Dear Reader... yes YOU!

I'd really appreciate you contacting me, either by using the "Contact" tab on this site (which you can access by clicking here) or by sending me an email to [email protected]

The reason I'm asking, is because I want to assess whether my swapping my "Comic Related News" tab with my "Store! Order Here!" tab on this site - as I did recently - is going to result in more or less hits on this Comicoz website. Of course, in an ideal world, I'd be flushed with funds, allowing me to update and improve this website, having it designed so anyone who hit "Australian Comics" or "Australian comic publisher" in Google would automatically find me on the top of the search engine's pile! Maybe one day!

Many thanks if you can do this for me. Of course, if you've come seeking my latest news (and thank you if that's the reason you're here), I can do that as well...!

The Kickstarter campaign for Dillon Naylor's new 44-page comic Preston Peace/Battlers Inc was successful, recently reaching its goal just before the cut-off deadline, and causing a few anxious moments along the way. Although the goal was what I thought was a modest one (designed merely to cover printing costs), it was a difficult campaign. Many people now using crowd-funded platforms, and many people finding times tough financially. The main two reasons it's getting harder to raise those funds -- as I have frequently mentioned here over the past few years. Thank you, if you supported it (and no shame if you didn't: not everyone likes everything I publish).

In other news, the proof copy of The Collected Cloak by Mike Higgs (with an introduction by Alan Moore) arrived yesterday. I am really happy with it. This is my first foray into international comic publishing*, as Diamond UK are going to be soliciting this book next month. I'm going to be working on a Media Release soon, and the Store page on this website is now open to take pre-orders from Australian readers. (Click here for details.) *Of course, Graeme Cliffe's book on Australian comics From 'Sunbeams' to Sunset...(available by clicking here)... was my first book that sold overseas, but Mike's will be the first one designed for the overseas market.

Other books still in the pipeline: a four-volume set on Australian artist/creative Moira Bertram, another Air Hawk volume (Don Ticchio has begun scanning the artwork for this one), and there's a book featuring Australian comic strip cartoonists (called Comic Strip Gallery) that is starting to take shape. There are a couple of others in the pipeline too, but let's talk about those another day...!

In the meantime, I'm not sure what's happening with the Comic Arts Awards of Australia. I've sent a quick message to the organiser, and hope I can provide a date and location for you in my next post...

I'm just a little pushed for time today, but have spent the morning in a productive manner (well, by my estimation!) by updating my webstore. I've added a comic (Preston Peace/Battlers Inc) that Dillon Naylor and I (as well as designer Jeremy Macpherson) are presently running on Kickstarter. (Here's the link.) I've also added the Air Hawk volume that is receiving nice plaudits from those who pledged for it recently on Kickstarter, and I've also added this Collected Cloak book (see left) and made it available for pre-orders. I've not had much time to write here, but the Cloak book is the first of my books to be marketed for an overseas (United Kingdom) audience. Since last I wrote, Diamond UK have agreed to solicit the book in August ready for an October release, which is all pretty exciting. Yes, I can now say that I am an international publisher!
In the meantime, domestically, I am heading off to Bendigo to celebrate Miss Lollie's 18th birthday, before I prepare to head off to Japan on a ten-day holiday with one of my daughters. (Mrs K decided not to travel, so it's just the two of us.) I'm going to have to leave the Comic Store unattended during those times (from August 17 to September 1, and again from 17th to the 26th September). At least I think that's when we're travelling: I thought I had placed the itinerary on the fridge, but it seems to have 'gone missing'. I'll have to go and find it...giving me something to do to fill my afternoon...! 

No sooner had I completed the Kickstarter for John Dixon's Complete Air Hawk Dailies, Volume 6, than I agreed to Dillon Naylor's request that we put out a comic collecting the complete Preston Peace and Battlers Inc comics in one volume. Whom am I to say "no" when I was one of the first people to actually publish the original series?! Preston Peace first appeared in Oi Oi Oi! (in Issue #7 for those who may have forgotten), with Battlers Inc having their first outing in the hardcover anthology volume Australia!

While I'm working on getting the Air Hawk volume in the mail - and the job is nearly complete - I've been working on Preston's Kickstarter. For the next few days, there's an "Early Bird" special price being run in the campaign. You can check it out by clicking here! 

In the meantime, there's a few other things going on. I'm extremely honoured to be selected to be judging the Rotary Cartoon Awards again this year (for the third year in a row, and for the fourth time in total). I'm also going to make an appearance at the Institute of Modern Art's Zine Fair on the 13th June (between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.) being held at the Judith Wright Centre. Entry is FREE for everyone who comes along! Details by clicking here. A week later (on 20th June), there's Brisbane Comic Creator's Market being held from 10 a.m. (to 3 p.m.) at Comics Plus (478A Ipswich Road, Annerley). Please come along and say "Hullo!", so I can show off some of my comics/books and talk about...well, anything you like!!

Nothing else I need to say, right?! I AM excited though...

Good progress has been made by Neville Bain on scanning the comic work of Moira Bertram, and -- with the wonderful help of other collectors -- sourcing some of the original comics. With Graeme Cliffe and Jeremy Macpherson, we all got together late last month to discuss the project. Do we make compromises to publisher Hachette Australia, who have expressed an initial interest in the project? Do we reprint every Moira Bertram story? How do we reproduce the smaller pages of her romance comics? How do we all agree on the format? Publishing with other creatives always involves some degree of compromise, and I do believe we have all managed to do this without too much skin off anyone's nose! We have not heard from Hachette yet (although a formal proposal was sent to their representative), so we are proceeding along: collecting all the available artwork, discussing how we feel the end product will look. Here's a taste for you too, dear reader. (NOTE: This may not be how the finish product looks; it's only the early design stages of the project.)

I've been so busy with this, and other activities, that I have not had time to attend to what was once my regular daily posts on Facebook! Still, you are reading things here first! Another book project that I have just recently begun working on is going to be called Comic Strip Gallery: Comic Strips from Members of the Australian Cartoonists Association. That's all I am going to be saying at this point in time. Perhaps more news next month!

Sadly, this year I won't be able to be there. My granddaughter Lollie is turning 18 on the 24th, so we will be celebrating that milestone in Bendigo, Victoria. Long-term readers of this blog may remember the appearances of Lollie, and will be as amazed as I am how quickly the time has passed. Eighteen! Wowsers! How long have I been writing this blog?!!

I have spent the past two days trying to find a UK printer for my most recent publication, The Collected Cloak by Mike Higgs. The files are ready to print, even though we have had other difficulties in the process over the past few months. It's been a dog's breakfast trying to get someone from Rebellion -- who say they own the copyright to the property -- to contact me about the works. So much so, I am giving up on them! (Until they get back in touch with me at least..!) Mike has drawn a brand-new pin-up page for the volume, and we are overjoyed with Alan Moore's Introduction. Initially we said we would be happy with a 25-word introduction: but we were give many wonderful pages! (And that is all I am going to say for now!) We're presently looking to lock in a printer (which we hope to do in the next few days) and -- all being well -- we are also hoping to have Diamond UK distribute the book. There's a few ducks to line up first, but (as always) I am ever hopeful that it won't be long before all is ready...! Ryan McDonald-Smith has done an absolutely outstanding job with the design of the book and it would be remiss of me not to mention his contribution here because he just as much a part of this team!

Finally, expected from the printer at the beginning of May will be the final printed copies of our Air Hawk volume by John Dixon (with some work by Keith Chatto within the pages). I am looking forward to this more that anything. We used a new printer for the book, so my anxiety about this is (perhaps naturally) a little higher than usual. The book has taken a lot longer than any of us involved in the production expected, but it will really be worth the wait.

That's about all I have time for today. I'm being summoned to dinner. Tomorrow is another "comic-free day" that Mrs K sometimes demands of me, and something that I feel I owe her, given the sacrifices she makes in allowing me to follow my passion in publishing the best Australian comics for all you good people in comic-land!

One of my last posts said that the Comic Arts Awards of Australia's annual awards evening was not available for public viewing. Well, since I wrote that, the Awards have gone public: and here they are!! Please enjoy!

Meanwhile, late last month, I was fortunate enough to attend a Queensland Writer's Centre's event: GenreCon, with the specialty this year being ... just up my alley ... Graphic Novels!! Attending were some welcome comic guests known to me: (Doctor) Queenie Chan, Nick Rees, and Scott Wilson. I also caught up with creative Ken Best, who was there to pitch a graphic novel. In a special section of the weekend, writers were given the opportunity to share the precis of a novel to a commercial publisher (Hardie Grant) to see if any budding authors were likely to be picked up by a publisher. And, you know what? I had the same idea! So, just after Ken, I pitched a book about Australian comic book artist Moira Bertram to Marisa Pintado from Hardie Grant.

I had spent two whole days (Thursday and Friday) writing out and rehearsing my planned speech! And then, when the Saturday appointment came, I was told I didn't need a speech: just an ability to share the book proposal! Was I nervous!! The project is one that Neville Bain, Graeme Cliffe, and Jeremy Macpherson and I have been working on this year, so I had enough material to share with Marisa. Fortunately for me, she overlooked my nerves and appeared really interested in the idea. I was so nervous, I honestly forgot all the tips and suggestions she made!! In any case, since then, we have been further invited to submit a proposal and share more samples of the proposed book to Marisa (for the Hatchette publishing company) ... which we plan to carry out next week ...! More to come!  (That is... To Be Continued...)

In the meantime, I'm assuming my role as Lead Judge in the Ledger of Honour for the Comic Arts Awards of Australia later in the year. It's been a much more difficult task than in previous years, and the search for this year's recipients (Living Ledger of Honour, "Dead-Set" Ledger of Honour) is continuing... even to the point of keeping myself off Facebook for a period of time!

The character "Dollar Bill", introducing decimal currency (dollars and cents) to Australia sixty years ago today, was created for the Government by no other than Australian comic creative Monty Wedd!

I was going to post the recording of the award night for the latest Comic Arts Awards of Australia here for posterity...but it seems that it's not possible to reproduce it. I'm not sure how those who are seeking to access the event from a historical perspective are going to be able to do so (perhaps it's just not going to be possible: in which case you may just have to make do with my summary from my last posting). Still, there's been another recording session in relation to Australian comics that I attended more recently (online on the 5th February) that I can share with you. Entitled Folio: Stories of Australian Comics, it also has a website that you can interact with. Click here for the link (https://foliocomics.com) Later on in the session (during the Question & Answer segment) you will hear the organiser's response to my question. The research and development of this project has been a long and costly one, and one that I want to see reach it's full potential. The people behind the work have previously presented at the Australian Cartoonists Association's annual conference a few years ago, and my question was the same then: Despite being a national research project, why have the researchers not yet attempted to interview Brisbane/Queensland creatives? 

One thing I have kept from readers of this blog (and people in general) is that I was honoured to have been selected as one of the judges for the 2024 Comic Arts Awards of Australia. After signing a non-disclosure agreement, I felt I had to honour my contract and not tell anyone of my involvement. The announcement of the names of all the judges wasn't made until the actual award night, so I have had to keep this quiet for some time! It wasn't an easy task! Some of my choices didn't make the cut! Some did! In any case....

...the recipients for the 2024 Comic Arts Awards of Australia held last Saturday night in Sydney were...

GOLD! "In Utero" written and illustrated by Chris Gooch; Published by IDW Publishing.

SILVER! 
"Deer Editor" Written by Ryan K. Lindsay. (Art by Sam Kivela, Colours by Lauren Affe, Letters by Jim Campbell). Published by Mad Cave Studios.
"Godzilla: Skate or Die!" Written and Illustrated by Louie Joyce. (Letters by Russ Wooton.) Published by IDW Publishing.
"Kobi Dog" Written and Illustrated by Fionn McCabe. Self-published (although, sadly, out of print).

Bronze!
"Adelaide and the Shooting Star" Written and Illustrated by Alice Lam. (Self-Published). Link to a personal LinkedIn page only, sorry.
"The Girl I Left Behind" Written and Illustrated by Katie Zhang (Self-Published). I couldn't find a link to Katie or to the book, I'm sorry. (I'll update this if it comes to hand subsequently.)
"Dream Walker" #1 Written by Molly Hunt and Scott Wilson. Illustrated by Christopher Wood. Letters by Wolfgang Bylsma. (Published by Gestalt.)
"The Last Light of the Dark Sky" Written and Illustrated by L. G. Veldenmire. (Self Published.)
"The Sweetness Between Us" Written and Illustrated by Sarah Winifred Searle. (Allen & Unwin.)
"Follow Your Gut: A Story from the Microbes That Make You" Illustrated by Ben Hutchings (Written by Ailsa Wild & Lisa Stinson, Science Director Gregory Crocetti and Art Director Briony Barr). (Published by Scribe Publications.) 

There was no booklet to accompany the ceremony and no Platinum Award; both for the second year running....

The Deceased ("Dead-Set") Ledger of Honour for Australian comic creatives who have passed -- the Awards that I oversee as Lead Judge -- was awarded to Arthur Mather. (Here's a link to learn more about him.)

The Living Ledger of Honour for Australian comic creatives who have established at least 25 years in the medium and are still alive was awarded to Michal Dutkiewicz. (A link to learn more about Michal here.) Michal was going to have some of his work published by Comicoz. Sadly failing eyesight has now prevented him from continuing his drawing of what would have been his swansong... Verity Aloha. Here are some of the unfinished pages...

And some of the completed pages....

Earlier this year, Carlene and I had to unexpectedly fly down to Mandurang (Victoria) for family reasons, which has thrown into some disarray my plans to work on more comics in the earlier part of the year. The bushfires (only 17 kilometres from where we were staying) also impacted on adventures I could have taken. You see, there was a Comic Get Together arranged for Melbourne folk, but as the V-Line (railway) was cut due to said fires, and there was no public transport available, I had to simply miss out. Which was a pity, as there were many I would have liked to have caught up with. Still, safety first!

Still, once the fires retreated, Granddaughter Charlotte and I drove down to Daylesford for a day trip. We caught up with Grant Barlow (Jackie & Tiffany's writer) and Ben Sullivan (artist of Jackie & Tiffany, and a range of other books) over lunch. It was the first time I had met Ben in person (although we have known each other for about ten years). And, foolishly, I forget to take a photograph to record the occasion!

On my last day in Victoria, I headed to Melbourne...got myself completely lost... but eventually I caught up with some well-known Australian (New Zealand?) comic royalty and did take some photographs! 

Since my return, I have been getting excited about the upcoming Comic Arts Awards of Australia, being held this Saturday in the State Library of New South Wales in the Mitchell Crouch Room from about 6.30 in the evening (New South Wales time). Tickets are still available and can be found by clicking here. You don't have to be in Sydney to be at the event, either, as for the first time there is also the option of attending the event remotely (which I what I have chosen to do). 

Now there is a lot more I can say about the event, but won't! I am going to leave that until after the event! (Nothing negative! I promise!) In the meantime, I should explain that the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards are for Australian comics published in the 2024 calendar year. (2025 comics will, I understand, be announced later this year.) Part of my role in the ceremony was as Lead Judge in the selection of the Ledger of Honour (essentially a Hall of Fame) recipients. The teams I oversaw actually made our selection over a year ago (in January 2025), and while I know whom we have chosen, I am going to keep that secret! You just have to attend the ceremony (as I said, in person, or remotely) to find out!

One thing I can share, though, is the list of the comics that have made the shortlist (from which the award-winners will be announced). First and foremost (and without seeking to brag too much*) is:

*Well, maybe a little bragging! It is, of course, a comic I published in the year in question! Good Luck, Rob!!

My next post -- whenever that might be! -- will no doubt list the winners. Congratulation to all comic creators who have made the shortlist: I know it is such a great honour to be included in the list, as comics are (generally speaking) an entertainment medium that doesn't get its fair share of accolades...