What new podcasts? A long kiss goodbye to comics?

What new podcasts?

Since moving from Melbourne a while back my relationship with comics and doing radio /podcasts on comics has changed. I knew this was going to be the case but i just didn't know what form this would take and how it might play itself out in my new surrounds on the water of the Derwent in Hobart.

The first and main thing to say is that comics have taken a back seat to just chilling, gardening, reading (i finished a proper big sized prose novel for the first time in months the other day), watching episodes of numerous TV series, dog walking, cooking breakfasts and dinners, and thinking about what i'm doing with my life next.

This blog has laid fallow, as have TheComicSpot facebook page and even the twitterage i was doing @thecomicspot. Doing TheComicSpot on 3CR gave me momentum, regularity, connection to community and a sense of acheivement. But that isn't the case now. And that's not such a bad thing.

I've tried on numerous occasions to begin recording some podcasts in relation to the awesome Caravan of Comics tour of North America I have attached myself to. But sitting in my study instead of a studio, talking to myself instead of Jo and Bernard and the lose of immediacy and ease of working with the equipment that 3CR offers meant the results have been nothing short of a letdown.

It's just not doing it for me. I've disengaged and have let go to the extent that it doesn't bother me that i haven't produced the podcasts I said I would like to. My only regret is that the people on the tour deserve to be profiled more than they are.

Having said that - with about 90 episodes of TheComicSpot in the archives I feel that my contribution to Australian Comics and Comics Culture is largely done - for now.

I still read and buy Australian comics and count many cartoonists as friends. There are a great number of people who have enriched my life that i would never have met had I not been at 3CR and started doing the radio show. But in my gut I feel my duty to the community has been discharged.

I'm hoping to go out like Calvin and Hobbs instead of turning into Garfield.


The long kiss goodbye?

So my final contribution to the community for now is too take some footage of the Caravan of Comics trip for posterity, to possibly do some audio diaries on the tour that will be posted here via the podomatic site. But once the Caravan is over and I return to Hobart I will be stepping back from being a member of the comics commitariet.

The next three weeks for me are as a comics roadie and 'hanger on' to the Caravan of Comics and they will be three fantastic weeks. They are an awesome bunch of people I'll be travelling with and i'm genuinely looking forward to help out in any way that i can on the trip. I'm just along for the ride and the ride looks like it is going to be so much fun!

Many years ago I did something similar when an international relatioship ended. We both knew it couldn't continue so we met up in a neutral country and spent ten days together simply appreciating each others company before a tearful goodbye and a return to our own lives and futures.

There will be fewer tears this time around but my mindset is in a similar vein. This tour of North America with a bunch of beautiful people whose work, skills and work ethic I respect is a great way to ease myself out.

What then?

Who knows - but maybe i'll get around to turning those outlines, scribbles and memories i've got written down across a slew of notebooks into some form of comic for others to read.

Stay tuned.

John