Archive of Australian Comics History: DOWN UNDER GROUND

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Doctor Comics

Underground comics are the subject of this post, Australian underground or alternative comics as they are better known. Firstly, an exhibition that Glenn Smith curated called The Ink Runs Deep Down, Down Underground at the Orange Regional Gallery in New South Wales in 2005, and then a conference organised by Donald Ault called Underground(s) at the University of Florida in 2003. I was involved with both, writing an essay “Art From The Inkubator”, for the exhibition catalogue in Orange and opening the exhibition, and presenting a paper “Down Under Ground: Emotional and Oppositional Outpourings from Sydney’s Subculture in the Comics of Glenn Smith” at the Florida conference.

The Ink Runs Deep...exhibition catalogue. (Design by Glenn Smith)

The successive waves of Australian alternative comics produced since the 1980s feature a raw and spontaneous graphic style, an irreverent attitude and D.I.Y. Punk influenced approach to production, different from mainstream approaches to comics production in that they could be pluralistic, wide-ranging, antagonistic and mocking, containing taboo themes. The exhibition in Orange celebrated the creative expression behind these comics, that much maligned art form usually consigned to the pop culture trash bin, but there elevated to the gallery wall.

Back cover of the exhibition catalogue. (Design by Glenn Smith)

Creators featured in the exhibition are listed on the back cover of the exhibition catalogue, above. They exhibited applications of comic art in animation, painting, posters, book covers, and skate boards and a range of mediums from pen and ink to digital imaging. The day after the opening I went to the Orange farmers’ market and had the sweetest apples and tastiest bacon and egg-roll ever!

Display of Anton Emdin comics in the exhibition.

Display of Cruel World minicomics by Anton Emdin.

Display of Black Light Angels minicomics by Louise Graber.

Commenting on the emergence of the underground comix in Australia in his book Panel By Panel, John Ryan pointed to the social context of the 1970’s as a period in which a sense of national pride developed and led to a consequent interest in locally made comics. That first wave of Australian alternative comics was seemingly motivated by the North American Underground Comix movement. Like the Abstract Expressionist art movement of the 1950s, which Australia seemed to have mysteriously imported, rather than organically grown, these comics initially appeared derivative but later developed an Australian style.

Louise Graber with a painting of a panel from her comic Black Light Angels in the exhibition.

These comics can be seen as an echo of the Underground comix of the late 1960s that began in San Francisco, different in style and content to the mainstream North American super-hero themed comics, they opened up the way for autobiographical and artform genres. At the Florida conference it was exciting to hear from some of the creative figures from the original Underground as well as to describe Glenno’s work, and argue that it had some resonance with what they had done.

Front cover of Underground(s) conference program. (Design by William S. Kartalopoulos)

Back cover of Underground(s) conference program. (Design by William S. Kartalopoulos)

Underground(s) poster (detail).

This is the twelth in a series of posts called Archives of Australian Comics History that document moments in the recent history of Australian comics, particularly alternative comics and the Australian Small Press. I started researching this subject in the late 1990s and it eventually led to my PhD thesis: Ph.D. Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy, A Study Of Contemporary Australian Alternative Comics 1992-2000 With Particular Reference To The Work Of Naylor, Smith, Danko And Ord, 2003. On completion of the research I donated the materials and comics I had collected to the National Library of Australia: Michael Hill Collection of Australian Comics.

Posts in Archives of Australian Comics History: Comics In Record Shops Comics Workshops Down Under Ground Getting SMASH(ed)! International Exhibition of Drawings OZCON4 Mind Rot Savage Pencils Sick Puppy Comix TiNA Arena 2011 MCA Zine Fair 2002 Sequential Art Studies Conference 2nd Sequential Art Studies Conference

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.20

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Doctor Comics

Continuing the series of regular reports documenting the production process of the first and second issues of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics, Chapter 1: The Ingurgitator and Chapter 2: A Blot On His Escutcheon, this post mentions some of the tools and the workspace utilised in the production of two-dimensional print images. In terms of image-making techniques, printmaking is suitable for generating both single and sequential images.

A bowl of sumi ink, a brush and a bamboo baren. (Photo by Michael Hill)

Following the Japanese creative print approach sumi ink enabled the getting of solid blacks in some of the images. The ink was brushed onto the block or substrate surface carrying the ink. The paper was placed onto this and rubbed down on the reverse side with a bamboo baren.

Bench hook, roller, rag and bucket on studio bench. (Photo by Michael Hill)

Materials used included water based ink and paint, rags and cloths for smearing, cleaning and wiping the ink, and a plentiful supply of running water for washing the blocks and brushes as well as my hands.

Water, cloths, sink and lino block. (Photo by Michael Hill)

Despite the implied reference to woodblocks in Japanese print techniquess, it need not always involve woodblock printmaking. The wood may be replaced by other materials such as vegetables, fruit, leaves, string, rubber or other found objects that are sufficiently flat or pliable that they may be inked and pressed onto paper. The creative print (sosaku hanga) approach places the emphasis on the act of making the print. Oh joy!

Printmaking attire. (Photo by Michael Hill)

For a visual diary record and time-line overview of this project, see all of the BLOTTING PAPER: The Comic production reports: No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10 No.11 No.12 No.13 No.14 No.15 No.16 No.17 No.18 No.19 No.20 No.21 No.22 No.23

COFFEE TABLE fourth fix

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Doctor Comics

There are football (or soccer) comics on the coffee table this month. I’m currently watching matches from the English Premier League, the FA Cup, the German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, the Japanese J. League and the local Australian A-League. Last year I saw a really good FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Brisbane between Australia (Socceroos) and Japan (Blue Samurai) and recently I attended a Sydney FC match and witnessed the Italian master Alessandro Del Piero (a.k.a. the little painter) play. Del Piero says he was inspired to play football by the Japanese animation and manga character Captain Tsubasa (see image below). Growing up in Australia with the SBS television broadcaster, the Special Broadcasting Service, I was aware of football’s cultural origins. Due to its coverage of ethnic programs SBS became an amusing acronym in the schoolyard for ‘Soccer Bloody Soccer’ especially for followers of the other football codes such as rugby league, rugby union and Australian rules, and later with it’s screening of adult art films prior to the early morning broadcast of live football matches from Europe, ‘Sex Before Soccer’.

Comic Book Guy red carded for invading the pitch. (Photo and staging by Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)

So some of my set of Simpsons soccer figures and Comic Book Guy comics are in play this time. I’m not sure whether Simpsons creator Matt Groening is a football fan or not but following the repertory nature of the show the cast was kitted out to fill a couple of soccer teams with Mr. Burns as the referee. Comic Book Guy seems to be miscast here, invading the playing field and shown the red card by referee Burns for not being a member of either team. There is no sign of the ball, lost perhaps in the long grass. Springfield is not known for its smooth playing surfaces. Perhaps Homer was supposed to mow it but forgot?

Comic Book Guy in his own series plus his enormous cosplay effort on Free Comic Book Day.

The Jack Kirby cover for the first issue of The Fantastic Four.

I’m a fan of both the art of comics and the round ball game so it’s fine by me that Comic Book Guy puts in an appearance on the coffee table along with the recent comic book series Death of Comic Book Guy, the first issue cover of which is a pastiche of the Jack Kirby design for The Fantastic Four #1 back in November 1961 with Comic Book Guy trading places with The Thing, Bart with Human Torch, and Homer with Invisible Girl(see above). Oh, did I forget to mention Billy the Fish?

Captain Tsubasa manga: Road To 2002 Vol.10 (2002 FIFA World Cup campaign)

All of the figurines in the set.

Springfield’s finest-Homer with ball-The Simpsons soccer trading card.

Grampa stops the ball in The Simpsons Springfield soccer team trading cards.

This post was first published on the Doctor Comictopus blog that has now been merged with this one, the Doctor Comics blog.

Doctor Comictopus avatar for Michael Hill Ph.D (a.k.a. Doctor Comics) designed by Michelle Park.

COFFEE TABLE third fix

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Doctor Comics

On my coffee ( koohii ) table for the New Year is the exhibition catalogue of the Osamu Tezuka manga retrospective show at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo in 1990, the year following his death. In the introduction Chief Curator Yoshikazu Iwasaki suggests that the idea of putting manga into a museum whilst new is valid in the context of the influence of Pop Art: …such visual creations as commercial design, fashion, manga (comics), video images, and computer graphics should be boldly taken into the arena in which painting and sculpture are discussed…We do not mean to mold Osamu Tezuka into the concept of painter defined by conventional values, nor are we calling his manga painting. We are aware of only one thing, which is that he was a thinker in images with unbounded energy and creativity and a genius in expressing his thought, and we believe that this is enough reason for an art museum to hold his exhibition.(p.12)

Too big for the scanner, the oversize Osamu Tezuka exhibition catalogue. (Photo by Louise Graber)

The enormity of Tezuka’s output and the wide-ranging nature of his work was evident in the 1500 pages of original drawings that were displayed in the exhibition. These represented just 1% of the approximate 150,000 pages of manga he created. More than 600 of these pages are reproduced in the catalogue beginning with New Treasure Island (1947) and concluding with Neo-Faust (1988). Tezuka produced anime too, some being adaptions of his manga, others being experimental shorts and features. Excerpts from these were integrated within the exhibition and there were formal screenings of completed works in the museum’s theatre.

Artwork, corrections and inserted typeset dialogue for Princess Knight (1953).

The catalogue is structured around five chapters: I. Adventure and Romanticism (stories about science and the future, adventure and romance); II. In Search of the Ideal-Apollonian World (tales of heroes who exuded humanity and gallantry including some non-human e.g. animals, robots, aliens); III. Within the Reality-Dionysian World (the emergence of Tezuka’s gekiga style where the hero and the villain roles begin to blur and evil in the form of desire, hatred and jealousy emerges); IV. Song of Life-Reincarnations (Tezuka confronting questions of life, death and reincarnation); and V. Into the History (his history mangas period). There are also listings (in Japanese) for (1) a timeline of Tezuka’s life; (2) a select bibliography; and (3) the publication date and format size of each of his manga. It’s a treasure!

The influence of film is evident in Metropolis (1949).

Anthropomorphic machines fighting in The Biggest Robot On Earth (1964)

The visual expression of music in Ludwig B (1987).

Self-reflexive moment in The Vampires (1966).

I was fortunate to see this large exhibition spread over three floors of the museum whilst on my way to the Hiroshima Animation Festival. I spent a few days lunch money on the oversized catalogue but it was worth obtaining for the comprehensive entries, documentation and associated essays, most of which were translated into English.

Michael Hill(a.k.a Doctor Comics) with his proud acquisition, the oversize Osamu Tezuka exhibition catalogue. (Photo by Sarah Borsellino)

This post was first published on the Doctor Comictopus blog that has now been merged with this one, the Doctor Comics blog.

Doctor Comictopus avatar for Michael Hill Ph.D (a.k.a. Doctor Comics) designed by Michelle Park.

Read all the coffee table entries imported from Doctor Comictopus and now on the Doctor Comics blog: COFFEE TABLE first fix COFFEE TABLE second fix COFFEE TABLE third fix COFFEE TABLE fourth fix COFFEE TABLE fifth fix COFFEE TABLE sixth fix COFFEE TABLE seventh fix and my other posts about comics art in galleries and museums: Archive of Australian Comics History: International Exhibition of Drawings-Comics Archive of Australian Comics History: 2011 MCA Zine Fair and the posts about my travels in Japan: 8 Footed and 3 Hearted with Suckers and an Ink Sac CATS IN COMICS: Doraemon COFFEE TABLE third fix I Saw A Big Saw At Big Sight! Inking The Octopus Tracking Tatsumi and Tezuka

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.19

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Doctor Comics

Continuing the series of regular reports documenting the production process of the first and second issues of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics, Chapter 1: The Ingurgitator and Chapter 2: A Blot On His Escutcheon, this post focuses on the various print layers that were put together to create the intended cover design of the first issue and not used but may be in the second issue.

Uninked title block drying in the sun-© 2011 Michael Hill.

The type is assembled in reverse so that it reads the right way round when printed. A plywood block was used as a base and the rubber letters glued onto it.

Background texture formed the first print layer-© 2011 Michael Hill.

Colour overlay on background-© 2011 Michael Hill.

Working in a tiny studio I had no available bench space for drying. Letting the prints dry outside on the ground in the Spring sunshine proved a fast way to obtain the dryness. On the other hand the prints were susceptible to a breeze that arose and falling frangipani flowers in the studio garden.

Some of the prints took advantage of the wind and jumped onto the grass. Accepting any randomness in my print process I didn’t mind when some of the wet prints landed face down on the grass and were smudged.

Typographic design of title on overlay and background-© 2011 Michael Hill.

The final stage involved printing the type over the blue overlay and brown background.

COFFEE TABLE second fix

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Doctor Comics

Continuing my new Coffee Table posts on this blog here is the second fix, another new one, debuting here. Soon some of the old ones from my other blog Doctor Comictopus will be joining it here. The basic idea is to set up a coffee table scenario that includes a coffee table art book as an accoutrement to the cake and coffee and possibly relate the choice of materials to some current event. That would be a comics art coffee table book of course, usually large, hard covered and heavy and the slipcase set containing two volumes featured in this one is quite heavy. The plan is to pull one book or an associated group of books out of my collection every month or so and make a scene. This post is new and fresh, a first timer. There are links to the older ones at the bottom of the page.

The 2012 Xmas coffee table setting. (Photo by Michael Hill)

For Xmas my coffee table has a Gary Panter theme, a kind of Panter Claus presence if you like! There is the usual orange tiled coffee table from Orange, in NSW, famous for its apples, some orange, felt Xmas baubles, the resident skeleton doll, reclining on Richard Black’s Cloud sculpture that on this occasion represents a Xmas tree in a horizontal trajectory. In the background is the Louise Graber painting North Coast Jesus that hints at Xmas in the Summer as it is in the Southern Hemisphere, and on the table are the coffee pot, sugar bowl, milk jug and cup plus the coffee table comic art book accoutrements, all by Panter: Dal Tokyo, the Picture Box Gary Panter slipcase set, and the Panter cover illustrated The Best American Comics 2012, edited and designed by Françoise Mouly.

Panter books Dal Tokyo, Gary Panter, and Best American Comics 2012. (Photo by Michael Hill)

The shape of the Dal Tokyo book, containing comics from 1983-2007 with many iterations of the featured landscape and title, reflects the format in which the comic strip was published whether in four, three, two or one wide panel(s) and makes quite an armful to read once you get it open. If you are sitting and table-less it takes up all of your lap. The slipcase set is imposing in other ways, not least the weight of the two volumes and the awesomeness of the paintings, posters, sculptures and drawings as well as the sketchbooks from 1971-1002 therein. The Best American Comics 2012 not only carries a Gary Panter illustration on the cover but also a Jimbo comic inside.

The Picture Box Gary Panter slipcase set. (Photo by Michael Hill)

Happy Xmas and New Year from Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics) and if you are a comics lover I hope you get something as good as any one of the Gary Panter books featured on the coffee table as a gift!

Gary Panter cover illustration for The Best American Comics 2012.

Archive of Australian Comics History: COMICS WORKSHOPS

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Doctor Comics

The Bio-Hazard comics workshop poster. (Poster design by Xander Black)

Back in the 1990s a small number of design students enrolled at Sydney’s University of Technology were fortunate to attend two comics workshops taught by local creators Jason Paulos, Bodine Amerikah, Stuart Hale, Ant Larcombe, Sam Young and Xander Black. The events were organised by the students. Working in the Visual Communication Design program at the time, the course from which one of the creators, Ant Larcombe, was a graduate, I was happy to act as go-between and coordinator of this student initiative. The first workshop was Basick Inkstinct in 1996. This was followed up and developed the following year with the same tutors under the title Bio-Hazard. Both workshops enabled students to have contact with industry practitioners, creators and publishers of titles such as Hairbutt the Hippo, Cyberswine and Zero Assassin. This type of contact can make a valuable contribution to student training. It permitted students to see comics production as a valid form of visual communication within the graphic design field, a course that the majority of those who attended were enrolled.

The Basick Inkstinct comics workshop flyer. (Flyer design by Neil Heymann)

Both workshops were informally structured with the creators sitting at tables with the students demonstrating their skills on paper and engaging in studio banter with each other as they drew. Stuart Hale and Xander Black gave brief talks about comics making and the relative merits of local creators before the comics artists went through a practical session of scripting, thumbnails, page layout, rough and refined pencils, lettering and inking. The visiting creators were very generous with their time and the students appreciated this. These workshops preceded a more formal and official event that I subsequently organised, namely the Mind Rot Australian Comics Seminar & Workshop that I have blogged about previously in this series. That more formal workshop and accompanying symposium represented a further step in the process of formally recognising comics design within the academic curriculum as I was eventually able to offer comics based projects in the subjects Word and Image and Graphic Visualisation in that course and in the Master of Animation course that followed some years later.

This is the eleventh in a series of posts called Archives of Australian Comics History that document moments in the recent history of Australian comics, particularly alternative comics and the Australian Small Press. I started researching this subject in the late 1990s and it eventually led to my PhD thesis: Ph.D. Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy, A Study Of Contemporary Australian Alternative Comics 1992-2000 With Particular Reference To The Work Of Naylor, Smith, Danko And Ord, 2003. On completion of the research I donated the materials and comics I had collected to the National Library of Australia: Michael Hill Collection of Australian Comics.

Doctor Comics

Creating and Critiquing Comics Art