Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (00:00):
We love Ed. Welcome to Comex Recent reads. This is Siz with a Croy voice. Oh, can everyone else hear that?
Ed Kearsley (00:27):
It’s got bass in the place.
Leigh Chalker (00:31):
It just matches that from the intro music, man.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (00:36):
Okay, cool. Okay. Yes, this is where we talk about books. We’ve recently read, I dunno if I have more of an intro like that. I’m extremely tired from the weekend. Yes, I’m that kind of old man who’s still recovering a good 24 hours later. But yes, so our guest tonight, I’ve got some comments actually. I’ll go off that page or else I’ll get distracted. We have, well, there’s always Ed ed of Radical fame. We have Shannon Browning who is now of rotating fame on this show and also on the off week of Drink and Draw. Then we have Lee Chaka, who’s from Chinwag and Kylie Ralph who I don’t know where you are from. She’s just famous for being Kylie Ralph, so That’s
Kylie Ralph (01:30):
Right. I have many things that I do
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:33):
Do. Of course me, so we get to the main part of the show now. Sorry, I’m really tired and the camera’s throwing me as well. I seem to be sitting right down low, so I’m quite short today. Before we do anything else though, we’ll get some comments in Ed.
Ed Kearsley (01:56):
All right. We’ve got Hello from Kerry. Hello Kerry. They are live from Nathan. Hey, siz from William. Thanks,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (02:08):
William.
Ed Kearsley (02:09):
Good day Legends, how Comic-Cons from Jeffrey. Got Ray with hey all and we’ll. Hey, panel and chat. Oh, and Justin from Justin. Let’s go. Oh, Justin,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (02:24):
Okay. As usual, I usually like to start and say a little thing where I go, this is how you don’t do it, but I’m going to go right out there this time and I’m not even going to talk about a book because I’ve been so busy with the A Comic-Con this weekend. I have read nothing. I have bought lots of books. Yes, classics is, I’ve bought lots of books, but I haven’t read any because I’ve slept pretty much from yesterday afternoon till this afternoon. Not this morning, this afternoon. So I have a lot of catch up to do. So I’ll just talk about the Oz. It was a great, it was here up here in Brisbane or down here in Brisbane, wherever you’re from. There were, and I forgot to write down everyone’s names. There were lots of people there. I’m not going to name anyone or else I’ll forget someone then I feel bad. So there was lots of Australian creators there. There was lots of
Leigh Chalker (03:17):
That lag on your internet.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (03:20):
Sorry, is my internet going wrong?
Ed Kearsley (03:26):
No.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (03:27):
Oh, okay. Sorry. I just heard the word internet and went, oh crap. Is it crapping out again? Yeah, so, oh, camera’s over here and there was lots of comic creators. I got to talk to a lot of them. We did some interviews, so that was a lot of fun. Me and Hugh, Hugh McGowan and what can I say, without naming people and forgetting someone. I got to King’s Comics was there for people. They were apparently one of the sponsors. There was lots of other little things there. I dunno why I named them, but they were the biggest area. They had this lounge area that was kind of cool where people could sit on beanbags and read comics and that’s also where the guys from the other side of the area had to go when they were doing their presentations and stuff. So I found that quite weird. They made ’em go to the other side away from their booth. But yeah, apart from that really fun time, shitload of cosplayers as usual, some amazing costumes. I’ll pick one. This dude who was like this armoured, it sort of remind me of a StarCraft armoured Marine, but had all these patterns on it. So it was something a little bit more intricate, but he was massive. He must have been on stilts underneath those boots and he was walking around.
(04:50)
That’s my really bad talk about the Oz ComicCon.
Ed Kearsley (04:56):
Nice.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (04:56):
That was shocking. What, does anyone got any questions about the A ComicCon? If not, we’ll move on to the next question. No questions. It was fun. It was fun. Yes, it was fun. I had a great time. Very tiring and my feet are killing me still. Lots of walking around, but in that case, we’re not going to talk about this anymore. I dunno what to say. So we’re just going to go straight to Shannon and he’s going to tell us about his book, which I was meant to ask him at the beginning what his book was, but we’re just going to surprise everyone now.
Shannon Browning (05:32):
That’s all right. Well, I won’t make the mistake I did last week where I just went into the review. I have grabbed my copy of Common Grounds, which is from 2004. It’s an anthology series written by Troy Hickman. I’ll go into more detail in a minute.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (05:52):
No, this is where you get talk about it.
Shannon Browning (05:54):
Oh, we’re doing it a different way.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (05:56):
Yeah. I forgot to introduce you with it, so that was my fault. Not your fault.
Shannon Browning (06:04):
Okay. Common Grounds. Common Grounds. As I said, anthology series. It’s all set in a franchise donut and coffee shop set within a comic superhero universe,
(06:21)
And it tells all these great little stories of superheroes that you wouldn’t normally think about. It was originally like Troy Hickman is a writer. He is not a great artist, but he does do art. He had drawn it by himself. Originally it was done under the titles of Holy Crawlers and he got a bunch of his comic fan comic friends to redraw it for him. So Dan Jergens has done several stories. Sam Keith of the Max has done at least one story. Some of the others, I don’t recognise the art unfortunately, but some really great artists are doing the work, but the stories are things like a character like The Flash, a super speed character is talking about how much he doesn’t enjoy life.
(07:26)
He’s always moving. He’s always in Fast forward. He can’t have a relationship because well either he’s too quick while he’s with someone or he has to wait for them, which is waiting for a bus for 12 hours. There’s a story about a couple of superhero kids whose father was one of the biggest super villains around, and after their father passes away, they get given their inheritance and part of it is his diary where it revealed that he was originally trying to be a superhero and just lost his way. There’s a hilarious one where a superhero and his main villain both walk into both using the bathroom in the Common Grounds restaurant at the same time, so they’re having a conversation with each other that they’ve never really had a chance to before while they’re stuck in the bathroom stall next to each other. There’s a bunch of just great little stories like that where you kind of analyse an element of a superhero universe that normally you wouldn’t think of. I do remember years ago I actually emailed the writer who owns all the properties and tried to get permission to turn one of the stories in a short film. Apparently they just sold the rights to someone, some big studio, and they’re going to produce something from it, which never eventuated into anything else.
(09:10)
So he couldn’t give me the rights or allow me to do that. But yeah, it’s a great book. It really is. I’d forgotten about it for the longest time. I mean, that’s one of the great things about moving and then repacking and sorting everything is you find all these great little gems that you completely forgot that you owned, but I don’t know how obscured it is now. Like I said, it was printed in 2004. I’ve had it all that time. If you can track it down, it’s really worth a read because the stories are only four or five pages long, but they’re brilliant. They’re really, really great stories, so highly recommend it.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (09:46):
Cool. Thanks Shannon. I think I actually might’ve read the version that was his art. I remember something in the nineties, similar stories. Yeah, I might’ve found it through Wizard, though. I might’ve found it through Wizard.
Shannon Browning (10:05):
I think that’s where I found out about it originally because there’s his art. I’m sorry, my camera’s not focusing on it too well. Yeah, versions he did with his art.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (10:15):
I can see enough.
Shannon Browning (10:17):
There we go.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (10:18):
Oh yeah, there you go.
Shannon Browning (10:20):
Version covers there. Yeah, now you bring it up. I do remember reading an article about it in Wizard Magazine back in the day, and so when I found this and I was looking it up and was checking it out and thinking, wow, this sounds familiar, this reminds me of that article and then found the thing in the back said, oh, it is the exact same thing. He’s just had it redrawn.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (10:45):
Just redrawn. That’s pretty cool.
Shannon Browning (10:47):
Yeah. But yeah, I’ll just bring up the art.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (10:56):
Oh, some in colour. Cool.
Shannon Browning (10:57):
Yeah, it’s all in colour as well, so it’s all professionally
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (11:01):
Done. That was the old stuff. Yep, I get you now.
Shannon Browning (11:03):
Yeah. Yeah, and that was a great story about a bunch of superhero characters that have all gained weight, and so they’re having a meeting for overweight superheroes and they’re telling stories of how they’re gaining weight has made it nearly impossible to use their powers anymore. One of them shrinks and he used to ride to get the battles on the back of Little Birds that he would train, but he got too heavy for them and they started dying from exertion. Poor things. Yeah. So yeah, there’s a lot of elements like that and it’s not all comedy stuff as well. The one with the super speed character at the end of the book, he’s being interviewed by a reporter and he basically says that along the lines of, I’m really hoping that because my metabolism so fast and everything else is so fast that I won’t live that long. And it kind of bends on that note and it’s like, oh wow, that is really
Shannon Browning (12:20):
Dark.
Shannon Browning (12:23):
And yeah, I highly recommend it. I thought it was, I was reading it in the comic store, I was working in a comic bookstore at the time, and this was one of the ones I found and was reading it and just like this, I actually have to pick up. So I wound up buying myself a copy. I was just so impressed by it.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (12:43):
Yeah, cool. Nice.
Shannon Browning (12:47):
Yeah, that’s Common Grounds, printed
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (12:52):
Boxes. Who’s it through? Sorry.
Shannon Browning (12:53):
Sorry,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (12:54):
Who’s it through?
Shannon Browning (12:55):
It’s through the Top Cow. Top
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (12:59):
Cow, okay.
Shannon Browning (13:00):
And Image Comics. So I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on with all the imprints in Image anymore. It’s, let’s just say it’s image
Shannon Browning (13:08):
And go from
Shannon Browning (13:10):
Image is just spawn and invincible nowadays, so who knows what’s going.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (13:17):
Cool. Well thanks Shannon. Much appreciated. Okay, let one person go before Kylie or should Kylie jump on in the middle? Should we do some comments? Oh, comment, of course, yes. I’ll think about it while we’re doing the comments. Okay,
Ed Kearsley (13:33):
Good. Juror, I need something new to read, so show us some cool new stuff. And that’s common ground. We got William where they picked up Lucky Country yesterday from All Star with NSK, the writer and Chris on the Art. Haven’t finished it yet, but check it out.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (13:54):
Oh, nice.
Ed Kearsley (13:56):
And then we got Ryan where they miss We Wizard Magazine.
Shannon Browning (14:01):
Me
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (14:01):
Too. Good
Ed Kearsley (14:02):
Times.
Shannon Browning (14:03):
I really used to enjoy Wizard Magazine. I was one of those standouts, I dunno about you guys, remember there was Wizard Magazine and there was Hero Illustrated. I started reading Hero Illustrated and I was really stubborn and wouldn’t swap over, and then Hero stopped being published, so I started picking up Wizard
Ed Kearsley (14:19):
Hero stopped pretty quick.
Shannon Browning (14:21):
Yeah, I really wish I’d been picking up Wizard the whole time.
Ed Kearsley (14:25):
I used to get the Hero Illustrated because the back issues were really cheap and I couldn’t afford to get the new Wizards.
Shannon Browning (14:33):
Do you guys remember in Wizard they had the custom action figure pages? Yeah, I was just starting to get into that at the time. I did a whole bunch of custom action figures and there was this one guy he’d sent in a picture and he’d done like 25 different custom action figures. And so I was determined to do 27 and send the photo in and I was working. Years later I found out that that guy had sent that in, turned out to be one of my best friends at the time, guy named Tony Newton.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (15:11):
No way.
Shannon Browning (15:12):
So yeah, I was visiting him at his house and looked in one of his display cabinets and he is one of these custom figures and I said, oh, that looks like that from that Wizard magazine that I saw years ago. And he said, yeah, I sent that in. So weird.
Leigh Chalker (15:25):
Cool. I remember you had to be pretty cashed up to buy Wizard Magazine too. Back in the day they were like something like that mate, back in the day where you had scraped steel and coinage out the washing machine to run down the road and buy a dollar 50 comics. It was like
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (15:46):
I was in a factory at the time.
Leigh Chalker (15:49):
Where were you working sis?
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (15:51):
I was working in a factory 12 hour rotating shifts, so good money and I lived in an absolute crap of a house, so the rent was super cheap unlike these days. So all my money went to comics, sometimes food as well, but most of the time just comics.
Shannon Browning (16:08):
Comics and Wizard Magazine is why I didn’t move out of house at home until I was 29, but we weren’t going out of there.
Leigh Chalker (16:16):
Yeah, yeah. Comics good and bad.
Shannon Browning (16:20):
You want motivation to get out of your house, just start dating a girl that your parents don’t like and then four years later you’ve realised why they didn’t like her, but we won’t go into that.
Leigh Chalker (16:35):
Oh well it is a review show, Shannon, so
Shannon Browning (16:44):
I don’t want to impress the audience too much comments. I had a fringe when I met her. Sorry,
Leigh Chalker (16:52):
You had a Fringe
Ed Kearsley (16:57):
Was Ace and I’ve only seen Wizard Vids. Looks awesome. Same with Heavy Metal and I got Mr. Dave Dye. Good evening all.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (17:08):
Hi Dave. Cool. So now we decide, shall we pick on Kylie or shall we pick on Lee? We’ve got to vote from above.
Kylie Ralph (17:19):
I don’t mind. Either way.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (17:21):
You make me spread by
Shannon Browning (17:22):
First all the time.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (17:25):
Kylie, tell us about the comic you were reading this week recently.
Kylie Ralph (17:30):
So I’ve been reading a graphic novel called Mostly On Me. It’s kind of a fantasy mixed with realism, kind of graphic biography almost of Nick Cave and his work. It’s done by Reinhard Kla, I think that’s how you pronounce it. And I absolutely loved it. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect when I first got it. I kind of just went, oh, Nick Cave, I love his stuff. I’ll grab that and see how it goes. But the way Reinhard has combined true biographical elements with song lyrics, song titles, little bits out of some of the novels that Nick has written as well as a few fantasy elements is really, really interesting. Sorry, I’m going to skip to a couple of pages that I’ve kind of marked out. So for example, this page here, if anyone can see that maybe I need to do it closer, I’m not quite sure.
Kylie Ralph (18:35):
Pretty much
Kylie Ralph (18:36):
Anybody who has lived through the eighties in particular will know exactly what that’s about, even though there’s no writing there at all. But the graphics are just so evocative of the times and places sort of thing. The style is really interesting as well. It’s very kind of gritty, but also there’s a lot of clean lines in there, so it’s kind of instantly recognisable as to what R’s sort of expressing and talking about. There’s a really lovely bit in here about, I love that picture just in general. It’s really, even if there was no words in the whole thing, just by looking at that, you can sort of see the combination between Nick’s personal addictions, his demons, and then his art and how at certain times in his life they’ve kind of all combined to become one. And he’s had a lot of trouble separating himself from the characters that he sings and writes about.
(19:51)
It’s got a lot of, each chapter is either a song title like the Mercy Seat or the Angel when he was doing the novel. And then all of the lyrics or words from that novel dispersed within that chapter as well as what Nick was going through at the time. It’s got some really interesting stuff about when they started out as the boys next door then became the birthday party instead of what was going on in the Melbourne scene, realised that if we want to go anywhere, we kind of need to get out of Australia because late seventies, eighties, the music scene wasn’t sort of as big over here, especially not for punk. And then when they go to England and everything that sort of happened over there with the, well, the interesting spirals that the group went through individually and together and then eventually ending up in Germany where the birthday party broke up and then they became the bad seeds and took on blitzer and everything kind of is history from that point.
(21:02)
But I definitely recommend getting it even it sort of starts with you can see all of his musical influences as well as all the political stuff that’s going on in each part of the story. And anyone who, I love music, it’s kind Save my life more than once, but anyone who’s a music fan, you look at that picture in particular and you know exactly who that character is that they’re talking about exactly what the influence is going to be and exactly how it links in with Nick’s newer stuff where he is kind of gotten rid, not gotten rid of, but he’s not quite all about the anger and the violence and the volatility of his earlier stuff and he’s kind of leaning more into back into the blues and that sort of thing. So yeah, I found it really interesting. I’ve still a little bit more of it to read. I haven’t quite finished it, but yeah, I’m definitely going to be looking for more stuff from Reinhardt. I’ve really enjoyed it.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (22:10):
That’s awesome. Thanks Kylie.
Kylie Ralph (22:14):
No
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (22:14):
Worries. You’re a natural mate. Look at
Shannon Browning (22:17):
You’s going to follow that God knows. I do have one question, Kylie, is there an image in that book of Nick Cave hitting Kylie Minogue in the head with a rock?
Kylie Ralph (22:30):
Yes, yes there is. I was going to had it bookmarked originally and then went, oh, maybe I shouldn’t book my, he even at the very end of the Nick Cave’s even done a little blurb on the back for him and at the very last bit he’s gone. I didn’t kill Eli Day. See if I can find the picture for that is pretty cool.
Shannon Browning (22:59):
No, it is. One of the most hilarious things of musical pop culture is that Kylie Minogue’s career had kind of stalled really badly and it got picked up again because she did that song and she jokes that my career got picked up because I got hit in the head with a Rock by Nick Cave.
Kylie Ralph (23:18):
That’s exactly right. And just seeing the two of them together was really interesting as well because they, not two people I ever would’ve thought would’ve done a duet together
Shannon Browning (23:28):
In
Kylie Ralph (23:28):
The history of music and it was magic.
Shannon Browning (23:32):
Yeah, like the James Dean of Punk and the Pop Princess for growing out loud.
Kylie Ralph (23:37):
Yeah, exactly. Although I’ll say anytime he’s done a duet with Blitzer Bargi doing Where The Wild Roses grow. It’s my favourite thing ever. It’s just adorable
Ed Kearsley (23:48):
That Kylie and Nick would’ve been Aussie expats in London though.
Kylie Ralph (23:53):
Yeah,
Ed Kearsley (23:54):
Maybe that’s how they got together.
Kylie Ralph (23:57):
I think Kylie was still with Michael Hutchins at the time too, and I think Nick and Michael were quite close, so I think that had a little bit to do with it as well.
Leigh Chalker (24:09):
That makes sense. Well the follow up single to that was the PJ Harvey one, wasn’t it FI
Kylie Ralph (24:13):
Remember. Yeah, Henry Lee murder balance and the B side two where the Wild Roses Grow was I think the Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane, which is amazing. It reads like a screenplay. I’ve started writing all sorts of stuff about that one. But yeah, great album, the Motor Ballads. It’s really interesting.
Leigh Chalker (24:37):
Indeed. Cool with you.
Kylie Ralph (24:43):
I should have left my little note in here. I can’t find the picture now, so I’ll have to
Shannon Browning (24:47):
Find No, that’s fine. That’s fine. That’s all good. It was 50% curiosity and 50% joke, so
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (24:59):
Yeah, you did look surprised. Found it. Yes, you found it. Can you fall
Kylie Ralph (25:05):
It? There we go. And where are we? There you are. So the follow up.
Shannon Browning (25:18):
Nice. That’s great. That artwork’s amazing too. Just It is. It’s real beautiful.
Leigh Chalker (25:28):
It’s very cool.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (25:31):
Mr. Edmond, have we got comments? Yes, I’ve been keeping track.
Ed Kearsley (25:37):
Justin, I just watched Heavy Metal 2000 early today. Should revisit the first one too. Babes and Brutes and Wizard is great. Just look at it. The other week there was a good thing with But Sees teaching you how to draw muscles.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (25:56):
Ah
Ed Kearsley (25:57):
Yes. Peter Lane, good evening.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (25:59):
Hey Peter Lane as always,
Ed Kearsley (26:03):
RO again, I love comics written by Muzo. I have a cool book called Comic Book Tattoo featuring stories inspired by Tori Amos work.
Shannon Browning (26:12):
Oh
Shannon Browning (26:13):
Wow,
Ed Kearsley (26:14):
That’d be cool.
Shannon Browning (26:16):
I think Kylie just found her Christmas list with that one.
Ed Kearsley (26:22):
And can we see the cover again?
Kylie Ralph (26:25):
Absolutely.
Ed Kearsley (26:28):
Mercy on me’s. Cool Ryan, hard of Christ
Kylie Ralph (26:31):
I got it at when it came out. So they probably still have it there. Otherwise it’s made out by self-Made hero, so you might be able to order it through them as well.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (26:43):
Find them I guess. Cool. Thank you very much Kylie. That was awesome. Now Paul Lee is going to have to follow that because I’m making Ed laugh today.
Leigh Chalker (26:57):
I’m going to leave now Shane, I can’t see you. See you catch you tomorrow. Alright, so if obviously people know I’m a big fan of Australian comic books and I like to promote them as much as I can. So tomorrow on Tuesday Chinwag, there’s a gentleman called David Bird coming on. He’s the guest and he has a publishing house called Paper Tableau, I dunno how to pronounce it, whether it’s French or Tableau as you’d like to pronounce it in an Australian accent. I’m sure I’ll clear you that up with him tomorrow. But if it’s table, then I know a little bit of French. It’s like play. It’s French for yoghourt and shit. So anyway, this is this comic here, it’s called Tide of Dreams and it is by Dave Hodson and Greg Gates. So I’m just going to read the interior briefly for you here.
(28:06)
So Tired of Dreams is a mystery and it was a collection in 2000, 2001 of an Australian comic book series called Tattoo Man. So Dave Hodson, he’s fairly well known, was working in the Australian comic book field through the mid eighties and early nineties and stuff. And Greg Gates is another guy that, he’s an amazing artist. I read this comic today at about one o’clock this afternoon and very recent, I’ve got to tell you, yeah, it’s a rock and comic book but not rocking in the point where it’s flat out and stuff like that. It’s cerebral, it’s got a really not, it’s obviously black and white. I’ll show you some artwork in a tick. But the one things that I took away from it were it had a really nice dreamy sort of mystery feel. You’re not quite sure whether you’re in a dream world or you’re in reality.
(29:10)
The story is set in a carnival and a gentleman gets injured while protecting a young boy and he wakes up and he is covered in tattoos and he is the keeper of Midway and Midway. Turns out to be this carnival and the carnival seems to bring forth mysteries along the lines of some HP Lovecraftian type monsters. And then it goes into I’d say some nice Australian motorcycle vibe like the old movie Stone moves into animals attacking people and vampires and you’re never quite sure what’s going on with this comic book. And man, the writing was awesome. The whole structure of the comic book is sweet as it was originally set up as a little six issue increments, but this here, tired of Dreams, they changed the name the Tide of Dreams because they felt like 10 years later it’s suited the entire comic book more man, highly recommended Dave Hodgson, Greg Gates, if anyone knows them, tell them that they’re going to be getting a message from me somehow soon to get on a chinwag because man, it really blew me out this stuff.
(30:40)
I thoroughly enjoyed this comic book immensely and probably I read a lot of comic books. I love a lot of Australian comic books. I don’t particularly love any more than others, but this gave me the same feelings as probably a year or two ago. I read a comic book called Time Fault by Dave Di and Roger Stinson that took me off guard and I loved that comic book and that’s resonated with me for years since I’ve read it. And that one’s going to do exactly the same with me, so I’m not sure where you can get it. It is printed through published through Paper to blow. David Bird is the man that, as I said, will be guest tomorrow on Chinwag and he’s the publisher amongst this and multiple other books. He’s been publishing comic books since the nineties and previous to that, so he knows what he’s doing, looking him up on Facebook, I’m sure he is around or tomorrow if you’re on watching Chinwag or catch up with it, you’ll find out where you can get him. But yeah man, that was a real surprise package and yeah, that artwork man is, I would say that’s given me quite a lot to think about in terms of some little styles and a few little things that I learned from reading that in terms of line work and storytelling and gentle use of blacks where you can use lines instead of et cetera, et cetera. Just little things. So yeah, I learned a lot from it from an artistic perspective as well as enjoying it immensely. So highly recommend it. So there you go.
Kylie Ralph (32:36):
And good use of negative space as well.
Leigh Chalker (32:43):
I’ve seen this stuff before, but I’ll give you just things like this wave like that with the line work using just darkening, the sketching and stuff like that and the hatching to the single hatches to give the artwork a little bit of form instead of just going straight in with black figures. It gives a nice subtlety to it, it makes it a little bit more ethereal, which the story absolutely, I think required. It’s a really subtle, well-crafted comic book man in terms of a comic book and what it was trying to achieve. And I think it succeeded immensely because it’s definitely left its mark on me and that’s not going too far from the drawing desk. I’ll be having a gander at that here and there if I run into any roadblocks along the way and I need a little bit of inspiration or something that might trigger something in me to add some thoughts and processes and little tricks into some of my stuff. So yeah, yeah, highly recommend it trial track it. Brilliant.
Ed Kearsley (34:02):
Nice. Did Greg Gates, I know that name I think wasn’t he, they at the early Fox Comics and stuff to
Leigh Chalker (34:13):
Yeah man, yeah, Dave Hodson, Greg Gates. Actually Ed, if you give me a second, Fox Comics I believe did actually, it’s here somewhere. I read it today. Bear with me a sec, if I can’t find it, I’ll talk about it tomorrow. But yeah, it was in an Australian anthology, Fox Comics and it was called Tattoo Man, so it’s split into six, six page obviously stories for the anthology, but the stories continued so it was well pieced together. I dunno whether it was designed to be a one-off and they put more into it or they didn’t think they get the whole story told, do you know what I mean? They didn’t know how far the comic was going to go, but it’s cool man. So yeah, Fox Comics one of those classic Australian comic book publishers from the mid eighties into the early nineties from the Melbourne Victoria area, so a lot of good stuff came out of down there, so find out more. But yeah, they’re good, they’re good, man. They’ve got heaps of stuff man, like that’s awesome. High quality stuff.
Ed Kearsley (35:47):
Any follow ups? No,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (35:48):
No, I’ve got nothing. Sorry,
Ed Kearsley (35:52):
Where’s
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (35:53):
It available, Lee? I
Leigh Chalker (35:55):
Have absolutely no idea, Shannon, I’m assuming that if you reach out to David Bird or any of these gentlemen, they may have copies of this around, I received a package of paper to blur books so I could get my head around things for tomorrow night and we did a swap and man, there’s just hype. It’s not just that sort of stuff either that publishing house, it’s like there’s some great cartooning work done to catch you off guard. There’s some real, oh man, real noir sort of things. Some deep and dark short stories in other parts of the books too, anthologies and things like that. There’s a book I’ve just read from them. Last Chance Collection, I think it’s called From Memory by Dave Hodson, which has got 40 odd pages of stuff that was never published in this particular book. And man, there’s some really avant-garde stuff.
(37:00)
A lot of it seems to be new, but a lot of it seems to be older Australian comic book stories from that eighties period and earlier I guess that aren’t available to be published now. So I’m not sure where you can go directly on the web, the Internety thingies and all that space and jazz and jive to pick up a copy of it. But I have heard through the grapevine between us occasionally here and there, David is at comic book like conventions and gigs and shindigs. But get to the bottom of that tomorrow, Shannon. I’ll tell you mate, I’ll even text you tomorrow and tomorrow we’ll let you know. Appreciate it. I’ll just make a note
Shannon Browning (37:57):
That was the most complicated. I don’t know I’ve ever heard. I
Leigh Chalker (38:02):
Appreciate where it’s coming from. Probably realise that the worst mistake you can ask of me is a question because you’ll get a novel in return dude. Alright, so anyone else out there you’d probably want to leave me in silence for the rest of the evening?
Shannon Browning (38:24):
Mute.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (38:28):
So Ed, any
Ed Kearsley (38:28):
Comments? Did we miss any? Yes, we did. Cool. I got great art in that Nick Cave one. We’ve got love trippy stuff in reference to these book. Haven’t watched Stone in years.
Shannon Browning (38:45):
If you’re curious to watch Stone, it’s available on for streaming on Brawley, B-R-O-L-L-A-E. It’s a free streaming service. There’s a lot of fantastic old Aussie films available on that service. So yeah, I very much suggest to check it out if you’re an old film fan, especially old Australian film fan.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (39:09):
Cool, awesome. Freezing my favourite price.
Ed Kearsley (39:14):
You’ve got Dave, did I miss a review of an issue of heavy metal? I’ve got all issues of the first eight years.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (39:22):
Oh wow.
Ed Kearsley (39:23):
Wow. I know you, someone was just saying it in the comments.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (39:27):
Oh yeah,
Ed Kearsley (39:28):
David, we’ve got someone saying, saying hello
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (39:30):
Saying Dave
Ed Kearsley (39:34):
Jealous of Dave’s heavy metal collection as we’re Dave saying, it blew me away when I discovered it and a news agent just had to collect it. And then there’s a called Doco about the Melbourne comic scene.
Shannon Browning (39:47):
Cool. Jo, could you actually tell us what the name of that doco is? I think I would love to say it, but I’m sure a lot of the viewers would probably want to check that out as well.
Ed Kearsley (39:57):
Me too. I was just going to say that. Tell us what it is J.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (40:04):
Yep, that’s it. Cool. Well that just leaves Ed. So Ed, it’s me. Tell us what you’ve read recently.
Ed Kearsley (40:16):
I have recently been reading this Zot, it’s got a metallic,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (40:23):
Oh, is that what it is?
Ed Kearsley (40:25):
It’s 1987 to 1991, the Complete Black and White Collection by Scott McLeod. And I’ve had this for maybe a year or so and I’ve been reading it on and off, but I was reminded of it because S did the Understanding comics last week. So I picked this up again and read a few more issues. And so this is, I believe it was Scott McLeod’s first comic book that he did. And there was a 10 issue colour series that he did before this one. And so this was a black and white comic book. I can’t remember who it was originally published by, but it was one of the American Independent eternity or someone like that. So this is from 87 to 91 and I believe the Understanding comics came out in like 93. So I think he would’ve finished doing this one and then started writing and getting all the reference and studying and stuff for understanding comics. And so even in this one he’s starting to do manga elements. You see that guy’s face, it’s very manga influenced. So he’s trying to do a melding of the Japanese and the American art styles. And I’ve got some pages marked out, so there’s some really nice drawing. There’s a cityscape beautiful and the double page spread. And so the actual story is Zot is like a teenage superhero from a different dimension and put that back.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (42:42):
Okay, I was wondering if that was
Ed Kearsley (42:42):
You. So he’s a teenage superhero sea coming out of the warp there on the cover and he meets that girl and I can’t remember her name, but it’s fun superhero stories and with a bit of teenage drama thrown in. So the future that Z comes from it’s America, but in the future and it’s in a utopia sort of thing, but there’s still a bit of crime, but the crime’s almost like fun at times. It’s like cartoony sort of stuff and the real world stuff, what would be our world is kind of and more down to earth and boring, but there’s lots of stuff going on there. See there’s the goes, they’re having a heart to heart conversations, tears and all sorts of stuff going on said the artworks really, it’s really good black and white art, but the use of screen tones and hatching and the solid black and the negative space, there’s a really good, every time I turn to a page, there’s a great example of the stuff I’m talking about. So they call the tone the lines from screen tones just very mango inspired.
(44:28)
And so that’s the basic gist of it. This is the thing I wanted to show everyone because this is coming, this is leading up to understanding comics. There’s this bit where there’s, there’s a villain who’s been put into a robot body and he sees the world like this in this abstract kind of Oh cool. His robot vision, his abstract, he’s called deco. He’s got that deco building head like the thing, where is it there? Oh cool. So he’s been put into an ene asylum and he’s tricking them to think that he’s been cured. I think he might’ve been a murderer or something before he was put into the robot body and that he’s pretending that he’s being cured from his, whatever was wrong with him, but he turns up at Z’s house when they’re having a party with all the kids. And then there’s this sequence here where this is in his abstract vision where he is grabbed the guy by the throat and then he is shaking him and then there’s the head splat
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (45:52):
Goodness.
Ed Kearsley (45:54):
But the way that he is drawn it and set it up is that to the bad guy, it’s, it’s not a person, it’s just these shapes. And then having that super violent scene in a, what’s basically just a fun kind of teen comics thing, it’s really well executed and it’s really clever the way he’s done it. And it’s another thing that I found interesting. So it’s 87 to 90 91 when he was putting these comics out like an independent comic. So it’s at the tail end of the big black and white comics independent boom in America. It’s just after Watchman and Dark Knight Returns, which were like 86. So he started a year after that and he’s making this kind of cartoony fun, it’s like intelligent book that then ends, its run bumping right up into the start of the nineties comic boom with the, just before the image guys leave Marvels.
(47:15)
And if this book came out now, I think it would be really popular with the subject matter, the young adult stuff that’s really popular now and the art style is more cartoony. It’s not like the stylized muscles and veins popping out everywhere sort of superhero stuff. And it’s just one of those things where something comes out just a weird time. It is kind of, there’s trailing coming before and at the same time as all this different stuff was going on in the American comics landscape and Scotland Cloud, I don’t know how many issues it is, but it’s a thick book and there’s lots of, there’s notes and he shows how he sets up his comics and stuff. So it’s a good insight into how Scott McLeod was making comics back then and I still think he does it like that now. And yeah, and just seeing the way he was thinking about it and then how that translates to what he put into the understanding comics and how you can see him figuring it out as he’s going. And then he put into his most famous thing was the Understanding comics. So that is, if you can find it and if you’re into understanding comics, it’s very interesting to see what the cartoons too made that, what his cartooning was like before he under went there. The massive challenge of making such a in-depth book, like Understanding comics. So that’s my review of Zot, the complete black or white collection by Scott McLeod.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (49:21):
I want that. That’s all I’m saying. I want it. I have to see it now
Leigh Chalker (49:28):
Why is someone makes a robot? They stick an evil person in it.
Kylie Ralph (49:34):
Why
Leigh Chalker (49:35):
Not? That’s like the good fella. Just I want to be a robot and do good.
Ed Kearsley (49:45):
It’s like trying to make super soldiers. It never works out well. They always turn bad.
Shannon Browning (49:52):
I think they’ve kind of explained that in Robocop two pretty well, which I think is strange that I’m using that, but they basically said the bad people kind of have a little bit of a, not inferiority complex, I can’t think of the word unfortunately, but they’re more attracted to the immortality that becoming a robot would and the power that becoming a robot would give them. And so they’d have a better chance of surviving rather than if you take a good person, strip all his humanity away and put him in this metal thing, you’d have a much harder time with it.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:34):
Makes sense.
Shannon Browning (50:36):
I’m pretty sure they didn’t want an actual answer to that question, but I gave one anyway.
Leigh Chalker (50:40):
I remember. I liked Rob Robocop too.
Shannon Browning (50:45):
Yeah, yeah. It’s not the first one, but it’s still not a bad film
Ed Kearsley (50:51):
Written by
Shannon Browning (50:52):
Way better than Robo Cop three and also way better than the goddamn remake.
Leigh Chalker (50:58):
I’ve never seen the remake
Ed Kearsley (51:00):
And it has the comics link because Frank Miller wrote it as well.
Shannon Browning (51:04):
He’s in it as well.
Leigh Chalker (51:05):
Yeah, he is. He is the doctor that’s making the drug in that trailer
Shannon Browning (51:11):
And gets blown up in the trailer.
Leigh Chalker (51:13):
Yeah,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:14):
Nice. There you go. There’s all good radish food. Is that what you think? I have no idea what that was meant to mean. Ed comments quickly. Save
Ed Kearsley (51:33):
Mey got a os.
Shannon Browning (51:36):
Hey,
Ed Kearsley (51:38):
Bey’s got recent readers of comics. We’ve got Justin, where’s Shannon? It’s called graphic novels Melbourne. The title doesn’t represent the creativity of those involved. It’s from 2014 I think and is available on DVD here in Australia.
Shannon Browning (51:56):
I was just doing a little bit of a Google search. I found it on Letterbox. It looks like the only place you can really stream it at the moment is on Aus Flick au, which is like a small Aussie only streaming service. You might be able to find a copy of the DVD or a Blue Weight Ray somewhere, or other ways of finding video products
Ed Kearsley (52:25):
All totally legal. I have no idea what you’re talking about. No idea.
Shannon Browning (52:30):
Yo. Yo part on, okay,
Ed Kearsley (52:33):
Got the fourth book is one of my favourite comics.
Shannon Browning (52:38):
Oh,
Ed Kearsley (52:38):
Cool. Got Shany. It looks like where the Wild Roses go is my new Earworm,
Kylie Ralph (52:45):
My business is done.
Shannon Browning (52:47):
Same Sean, same. I didn’t even realise and then all of a sudden I’m seeing that damn song in my head.
Ed Kearsley (52:57):
No, definitely stick a cat in the robot. Yeah, stick a cat in a
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (53:01):
Powerful robot. No, you don’t want to stick a cat in a cat.
Ed Kearsley (53:05):
I think that’s a reference to bitsy the treaty
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (53:08):
Cat. Oh, okay. Of course I don’t think of that
Ed Kearsley (53:12):
William, but there’s one alien called Zoan. He doesn’t put bad people, puts teenagers in robots.
Shannon Browning (53:23):
That’s a Power Rangers reference.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (53:26):
Okay, I was wondering about that.
Shannon Browning (53:29):
Took me a minute. Yeah,
Ed Kearsley (53:32):
Cool. We’ve got Robot Man is a good guy, robot Man from,
Shannon Browning (53:39):
If you watch the Doom Patrol TV show, that’s kind of questionable.
Ed Kearsley (53:44):
It stream gross physical media forever and that is it.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (53:52):
Cool. Well this is the, oh God, I do need a drink.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (53:58):
You
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:00):
Okay. This is the part of the show where we talk about liking the show, sharing the show with your friends so they can all find out about the show and then subscribing to the channel that will help you see all our other shows as well as this show. We have one on most weekdays, most weeks we have almost every weekday describe that very poorly. So yeah, subscribe. It helps us out, it helps us grow, it helps us bring more content to you and your friends and their friends and their friends and their friends. And you get to learn a little bit about Aussie indie comics while you’re there on some of the shows. Maybe not this one but, and Doug agrees. Did you hear that? We just got a confirmation from Doug that you have to watch this show and subscribe.
Ed Kearsley (54:49):
Yeah, he’s asking for his robot
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:51):
Suit. Yeah, well we’ve got to build it and we need the money, so you’ve got to subscribe so we can get those thousand subscribers and we can pay for the robot body for Doug and then we are all doomed. Once he’s in a robot body, there’s no go back. Earth is over. Oh, the other thing I forgot to say, if you want to be on this show, there is a link that I think Ed will find quickly. He’s very good at this compared to me, and we would love you to fill out the form on this page. Maybe Ed’s. Okay, there we go. Show, sorry, comment, God Comex show slash interest. Go to that page and fill it in and say a little bit about yourself and what show or shows you can pick multiple shows that you’d like to be on. And then I’ll reach out to you and figure out what shows.
(55:51)
This is a great show for anyone who’s not a creator because all you have to be for this show is someone who loves comics. That’s it. That’s the rule. You just got to, and of course recently wrote a comic that you like. Yeah. So go to that page if you want to be on the show. That brings us to the part of the show, which I think have changed a little. It’s where we, instead of getting everyone to plug themselves, we get everyone to tell us if they want to plug themselves and then we let those people say yes, plug themselves because yeah, we didn’t work out so well last week when I tried to force people. So I’ll go first. I’ll do my little, we have a one minute timer. I don’t think we’re going to need that somehow except maybe for Lee and Oh, don’t ask me any questions. Don’t ask any questions. Just ask him to plug himself. No, I’ve lost the button. That gets me to the timer. Oh, there it is. I’ve lost the plot as well, apparently. Okay. What the hell? I don’t know what’s going on. I’m pressing the wrong button. You
Shannon Browning (57:15):
Should have put a timer on. Says looking for the timer.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (57:17):
Yeah, timer. Nice. Nice. Thank you again Stu. Thanks Stu. Yeah. Okay, I’ll stick the timer on now that I’ve actually hit the button. It says timer. Okay, so this actually makes a noise. So that’s handy. I’d probably like to promote all the people in Sydney a Comic-Con is on next weekend for you guys or this weekend, I guess it’s the same week. So go to it. I had an absolute ball on Friday. Go there, meet at least Meet the Australian indie creators and just the Australian creators because some of them move, they create for the bigger guys as well. Just meet them, get to know them. Just immerse yourself in the beauty that is Australian indie comics and Australian indie creators. And then look around at Cosplayers and other stuff while you’re there if you want. If that’s your thing. I’ve got 20 seconds. The other, oh shit, the cat’s going crazy. The other thing is I’m s from comics. Watch this channel. We’ve got lots of shows. Watch ’em all. Watch ’em all. I’m not going to try to listen because I’ve only got nine seconds, so we still cancel it. Chinwag tomorrow night. Ah, time over. Next person who wants to promote something or themselves. It can be random anything. Am I it
Leigh Chalker (58:38):
Right? It’s not even chinwag or anything I’ve done, but if you look at the YouTube subscriptions on com X, they’re at 492 as is before. So eight away from 500. And I reckon that would be a pretty awesome achievement for everything that everyone in the community has done. If you can get to 500. So if you haven’t subscribed already, because I made the mistake a few weeks ago thinking that I was subscribed and went and double checked and found out I wasn’t. And maybe if I’ve done it, maybe there’s others out there amongst the audience and community that haven’t done it either. So even look man, if you’ve got eight moms, you’ve got eight dads, you’ve got eight brothers and sisters. I don’t know if you’ve got eight animals just and get it all 500. We don’t discriminate here. Everyone’s welcome even if you’ve got four legs or whatever, it’s mate. So five hundred’s the goal. So yeah, if you could do that, I think I would like to promote that.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:59):
One question. I forgot about the time altogether. I’m like, why is my phone beeping at me? Chin go for three hours. Shannon in charge
Shannon Browning (01:00:16):
Now. I don’t have a plug, but I do have a recommendation. Found out a few episodes back that there’s a few Transformers fans watching the show. If you get a chance to go and check out that new animated Transformers one movie, go see it. It is surprisingly good. It’s really good actually.
Shannon Browning (01:00:42):
Oh wow.
Shannon Browning (01:00:42):
Probably better than it deserves to be, but I got to see it at an advanced screening on the weekend and old school Transformers fan. I’d go and see anything Transformers related no matter how bad it is. But this was great. It really, really was done well. It’s a good story, great animation. The characters are fantastic. If you’re a fan, all the little cameos and stuff are really good. I don’t want to spoil any of the story, but everything is done really, really well. I was genuinely impressed and the crowd in the cinema cheered at the end of it. I have not heard them do that since end game, so that’s lovely. Yeah, if you get a chance and if you’re curious, go pick it out. I think
Leigh Chalker (01:01:32):
It’s working. I haven’t heard a crowd cheer since Rocky Foreman.
Shannon Browning (01:01:44):
I remember cheering people cheering to get out certain movies, but actual cheering in the movie,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:01:51):
Dear.
Ed Kearsley (01:01:53):
Okay,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:01:53):
Ed,
Ed Kearsley (01:01:55):
I’m Ed Kiley. I do a comic book called Radical, which is available on the comic store. My Instagram is at Ed Kiley Art and so is my Patreon. We can get comics like Coba and I also do sea mandrels from Earth, which is savage of Conan meets Sea Monkeys and means sis do a show on Thursdays called Let’s Make a comic book. And this week we’ll be doing a look back at the first 10 pages we have the read the halfway mark of season two. So tune in for that and you’ll be able to see the story so far and we’ll have a look at that and see how it’s going.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:02:49):
And if my voice isn’t back, it’ll be all Ed. Do I pick on Kylie? No, I won’t pick on Kylie. Kylie, I’ve got nothing to promote. Nothing to promote yourself? No. Nothing.
Kylie Ralph (01:03:07):
Not really. Not yet. There are projects, the work.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:03:11):
That’s cool. That’s cool. That’s cool. This is the part of the show where Ed plays an ad for me. I’m not sure why we do this, but I love it. I just love that we do.
Ed Kearsley (01:03:23):
We’re actually supposed to do that before the
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:03:28):
No, no, really? Mine’s in a different order.
Voice Over (01:03:35):
Did I write it down wrong? Are you feeling a little down tired of reading the same old books again and again looking for something different? Why not? Head over to the comic shop now and pick yourself up some freshly inked inspiration.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:04:06):
Sorry, I get into that song every time. This is the part of the show where I thought we then go, Hey everyone, if you’re watching the show, remember before when I said if you can go to a page and show interest? Well before we go, let’s talk about that again. Let’s talk about if you want to be on the show, this is where you go write all your information in there, tell us the shows you want to be on and then it’ll come to me and I’ll get to you. So yeah, that would be awesome. We want more people, more variation going on on the show. So it’d be great if we get some more people who aren’t just comic creators and so forth. Just people who love comics, who recently read a good comic. That’s all we are after. And then I go to Ed and he tells us about the comments that have happened since we started all these other things.
Ed Kearsley (01:04:55):
Alright. Okay. Nathan, are you doing a video from the comic on?
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:05:02):
Yes, we are. We’ve filmed all the interviews now. We’re just chopping up the film and the sound. They were on two different devices, so we’ve got to match ’em up.
Ed Kearsley (01:05:13):
Yeah, good times. Got great time. We cool people. Thanks gang. We’ll never watch telly again. I’d love to read Aliens. What If
Shannon Browning (01:05:22):
Nice.
Ed Kearsley (01:05:23):
That sounds,
Shannon Browning (01:05:24):
That’s not a bad series.
Ed Kearsley (01:05:26):
Yeah, 500. But if I have eight personalities, should they all subscribe? Yes. Hell yeah.
Leigh Chalker (01:05:35):
Absolutely. Yes. Shawnee,
Ed Kearsley (01:05:42):
They got Eddie taking notes about Transformers. Transformers joke. What does bra wear in summer? I tank. Top Tank.
Shannon Browning (01:05:55):
We all transforms into a tank in case you don’t get that reference.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:05:59):
And that’s the last comment. Well, excellent comment to end on. It’s been an awesome show. Thank you everyone for coming on and telling us about comics you’ve read recently. Thank you for everyone who’s commented on what the people have spoken about, and thank you for putting up with my raspy voice and raspy whatever the word is, classics feature to it. Wait, oh God. I feel like crap. See you next week for another one of these shows where we get to talk with some more people about the comics they’ve recently read and enjoyed. Thank you very much Justin. And yeah, so goodnight all like, share, subscribe. Yes. Bye. Like she.
