Review: The Littel Dragun.

The Littel Dragun. 
Chris Downes. 
Self-published, 2010, 20pp, A6. 
www.sirwdchosen.blogspot.com  

With mini-comics currently appearing in my mail box from the latest incarnation of The Mini Comic of the Month Club, it seemed appropriate that I post up this review from one of the minis I got from it's initial iteration. The Mini Comic of the Month Club was a simple and brilliant idea from Australian comics and zine maker Pat Grant (original pitch here). (Caveat: Maybe it wasn't his idea, maybe he appropriated the idea. Regardless…) Basically, I joined the club for $20, and then received a mini comic in the mail every month for 12 months. (Or that was the plan anyway.) There was a limit to the number of members (50 I think, including the 12 contributors), which added an alluring tinge of exclusivity to the whole deal. The fact that the mini is delivered in the mail each and every month adds a lovely sense of anticipation too, waiting for an exciting little comic book jewel that could arrive at any time. Andrew Fulton has resurrected the idea and the gems are currently arriving ever four weeks or so now. If you see this being offered again (maybe at the end of the year, or next year) jump on it. 

The first mini that I received was by Chris Downes titled The Littel Dragun. (The misspelling is intentional, cute, and persistent throughout the equally cute mini comic.) Downes is an amazingly talented illustrator from Tennessee, USA, now residing in Tasmania. I feel a little mean reviewing this mini because I don't think there's any other way to get it except at the time through The Mini Comic of the Month Club, so I'll be brief but glowing in the hope that you'll track down other things that Downes might do in the future. 

From the personalised title page all the way through to the hilarious ending, this is indeed a little gem. Quick, witty, cute, surprising, and charming. I tend to feel that it may have been quite quickly created, but there's no complaints about that, as that's probably an important factor in the writing of it. The cartoony art has a chunky, rushed line, a brevity of detail, only depicting what's necessary, and a cute style that plays directly into the faux-storybook plot and telling. Using a landscape A6 format, Downes has a maximum of three panels on a page, but prefers to stick to just one. As such you would think the story moves very quickly through the 16 pages, but due to the captivating nature of the drawings and the great acting, you can't help but slow down to take it all in. That is, until the final few pages which really fly by, appropriately, to the hilarious crashing halt. A very well crafted tryst.

The aforementioned title page is but one small part of the greatly appreciated attention to detail and design for this — good lettering that is story-supportive, nice "end-papers", design elements like an ex libris page and corner frames on the front and back covers, etc. 

So as a reader hopefully now interested in picking up a copy of this comic that's not available to you, I do suggest that you get along to Downes' blog, where he currently mostly posts his editorial cartooning, and see what other comics he may have there for you to enjoy. 

Above: Trevor and the Littel Dragun. I did this totally digitally on a Wacom DTF-720 digitising screen. 

Minotaur!

Here's a picture I drew a few months ago for one of the OzComics Weekly Drawing Challenges. The theme was mythology and I had some time on my hands so of course I drew a minotaur. I hasten to add that this is NOT Trevor, nor is it based on a scene from he up-coming Greener Pastures graphic novel, but maybe it's what Trevor might have been in another life or universe. 

One interesting aspect about this is that it was drawn entirely digitally, from the 'pencil' sketch all the way through to 'inks'. It's not a luxury I often get since I don't own a Wacom Cintiq (a pressure sensitive screen that can be drawn directly onto/into) and I find too much of a disconnect between the screen and a normal digitising tablet. 

It was great fun to riff on Trevor with no restraints and no real end goal in mind other than making a really exciting and vicious looking minotaur. 

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!

Review: Lumpen #8

Lumpen #8.

By Pat Grant.

Published by Pat Grant.

patgrantart.com

"Lumpen" is the name Pat Grant gave to his ongoing series of zines and comics, of which this is #8. I assume most of them were available where you would normally buy zines and the like, but this particular edition was only available through another of Grant's brainchilds; The Mini Comic of the Month Club — a limited edition subscription to a different creator's mini-comic every month for a year during 2010. (http://www.patgrantart.com/mcotm/page.html)

As might be expected from a true zinester, this has a real hand-made quality to it, from the pages that were obviously hand trimmed, to the silk-screened cardboard covers that look like they may even be left over off-cuts from previous projects.

The story is witty and whimsical, with a tinge of Dr. Seuss. Is it a commentary on the west's obsession with ownership, especially of land? Is it a commentary on the fleetness and ultimate futility of life? Or perhaps it's simply a humourous story, making a few wry observations about growing up and growing old. Regardless, it's well crafted and well told.

The artwork is very simple — really only stick figures — but the characters are imbued with amazing life and expression. To do any more with the art, to be more elaborate or ornate, would only detract from the "silent movie", pantomime feel of it all which is not only charming, but also helps make a potent distillation of the character's journey over the 20 pages. This style of cartooning, and of course the addition of a top hat, gives it an almost timeless feel.

The format is A6, and being reasonably there's a lot of whole-page panels. These are never used lazily however, always appropriately in service of the story. There are also numerous pages where multiple panels per page are used as required by the pacing needed for the storytelling.

It's a quaint little gem of a comic (although Grant calls it a zine, even though I think it's obviously a comic) and even though you couldn't get it except through The Mini Comic of the Month Club, Grant has made a number of other brilliant little zines and comics. Of course he currently has a magnum opus on the stands called Blue which I'll no doubt review sooner or later. Get along to his website and see what takes your fancy.

http://patgrantart.bigcartel.com/