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!

Moth City joins Thrillbent!

Hot on the heels of its release on ComiXology, Tim Gibson's Moth City will become the latest webcomic to join Thrillbent, an exclusive digital comics platform created by comics writer Mark Waid (Daredevil, Kingdom Come) and screenwriter/producer John Rogers (Transformers, Leverage).

Moth City will debut on the Thrillbent site this Tuesday 14th of May, with new weekly installments following every Tuesday.

Moth City artwork by Tim Gibson. Copyright Tim Gibson 2013.

Following the announcement, Gibson responded, "I am extremely excited to be involved with Thrillbent.com and very lucky to have been passed along to Mark Waid and John Rogers by some very supportive parties. Moth City has been greatly influenced by Thrillbent's work, and other digital comic pioneers like Alex De Campi and Dan Goldman, so this opportunity is akin to buying a Nirvana cassette, starting your own band and then being invited to tour with them". 

"In an attempt to 'out-enthuse' Mark Waid all I can say is holy-s&!t, am I grateful for all the support Moth City has received from it's existing readers, and the comics community as a whole, and I can't wait to get my noir-crime-horror-genre-mash in front of more readers".

You can visit Thrillbent HERE for more information and free comics!

Here's a bonus trailer for Moth City:

- 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!