2014 in Review: David Blumenstein

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

I got to be a political cartoonist for a few months at Crikey before they moved to a "phunny Photoshops" format. That was brilliant and I wish I could've continued because I would've gotten better.

Did lots of long comics, either pretending to be my little brother or just being angry about politicians and stuff.

Put together a really good anthology called Squishzine Brunstown which has been given away to 2000 people in the City of Moreland and gotten really great feedback from the general public, cartoonists, girls dressed as toast and Adalita.

Did more scribing/graphic facilitation/illustration jobs. Continued to make a living from drawing.

Was in exhibitions curated by Glenn Smith, Ben Hutchings and Tim McEwen.

Got comics into Australian MAD Magazine!

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

Stuff by Andrew Fulton. Chris Gooch. Sam Wallman. Ive Sorocuk. Jess Parker. Ele Jenkins. Jase Harper. Scott Reid. Patrick Alexander. OK, clearly I don't read enough comics outside of Squishface.

I just looked at a website called whatthingsdo.com which is really good. The Nib has had really good stuff on it, like that one by James Sturm recently. I read good minis by Joseph Remnant and Noah Van Sciver.

I read a comics bio of Brian Epstein which was written by a Broadway producer and sucks terribly. The likenesses are good, but Sarah ruined even that for me by pointing out the artist made Brian look less chubby and less Jewish. Feh.

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

I intended to watch True Detective and House of Cards and I haven't but I bet I'll like them when I do.

When I asked Matt Emery how he would cut down the page count of Squishzine Brunstown and he advised me to "take out some straight white males".

What are you looking forward to in 2015?

Minicomic of the Month Club. Maybe putting out another issue of Scare Campaign. Making more cop show cartoons. Homecooked Comics Festival.

Naked Fella