If only there was a word for finding something while looking for something else

Twenty years ago today, I met a girl at tafe named Maya. She just randomly came in from another classroom and started talking to me. At the time I was working on designing characters for a series of comics called Airbury Academy (not at that exact time of course), and I later designed a character based on her looks and personality. 

I called this character Maya even though I try to avoid giving names of people I know to characters. In Maya's first appearance in the comic, she just randomly comes up to the two main characters and starts talking to them. She is also the last character to say goodbye to them in the series' final scenes.
 

As it turned out though, I had misheard when my graphic design teacher told me the girl from the other class's name. I found out a few weeks later that her name wasn't Maya. Phew! Lawsuit averted.

 

Erica

 
Erica is a character in my graphic novel series, Airbury Academy (2007-2018). She first appeared in 2001 as an extremely minor background character, with only one line of dialogue, in a sci-fi/comedy comic called Metalheads that I drew when I was a uni student. There were eight issues made between 1998 and 2003. The bulk of the Airbury characters all first appeared in Metalheads, as did the character Miss Fox from Juliet Prime.

When Erica next appeared, in the original (online) version of Airbury Academy Volume I in 2007, she had been promoted to main character Psyche's best friend. This was a decision taken by my friend Sue (RIP), who had a hand in writing a couple of stories in it. Sue's justification was that her childhood friend was named Erica and she liked my character design. Well, why not?

Erica appeared throughout the entire series. She had a cameo at the end of Limelight in 2021, and is set to appear (along with about 75% of the Airbury characters) in a new murder-mystery graphic novel later this decade. So look out for it! Until then, enjoy some panels...

Airbury Academy series now available from online booksellers!

My series Airbury Academy, comprising six graphic novels titled – wait for it – Volume I (2014), Volume II (2015), Volume III (2016), Volume IV (2013), Volume V (2017) and Volume VI (2018) are now available from several online booksellers, such as Amazon, The Book Depository, AbeBooks, Fishpond and more!

(Yes, Volume IV was produced first. As my friend Dave put it, I am the George Lucas of comics. Perhaps.)

For more information about the series, click on the 'Airbury Academy' tab at the top of the page. It's a comedy/drama series set in a boarding school and is suitable for readers aged 15 and over. It's funny, and entertaining, and a little strange in parts, but it's well worth a read! I know, because I wrote it.

You can also find a synopsis of each book if you click there – as well as a link to Booko. This is a website that compares prices across several online retailers. You can choose whichever bookseller you prefer.

Each of these books have been re-released from their original A5 print runs. They are now all in A4 size, with renewed artwork here and there. They are all over 100 pages long, but the last two are quite a bit longer.

Thanks very much for taking a look, and if you purchase a book, I really appreciate your support, and hope you enjoy the read!

Adventures in Polymer Clay: Sugar

Do you remember my character Sugar from Airbury Academy, you know, the girl with the pink hair? Well you should – she's right up there in the banner heading of this blog. I used some coloured polymer clay to make a little figurine of her. She looks a bit pudgy, but it's not bad for someone who is totally inept at sculpture. i.e. me.

See the resemblance? Uncanny, ain't it?

Working with polymer clay is quite easy to do. It doesn't make a mess, you can blend the colours easily, you don't have to hurry in case it goes hard, and if you know what you're doing (which I don't) you can put together each differently-coloured part into a cohesive whole. Then you put it in the oven and bake it.

I still have some clay left so I dare say there will be more of this sort of thing appearing here in the not too distant future.

Sticky Institute Zine Fair II

Oh, happy, happy, joy, joy! Today was Sticky Institute's Zine Fair and for the second year in a row I had a table there (exact same table, too). Last year was not a very enjoyable one, in that I sold bugger-all. Zilch. Nuffink, guv'.

I was rather skeptical about setting myself up for a second session of this annual tedium. But then I began to think about the reasons why I never sold anything last year. It was a zine fair, and primarily I make comics. I hadn't understood the audience of this event. So I actually produced a number of zines by hand, meaning that they were not printed, they were all lettered by hand onto pre-stapled A6-size booklets. I had ten of them. And I sold all except one!

Another customer was kind enough to purchase Airbury Vol. I, so in making ten sales, my sales numbers were up 1000% from last year. And that, dear reader, ain't bad.

To be honest I was beginning to lose the enthusiasm I originally had for producing humour-based illustrative works, since no one seemed to give a damn, and who reads this comic crap, it's all insignificant pablum anyway. But this was a step in the right direction and it increased my confidence once more. It was a pleasure talking with the various people who stopped by my table to talk to me and buy my zines, especially my friend Chris, who was at the table with me for over an hour, and also Steve and Antoinette from SCAR who were once again at the table next to me and keeping a beady eye on how I was doing sales-wise.

So unlike that dismal day in February 2016 I am actually looking forward to doing it all again next year.

One final thing, on the train home I noticed Metro trains have replaced the fabric on the train seats. The old familiar pattern that has been there since before I moved to Melbourne is now gone, and has been replaced with this. But my question is –

How come 'Brunswick' gets to be so big?

Homecooked Comics Festival

I had a table at the 2016 Homecooked Comics Festival today. It was held in the Town Hall in the suburb of Northcote. Want to see some photos from the day? No? Tough.

Here's my table with the four volumes of Airbury Academy, Rob's zines, and a hand-painted Airbury bag.

Comics artist Bruce Mutard was there, and did a series of drawings for the kids.

Meanwhile, a drawing demo was in progress. Here's Steve from SCAR with his motorbike monster...

...and Matt from Pikitia Press working on a similar effort. The drawings were timed.

Finally, here's Michelle and Antoinette from SCAR looking at my zine, Xtra Cheez!

Now, push off!

Four Volumes Of Airbury

Beware the Ides of March! The photo below shows the four volumes of my Airbury Academy series that are now complete. Only two more volumes to go!

That all amounts to over 450 pages of comic art, and a whole heap to go...well, a three-digit number at least.

Sticky Institute Zine Fair

The Sticky Institute is a small shop in Melbourne, located in an underpass beneath Flinders Street Station, which sells zines of all kinds. Robert Scholten and I got a table at their zine fair today, and experienced the "zine scene" for the first time.

Zine production is unabashedly low-tech. A long-arm stapler goes a long way, as does a spare printer. Here's Rob doing some stapling. On the table is the "Never Trust A Songwriter" title card he did in Thailand for the China 5 music video (which I also filmed in Thailand).

The finished zines.

My zine, Xtra Cheez, was available in several flavours.

The Melbourne Town Hall was rather packed. Who's that at the bottom right?

Rob at our table.

Steve Carter of SCAR, with way more titles available than we had.

Antoinette Rydyr of SCAR setting up their extensive catalogue of zines and comics. She also came up with the name of my zine. I picked it from a list and changed the spelling.

Now, naff orf!

I'm On The Shelf

Ahoy, lubbers! 'Tis my very own book, Airbury Academy Volume I, on the shelf at All Star Comics.

If you wanna check 'em out they're at 53 Queen Street in the city most people refer to as 'Melbourne'. If you see my book buy it. Go on, do.

Airbury Academy Volume I

How exciting, it's the proof copy of my second self-published book, Airbury Academy Volume I. Why was the first volume second to be published, and the fourth volume first? There's a good reason, but I can't be bothered explaining it here. Anyway, it looks good!

Airbury Academy IV: Now On Sale!

Here it is, Airbury Academy Volume IV – the comic I've been working on since November 2012, set about self-publishing in mid-February, got my proof copy of on March 6, and received 30 copies fresh from the printer today! I've had work published before in magazines, but never my own book, so this is pretty special.

If you want to buy a copy, you can click here to buy online. Or, you could send me an email and tell me your address, which is easy if you live in Australia. If you don't, the first option may be easier.

Thanks go out to Dave Piper who helped a lot through the pre-printing process and also with the logo you see on this very cover. Check his stuff out at Sunday ink!

Lino Carving: Airbury Logo

I'm gearing up towards the possibility of getting Airbury IV printed, so the cover art has to look decent. After showing the rough version around it became apparent that the logo or header needed to be improved. The rigorous precision of the words "Airbury Academy" in the Trajan Pro typeface looked nice, but didn't really stand out. And if anything has to stand out, it's the title, right?

So the other day I got this small piece of lino I'd had since my TAFE days and transferred the header onto it in reverse, then used my lino-carving tools to carve the lettering in relief.

Using black ink and a roller, I made a few prints onto cartridge paper. Each print was different, with its own 'character'. It gave a pleasingly rustic and handmade look, as befitting the titular Academy which started in the 16th century. The pages above were scanned and a comp image was made...

And dropped into Photoshop, the end result being quite satisfying. Maya will feature on the cover for Volume IV, holding a snowball, or rather a snowman's head with carrot attached. More news on the possibility of the book will be coming soon!

Melbourne City Library Comics Exhibition

Ahoy mateys! Welcome to 2014. Posts on this blog really dried up during the second half of last year, didn't they? Well not to worry because 2013 was fairly uninteresting anyway, and already this new year is shaping up to be a good one.

I was fortunate enough to have nine pages from "Avalanche", the fourth story from Airbury Academy IV (my new black and white 150+ page comic that I only completed the day before New Year's Eve), included in the Melbourne City Library's Comics Exhibition! If you're local, get down to 253 Flinders Lane and see it before January 30th. It's in the upstairs gallery. Here are some pics from the opening night, Thursday January 9th.

The pages mounted on the wall. "Avalanche" is 22 pages long, so these nine pages are not consecutive but hopefully still make sense.

One of the guests who read it. She and others took their time to read every comic, not just skimming them. People seemed to take a long time reading mine – it does have a fair bit of dialogue to get through though!

My mate Chris having a read. "Avalanche" was one of the more humorous entries – other comics dealt with much more serious subjects.

The niche box on the ground floor near the stairs, where I displayed some items that hopefully give an insight into my particular art style. There were three or four of these.

The guestbook in the gallery – with some great comments in. Thanks to all who commented! Thanks also to Leonee Derr and the other Library staff who pulled the whole event together. It really is a unique experience to have your work viewed by other people, and the positive comments they give are very encouraging.

Mini Epics 35–38 (End of Series 1)

Here are the last four Mini Epics! When I say last, I mean I haven't drawn any more since these, and work has already started on Rebirth, the opening story for Airbury Academy IV, but that doesn't mean there won't ever be more. In any case, this concludes Series 1 of the strip.

Mini Epics 31–34

Happy 12/12/12, everyone. I'm posting this at 12:12 just to add to the nerdity. Also, the pageview count is 10,212...coincidence? Anyway, these four Mini Epics strips are favourites of mine – a sequence featuring Gertrude and Psyche in a bookshop. I'd been in quite a few bookshops at the time I drew these and that's what inspired it. Buying books can be quite an intense process for some people, as you will see below.

Mini Epics 29–30

Today makes five years since my first Airbury Academy comic premiered online (on a site called ComicSpace, which is now defunct). I didn't wait until today to make this post, I just noticed that I haven't uploaded any more Mini Epics for a while now. Anyway, you'll notice that there are only two strips in this post, instead of the usual four. That's because strips 31–34 are sequential and need to be read together. Well, enough talk; read comics.

Yyyyyyyyyyeeaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!