Although not initially included in my published posts I wish to add further details of my background story…how I arrived at my present moment celebrating and researching comics art…acquiring my DOCTOR COMICS moniker…detailing aspects of my teaching, research and passage from technical work into academia…and subsequent research, publishing and the writing and presenting of conference papers based on that research…as well as a series of supplementary creative projects.

_{Doctor Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics (Photo by Alison Van Hees).}

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

PROFILE: Subsequent to my artistic work in theatre and film, I have nearly 30 years tertiary experience in academia. This involved teaching, research, publication, course design, management and direction…plus consultation, working within the art and design and humanities disciplines…at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and on both a local and international basis.

_{My Ph.D by virtue of the thesis:…A Study Of Contemporary Australian Alternative Comics 1992-2000 With Particular Reference To The Work Of Naylor, Smith, Danko And Ord…Division Of Society, Culture, Media And Philosophy, Macquarie University, 2003.}

On completion of my Ph.D. at Macquarie University in Sydney I donated my collection of comics art research materials…including my collection of more than 500 comics…to the National Library of Australia, as the Michael Hill Collection of Australian Comics.

_{Certificate in Group Work, South Australian Institute of Technology.}

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SYDNEY

Course Design and Management

Co-creator and first Director of the Master of Animation Course, spread across three Faculties of the university.

Director of Postgraduate Design

Director of Visual Communication Design Department

SYDNEY COLLEGE OF THE ARTS

Lecturer in Film and Video

Technical Officer in Art and Design

RESEARCH

In the comics art area and previously in the fields of film, video and theatre. Australian representative on the International Editorial Board of the International Journal Of Comic Art, 2000 to present, 2025.

PUBLICATIONS

List of published articles on comics art. (NOTE: Work in progress: details to be added.)

PRESENTATIONS

Lectures, Tutorials and Panel Participation-multiple, local and international. (NOTE: Work in progress: details to be added.)

EXHIBITIONS

(NOTE: Work in progress: details to be added.)

AWARDS

(NOTE: Work in progress: details to be added.)

CREATIVE WORKS

(NOTE: Work in progress: further details may be added.)

(NOTE: Work in progress: further details may be added.)

_{The bookshop launch took place under a canopy of torn wood-block prints…that I had made for my experimental animation Toxic Fish that was screened at the Art Gallery of NSW.}

(NOTE: Work in progress: further details may be added.)

(NOTE: Work in progress: further details may be added.)

FILM

(NOTE: Work in progress: further details may be added.)

IN THE STUDIO

(NOTE: This is a work in progress: further images and details to be added.)

THEATRE

_{That’s me front and centre, kneeling and bowing to Romulus in a Sheridan Theatre production directed by Colin Ballantyne.}

Initially, back in the day, I thought I was headed for a career in theatre. I enrolled in some drama classes in Adelaide at the Sheridan Theatre…but quickly realised that I would rather work in production than in acting and performance. Anyway those acting classes led to a walk-on part in the play ROMULUS THE GREAT…by Swiss playwright Friedrich Durrenmatt…(that is me down on my knee in the photo above…there is an umlaut in his name but I can’t quite work out how to insert it)…that was staged as part of the 1968? Adelaide Festival of Arts. After that I concentrated on writing and direction…directing and co-writing the play ENTH with Des Rutherford and subsequently both writing and directing the play BECOMING. These two productions received good reviews…that got me into NIDA, the National Institute of Dramatic Art, in the Production Course in Sydney. This led to jobs in professional theatre in Sydney. Then I headed off to London, as you do, thinking I would work in theatre in London…but at the time of my arrival there were around 12,000 stage workers unemployed…so I ended up seeking temporary work through a an employment agency…and ended up on an assembly line at the GEC factory in Wembley. This helped me pay my rent…anyway by the end of the week I was promoted to the head of the row…noting and filling in gaps in the assembly caused by lax workers…who were slow to respond to the passing unit on the conveyor belt or who has simply fallen asleep. Talking about sleep I had set my alarm for 4.30 a.m. to get from South Kensington to Wembley for the 6.00 a.m. start. Little did I know that within a month I would be working at Harrods selling refrigerators…and the walk from my home base in South Kensington to Harrods only took around 20 minutes! And I met a few famous actors who wanted to buy a fridge. Then I was transferred to the Toy Department for the busy Summer Sales season where I was much happier. And I met a few more famous actors who wanted to buy toys for boys and girls. But I didn’t stay there long. I had registered with an employment agency for temporary work. First stop was a betting shop where I was board boy…writing up the names of the horses for each race…and then the results and winning dividends. I was up and down all afternoon taking advantage of the white board with my felt tipped pen…doing the odd little doodle and drawing of cartoon horses with whipping jockeys. It was fun…but didn’t pay so well…not nearly as much as what settlers got…the ones who worked out payments for winning bets…this was way before computers. It turned out…that as I had the mathematical skills…I was able to change my job in the betting shop to that of a settler. Better pay! Hooray!

(NOTE: Work in progress: further details to be added.)

(APOLOGIES: The addition of further details to this and some other of my posts is on my TO DO list. I am slowly making progress with this and I thank you for your patience! Michael)

_{(All text, photos and artwork-©2018 Dr. Michael Hill).}