It’s been a huge month in Aussie comics, with Armageddon Melbourne and the birthday of living legend TM Colin Wilson but Saturday topped even those (I’m kidding, nothing could beat Colin’s birthday).

Gestalt Comics saw the launch of not one but 4 books at AllStar comics in spectacular style. 8 creatives as well as Gestalt’s editor and their publisher Wolfgang Blysma gathered from all parts of Australia to sign books, meet fans and answer questions. I have it on good authority Chris Wahl and Jason Paulos weren’t allowed in the state at the same time in case there was a disaster and all the local greats were wiped out in one go.*

The whole event was emceed by the effusive Larry Boxshall who’s passion for local comics and ability to shout really loud saw him made Gestalt’s first ever Ambassador. Despite the fact that it didn’t give him diplomatic immunity or any kind of embassy in glamourous locales Larry seemed genuinely excited about it.

After pressing the flesh and signing their books throughout the store the Question and Answer session kicked off with a solid hour of questions which really showed off the depth and breadth of Gestalt’s talent, from comics stalwarts (read: been at it too long) Colin Wilson, Gary Chaloner and Bobby N. to new comers Andrew Constant, Emily K. Smith and James Brouwer as well as Tom Taylor, Justin Randall who sit somewhere in between. The most compelling story however came from Wolfgang Blysma himself who risked a lot to create a company dedicated to high quality comics. Picking up his books (and on the weekend I bought two of them) you can feel the quality in the paper stock and see the print quality.

It’s something that I appreciate. When Jen and I first collected the first volume of Sawbones we had a few discussions with local publishers about them taking the book on however all wanted to print in black and white to reduce costs. It was something we felt strongly about, maintaining a high level of quality and so we saved up our coins and published ourselves. So to hear Wolfgang talk about putting production values into the book that value the effort the creators put in was deeply gratifying.

The evening kicked on afterwards at a bar to celebrate this monumental collection of talent (and Colin’s birthday) however I had other plans -and now that i think about it wasn’t invited – so I’ll leave it to others to tell that story.

If you want to see some of the great Gestalt books on offer check out their website

*apologies if I forgot to include you in that gag, obviously you’re great too however I’m tired

Trev Says: As I mentioned last week, this weekend Melbourne hosted the Armageddon convention. I thought i’d give you guys a little wrap up of the weekend.

Firstly I want to thank my fellow creators. I was SURROUNDED by some of the nicest people who have ever written or drawn comics. Bobby N. was my table mate and since we’re both misanthropes I was originally concerned we’d spiral into two days of bitter ranting about what was wrong with everybody in the world. That wasn’t the case. Bobby helped keep my spirits up in the quiet times and you can’t help but get infected by his love for the craft being near him. Unfortunately his new Digested wasn’t available due to a courier muck-up but it will be available next weekend at Gestaltapalooza.

Nearby was Jason Franks who’s got a couple of books with work in it by me (a section in his new McBlack book and the story Jen and I did for Kagemono) so it was not only nice to hang with him and see how he is getting much deserved recognition for the fine work he’s doing, It was also good to hear the nice things people had to say about my efforts in his stuff.

Alisha Jade was also there selling her pretty impressive little book of lovely pin ups. It’s quite common at cons to see women objectified so to see a bunch of pin ups that appreciate the form but not in a crude or vulgar way is really encouraging.

Paul Mason was down from Sydney representing the good folks at Black House comics and was completely flooring fans with his awesome Soldier Legacy comic. It really seemed to strike a cord with punters with fantastic artwork and a uniquely aussie feel.

I want to touch upon all the local creators (Brendan Halyday, James Andre, Ben Hutchings, Matt Emery, Frank Candiloro, Luke Andrew, Chris McQuinlan, Simon Wright and everyone I forgot) but suffice to say each and everyone of them continually improve and this weekend reinforced that. Special thanks to Bruce Mutard too who sat next to me on the other side and as well as being charming company was instrumental in organising for all the talent to be together. It really made it a family feeling. Thanks folk.

I’d also like to thank the organisers. There WERE some screw ups. We arrived and not only did we have to find our own tables the tables weren’t there, also for a large portion of saturday the line for the anime actors was blocking access to our tables but when someone finally came past and noticed they did resolve that making the sunday a far more pleasant experience.

Lastly thank you to everyone who passed by the booth, who picked up the comic even if you didn’t buy it and to those whose who actually gave our little comic a go. You were spoilt for choice and it meant so much to me that you thought we could offer you value for your hard earned dollars.

Two massive shout outs to Sandeep Parikh, a guest of the con and a charming guy who’s work I admire in The Legend of Neil and The Guild, two hillarious shows. By sheer coincidence I’d caught up with the last series of the Guild last week not realising the stars would be at the con. But an even bigger thrill was to see a young girl, Sarah, who’d popped by at Supanova and came to get the next installment. Sarah wants to create comics herself and she was so lovely and sweet and had such enthusiasm I’ll state right now that when she does start her comic she can rely on me to buy the second copy. (her dad is very proud of her work so i’ll let him get the first copy).

See you all in a week for Gestaltapalooza!

Trev says: We’re coming up to the end of a story that had it’s genesis two and a half years ago, at it’s completion it will be over 120 pages in size. It’s a story that I’ve loved to get the next installment from Jen and even when I’ve been in a drawing funk and struggled through pages I’ve still considered it a better way to spend my time than most things you can name.

However when this chapter closes what’s next? Well I’ll be taking a few weeks break to put together a print version of chapter 4 and you guys will be treated to an untold story from the Sawbones world.

Jen wrote a cracker of a little tale for you and we get to treat you with guest art from an Aussie artist too, I love promoting the talent my country has.

Arran McKenna wrote and illustrated the wonderful Gynecomaticatastrophe which could be my favourite book of the year. It’s hillarious but at the end has a message. Sooo it’s kinda like the Cosby Show? hmm that can’t be right.

Anyway when Jen told me she’d asked Arran to illustrate this story I was nothing short of thrilled.

Speaking of which it’s because I want to share the love about other great comics we’ll soon be using Black Boox as online distributor of our books rather than maintaining our own storefront. We did this because Black Booxs distributes other great Aussie comics like the List, kagemono, and The Dark Detective and I love the idea that we can save you money when buying Aussie comics by only paying postage once rather than separately at each online shop. They also have great discounts for retailers so hassle your local comic shop to get Sawbones on the shelves.