Trev Says: It’s been a while since I talked about my influences and I thought I’d update them a little. It’s occured to me there are some pretty glaring omissions in my original influence map. The new map in part reflects more of my life story.

Like most kids my introduction to comics wasn’t in the form of a comic book available at a comic store. In fact I don’t think I knew where any comic stores were until I was a teenager. Instead I started with newspaper strips.

Peanuts was my gateway drug. When, in primary school, we had to write to our favourite authors I chose Charles M. “Sparky” Shultz. I wrote him what I’m sure was a very poorly written letter and amazingly he wrote back, it was a two line response with some photocopied pictures but to actually get any reply blew my mind and I was set on course for life.

As I got older I began looking for longer comics. It was in the school library I discovered Tintin and Asterix. Both books featured travelling across the globe, adventure as well as a liberal dose of humour. I think Tintin affected me more though. The richly drawn backgrounds with cartoony main characters Is something I’ve always loved. McCloud talks about it in his Understanding Comics, the background is to see, the simplistic characters allow you to BE. Looking at other influences such as Jeff Smith’s Bone it’s easy to see the influence arc.

As i hungered for more material I finally discovered comic shops. Spider-man 2099 was the book i picked up. Rick Leonardi’s art was graceful and full of energy. It’s a style that is similar to phenomenal local artist Colin Wilson. From there I got turned onto some seminal artists like Bruce Timm, Frank Miller (before he took a running jump off the deep end), Mike Mignola and Darwyn Cooke. Looking at those guys you might not see much similar but all  are interested in less is more. Iconist images. Timm and Cooke because that’s what animation demands but Miller and Mignola use bold shapes to define characters in the way Tintin and Asterix uses line.

Lastly Danielle Corsetto is the most recent of my influences. As well as being a successful webcartoonist (who wouldn’t want to make a living doing this stuff) her line work is simple and yet fluid in the same way Shultz’s lines captivated me as a child. Additionally Danielle’s voice as a female in comics is something that i’m really enjoying. It’s something that I take for granted working with Jen but female creators bring really rich and interesting views to storytelling.

Anyway that’s an update. I’m sure the minute I hit publish on this I’ll be cursing i’ve left off people. I should do a honorable mentions at some point for the almost-made-it people but in the meantime Id love to read what you think.

This arc is drawn by the talented Andrew Fulton who is currently travelling with Jen across the grand old United States (actually about now he’ll be in Toronto for TCAF). Andrew’s comic Mumblier is sometimes NSFW, sometimes strange but always beautiful and delightful. Jen and I are huge fans of both his comic and his resplendant beard. Sadly he’s not such a great mario cart player but we still love him.

Today is free comic book day. It’s a day when you can pop into your local comic shop and get more than 40 books designed especially for the day FREE! But it’s more than that. It’s an opportunity to discover comics, find your local store. Engage with comics. For the industry it’s about getting new readers. Comic buying is steadily decreasing even though there has never been a better time for comics as far as the quality of the writing and art. So please give titles you’d not usually read a look, if you see a comic a friend’s kid might like pick it up for them, get them reading!

For my part I’ll be supporting FCBD by doing sketches at All Star Comics in Melbourne between 2-3pm along with 17 other great comic creators. Here is the full list. Hope to see you there.

Sawbones began 5 years ago as Sawyer and Bones appeared as background players of a bunnified version of Poe’s the Raven.

Recently I realised that that story wasn’t on the site and went looking for it. Turns out i don’t actually have a copy on any of my computers. Technology moves so fast i’ve been through 4 of them in that time. So I used my moderate google-fu skills and found it online. Apparently nothing dies on the interwebs.

Anyway reading through the story I was struck by two things.

1. Jen’s storytelling was just as delightful 5 years ago. Reading the story with so much water under the bridge was like reading it for the first time and I loved the turns of phrase and way she balanced the horror tone with the comedic twist.

2. There was no way I could bear putting that art up online now. I don’t know a single artist who doesn’t cringe at old work and i’m no different. So over the last few weeks I’ve redrawn the comic. Tightening it up a little and adding a little more mood. I’m sure in another 5 years I’ll hate this too but it’s a start.

I do however want to aknowledge how this started so as this story progesses there’ll be a link at the bottom of the comic where you can look at the original version.

I hope you enjoy this.