This week's Illustration Friday topic is a lot of fun - "Robot"! I almost missed it.

The one that sprang to mind for me was a little robot from a 4 page Moth and Tanuki story that appeared in Mania magazine, back in 2007.

Here's the final page only - I think it makes sense on its own - just imagine a mystery package being left on a train and the right robot being deployed for the job.

Labels: Illustration Friday, Mania, Moth and Tanuki, saxophones

Lately, I've been thinking about the possibilities of putting together some work in compilations. I'm not keen to get back into any sort of self-publishing (having not missed it for the past several decades), but it'd be good to finish off some of this work for its own sake.

If I was to start putting books together, the most obvious first cab off the rank would be a Moth & Tanuki colour volume, collecting all the Mania episodes together, along with a few that didn't make it to the magazine, and one that subsequently appeared in Fist Full of Comics.

Although these ran as short funny 2-4 pagers, I always intended to do more episodes as "sequels" to some that appeared in the magazine, continuing stories or reprising popular characters. Here's a pencilled panel from one of those lost episodes.

Labels: Comic anthologies, Fist Full of Comics, Mania, Moth and Tanuki

These days I don't get to conventions very often, but on Saturday I decided to check out Doujicon 4. One reason I like this trader and artist based comics convention is that it combines the local Western comics and manga/anime scenes better than any other. Also, it's small :).

 Best of all, the good people at OzTAKU have just released the OzTAKU Subsequence anthology, a compilation of manga tales from local (and some overseas artists), including the complete 16 page Moth & Tanuki story, Night of the Mothbots. I think it's one of my better efforts, and tells a substantial story that works as a standalone (so a good place to start).

The anthology itself is fantastic. Edited by Robet Eiva, it is in a digest-sized format familiar to manga readers (and pleasantly reminiscent of the underrated Xuan Xuan). With a catchy cover from Hollow Fields star Madeleine Rosca, it's full of fascinating stories in a wide variety of manga-related styles, along with short interviews. I really like this book - hope it gets the wide circulation it deserves!
Otherwise, I greatly enjoyed catching up with so many local comickers, new and old - talking to all these artists and writers, and picking up a stack of new books, is what I really enjoy at conventions. What really amazes (and pleases) me is just how many local female comics artists and writers were there - it's a good sign about the nature of our comics/manga scene here in Australia! I was knocked out by quite a few people's art, including getting to see some original pages (always a treat).

I'm feeling enthusiastic about the future of comic-making in Australia - it's never been more exciting!

Labels: Comic anthologies, Doujicon, Moth and Tanuki, OzTAKU, OzTAKU Subsequence

Sticking to its regular bi-monthly schedule Fist Full of Comics #3 has been released. It's great to have an ongoing small press Australian anthology going at the moment, as the scene is pretty quiet of late.

I've been varying my contributions to this comic zine. Moth and Tanuki were begging for an outing, so here they are, back in glorious black and white in a 4 page story, "Comfortably Numbat," that I think is one of my better efforts. There are lots of Moth & Tanuki scripts waiting in the wings, so maybe I'll do this again, I'm not sure.

This time I've gone for total computer greytones, rather than using dotty screentones as I did in their OzTAKU appearances.This particular story has been completed in colour as well, just in case I ever do an anthology of all the short colour pieces that appeared in Mania

Although it's a satirical piece I reckon these characters could almost spin off into their own series :).

Labels: Comic anthologies, Fist Full of Comics, Moth and Tanuki

This year's entry in the Stanley Awards, another chance to prove my complete immunity from being nominated for awards of any sort :). These are selected panels from some of my professionally published work over the past year.

Labels: Moth and Tanuki, Stanley Awards

One of the ironies about Blogging is that the more that is happening in life, the less likely you are to blog about it. Personally, I try to maintain this blog with the full knowledge of it being public (particularly as some people I don't like read it), primarily as a place to log artwork progress. As there hasn't been any this year - I haven't drawn a scratch so far - I haven't wanted to. It's been a crap year so far in so many ways, but I don't plan to blog about it. One thing I have learnt is that going near doctors can really make you ill, both in the short and long-term.

Something else... Last night, as I was walking out from the railway station, I spotted headlights heading straight towards me, and stepped forward just in time to avoid a car, which smashed into a sign right behind me. It had swerved completely off the road, over the footpath and up an embankment, and run through the midst of a group of pedestrians (another guy was also just missed). Immediately it crashed, a girl jumped out - evidently drunk and still with a glass in her hand - and hastily swapped seats with the young guy in the passenger seat, before roaring off round the corner dragging the bumper. They stopped in a carpark to throw the bumper into the car and took off again. It was really close - I felt shocked afterwards, but it all happened very suddenly. I'm not sure why I'm blogging this - maybe I should draw a "comics journal" of this kind of stuff :).

Now, even though Moth & Tanuki ostensibly took early retirement at the end of last year, they're happily putting in an appearance as part of the cycle of characters on the front page of OzTaku ("Refresh" will find them). While OzTaku magazine has ceased (with the second half of a 16 page M&T adventure still unpublished) there is a chance M&T might be anthologised, though I'm not promising.

As far as drawing goes I feel slightly motivated again, so if anyone wants to hire me to draw some comics or illustrate something, now might be a good time to enquire, before I start something else. Lately I feel more drawn towards the purity of straight prose. It's always been a battle between writing and drawing for me, so maybe that's where I'm heading. I have one project I'd thought would be an episodic graphic novel, but maybe it should be a short book.

Labels: Moth and Tanuki, OzTAKU

The Mania Summer Special is out now. This one contains Moth & Tanuki's final colour adventure.

I really liked this episode until I discovered a really stupid typo in it (why are these things only visible in print?). This Christmas story is a nice place to leave the series (if there can be such a thing - it wasn't my decision). The cheapskates out there can read this one in the shop, as it's not sealed in a plastic bag :) .

I don't know if I'll anthologise the M&T stories. I haven't ever done that with anything else (Maelstrom, Busker Jim, Riffin' to Oblivion, Children of the Moon, etc.) and don't really see a reason to start now, particularly as colour printing is expensive and I'm not familiar with any layout programs.

There's the second part of a black-and-white M&T story still to come in OzTaku, but nothing more after that. Actually, I haven't drawn anything since I finished Moth & Tanuki and I don't know if I'm missing it that much.

Labels: Mania, Moth and Tanuki, OzTAKU

It's Mania time again with issue #79 December 2007, out now, featuring the penultimate episode of Moth & Tanuki. Mania gets a bit previous this time of year, with the November issue off sale before the end of October to make way for this December issue. However, that means that this isn't quite the end for Moth & Tanuki. The next issue, the Summer Special, will feature the last episode.

This one stars Tanuki in a weird, non-crime fighting vignette about bizarre worship. That begins to cover another aspect of Tanuki that I've been gradually developing (also in OzTaku). He both is and isn't what he appears to be. Pastel colours this time, after last month's bright primaries.

I'm really happy with these last few stories - the M&T world has expanded considerably and the gags are much tighter. Had the series continued I would have brought back one or two earlier characters, and I do think the next four were the best scripts I've ever written. The next (and final) one will star Mothy - it's about her turn!

Labels: Mania, Moth and Tanuki

Once again, voting for The Australian Cartoonists' Association Stanley Awards is on, closing at the end of this week. Here's my entry for the "Comic Strip" category (I'm also entered for "Digital Illustration"). This pic is a composite of various frames from both Moth & Tanuki series, from their double life in Mania and OzTAKU magazines this year.



I think the Moth & Tanuki tales are my best work ever and they've been my sole art project of the past year. The competition in the "Comic Strip" category is fearsome both in quantity and quality - some truly awesome work in a wide variety of styles - so I don't expect to win (I have a complete immunity to winning Awards of any sort anyway :)).

Labels: Moth and Tanuki, Stanley Awards

The latest Mania, #78 November 2007, is out now (cover pic shows the foil bag the issue comes in), featuring the latest episode of Moth & Tanuki.

The page shown above is page 2 of Kart Attack, which wasn't an easy episode to draw (but one of the funniest so far, so I had to do it :)). Todd, the kid in the red hat from previous episodes, is sick with chicken-pox, so Tanuki stands in for him in a Kart race. Actually, I reckon I could have got about 10 pages out of this material, but it's a very tight 4 pager.

The artwork involved lots of shifts of perspective, "jump cuts," closeups and distance shots, several crowd scenes and the use of layers (for eyes looking through visors and reflections). Once I got the print issue, I did my usual scouring for mistakes - I was worried some of those car numbers would be hanging in space the way I placed them before I lined them up with the art - but the only one I found was something I'm not sure I want to change anyway :).

As this story is full on cartoony and over the top, I thought I'd go for something much more character-based with the next episode. Also, I went for bright primary colours this time, so the next one is pastel-shaded to reflect the change of pace. I'm still enjoying this series a lot, and try to let the stories go wherever Moth & Tanuki want to take them.

Labels: Mania, Moth and Tanuki

The latest Mania, #77 October 2007, is out now.

This time I thought I'd feature a different page from the story - this is page 3. The gag grew through a number of drafts and it still works as a 2 pager without the last two pages.

The 4 page version has a good ending but left room for me to play around with the middle of the story. For that reason, I could really space the panelling out on this page, even to having room to draw Moth and Tanuki whole and letting the backgrounds drop away to become backdrops. The dialogue reveals some of the dynamics of Moth and Tanuki's supportive codependency (something usually lost in the rush of the story). My major reservation was having large areas of flat colour - even though I matched it a bit on the facing page - but the pages came out really nicely in print.

My main principle with M&T is no rules. If the story needs to work a particular way, visually or narratively, that's where I want to go with it. However, while this one is a downbeat story, it came out so well visually that it may influence how I do similarly paced future tales.

Labels: Mania, Moth and Tanuki

The latest Mania, #76 September 2007, is out now.

I thought the subject matter of this one might be a little edgy, but the basic idea is actually based on a true anecdote I heard someone tell recently.

Who you gonna call?...

Labels: Mania, Moth and Tanuki

This month there's 9 pages of my comics in the current issue of Mania, #75, August 2007 - the regulars, Moth & Tanuki, in a 4 pager, plus another 5 page comic! More on that in the next post. If you like my comics and haven't bought Mania before, this one's a good place to start!




This episode of "Moth & Tanuki" kicks off with a familiar setting - Mothy's father's Invention Room - though evidently some time has passed between this and the last time it appeared (actually in OzTaku #1.2, which has also recently come out).

Yep, here comes that kid again - some people never learn! I'm trying to work him in every third or fourth episode as he brings something different to the strip. He's in the one I'm currently working on, which is different to anything I've ever drawn before and he even gets a name!







Here's a quick throwaway panel from this same story, which I'll elaborate on in another post. I imagine a lot of people (in Australia) fondly remember cereal toys.

But wait, there's more...

Labels: Cereal toys, Mania, Mania August 2007, Moth and Tanuki

The July 2007 issue of Mania, #74 is out now.

Seeing this in print was a revelation - I'd experimented with the colour scheme quite a bit this time, going for more pastel shades. While I was working on it I got dissatisfied with the look and was concerned it might not work, but it did! The colour scheme was partly necessitated by featuring lots of browns and purples for animal and evening shades.

My working title for this episode was "A Ferret to Remember" but everyone I mentioned this to hated it :). This title is much better. Again, I'm happy with the way it came out - a decent story and a good gag, with room for both Moth and Tanuki to do things.

There may be a bonus coming up in the next Mania.

Labels: Mania, Moth and Tanuki

The June 2007 issue of Mania, #73 is out now, with Moth & Tanuki into their eighth colour adventure.

I'm completely happy with the way the story in this one worked out - good characters, a nice plot that includes a crime, some comic action and a decent gag to finish with. I don't ever want to get into formulaic work but, if I did, this could be a good episode to model on. There's no superheroey stuff this time though. There is one mistake (I'm including one each episode to check if you're awake :)) - they're only ever visible in print!



Relating to yesterday's post, Busker Jim and his dog put in a minor guest appearance - it seemed natural to include them, given the Dog Training School context. I don't consider any of my past characters completely done with - they're still around, just not currently being actively cast in things. This is the second time I've referenced an old strip in Moth & Tanuki - the earlier one was a Maelstrom reference (as seen in my Illustration Friday Invention pic.

Labels: Busker Jim, Mania, Moth and Tanuki

The May 2007 issue of Mania, #72 is out now. Moth & Tanuki are up to their fifth issue appearing in this magazine (and their seventh episode).

This time I thought I'd post a whole page as a teaser. This is an episode I drew over Summer, when it was still hot (and actually before the shark scare at Phillip Island). I had worried about the timing with going to press, but global warming has ensured that it's still unseasoningly hot and beachy right now.

Tanuki puts in an appearance on the cover, with a bit of recaptioning (which made me LOL when I noticed it). The cover has a lot happening - click on the pic if you want to see a larger version.

OzTaku also did a bit of creative M&T recaptioning in #1.3 (in the previews for next issue). There was a thread on a forum a few years ago where people started doing this with a pencilled M&T page I'd posted - they do seem to lend themselves to it. Maybe I should post an uncaptioned page here some time :).

Labels: Mania, Moth and Tanuki

On Monday I picked up a couple of copies of OzTaku #1.3 from Borders. It features the longest Moth & Tanuki story so far - an 8 pager, the first of two parts. Jill says it's the best thing I've ever done, which is possibly right. The story almost wrote itself and does manage to be a bit textured and nuanced, while still being funny (important!). It fills in some backstory, but also moves the whole series forward, with the emphasis more on Moth (so, a nice counterpoint to the Mania series).

From an art point of view I worked as starkly black-and-white as possible, using contrasting lines (particularly horizontals and verticals). The moires on the scan are where I've used screentones, again limiting myself to broad textures (as far as I'm concerned, screentones count as dotty b&w textures, not as muddy greys).

Available soon from the usual Oztaku distributors.

Labels: Moth and Tanuki, OzTAKU

The April issue of Mania, #71, is now out, featuring a story with Tanuki effectively going solo. It also brings back that boy from Sk8brd Tanuki, so he's now an ongoing character for this series.

The concept for this one is pretty straightforward. It was an interesting process, because the story started life as a one pager (which I never finished inking), then I rescripted it as a two pager, and it finished up as four pages. While it's fairly simple, I think the final result is the ideal length.

Of course, I made one minor mistake in the finishing stages, but most people I've showed this to can't spot it. No matter how hard you scour printouts of your story before submission, some minor thing seems to get through. I used to wonder why other people let this happen - now I know :).

This is the brightest colour scheme I've used in print yet, centred around almost primaries. I was overjoyed with the result - it practically glows in the magazine. This isn't to say I'll always work similarly. The boy character usually requires a red of some sort for consistency (on his hat), whereas I often work in a palette that excludes reds.

I'm playing around with colour schemes a lot in these episodes. The one I'm currently working on is much more subdued - I wasn't even sure I liked it until I started placing the colours on the pages.

The little purple guy in the pic at left is the same robot seen floating in the bath in OzTaku #1.2, so possibly another ongoing character...

Labels: Mania, Moth and Tanuki

The new issue of Mania magazine (#70, Mar. 2007) is out, featuring, Going Bananas, the first 4 page colour adventure for Moth & Tanuki!

This episode takes a different spin on the duo, using them to bookend what is essentially someone else's story. The timing wasn't ideal, as the great Australian banana famine ended between the time I submitted this strip and it seeing print, which wasn't that long, so hopefully it's still fresh in people's minds.

So, who would find a truckload of bananas just too tempting? I don't know if I'll reprise this character at some point (I do have a backstory in mind), but there are plenty of other bizarre adventures in store.

Labels: Mania, Moth and Tanuki

This is a one page version of one of the 2 page strips that appeared in the February issue of Mania. That issue is now off sale as the March one is out, so more on that soon. It's probably the last of these one pagers I'll post, though another two were nearly completed, but uncoloured (they've also been reworked as longer pieces).

Labels: Mania, Moth and Tanuki