UA-139927741-1
I'm writing this a few days before my 65th birthday, and a week into (finally) falling prey to COVID. So many of my work colleagues have fallen ill over the past two years, that it was only a matter of time for me to become so smug that I didn't think I would fall ill for it to happen! In retrospect, I'm not surprised. I'd worked fourteen days (out of sixteen) in the leadup to contracting the illness, and I'd also pushed myself in the month beforehand by attending the annual National Cartoon Gallery's Rotary Cartoon/Australian Catoonists' Association's Stanley Awards, working in the garden, trying to maintain a daily schedule with the launch of my Patreon site, among all the other personal family things that make up my life ... that it simply lead to me getting too, too fatigued. So, looking back, as I said, I'm not surprised...! So, I'm presently pausing my Patreon site. I really need to be able to commit to it on a daily basis. And that is clearly not possible at the moment. That's not to say I don't have a few comic plans ahead. Because - and I am sure you can hear my wife sighing in the background, right? - there are a few. (Some that I even picked up at the Australian Cartoonists Association's conference...) First of all, let me be clear. This (above) is a work in progress. And, yes, I does seem like I am going back to the future. I began last decade by publishing a John Dixon-Air Hawk book ... and here I am again? Yes, I did. And, yes I am. ...And there are many more comic surprises ahead. Some I have flagged earlier, some I have not. Stay tuned! Before I get too far ahead of myself, though, maybe I ought to share the details of the Stanley weekend. I drove down with Gary Swamp Clark, and we shared a room together. There's nothing finer than getting to know someone better than by sharing life in such close quarters: and although Gary and I have known each other since ... yes, since 1981 ... this was a particularly wonderful opportunity to really get to know each other. One of the funnier things to happen (and I won't publicly share them all!) was driving back to the Motel from the Rotary Cartoon Awards at the National Cartoon Gallery on the Friday night ... to find that the road was so dark we didn't realise that we were in fact heading in the wrong direction ... until we were almost thirteen kilometres closer to Sydney ... ! Here are some of the visual photographic highlights I took of and on the Saturday Stanley's night:
Just before Gary and I headed off to the Stanley's, we allowed Rob Feldman to use our room to change into his suit. My wife Carlene (who, as many of you know, is not really fussed with the whole cartooning thing) had opportunity to speak to Rob before the Staley's event, and suggested that if I should dare attempt to purchase anything at the Silent Auction, that he had her permission to slap me silly.... |
Comicoz is Nat Karmichael's publishing imprint. Nat is committed to preserving a permanent collection of Australian comic and comic strips. He feels that there is a need to recognise comics' contribution to and depiction of Australian culture.
Nat Karmichael.
Since 2011, Nat has self-published over twelve comic-related books and was Publisher-Editor of Oi Oi Oi! -- the last series of nationally-distributed comic books of original stories to appear on Australian newsstands. He is a member of the Australian Cartoonists Association and edited the Association's journal Inkspot for 14 issues from late 2015. He remains the Lead Judge in the Ledger of Honour Awards for the Comic Arts Awards of Australia (formerly the Ledgers). Nat has now retired from his former occupation as a Clinical Nurse in the Psychiatric Emergency Centre in Queensland's largest public hospital, so that he can spend more time with his long-suffering wife and their six children and fourteen grandchildren. He still plans to publish more comics and comic-related books, the details of which you should see here in the coming months... Comicoz acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay respects to elders, past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations peoples.
Archives
October 2024
Quick LinksAustralian Publications since 1976:
1 x Poster 19 x comics (one a co-production with Cyclone Comics in 1988/9, one a co-production with Cowtown Comics in 2022) 2 x Paperback books 10 x Hardcover books All Australian! |