Wow!…that was quick! I’m already publishing the second post on my blog only ten days after the debut post…a bit soon, perhaps? As a new blogger I am wondering how often I should post? Suggestions welcome! Anyway, having just attended this event I wanted to go straight home and blog about it! And that’s what have done!

So there was this Zine Fair in Sydney in 2011…at the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay on Sydney Harbour, just across from the Sydney Opera House. Were comics and zines moving up in the art and culture world? I could hear the comics art bell ringing even if it was primarily a zine affair. Some of the comics crew that I knew were attending…some even trading amongst the 50 tables to a busy crowd of attendees on the gallery floor. An odd presence of craft makers selling jewellery and accessories seemed curious…after all it was a zine fair! This led to queries about the selection process…as some comics creators had apparently been unable to acquire a table due to the limited trading space available? Despite the presence of the jewellery artists there was hectic selling of comics and zines. It seemed to be a “happening” event that had a “certain buzz” about it! It also provided a networking opportunity for the creators.

Stuart Stratu, the creator of Sick Puppy Comix approved my wearing of a T-shirt featuring his comic. It had a Neale Blanden cartoon design(see photos above and below). Sick Puppy is a radical anthology of short pieces by Australian and overseas creators. Stratu has edited and self-published this comic having been motivated to commence small press publishing after visiting a comics convention. He said: “It was going to OZCON, one of the comics conventions…seeing the small press booth- that’s when I got the idea to make my own mini-comics. I had never done any comics or cartoons myself, just little drawings and things. So what I did was run an ad for contributors in the personals column of Drum Media. So all the people in the first issue…none of them had published their own comics at all. So that was basically how Sick Puppy No.1 came to be. That was April 96. Number two came out four months later. It was very primitive.”  A total of 13 issues off his comic have now been published! It features a range of graphic styles from alternative comics contributors and the content is both provocative and entertaining!

_{Sick Puppy Comix T-shirt with graphic logo by Neale Blanden. (Photo-© 2011 by Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

A common feature of the alternative comics scene is the practice of creators contributing to each other’s publications. Sick Puppy Comix is a prime example of this providing that comic with a variety of graphic styles. By contrast there was some commonality of content. Much of the material dealt with aspects of sex and/or violence. Whilst emphasising humour, it adopted a somewhat avant-garde attitude… encouraging its contributors to test both their own and their readers’ personal boundaries of taste and creativity. The print and presentation quality of the publication improved with each issue. This seemed to inspire contributing creators to produce better quality work. Contributors included Gerard Ashworth…Neale Blanden…Tim Danko…Anton Emdin…Michael Fikaris…Louise Graber…Maccad…Kieran Mangan…Chris Mikul…Mandy Ord…Pox Girls(Susan Butcher and Carol Wood)…David Puckeridge…Q-Ray…SCAR(named from the initials of its collaborators Steve Carter and Antoinette Rydyr)…Glenn Smith…Ross Tesoriero and Ryan Vella as well as Stratu himself.

This post is from my new, developing series Archive of Australian Alternative Comics. It was created as a result of my research into comics art conducted for my doctoral degree. Details: Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy, PhD awarded 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, 2003. On completion of my doctorate I donated most of my Australian small press comics collection(approximately 500 items)…that I had used in my comics art research…along with a copy of my thesis, to the National Library of Australia.

So there is the second post on my new blog. I think I’m beginning to get the hang of it…but that makes two posts in ten days! Should I have a longer gap between posts? Should I use fewer images and more text? I welcome any suggestions from readers on these matters, Michael.

_{(All text, photos and artwork-©2011 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics unless otherwise noted).}