Tiny Peeks

A new exhibition and anthology of small comics about the day to day.
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Opening: 30th September 2010 at 'Hand Held Gallery'
Suite 18 of the Paramount Arcade: 108 Bourke st.Melbourne
Open Monday - Saturday 12 - 5pm until October 30th 
2010

To be self published in only the finest of manners by the hands of  braddock
and distributed in only the most independent of ways throughout the world.

a silent army show

---------------------------------------------------------
this is an invite for a new ANTHOLOGY and EXHIBITION

WHAT ARE WE AFTER?
A new page of drawing from you, preferably new.
Focusing on your day to day 'routine' or 'lifestyle' -
drawn as A COMIC.
Just 1 page!
Thinking loosely w/ the idea of the everyday in mind, just a little
anecdote, true story or something you wanna get off ya chest.  Be spontaneous and honest!


WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO BE INVOLVED IN THE ANTHOLOGY
- RSVP by FRIDAY AUGUST 23rd
- DRAW A ONE PAGE COMIC & SEND IT by SEPTEMBER 1st
- SIZE OF PAGES IS ONLY 148mm x 105mm - so reduce size if you draw it larger
- SEND ARTWORK AS - 300dpi PDF or Jpg Greyscale to - 
mpfikaris@gmail.com
- the anthology will have your name in back with preferred contact details etc
- first 50 pages received will be printed.


WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO BE IN THE EXHIBITION and ANTHOLOGY.
- RSVP by FRIDAY AUGUST 20th.
- CREATE AN ORIGINAL PAGE TO BE DISPLAYED AT THE GALLERY
- BRING ORIGINAL ART & CASH TO TRAILS NIGHT: WED SEPTEMBER 1.
www.trailsinmelbourne.blogspot.com
- CONTRIBUTE TO THE COST OF GALLERY RENTAL BY
SEPT.1st  - $20 each
Your $20 will pay for rental, invites (designed by silent army) and wine for opening.
- Collect your copy at the opening night of exhibition or at Oct. TRAILS meeting
- the first 25 people to pay their way will be in the
show.
www.handheldgallery.blogspot.com


SEND YOUR ART or DELIVER before WED Sept.1st
OR simply bring to the monthly drawing night at same address on Wed.
Sept.1st
www.trailsinmelbourne.blogspot.com

'SEED FACTORY STUDIOS'
GROUND FLOOR of
1 Parslow street
Clifton Hill
VIC 3068


CALL US FOR ANY OTHER QUERIES (and draw up a storm you freak!)

Michael Fikaris : 0423 790 721     holabraddock@gmail.com
Jo Waite : 0403 160 941     dudeluxe@yahoo.com.au

Challenge update

Some examples of redrawn comic pages, from a blog I just found

http://fanfour9.guttertrash.net/

I was originally going to make this project a redraw a Fantastic Four page, but then I felt that may be too limiting. I am having trouble finding an old Fantastic Four online. I may have to do something else.
I also forgot to menton there is a two week deadline for this one, which means you still have unitl Sunday week to whip something up for it!

(If you can not find an old comic go ahead and draw a newer one)

Chugnut Challenge, May 23, 2010

An idea I came up with based on the covered blog, and chester Brown's Batman comic

Redraw a comic page that is at least 20 years old...

I thought it may be more interesting to redraw something from the past rather than redraw a contemporaries comic.

Add subtract etc as you wish. There is only one rule, one page to one page (however many panels you like)

Australian comics wiki Hayase

So far I have not had the time to follow up on the ideas from the camp but I would like doing so. Secondly following on from the idea of a comics school is the Australian comics wiki Hayase.


Go here to have a look
http://hayase.net.au/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page


Before playing around with this wiki, the idea of editing a wiki made me nervous, thinking I would make a mistake. I quickly got over this and once I learned a few formatting codes I was on my way. Unfortunately I have not been doing much editing of late and I think when you notice you are the only one doing it at that time you can lose interest quickly. So jump on it and start editing it, it becomes addictive once you get the hang of it.

I would love to hear any coments on your opinions on this wiki, problems, ideas etc

2001 Space odyssey, page 100 (part 1)

Click for larger image

Here is my page 100 submission. Taken from '2001 Space Odyssey' by Arthur. C.Clarke. I recently became interested in seeing the film but felt I should read the book first, which I really enjoyed. I am hoping to see the movie sometime in the next week or two.
I ran out of time to post the whole page; this is actually only half of the page on a four tiered page. It was a really useful exercise to do as it really puts your story boarding techniques top the tests and for me pointed out some possible faults in my process.

My Page 100 Challenge

You know, there are many things that I really should have been working on instead of this, but I just couldn't pass it up.

I have to admit I cheated a bit. This is really only two thirds of my chosen Page 100. But I liked the way the narrative was paced out on the page this way. Plus, I got to play around with some elements like that speech balloon in the second-to-last panel.

Oh, and if anyone can WITHOUT USING GOOGLE tell me what book this is from, I'll send that person the original artwork. First one to correctly identify it in the 'comments' area gets it. That is, if you want it. If you don't, then gloat quietly to yourself.

Page 100 project challenge

This week for the Chugnut challenge we will attempt Jason Turners Page 100 project

• Pick a book
• Flip to the 100th page
• Create one page of comics based on that 100th page

Enjoy!

Schell: Blister

Rough...and overworked. tch. Was quite keen to do this one, just ran out of time to do anything other than a quick sketch! Then tried to enhance the roughness a little ...

Page 100 project

Jason Turner came up with the page 100 project,

So ages ago, Dave Howard suggested to me that it might be an interesting idea for cartoonists to try adapting a part of a novel they liked. And then recently when JD Sallinger died, that notion came back to me, and then I thought oh it might be interesting to attempt to do a comic of some portion of one of his books. And as I sat on the couch staring at the shelves of books, I thought it might be fun to try it with different books. Maybe just a page. Maybe the SAME PAGE from each book.

So basically you get a book, flip to the 100th page and translate that one page into one page of comics. Could be good to try this for our next challenge? How much time would people need to complete one page, is one week enough?

Woodward: Blister

Carvan: Blister

Thank you Anthony for inviting me to be an 'honorary' member of the Chugnut Collective. I am both chuffed and chugged, not so nutted however. I do have 'nut' issues though. Ahem.

I didn't think I'd be participating in this week's challenge but then, this morning, I just woke up and *had* to write this comic. I love comics that force themselves to be drawn. There's something, I don't know, really honest about them. So here's my true blister story - blood, pus and all.

Comics class

A large chunk of Chugnut members spent the week participating in a comic master class with Dylan Horrocks. Which didn't leave much time to participate in the comics challenge.

I have also not able to post on some of the ideas I suggested a few weeks ago. The main one being a post on a comics school in Australia which I would still like to address. For now it seems like we have hit on a good idea to post challenges to the Chugnut blog. The first one being to produce a comic on the word camp and secondly this week has been to produce a comic on the word blister.

I would like to continue posting comic challenges to the blog, most likely they will be weekly challenges from Sunday to Sunday. For 'Blister', I will keep submissions open for the rest of the week, if we get a minimum of four posts I will put up another poll.

Chugnut Challenge - Week 2

I must send my congratulations to Ms Schell - though I do think more people should've voted for me! Maybe I'm bias??!!!???

Challenge: Blister

Produce a comic on the word 'Blister'

Here are the rules,

1. Draw a comic on the word/theme
2. The comic must be at least two panels/pictures in length, more if you're willing
3. You have one week to post your comic, starting today

That's it, there are no other rules, so go wild. Use colour, draw it in the sand, write it in Mandarin it's up to you.

Chugnut members can post their comic to this blog and their own. Anyone else is free to give the challenge a try, they can post a link in the comments of this post.
Happy drawing!

Comic challenge 'Camp' roundup

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Click here to see all 'Camp' entries

Schell: Camp

Phew! A bit rushed.

Chugnut Challenge - Week 1

This is possible of shit quality

I don't have a scanner at the moment or my usual editing programs

I've done this with a digital photo edited in GIMP!

The machete speaks

A birthday card for my friend Kevin, whose knowledge of movies and music is unsurpassed and who yet remains a gentleman.

Woodward: Camp

Apologies for image quality, as my computer crashed I had to scan and adjust this using paint.net. I really liked this challenge and look forward to another one, perhaps next week...
I'm eager for constructive criticism in the comments. I often read other peoples comics and think, 'if only the added that extra panel' or ' if only they didn't word it that way, or have that facial expression...' what do you think? What works, what doesn't?

Comic Challenge

After my last post discussing ideas around a comic school in Australia, we thought of the next best thing, organsing comic drawing challenges. We don't have any sort of grand plan as yet but to get started we came up with the idea to have a word or theme, much like illustration friday, and produce a comic on that theme. Here are the rules,

1. Draw a comic on the word/theme 'Camp'
2. Comic must be atleast two panels/pictures in length, more if you're willing
3. You have one week to post your comic, starting today

That's it, there are no other rules, so go wild. Use colour, draw it in the sand, write it in Mandarin it's up to you.

Chugnut members will post their comic to this blog and perhaps their own. Anyone else is free to give the challenge a try can post to their own blog/website and link it in the comments of this post. Happy drawing!

The Camp of Chugnut

(in the nice Christian We don't want to do any thing "Nasty" kind of way)

2010 was my first experience of comics camp - and apart from fellow Ballaratian Antonio Woodward this was the first time I met any of THE great names in the Australian Comics scene!
I'm sure that every one of these people will deny that they are one of the Greats - but that was definitely how it felt for me going in to this camp!

I must admit that i was feeling a little intimidated - I didn't know these people - I had seen some of their work - and I had a distinct feeling that their stuff was well above the calibre of my own!

But I was convinced by my friend and fellow comics artist (actually the guy who got me into drawing comics in the first place) Anthony Wooodward, to go to Camp Chugnut and meet these people and hang out with them - and possibly prove myself! He didn't say that exactly, but that was how it felt for me!

So we organised to head off together! Since I don't drive, I was the map reader! Luckily I do this well (being an experience non-driver) and we got there much quicker then we thought - allowing for traffic!

When we got to Camp Eureka - we found Pat Grant and John Retallick in the main room - Pat already had his sketch book out - and I could see immediately that this was going to be a serious weekend. I hoped even more then ever that I wouldn't embarrass myself! Both Pat and John were very welcoming - they obviously knew Anthony previously - so I almost felt like I had an immediate "in" - though I still felt like I needed to 'earn my place' (all this was I THINK in my head - but for some reason I couldn't see these guys as 'normal' people - they were much higher in my mind and I therefore had to work hard or submit to be allowed into their realm of greatness - or to even get a look at it!)

It didn't take me long to get my pens and sketch book out - this is what I had been waiting for for so long - all I wanted to do was spend the weekend hanging out with other people who draw comics - draw them myself and not feel like I really had to do much else - but not be a burden to everyone else!

I think I should note in here that it was I who won the "Who can draw the best garlic?" competition between myself and Michael Fikaris at approx. 2am on the first night -a competition, held after much alcohol and of which origins I cannot recall , and which I do believe was initiated my Michael Fikaris himself!

In total -- the weekend was SUPERB! Not only was it a great time for me to meet all these people I had never met - who are not only new friends, but new friends with like minds - but it was also a great time to actually get to know some of these people - and I feel that there is really not many better ways to get to know people then when you are playing them in table tennis!

I don't recall really winning - but I think that I held my own... maybe a little (that is until Bernard came on the scene and I got blown out of the water by Bernard and Andrew!)

Comics camp was great for me - I feel like I have built the beginnings of some possibly great friendships - and if nothing else I have met some of the people that I have for some time looked up to and respected in the Australian comic arts and zine scenes!

I'm trying to find some way to lighten this up and make i not so 'suck arse' before I really sign it off - so I'll just reiterate that "IT WAS ME WHO WON THE 'WHO CAN DRAW THE BEST GARLIC' COMPETITION" YYYEEEESSSSS!!!

and...

I REALLY wasn't THAT bad at table tennis!

Chugnut ideas

One of the great things about camp was that we had more than just an afternoon to talk about ideas that we may not have had time for otherwise. The first time we got together for this event in 2009 we had a few people give informal talks which worked really well. This time we had a projector but did not have the same sort of informal talks.

I think this was just because the venue was so comfortable, once we go into our drawing groove or sitting on the couch reading comics not much else mattered. In future incarnations I think it may be a good idea to put aside an hour one afternoon to have a few talks. Participation would be completely voluntary so if you want to keep drawing or wander in the woods no problems.

Here are some ideas that got thrown around at various stages, either before during or after the event.

-Comic school in Australia

-Library collections

-Chugnut book

-Chugnut Exhibition

-Collaborative projects

-Australian comics wiki Hayase 

-Digital comics and the iPad

Over the next few weeks I will be making posts that looks at these concepts in more detail.

The Squaw draws, we all ape Buster

Comics Camp 2010, oh what a feeling. If only we'd had a few over-and-under Winchesters, a few more tins o' beans, and a little more cap-wearin', we'd have had us a real survivalist, waitin' for the Big One sort of atmosphere. As it was, Jo Waite (above) had stuck a feather behind her braid and Michael P Fikaris (also above) never doesn't wear a cap, so we were certainly well on our way to becoming 'those suspicious in-bred cartoony types up thar in the hills'.

The Ping Pong was great, the surrounding green all-embracing, the non-stop drawing/writing/reading comics action a joy. Thanks John for organising the actual location and Anthony for organising this virtual location. Dem fine, chaps!

Chugnut T-Shirts

Here they are... the long awaited Camp Chugnut Tee's!

Drawn by Neale Blanden

A Blumenstein Quickie

David's post just reminded me of another comic that I haven't put up. It's kind of taken out of context (I think he was expanding on a previous joke) but it cracked me up.

And therefore, I felt it was my destiny to make a comic about it. Just like Andrew burnin' that butter. (And yes, the pancakes were delicious.)

David, Who Had An Excellent Time

Comics camp, or "chugnut", or whatever filthy shit Mandy wants to call it, was very good fun the second time out. I did some crap drawings (and one or two OK ones), cleared my head a bit and relaxed with comics homies.
Andrew Fulton drew this brilliant picture of myself and Sarah. It is very accurate.

At some point I drew this picture of Andrew.

I worked a bit on a regular comic I've been doing. That lives on another site.

Here's a picture of Neale Blanden, and one of my Precinct characters, and some other dude I dashed off because why not. I hadn't worked with Copics for a while, so that was nice.

I spent some time thinking about the animated cop show I'm trying to get off the ground. Instead of worrying about scripts and grant applications, I made a little comic which (kind of) explains what I want to do next: make a small series of one minute episodes introducing the characters. John Farnham will sing the theme song.


Jo Waite (I think) challenged me to draw Garfield, so I provided "old" and "modern" versions.

My camp communix story

I had had a busy week at work which meant I still had a lot of thing to do on the Friday. I finally managed to get on the road with fellow Ballaratian Mel around 2pm. It took a little over 3 hours to get there, which was two and a half more for me than last year. Chris Downes comes all the way from Tasmania so I can't complain. Pat, John and Neale where already there when we arrived. With Pat and Neale having rode their bikes 30 km's to get there!

I was immediately impressed with the camp, nothing fancy and a bit rough around the edges but there were plenty of tables and lighting in the main dining hall. The drawing started almost immediately and I was determined this year to spend more time drawing. Which is a hard thing when all you want to do is talk to other comickers and read comics. More people arrived later that night and before to long I was getting a little too merry drinking beers. Pat cooked an awesome tortilla and beans dish with Guacamole and chipotle pepper sauce (with home made corn tortillas) I managed to head off to bed around 2:45am, later than I should have, considering the cabins didn't have any curtains, and anyway I lost the ability to sleep in a long time ago. As I lay down in bed I suddenly had a panic that the cabin was quite rustic and probably had spiders crawling all through it. I tried not to think about it and dozed off.

The next morning I awoke early to the sound of a possum crawling on the roof but I was able to go back to sleep for a little longer. Upon waking properly I examined the cabin and realised it was actually a lot more modern than my imagination had led me to believe late last night.
Unfortunately I felt really sluggish on Saturday morning, so much for getting stuck into drawing right away, I thought. I picked up the pen after breakfast and tried to let the coffee move my hand over the page. It was no good, I had to just ride out the morning and hope that I'd come good by lunch. I made myself a peanut butter sandwich, something that I hadn't had for along time at home with Elliott's allergy to the stuff. I chowed it down with some milk and then I came good and was able to start drawing again.

By evening we had the length of the table covered with sketchbooks, pens, pencils textas and empty beer bottles. For dinner Mandy had brought along over twenty sweet potatoes which we baked and served with lentil soup on top with cheese and sour cream. I went a little easier on the beer this night as I didn't want to wipe out Sunday morning as well. I made it to bed at a more decent hour too. John and Neale were turning it in at the same time as me, after turning the lights out we giggled like schoolgirls telling funny stories. We were sure any minute the teacher would come around to our cabin and tell us to quiet down.

The next morning I woke up better than the day before, it also helped that the rustic little showers surrounded by bush pumped out lovely hot water and that by the time I got to the main room, a fresh pot of coffee was on and waiting for me. Andrew also had promised to cook up some pancakes for all  and delivered on said promise; and I can tell you they were the best pancakes I have ever eaten!
I was starting to feel the creative juices flowing by this stage of the weekend, having spent the last day and a half surrounded by comicking energies, I was fully warmed up you could say. I had thought of a story late last night and spent the morning happily story boarding it. In the afternoon a few of the others got stuck into some ping pong matches, Mel performed a Gocco demonstration, and Bernard performed some Japanese paper theatre which was highly entertaining as only Bernard can be.

It was getting closer until the time we had to leave. I had a family engagement at 6pm so there was no getting around it we had to head off a little after 3pm. It was one of those times where you get crazy flashes of abandoning everything, I wondered if I could just stay out in the woods drawing comics for the days and weeks to come. I reluctantly packed up my things and Mel and I said our good byes to all. Driving away I felt genuine sadness to be leaving this place and all of these lovely comickers, my people!

As we drove back to Ballarat we discussed how entirely cool that weekend was and the possibility of setting up a comics school in Australia. I wanted the weekend to be beneficial for everyone’s comic practice, like months of schooling condensed into one weekend. Although it's hard to say what exactly you get out of these weekends, and I came to see that you can't really measure these events like that. All I know is that my life and comic practice are a lot more richer for it and that next year three days will not be enough.

Easy Jam comic

mel, ben, anthony, john

I totally thought I had posted this one already.

Fulton by Fikaris

I just realised I'm following this blog twice!

I like it that much!

I can finally name drop

The Camp Chugnut image was drawn by Neale - and is the image that features on our camp tees!

The yellow man I'm not really sure about - I found him in the back of my sketch book when I got home!

Mel's Tidbits

This comic is not actually a comic, actually it's "art"... didn't you know?... couldn't you tell?
I found some rusty old Ned Kelly Armour and thought it would make a good pet.
I also tried really hard to draw banksias. All the other stuff I did was one Benno's cream coloured cards and they got lost somewhere with my red field guide zine. If you have one of those red field guide books check it for lost drawings and I'll be your best friend and stuff.

Andrew Fulton can cook.

This actually happened just like this. And I have photographic PROOF:

Snippets

This was really just a warm up idea that turned into a comic. The text is of random parts from different conversations heard over the weekend. The images are little spots around the campsite. Not much rhyme or reason to the whole thing - which somehow pulls it all together.

Seeing a Powerful Owl in the trees was pretty great

Arran

Chugnuts of Marxist/Leninist style utility

A word on the facilities: perfect. The Camp Eureka buildings and grounds weren't so clean and new that we felt we had to be on our best behaviour, or so rough that we felt we had to wear hiking boots & check ourselves for scrub ticks (or each other).
The pit toilets were a bit scary; I felt like I carried a stinky cloud of ripe poo smell for a while after I went... but I have been on actual camp camps where we had to dig our own shit pit & just trust that we gave each other privacy, so everyone always knows exactly who is going to the toilet and what they are doing there. Enough to give you rock hard constipation.
The showers were unbelievable; thanks are due to every one of us who stoked or lit the shower tank fire - champions all.
And Ping-Pong. I didn't play, but those who spend long hours sitting crouched over a Formica table need to perform some kind of physical activity, and the creek was too small to swim laps in, and the gym facilities left much to be desired... and I thought Chairman Mao wished to ensure that every comrade participated in manual as well as mental labour in a socialist society. For my part exercise consisted of walking about covered in tiny spiders; for others the rigours of table tennis.

Jam comic

Anytime a joke or weird comment was made a comic or drawing would be inspired by it. Can't remember exactly what this was about

blanden easter egg

last drewing I done,ask John for explanation.....

Hutchings comic

Ben Hutchings has added another comic from the comic weekend to his blog

Fikaris swap

Swapped this piece with Fikaris for my Sensual Santa piece

Fikaris' stash PT I

from top: 'like this' by m p fikaris 2010, 'cult pens'by mp fikaris 2010, 'fuck work' by mp fikaris 2010, 'what you said' by mp fikaris 2010, 'new comic' by mp fikaris 2010.