Tales of Hobartian Comics

I was recently in Hobart for a few days to chillax for a bit after a pretty warped time in my life recently. It worked, I can now consider myself chilled and relaxed. A good part of the reason it worked was some great comic related people I met, spoke to, interviewed and whose works I purchased. I also wandered around town checking out galleries, second-hand book and clothes stores, going to the movies and sitting in a very nice Jazz bar on Saturday night. And with a G&T too many, a lovely evening/early morning stroll back to the B&B I had an extremely relaxing and peaceful sleep Saturday night.

A nice town, with some interesting purchases to be had.

I managed to get in contact with and speak to a few comic related people. My thanks to Sarah Howell for some contacts and to Anthony of Pocket Space in Criterion St for being available to chat as well. I recorded interviews with Chris Downes and Matt Coyle which you will be hearing in the next episode of TheComicSpot airing in Melbourne on 855am 3CR and streaming at 3CR.org.au on Thursday 27th at 5pm.

Here’s a brief overview of the purchases and later i'll post a few pics of some steet art I encountered in the lovely Hobart.

First of all i met up with and spoke to Chris Downes, a Tenneseean now living in Hobart for many years.

I found his work through the monsterfeed blog you can all subscribe to from comicslifestyle.com. Chris is an illustrator and is working on a graphic novel. To warm himself up he began a webcomic diary titled – Diary of a work in progress.

He showed me these two works in progress - you can hear him talk about them more on the show.

We met in a cafe where he had been commisioned to do the first of hopefully many murals for. Check out his webdiary and let him know you want to see it published. I know i do.

One place everyone told me about was Pocket Space. It was lovely to meet the proprietor Anthony and have chat.

I stole this photo from from another blog as i forgot to take one whilst there. Forgive me internet gods.

Whilst at Pocket Space i picked up some more Hobartian goodness.

A three comic pack in the Dog Man series - Tricky Walsh I don't have a lot of info on this one except that i quite like the art and the packaging. The story involves the death of a character and then her drole afterlife as a beauricrat in one of the outer circles of hell. A couple of points where the dialogue layout didn't flow the best but i'd definately pick up more issues if i came across them. It's pretty assured.

Worry Doll – Matt Coyle. A beautifully rendered work. Very dark and wonderful. Some of Matt's work can be seen at his website and the detail and photorealism has to seen to be believed. You can hear Matt talking about his stuff on this month's show.

Girl Mountain Micah Maolomuire - Simon James. I've got a couple of minis by Simon that i picked up at Sticky or Polysester and a couple of those stories feature in this compilation of his longer form work entitled Girl Mountain. This is collection of issues 1 +2 of GM as well as some extras. The story where a guy accidently shits in the shower is quietly horrific. A nice little package and i hope to find more of his work down the line.

Space Between Your Eyes - two zines i picked up at a music store. No idea who did them. Pretty juvenile but i liked their sense of indignent fun.

The other place to get literary comics in Hobart is the Ellison Hawker Bookshop. I picked up...

Kafka - Robert Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz. A brilliant beginners guide to Kafka and his works by a great cartoonist adapting slabs of his life and some of Kafka's short stories. Though there were a couple of typos in the text sections that were a little jarring. You'd think a proof reader might have picked them up.

I Killed Adolf Hitler - the brilliant JASON. I just love everything this Norwegian does. Apparently he's the main interview in the new Comics Journal. Looking forward to reading that.

And then upstairs from Ellison Hawker there is a place called Area 52. This is Hobart's tights and flights central. It was here that i picked up...

Hollow Fields Vol 2 - Madeleine Rosca. I just missed out on a gallery show that Madeleine was in. (see last entry for a review of Vol1 and a link to Madeleine speaking about her art) I'm hoping to talk to her for the next show so we can have an all Tassie edition of TheComicSpot.

Then i hit the secondhand bookstores. I managed to do quite well. I left a few gems on a few shelves that i already had or decided to leave for others including some Love and Rockets, Eddie Campbell, Adrian Tomine, Dan Clowes and Chris Ware. But i think i did well picking up these.

Soundtrack - Jessica Abel . I read La Perdida a while back and loved it. Looking forward to reading this collection of her earlier works.

Like a River - Pierre Wazem. I have no idea about this book or the artist but i liked that art and production enough to give it a go.

When The Wind Blows - Raymond Briggs. I knew Raymond Briggs by reputation and this tale of Britishness in the face of armageddon is a great if somewhat bleak in turns tale whilst at the same time being darkly humourous stuff. Get yourself some Briggs.

The Press - Papas. My favourite find of the whole trip and the first book i picked up. More of an illustrated book than a comic, The Press (1964) is a gem. A strikingly illustrated view of the way the newspaper world used to be. Papas' caricatures of the staff of the newspaper and the world of the presses is sublime. I shake my head in awe of the lovely lines i found inside the covers. A snapshot of a lost world that has instantly become a treasured book and opened me up to new world of illustrated books and cartoonists from that era.

All in all i thought i got a pretty good haul.

Thanks Hobart.