EVENT: Nga Pakiwaituhi: New Zealand Comics and Graphic Novels Exhibition

Last year Dylan Horrocks curated a very successful exhibition of New Zealand Comics as a part of the Treviso Comic Book Festival in Italy (which you can revisit HERE). It only seemed fitting to bring it back home to share with the public, which is what will be happening this week.

Presented as a part of the Auckland Arts Festival, Nga Pakiwaituhi: New Zealand Comics and Graphic Novels is an expanded version of the Treviso exhibition, featuring the work over 30 creators, including: Akira Atsushi, Tim Bollinger, Greg Broadmore, Andrew Burdan, Tim Danko, Rufus Dayglo, Draw, Richard Fairgray, Chris Grosz, Dylan Horrocks, Mat Hunkin, Robyn 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.

The exhibition will be taking place in Gallery Two of the St Paul St Gallery, 40 St Paul street, Auckland central, from the 1st March-12th April. The exhibition opening will be taking place this Thursday, from 5.30pm. Come along and meet many of the comic creators in person, as well as the opportunity to buy some NZ comics from the exclusive NZCC stall!

Running co-currently, Gallery One of the St Paul St Gallery will feature: Comics, Manga & Co., The New Culture of German Comics. 

Curated by Matthias Schneider, a Berlin based curator and comic expert, this exhibition presents, 'two generations of German comics artists: the 1990s post reunification avant-garde that paved the way for the emergence of an independent culture of German comics, and a generation of younger comics artists, whose work embraces a newer aesthetic and narrative aspect'.

The featured artists include: Artists include: Arne Bellstorf, Martin Tom Dieck, Anke Feuchtenberger, Flix, Jens Harder, Sascha Hommer, Line Hoven, Ulf K., Reinhard Kleist, Isabel Kreitz, Mawil, Christina Plaka, Henning Wagenbreth. 

Line Hoven and Mawil will be attending the opening in person, which is presented in association with the Auckland Arts Festival 2013 and the Goethe-Institut New Zealand.

For more information you can visit the St Paul St Gallery website HERE, or join the Facebook event page HERE.

Look forward to seeing you there!

-AK!

News From Earth's End: February Edition

Above: Mr Unpronounceable Adventures by Tim Molloy. Copyright Tim Molloy 2013.

Tim Molloy will be releasing his next comic collection Mr Unpronounceable Adventures, at the 'Big Arse 3' comics launch taking place in Melbourne on March 2nd. Other NZ comics launching at the event include: Awakenings #2 by Jesca Marisa, and Adversaries by Matt Emery. You can find more about Big Arse 3 HERE. Tim also has an art tumblr that you can check out HERE.

Above: Former Gotham Comics employees Jeremy Bishop and Michel Mulipola rise from the ashes....

The end of January saw a major shake-up in the management of Auckland's much-loved comic store, Gotham Comics. This resulted in a mutual parting of ways between the store owners and long serving manager Jeremy Bishop and employee Michel Mulipola. While the future of Gotham Comics may be uncertain, Bishop and Mulipola aren't going dwell on the past and already making plans to set-up their own brand new Auckland store, Arkham City Comics! 

More details are still to come, but you can join the inmates at their Facebook group HERE (over 300 inmates strong in just over a week!). Here at Earth's End we wish them the best of luck with their new endeavour, and I'll be updating with any news of the opening when it happens.

Above: Thor: The Mighty Avenger by Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee. Copyright Marvel Comics 2013.

Despite a parting of ways last year on the issue of creator rights, Marvel Comics are releasing a paperback collection all of Roger Langridge's Thor: The Mighty Avenger stories in one volume. This should be available now from your local comic store, or book retailers/Amazon etc in early March.

Above: Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror #1, variant cover by Roger Langridge and J. Bone. Copyright IDW 2013.

Langridge is currently writing a four issue mini-series based on Dave Stevens' Rocketeer for IDW. With art by J. Bone, the first issue of Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror is in comic stores now.

Above: New guests added to the Chromacon artists line-up. Top row: Paul Tobin, Chris Slane, Henry Christian-Slane. Bottom row: Michel Mulipola, Richard Fairgray and Kayla Oliver.

The line-up for May's Auckland illustrator event, Chromacon 2013 continues to grow with some impressive new additions in the last few weeks. Paul Tobin, artist and editor of the White Cloud Worlds books will be in attendance, along with award-winning cartoonist Chris Slane, and Chris' son Henry Christian-Slane proves talent runs in the family, fronting his own impressive artwork.

Michel Mulipola will be on hand, as well as Blastosaurus creator Richard Fairgray, and Hawkes Bay illustrator Kayla Oliver. Chromacon is a FREE event which will be taking place at the Aotea Centre, Auckland on the 12th of May. For more updates visit the Chromacon website HERE.

Above: An illustration by Tony Renouf. Copyright Tony Renouf 2013.

One of the major figures in the Dunedin comics scene in the 1980s and 90s, Tony Renouf has a new online presence at his blog HERE. He's posting new work and mussing about his life and times working at a second-hand record store.

Above: Sci-fi stickers from Tip Top's Galactic Bar Ice-cream range, featuring artwork from Colin Wilson. Copyright Tip Top Ltd 2013.

From the depths of the internet comes this nugget of rare NZ comics memorabelia: a set of stickers featuring sci-fi artwork from the great Colin Wilson! Created in 1977, the set of 10 stickers and game poster could be collected with each purchase of the Galactic Bar Ice-cream. The Galactic Bar featured a similar promotion tied into the release of the first 'Star Wars' movie.

 

More images of the Galactic Bar posters and wrapper. Copyright Tip Top Ltd 2013.

Its likely that this set was created to continue the success of the promotion without the expensive royalties attached to a tie-in product. In any case, the stickers are very rare now and can only occasionally be sighted on TradeMe.

To address the lack of resent updates: I'm currently very busy working on a publishing project that is taking up a great deal of time, but will make readers of this blog VERY happy...so keep your eyes peeled for a big announcement in early May.

-AK!