Comics meetup 04.08.12

This month's meetup was awesome! About 40-50 people packed the entire pub... no occasion... just an unexpected aligning of everyone's planets. It was one for the books.


Joey Morris.


Grange








Paul Bedford & Tom Taylor.










The very busy and important sector of the comics community.


Rockin the moustach for the last day.


The giddy, Jason Franks.


Grange, Kane and Frank.




Just like the opening scene to the movie, Blade.


Larry, replenishing his tank after Paul emptied it.

- Bobby.N
www.bobbyn.com

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Click.

Illustrator: Tim Molloy.

Oz Comic Con 2012 - (Melbourne)

Hand on my heart... this was the BEST and big convention I've been to ever! It was insanely packed with talented comic folk (as well as tv and entertainment celebrities), and almost every comics seller I spoke to, either sold out, or came close. It was IN.SANE.


A friendly guy with an English accent came up to the Gestalt booth and started talking to myself and Andrew Constant. Soon we discovered that he was the one-and-only Paul Peart-Smith... a 90s artist of 2000AD. Paul is not only a great artist, but one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.


What a sight... two former 2000AD artists, Paul Peart-Smith and Colin Wilson... having a yak about the old days.


The smooth, Christian Read.


"Like, stop ogling me... I'm not a piece of meat."




Nick and the film crew were such nice people to work with. They filmed from morning til night... Always smiling.




FEC Comics.


Wall-to-wall... chock-a-block.


The master of sketches... Ben Hutchings...


... drawing this lucky kid.


You with the camera... Get out!


Gary Lau (Back at last!) and Jason Franks.


Tristan Jones, Paul Mason and Chew Chan.


I was lucky enough to have access to the green room where I ate some fine food. While I ate, on my right were Colin Wilson and Wayne Nichols (above)... and to my left was Stewart McKenny and Star Trek's Patrick Stewart. Yes, HIM... but I know from experience that celebrities don't like their photos taken without permission (and because of the copyrights surrounding their image, etc), so I was respectful and didn't swing my camera to the left.




Tom Taylor... Standing next to the characters he brings to life. I mean, how many people will EVER get to feel this sensation... really.


Gestalt Comics sold out of Torn, Eldritch Kid and The Deep...! Only a few Digested and Changing Ways were left on the table. They killed sales!


THE Fil Barlow...! One of Australia's greatest talents sitting behind the Milk Shadow Books table.


The Milk Shadow Books table.


Women cannot resist Stewart McKenny... and creepy beanbags cannot resist Fil's books.


The organisers of Oz Comic Con have truly created an awesome big convention. It blows anything else out of the water in this country. No contest.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS:

• Sitting behind the Gestalt booth with their wonderful crew, selling books.
• Sitting behind the Milk Shadow Books table selling their great books.
• Eating meatballs, one seat away from Patrick Stewart.
• Meeting and talking to all the truly great and interesting readers through the 2 days.
• Catching up (however briefly) with friends.
• Skimpy outfits on fit women... not the other ones.
• Comics!

Til next time.

- Bobby.N
www.bobbyn.com


PS: Next weekend is the monthly comics meetup in Melbourne. Come along and have a drink. It's a casual get-together between comic readers, writers and illustrators. No secret handshake required... just come along:

WHERE: THE PRINCE ALFRED HOTEL: 191 Grattan Street, Carlton, Melbourne.
WHEN: 2pm - 6pm.

Charles Darwin

I recently finished this commission of Charles Darwin (above). Most of the time I prefer doing singular images on the page as I think they're more powerful. I guess it's my design eye that comes in here, because I always think less-is-more. Never was a big fan of covers where a whole lot of stuff is going on at once where things are fighting for your attention... but the more I researched and thought about things on this piece, the more it looked as though a mash of images should be done (ie. Charles Darwin on his own is just an old guy, and so he needs supporting elements to make people know its him). So... when the design almost requires this 'collage' type of arrangement, my mind usually goes to the master of these covers... Mike Mignola.



As usual, I begin by brainstorming in my sketchbook... so as I research 'Charles Darwin' on google, I just jot down quotes, ideas, thumbnails and sketches.

I still remember looking at Raider of the lost Ark posters in Cinemas of the 80s... or the Flash Gordon one, or the Star Wars ones, etc... all fantastic. The posters all included a central 'hero' image surrounded by key elements of the film. Mignola does this on his covers too.

I tried to employ the same balancing techniques between elements in moving things around (above) until it hung just right. This then becomes the underlay upon which I ink the final piece.

- Bobby.N
www.bobbyn.com

Save your money...

One of the advantages of my day-job (as a Graphic Designer) is that it has helped inform my creative passions like comics and photography (ie. Composition, layout, colour, retouching, light, etc).

My thinking has always been that as long as you work at your craft (ie.drawing, writing, photography, music, whatever), then I think the results will speak for themselves over time. Maybe I've just always been wary of the 'new' but I seem to see no evidence that it produces much artistic value simply by virtue of being five seconds old.

For example... my view is that most people are throwing away thousands of dollars on over-hyped, expensive cameras and lenses in the belief that their photos will turn out like the ones in magazines just because they've bought the sharpest lens or the highest megapixel camera. They WON'T. The reason is that professional photos are almost always (virtually without exception) adjusted afterwards (by a person), after having the photo shot initially (by a person)... I do it at my day job for magazine covers, etc. I see too many people with L lenses attached to shiny pro cameras that are set to 'auto' and I shake my head.

Below is an example of a photo that I shot (of some pompous writer) with a 40yr old lens:

AFTER: Optimised photo.

BEFORE: Raw photo taken from camera.

I guess what I'm saying is... create something, and stop just buying the new and thinking that you're somehow half-way to a masterpiece. Make stuff. Beat on your craft. Fine-tune what you have. Daily. Weekly... and live.

- Bobby.N
www.bobbyn.com

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CAMERA: Sony NEX5

LENS: Rokkor-X 50mm f/1.4 (manual) + mc/md adapter

SETTINGS: ISO: 200, Apeture: 1.4, Shutter: 1/40 (Should have been at least 1/50, really)

POST PROCESSING: Boost exposure, boost vibrance (not saturation), adjust levels/curves for shadow and highlight balance, colour grade, sharpen face area, plus other small incremental things, etc.

Comics meetup - [02.06.2012]

Again, a nice solid turnout of people this month.


The ever-drawing, Darren Close.




Colin Wilson brought along his slip-cased volumes of JOUR J (of which, he did volume #5)... all beautiful books.


Inspecting the linework reproduction on some of the stories.














Refill!




Trevor Wood and David Blummenstien.












Paul Bedford...


... the clingy girlfriend.


I swear, it's this big.


Discussions in the cold winter air.




Bruce Mutard




I picked up two excellent comics from this month's comics meetup... Colin Wilson & Tom Taylor's WORK TO DO story in 'Rocketeer Adventures 2', and Paul Bedford & J. Marc Schmidt's THE DAY I STOPPED. Both great stories. Highly recommended.

- Bobby.N
www.bobbyn.com