APRIL '21 NEWSLETTER masoncomics.com.au |
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#02. Touching on comic stuff and other things going on. |
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The Phantom #1887 now available on Comixology! The recently released Phantom #1887, with my short 10 pager "Have you Ever Seen the Rain?" is now available from Frew Publication's Digital Comics platform on Comixology. I have a couple of comics on my Comxiology app, and it's a handy way to carry a few around on the iPad to read and enjoy. Though I'm a big fan of the black and white, cheap old school newsstand print for the "retro" era stories, and purposely made the last few stories a bit spattery and gritty to try and evoke some sort of texture to suit the era/location/subject matter, it's nice to see the screen white, full-black ink versions on the iPad as a contrast. And for $1.99, you can't go wrong, right? | | |
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Happy Birthday Taekwon-do Recently I took a trip up to the Sunshine Coast for a six hour Grand Master/Master Seminar with Worldwide Taekwon-do/ITF HQ. The seminar was conducted by Grandmaster Jamie Moore, along with Grand Master Steven Cheah, Master Neville Burn, Master Vic Leighton, Master Jim Fletcher and Master Gary King, along with Master James Sheedy. Each men had a different element to touch on, with a mix of jiu jitsu, ITF TKD, Boxing, Karate and Muay Thai. Though I don't get enough time these days to indulge in TKD on a regular basis, I love these opportunities to catch up with old instructors, close friends and TKD family, make new friends, and hard train.
The seminar was held on the weekend of the 11th of April, the 66th anniversary of Taekwon-do.
Needless to say, though I train at the local Muay Thai/Boxing gym on a regular basis (their logo is an Easter egg in Kid Phantom #9), and was punching and kicking fine all day, an old hamstring tear is currently on the mend and a few bruises along the forearms are still healing :P An eternal reminder that no matter how busy we get, we must keep moving in some way, shape or form. Hope you're all active and well.
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Spotted in Comics Etc. Brisbane... Related to the first news item, a few physical copies of The Phantom #1886 and 1887 were spotted in April at Comics Etc. Brisbane, am always pleased to see the books out and about, and handy if you missed the newsagent release; check with your local comic store to see what they still have a few of in stock. Frew Publications also have the books where you can order direct if you're chasing any back issues. Not all of my inventory stories have dropped yet, but you can find specific issues via the links on my pages here, which I update if they see the light of day: | | |
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Current chipping away...As mentioned in the last newsletter, when my creative work all but dried up at the start of lockdown last year, after period of flatness, I slowly started writing an script I'd had in my notebook, based on a handful of sketches I'd done for demos in my 3rd year Animation Art Direction class at Uni. The exercise I gave involved a combination of animal life drawing studies at the Queensland Museum, life drawing in the uni studio, and any other elements pulled from the Museum or the art gallery, bashed together and sketched up in Photoshop. One such scribble was this dumb idea on the left.
The story itself will span about 60 years of Australian history, with a tongue firmly planted in cheek, with what can only be described as one-part war, one-part sci-fi, one-part historical, one-part action-adventure, and a little humour. Pages are coming along, in European-album format, most likely Patreon-driven to test the waters, for later in the year once we've moved house and settled. There's a future eye towards kickstarter on completion at least, if not something I try and pitch. But who knows with comics in 2021, right? More soon. |
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Final words for this month: As always, thank you for your support for signing up to news and thoughts here, and extra fist bumps if you've read the somewhat recent Phantoms, or grabbed the Phantom: Treasures of Drakon board game. Anybody played it yet? Between the current jobs and life, I am yet to wrap my head around the rulebook :P Maybe sometime in June/July when I get a couple of days off between marking and trimester 2, and we get ourselves a dining table. Am also pleased "Have you ever seen the rain?" is out digitally, this was a comic I was curious to see if people would like it; I was glad for the opportunity to do these stories for Frew at the time. The publisher Dudley Hogarth had a nice comment in the editorials recently, and the letters page in #1888 had a line which surprised me; usually that's how I get my news on if people/Frew dug the work, and Dudley giving a shout out that he liked those stories (and Kid Phantom, surprisingly), was very encouraging. My time with the GWW was mostly fun and educational so again I appreciate the opportunity. This particular short story was helped greatly by my partner Amanda, who made sense of some of my dialogue, due to the tricky subject matter and ideas I was trying to get across in terms of the makeup of The Phantom, and that conflict in the War specifically. Amanda did a great job, and in my assessment, somewhat overlooked as a young female giving creative input on the character in Australia, but that's comics in this country in general. "Inside baseball"/"Cone of Silence stuff here; we had a Julie Walker story we plotted/wrote together greenlit at the end of 2019, but early 2020 circumstances (as the world knows) nixed it while the plane was on the tarmac. I know it's more of a case of the perpetually-struggling state of business-level comic books in Australia rather than anything personal related to the project. Here's hoping 2021 is a better year for things seeing the light of day, and at the very least too, eventually having Amanda involved in editing the current work on my untitled creator-owned thing as mentioned above is the way more creators should pivot; be less reliant on feeding someone else's IP, and put some of that energy into your own "legacy". I might bother her soon to edit these newsletter, take out more of the self-depreciating and self-over analytical language (habits that are hard to break) :D Click the image below: Currently on the FB page I have a bunch of scribbles from a recent excursion I took my Art Direction class on: 'The Motorcycle' which ran at GOMA here in Brisbane for the last few months was fantastic opportunity to get the young animators to spend a couple of hours drawing bikes and vehicles; something other than just characters, essentially. In the industry, unless you're exceptional with characters, getting in on the ground floor means versatility; props, vehicles, creatures, environments. People tend to stick in their comfort zone, like that kid in high school who learns how to draw that one thing really good, so just keeps drawing that same one thing over and over, and doesn't challenge themselves because it's "difficult". By very nature of anything, the more you learn and apply, the better in theory you become. Or "Hang around the barber shop long enough and you're gonna get a haircut" as the saying goes. It was a worthwhile exercise, and far more engaging and challenging than hoping for interesting vehicles around the streets like we do this time of year in previous years of the course, so a big shout out to GOMA for the engaging exhibition. My quick sketches are much like below; fighting pre-mentioned injuries meant standing still in the gallery sketching bikes became painful at times, so I'm hoping after I knock over the latest medical comic commissioned, that I could perhaps clean up some of these drawings down the track. Anyways, thanks for indulging me this month, a month in the bunker working and waiting, basically. Any questions or suggestions on what you'd like to see in these monthly newsletters, feel free to message me via the email or socials. Or if you're happy to read some of my dribble or stare at pretty pictures, all good too.
I hope you are all safe and well, cheers and speak soon!
Paul.
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