What I Read Last Month…

What I read in… 
September 2012

This Is Not Your Mini Comic…

by Pat Grant.

www.patgrantart.com

A heartfelt start to the latest iteration of The Mini Comic of the Month Club. 

Superman: Earth One. Volume 1

by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis, et al. 

www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/superman-earth-one

Despite the sweeping brief of retelling and somewhat updating and modernising Superman's origin story I found this quite bland, both in the plot and the art. 

Mad Bonaz 4 Lyfe, Good and Beach Balloon

by Andrew Fulton. 

smallercomics.limitedrun.com

Another batch of Fulton comics that didn't disappoint and certainly did delight. Full reviews over on the Australian Comics Journal site here, here and here. 

I Will Beat You at Mario Cart and You Will Cry

by Ive Sorocuk, Andrew Fulton, and numerous other brilliant Aussies. 

smallercomics.limitedrun.com

A fabulously fun little mini that grew out of an equally fun little rivalry between Ive Sorocuk and Andrew Fulton about who was the better player of Mario Kart. Numerous fabulous Australian cartoonists added their voice to choruses of #teamive and #teamandrew, but the winner here is surely #teamcomics. Great fun! 

Supanova Melbourne 2012

I've never really done these travelogue/con review posts before, but I had such a great time a couple of weekends ago in Melbourne for Supanova that I thought I'd give it a go. 

Full disclosure: I'm one of the founders of Supanova, I art directed it for about six years (taking the mantle of that title again as of next week), and have a financial stake in the business. 

Because this Supanova fell in the middle of the NSW school holidays I was able to enjoy a few days visiting the city of Melbourne with my family both before and after the expo which I've never really had the opportunity to do before. It's such a brilliant city and I fully understand the great Australian comics migration towards it that seems to have happened over the past 10 years or so. I'll let the photos and captions tell most of the story…  

A fabulous start to the trip was had with a brunch with some of my favourite fellas on the planet: The boys from Cool [Shite] on the Tube. Here's some of them: Chris, Bruce and David. My family are in the background also saying 'hi'. 

We stayed at a lovely hotel called Batman's Hill on Collins. Could there be any more appropriate place to stay for six days of comicy goodness? 

I visited the wonderful Squish Comics Studio in Brunswick. A fabulous initiative conceived by Ben Hutchings and foundered by him and five other brilliant comicers. As you can see, they sat me at the visitor's table while I drew. In the background are Annabelle and comicer Ive Sorocuk.

There were two other visitors there that day. Alisha Howard from Queensland and Robert Perrie from the ACT. That's Ive again in the foreground and Ben in the background. 

This is the sketch I did while there. Trevor's feeling the squish-vibe alright!

Friday night was opening night, but I took a moment beforehand to grab a snap of me as an Avengers action figure. As you do. 

On Friday night we ran two comicbook MasterClasses. Kicking it off were webcomic creators Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub. On the right, Scott is sharing a moment of epiphany with Kris. 

Brian Michael Bendis was another of our comic book guests and he also ran a comicbook MasterClass, following Scott and Kris. 

Because I work most of the weekend, or am trying to catch up with people I rarely or only briefly see, I don't get a long to very many panels and seminars. Here's a few I did get to and snapped a photo of. 

Overseas comics guests Spain's Carlos Pacheco, America's Brian Michael Bendis and Malaysia's Billy Tan. 

Actress Jaimie Alexander, who played Sif in the film Thor. 

Melbourne's Tristan Jones, who's making quite a splash at IDW with Ghost Busters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Infestation. 

A shot of one of our fabulous Artists' Alleys. Seen here on the right, from closest to camera to furthest: Wolfgang Bylsma and Gary Edwards from Perth's awesome Gestalt Comics, and Tom (Evs) Taylor. 

A random shot of the crowd enjoying the retail floor. 

Ahem… well, I worked very hard until I discovered on Sunday afternoon at 5:45pm (15 minutes before closing) that the pinball machines were free to play! Good thing I didn't know before that. 

Sunday night is traditionally time to record a Supanova Special Edition of the Cool [Shite] on the Tube Podcast. The groovy ManaBar were very kind to host the occasion. In the first of these two pictures is my lovely wife Bongo failing dismally at holding herself together while being 'interviewed' by David 'Q-Dog' Quinn. The second photo has, on the right, Q-Dog speaking with Tristan Jones with Gary Edwards, Wolfgang Bylsma and Tom Taylor behind. 

I love the architecture and buildings in Melbourne. Here's a few quick snaps I took. 

The all-important comics haul! Bought in various places before, during, and after the expo, and weighing in at 23 books and 10cm. (Yes, there's only 21 in the photo – I forgot I still had two in my backpack.) When am I ever going to find time to read it all?!?

Bye Melbourne! You were awesome and I had a brilliant time!