Anyone who has been sneaking a peek at the internet lately, will see that the current Coronavirus is bringing creative people to the fore: there are many funny videos and cartoons to be found online, as people adapt to and make comment about our new way of living.

I went into Brisbane city on Friday afternoon after work to see if the local comic bookstore was still open. I was surprised to find it was, and even more startled to discover I was the only customer seeking to pick up my current favourite title (presently Daredevil). “It’s good to know that comic-retailing remains an essential service,” I quipped. The proprietor informed me that it wouldn’t be for too much longer, when he shared the most recent comic news – perhaps known to everyone but myself! – that Diamond had stopped distributing comics due to the COVID-19 virus.
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Diamond, for far too many years now, have had the monopoly in distributing comics around the world. That they had made the decision not to do so left me stunned. No comics? What is the world coming to? Of course, in my work environment, we’ve been preparing for when it really impacts on our health-care system and there have been some early effects of the pandemic. (I work in the Psychiatric Emergency Centre at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital.) And although I have been hearing the news of job losses in coffee shops and other retailer establishments, it wasn’t until I couldn’t get my comic fix that I really appreciated the impact this virus was having on the world economy!

The last time American comics stopped reaching Australian shores was back in the 1940s. In 1939, due to our increasing involvement in the Second World War, the Australian Government began enforcing the Import Licensing regulations. This controlled the amount of US dollars (then purchased from England) that could be spent on published comics and syndicated proofs of American comics. This led to a total ban by July 1940. Then, as now, creative people adapted to the current situation, and so was born the Golden Age of Australian comics.

Unlike the Americans, who had introduced the ‘production line’ of comic creating (that has continued to this day), the local comic creators did not have that luxury. Most of the comic artists in Australia handled the complete production of the creative process, apart from the publishing. In his some of his writings of the era, Australian comic historian John Ryan identified those he thought were that era’s “top comic book illustrators”: Monty Wedd, John Dixon, Hart Amos, Stanley Pitt, Vernon Hayles, Moira Bertram and Phil Belbin.

As Australian artists rose to the fore in the 1940s, I feel that now is as good a time as ever, to look at the silver lining behind COVID-19 and see if there are ways of adapting to the current situation and finding opportunities to again begin publishing great Australian comics.

Frew Publications, as the only publishing house still appearing on the newsstands today, is probably in the best position to do so, given that newsagents have not – yet? – been shut down. Frew is one of the publishers that first established itself in the 1940s when businessmen Ron Forsyth, Lawford ‘Jim’ Richardson, Jack Elsen and Peter Wilson formed the company. (The company’s name came from using the first letter in each partner’s surname.) While the company has been primarily been preoccupied with reprinting old Phantom stories, in recent years its owners (Rene White and Glenn Ford since 2016) have been utilizing many local artists and cartoonists for both cover artwork and internal stories, and have engendered much goodwill in the local comic scene.

A recent development in the comic medium has been the development of the online comic. While the comics available for purchase at my local comic shop were not as current as those found on Comixology, I’m not convinced that the major publishers, Marvel and DC, have really been interested in developing the online market. Perhaps that will now change; it’s too early to tell. My feeling is that the profit margins are not as substantial as the physical copies, which carry (for example) multiple cover alternatives that have appealed to the collector in preference to the longer-term benefit of seeking a newer and increasing readership. This, and the myriad of interconnected storylines, along with the practice of publishing multiple titles of a popular character, have for too long propped up the American industry. Perhaps the Coronavirus might bring along a market correction, longer term.

There have been few Australian creatives publishing online, but with physical outlets likely to close up shop (either due to the economic downturn or by Government legislation), and the populous becoming more socially isolated and needing new reading material, the opportunities are there for the taking. My favourite online comic is by a couple of Sunshine Coast creatives, Teloka Berry and Pricilla Wu. A Week in Warrigilla has been running for two years now, as engaging as ever, with over a thousand subscribers.
Here’s a link: https://tapas.io/episode/1008842  – do yourself a favour and check it out!

Comic one-shots and series are also able to be found via the various crowd-funding platforms available these days. Given the reluctance of most Australian comic stores to support the local creatives, many local self-publishers have been increasingly exploring this avenue. I feel that this will be another realm of the future post-COVID-19 comic medium. Dark Oz, run by South Australian publisher Darren Koziol for the past ten years, has been increasingly marketing his comic books by crowdfunding, allowing his comics to reach a greater world market. Here’s the link to his site:  http://www.darkoz.com.au/index.html    
   
The post-COVID-19 world is going to bring about the biggest social change we will have ever known, and it is difficult to predict what that world will look like. It’s my belief that the comic medium will be a part of that change, with creative storytellers finding new ways of sharing to those who want to read and listen. There are ways for local Australian creatives to become part of that change, and I have identified some of those opportunities available even today. Comic books and graphic storytelling will not die – they will simply evolve into this newer form and the history of this medium that we love shall continue.  

​One of the reason I am so enamoured with this volume is that it was coloured by Peter Ledger, an Australian comic book artist, who was then living in America. Yes, the same Peter Ledger that the Ledger Awards have been named after. How great an acheivement would that be: to colour the works of storyteller/artist Carl Barks?!

Speaking of the Ledger Awards, about the ONLY comic-related thing I have done this month (besides this posting) has been coordinating the judging of the Ledger of Honour Award. I can but won't tell you the sucessful recipients who will be acknowledged -- I have to let the organisers disclose them at a time of their choosing -- but I can say it was a close contest. In relation to other comic events, even Supanova has had to take a back seat. It was the first time in years, I have not gone to the Gold Coast leg. Why you ask? Well, mostly due to the COVID-19 preparations at work.

My boss went on an overseas holiday (to see her sick Mother, actually, so it wasn't really a holiday) and so I had to take the reins of the Nurse Unit Manager role. She's now returned and is in the two week period of self-isolating, so I have the role for another two weeks. Sure, Carlene likes the Monday to Friday aspect of the job, but I'm finding the 5 a.m. rises and very, very late finishes really tiring (and a little stressful), as we are all heading into the great unknown in relation to this contagious virus....

This weekend is the first weekend I have been able to peer into this book. Oh the joy of Carl Barks' drawing and storytelling. It's such a pity that today's young people cannot know these simple joys of Uncle Scrooge McDuck.

 I have touched on my major dilemma these days: my age. I am acutely aware, perhaps more-so this year of my own mortality. More than ever, I realise that the books I want to publish on Australian comics are going to be limited, unless I can find a way to continually publish them without placing financial strain on my own personal finances. (I find most book sales are sporadic at best, so I have learnt to not be dependent on sales to funnel the funds into further publishing ventures. Perhaps that speaks of my deficiencies in marketing?)   In recent years, I have utilised various crowd-funding sites -- Pozible and Kickstarter, the two I have used -- to at least cover the printing costs of all new publications. And, while this is an increasingly popular mode for comic creators to fund their comics projects, I am concerned that it is becoming saturated with too many similar projects. Crowd-funding sites also demand a lot of time expended on the promotion and 'selling' of the product. I have noted quite a few comic creators these days using the portal Patreon, and I began preparing my own Comicoz Patreon site over a year ago, but have taken it no further. (Why, I cannot really say. Obtaining a book distributor this year has certainly eased a lot of my stress in worrying that I was not getting my books into bookstores.)

My main worry these days, is that I have so many books I want to publish that I may simply run out of time! I have named some of the titles that I'd like to work on over the past few years, with some are in further stages of development than others. Here are some: a book on the one-hundred year history of Ginger Meggs' creators written by Lindsay Foyle, another Air Hawk (or -- more accurately -- a John Dixon) volume, and Gerald Carr's Brigette. (I understand Matt Emery has now abandoned plans to work on this, giving me the chance to start on it.) Volumes on Peter Player's Picture Magazine work and a collection of the complete Iron Outlaw are both limited without a secondary copyright holder agreeing to allow them to go ahead An Emile Mercier volume in conjunction with the National Cartoon Gallery (at Coffs Habour) is most likely in 2020. I've discussed with some people about an expanded work like From 'Sunbeams' detailing the internal pages of Australia's comic history, but this will be hampered by copyright clearances, so this will be many years away. Who else would I like to publish? Alex Gurney, Phil Belbin, the list goes on. What about Syd Nicholls? Syd Miller? Did you know the famous Australian author Alan Marshall once wrote a comic strip: why shouldn't that see print?
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And what about new artists and cartoonists? Bruce Mutard has new work I believe deserves to see print. And Thomas Campi. When I left Adelaide, I had an idea (based on a manic mood on my part?) that it would be great to be able to publish one hundred Australian comic artists' works in one hundred stand-alone issues of a comic series. I thought about telling my mate Rob Feldman about it one day, and then got cold feet -- how could I honestly fund such a project? I am still waiting on Michal Dutkiewicz to finish updating his Verity Aloha stories.... Anyway, without further ago, there is a book I am going to soon start working on. Want a clue or four? Here you go....