EVENT: Sonic Comic Launch!

A new and innovative comics anthology, Sonic Comic, will be launching at the Audio Foundation on Saturday 18th of March at 7pm, with a publication & compilation release, exhibition opening and live performances. 

Sonic Comic is a diverse and fascinating collection of single works that are both comics and sounds. It’s a publication, playlist and exhibition; a celebration of musicians who make comics and comic artists who make music. In Aotearoa/New Zealand there have always been artists who make both comics and music. While the work of a few individuals has been showcased there have been no opportunities to explore and celebrate the comics-music tradition as a whole; as an activity or community with its own interesting and rich works and approaches. Sonic Comic aims to do exactly this, inviting a number of diverse and established comics-and music-making individuals and groups to contribute works to the book, album and exhibition. 

Edited by Beth Dawson, Chris Cudby, and Indira Neville, Sonic Comic includes contributions from sound and visual artists: 7 Keys, Adrian Ganley, Bek Coogan, Benedict Quilter, Brendan Philip, Brent Willis, Caroline Anderson, Clayton Noone & Stefan Neville, Cookie Stains, Daniel Canada, Dean Ballinger, Demarnia Lloyd, Edward Gains, Glen Ross, G. Frenzy, Greg Page, Grits 'n Grams, Jade Farley, Liz Mathews, M.F Joyce, M. Emery, Matthew Davies, Mitch Marks, Octopus, Oliver Stewart, Omit, Robert Scott, The Futurians, The Rabbid & The Doll, Toby Morris, Tokerau Wilson, and Wendyhouse. 

The Sonic Comic launch features contributor performances by 7 Keys, Big Fat Raro, Strange Stains and Vampires and the opening of the accompanying exhibition in the Audio Foundation gallery. Copies of the Sonic Comic publication and music compilation will be available for the special launch price of $20 (they will be $25 plus postage afterwards – pre-orders available). 

Special thanks to Mark One Comics for sponsoring the launch of Sonic Comic. Sonic Comic launch and exhibition opening: Saturday 18 March, 7pm start, at the Audio Foundation, 4 Poynton Terrace, Auckland Central. You can RSVP on their Facebook event page HERE, and for more information on Sonic Comic, contact: znsoniccomic@gmail.com.

You can also listen some of the tracks from Sonic Comic right now at: www.soniccomic.bandcamp.com

- AK!

EVENT: Mansfield and Me Book Launch!

Above: The cover of Mansfield and Me by Sarah Laing.

One of the most anticipated local graphic novels of recent years, Mansfield and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Sarah Laing will be launching at Unity Books in Wellington next week.

Published by Victoria University Press, here's the official synopsis:

Katherine Mansfield is a literary giant in New Zealand—but she had to leave the country to become one. She wrote, ‘Oh to be a writer, a real writer.’ And a real writer she was, until she died at age 34 of tuberculosis. The only writer Virginia Woolf was jealous of, Mansfield hung out with the modernists, lost her brother in World War I, dabbled in Alistair Crowley’s druggy occult gatherings and spent her last days in a Fontainebleu commune with Olgivanna, Frank Lloyd Wright’s future wife. She was as famous for her letters and diaries as for her short stories. 

Sarah Laing wanted to be a real writer, too. A writer as famous as Katherine Mansfield, but not as tortured. Mansfield and Me charts her journey towards publication and parenthood against Mansfield’s dramatic story, set in London, Paris, New York and New Zealand. Part memoir, part biography, part fantasy, it examines how our lives connect to those of our personal heroes.

The book launch will be on Thursday 6th of October from 6pm at Unity Books Wellington, 57 Willis Street. All are welcome, and you can RSVP on the Facebook event page HERE.

If you can't make it, or don't happen to live in wellington - just head to your local bookstore and pre-order a copy using the publishing details below:

Mansfield and Me by Sarah Laing

ISBN: 9781776560691

336 Pages

Paperback, colour

160x245mm

RRP: $35 NZ