Friday, July 09, 2004
Zoo
Yesterday, I took the day off and we all went into Melbourne Zoo. We're members of Friends of the Zoos, so didn't have to pay, but the queues were still long. It does have an amazing ability to absorb large numbers of people pretty effectively though.
It was a nice sunny day, given that its the middle of Winter. There was some snow in each of the enclosures, which had apparently been brought down from Mount Bulla, as a way to amuse the animals (they try to keep them interested and motivated these days). It attracted the interest of many of them.
I'm still chipping away at the Michal Dutkiewicz interview, but it is quite involved, as I'm including some notes he wrote on Verity Aloeha, his story in Eureka.
Aaron Burgess just pointed out a copy of Reverie #4 being sold with Fox Comics #14 on eBay. The former has my cover, featuring Maelstrom.
Apparently, Children of the Moon, Part 3 arrived, later than it should have (it was sent Express Post) and pretty beaten up from being shoved through the letterbox. I'll try to do a picture for the Synopsis page this weekend.
It was a nice sunny day, given that its the middle of Winter. There was some snow in each of the enclosures, which had apparently been brought down from Mount Bulla, as a way to amuse the animals (they try to keep them interested and motivated these days). It attracted the interest of many of them.
I'm still chipping away at the Michal Dutkiewicz interview, but it is quite involved, as I'm including some notes he wrote on Verity Aloeha, his story in Eureka.
Aaron Burgess just pointed out a copy of Reverie #4 being sold with Fox Comics #14 on eBay. The former has my cover, featuring Maelstrom.
Apparently, Children of the Moon, Part 3 arrived, later than it should have (it was sent Express Post) and pretty beaten up from being shoved through the letterbox. I'll try to do a picture for the Synopsis page this weekend.
Labels: Melbourne Zoo
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
The stories continue!
Yesterday, The Ink #2 arrived unexpectedly in the mail! It's nicely printed and a diverse, eclectic, fine anthology comic, though definitely adult in content.
Riffin' to Oblivion, Part 2, is in the middle! I have mixed feelings about this one being out there, as it is kind of personal, but it also features some of my favourite pages of artwork, so maybe I'll preview one here soon. The Comics Australia website is featuring it right now, and the Phase Two Comics shop online are stocking it.
Over the weekend, I completed Children of the Moon, Part 3, and drove over the misty hill to my sister-in-law's place last night to scan it. I just posted it off!
Work is as busy as ever. They seem to have a lot of meetings here. Doing staff assessments is kind of stressful.
Riffin' to Oblivion, Part 2, is in the middle! I have mixed feelings about this one being out there, as it is kind of personal, but it also features some of my favourite pages of artwork, so maybe I'll preview one here soon. The Comics Australia website is featuring it right now, and the Phase Two Comics shop online are stocking it.
Over the weekend, I completed Children of the Moon, Part 3, and drove over the misty hill to my sister-in-law's place last night to scan it. I just posted it off!
Work is as busy as ever. They seem to have a lot of meetings here. Doing staff assessments is kind of stressful.
Labels: Riffin' to Oblivion
Friday, July 02, 2004
Extinction is forever
Most nights this week I've tried to work on Children of the Moon, Part 3, which is progressing nicely. My left eye is playing up today though (sore, burning, etc.) so I don’t know if I can keep up the necessary momentum to get this completed, scanned and sent in time.
I've also had a variety of incoming email regarding various of my pages: one from a guy who is a groomsman at the wedding of another "Ian Thomas" in England and is gathering messages from people with the same name, one from a girl wanting advice regarding acrylic painting (I'll do my best), and one from yet another poor person who has lost their cockatiel and found my page encouraging, which is pleasing.
J. and L. are on holidays. They built an imaginative and clever zoo for their toy animals (and the real rabbit and guineapig). Unfortunately, L.'s toy thylacine wanted to be included, but J. insisted they were extinct. This saddened L. a lot, as it was her first knowledge of the actual extinction of an animal, particularly such a recent and significant one (within living memory). They both made books about thylacines; L's being about how sweet they are and what good pets they'd make, and J's being about how they're really extinct, how clever they were and also about their predilection for eating sheep :).
I did try to explain that this was why we were members of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, and the importance of trying to save animals that still existed, but L. was still understandably upset about the thylacines.
The OzComics boards have been have been suffering from another Doug-centred controversy after Killeroo creator, Darren Close, posted Doug's hateful and derisive opinion piece about the book (from his Blog). I took issue with the fact that Doug actually quoted my praise of Killeroo, Book 2, which I wrote around the time I reviewed it for OzComics Magazine. The trouble with Doug, in my opinion, is that he has let the praise of his fans go to his head, which is a surefire way to finish your growth as an artist. He may indeed hate the comic, but this diatribe struck me as very personal in nature.
The latest issue of Inkspot, the Australian Cartoonists Association magazine, arrived yesterday and it has a colour cover! Very nice indeed! My reviews of Sporadic and The Crumpleton Experiments are both in there and it’s nicely laid out. It's good to promote these further, particularly as, like Killeroo, they're comics aimed at older readers (teens and up). Australian comics are looking good.
I've also had a variety of incoming email regarding various of my pages: one from a guy who is a groomsman at the wedding of another "Ian Thomas" in England and is gathering messages from people with the same name, one from a girl wanting advice regarding acrylic painting (I'll do my best), and one from yet another poor person who has lost their cockatiel and found my page encouraging, which is pleasing.
J. and L. are on holidays. They built an imaginative and clever zoo for their toy animals (and the real rabbit and guineapig). Unfortunately, L.'s toy thylacine wanted to be included, but J. insisted they were extinct. This saddened L. a lot, as it was her first knowledge of the actual extinction of an animal, particularly such a recent and significant one (within living memory). They both made books about thylacines; L's being about how sweet they are and what good pets they'd make, and J's being about how they're really extinct, how clever they were and also about their predilection for eating sheep :).
I did try to explain that this was why we were members of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, and the importance of trying to save animals that still existed, but L. was still understandably upset about the thylacines.
The OzComics boards have been have been suffering from another Doug-centred controversy after Killeroo creator, Darren Close, posted Doug's hateful and derisive opinion piece about the book (from his Blog). I took issue with the fact that Doug actually quoted my praise of Killeroo, Book 2, which I wrote around the time I reviewed it for OzComics Magazine. The trouble with Doug, in my opinion, is that he has let the praise of his fans go to his head, which is a surefire way to finish your growth as an artist. He may indeed hate the comic, but this diatribe struck me as very personal in nature.
The latest issue of Inkspot, the Australian Cartoonists Association magazine, arrived yesterday and it has a colour cover! Very nice indeed! My reviews of Sporadic and The Crumpleton Experiments are both in there and it’s nicely laid out. It's good to promote these further, particularly as, like Killeroo, they're comics aimed at older readers (teens and up). Australian comics are looking good.
Labels: extinction
