Author: Doctor Comics

Co-creator and former Director of the Master of Animation, Master of Design, and Visual Communication Design courses at the University of Technology, Sydney, Dr. Michael Hill has a Master's degree in animation plus a Ph.D. in comics studies, prompting his introduction on ABC Radio as “Doctor Comics”. A member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Comic Art, and former member of the Comics Grid Journal of Comics Scholarship and the Advisory Committee of the Q-Collection Comic Book Preservation Project, he has delivered public lectures on Comics, Anime and Manga and held academic directorships in Interdisciplinary Studies, Animation, Design and Visual Communication. Having retired from academia and completing the donation of his collection of research materials on Australian alternative comics to the National Library of Australia, he is now active in the artistic domain, writing, drawing and printmaking, creating art postcards and prints and his own graphic novel: Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics.

UNIVERSITY CARTOONS

Art, Comics November 16, 2017

This post concludes the collection of cartoons I contributed to U: magazine…during my tenure as a member of the academic staff of the Design Faculty of the University of Technology, Sydney. This, plus my three previous cartoon posts, forms part of an online gallery of my single panel satirical work.

_{Enrolment Process-©2006 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics). The year the planned introduction of online enrolment didn’t work out led to form filling and long queues.}

_{Fitness training-©2005 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}
_{New students tended to start their studies with enormous optimism that for some included visits to the gym.}

_{On with studies-©2004 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}
_{Double degrees came into vogue with surprising combinations.}

_{Minister’s Visit-©2005 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics). Political activism was especially popular when the Education Minister visited campus.}

_{Club activities-©2005 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics). Anime societies and cosplay competitions thrived. Not all Sydney universities had rock-climbing clubs but all five had Anime Clubs.}

_{Sporting clubs-©2004 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}
_{Yes, this really took place, despite the seeming cruelty.}

_{Student Administration-©2006 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics). When staff who worked with a view of a parking station were allocated photographs of traffic…to brighten up their room.}

_{Student canteen-©2006 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics). A wonderfully esoteric Indonesian cafe in the Staff/Student cafeteria allowed the mixing and matching of dishes.}

As always, my thanks for the excellent advice, artistic assistance and cartooning expertise from the wonderful Countdown artist Louise Graber. Other posts of my cartoon based material include:

CARTOON

MORE CARTOONS

RESEARCH CARTOONS

POSTCARD ART: Fifth Posting

Art August 19, 2017

Continuing the profiling of my art postcards…here are some recent examples of on various themes. These cards are hand-printed, created from a combination of drawing and printmaking in low print run editions. Once I finished a session it meant the end of that particular batch. I would not repeat the design or reprint it. Cards in an edition are all original prints…similar in design but classified as mono prints as there are no exact duplicates. They fall within the standard postcard size dimensions of 10cm x 15cm or a near approximate. More information about this project can be found on the four previous POSTCARD posts…see the links below at the bottom of this post.

_{A postcard from my Sea series-©2017 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{A postcard from my Earth series-©2017 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{A postcard from my Sun series No.1-©2017 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{A postcard from my Sun series No.2-©2017 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{A postcard from my Sun series No.3-©2017 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{A postcard from my Sun series No.4-©2017 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{A postcard from my Head series No.1-©2017 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{A postcard from my Brush stroke series No.1-©2017 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.27

Art, Blotting Paper, Comics June 24, 2017

It’s been a long time between bowls of milk and plates of fish for my cat characters…in my occasional series of mini-profiles…that I have created in my comics! So, in this overdue post…I am focusing on the two animal characters of my own creation…Busch and Cohl, the pair of cats from my comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics. Cohl is a cat of French origin who absolutely loves reading comics…not to mention draw, especially with pen and ink…on quality art paper. Although he favours bande dessinée, the Euro-Comics, and more Marcinelle than Bruxelle School…he has somewhat reluctantly been prepared to read some manga…and is finally beginning to find it quite appealing. Mon Dieu!

BlotPaperCats-01360 — _{First appearance of Cohl, the black cat-©2012 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Cohl#3:96 — _{Cohl likes to read comics-©2013 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Cohl#4:96 — _{He also likes to draw-©2013 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Cohl#5:96 — _{Cohl is capable of concocting a cunning business plan-©2014 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Cohl#6:96 — _{After a brush with Modernism in Berlin he begins to organise his own life a little better-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Cohl#9:96 — _{He enjoys riding his Ghost bike through Tiergarten…really, really fast…yet trying not to give his syrah too much bottle shock-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Cohl#7:96 — _{Now spending many relaxing and uninterrupted days reading comics in his little flat…and occasionally contemplating the creation of his own graphic novel!-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Cohl#8:96 — _{And dreaming of how life could be if only it would…!-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

And now to the other cat in the comic…Busch, of German origin, who loves to eat…mostly meat and seafood…and to occasionally read comics…and even to draw, with a pencil or crayon on whatever paper is to hand…even if it already has an image on it such as a newspaper or magazine page or shopping receipt. He will generally expect that drawing results in the awarding of a snack. Busch can eat and Busch can dance…and sometimes he goes hungry, gets seasick, goes shopping, dresses up and has tantrums.

Eating noodles in a container-pen and ink drawing and collage-© 2016 Michael Hill — _{Eating noodles inside a shipping container on a cargo ship at sea!-pen and ink drawing and collage-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Drinking milk by the fridge-pen and ink drawing-© 2012 Michael Hill — _{Drinking milk from the carton by the fridge!-pen and ink drawing and photography-©2012 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Dancing in a Hamburg disco-pen and ink drawing-© 2015 Michael Hill — _{Dancing in a Hamburg disco!…pen and ink drawing and torn paper collage-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Doing tantrum graffiti on the bedroom wall-pen and ink drawing-© 2012 Michael Hill — _{Vigorous praying, tantrum inspired, graffiti on the bedroom wall!…pen and ink drawing-©2012 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

A seasick cat at sea, pen and ink drawing-© 2015 Michael Hill — _{A seasick cat at sea…how horrible! A pen and ink drawing-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Emoting the fear of hunger-pen and ink drawing-© 2011 Michael Hill — _{Expressing and emoting the fear of hunger!-pen and ink drawing-©2011 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Starving at the fish market in Tokyo-pen and ink drawing and woodblock print-© 2016 Michael Hill — _{Short of money and consequently starving at the fish market in Tokyo-pen and ink drawing and woodblock print-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Dressing up as his master-pen and ink drawing, collage and photography-© 2012 Michael Hill — _{Dressing up as his master-pen and ink drawing, collage and photography-©2012 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

Shopping with a canine friend in Germany-pen and ink drawing-© 2015 Michael Hill — _{Shopping with an unnamed but friendly, canine friend in Germany…pen and ink and colour pencil drawing with photography and collage-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill} _{(a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

I wish my pair of feline cartoon characters and I happy adventures in future comics!

PRINTMAKING: Fish Three

animation, Art, experimental, Film, printmaking May 5, 2017

This is the third post based on the fish prints I made using woodblock printmaking techniques…for the experimental animated film Toxic Fish. The fish in this sequence is the Kohada or Gizzard Shad. Its static shape on the woodblock contrasts with the flooding of coloured toxins around it.

_{Woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for the animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics. Fish printed in black ink with orange and yellow surrounds including smudging. This print is also stamped and framed as static artwork…and later reworked and published as an art postcard-©1999 – Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics.}

_{Fish woodblock print in grey with overlaid red and pink hand-colouring…and some smudging with green surrounds for the animated film Toxic Fish ©1990 – Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics.}

_{Fish woodblock print in grey with overlaid purple smudging…and hand-colouring and yellow surrounds for the animated film Toxic Fish ©1990 – Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics.}

_{Fish woodblock print in basic black with overlaid grey hand-colouring…and smudging effects for the animated film Toxic Fish ©1990 – Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics.}

_{Fish woodblock print with overlaid blue saturated hand-colouring…and surrounding purple and yellow coloured textural patches for the animated film Toxic Fish ©1990 – Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics.}

_{Fish woodblock print with overlaid yellow/brown/grey hand-colouring and green surrounds for the animated film Toxic Fish ©1990 – Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics.}

_{Fish woodblock print with overlaid pale-blue hand-colouring and orange surrounds for the animated film Toxic Fish © 1990 -Dr. Michael Hill. This print is also stamped and framed as static artwork-©1999 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics.}

_{Fish woodblock print with overlaid purple hand-colouring…and yellow/pink surrounds for the animated film Toxic Fish-© 1990 Michael Hill. This print also stamped and framed as static artwork…and for duplication as an art postcard.}
_{©1999 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics.}

_{Fish woodblock print with overlaid blue, purple and yellow hand-colouring and yellow smudged surrounds…for the animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics.}

_{Making overlay textural effect inking of a sequence of prints on the floor of the studio…for inclusion as frames in the animation. (Photo by Louise Graber).}

Other posts of my graphic based material include:

MORE CARTOONS

POSTCARD-Second Series

PRINTMAKING: Fish Two

POSTCARD ART: Fourth Posting

Art, Comics February 27, 2017

Continuing the profiling of my art postcards here are some early ones from the years 2007-2009 on the theme of The Seasons. These cards were hand-printed, created from a combination of drawing and printmaking in low print run editions. Once I finished a session it was the end of that particular batch and I would discontinue using the design. Cards in an edition are all original prints, named monoprints, i.e. the cards look similar in design and together form a series with no exact duplicates, but variations…thus the label of monoprints. The cards fall within the standard postcard size dimensions of 10cm x 15cm. The horizontal band of vertical orange print marks visible on some cards come courtesy of Australia Post…my cards were stamped on the surface with a code as part of the postal process. Consequently I began to post my cards in an envelope. More information about this project is contained on the three previous POSTCARD posts (see the links below).

A postcard from my Seasons series-© 2008 Michael Hill

A postcard from my Seasons series-© 2007 Michael Hill

A postcard from my Seasons series-© 2009 Michael Hill

UPDATE MARCH 7, 2017: A gallery display of a selection of my art postcards from the Seasons series.

PRINTMAKING: Fish Two

animation, Art, experimental, Film, printmaking January 28, 2017

This is the second post in my series of fish prints created using the woodblock printmaking method…for my experimental animated film titled Toxic Fish. Dramatically, after ocean fish are poisoned their bodies swell up, die and disintegrate. The static shape of the fish from the woodblock design starts firm before being flooded by toxins. It then falls apart to illustrate this. The method I employed was to gradually over-ink the block. This resulted in details being dampened into puddles…definition and sharpness were blurred and reduced into a dramatic sequence of atrophy.

A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for the animated film Toxic Fish-© 1990 Michael Hill. — Woodblock print for my animated film *Toxic Fish*.
©1990 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics.

Below is a photo of me carving one of the blocks using a Japanese chisel. I must add that this is not the recommended way to of doing it! It has been posed for a photograph and shows a compromised pose of the process for promotional purposes. The woodblock carving process is done on a fixed bench with one carving away from, not towards, one’s body.

Hand carving one of the woodblocks for the animated film Toxic Fish-Photograph © 1990 Demetra Christopher. — Hand carving one of the several woodblocks for the animated film *Toxic Fish*.
Photograph ©1990 Demetra Christopher.

If you liked this post you can see others on my Blog.

PRINTMAKING: Fish One

THE GRAFIK GUITAR

POSTCARD

RESEARCH CARTOONS

Art, Comics November 19, 2016

This post continues the profiling of the collection of my cartoons published in U: magazine, or related magazines, during my tenure at the University of Technology, Sydney. These cartoon posts will contribute to the formation of an online gallery of my single panel satirical work.

A cross-disciplinary research committee is formed-© 2005 Michael Hill.

Some of the committee members have a background in research-© 2004 Michael Hill

...and know a thing or two about how to proceed-© 2004 Michael Hill

...and begin to assert their experience-© 2004 Michael Hill

...others investigate things in the lab on a daily basis-© 2006 Michael Hill

...and then there are those trial experiments-© 2005 Michael Hill

...testing new procedures for fast track learning-© 2003 Michael Hill

...equating contributory elements-© 2006 Michael Hill

...and there are the designers who simply study problems requiring resolution and what needs to be done and then they just go and do it-© 2004 Michael Hill

As always, my thanks for the excellent advice, assistance and cartooning expertise from the wonderful COUNTDOWN Magazine cartoonist Louise Graber. Other posts of my cartoon based material include:

CARTOON

MORE CARTOONS

UNIVERSITY CARTOONS

POSTCARD ART: Third Posting

Art, Comics September 21, 2016

This post continues the profiling of production of my hand-made art postcards in limited editions… featuring more examples from the Abstract series…and as previously stated each postcard is an original…a monotype, similar in design but not an exact duplicate of any other card.

scan-3 — _{A postcard from my Abstract No.11 series-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill}

scan — _{A postcard from my Abstract No.8 series-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill}

scan-8 — _{A postcard from my Abstract No.19 series-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill}

scan-4 — _{A postcard from my Abstract No.12 series-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill}

scan-2 — _{A postcard from my Abstract No.7 series-©2006 Dr. Michael Hill}

scan-1 — _{A postcard from my Abstract No.10 series-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill}

scan-5 — _{A postcard from my Abstract No.13 series-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill}

Cards in an edition are all original prints…similar in design but with no exact duplicates…as can be seen in the following four examples from the Abstract No-14 series. These cards were all made in the same batch…during the same printmaking session…however, variations in colour, texture and positioning of compositional elements can be detected.

scan-9 — _{A postcard from my Abstract No.14 series-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill}

scan-7 — _{A postcard from my Abstract No.14 series-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill}

scan-6 — _{A postcard from my Abstract No.14 series-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill}

scan-10 — _{A postcard from my Abstract No.14 series-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill}

PRINTMAKING: Fish One

animation, Art, experimental, Film, printmaking July 23, 2016

This series of posts will profile a collection of creative prints that I have made, beginning with a series of fish. I used the woodblock printmaking method with variations in inking to make monoprints so that the prints produced could also be used in animation sequences. Six species of fish were featured, the first of which is the Japanese Tai or sea bream. I was very attracted to the idea of working in both animation and printmaking at the time but found it difficult to sustain both in the available time and ultimately had to choose between the two. I found the solution in combining both mediums. Animation’s enormous need for artwork could be more speedily met by using the printmaking medium. I was doubly happy but have since settled on making comics which falls in the space located somewhere in-between and requires a lot less artwork.

Tai/sea bream woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring from my experimental animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics. This print also stamped for framing and sale as static artwork.

Tai/sea bream woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for the animated film from my experimental animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics. This print also stamped for framing and sale as static artwork.

Shooting my 1990 animation Toxic Fish on the Oxberry animation rostrum camera with artwork produced from woodblock printmaking.

Other posts of my graphic based material include:

BOOKBINDING THE GRAFIK GUITAR

CARTOON

POSTCARD

MORE CARTOONS

Art, Comics May 25, 2016

This post features the second instalment of cartoons I created during my academic tenure at the University of Technology, Sydney…and that were published in its magazine U:. These examples focus on the University’s Tower Building on Broadway near Railway Square. Labelled an example of “brutal modernism” despite its designer’s denial of it being that style…it is a monolithic stack of 27 storeys in concrete and glass… somewhat softened by the arrival of the newly constructed vertical garden clad Central Park building opposite. It was fun playing around with it as a satirical subject in these cartoons.

CARTOON-J01 Blog — _{King Kong Visit-©2004 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}
_{This fake story was reported as fact by one Sydney news agency!}

CARTOON-J02 Blog — _{Smart building-©2004 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

CARTOON-J27 Blog — _{Applied science-©2004 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics)} _{A good example of rocket science-the feasible launching of the University’s Tower Building into orbit over Ultimo!}

CARTOON-J28 Blog — _{Another cartoon of the amazing technical and engineering feat of putting the Tower Building into orbit over Blackwattle Bay…it would probably prove a bit of a problem getting it down, too!-©2004}
_{Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

CARTOON-J06 Blog — _{Merch! Every university has its merchandise for sale these days!}
_{©2004 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

Fictitious merchandise in a non-existent shop in the foyer!…the Information Desk reported some enquiries as to the shop’s location after publication of this cartoon.

CARTOON-J03 Blog — _{Corporate aid-©2004 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

Originally I proposed using Nokia University of Technology but the sign on the tower would read NUTS! The University said “NO WAY!” to that…but the Virgin ad was O.K.!

CARTOON-J05 Blog — _{Xmas card-©2004 Dr. Michael Hill (a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

I did an alternate version of the building relaxing on a banana lounge on Bondi Beach reading a novel…but the Vice Chancellor thought it was “A bit silly!” He preferred this one.

As always, my thanks for the excellent advice, assistance and cartooning expertise from the wonderful COUNTDOWN Magazine cartoonist, Louise Graber. Other posts of my cartoon based material include:

CARTOON

RESEARCH CARTOONS

UNIVERSITY CARTOONS