Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (00:18):
It’s another Monday night, so it’s another Comex recent reads. So we are here to talk about comics that we’ve recently read and liked. Hopefully we also liked and tell you a bit about ’em, why we liked them, why they’re cool. I don’t know. We’ll just talk about ’em tonight. I’ll go in a clockwise way tonight and I’ll start with Ed. Ed, who everyone should know is famous for Radical and two shows including this one. And let’s make a comic book. What will you be reviewing tonight or talking?
Ed Kearsley (00:59):
I’ve got sluggish number two, my Spie and he wrote and drew everything.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:08):
That’s an easy way to do it. And then I’ll go Ethan, who is known for, I’ve got to get the exact title. I took it off the screen. Okay. He is famous for, we should say what they leave Behind, which I’m really looking forward to this. This is a new comic and also he’s the founder of Squish Squash. Did I pronounce that?
Ethan Harris (01:34):
Yeah. Perfect.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:35):
Yep. Cool. Awesome. So what will you be looking at tonight?
Ethan Harris (01:41):
I have this one here. Let me get on the camera. Fatal Ed Brew Packer and Sean Phillips.
Ed Kearsley (01:49):
Nice.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:50):
Cool. I believe I’m being very loud, but who cares. So that brings us to Shannon, who is famous for Robo Tunes and or is it Robo Tunes? Sorry, there’s no
Shannon Browning (02:05):
Robo. Singular.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (02:07):
Singular Robo tune and making awesome videos like the one that I use on amateur hour on a Saturday. He made that frigging awesome. My voice. I ruined it by putting my voice over it, but he made the video frigging awesome. So what are you looking at today, Shannon?
Shannon Browning (02:24):
I am looking at Cyber Frog Blood Honey by Ethan Van Scriber, which I don’t have a physical copy of. I’m sorry, I can’t hold it up.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (02:33):
If I had known, I would’ve got some pictures to put up and stuff. Okay, sorry. Which brings us to the second last person also in there and I forgot about myself. Nice. We’ve got Chris Pitcan who’s known for many, many things. He’s drawn quite a few different books, but I think what you’re best known for is the stuff you’ve done for NS comics, nsk and Comics. That’s what I put down as the artist for that. And tonight you’ll be telling us about
Chris Pitcairn (03:04):
A manga called My Brother’s Husband by Gang Tagme. Yeah, cool. Also, I only have a digital copy, so you’ll have to imagine
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (03:14):
I really should have chased this stuff up better. And then there’s me Sys the comics guy. That’s what I’m famous for, being the Comex guy. And tonight I will be looking at Destroyer by Killer Comics. Let’s see if I can get it there. Killer Comics. I could go through the list of people here, but I’ll do that when I actually talk about it rather than right now. Comics, that’s the team that did it. And then I’ve got to remember, I’m not just the guy introduced, I’m the host, so I’m trying to, without
Shannon Browning (03:56):
Reading his ladies and gentlemen,
Ed Kearsley (04:00):
We’ve got a comment
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (04:01):
Where we just go and start reviewing stuff. Comments? Yes. Beautiful.
Ed Kearsley (04:05):
It’s a be literal, gentle humans from Nick May.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (04:09):
Thanks Nick
Chris Pitcairn (04:12):
Mastery.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (04:14):
I was just expecting Terry make fun of me for some reason. Oh, okay. Yeah, sorry, I’m looking at the order of things here in re or wrong. I’ve got to make better notes in this. Okay. This is the part where we actually talk about the books that we’ve read. And I’ll go first so everyone else can see what not to do. Destroyers. Now I’ll actually list off, there’s Duncan Cunningham. He did the story. The writer is Aaron Cassidy. The cover artist is, I dunno, I’m going to butch these names. So it’s just given the Art and Ink is done by Dino Gore. Colours are by Amanda Jasmine Jr. Letters are by sk. Well, there you go. There’s someone else I know in here. And the Destroyer’s logo is designed by Bram Mehan. I didn’t know that was a thing to say. Who designed your logo? And Killer Comics is the team. So basically this starts off as in a battle theme. You’ve got one army on one side, another army on the other side. One army is kelp, which sort of, you can see that from the way they’re
(05:41)
With the red on their eyes and all that sort of stuff. And you quickly find out that side is not what they thought. They are barely human. So the Celts are quickly outnumbered by these beasts and demons and half-formed humans and all sorts of things that are coming at them. And they’re called the sect and their mission is to turn everyone else into the sect. Hence why there’s so many of them, I guess. So the Celts are retreating because they’ve realised, oh my god, this is a little bit too much for us. And they’ve gotten on some horses, ran away trying to get away from this ridiculously vicious army. When they see above them an angel and a demon fighting the demon seems to have killed the angel. It comes falling to the ground and then demon comes down and then the rest of the comic is just them fighting this demon woman.
(06:48)
And then some stuff happens with the angel, and I won’t go into that because that’ll ruin the story a bit, but yeah, so it’s just gore and fighting and battles and it’s a lot of fun and it’s what makes Killer comics so cool because this, well, I’ll going in the wrong hand. This was makes Killer comics, so cool. They do these gory comics now this one isn’t as, what’s the word? There’s not as much nudity in it. That’s probably the best way to put it as some of their other books. But it’s still the gore, there’s the battle, it’s cool. And these demons look cool and the keth look cool. Yeah, it’s lovely. So it’s cool. Yeah, like Carrie said, it’s cool. Cool. Nice. Sorry for the break there. I got a wisdom teeth out last week and it gets dry really easily. That sucks. Yeah. So who should we pick on next? Any Miny? No, I’m making Ed last. That’s what I like to do. Ed, last so we get the best flavour at the end. I’m going to go with Ethan.
Ethan Harris (08:16):
Alright, I’ll go first. I’ll be the test bunny for you all. Cool. So fatal. Now this copy as you see, oh, let me get it in camera. A bit worn out has had some Lovett well read from a family friend, so I didn’t pick it myself, so I thought have a go. The writer is Ed’s, you’ve lost me there.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (08:48):
Oh, what happened? Press button.
Ethan Harris (08:51):
Going all over the place
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (08:53):
Buttons.
Ethan Harris (08:54):
The writer is Ed Brubaker and the illustrator Sean Phillips. Lovely, lovely art. It follows this character on the front, Josephine, which is actually called Joe in the story. It is quite gory and lots of nudity, kind of like scissors. So I have picked out some specific pages that I’ll share, but it follows a story of Joe, keep this on here. So you can see story of Joe. She has supernatural powers that turn men into her slaves just by looking at them, but she can’t turn it off. So it’s ruined a lot of lives, but it follows her story with three different men with three different jobs and it’s all intertwined opposing that three character story is actually they get caught up in a cult of kaulu mystery horror scenario and that’s where the gore and nasty stuff comes in. So it’s quite out there when I read it and I didn’t expect it, but it was quite enjoyable. This is two volumes in one, but I’ve only read the first volume. I’ll get the exact name of that first volume. Death Chases Me is the book one.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (10:26):
Oh cool.
Ethan Harris (10:28):
It’s a really nice copy as well. The art’s fantastic. It definitely has a very film noir aesthetic with some of the pages.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (10:43):
Nice.
Ethan Harris (10:44):
These two characters over here, this hand, very menacing throughout the whole story and they don’t have names, so even more, there’s a few compositional pages I really enjoyed, like this one here with the shot actually coming through the window and you see the character.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (11:08):
Oh yeah, that’s cool.
Ethan Harris (11:12):
It’s a quite intense story and it’s also one of those stories where you really have to be paying attention because you’ll miss everything as you read through. And it’s very easy just to read through the art and not the words in this one. And then another cool shot here at the bottom, lemme get it right. This camera thing is not easy. There we go. There’s one of those characters with the glasses slipping on some blood. So overall, yeah, very interesting story. I’m excited to continue with volume two. So the rest of the book I’m imagining it will get even weirder and darker. Yeah, it’s a good read though. Good read. Recommended read.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (12:01):
Awesome. Is that the first Ru Baker Phillips thing you’ve read?
Ethan Harris (12:09):
Yeah, first introduction to them, so
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (12:13):
Nice.
Ethan Harris (12:15):
I think I did Google it and they are quite the team up, so they have a few stories together so I’ll definitely have to keep checking them out.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (12:28):
Well you summed it up well then, but was it the art, because you said you liked the art and you liked the writing. What sucked you in most?
Ethan Harris (12:39):
The art sucked me in and the story kept me there. So the first part of it is quite well. I found it a little bit disjointed because it talks about three different characters, plus Joe the main character and it all feels a little bit separate, but she’s involved with all of it and then towards the end of the volume it all starts to connect and then the ending happens and that’s where the cult is involved and it’s bit crazy. So I don’t want to say too much about the ending, but yeah, it kind of comes to a point where that all figures itself out, which leaves room for the second volume, which I’m interested in. But yeah, the art sucked me in and the story kept me there.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (13:26):
Cool. Nice questions. No, cool. And not to do a disservice to trust me to get the one she’s naked
Shannon Browning (13:47):
I think says more value than you wanted to there mate.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (13:50):
Yeah, it does a bit. I mean she looks like she’s naked there but she’s not. But that’s the giant demon thingy that they’re fighting for most of the story, it’s much bigger than a human and in that one he’s actually ripping a human in half. How’d you do? He caught her ugly and she didn’t like it. No, but literally what happened in that scene I’ll show you is ugly, which is one way to solve a problem. And I remember the order you guys were in, so I’m not going to be fooled. We go clockwise. It was actually Shannon who was next.
Shannon Browning (14:33):
There we go. Okay. I thought you were going to make me go first for picking on Poor Red, but
(14:42)
Okay. I have picked tonight something I’ve been looking forward to reading for a while now. It’s called Cyber Frog Blood Hunting. Now Cyber Frog was a series that was originally, it was an independent comic. It was done by Ethan Van Reiber, if you’ve probably heard of him, if you’re a DC fan. Ethan was the artist on the return of how Jordan with Def Johns. He was the main artist on Green Lanter for a while. So he also did the Estro Corps war. He did a lot of the covers for the Blackest Knight crossover. He also did the return of Barry Allen when they brought Barry Allen back as the Flash plus bunch of other things as an artist, he’s pretty good as a human being. He’s not that great. He was involved with Comic Skate, which is the whole thing where a lot of creators were sort of picking on female creators and treating them very badly.
(15:48)
He’s done a whole bunch of other kind of nasty bullshit as a human being. He’s kind of a dick, which is a shame because back in the nineties I really, really liked Cyber Frog. Cyber Frog was actually one of my favourite characters. He did a couple of miniseries, he did a couple of crossovers and that was it for a while. But that work is what got him into DC and led to all these other projects. So with Blood Honey, the story has fast forwarded from the nineties till now, and it’s one of those great stories where they’ve sort of changed the entire status quo and started again. So Cyber Frog was damaged back in the nineties. He went into some sort of coma to repair himself. He only just wakes up in 2024. But in that period of time, the entire earth has been invaded and subjugated by a species of giant alien wasps and cyber fraud comes to in this world with all these alien creatures, humans in hiding.
(17:02)
He goes and tracks down his best friend from the nineties, which was a girl named Heather, and the story started, so not only does he have to deal with this new status quo where these aliens come in, he’s been powered and he has to get used to this new world, the way everything’s working and how humans relate to each other and that sort of stuff. Now back in the nineties when he was originally doing Cyber Frog Ethan’s style, it was still very detailed, but it had a little bit more of a cartoony sort of edge and is time working for DC and doing all these big name things. He’s developed a much more realistic style. I personally kind of preferred the cartoony version of Cyber Frog, but this new version works very well as well. The art is glorious, the art is gorgeous. The story’s pretty good. It’s obviously leading to more, I think he’s doing about four series and he’s crowdfunding them all to get to the end of this new storyline. I’m doing a very good job of separating the art from the artist. I’m enjoying the art even though I want nothing to do with the artist.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (18:25):
Makes sense.
Chris Pitcairn (18:29):
Yeah, that’s always tricky.
Shannon Browning (18:32):
Yeah, I still like Michael Jackson’s music and I still think Kevin Spacey’s a good actor, but I still wouldn’t shed a tear if either one of ’em was run over by a tractor.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (18:43):
Nice way to put it.
Chris Pitcairn (18:50):
That’s always tough, but
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (18:55):
Well you said Ed, you got anything for me? I’ve got nothing. No, I’m all good’s too thorough questions I’m thinking of. It’s like, no, he answered that. No, he answered that. No, he answered that. So you read this digitally, is that why you have a copy? Yeah, I thought, yeah. Yeah.
Chris Pitcairn (19:19):
You said you preferred the cartoonish style. Why is that? Does it just fit the narrative better? It
Shannon Browning (19:26):
Fit the character better. How do I put this? It’s a robotic frog, so a realistic depiction of a human-sized robotic frog as good a job he’s doing every now and then. You just have a moment of that’s just silly. So the cartoony version of it helps you accept the silliness of the premise. Yeah,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (19:56):
That makes sense.
Shannon Browning (19:58):
It’s like my character, my character is like a six foot talking robotic rabbit superhero. I can’t see the Zach Snyder version of that, like the dark and gritty, super realistic version and I don’t want to either. So yeah, the way he drew humans with a more cartoony, there was more life in it, there was a little bit more expression in their faces.
Chris Pitcairn (20:25):
You could kind of push it a bit further.
Shannon Browning (20:27):
Yeah, exactly. He sort of sacrificed a level of the life and the humanity in the face to get it more into the realistic. It’s not saying that his characters are flat or anything like that, but yeah, it just had a little bit more emotion with the cartoony. He could push things rather than trying to keep it very realistic.
Chris Pitcairn (20:56):
Yeah, it’s one of the perils I found of artists that work for the big names, there tends to be a very certain realistic style that they go for, which doesn’t always work. And I find it is usually better is probably the wrong word, but useful to make the style fit the text rather than trying to do it the other way around.
Shannon Browning (21:27):
Yeah, I think you do notice a lot of artists once they get out of doing the mainstream stuff, not to mainstream, I’m a big mainstream freak. I love mainstream stuff, but you think about artists like Mike Magnolia or even Frank Miller, that once they got out and they started doing stuff on their own, they felt more free to experiment and push and they found an art style that worked better for them. And ironically then the big names started saying, Hey, can you come back and draw our stuff the way you draw now? It was just like I tried to back then, but you wouldn’t let me. Oh god, I’m having flashbacks of art school.
Chris Pitcairn (22:14):
Yeah. Oh god.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (22:17):
Well I must say I really appreciate the comics recent reads on that poster. That’s really cool of you. It just blends in. I thought it was on the poster.
Chris Pitcairn (22:31):
I thought it was as well.
Shannon Browning (22:33):
The colours match perfectly great.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (22:38):
Sorry Ethan, you were trying to say something before, is that still?
Ethan Harris (22:42):
Oh no, that’s all good. I was just saying sometimes it does feel like the artist loses a bit of their hand work and expression through those big names. And it is interesting that they then come back and do their own stories with their styles and they’re massively successful. Says something about keeping that artist touch on there. I think
Ed Kearsley (23:09):
It’s called a hair style, but see a marvel, they want their stuff to look kind of a generic even. You can pick up one book and you can pick up the next and not get confused to
Shannon Browning (23:28):
Such Agreed that I found out that when Jack Kirby went over to work for DC after he was pissed off at Stan Lee one too many times someone started redrawing the way he drew Superman’s face. He was doing, I think it was Superman’s Power, Jimmy Olson or something like that, which of course Superman was in. But he’d submit his artwork to be inked and the editors actually had a different artist come in and redraw Superman’s face to fit the house style of what Superman looks like instead of having him look like the way Jack Kirby drew it.
Ed Kearsley (24:08):
Have you seen the pencils of how he drew it?
Shannon Browning (24:11):
I have, yeah. He was much sort of stockier, much square face, kind of flat, flatter top and big eyebrows and stuff.
Ed Kearsley (24:21):
Kirby Draw Kirby doesn’t draw like the beautiful people. All his characters are a little bit ugly and a lot of the Marvel guys that time period going over to dc, they struggled to fit the house style of the DC characters, especially Superman. The Marvel stuff was a bit more gritty,
Chris Pitcairn (24:49):
Which is ironic considering the reputation now is kind of the other way around.
(24:55)
But yeah, I mean I’ve seen seen comics come out of the big names that have a more interesting style. Like the Scarlet Witch series that they did a little while ago had a really experimental painterly style. The Runaways comics tend to have, tend to be a bit more cartoonish and the artists are, I think given a bit more free reign to use more exaggerated styles. I know a couple of issues were done basically in a manga style, but with the big ones with X-Men or Avengers, they do tend to be very much like, this is how you do it and you do not deviate. And that obviously rubs off on the artists, which is a bit of a shame.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (25:50):
Well, I’m sticking to the story that Jack Kirby drew all my baby pictures with that story.
Shannon Browning (26:04):
Yeah, I think the guy who drew the Adams family drew all of mine. But
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (26:11):
So if that brings us down to second last, and we’ve already said that Ed’s going to be last, so hang on Chris, sorry, did Chris talk about his book? I’m losing track of everything. Yeah, sorry. Chris, tell us about your book.
Chris Pitcairn (26:30):
Yeah, so my brother’s husband by gang tagme, I have my list of names here was a manga that came out between 2014 to 2017. It’s like a slice of life manga. So there’s no stakes are very low. The story basically follows a three week visit in Japan. A bunch of sites seeing not a huge amount of, I guess tangible drama. A lot of the drama comes in with the characters’, interactions with each other and basically examining their own thoughts, their own perceptions and all that kind of stuff. So the story is focuses on a single dad Yoichi who he finds out that his brother passed away about a month ago and he receives a visit from his brother’s husband, Mike, who is Canadian. His brother having left Japan, moved to Canada, gotten married basically because of the stigma of being gay in Japan. And the series basically examines yo Chi’s relationship with his brother as well as his relationship with Mike, the brother’s husband.
(28:00)
And it looks at it both in terms of I guess Japanese perception of queer people as well as the perception of foreigners. The writer said a lot of it is based on his own experience growing up gay in Japan and his reception in Japan as well as his reception overseas and how that differed. So at the start of the series, ichi is very standoffish. He’s very like, I’m not sure about this foreigner being here. And the fact that this guy is also gay also plays in his head a lot because there’s a lot of, I guess certain customs and rituals that in Japan involve a lot of cohabiting. It’s very normal to invite people, particularly family members into your house, have them stay over for long periods of time and he kind of has to go, okay, this person married my brother, he is technically family, I should invite this person to stay at my house. But I feel really uncomfortable with that because of who he is and what he is.
(29:22)
And the story kind of examines how his perception changes, especially through his daughter. So his daughter is quite young and is shown of not having any preconceived notions about being LGBT or about how there might be stigma attached to that. So she’s just kind of getting along with her new foreign uncle and laughing at his funny pronunciation and sort of having fun showing him around town and sort of being really excited about having this foreign visitor and just completely accepting like, oh, dad had a brother, his brother married this guy, and now I have this call uncle. Alright.
(30:13)
But yeah, it’s probably not for everyone. It’s quite slow. It’s not like a fast paced action comic. It’s very sort of a slow sleepy kind of story, but especially if you’re LGBT, it does pull out a lot of heartstrings. One of the big pieces of drama is that when the brother came out to yo e, although UE kind of never acknowledged it, it basically destroyed their relationship. He stopped basically being friends with his brother, who is his twin. I forgot to mention they’d previously been incredibly close. And this rift started growing and the comic kind of opens by him going, yeah, I didn’t see my brother for 10 years and then a month ago I got told that he passed away. And basically over the course of that him kind of going, that was a relationship that I lost that I really shouldn’t have. And I lost it for stupid reasons. And that happens so often still, and especially in Japan where there is a lot of, I guess it’s one of those things where it’s not really spoken about because there’s a certain degree of expecting people to conform and to not make drama and to not make waves. But it is like, oh, if you have someone who’s queer in your family, you don’t talk about it.
(32:05)
There’s not homophobia in the sense of getting beaten up or something like that. But there is just like you don’t talk about it, you don’t discuss these kind of things, you just keep quiet. And it is interesting, this series was written 10 years ago now. I was watching an interview, one of those YouTube things where people kind of go around on the streets talking to various people going, what do you think of this subject or that subject? And they’re asking people, oh, what do you think? How do you think LGBT people are received in Japan? It’s like you immediately could tell who was straight and who wasn’t because the straight people were like, oh yeah, it’s fine. It’s totally fine. There’s no problems here. I dunno any queer people, but if I did, it would be absolutely fine. And then the queer people who are interviewed are like, yeah, it sucks.
(33:04)
It still sucks. And yeah, I think this comic was a very interesting exploration of that idea, but also in a way a lot of wish fulfilment. The writer was very much like, this is the kind of relationship I wish I could have or that I have had with people. And that feels really positive. So in terms of the art style, it is not quite your usual manga. So in MGA there’s I guess a category called bl, which is like Boys Love comics, which is any kind of LGBT comic, particularly around male male relationships. The one most people know is Yi, people probably have heard of this artist primarily works in a style which is called ra, which is more, Yi is mostly written by women. For women, the characters, although they’re usually male, tend to be very feminine. There tends to be a very strict binary.
(34:18)
You can usually tell who’s the guy and who’s the girl in the relationship. Whereas Borough Comics tend to be written by queer people. For queer people, the characters tend to be depicted as usually a bit more normal looking a bit more, the comics that are written by gay men tend to have very masculine, muscular looking male characters. But the artists in particular, gang is mostly known for doing quite raunchy comics and fairly explicit stuff. But this is not explicit for anyone who’s worrying it. It’s very pg, it’s very family friendly, which is again, on the artist part, very deliberate. He wanted to write a story that anyone could pick up and read. It’s very kid friendly, but just like it does touch on a lot of things that are not, I guess, how should I put this? They’re not big dramatic events, it’s just little things that are either very heartwarming or kind of pull at the heartstrings.
(35:45)
There’s an amazing scene about halfway through where Yoichi and Micah really starting to develop a positive friendship and they’re talking a lot about Yoichis brother who passed away and they meet up with and they all go on this holiday into the mountains of Japan and there’s a scene where they’re all just grouped together and they get someone to take their photo and it’s just this big single splash page of this weird, unconventional family altogether, but all incredibly happy for the first time in a long time. And it’s kind of, they do talk about how, okay, it’s a bit weird maybe from the outside, but it feels right and it is just this really heartwarming moment. Yeah.
Ed Kearsley (36:45):
Nice. Cool.
Ethan Harris (36:46):
That was really interesting. It went from a very dark opening to, like you said, of a comic to something that clearly the artist is the artist, the writer as well, did you say? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That they’ve got this freedom of expression in their work and that’s clearly shown throughout what you’ve said about, it’s really cool.
Chris Pitcairn (37:08):
Yeah, I just managed to splash tea all over myself while done.
Ed Kearsley (37:15):
Excellent. Well done. Were you a fan of the more other stuff? Yeah,
Chris Pitcairn (37:25):
Honestly, not really. A lot of his stuff is quite,
(37:33)
It is quite heavy. It’s very full on and not really my taste, but this particular comic was again, much more my lane. It’s not, I mean, I’m saying this as someone who illustrates Fox and Hound and hell courses in where there is a lot ofra, but it’s often not necessarily something I read that much. I much prefer this kind of stuff. My recommendation when we get to it is kind of again, in the same vein of Slice of Life, a bit more chill and a bit more of an examination of interpersonal relationships, how we behave towards each other, how we treat people who are different. But also when you actually look at it a little longer, most of us are different. Even people who kind of fit the norm as it were, would be able to find something about themselves that is maybe a bit unusual or a bit strange that doesn’t fit as well with everyone else. And it’s like very
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (39:08):
Strange
Chris Pitcairn (39:09):
Finding the bonds in our uniqueness, I guess.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (39:17):
I like that.
Ed Kearsley (39:17):
That’s nice.
Chris Pitcairn (39:21):
Yeah. Who’s next?
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (39:25):
Who’s next? Libby Ed, should
Ed Kearsley (39:27):
We do some comments
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (39:28):
Real quick? You want to go through some comments first? Yeah.
Ed Kearsley (39:31):
So we’ve got Stevie J says, I want that trade paper back. That was for the Tower one.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (39:42):
Oh, yep. So do I actually like for it,
Ed Kearsley (39:46):
Sean? He’s got, there’s a series I’m prepping at the moment that I wanted more realistic and I’m finding the designs much more lifeless. It’s a struggle in context of the cartoony versus natural style.
Chris Pitcairn (40:00):
Yeah.
Ed Kearsley (40:04):
GOs,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (40:06):
I’m not a guy, a comic guy. I’m a guy. Hi Red.
Ed Kearsley (40:15):
Hello red. We’ve got, Ryan says there’s a lot of fantastic l LGBTQI plus comics out there right now. I truly believe that increased diversity in storytelling has made the whole industry stronger.
Chris Pitcairn (40:30):
Definitely.
Ed Kearsley (40:32):
And quickly from Kaizen.
Chris Pitcairn (40:37):
Thanks. No, I’m good.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (40:43):
Okay, so next up we have, what is Ed going to talk about? And I actually know this one, so woo-hoo. Come and tell us, ed.
Ed Kearsley (40:52):
So I’ve got sluggish number two by Spie. I read number one, but I felt like number two was an overall better comic. So you could see in the first issue, SPEDs used the grey as I’ll make me full screen
(41:23)
Using the grey blocks to do the panel borders without having a line black panel border. And then in number two, he’s already started to cut away into that. You could see the negative space he’s using. So it’s about a comic book, it’s about a comic book, it’s about a slug called Herb, and it’s basically his in a monologue as he stumbles through life. And basically it’s just awkward and messes up every social interaction you could see at that bottom panel, see how nice it is with just the little slug guy going through the door into the other room and really sets it, brings so much air into the panel and accentuates the awkwardness and the loneliness of the character and the actual plot. I’m not going to go into because by issue two it would give it all away, but there’s says stuff like this with the stat panels, it’s the same panel with different stuff happening in the first issue.
(42:48)
There’s a lot of that. And then in this one I feel like is using it more sparingly and a lot more tastefully than in the first issue. And it just really helps with the storytelling and the flow and just mixing stuff up the size of the guys on the panels and stuff. And then that’s a really nice sequence of the wall getting built. It’s using the stat panels but still progressing through the narrative, making it flow through a lot better. And there’s a cliffhanger thing at the end of each issue and the second one hits a lot better, but that’s also because the first issues set everything up so well. The first issue is pretty, it’s like we’re introduced to Herb, so we’re getting to know the character and then by the second issue, who can really push the story forward so it works better. And I think there’s another one coming soon. So that’s sluggish. And the dialogue’s really good, the humour, and it’s pretty relatable if you’re an awkward person socially. So that’s that one.
Shannon Browning (44:25):
Yeah, but nobody who makes comics has ever awkward it.
Ed Kearsley (44:28):
No, no. They’re all very well adjusted.
Shannon Browning (44:33):
Extroverts love one and all
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (44:39):
Themselves to sit down and draw. They want to be at there party.
Chris Pitcairn (44:46):
It’s really cool to see the evolution of the art.
Ed Kearsley (44:51):
It’s great. It’s one of my favourite things with independent comics, and
(44:59)
I was going to say younger artists, but that’s not necessarily what I mean. But people who are starting and developing their style, we were talking about before developing your style and there’s in the back matter Sy talks about how he was trying to do a stripped back version of his style and not use, he was talking about effects and stuff. So it’s minimalist kind of style, just the one shadow kind of deal. And it works really well for the story and the characters and the whole thing and the grey tones and everything with the colour. It’s very well done comic.
Chris Pitcairn (45:49):
Yeah, it’s very cool.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (45:52):
Now I’ve got to take it off my to read poll and actually read it. I’ve only Skimm just skimmed it and went, oh, this looks cool now I’ve got to read it.
Ed Kearsley (46:04):
We could do it next week.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (46:05):
I’ve got to find where the hell it is in the pile. That’s the hardest part. Reading it will be easy.
Shannon Browning (46:11):
Somewhere around 2016
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (46:16):
That far down the pile.
Shannon Browning (46:20):
I get the feeling that scissors reading pile. It’s kind of like cutting down one of those old trees and counting the rings.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (46:27):
It’s a bit, well it’s actually 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 short boxes is my to read pile.
Shannon Browning (46:41):
Jesus Christ.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (46:43):
I’ve only read four so far.
Ed Kearsley (46:48):
Wow.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (46:50):
So yeah, it’s a bit of a big pile. I’ve been buying it faster than I can read it. Well I think, do you want to go through some more comments first before I do the next bit?
Ed Kearsley (47:02):
Yeah, I agree with Ryan. Hi Skittles, this topic is super.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (47:12):
Oh nice.
Ed Kearsley (47:15):
A comic I can really relate to.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (47:21):
That’s it. Well, you wonderful people who are commenting, if you want to do more than commenting, you can come on to the show. And if you want to do that, you go to this link here, COMEX Show slash Interest, and that will get you to a form where you can fill out, tell us which show you’re interested in being on. You can tick more than one, don’t just tick one. Tick more than one. Tell us all the shows you want to be on. And for this particular one, you don’t need to be a creator, you don’t need to be a indie creator. You don’t have to be a mainstream creator, you don’t have to be a creator, you have to be a comic fan. That’s all we ask you to be. So if you’re a comic fan with a microphone and a webcam even on your phone, most people’s phones can connect to this software. So come on, tell us about the book that you love and the one you just read and yeah,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (48:21):
Can do it
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (48:21):
Anyone? Yeah, if sis can do it, anyone can do it. Please. You just might want to do it a bit better than Siz. It’s not so crash hot. Now I’m going back there. This is the guest plug section, which, oh, I should bring up the, I figured out the camera a bit. The cutdown, but I mean not camera a bit. Oh nice. Oh, that’s a bit unfair. Hang on, I’ll wind that back to one. Okay. I did not come prepared at all for this, but I’ll still go first. Okay. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Okay. No cheating. Shane. Who the fuck, Shane?
(49:21)
Sorry. Language square. This is the pure and innocent one. Okay. We have many shows on the Comex network and one of them is this one Monday show every Monday. Then we’ve got Tuesday Chinwag on every, well Tuesday. And then we’ve got Comex Show with Shane J that’s on Wednesdays. That’s currently only every second Wednesday. She can’t commit to more than that. She is a very, very busy girl. Thursday is, let’s draw, let’s draw. Why write it down like that? Let’s make a comic book. Don’t even know the name of my own show. Well that’s Ed’s show. I’m just the guy who pushes the buttons on that one. Thank God. Thank God. And Friday is Drink and Draw. Now Drink and draw is every week now. So we just have a bit of a rotating roster on who is the host and so forth. I’m running. Got 10 seconds, 10 seconds, 10 seconds texting. Buy this from a comic shop, buy this from the comic shop, buy this from the comic shop and I can’t let it go to zero or else it stuff everything up.
Shannon Browning (50:33):
Nice.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:35):
What not to do. There you go. Yes.
Shannon Browning (50:39):
This is scissor audition tape for the next Olympics.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:45):
Okay, let’s bring that back to one. Who are you going to do next? Should I pick on someone or should you pick on someone this time? Ed,
Shannon Browning (50:53):
You do it.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:54):
You do it. Okay. Okay. I’ll go backwards. How’s that? We will start with Chris.
Chris Pitcairn (51:01):
Oh God,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:05):
You haven’t got, okay, are you ready?
Shannon Browning (51:07):
Alright.
Chris Pitcairn (51:08):
Yep.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:09):
Promote yourself buddy.
Chris Pitcairn (51:11):
Okay. You can find all my art and stuff at Crispy on Instagram. You can also find all my work that I do with n SK and Comics over at NSK comics where I illustrate Fox and Hound Horton. Jo Highness, your Highness, lucky Country Fox and Hound Six is currently on Kickstarter, so please go support that. What else? I also occasionally work with sk. I did Wolf Cubs one and I think two is still in pre-K, Kickstarter. So also go and check out those. I also do commissions, so if you want me to do a cover or a portrait or anything like that, you can contact me through Instagram. My handle is just there.
Shannon Browning (52:01):
Sweet.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (52:04):
Nice. Nicely done. That’s how it’s done ladies and folks, not like how I do it. I’m going to cheat now and go. I’m the host so I get to say, don’t forget the Stella Lands is Act, kickstart. I couldn’t even remember what the same thing was called for a second then. So yeah, go look at that. But you didn’t hear me see that because it’s gone.
Shannon Browning (52:26):
Didn’t
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (52:26):
Hear me see that. Yeah, I don’t know what I’m talking about. I can’t speak English. It’s
Chris Pitcairn (52:33):
Fine. It’s one of those.
Shannon Browning (52:35):
That’s alright. It says English is my second language. I just never developed a first.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (52:39):
Yeah, my first language is dribble
Shannon Browning (52:42):
Fluent.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (52:43):
I’m fluent and dribble. Just ask Ke. So if we’re going backward, if I remember correctly, Shannon,
Shannon Browning (52:53):
Oh, I got nothing to pro.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (52:55):
You got nothing to promote
Shannon Browning (52:57):
Still.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (53:00):
There you go.
Shannon Browning (53:03):
Okay. You want me to promote stuff?
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (53:06):
Yeah, that didn’t good. I don’t dead. I’ll see if Ed brings you up
Shannon Browning (53:22):
There. I am.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (53:23):
Okay. You’ve got 10 seconds to be really mean to me. I don’t know what it is you’re doing here.
Shannon Browning (53:31):
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, if you want to spend some time with some Aussie comic lovers or some Aussie comic creators every night of the week, as Si said, go to Comex, which is right here on the painting. There’s a show every single night, whether you want to hear people talk about comics, draw comics, speak about comics, or just have a bit of a chinwag. Check out comics, also check out comics. The website, all of the comics that we’ve spoken about tonight that are done by independent creators are available on his store. He doesn’t give discounts. But then again, we’re all broke. We can’t afford ’em. Mr. Ed, who is over there in the corner at the top there, he does a comic called Radical. It’s got one of the greatest villain names ever made. Laser Balls. Chris, I haven’t met Chris before and I dunno what his book is, but he just plugged it all for himself. Give it that check. Also jump onto his Kickstarter. It’s probably really, really good.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:30):
Oh damn it.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:34):
Oh no,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:38):
I wasn’t watching it. I was too amused by that
Ed Kearsley (54:43):
Did a good job.
Shannon Browning (54:46):
I was about to go right around the circle there. I’m sorry Ethan, I didn’t get to you, but I suddenly looked at the clock and like oh, two seconds.
Ethan Harris (54:53):
That’s why Shannon, if you want to take my minute, you can go for it.
Shannon Browning (54:59):
Okay. We’re talking about Ethan now.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:06):
Cool. I guess that brings us to Ethan.
Ethan Harris (55:11):
Here we go.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:14):
I’m glad that didn’t have sound. I didn’t realise that wasn’t muted. Okay, tell us about yourself, Ethan and Primo your stuff to us.
Ethan Harris (55:26):
Alright, you can find everything of mine at EJ Harris Art on Instagram. My website is ethan harris.com au. I sell comics. What they leave behind. Part one is my most recent release the last couple months working on part two. So stay tuned. Got illustrations and all sorts of other stuff on my store. I also run a online community squash illustration. Animators, lots of creators. We’re on Discord, we do social things. Join in. It’s fun. That’s me. Everything at EJ Harris. There you go.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (56:04):
Nice, nice. Which brings us to Ed,
Shannon Browning (56:17):
Your enthusiasm there.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (56:23):
Oh go.
Ed Kearsley (56:25):
I do a comic book called Radical. My name’s Ed Kiley. Ed Kiley Art on Instagram. There’s laser balls for everyone who is wondering. He shoots lasers out of his balls.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (56:41):
Yeah, look at that.
Ed Kearsley (56:42):
That’s in issue two. And also want to plug, let’s make a comic book on Thursday nights where we make a comic book live and we’re on season two and Bitsy is the main character bitsy the traded cat. And I think everyone here has been on and drawn a panel on either season one or season two or both. And it’s awesome. And go to Comics shop to get all your Australian independent comic books. And I’m out
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (57:20):
Now. Get rid of this thing. Stop sharing. I will note the shop is now at comex net au. It’s combined with some other things, but Ed is still right. Comex Shop will take you there. It’ll redirect you to where you need to be. So it’s all good. You can still put in Comex Shop. I’d be stupid not to do that because I have promoted that name for so damn long. Well a year or two. Anyway, that’s a long time. And I forgot to put up what we do next. So what do we do next, Shane? Oh, shop Ad Beauty. Can you press the button?
Ed Kearsley (58:01):
Let’s see if I get the right one.
Voice Over (58:03):
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 Comex shop now and pick yourself up some freshly inked inspiration.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:33):
It looks a lot nicer than that too. We’ve improved the look. That’s an old footage of the screen. Oh, okay. Now what we do is if there’s comments, I don’t know how many comments we’ve gone through or
Ed Kearsley (58:54):
They can’t run away from pickles. Suzie
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:57):
No, not
Ed Kearsley (59:00):
Get to like it. Subscribe. Oh yeah, go on. I want to have my comics in the comic shop.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:06):
Hell yeah. You have to grow up
Ed Kearsley (59:08):
To get your comics in the comic store. No,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:11):
There’s no growing up at all.
Ed Kearsley (59:13):
You have to grow up first.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:15):
I’ve got a comic in there and I have not grown up.
Ed Kearsley (59:17):
You could either grow up or have a comic in the comic shop. You
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:20):
Get to choose one. Can’t do both. Can’t do both. What we’re going to do now is our little quick round of recommendations. What was I going to recommend again, damnit? No, that’s just me joking around. I was actually what I was promoting, what I’m going to recommend is just like last week, something I haven’t had a chance to fully read. I have read the proof of this, the PDF, but this is one story that is in two comics. This is why he is released both of them. So that is my Read Outlaw by Stu Thornton. He does everything except Oscar Thornton does. What’s Oscar Thornton do again? Edited by Oscar Thornton. That’s his son. So yes, that’s my recommendation. We’ll just go around the clock. Start with Ethan.
Ethan Harris (01:00:21):
Alright, I’ve got two for you. Volume one of Bird King, which is by Daniel Friedman and the artist Isro. Very cool stuff, very graphic as in the elements are more graphic designy look, but still got that nice ink touch that Crumb does. And then volume two of ing because it just gets better in the second one. There you go.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:00:48):
Oh, awesome.
Ethan Harris (01:00:51):
Very cool. Read.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:00:56):
And that takes us down to Shannon.
Shannon Browning (01:00:59):
Quick recommendation
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:01:01):
Again.
Shannon Browning (01:01:02):
Sorry
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:01:03):
You haven’t forgotten this bit again, just checking.
Shannon Browning (01:01:05):
No, no, no, no. I remember this stuff
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:01:07):
I cover for you, man. I was getting ready to cover for you.
Shannon Browning (01:01:10):
I appreciate it. I’m glad we didn’t actually mention that on air and everybody heard about it. But anyway,
(01:01:17)
Yeah, I am just recommend a comic from Image Comics by Scott Snyder called Undiscovered Country. It set in the future, about 30 years after America cut itself off from the rest of the world, fenced itself off and just disappeared. And then a group of diplomats go in there trying to get the cure for a pandemic that’s sweeping the country, sweeping the world, sorry. And they found out that America has become a very, very weird and dangerous place. I think the most recent issue just came out a week or two ago. Really, really intriguing read. It’s not something that I’m chomping at the bit at for every single month or every time it comes out, but I’m always interested to get stuck into it whenever it comes out.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:02:07):
Cool. Chris?
Chris Pitcairn (01:02:15):
So I’m going to plug the web comic. Go get a roomie. That was a bit of a giggle.
Shannon Browning (01:02:24):
I’m sorry. I like that.
Chris Pitcairn (01:02:27):
Yeah, web comic. Go get a roomie. It’s again, another slice of life comic by a queer creator. It focuses on titular character. Rumi, who has no home. She just sleeps at everyone else’s place, hence Rumi. But it looks at a whole bunch of different stuff. Again, it’s a lot of interpersonal relationships. It looks at mental health. It looks at, yeah, just all kinds of stuff like positivity, living with disabilities and creating art and yeah, it’s really, really good. It was running for I think something like 10 years. There’s a lot there. It’s very, very long. But the whole thing is a complete work and it’s all available for free online. Just type into Google. Go get a roomie. Yeah,
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:03:34):
Ed tell recommendation.
Ed Kearsley (01:03:38):
I’ve got Met Cop Wonderland by Katie Marks story by Katie Marks up by Mel Rosewell of Carol Colours by Lauren Hall. It’s a book set in Melbourne where the guys played Met Cops and there’s mysterious happenings going on in the city tunnel. And this is the first issue. And like I said about the Battle for Bustle issue one, which was a really good big self-contained issue one. This is one of the another ones that was really good read just as a standalone issue as introducing the story and the world. And I’ve got up to issue 11. I don’t know if they’re still making it, but it’s well worth the read, especially if you’re from Melbourne and me have taken the train a lot and seen a lot of weirdos on the train. Really good.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:04:40):
He’s talking about me.
(01:04:47)
Okay, let’s go back into talking about the, did I leave this up last time? Comex stock show slash interest. If you like what you saw, if you want to be part of this show, you want to talk about a comic that you like, a comic you want to recommend a comic you’ve just read. This is a show you want to be on. And that’s how you get on Comex Show slash interest. That’s also where you register interest for the other shows we do as well. And like I said before, you just have to be a fan of comics to get on this show. Let’s see. That’s it. Tell us about a comment you like. That’s what we’re after.
Ed Kearsley (01:05:23):
Yes sir.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:05:25):
And I believe that’s the part where we all say, hang on, I’ll take that off the screen.
Ed Kearsley (01:05:31):
Should we get the last comment?
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:05:34):
Yeah, go through the last comment. Sorry.
Ed Kearsley (01:05:38):
Yeah, we never going up. I’ll choose or refuse to go up and we need more darker stories. And then I think that year was for the Snyder book that Don’s popped in at the end.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:05:53):
Hey Don
Ed Kearsley (01:05:57):
And Sydney also has widows on the train. It’s good to hear what happened there. Abrupt finish.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:06:10):
Well, I can honestly say that Brisbane has some normal people on the train. They’re the rare ones.
Ed Kearsley (01:06:17):
I was about to say, is that where they were?
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:06:20):
There’s not like you go, oh, there’s a widow. There’s a widow. It’s like, oh, oh, that one looks normal.
Ed Kearsley (01:06:26):
Reflection.
Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:06:28):
It’s not the reflection. The one I’m saying is normal, that’s for sure. So yes, thank you everyone for watching. It was a lot of great fun. Great. Yeah, that’s what we should do. What I was trying to say was thank you for the great comments and thank you for the guests. Thank you for your recommendations. Thank you for the ones you talked about as well. That was awesome. I’ve actually written some of them down. I want to chase them up now and yeah, have a good night everyone, and see you next time. Not all. Thanks everyone, like and subscribe. I just remembered like share and subscribe. Thank you very much.
