick. 'Der Stadtschaftschaubild' is a made-up German word made up by Alice Mrongovius, who has also made the works- she reckons it means something like 'the cityscape diagram'. Mrongovius is a fine artist and a comic book artist (and the one does not preclude the other, of course) and in this show, on until March 21, she is expanding the comic book form into installation art and then making a comic from that.


Occasionally, just ever so occasionally, you get something from the work Kris Kringle that you actually really like, in fact sorta blows your tiny mind, but it's gotta be said that that person who has gotten it has usually blown the cut-off point for the money that you're supposed to spend. So it was that, back in December, I received the above book. (Thanks Biana!)

Thomas Ott is Swiss and has been doing these wordless scratchboard comics, as well as caricatures for mags and newspapers over Europe way for some time. (Selected titles: 'Tales of Error', 'The number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8' oh yeah) 'Cinema Panopticum' (Fantagraphics, 2005) is a 100 page hardcover book of 4 short wordless stories framed by a narrative of a little girl going to the fun fair with too little cash. It is a quite remarkable, grostesque, hilarious book, which also performs the moebius-strip trick of actually transforming itself into one of the terrifying Cinema Panopticum machines. Incredibly satisfying.

Another comics exhibition is on in town at the moment: MP Fikaris' show 'Good Sauce' features drawings paintings and a new comic booklet from this local master of the dada/beat/art comics form. It's at Nine on Seven Artspace, Level 7 Curtain House 252 Swanston Street in the city, until February 20, open 7 days 2pm until late.

And in the spirit of last-but-worth-waiting-for:


Linda Foote is from Perth, is remarkably 24 years old and is even more remarkably, not an animator. I could have sworn when I picked up this gorgeous A5 mini at Sticky, that she must be an animator, given the Miyazaki feel of the story but also the incredibly assured quality of the artwork. Harder still to believe, this book is a 24 hour comic (ie, produced in one straight 24-hour stint) - though Foote does let us know that the shading on the drawings came later. This book is a masterpiece of pacing, a glorious example of a comic in which nothing happens. well when I say that, of course things DO happen, it's just that the emphasis is almost totally on the relationship between the creatures (friends? brothers?) Devan and Shaya.

This book is very fine, builds a beautiful world, and leaves you with the feeling that you want to spend more time there. Congratulations to Linda on constructing such an enjoyable comics reading experience, and I look forward to reading more work by her.

Granny Square Flower Garden keeps growing

Hippity Hoppity Hare admires the arrangement of all 150 squares carefully arranged by Dr Caroline.

Prolungamento sfida + Riapertura iscrizioni

Buongiorno gentil donzelle (e amici nostri)!
Mi scuso per non aver aggiornato il blog per un po' ma almeno ho due buone notizie da darvi.

Innanzitutto abbiamo spostato la scadenza della sfida puscia: mandateci i vostri loghi per Yatta e/o banner entro il 20 febbraio.

L'altra buona notizia è che finalmente riapriamo le iscrizioni al nostro gruppo! :)
Abbiamo già qualche candidata, ma ne aspettiamo numerose! Chi vuole unirsi a noi deve essere (ovviamente) donna, creativa e aver compiuto 14 anni. Basta mandare una mail a
pusciastova-professional@googlegroups.com
presentandosi e mandandoci anche qualche lavoro da visionare e pubblicare qui sul blog quando vi presenteremo alle sorellovske :)

Ultimo appunto personale: NON mandateci per favore richieste di iscrizione tramite l'indirizzo della Mailing List: verranno cestinate senza colpo ferire. L'unico modo è mandare una email all'indirizzo qui sopra!

Grazie a tutte, e a presto!
Kat

Two Tangos: too much?


Well, it's been a month and a half or so since the big double Tango launch, and it's time to have a bit of a look back at that night and more generally at doing two big books in the one small year.

Night of the launch, 10 December 2009, making some comment that's making Mirranda Burton wince. Probably a pun.
Photo: Peter Jetnikoff

At this point I can say that I'm very proud of both books, but I have to admit that by the time Tango9 rolled around, rose up on its haunches and became the 350 page behemoth that it is today, it had outgrown my capacity to handle, muzzle, or restrain it. The sheer volume of pages and number of contributors flipped a switch somewhere in the tiny tinny little administration centre in my noggin. Mistakes were made. (And still are: only yesterday Greg Holfeld, author of the excellent 'Homefront' (page 124), emailed to say, "Um, could I please have my contributor's copy?" Oh, gosh.)

But the most significant errors on my part were to leave out stories which I had said were in. Yes, that's right. Two stories had been selected for the book, the authors informed, and then, in the utter madness of the final book assembly, I ... misplaced them. One of these, 'Interview with the Dictator's Mother', was a collaboration between Mark Scillio and myself (yep) - I realised it was missing the night before we went to press, and couldn't at that point change things. With the other story, Justin Woolley and Brendan Hayday's 'In the Trenches', it was only on the night of the launch, that this situation was revealed. To these three gentlemen, Mark, Justin, and Brendan, I offer my sincere apologies - I am terribly sorry. What happened with your stories was really the opposite of what I set up Tango to do.

But here's the silver lining: both stories are now available to be read on the Tango9 page on the Cardigan Comics website, here. Thanks to Justin Caleo for making this happen.


Hey look! It's dapper Neale Blanden!
Photo by Peter Jetnikoff


And thanks to brother Luke, it's now possible to buy Tango via Paypal on the website, here. Tango9 sells there for $25 and earlier Tangos for $10, and hey, psst! If you've ever wanted to fill in a hole in your Tango shelf or even if you just have fingers that twitch for a bargain, I'd get in now and make a purchase before I work out how to add a postage amount there.

That's right Tango fans: get in quick while you can, and order your books postage-free!


Animated David Blumenstein and Jovial Jo Waite, skylarking.
Peter Jetnikoff took the picture


And hey. Let's not forget that other fine Tango of last year, 'The Tango Collection'. It has not escaped my attention that having two of us (viz: Elise Jones and I) working the editorial angle of that book meant that it worked out a lot more smoothly. And yes, you're right, it's published, marketed and distributed by Allen and Unwin, too, (all of which is magnificent) but I'm focussing on the administrative aspect here, and I'm thinking that for 'Tango10: Love and Music' (planned for 2011), I will assemble an editorial team...

ANYway, if you're a Melbournite, you should really buy The Age this Saturday (all 16 kilos of it) and open the A2 section and check out the 'Books' section: the word on da street is that there will be a review of 'The Tango Collection' there. Please, stain it with coffee and croissant crumbs, for me.

And cry huzzah!


Finally, himself. Peter Jetnikoff, I think photographed here by David Blumenstein, next to a copy of Peter's biography and his portrait from 'The Tango Collection'. The rest of the group of photos of the launch from which the ones in this post were selected can be found here.


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#10: Mike Beggs

Salient Editor 1999

I always wanted to be printed in Salient. In my high school days I used to find copies left behind by students on the train or the bus and read Straitjacket Ninja and Brunswick and feel pretty cool. In '99 I started at Victoria University and I felt like I was finally ready to fulfill my destiny.

I spent a few weeks putting together a portfolio of my work and a script outline for a new serial, and then I plucked up the courage to find the Salient office and go and pitch my idea. I knocked on the door and a hungover and seriously disheveled guy poked his head out the door. Behind him was the messiest office I had (and have still) ever seen - stacks of paper covered every surface, pizza boxes covered the floor and torn posters semi-covered the walls. This was Mike Beggs, the editor. I summoned all of my remaining courage and blurted out that I wanted to do a comic strip. "Sure" mumbled Mike, "deadline is thursdays, 3pm", and he shut the door.

Tales from the Pub: Rooly F*cken' Amazing Stories



Here's a tale from my friend Ben G.

#9: Mr Campbell

6th form Physics Teacher, 1997

Rob Campbell was a likeable Scotsman who taught physics in a science classroom where the desks weren't bolted down. Every time he turned his back to us to write on the board we'd all push our desks forward, a few centimetres at a time. By the end of the lesson we'd be grouped right in tight around him at the front of the room and the look on his face would waver between bemusement and fear that he was finally losing his mind.

Contact Update

A few people have mentioned they'd be interested if I also kept this blog up to date from time to time with any news of people I've drawn in it finding it and getting in touch.

Artie Karras saw his picture - he said it was hilarious. For the last two years he has been working as an account manager at a Melbourne firm that does printing for the Victorian Government. He sounds really good, it was great to catch up with him.

Brendan Moran also sounds really good. He is living in Auckland, doing a Fine Arts degree. He has given up drinking, smoking and playing music. He said about my post "pretty fuckin flattered actually ... you have captured my bitter and twisted cynical side for sure." I asked him about quitting music and he said "for me the voice of music has been lost (hence why i am not an active musician) because it is akin to one finger typing. it's an inarticulate form of expression. when i talk, i like to use both of my fists, not just one finger". Awesome to hear from you Brendan.

That's all I've heard from so far though. My friend Dan reported in the comments as you may have seen than Joe McGregor-McDonald is a workmate of his, but I don't actually know where Dan works right now so that one is still a mystery.

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This Town


My new 48 page comic to be put out by Sure Shot Comics. This book will be launched at the Zine fair in Melbourne on the 13th of February. The comic precedes the subscription comic, 'Good to Go', and documents our move to Canada late 2007, which means this comics has been in the making for around two years!

Try: http://blog.comicslifestyle.com for more....

Das Stadtschaftschaubild

das_stadtschaftschaubuild_mongrovius

Expanding the comic book form into installation, Das Stadtschaftschaubild, an invented compound word, literally translates to ‘the cityscape diagram’. By unfolding multiple narratives through the gallery space this work continues the themes from Psychogeographies (2009), The Wave Collapses (2006) and Singularity (2002) to investigate and reveal the probabilistic nature of the urban environment.

The viewer is invited to become the absent protagonist through a subjective experience of space, visualising the imprint of our conditioning through architecture and asserting the gaze of the (historically absent) female flâneur.

The installation is then documented and transformed into a comic (of sorts).

So on the news front: I finished up at VCA last year and have been working at expanding the comic book form into installation. What this means is instead of being limited to the page I am using the comics form in the gallery space – and then making a publication from that.

After this I’m off to Berlin for a while, I got accepted into the Culturia artist-in-residency program and going to spend some time in the “fatherland”.

See you soon

Alice Mrongovius


Brunswick Bound
361 Sydney Road
Brunswick

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