ARMAGEDDON 16-4-05
Just got back from a crazy eight day road trip around New Zealand and attended an ARMAGEDDON convention during a perfectly timed stop over in the beautiful city of Wellington.
Queues were already stretching for miles as Tamara and i skidded through the door of the Queens Wharf Event Centre early Saturday to set up my table. These days, i usually have an elaborate set of Halloween decorations and fairy lights but as this was a light-weight, four people in a rented car type holiday, i was making do with a simple faux red velvet table cloth, single squeaky rubber spider and a silver tounge sales pitch.
I'm not sure what that ghost slug is doing on my shoulder, spoiling a perfectly cheesy shot.
New Zealand has had K-ZONE over there right from the get-go, so I knew i didn't have to break through much ice with the public as far having my comics recognised and sure 'nuff, some kids soon squealed with recognition and began the process of harrasing their parents to take advantage of the neat coffin shaped comics and posters on sale. I was giving my life story over and over like a crazy man, trying to take advantage of the fact i was only attending one day. (hey, it was sunny and there was the oppurtunities to roll down a hill in a giant inflatable ball were beaconing. what's a guy gunna do?)
One great feature of these conventions over here is... no booth prices! As soon as you sell your first comic, you're ahead! (Until you spend it 15 minutes later on an over-priced sandwich and drink)
I soon spied SUPANOVA head honcho Danny Z. across the way, manning his VAULT booth and skipped over to say hiya and confirm i'll be joining the party at SUPANOVA Sydney. Later, the ever smilin' Rissa thehost dropped by the table and while doing a quick recon looking for horror comics i smacked into Don Brooker, who moved there some time ago to work on the up-coming KING KONG remake and is still busy doing sculpts for the toys and merch. Sweet as! (as they say here)
Curiously, a lot of people said they couldn't understand my accent, which was weird because THEY were the ones talkin' funny. The crowd in general were very warm and receptive and i found the vibe was not unlike Brisbane SUPANOVA. I was slightly disapointed to see the size of the event was not much bigger than the SUPANOVAs. I had heard reports that this convention was "almost twice as big". Maybe it was just this particular one, or maybe there was another level i didn't see. Another observation was that there were not many back issue retailers compared to SUPANOVA. Even though it was a 'pulp culture expo' and not emphasing comics, the Aust. equivelent always had tons of big long white boxes to dig through.
I didn't get to scope out as much local product as I planned, but did chat with the guys from CHOPPERCHICK COMICS who turn out some slick eye candy. The items I got were mini comic size, with excellent production values. They are done in the time honoured small press style of short bits and pin-ups, etc, but the important point is that everything in it is of a high standard. Simon Morse is a damn fine illustrator with a stylistic fusion reminiscent of ZAP comics, Jamie Hewlitt and... you guessed it, manga.The lead story in TOOLBOX #1 is printed in a duotone of red and blue and adds to the ol' skool hand sep look of underground experimental comix. Check him out.
I was alotted a table next a couple of impressive talents, Jem Yoshioka and Rachel Smythe (with blue hair in the photo) who has this great painterly style that is kind of 19th Century illustration with doe-eyed trussed-up manga pin-up girls. She does comics too but was just selling prints of her gothic lolitas this day and seemed to be doing a-okay.
She even did me up a nice little sketch of Batrisha. Thanks!
I also caught up with Ant Sang, a guy who's been making great comics for a great many years, well known for his DHARMA PUNKS series (and even supplied me a comic in one of my obscure publications DRIVEL, some years back.) His recent big achievement is character designer behind New Zealand's animated series BRO'TOWN, so i was dead keen to ask him hundreds of questions. That's his stuff on the front of the programme.
I also made damn sure i caught Dylan Horrocks, a man of many great achievments, award winning comics PICKLE, HICKSVILLE, contributions to BIZARRO COMICS, writing for VERTIGO and BATGIRL, just to name a few. (Dylan was running strips in Aust. small press anthology FOX COMICS back in the 80's just as i was showing my own shaky stuff in public for the first time) Unfortunately, i was talking to him while he was preparing to do a talk at gallery opening and that was something I couldn't get to later, due to... uh... other drinking commitments.
Over all, fun and profit were had and made. Next time i'm sticking around for the second day.
'later!
d.
Queues were already stretching for miles as Tamara and i skidded through the door of the Queens Wharf Event Centre early Saturday to set up my table. These days, i usually have an elaborate set of Halloween decorations and fairy lights but as this was a light-weight, four people in a rented car type holiday, i was making do with a simple faux red velvet table cloth, single squeaky rubber spider and a silver tounge sales pitch.
I'm not sure what that ghost slug is doing on my shoulder, spoiling a perfectly cheesy shot.
New Zealand has had K-ZONE over there right from the get-go, so I knew i didn't have to break through much ice with the public as far having my comics recognised and sure 'nuff, some kids soon squealed with recognition and began the process of harrasing their parents to take advantage of the neat coffin shaped comics and posters on sale. I was giving my life story over and over like a crazy man, trying to take advantage of the fact i was only attending one day. (hey, it was sunny and there was the oppurtunities to roll down a hill in a giant inflatable ball were beaconing. what's a guy gunna do?)
One great feature of these conventions over here is... no booth prices! As soon as you sell your first comic, you're ahead! (Until you spend it 15 minutes later on an over-priced sandwich and drink)
I soon spied SUPANOVA head honcho Danny Z. across the way, manning his VAULT booth and skipped over to say hiya and confirm i'll be joining the party at SUPANOVA Sydney. Later, the ever smilin' Rissa thehost dropped by the table and while doing a quick recon looking for horror comics i smacked into Don Brooker, who moved there some time ago to work on the up-coming KING KONG remake and is still busy doing sculpts for the toys and merch. Sweet as! (as they say here)
Curiously, a lot of people said they couldn't understand my accent, which was weird because THEY were the ones talkin' funny. The crowd in general were very warm and receptive and i found the vibe was not unlike Brisbane SUPANOVA. I was slightly disapointed to see the size of the event was not much bigger than the SUPANOVAs. I had heard reports that this convention was "almost twice as big". Maybe it was just this particular one, or maybe there was another level i didn't see. Another observation was that there were not many back issue retailers compared to SUPANOVA. Even though it was a 'pulp culture expo' and not emphasing comics, the Aust. equivelent always had tons of big long white boxes to dig through.
I didn't get to scope out as much local product as I planned, but did chat with the guys from CHOPPERCHICK COMICS who turn out some slick eye candy. The items I got were mini comic size, with excellent production values. They are done in the time honoured small press style of short bits and pin-ups, etc, but the important point is that everything in it is of a high standard. Simon Morse is a damn fine illustrator with a stylistic fusion reminiscent of ZAP comics, Jamie Hewlitt and... you guessed it, manga.The lead story in TOOLBOX #1 is printed in a duotone of red and blue and adds to the ol' skool hand sep look of underground experimental comix. Check him out.
I was alotted a table next a couple of impressive talents, Jem Yoshioka and Rachel Smythe (with blue hair in the photo) who has this great painterly style that is kind of 19th Century illustration with doe-eyed trussed-up manga pin-up girls. She does comics too but was just selling prints of her gothic lolitas this day and seemed to be doing a-okay.
She even did me up a nice little sketch of Batrisha. Thanks!
I also caught up with Ant Sang, a guy who's been making great comics for a great many years, well known for his DHARMA PUNKS series (and even supplied me a comic in one of my obscure publications DRIVEL, some years back.) His recent big achievement is character designer behind New Zealand's animated series BRO'TOWN, so i was dead keen to ask him hundreds of questions. That's his stuff on the front of the programme.
I also made damn sure i caught Dylan Horrocks, a man of many great achievments, award winning comics PICKLE, HICKSVILLE, contributions to BIZARRO COMICS, writing for VERTIGO and BATGIRL, just to name a few. (Dylan was running strips in Aust. small press anthology FOX COMICS back in the 80's just as i was showing my own shaky stuff in public for the first time) Unfortunately, i was talking to him while he was preparing to do a talk at gallery opening and that was something I couldn't get to later, due to... uh... other drinking commitments.
Over all, fun and profit were had and made. Next time i'm sticking around for the second day.
'later!
d.
posted by dillon at
9:55 AM
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