I will be running a workshop at this festival. Also the Comic Spot will be broadcasting their last show (in its current format) from the festival.
Saturday 28 January, 3-7pm
Location: Batman Park, corner St Georges and Arthurton Roads, Northcote.
The Home Cooked Comics Festival is a free celebration for those who love comic books and graphic novels. There will be live music by Animaux and Squid Squad, fight choreography and comic making workshops, Kamishibai (Japanese ‘paper drama’) and the Allen & Unwin Comics Quiz Show.
September
National Young Writers’ Festival. I run a workshop about writing grant applications and also step in for Dion Kagan as career advisor for one of the Creative Health Check sessions. The image above is of the Cryptic Crossword workshop (image by Alexandra Neill), which I wasn’t part of, but looks like fun.
Newcastle treated me wonderfully well the whole weekend: breakfast in Hamilton with locals I met at the airport, some great op shop purchases, watching the Mattara festival street parade with Electro Fringe peeps, dancing the night away at the Big Top Ball, watching the Spelling Bee with surprise friends/colleagues from Tasmania, finally making it to one of the unofficial after-parties, and cannon fire and fairy floss at the Mattara Festival on Monday.
October
I Heart Tin Tin. A comic appreciation of Tin Tin by Australian cartoonists as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, featuring my portrait of Britney Spears. The exhibition was held in a window of the Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Brunswick.
David and I run a workshop at Gippsland Art Gallery (Sale) as part of their participation in The Big Draw international drawing festival.
November
Six cartoonists (including David and myself) start moving into a new studio space in Brunswick. A lot of name ideas are tossed around. We finally settle on Squishface Studio.
David and I talk on 3CR’s The Comic Spot about our adventures in Sale and our plans for 2012.
December
Squishface Studio is open to the public!
Drawn From Life
Today volunteers handed out copies of a free comic that features the first collaboration of myself and my husband David Blumenstein. Get yourself a copy and try and pick who drew which bit. If you miss the big handout, you can pick one up at Melbourne Writers Festival venues, many of which are in fed square. Or you can attend the discussion between the editor Oslo Davis and Drawn from Life’s international feature artists Peter Arkle and Jim Woodring.
Article about Drawn From Life by Stuart Geddes here: http://thethousands.com.au/melbourne/read/drawn-from-life/
The Lifted Brow
Over June and July I drew seven illustrations to accompany articles in the August issue of The Lifted Brow.
Wedding Invite Illustration
June also saw me finishing this image for friends Adam and Lisa. This was a big lesson for me, a greyscale nerd, in computer colouring tricks. Thanks David B for the pointers.
Inherent Vice
As mentioned in a previous post. I was resident at the National Gallery of Victoria’s new venue, the NGV Studio, with 7 other cartoonists from 16 July – 14 August.
It was awesome and I will miss being around my friends and fellow cartoonists.
What I made:
I started my Harold Holt project. Last year I promised Bernard Caleo and Jo Waite a comic to be performed in the tradition of Komishibai picture theatre. Due to overwork and illness I didn’t deliver the comic in time. The premise I had for the comic was really appealing, but I had struggled to determine a motivation for the characters and got stumped. The story idea was Harold Holt (the Australian prime minister who drowned/went missing in the late 60’s) is somehow still alive or a ghost and abducts Tony Abbott while Tony is swimming.
While in residence I researched Australian politics searching for the foundations of a faustian set-up for how and why Harold Holt wants to abduct Tony.
The result was a synopsis, thumbnail scripts, and character designs for four stories:
- one about Prime Minister Joseph Lyons and his wife Enid who was a political force in her own right;
- an overview of Harold Holt’s life before his disappearance;
- what happens after his disappearance; and
- Harold’s abduction of Tony Abbott
So what started as a flippant fun idea has turned into a big project about Australian Liberal politicians and their forerunners. WTF?
Having got a good running start at this thing I turned my attention to my next commitment for Bernard and Jo, an exhibition titled “I Heart Tintin” at the Edinburgh Castle (2-9 October) as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
So that’s what I got up to at NGV. For documentation of our shenanigans go to the Inherent Vice blog, invice.tumblr.com or see the list of media links below.
Articles and Interviews resulting from Inherent Vice:
One interview request from Invurt website we responded to the questions in comic book form, so that is definitely worth a read. If you ever wondered what I would look like as an alcoholic, wonder no longer care of Simon Hanselman’s comic.
Other articles:
Video Interview with me on the Age Website
Photo of me and short article in the Melbourne Times Weekly
Articles about Inherent Vice in:
The Age
The Australian
Three Thousand
On the Radio:
John Rettalick and Jo Waite of 3CR’s Comic Spot feature Inherent Vice in two shows:
DIY Arts 210711 – 55min show featuring interview with Inherent Vice curator Beckett Rosental (22MB Download)
DIY Arts 04.08.11 – 55min show featuring Mandy, Michael H and myself are interviewed during our 24 hour comics party. Listen for my “dead air” while I count how many people are in attendance. (22MB Download)
Blogosphere:
Lines on Paper
Raging Yogurt
Bobby N’s Blog
Phew, well that’s enough I think. It has been an exciting few months!
Sinningia leucotricha doing its deciduous thing
New shoots!
Leaves forming.
Tags:
The Blurb:
“From 16 July – 14th August 2011 eight cartoonists from Melbourne will vacate their lonely studios to work together at NGV Studio. They will be working on comic art collaborations, D.I.Y. publications, site specific artworks and their own larger projects.”
Location: The corner of the Federation Square Atrium
More about NGV Studio here : http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/ngv-studio
Article by Chris Harrigan on Three Thousand: http://thethousands.com.au/melbourne/look/inherent-vice/
The Inherent Vice Blog: http://invice.tumblr.com/
I forgot to mention previously than I had a chat with John, Jo and Bernard late last year on their radio show The Comic Spot.
You can listen to it by going to the sidebar on The Comic Spot blog and scrolling through The ComicSpot Player until you get to the one titled “TheComicSpot201020-SarahHowell,DeanRankine”.
Alternatively you can go direct to the podcast here.
I recommend checking out The Comic Spot blog just generally, lots of fun and interesting morsels of news about Aussie comics.
A week after the most awesome comic camp to date (photos on flickr), Dave and I headed off into the wide blue yonder to visit family, friends and check out two international comics festivals.
Now we are home and have a pile of comics from New York, Switzerland and Norway to make our way through.
So far I have enjoyed:
Shawn Cheng’s mini-comic Whiskey Jack and Kid Coyote Meet the King of Stink.
Dungeon Parade Vol. 1, A Dungeon Too Many by Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Manu Larcenet
In Norway we were greatly helped by this book:
Anna Fiske’s book Fra T-Bane Til Lenestol en bildebok for Voksne (From Train to Chair, a picture book for adults). It’s a visual dictionary and a love story!
Since we got back I’ve still had the comic buying bug and picked up another Joann Sfar (Sardine in Outer Space), a Jillian Tamaki sketch book called Indoor Voice, Midnight Sun by Ben Towle and Gentleman Jim by Raymond Briggs.
Definitely don’t need to buy anymore comics for the foreseeable future.
There are heaps of comics out there I respect and enjoy, but Ryan a’s Nothing Is Forgotten is one of the rare ones I wish I had made.
It didn’t grab me straight off, it took until the aerial shot of the house and the boy running towards the forest that I felt it starts to hit its stride and aesthetic. The ink washes are masterful, the tree spirit is frighting and adorable and the pacing of the installments leave you wanting more.
Hoo-rah!
It had to happen eventually that one of my very talented friends made it onto awesome blog Drawn.ca, and the winner is… Pat Grant!
You can see the post on Drawn here, or simply check out Pat’s blog.
Congratulations Pat!
