minicomics – Doctor Comics

It was ten years ago that the second Sequential Art Studies Conference took place at the University of Technology, Sydney. At the time, minicomics, having blossomed throughout the 1990s, were making an impression on the local alternative comics scene. The event was billed as A Mini Conference on Minicomics and featured presentations by comics creators as well as scholars. The conference was convened by Spiros Tsaousis (now Spiros Xenos) and I. It was a sequel to our previous and first Sequential Art Studies conference held in Sydney in 2002. That was the first comics conference held in Australia. It was also staged in association with Supanova Pop Culture Expo again. Included in the event was a minicomics market.

CALL FOR PAPERS: 2nd Sequential Art Studies Conference May 23, 2003, Sydney. The Interdisciplinary Studies Unit of the Faculty of Design at UTS (University of Technology, Sydney) http://www.uts.edu.au will again host this new scholarly conference that will be held during the same week as the Sydney Writers’ Festival. The inaugural event in 2002 attracted a small but stimulating range of papers from local academics and students. It is hoped that this year’s event will build on that. Scholars are invited to submit 250 word proposals which address alternative approaches to comics, whether local or global, recent or historical, online or offline, artistic or commercial. The conference will adopt an interdisciplinary approach and so welcomes papers from a broad range of areas. Send proposals by email to either of the conference convenors and coordinators by February 28, 2003: Michael.Hill@uts.edu.au Spiros.Tsaousis@bigpond.com

CONFERENCE PROGRAM: Scholarly Papers

4.00pm Opening of Conference and Welcome by Assoc. Professor Steve Harfield Assoc. Dean of Research Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building University of Technology, Sydney

4.05pm The Sydney Morning Hell of Glenn Smith, Dr. Michael Hill, Interdisciplinary Studies Unit, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building University of Technology, Sydney

4.30pm Fear and yearning of “manga Japan” in Australia, Craig Norris, School of Communication, Design and Media, University of Western Sydney

4.55pm Taming the ‘Superhuman’ Shrew: Identification with Superheroes in Comics and the Popularisation of the Human Potential Ethic, Adam Possamaï, School of Applied Social Sciences, University of Western Sydney

5.20pm The Problem of The Yellow Kid: From Single Panels to Sequential Images, Spiros Tsaousis, La Trobe University

_{Craig Norris, University of Western Sydney.}

_{Adam Possamaï, University of Western Sydney}

CONFERENCE PROGRAM: Artist Presentations

6.00pm Alex Major (Naomi and Poggie)

6.20pm Komala Singh (Moshi Moshi)

6.40pm Bernard Caleo (Big Cardigan Comics)

7.00pm Katarina Knebel (Cult Fiction Comics)

7.20pm Ben Hutchings (Geeen Comix)

7.40pm David McDermott (Glitter Shy)

Bernard Caleo proclaimed his comics manifesto and promoted Tango. — _{Bernard Caleo ‘performed’ his comics manifesto…brilliantly!..and promoted his own comic Tango.}

Komala Singh talking about Moshi Moshi. — _{Komala Singh talked about her minicomic Moshi Moshi.}

David McDermott goes Glitter Shy. — _{David McDermott goes Glitter Shy and playfully ‘performed’ some of his pages live to projected images of the panels.}

_{Chloe Lyttle introducing David Maccad.}

Ben Hutchings going Geeen! — _{Ben Hutchings had fun going Geeen!}

_{Katarina Knebel talks Cult Fiction Comics.}

Alex Major describes Naomi and Poggie. — _{Alex Major describes his minicomic Naomi and Poggie.}

Minicomics market at the conferece. — _{Minicomics market at the conference.}

This conference about MINICOMICS as a form of sequential art was a sequel to the first comics conference in 2002…the first comics conference held in Australia I think! Did you attend? If so would you like to add a comment about the proceedings? Please do! I would love to hear, Michael.

This is the tenth in a series of posts called Archives of Australian Comics History. These 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. That degree was awarded to me as follows: 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 my research I donated the materials and comics I had collected to the National Library of Australia, as: Michael Hill Collection of Australian Comics.

_{1999 event: Outsider meetings. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

On Sunday 27th September 1998, I drove from Sydney to Newcastle…to attend the two sessions devoted to the discussion of comics at the inaugural National Young Writers’ Festival. Accompanying me were three active members of the Sydney ‘small press’: Stuart Stratu, Anton Emdin and Ross Tesoriero. As there had been no formal attempts to discuss and promote ‘small press’ activity we were impressed with their inclusion in the event. As to its presence in a writers’ festival, there was some uncertainty as comics also has its drawing side. We were also a little curious…as to why the organisers had by-passed Sydney and only invited Melbourne and Canberra based creators! Nevertheless we were curious enough to make the trip. It offered an opportunity to meet with colleagues from interstate. Although familiar with their work, we had never met many of them.

_{1999 event: Tim Danko, Stuart Stratu, Q-Ray and Kieran Mangan. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{1999 event: Michael Fikaris(Froth) reading minicomic. (Photo by Louise Graber).}

_{1999 event: Carol Wood and Susan Butcher aka Pox Girls reading minicomics. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

The organizational aspects improved considerably over the next few years and the festival developed, expanded and diversified. Originally called the National Young Writers’ Festival it became part of the umbrella event TiNA…the acronym for This is Not Art. This became a multidisciplinary event in the week leading up to the October holiday weekend. It was spread around Newcastle and became known as the TiNa Arena. During the festival weekend the city becomes a catchment area for visiting youth…from a range of artistic, literary, music and media fields all over Australia. I even met a guy who claimed to have walked right across Australia from Perth to attend. I went to five consecutive events from 1998 to 2002…by which time comics discussions had moved into the Town Hall main room. A high point for comics creators is the annual comic and zine fair held on the Sunday afternoon. There was a busy trading event staged in the park then moved into the Mission theatre with accompanying live music.

_{1999 event: Anton Emdin(If Pain Persists) with Lewis P. Morley and Marilyn Pride(Red World Komics). (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{1999 event: Tim Danko(Dead Xerox Press) and Stuart Stratu(Sick Puppy Comix). (Photo by Louise Graber)}

On arrival in the city that afternoon in 1998 we easily found the centre of activities laid out in various sumptuously appointed rooms of the Newcastle Town Hall and Civic Centre. There were panels and presentations in the Banquet Room…the Function Rooms and some impressively attired Committee Rooms in the Council Chambers and also at the nearby Wintergarden Cafe. We were, however, unable to find the venue for the discussion of comics. On asking for that information we were directed out of the main building to the back. There it was, a modest room with a few plastic chairs. A few attendees had to sit on the floor. No podium, no lectern, no microphone, no monitor, no vcr, no whiteboard, no jug of water, no media nor reporters were present. Furthermore, this was not a seminar but a workshop. Comics were not so much to be discussed as produced…and if there was to be any discourse it would be on matters of production rather than on content. Then I realised how appropriate all of this was in the then current scheme of things. It was the “accustomed” venue at a writers’ festival for the discussion of comics and it indicated how marginalised the form was. The established, pure literary forms such as the novel and poetry headed the hierarchy. Even emerging word based forms such as e-mail and writing textual content for the Internet and journalism had superior status and were located in the main hall. But comics and zines were out the back and out of sight, so to speak.

_{1999 event: Happy Pox Girl Susan Butcher. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{1999 event: Q-Ray(The Comic Messiah) and Kieran Mangan(Urrgh). (Photo by Louise Graber)}

Things changed over subsequent years. There have been comics events at the Sydney Opera House with international guests…but it was so different back in Newcastle, so ‘underground’, so beneath the radar. Comics were even made during the event in an upstairs, cut and paste graphics studio called Octapod…where minicomics had been produced. At the 1999 event I did a series of interviews with many of the comics creators in attendance. This became research material for my doctoral thesis. In closing, I welcome comments about this blog, especially if you have attended an events like this.

_{1999 event: Ross Tesoriero(Radiation Sickness). (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{Event organiser Kylie Purr with Glenn Smith. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

This is the tenth 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.

1999 event: Michael Hill aka Doctor Comics. (Photo by Louise Graber) — _{1999 event: Dr. Michael Hill. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

Doctor Comics

Tag: minicomics

Archive of Australian Alternative Comics: 2ND SEQUENTIAL ART STUDIES CONFERENCE

CONFERENCE PROGRAM: Scholarly Papers

CONFERENCE PROGRAM: Artist Presentations

Archive of Australian Alternative Comics: TiNA ARENA