June '22 NEWSLETTER

masoncomics.com.au

#14. Maintaining Cadence.

The Deep season 4 arrives in Australia, Phantom Pholio #8, and more comic stuff on its way.

The Deep season 4 arrives on Australian TV!

Season 4 of the kids action/adventure series based on the Gestalt Comic books about an international family of ocean explorers, has debuted on Australian TV in late June.

 

In 2020 during the pandemic, I worked on 6 episodes of the series as a concept designer under art director and co-creator James Brouwer.

 

Smash-cut to 2022 and 13 episodes are now being released worldwide, with the UK rolling out episodes first. Apparently The Deep was no.1 in the UK on CBBC during the month of release, which is very exciting. A big congratulations to the cast and crew in Australia, Canada, Singapore around the world for an awesome achievement.

The 1st episode aired in Australia at 4:30pm on the 24th June via ABC Me. However, ALL of the episode has dropped onto ABC iView for streaming, including previous seasons if you've never seen the series before (you can also find seasons 1 - 3 on Netflix, which I'm sure will eventually have season 4 too). 
 

A  couple of concept images can be found here via my blog post, with more to add to the folio soon: 

 
More on 'The Deep' here!

Some concept design work I did from THE DEEP season 4 episode 'Little Problems".

Frew's Phantom Pholio #8
Available now!

Released during Frew HQ's open day in June, the next series in Frew's the Phantom print series collection has just been released, featuring 13 Phantom comic cover artists. I am very pleased that my "Nam Phantom" has been included in this "Generations" themed collection of limited, high quality signed prints, with a great list of artists:

Daniel Picciotto, Paul Mason, Glenn Ford, Lily McDonald, Antonio Lemos, Glenn Lumsden, Shane Foley, Jeremy MacPherson, W.Chew Chan, Lauren Marshall, Grange Wallis, Alex Trpcevski and Jason Paulos.

 

My colour version can be spied via the link below:

 
View Print set at Frew:

Above: Inked version of the Phantom Pholio print contribution. The version in the Pholio is my coloured version.

Lee Falk Memorial Charity Dinner 2022

Just a quick thank you to those I saw and spoke with at the recent Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club Charity Dinner. This is an annual event that brings together Phantom readers, "Phans" and creators to raise a glass to Lee Falk, and raise money for the Westmead Childrens Hospital in Sydney by way of auctioning artwork and collectables related to The Ghost Who Walks. There is also a guest speaker, this year being comic book illustrator Daniel Picciotto (some might have seen his work as the cover to the Phantom Boardgame, various Frew covers, or his story with writer and good friend Duncan Munro in the 2022 Annual). Daniel's speech was heartwarming, and it was really nice to see the bosses Glenn, Dudley and Rene, and friends and peers in person for the first time since 2019. Thank you to Steve Panozzo of the Australian Cartoonists Association for the picture capturing most of the "Frew Crew" in the image, including (L to R) Glenn Ford, Jeremy Macpherson, Antonio Lemos, Andrew Constant, Me, Duncan Munro and Daniel Picciotto. Not far from the photo was also Rene White, Matt Kyme and Alex Trpcevski. Thank you to Richard Fry and Dr. Antonio DiDio for another successful dinner. 
I donated two images, the one below is based on an upcoming story sequel I wrote and drew, apparently going to print in early July...

(Oh, if you're keen on my next Phantom releases, you're going to want to keep an eye out for THE PHANTOM #1923 out soon in newsagents. Will keep you posted when Frew drops a preview in #1922 out this week.)

Flock #1: Mail outs imminent

I updated backers to the kickstarter recently re: the physical books- all the rewards and add ons are in stock and taking up floor space in my office. The only thing now I'm waiting on still is the issue 1s at the printers, and when they arrive, we're good to go. Of course, my commissions list is the next hurdle on the to-do schedule, but there's some fun and interesting stuff to draw and I'm looking forward to the physical books and kickstarter rewards heading out soon. 

 

Thank you again for your patience and understanding everyone. I'm as anxious as you to see the book in person, so I can complete your orders and tick that big task off my list.

 

Final words, thought -streams and jibber jabber for June 

 

Hello to the new subscribers who indicated on the recent surveys for FLOCK that you wouldn't mind seeing what's doing here with upcoming comics and news. Welcome :D

 

I just finished teaching and marking the 3rd year animation students in 3121GFS Animation Pre-Production and 3124GFS Art Direction. By now they're starting production on their final year films, and I'm excited to see how they all turn out. There's 8 films which are a mix of 2D, 3D, and stop motion. I'll be supervising one, along with the rest of my GFS animation colleagues in T2, in the lead up to end of year screenings and presentation. The film I will specifically be watching develop, started as a short comic in my trimester 3 comics course 2104GFS; it's always a fun process seeing what goes from page to screen, what is expanded, adapted, changed, interpreted etc. A lot of my comic work recently has been solo, so it's always nice to see artistic collaborations like these films come together. I'll also be meeting a new cohort of students in 2nd year this month, for 2107GFS Visual Story, which focuses on storyboarding, short film story planning, and teaching the ins and outs of Toonboom Storyboard Pro software in the mix. I want to wish the 3rd years all the best in the next trimester re: their films and preparing their folios towards graduations and beyond. 

 

Amanda and I just took a small break today to watch a couple of season 3 episodes of BARRY on Binge. There's not much I follow on TV, mainly due to the work I gotta do. But for a show I dig, I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. Clever writing and directing, black humour, engaging characters, in a "world" that never lets them get comfortable; it always poses the questions of " A character wants something BUT they have to do something to get it, THEREFORE this happens..." as opposed to a lot of shows that work off the "AND THEN this happens, AND THEN this happens..." Good writing; generally means there's no wasted scenes. It's not fun watching a show where you can see where it's all going 45 minutes before it gets there. Sure, we all need "comfort food" shows to switch off the brain for a while (it's why I unashamedly love most dumb (but well-made) action movies as well), but every now and then I appreciate a show that doesn't spoon-feed me the next beat, that doesn't foreshadow too much a head of time, that flags the turn, or the "bad guy", or who's about to die, or who's about to turn. I like not being able to see the horizon. No character is purely black or white, and though we still hope for the best with those we grow attached to, they aren't flawless, and their choices and consequences are as much as their strengths as well as their deep human flaws. It's also great parody and satire on the people, places and culture that features in the show. Some shows I like purely based on the characters and performances; REACHER, for one (another I recommend, a little less anxiety-inducing than BARRY can sometimes be). But for fantastic rollercoaster twists and turns, and the definition of characters digging themselves deeper into situations, try BARRY. I hope you have a show that entertains you, maybe it's a "comfort-food" show or movie, maybe it gets you thinking too. 

 

(Oh, and for a film, EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. Best movie I've seen on the big screen in a long time. Great Sci-Fi, Action, sure. But really, like every story, it's about family. We loved it. It's crazy, just go with it. You'll laugh and cry, I have no doubts.)

 

We're deep into the colder months at the moment and I hope you all are staying warm.  I'm seeing heavy rain and floods down NSW way, not unlike what we had up here earlier in the year, so I hope if you're in the impact zones and you're reading this, you and your family are also staying safe and relatively dry.

 

Finally, much love to my partner Amanda, who is still marching on each day, doing her very best, and aiming to recover from illness. She makes me very proud in her efforts. A reminder for us to keep punching on every day, one day at a time. We're got another small writing task at the moment which is giving us a much needed distraction. 

 

Love to you and your families, and thank you always for your support of my words and scribbling.

 

Warm regards,

Paul.
pmason83@gmail.com

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