The Past Month ... (February - March 2022): Part Two.

I was planning on updating this blog shortly after my last entry. Life, however, has a way of keeping me so busy that I barely have time to do so. Well, it's easy to blame Life.  

Left: Former National Cartoon Gallery Manager, Margaret Cameron looking relaxed. Above: Sample of the food at the Shearwater Restaurant (at Coffs Harbour). (We were so hungry when the first course arrived, there was no time to photograph it!)

Above: Cartoonist Cathy Wilcox holds fort at the informal Stanley Awards. To her left, Cartoonist Glen Le Lievre, Margaret Cameron. Below: Dinner table conversations

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I had the honour of announcing the Recipient in the Single Gag Cartoonist category in the live stream announcing the Stanley Awards.

While attending the (informal) 2021 Stanley Award Dinner (in Coffs Harbour), the rain began to pelt down. My room mate, cartoonist Rev Ian (Busy Tales) Jones, and I decided to stay the night in Coffs before driving home. The rain was torrential and pretty-much non-stop all the way. Some of the water was lapping at the highway at some parts, and there were road signs indicating that Lismore was likely to flood and suggesting drivers seek alternative routes. Of course, it wasn't until Ian dropped me off at Brunswick Street Station in Brisbane that the full extent of the flooding became apparent....

The room from my hotel room, during the 2022 Brisbane floods. I loved the irony of this and shared my experience on Facebook....

Just as I arrived, the trains went off-line. I wasn't able to get home! Accommodation became a premium, and at some point I really thought I might either end up staying on the streets, or having to bunk down at my workplace (just up the road). Fortunately, there was a cancellation at the hotel I booked on line, but it was only due to my turning up there that I was able to secure it. Even the manager wasn't able to get in and his worker couldn't get home, so she was managing the numerous phone booking requests alone...! 

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Matt Golding cartoon. Brilliantly sums up the times.

February-March were strange months. Carlene wasn't well. Ross River Fever. So, attending comic functions and working on promoting Dillon's book (and just working on comics in general) somehow ended up taking a back seat. As it should. Work got in the way too. Many people distressed, co-workers getting COVID (including some of our girls), with general community depression and anxiety being wide-spread. Although I didn't get rostered too many night duty shifts (always a plus), I ended up working many long stretches, including numerous double shifts. The war in the Ukraine put things in perspective, I suppose. There were people doing it harder than we were here in Australia. That was my spin on it, at any rate. I may talk of this more in the future. 

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Of course, there were some comic activities. For some time, Graeme Cliffe and I had been booked to speak at a Chapel Hill Probus lunchtime meeting on March the 15th. 

Selfie time!

Our first public engagement (in January) hadn't really gone as well as Graeme had hoped -- the computer reading his USB had 'played up' -- but this one in mid-March was well-received. Over seventy people were interested in Graeme's talk, and he fielded so many questions (Graeme's barometer of a talk's success).  

This is the only T-shirt Graeme owns.

Within the world of comics that I work, there are always disappointments and challenges. The Emile Mercier book has been one. There was a bit of a delay in the design-stage of the book once the first proofs arrived. The text pages of the book were too close to the margins, and both designers who worked on the book were (understandably) taking a Christmas break. By the time the design 'faults' were rectified, the printer was having his annual break! 

Ready for shipping...

And just recently, after being told the books were printed and ready to ship (there they are, on the left), I received word from Ian, my Customs Agent saying: 
The local Shenzhen government has decreed a full lockdown in the area due to a COVID outbreak. All commercial buildings and warehouse have been closed. This means your shipment is delayed as the container had not been packed at the warehouse before the lockdown was imposed.

Sad, but that's how the publishing game goes some times. I had to let all the Kickstarter backers know late in March (yesterday as I type this). Another disappointment has been the lack of response to my Comicoz-Wedd mentored Australian Graphic Storytelling Project (see link here): not one response to date. Perhaps it is just an idea that will fall by the wayside. Similarly, the idea of retailing books and comics from other publishers to raise funds for my own publishing projects, seems to have failed, although that was more my fault. To be fair, I've really not had the time to promote either idea. Something that I have come to learn to live with in the world of comics over the years... You move on. No time to be too disappointed. There are other challenges ahead, and some I could (or should) mention, but which I might leave the sharing of to a future blog.

Rounding off the month, caricaturist and Sydney-sider Steve Panozzo invited me to the first Brisbane Comic Con to be held for a while. I wasn't able to attend both days (Carlene still remained unwell), but I put in some hours on the last Sunday of the month, and caught up with some fellow-creatives, including Dr Paul Mason and Christopher Sequeira. And sold some copies of Dillon Naylor's books. 

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Goblin was crazy. Goblin was scary. But he had great tastes in books. He bought a copy. My first sale for the day.

Steve Panozzo hard at work...

Brisbane's first pop culture event for ... almost two years.

Sharing a stand with Steve. And many other odd creatures.