EVENT: The COVID-19 Diaries, New Comics by Sarah Laing

Sarah Laing, Wellington cartoonist and author of the graphic novels Mansfield & Me and Let Me Be Frank, is having an exhibition to showcase The COVID-19 Diaries, comics she created during and about the first COVID-19 Lockdown. The exhibition includes watercolours and some GIANT comics (we're talking A0 sized comics, people!).

The opening is this coming Monday, 7th of September between 4.30pm and 7pm at Bowen Galleries, 39 Ghuznee Street, Te Aro, Wellington. If you can't make it to the opening, the exhibition will be on until the 27th of September. It sounds like there will also be printed comics for sale, so get along and view/buy some great local lockdown comics!

You can also read Sarah's COVID-19 Diary comics and other stories on her website HERE.

- AK!

EVENT: Rufus Marigold Book Launch and Art Exhibition!

Join Earth's End Publishing for the launch of our latest graphic novel, Rufus Marigold by Ross Murray.

The launch will be held at The Tuesday Club, 42 Airedale Street in Auckland Central, along with an exhibition of original art by Ross Murray, featuring his eponymous character and an exploration of related themes from his book.

Kindly sponsored by Garage Project with refreshments provided. Copies of Rufus Marigold will be available for sale on the night courtesy of Unity Books Auckland.

The Rufus Marigold Art Exhibition will continue after the book launch at The Tuesday Club from Friday 1st of March to Sunday 3rd of March. You can RSVP at the  Facebook event page HERE.

So come pick up a copy of the book, meet the author, and view some amazing artwork!

EVENT: Golden Summer: Ross Murray & Greg Straight

This Friday, come along to the opening night of Golden Summer, a joint exhibition featuring new artworks by Greg Straight & Ross Murray (Highwater, Rufus Marigold).

An ice-cream run to the corner dairy; that road trip up the coast; a cold one on a long, hot afternoon. Golden Summer celebrates all this and more on a nostalgic journey around New Zealand.

Greg Straight’s artwork embodies a longing for simple pleasures from days gone. And Ross Murray’s work explores the way contemporary ideas of nostalgia are linked to the things we consume. Both celebrate collective memories of the New Zealand summer.

The exhibition will be held at Endemic World (62 Ponsonby Road, Auckland), kicking off at 5pm and is sponsored by some iconic NZ brands: Tip Top, L&P, Eta and Garage Project. 

The opening is from 5pm-8pm, and the exhibition will run from March 3rd - 14th. So head along and bask in the presence of iconic images capturing the great Golden Summer! 

- AK!

EVENT: Splitting Image Cartoon Exhibition

Above: An editorial cartoon by Chris Slane.

New Zealand has a rich tradition of political cartoons and artistic social commentary, and this Friday you can see the original artwork from seven of our current leading political/editorial cartoonists at the Splitting Image cartoon exhibition.

The featured cartoonists include: Sharon Murdoch (The Sunday Star Times, The Christchurch Press), Chris Slane (The NZ Listener), Sarah Laing (RNZ/Metro), Rod Emmerson (The NZ Herald), Anna Crichton (The NZ Herald/Metro), Peter Bromhead (The NZ Herald), and Daron Paton (Metro).

Above: The Personal is Political by Sarah Laing, originally published in Metro magazine. You can read more of Sarah's comics and cartoons at her website HERE.

The exhibition will be taking place at LOT23, 23 Minnie St, Eden Terrace, from September 19th - October 13th, with a Party Preview this Friday 18th of September, from 6pm. For more information you can visit the exhibition's Facebook event page HERE.

- AK!

EVENT: Bob Kerr: It Was the Fun of the World Exhibition

Above: Before I was Twelve Years of Age by Bob Kerr, Oil on board, 120x60cm.

High respected artist and illustrator Bob Kerr has a new exhibition of paintings, It Was the Fun of the World, on now at Whitespace Gallery in Ponsonby Auckland. Kerr will also be familiar to local comics readers as the artist and co-creator of the Terry Teo graphic novel series (with the Terry Teo and the Gunrunners coming back into print soon), and another new graphic novel to be released in September, Changing Times.

Above: Not What I Expected by Bob Kerr, Oil on board, 37x20cm.

It Was the Fun of the World is a series of sequential paintings reflecting on the story of Tim Armstrong,  who was arrested for sedition in New Zealand in 1916 and who eventually became a Labour party politician. The painting images are based on passages from a letter Armstrong wrote to his children while serving his twelve month sentence in Lyttelton Prison. In the letter he outlines his life experiences leading up to his arrest, so that they might understand his actions.

Kerr's paintings are highly illustrative - you can see the keen eye of a sequential storyteller at work here, but he also communicate a great deal through texture and brushstrokes - implying a strong sense of movement and place to these experiences captured in oil.

It Was the Fun of the World is exhibited now till the 26th of September at Whitespace Gallery, 12 Crummer Road, Ponsonby, Auckland. The paintings are available to purchase, and the gallery is open Tues - Friday: 11am-5pm, and Sat: 11am-4pm. You can visit the Whitespace website for more information HERE.

- AK!

Above: I Worked in the Flax Milling Industry by Bob Kerr, Oil on board, 40x40cm.

EVENT: Dr. Grordbort's Exceptional Exhibition

For the second time in New Zealand, the science fiction world of Dr. Grordbort comes to Christchurch, with an exhibition of artwork, sculptures and memorabilia. The brainchild of Wellington artist/conceptual designer Greg Broadmore, the Dr. Grordbort universe takes the classic colonial explorer/hunter to deep space for an intergalactic safari of discovery - to encounter new forms of life...and mount their heads above the mantlepiece.

Broadmore has so far produced three Dr. Grordbort graphic novels, Dr. Grordbort’s Croudbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory (2008), VICTORY: Scientific Adventure Violence for Young Men and Literate Woman (2009), and TRIUMPH: Unnecessarily Violent Tales of Science Adventure for the Simple and Unfortunate (2012), as well as a series of collectible replica rayguns. “I wanted to satirize pulp fiction that spans the era from the 1890s to the 1940s”, Broadmore explains, describing the Dr. Grordbort graphic novels as, “basically propaganda aimed at children in Grordbort's world”.

Above: The '4th Law' raygun! Copyright Greg Broadmore 2013.

The exhibition opens today at The Colombo, 363 Colombo St, Sydenham, Christchurch, and will display many of Broadmore's original paintings and concept art, along with sculptures and an impressive collection of Dr. Grordbort rayguns. Entry is from $10, with the exhibition open daily from 10.30am-6.30pm, January 23rd - 28th of February.

You can check out the Eventfinder page HERE for more details, and find out more about the world of Dr. Grordbort at the official website HERE.

-AK!

From Earth's End Spotlight: Dick Frizzell

Above: Dick Frizzell at his Auckland studio, 2013. Photographed by Adrian Kinnaird, copyright 2013.

"I’m amazed at how consistent I’ve been actually, over the years, with my interest and love of the comic book image — the line work, the whole thing. Everyone asks me, what drew you to commercial art or pop art, and if you look back it’s not a decision, it’s just what you are. For some reason you take that level of enterprise seriously — as a big deal, even though it’s just a comic."

As one of New Zealand’s most popular fine artists, Dick Frizzell’s artwork is both iconic and engaging in its ability to communicate ideas through imagery. This particular facility to compress information into a series of highly memorable images has served Frizzell well in a career that has spanned the popular culture spectrum - from fine arts to advertising and illustration.

The follow is an exclusive excerpt from From Earth's End: The Best of New Zealand Comics, in which I go in-depth with Frizzell on his art, advertising and his life-long love of comic book imagery.

Above: Mickey To Tiki (1997). Copyright Dick Frizzell 2013.

It should come as no surprise that Frizzell has drawn on imagery from comics for some of his most well-known artworks, including pieces inspired by The Phantom comic books, or the controversial Mickey To Tiki (1997). Unlike other pop artists who were simply intent of borrowing imagery from comics in passing – most notably Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Dick Frizzell has had a life-long appreciation for comics, which has inspired and informed his approach to art in a profound way – reflecting a deep understanding of the visual language and medium of comics.

Above: A childhood cartoon by Dick Frizzell. Copyright Dick Frizzell 2013.

“I was into comics as far back as I can remember,” recalls Frizzell. “My father was quite keen on a couple of comics that he must have read in America when he was a sailor. He somehow managed to track them down, and he’d come home and give me these copies of newspaper cartoon reprints, in the style of Bringing Up Father – very clever, literate drawings and writing. The quality of the work was very high, these guys were classically trained illustrators.”

Frizzell taught himself to draw by coping his favourite examples. “Growing up I used to copy from comics all the time. In my little bedroom in Hastings I had a desk set up by the window, and I would copy comics artists like Carmine Infantino from The Flash. I could sit there all afternoon re-drawing an entire comic on loose sheets, and then pin them around the wall in my bedroom. When I went to Varsity, my mother took them all down and burnt them! I’ve still got a few random cartoons that I managed to save.”

Above: An Frizzell drawn advertisement for Levi's Jeans (1970s). If you look closely, you can see the stylistic influence of Batman artist Bob Kane, one of Frizzell's favourites.

His interest in comics would later influence his advertising career, with many clients gravitating towards 'comic book style’ solutions, convinced that "nobody could resist that graphic clarity, the framed narrative”. This belief proved right, and he created comic style artwork for clients like Tip Top ice cream and Levi’s Jeans.

Above: Tiwa Chief (1976), enamel on canvas. Copyright Dick Frizzell 2013.

When Frizzell returned to painting in the late 1970's, it was an image from a comic book that would provide the inspiration for a new direction in his artwork. “One night out in the garage, when no one was watching, I painted this Tiwa Chief, just transposed it straight from a Phantom comic onto a little canvas I had lying around. Just drawing loosely with enamel paint out of these tins, and it was just incredibly exciting doing it – and it worked. I thought it was amazing, all I had to do was transmute it from this little drawing to an actual canva in paint, and that just did it. And then I experimented with something else, and another image…and as they say, the rest was history.”

So what is it at about certain comic images that Frizzell responds to? “I figured out over time that it’s always about looking for an archetype. Images like the running man, or the jumping horse, a vase of flowers…images that are completely inert, but communicating volumes at the same time. That’s what I look for when I’m going through those Phantom comics, a narrative archetype. I like the ones that are like a finger going up to turn on the light switch, or a cutaway…the panels between the action. Those little frames, the compositions were just so immaculate”.

Above: Dick Frizzell at the opening of his current exhibition, The Dance of the Hooligans.

Dick Frizzell's current art exhibition, The Dance of the Hooligans, currently on at the Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland, features several pieces infused by Frizzell's interest in comics imagery, and should not be missed! Gow Langsford Gallery is located at 26 Lorne st, with the exhibition running from October 2 - 26th. 

If you'd also like to find out more about Dick Frizzell, you can interact with him on his newly launched Facebook page, Dick's World, right HERE. From Earth's End: The Best of New Zealand Comics is available for pre-order from a bookstore near you right now, and will be hitting the streets November 1st!

-AK!

EVENTS: Once Launch & Girl Comics Exhibition

It's another big week for NZ comics, with two separate events this week. The first is the NZ release party for Tim Danko's latest graphic novel Once. Originally created and published for a French publisher, Danko utilized Australian crowd sourcing website Pozible to fund the printing of an English language version. Drawn over a four year period while living on Great Barrier Island, Once is a 56-page tour de force of Danko's mastery of the comics form - exploring the line between comics and visual arts, a direction few cartoonists have travelled as confidently and imaginatively as Danko.

Above: A page from Once by Tim Danko. Copyright Tim Danko 2013.

The New Zealand launch for Once takes place this Tuesday night at The Wine Cellar (St Kevin's Arcade, 183 Karangahape Road, Auckland) from 6-8pm. Also copies of Danko's Dead Xerox Press comic series Sup – Ho will be available, as well as many other rare items and hand-printed bookmarks for sale. For more information, visit the Once Facebook page HERE, or if you can't make the event, you can order it online through the Dead Xerox Press website HERE.

Then on Thursday night, rising comics star Ralphi has an exhibition opening at the Saatchi & Saatchi Gallery called Girl Comics. Probably best known in the local comics scene for her standout contribution to last year's Faction #1 anthology (Ricky & Lyle), Ralphi is quickly becoming a talent to watch, with her sharp design sense and dab hand at creating engaging and memorable characters.

From the exhibition description: 'Ralphi's work uncovers a strong sense of narrative, drawn from events and observations in both her own life and the lives of her numerous, unwitting muses. Referenced in both appearance and antics, their vices are glorified, limbs lengthened, and additional bad language inserted. Themes of friendship, substance abuse, cosmic voyages, and everyday human and animal truths are perceptively captured, impatiently inked and laced with a dark wit.

The ever growing cast of characters are part of a disjointed, motley family. All connected somehow, however tenuous the threads, in the mess that is Ralphi's curly head.'

Above: Ricky & Lyle by Ralphi, from Faction #1. Copyright Ralphi 2013.

The exhibition opening takes place at the Saatchi & Saatchi Gallery (123-125 The Strand, Parnell, Auckland), from 6-8pm. If you can't make the opening, the exhibition will run from the 29th of August to the 10th of October. For more information visit the Facebook page HERE.

It's shaping up to be a landmark year for New Zealand comics, so make sure you get along to these exciting events and support your local cartoonists!

-AK!

PODCAST: Nga Pakiwaituhi: New Zealand Comics and Graphic Novels

Above: The New Zealand Comics Panel, featuring (from left): Dylan Horrocks, Adrian Kinnaird, Sarah Laing and Sam Orchard.

As a part of the Auckland Arts Festival 2013, the St Paul St Gallery at AUT hosted two comics exhibitions: Nga Pakiwaituhi: New Zealand Comics, an exhibition of work by contemporary New Zealand cartoonists, and Comics, Manga & Co. :The New Culture of German Comics, an overview of the current German comics scene.

Nga Pakiwaituhi: New Zealand Comics featured the work of over 30 local cartoonists, which you can revisit in my gallery of the exhibition HERE.

Above: Dylan Horrocks asking the tough questions!

Towards the end of the exhibition in mid-April I took part in a panel discussion on New Zealand Comics. Moderated by Dylan Horrocks, creator of Hicksville, the panel also featured Sarah Laing, novelist and cartoonist of the webcomic Let Me Be Frank, and Sam Orchard, also a webcomic cartoonist, as the creator of Rooster Tails.

You can now listen to a full podcast of the panel HERE.

We discuss how we got into comics, our backgrounds and working process, as well as lots of other fun bits and pieces related to New Zealand comics culture. Enjoy!

-AK!

EVENT: Chromacon 2013

Above: The Chromacon poster, as created by event organiser Allan Xia.

This Sunday, the Aotea Centre in Auckland will be hosting the first (hopefully annual) Chromacon - an arts festival showcase the best of New Zealand illustrators and cartoonists. Featuring over 65 artists, showcasing their work and selling comics, art prints and more. Best of all, the event is completely FREE of charge!

Above: Art from some of the cartoonists in attendance: Top Row: Dylan Horrocks, Ben Stenbeck, Karl Wills. Second Row: Tim Gibson, Ant Sang, James Davidson. Third Row: Toby Morris, Chris Slane and the Sheehan Bros.

The event features a stellar line-up of New Zealand's finest cartoonists including: Dylan Horrocks, Ant Sang, Toby Morris, Karl Wills, Chris Slane, Tim Gibson, the Sheehan Bros, James Davidson, Ben Stenbeck, Richard Fairgray, Czepta Gold, Marc Streeter, Michel Mulipola, Sophie Oiseau, Cory Mathis, Sarah Laing, Matt Emery and Pikitia Press, Gregor Czaykowski, Faction Comics and myself.

Above: Art from some of the illustrators in attendance: Top Row: Allan Xia, Ema Frost, Henry Christian Slane. Second Row: Nick Keller, Stacey Robson, Sanjana Baijnath. Third Row: Rebecca ter Borg, Watermark and White Cloud Worlds.

There will also be an eye-poping range of illustrators at the event, including: Allan Xia, Rachel Smythe, Ema Frost, Stacey Robson, Rebecca ter Borg, Henry Christian Slane, Sanjana Baijnath, Paul Shipper, Nick Keller, Paul Tobin, Svet Mateev, Tom Robinson, White Cloud Worlds, Watermark and many more!

There will also be live art demonstrations and discussion panels throughout the day.

Starting at 9am, Jason Hong will kick-off the first hour of live art demos, followed by Ben Stenbeck (Hellboy, Baltimore), Czepta Gold, Rachel Smythe, Tom Robinson and Sloane Kim.

Above: From Earth's End: The Best of New Zealand Comics announcement image.

I'll be hosting the first panel discussion at 10am on Level 4, with my publishing announcement for From Earth's End: The Best of New Zealand Comics, which promises exactly what it says in the title! This will be an exclusive look inside the first major book to be published on New Zealand Comics - the creators, the unrevealed history, the comics. Its all here waiting to be discovered. With special guests: Sarah Laing, James Davidson and Toby Morris!

This will be followed at 11.15am by Crowd-funding Your Dreams, a discussion on crowd-funding your creative projects, with Faction Comics founders Damon Keen, Anna Guenther and Allan Xia.

After lunch at 1pm the panels will continue with The Art of Visual Storytelling, with White Cloud Worlds editor Paul Tobin, Jim Auckland, and Watermark founder Simon Shaw.

And the final panel of the day, Webcomics and the Future of Publishing. This will feature Tim Gibson, creator of the webcomic Moth City, Dylan Horrocks (Hicksville, Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen), Gregor Czaykowski (Loading Artist) and Li Chen (Extra Ordinary Comics).

Its rare that these kind of events take place for free - other similar event charge huge amounts for panel guests and demos like this ((cough, Semi-Permanent, cough!)). So if you have an interest in illustration or cartooning, come along and meet the creators and purchase some fantastic artwork!

Chromacon takes place this Sunday 12th May, from 9am-5pm at the Air NZ Foyer, Aotea Centre, Auckland. For more details, visit the official website HERE. See below for the event map to find your way around.

-AK!

PHOTO-RAMA: Nga Pakiwaituhi: New Zealand Comics and Graphic Novels

The Nga Pakiwaituhi: New Zealand Comics and Graphic Novels exhibition opening took place at the start of this month at the St Paul St Gallery in Auckland. 

The first major New Zealand Comics exhibition in over a decade, it features artwork from 30 local cartoonists, including: Akira Atsushi, Tim Bollinger, Greg Broadmore, Andrew Burdan, Tim Danko, Rufus Dayglo, Draw, Richard Fairgray, Chris Grosz, Dylan Horrocks, Mat Hunkin, Robyn E. Kenealy, Timothy Kidd, Adrian Kinnaird, Sarah Laing, Jared Lane, Roger Langridge, Barry Linton, Tim Molloy, Toby Morris, Stefan Neville & Clayton Noone, Sam Orchard, Ant Sang, Darren & Kelly Sheehan, Chris Slane, Ben Stenbeck, Mat Tait, Karl Wills and Colin Wilson.

It's on till the 12th of ApriI, so I urge you to go check it out while you can!

For those out-of-towners keen for a look, here's some photos from the opening:

Above: Dylan Horrocks with his artwork.

Above: Dylan Horrocks signs his work (as not all the artists were their to sign the walls, there was some signature forgeries involved...see if you can spot the difference!).

Above: Chris Slane.

Above: Ant Sang.

Above: A special appearance by Roger Langridge, who just happened to be in the country!

Above: Toby Morris.

Above: Artwork by Barry Linton.

Above: Artwork by Jared Lane.

Above: Artwork by Draw.

Above: Artwork by Robyn E. Kenealy.

Artwork by Karl Wills.

Artwork by Colin Wilson.

Artwork by Greg Broadmore.

Above: Artwork by Mat Tait.

Above: Some of my artwork.

Above: Artwork by Tim Bollinger.

Above: Artwork by Richard Fairgray.

Above: Artwork by Ben Stenbeck.

Above: Artwork by the Sheehan Bros.

Above: Artwork by Tim Kidd.

Above: Artwork by Sarah Laing.

Above: Artwork by Chris Grosz.

Above: Artwork by Stefan Neville & Clayton Noone.

Above: Artwork by Tim Molloy.

Above: Artwork/Instillation by Tim Danko.

Above: Artwork by Rufus Dayglo.

To highlight the exhibition as a part of the Auckland Arts Festival 2013, former comics writer turned journalist Stephen Jewell (Shards, The Olympians) interviewed Rufus Dayglo for the New Zealand Herald HERE. He discusses his early work featured in Wellington anthology Pistake with Simon Morse and David Tulloch.

Above: Roger Langridge, Cornelius Stone and Knuckles, reunited again!

For more on Roger Langridge's recent New Zealand visit, check out his posts over on his website starting HERE.

-AK!