Title page for the first issue of my comic using rubber stamps and a linocut print to generate the type.-© 2011 Dr. Michael Hill

The above image is an impression of the reversed typographic design shown in Production Report No.1. As I am interested in experimental image-making I have moved the block during the printmaking to create a bit of blur. I have also used askew registration and mixed some of the fonts. The comic is based on experiences I have of a long career in education that involved teaching, research, design and consultation at an art college then a design school across the disciplines of film, video, animation and visual communication. The subject of comics often arose, first as a method of teaching storyboarding and visual sequencing and eventually as a medium in its own right following my practice and research. I eventually did my doctoral research in comics studies and gained my PhD in that field. Initially though, when the art school and the design school of Sydney College of the Arts were neighbours, I, by chance,  became involved in printmaking when I and a colleague temporarily swapped our classes- my graphics students with her printmaking students for a couple of sessions, and her students learning animation and video production with me. Later, I went along to experience the printmaking department myself and learned some studio techniques. I loved it! It touched me both as a technical medium and as a form of artistic expression. The result was that since that time printmaking became part of my artistic practice. In this project it has not only been used to generate the title page but also some visual expressions on several pages.

A little too much blur…perhaps I overdid it?… I shall keep it for awhile and have another look to see whether it survives or not. © 2011 Dr. Michael Hill

I experiment with the design and visual communication aspects of the work and modify the degree of graphical experimentation. I see both elements as essential considerations in constructing comics.

Experimental typography-© 2011 Dr. Michael Hill

The ‘graphical impressions’ are drawings or prints of graphic memories generated in ink from rubber, wood, lino and other surfaces (the title and subtitle are from rubber, my name from lino).  In addition to utilising printmaking as a method of image-making I am also doing some drawing with various tools ranging from traditional metal dip pens and pencils to felt-tipped pens and brushes and a selection of inks.

Title page for Chapter 1: The Ingurgitator. (Collage, sketch, assemblage- © 2011 Michael Hill)

Re progress on my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics I have encountered a few interruptions that have resulted in delays in production. There has been a good side to this, however, of the ‘working on other interesting projects’ type of interruptions kind. One project is on Anime and Manga research into particular works of Tezuka, Rintaro, Matsumoto and Miyazaki and the films Galaxy Express 999, The Dagger of Kamui, Laputa-Castle in the Sky, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The other involves workshops in the sosaku hanga technique of creative Japanese printmaking. Both of these activities will form part of a Japanese Cultural Festival in Suva in the South Pacific and both are subjects that I find quite stimulating. They may even provide some material for future chapters of my comic.

In terms of the production of my comic, however, I have managed to continue pulling bits and pieces of already completed work together and have modified other bits that I had considered to be completed. That’s the title page design(above) for the first chapter The Ingurgitator, as it currently stands. Originally produced in colour a black and white version may appear in the comic. It consists of a combination of image-making techniques including drawing, painting, inking, printmaking and collage. The original collage and sketch, below, were made during a trip to Shanghai to attend an Animation Expo in Hangzhou in 2007.

Original image and early draft of The Ingurgitator from my Shanghai sketchbook. (Collage, sketch, assemblage- © 2007 Michael Hill)