Got along to the opening of Boxed In last night with a bunch of fine Melbourne comicers. Nine on Seven exhibition space turns out to be literally nine boxes of various sizes stuck to the wall of the Seventh floor of Curtin House (which is also where the roof top bar is). It’s currently showing the work of a group of serious and seriously awesome comic creators.

Diversity is the name of game here, of both style and approach. There’s the originals (and lovely they are too) of the beards we’ve seen on Mandy Ord’s blog the past few weeks (months?); there’s Jase Harper’s thoughtful musings on his move from Brisbane to Melbourne; there’s Pat Grant’s simple, effective, textured print about hunger (and farting); and there’s highlights from Tim Molloy’s recent show (and book) Saturn Returns. And then there’s Ben Hutchings‘ pop-up pokies machine, Michael Fikaris‘ lovely sketch, Leigh Rigozzi’s awesomeness and Michael Hawkins’ explosion of color.

But more than this (as if it wasn’t enough) there’s Jo Waite. Her wonderful work is not only a great piece, but it is mounted so beautifully, complete with stunning little Fimo pigeons in the bottom of the box.

Get along to it before a) it’s taken down on March 17 or, b) as Jo Waite fears, the weather has it’s way and the exposed boxes get washed away.

– Jen

Jen says:

For August I’m the resident blogger at the State Library of Victoria’s Young Adult Lit site, Inside a Dog, to read and review YA-appropriate comics and graphic novels. I’m hoping to reach well beyond my own meager understanding of this field by taking advice from folks who know better than me.  So, tell me what I don’t know – what great graphic novels either for or about young adults (13-18 year olds) should I be writing about?  Leave a comment here, or email me on jenbreach (at) gmail (dot) com.  The longer your list of recommendations, the happier you’ll make me!     Thanks!

Jen says: Five Wounds

Published by Allen and Unwin, in all good bookshops now

Hybrid novels (sometimes called illustrated novels or hybrid texts) are very popular in children’s publishing (think Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants) but have yet to successfully make the shift to older audiences.

Five Wounds is a gothic-toned “illuminated” novel for older readers about five severely damaged individuals including an assassin raised by dogs, a leper alchemist trying to create an antidote to death and an angel whose wings were cruelly cut off.

Author Jonathan Walker has successfully created a grubby and brutal other-worldy tone reminiscent of Patrick Suskind’s Perfume.  Dan Hallett’s illustrations are either beautifully detailed and constrained, or loose and disturbing, but always in synch with the text.

Additional visual design elements (including Bible-style chapter and verse notation and hand-drawn editorial notes overlaying the printed text) at first add a feeling of richness to the book.  However, although they make the book beautiful to look at, they quickly hamper readability.

Five Wounds won’t be the one to bring the hybrid novel out of the monopoly of children’s publishing, but it does herald some interesting new possibilities for combining words and pictures.

First appeared in The Big Issue #357, 19/06/2010

Trev says: Recently DC comics announced that Zuda was going to disbanded as an imprint. I thought i’d share a few thoughts on the matter. As usual I make no guarantees of a conherent line of thought, rather these are musings on both the announcement and the responses to this announcement.

First of all here’s my reading of what this means. 1. The Zuda website is going to be shutdown and all content will be moved over to the iPhone/iPad comixology app. 2. This will merge the Zuda digital beachhead established with the rest of the DC line that is going to be made available through the same app. Since Zuda is no longer alone in it’s methodology the need for additional editorial and management staff that comes from having imprints is reduced saving DC money. The first chapters of the Zuda comics will be given away promoting the digital experience of comics on your iPhone with subsequent chapters requiring you to purchase them. This will get you used to buying online content.

Is this a good thing? Despite my love of free content I definitely think this is a fantastic move for DC.

Firstly the Zuda online tool itself always sucked. Everyone knew it, when you were zoomed into a panel touching the screen was just as likely to load the next page as move to the next panel. I read Zuda comics despite this hinderance purely because the content was so compelling. The comixology application seems far more intuitive,  DC is right to not only port the content to the new format but disband the old format. A users first experience of online comics will effect whether they choose to have a second experience so DC needs to only put their best foot forward.  The colours and line quality is also great on the iPad. These screens are all calibrated exactly the same and thus it helps designers make sure what they create EXACTLY what you see.

Will everyone who went to the free site buy the comics? No probably not, but that’s not an argument for keeping it free. DC are a business and to produce and co-ordinate the volume of content they create they can’t function like webcomics can, earning their income by the goodwill of that 2-10 of the audience that voluntarily supports them. This move will allow DC to actually make money off online comics and in the end that helps us all, they’ll promote online comics if they’ve got a financial incentive to do so.

I just want to take this opportunity to congratulate all the Zuda guys. Ron Perazza, their editor, and the creators themselves like Caanan Grall, Dave Gallagaher, Kevin Colden, Peter Timony,  Brock Heasley, James Fosdike, Niki Smith and all the rest of the talented folks.

Finally from my friends who ARE lucky enough to have an iPad i’ve been told High Moon is fantastic to test out how gorgeous comics can look on it.  David Gallaher and Steve Ellis, the creators of High Moon also have a second project on Comixology, Box 13 which friends have praised.

Also I haven’t been paid to pimp Comixology although if they want to send me money or tell me how to put Sawbones into the app I’m happy to accept.