2: COMICS OVERDOSE – GET YOURS NEXT WEEK.
In case you can’t get enough comics, next week in Melbourne there is a surplus of events featuring them even despite the loss of the Readings one:

Wednesday, April 17
10:00am Comics Masterclass with Ben Hutchings and Sarah Howell at the Nexus Festival, NMIT
http://nexusfestival.blogspot.com.au

Wednesday, April 24
6:30pm Graphic Novels! Melbourne! Screening
State Library of Victoria

I’ll probably be here for the introduction, but then leave. Seen it several times already and will be presenting it on the road in Canada and the USA enough!

Thursday, April 25
Squishface – 7:00pm Ladies’ Drawing Auxiliary featuring Carol Wood and Susan Butcher (Pox Magazine) and Marijka Gooding.

http://www.facebook.com/events/163238943836205/
www.ladiesdrawingauxiliary.blogspot.com.au
http://www.ladiesdrawingauxiliary.blogspot.com.au

YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST go and see the brilliance of Carol and Susan. They are so brilliant that I am publishing their next book, Art Is A Lie, which is to be designed by the amazingly talented Marijka Gooding. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be pumping lots of my own money into this venture. Stay tooned for more soon.

Friday, April 26
6:00pm Comic Book Launch: Confessions of a Rookie Film Maker by Clint Cure
Silent Army Store Room, Blender Studios, 110 Franklin St, CBD. Enter via laneway.

Saturday, April 27
7:00pm Naked Launch (Scarlette Baccini, Ben Hutchings, Ive Sorocuk, Matt Emery, Phatsville)
Red Bennies, Level 1, 373 Chapel St, South Yarra

Sunday, April 28
12:30pm – 5.30pm Home Cooked Comics Festival, Northcote Town Hall.

http://www.facebook.com/events/528582280534078/
www.darebin.vic.gov.au/homecookedcomics

The Caravan of Comics will be in attendance to sell books, sketch your ugly mug for money – not peanuts – we’re a little better than monkeys, particpate in some silly antics on stage, and as it happens you can give me a bon voyage, as I fly out to start my 8 week North American venture the next morning.

THAT’s IT.

Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 West Bay Road | Amherst, MA 01002 | (413) 658-1100

Hark! A screening of Graphic Novels! Melbourne! will be held at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, western Massachusetts. This will be the North American premiere, and to be frank, a lovely place to hold it. Eric Carle is the bloke who created the book we all read at least once or thrice as kids: The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Now if any of my books gets legs like that beast – lots of them – then I’ll be very happy. Anyhow, after the screening, there’ll be a discussion session with me and Mira Bartok, dear friend and author of the astonishing Memory Palace and Dr Christopher Couch, a graphic novels scholar. A whole couple of hours immersing oneself in the wonders that is comics – with me – can you get enough? Can I get enough of you? ‘Ah was made for lovin you ba-beh… ‘

Find out more here!

Tuesday April 23rd, 2013. 5:30 pm
Readings The Brain Centre: Kenneth Myer Building, 30 Royal Parade, Melbourne

Come and enjoy the launch of the marvellous new Graphic Nove, An Anzac Tale, written by Ruth Starke and illustrate bu Greg Holfeld. It’s the classic story of two working class lads who get caught up in the excitement of WW1 and enlisting, only to meet the harsh reality on Anzac Cove. Twist is that all the characters are anthropomorphic Australian animals.

Free entry.

To find out more Click here.

Venue: ACT Writers Centre workshop room.
Cost: $110 members, $95 concessional members, $170 non-members (includes 12 months of membership).
Bookings: You can book by phone on 6262 9191, online (http://www.actwriters.org.au/events/upcoming-workshops-events.shtml) or at the office. Payment is required at time of booking.

The X-factor in what makes comics a great medium is telling stories with pictures, but it is also the most mysterious and difficult to master.
In this workshop, Bruce Mutard will give you some insight to this magic through projected examples and discussion of what good visual storytelling is, then some practical exercises. This will be pertinent whether you want to draw yourself, or write for other artists.

Ozcomicon Perth

March 9 &10, 2013.
Perth Exhibition Centre.

I will be in artists alley promo-ho-in my books and prints, alongside Mirranda Burton (mirrandaburton.blogspot.com). I will also be presenting a special screening of the acclaimed Graphic Novels! Melbourne! documentary which will screen at 4pm on Sunday the 10th. It’s a film about Melbourne and the weird comics ferment we have here, featuring myself, Mandy Ord, Nikki Greenberg and no longer Melburnian, Pat Grant. For more info on the flick, go here: Graphicnovelsmelbourne.com

Something to do in Canberra if you’re not in parliament
(and therefore, dead)

Impact Comics Book Banquet – Panel by panel with Bruce Mutard.
April 3rd, 6:30pm.
Retro Cafe
Innovation Centre, Building 22
University Drive South, University of Canberra
Bruce, ACT, Australia
Book here!

Whilst in Canberra researching my Vol 2 of the Robert Wells trilogy, I have taken to my usual whoring. Here’s a great evening out with me and a few diners where I’ll be yakking about comics and my career, whilst you drink, talk, eat and make merry. Better than going to Fsyhwick for your entertainment needs.

Big Arse Comic Launch in Melbourne- March 2
Links:
facebook.com/events/567804259915006
bigarse3.tumblr.com

Ozcomicon Perth March 9-10.
ozcomiccon.com

Writers residency with the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust from March 11 to April 10.
maygibbs.org.au/creative-time-fellowships/creative-time-fellowships

Canberra Zine Emporium, March 23rd.
facebook.com/CanberraZineEmporium

The Liedekijn Exhibition Opening, March 28.
facebook.com/events/389157271170276

I will run an all day comics workshop at the ACT Writers Centre, April 6 – see link. www.actwriters.org.au/events/upcoming-workshops-events.shtml

Supanova Melbourne April 13-14. 
http://www.supanova.com.au

Drawing Out conference, RMIT, Melbourne.

Supanova Gold Coast April 20-21.
www.supanova.com.au

Teaching a master class at Melb Uni on 26th April. Not open to the public
it’s a part of the Graphic Narratives 4th year class in the Dept of Creative Writing.

Come early May, the second Caravan of Comics departs these shores to assault North American audiences with the visual and aural assault of comics and films
caravanofcomics.com

Graphic Novels Melbourne screening, May 8, at Toronto Australia New Zealand Cultural Club.
Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), May 10-12.
torontocomics.com

Instore presentation and book signing at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, May 15.
drawnandquarterly.com

Instore presentation and book signing at Fantagraphics bookstore, Seatlle, May 18.
www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=126
www.facebook.com/fantagraphicsbookstore

The International Comic Arts Forum conference, May 23-25.
Present an academic paper; present the film, maybe an artists presentation as well.
Possible writers residency at Ragdale, Chicago, May 26- mid June.
www.internationalcomicartsforum.org/

CAKE comic festival in Chicago, June 15-16.
www.cakechicago.com

Sydney Supanova, June 22-23.
www.supanova.com.au

Perth Supanova, June 29-30.
www.supanova.com.au

Ozcomicon Melbourne, July 6-7. 
ozcomiccon.com

Start a residency at Dunmoochin artists colony from mid-July (at least 12 months, possibly 2 years). I need this in order to finish work on The Fight, which has been horribly delayed, but it is coming along.

All this is fixed more or less. But, in August, there’ll be the Skinny Arse Comic Launch #2, some stuff with the Melbourne Writers Festival.

In September, the second, bigger, badder, bolder Caravan of Comics will depart as part of a Blofeld style plan to take the world over with antipodean comics. Planned visits to Helsinki Comic Festival, the Small Press Expo Bethseda, MD, the Library of Congress National book fair, a conference in Oxford and more. Stay tuned and toonin’.

Pause to draw breath. Ideally, I will attend Angouleme in 2014 with a mini caravan of locals who all have books coming out in French. But we’ll see. Yes, The Silence has been picked up for translation by Editions çà et là. Not sure when it will come out exactly, but it’s a very exciting development. Others are Pat Grant’ Blue, Mirranda Burton’ Hidden and Gregory Mackay’ Francis Bear.

I am he, the new holder for the Australian Society of Authors Comics and Graphic Novels portfolio. I take over from Julie Ditrich and Josef Szekeres, who have relinquished it in order to focus on their creative pursuits. I will build on their foundations and take the portfolio in a much more visible, vigorous direction that I hope, will one day become the Australian Comics guild – the professional association for Australian comics creators – with all the perks, lurks, benefits and membership fees! Stay tuned for more as I somehow find time to make this happen. Look for us the upcoming Melbourne and Gold Coast Supanova’s in Artist Alley – right next to my table where I will be wearing two hats on my two heads, with four arms to help manage it all. Didn’t I tell you I was not of this earth?

Yes, the smell is already emanating from the future; a cascade of quantum particles drifting back carrying the promise of some distinctly wonderful comics. The official publicity machine is yet to get going as we do not have all the books confirmed, but at this point, 15 new comics are planned to be launched. I won’t say which ones, as I don’t want to create expectations that will go unfulfilled. I can say however, that I will not have a new book, though I will appear in at least one, if not two anthologies. But if you liked the previous events, then this will be even bigger, hairier, smellier. Yes, it is on at Sentido Funf again, Saturday March 2nd, next year. Starts at 2pm. Put it in your diary now. Don’t pencil it; ink it! Then colour and letter it. Start saving those pennies or take out a personal or student loan if need be. Pawn your toy collection or sell a kidney!

For Volume 2, Jason has decided to have each of the chapters drawn by a different artist. I have recently completed my pages, to which I hereby give you a preview of the first and last page only. They have not been lettered yet. This will be all you’ll see until the book comes out, when of course, you will go and buy it. You can get a preview of some of the artists by going to the blog for the books, here: http://www.thesixsmiths.com/wordpress/

When will the book come out? I don’t know. Probably late next year.

Here.

And you can read a preview of it here…