Wow what a huge weekend. As I mentioned this was my first foray into the other states to see how they rocked their conventions and what an interesting experience. I have no idea how to describe the weekend in a coherent way so I’ll try and break it down into a few sections and hopefully capture all my experiences.

The support

First things first, thanks to all the people who picked up a book. It really means a lot when people give Aussie creators a shot and pick up our titles. We understand it’s a gamble for you fans, if you’ve never heard of us before there’s a chance you’re putting down your hard earned on something you won’t enjoy. I hope in the case of Sawbones we weren’t a disappointment. If you DID enjoy please let us know. there’s a comments field below and I’d be honestly giddy to get feedback. Or drop us an email.

The people

I met some really amazing people this weekend and it’s probably the reason I enjoyed it so much. Sitting behind the table can be an incredible grind. That is lessened when you can chat to good people like I could. Tom Bonin, Jason Franks (@jasefranks), J. Marc Schmit and across the alley Jackie Ryan and Brendan Halladay were all fantastically energetic and I fed off that. Additionally I got to mingle throughout the con with great people like Bobby N. who was sitting over with Wolfgang and the crowd at Gestalt Comics (@gestaltcomics) as well as meeting people like Gary Chaloner, Baden from Black House comics, the high energy Hayden Fryer (@coffeeicus) and the delightful Rachel McLachlan. The ever charming and thoughtful Rhys mc Donald of RiverSide fame also popped by the table and if i’d thought about it I would have gone off and chatted to him for half an hour. He’s a true gentleman. I also met the charming Harley Quinn Aid (@harleyquinnaid) who i’ve seen at multiple cons and not ever seen her not smiling so I went up and told her nice work, she one of the few cosplayers who’s costume I actually recognised which I appreciate. She also motivated Gail Simone to come to Australia next year so triple awesome.

After the show on Saturday night a bunch of us were still so enthused we went to dinner and continued to talk about good comics.

The comics

Really great comics were out in force. Some at my table! Tom Bonin’s new Dicks anthology was just stunning and it made my life easier to have such a quality book on the table when Tom went off wandering and I had to sell his stuff. I’ll probably write something about that later though.

Burger force had a new book out, it’s a really interesting read with a look that’s unique in Aus comics. Gestalt had Justin Randall’s Changing Ways. It looks sublime. Haven’t had a chance to read it yet but with Gestalt’s record it’s safe to say it will be great. Black House comics had a new issue out of The Dark Detective and it’s getting better and better each issue. The current issue not only features the regular artist but a special treat from Greener Pastures creator Tim McEwen. Also comics related was the panel on Aus comics. J. Marc, Hayden, Wolfgang and myself faced a group of interested audience member who asked great questions and seemed passionate about Aussie comics and the other panelists gave really insightful answers so even I learned a few things.

Joe Kubert

Wow. I saved this til last because I believe that the best should always be last. Joe Kubert’s presence was amazing. He wandered the artists alley chatting with creators and being generally enthusiastic. Sadly I don’t think the majority of the crowd fully appreciated him so he was never as busy as the celebrities who were charging to have their photos taken and his panel was sadly only attended by 20 people but those 20 (myself included) were treated to an audience with a living legend. His thoughts on process, work ethic, storytelling showed a man who was still on top of his game even after 50 years. Next time I hope Supanova realises the value of such an asset and promotes them a little more.

speaking of not realising I totally forgot to take photos so if you have any of Mr Kubert or of our table or just of me oggling a cosplayer drop me an email and I’ll add it to this post.

Putting a book together contains a bunch of steps, most of them painfully dull. Re-formatting pages for print, doing cover art, and fixing the inevitable typos that appeared as we rushed to get a page out every week (ok the cover drawing is a bit fun).  My favourite part of the process is fixing up artwork. It’s a luxury that i’m not often afforded in a webcomic where there’s a weekly deadline and i need to move onto the next page. As we’ve worked through the pages in prep for March’s book launch Jen’s been instrumental in helping me get a bit of clarity and making suggestions as to where we can improve readability.

Below you can see an example of these improvements. The script called for Martin to deftly step out of the way of the fight after being bowled over however the web version doesn’t really make that clear. I hope that in the book it’s a lot clearer and improves the story that we’re so proud of.

Melbourne folk! Block out the 3rd of March for the launch of the last issue of The Time Being as well as a whopping FIFTEEN  other local comics. I’ll have more details closer to the date but this is comics event of the year so you don’t want to miss out.

Meanwhile here’s the final cover to issue 4

2011 was a big year for me, in March I was married, I became an uncle to a handsome boy AND a set of gorgeous twin girls and work had a restructure which saw me doing a lot less fun projects as we found our feet, and the comic was featured a cast of thousands… Throughout this hectic period I overworked myself.

In fact I’ve been taking half my annual holidays for the last few years not even aware I was doing it. There always seemed to be something going on which meant I couldn’t get away.

So towards the end of the year I began to really feel all this and in December began to have a couple of panic attacks (my first ever yay!) and feel a bit depressed, perhaps even with a capital D. I began taking Fridays off and felt thankful it coincided with Arran doing guest strips so i could even rest from the comic for a few weeks.

It’s apparently pretty common with the art community that we can have black spells, I guess going back to Van Gogh’s ear cutting incident, but I’d never really experienced something like this, I’ve always been pretty light hearted.

Then I had a couple of chats. One with Ben Michael Byrne from Kranburn fame and we discussed our art processes and what drove us and he mentioned that on his next project he was putting as much effort into each panel as he does currently for each page and how it was all about pushing himself to be better and how good it felt. The other chat was with Katie Houghton-Ward. I managed to buy an incredible piece of her art as a gift for my wife and while picking it up I watched her work, her fingers never stopping. She spoke of how quickly she got bored and how she loved being creative. You could see she needed art like a drug.

And I picked up the tablet again and began to draw, and write and discovered that even though Arran’s fantastic guest trip meant I didn’t have to draw as much as I do usually, I needed to. Drawing helped clear my mind. I wasn’t stressed about work when I was drawing, in fact I barely thought when drawing, it was all about the next line, the right composition, the right colours. My wife talks to me and is lucky to get a response. The world slips away and my emotions are all about whether THIS panel is right or this page is a success.

Towards the end of 2011 I was considering ending Sawbones. It’s almost six years of drawing and it doesn’t pay my bills and taxes my time and the business/publishing side of it bores the crap out of me but I’ve discovered Sawbones keeps me sane so 2012 is going to see me push myself even harder. It’s already started with me writing this arc but I’ll be trying even further to mess with the formula. It that means occassionally the look of the comic changes for an arc into something you don’t like I sincerely apologise but I hope that the results are a better comic. On the business side this time has also refocused me but more of that later.

Thanks to Ben and Katie for the inspiration. I’m still getting some black days but comics makes EVERYTHING better.

Also, enjoy: