Trawling for Comic Treasure

Above: 'Vintage' Jinty & Penny comics, only $10 each! These were 40 cents each when they sold new in the 1980's and gosh that's about what anyone would pay for them now! Lots of lovely European and UK artwork in these, and some of my fave writers from the IPC's boys comics division as well as their juvenile comics.

In common with many other comic readers rapidly approaching 'middle-age-ness' I like to trawl second hand book shops and markets to pick up old cheap comics for entertainment and blog research. As an irregular feature I'll share a few things on the Pikitia blog, pics from this post are from the Camberwell markets in Melbourne 28 Dec 2014.

UK digest comics, all $2 - $4 each. if I remember correctly the western series Buck Jones and others by Amalgamated Press were created as standard size comics in England for the Australian market and then reformatted for digests in the UK.

These days I have a ridiculous obsession with Charlton Comics, I'd buy any title for a dollar or two. Chances are if it's a horror or Sci-Fi title it will feature something in there by Steve Ditko. $6 is a bit much though. Is that Herbe Trimpe Hulk? I can't tell. I fondly remember buying Hulk from that era off the spinner rack in the late seventies.

More delicious over-priced Charlton comics.

Will we get deluxe hardcover reprints of Gold Key humour titles? Probably not. Gold key comics are an important part of any comic reader's diet.

Newton Comic reprints of Marvel Comics from the 1970's (I think?) Comics historian extraordinaire Daniel Best has recently completed his exhaustive history of Newton Comics, get a copy of the ebook here.

What I bought: I can't help buying any IPC/Fleetway Holiday Specials for a dollar each. War, Battle, and Suspense holiday special digests are hundreds of pages of chiefly journeyman artists but good fun reading for a couple clams apiece, and on the far left a couple reprints of classic New Zealand novels to remind me of the motherland.

Paper Trail

Roger Langridge writes about the year to come.

All Star Comics in Melbourne are my LCS, happy to see them relocating to a bigger main street premises at,  ground level, 53 Queen Street in 2015. The Eisner winning All Star are a great example of comics retailing done right and well worth seeking out if you are visiting Melbourne.

Eleri Harris live draws the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race.

Comicoz announce an ambitious coffee table anthology of Australian cartoonists for 2015. (picture possibly not relevant but it was handy.)

Catching up on 2014 links: AV Club interview Simon Hanselmann.

Above: Examples of John Dixon's Crimson Comet comics from the 1940's. I mentioned it yesterday but as an excuse to run some more lovely John Dixon art from yesteryear: Nat Karmichael via Comicoz recently shared the news of veteran Australian cartoonist John Dixon entering into palliative care in his Californian home. Nat has suggested any fans of Dixon or Australian comics in general to send well wishing cards to Dixon via Comicoz.

The Tearoom of Despair interviews Dylan Horrocks.

Hey look at these New Zealand editions of Flash Gordon comics that I couldn't afford to bid on.

Kelly Sheehan reviews Nothing Fits by Mary Tanblyn and Alex McCrone.

Thomas Campi on tumblr.

Black Mermaid Productions' annual list of Australian comic events.

Paper Trail masthead courtesy of Toby Morris.

John Dixon Cover Gallery

Nat Karmichael recently posted on ComicOZ about veteran Australian cartoonist John Dixon entering into palliative care in his Californian home. Nat encourages anyone to send a well-wishing card or message to John to get in contact with him and he'll pass them along. Further details at ComicOZ. Dixon's career spanned from the 1940's in Australia until the 90's where he worked in American comics, with his last work appearing in a Swedish series of Agent Corrigan comics in the early 2000's. Below is a small sample of the large quantity of Dixon's output during the golden age of Australian comics during the 1940's- 1950's.

2014 in Review: Anthony Woodward

(Ed's Note:  A last minute 2014 in Review, new posts about other things start tomorrow.)

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2014?
I’ve started using a nib to ink with again after mainly focusing on using a tech pen for the past 10 or so years. It’s one of those things that only perhaps only artists worry about, for most people it probably looks the same if I use a pen or a nib. But it does feel like a major change to me and something I’ve been working up to for the last couple of finished  comics I’ve made. Every now and then I feel comfortable in my own drawing skin so to speak, which is also a new feeling for me, or should I say something I haven’t felt since I started art school, and it disappeared sometime after art school. It may only be 20-30% of the time that I get this kind of clarity of my creative direction, but it’s enough to make me feel happy about continuing to try and do the best work I can.

What are some of the comics you've enjoyed in 2014?
I read comics so sporadically these days especially with the international move we undertook this year, I didn’t have much time for reading longer comics at all. But I have enjoyed watching Pat Grant’s new comic unfold online, same goes with Dylan Horrocks.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2014?  
Two documentaries I really loved this year were Tim’s Vermeer, and Jodorowsky's Dune. Both films had a made a profound impression on me artistically speaking. I also follow this blog called the Discipline of Innovation, it’s mostly related to business innovation practices but I enjoy thinking about how the process of innovation happens in general, and it doesn’t take that much of a mental leap to apply the principles to an art practice.

What are you looking forward to in 2015?
I’m hoping to go to TCAF for the first time ever in May. In addition to this i want to make more comics, my biggest hurdle is that I work at such a slow pace. I’m working on a new mini comic at the moment and it makes me cringe to realize how long just a few pages take. Something is better than nothing right.

Anthony Woodward tumblr

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