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| Earliest publications | 1908 |
| Languages | Australian English |
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Australian comics have been published since 1908 and Australian comics creators have gone to produce influential work in the global comics industry (especially in American comics),
 | This section possibly contains original research .(November 2010) |
Vumps, the first Australian comic equivalent to British boy's papers, such as Boy's Own , Chum and The Gem was published in September 1908. [1] It featured illustrations, with the text printed below and lasted only one issue. [2]
On 7 October 1911 coloured comics appeared in The Comic Australian, a weekly publication containing jokes and poetry, which continued for 87 issues until June 1913. [3] In 1916 a small format children's paper, The Golden Age commenced. It featured three pages of strips and cartoons, including Algy & Kitty by B. Ericsson. The publication ceased in 1917.
On 4 September 1920 the first continuing Australian comic strip, You & Me , drawn by Stan Cross, appeared in Smith's Weekly . In August 1925 the Sydney Sunday Times comic supplement was issued. It featured strips including The Two Rogues, by L. de Konigh; Fish & Chips by Norman McMurray and The Strange Adventures of Percy the Pom by Wynne Davies. The 13 November 1921 saw the first issue of Us Fellas, by Jimmy Bancks, in the Sunbeams Page of the Sunday Sun, this comic strip introduced the character of Ginger Meggs , the longest running Australian comic strip. The first Sunbeams (Ginger Meggs) Annual appeared in 1924, and continued to appear each Christmas for the next 35 years.
A number of other children's papers, such as Pals, The Boy's Weekly and Cobbers, were released during this period. All contained a few strips but were mainly text and articles.
The Society of Australian Black and White Artists was formed in Sydney in 1924, and still exists today as the Australian Cartoonists Association.
Following the demise of Pals the Australian comic book market was dominated by British comic papers until late 1931 with the launch of the first Australian comic book, The Kookaburra. The Kookaburra featured characters such as Bloodthirsty Ben and Callous Claude; The Mulga Merrymakers, Perky Pete the Prospector; and Lucy Lubra the Artful Abo! On 20 May 1934 another Australian comic was published Fatty Finn's Weekly, featuring Fatty Finn by Syd Nicholls. The rest of the comic only featured Australian artists with other strips such as Basso the Bear and Pam and Pospsy Penguin by Hotpoint and Ossie by George Little. While there was text below each frame, the panels contained word balloons.
In the late 1930s the market began to be saturated by the release of reprints of US strips popularised by the women's magazines, The New Idea ( Buck Rogers , Boy's Adventure World, Felix the Cat , Hurricane Hawk) and The Woman's Mirror ( The Phantom ). At the same time another US reprint genre, the tabloid format reprints of Sunday pages and supplements, printed overseas at minimal cost, emerged onto the market. Publications included International Comics, Colour Comics and Wags featuring Buck Rogers, Tarzan , Dick Tracy and early works by Will Eisner.
By 1939 there were political protests about the dumping of overseas magazines and comics in Australia, on behalf of the local industry.
With the onset of World War II the Australian Government placed a ban on the importation of American comics and syndicated proofs. As a result, the local comic book industry flourished. Following the war, Australia incurred a huge national debt: local publishers found they had a captive market as import restrictions continued to be enforced, at the same time the modern American style comic book (mostly sans color) was adopted. In its Golden Age Australian talent produced exciting creations such as Yarmak, Captain Atom , Tim Valour, Crimson Comet, The Panther, The Raven, The Lone Wolf, The Phantom Ranger and many others. September 1948 saw the debut of The Phantom by Frew Publications, the longest continuously published comic book.
This was a decade of recession for the Australian comic market, with production costs rising the prices of local comics rose. Comics faced increased public scrutiny, with censorship of comics beginning in 1954, competition from television (1956) and the re-introduction of American comic imports (1959).
The 1960s saw the demise of the few locally produced titles that had managed to survive the recession in comic book publishing in the previous decade. Sales of reprints such as The Phantom and the Walt Disney titles continued to strengthen, with readers beginning to focus on new American imports, particularly the burgeoning Marvel Comics line.
In the 1970s there was a resurgence in local comic activity, drawing inspiration from the explicit and politicised American underground comic scene, although mainly associated with radical journals such as Revolution, High Times and Nation Review. Few comic books were published with the exception of Cobber Comics in 1971 and Strange Tales (which featured Captain Goodvibes , the work of Tony Edwards) in 1974. Gerald Carr revived the Australian adventure style comic book also in 1974 with the best selling Vampire!, coinciding with the horror comic boom of the times, followed by Brainmaster and Vixen (1977) and Fire Fang (1982). Vixen became Australia's first comic book superheroine.
Since the 1980s there have been fewer local reprints and more direct importing of foreign comics. On the local front new material started with the release of Tad Pietrzykowski's graphic novel The Dynamic Dark Nebula in 1982. Oz Comics in 1983 which debuted The Southern Squadron and the popular Reverie anthology comic lasting seven issues that was distributed nationally..
Later in the mid-1980s many more anthology comic titles appeared, forming the basis for the modern Australian self-publishing community. Three notable ones were Fox Comics, which began in Melbourne in 1985 and lasted for five years and 26 issues. Phantastique from Sydney in 1986 lasted only four issues, as it was in the style of Underground comix but with mainstream distribution – it generated national publicity from opponents Fred Nile and John Laws. (Contributors included Christopher Seqiera and Leigh Blackmore). Cyclone! also from Sydney in 1985 was a more traditional superhero comic with an Australian flavour, it ran for eight issues as an anthology and then another five as Southern Squadron focusing on its most popular feature (plus other spin offs including The Jackaroo and The Dark Nebula as well as a 1990s revival – over thirty related comics were published in the series).
During the 1990s, Australian creators continued to place their work in Australian newsagents via distributors such as Gordon & Gotch, to diminishing success. Popular Australian comic books of the era include Dillon Naylor's Da 'n Dill (1993), Hairbutt the Hippo (1989), Platinum Grit (1993) and Dee Vee (1997).
The 1990s also saw an explosion of comics in zine form due to easy availability of photocopiers and cheap postage. Many artists who began by self-publishing photocopied black-and-white comics at this time have continued on to become popular illustrators and graphic novelists, including Mandy Ord, Ben Hutchings, Anton Emdin and Jules Faber.
Australian artists/writers also began to regularly produce work for overseas comics companies, a development made easier by the internet, as a tool for both scouting talent and sending deliverables quickly (which was previously only possible by use of fax machines). These include Wayne Nichols, Nicola Scott, Ben Templesmith, Tom Taylor, Michal Dutkiewicz, Jozef Szekeres, Marcus Moore, Julie Ditrich, and Doug Holgate.
In the 2000s, a significant market for Australian comic creators was commercial Australian children's magazines. Dillon Naylor led the way with Da 'N' Dill and the popular Batrisha the Vampire Girl in K Zone. Other artists with regular work in these markets included Patrick Alexander, Jase Harper, Rich Warwick, Dean Rankine, Damien Woods and Ian C. Thomas.
In 2007 Julie Ditrich and Jozef Szekeres launched the Comics and Graphic Novel Portfolio for and with the Australian Society of Authors, which focuses on interests and needs for the comic and graphic novelist, both writers and artists, covering topics such as standardized contracts approved by the ASA for both creator owned comics/GNs and work-for-hire.
In the 2010s, online comics and graphic novels became another form in which Australian comics creators made their presence felt overseas, Nicki Greenberg, Mandy Ord, Pat Grant, Simon Hanselmann, Ariel Ries and Gavin Aung Than being examples of this.
More permanent venues, retailers and galleries devoted to independent comics work also began to appear, including Squishface Studio, Silent Army Storeroom and Santa Clara in Melbourne, and Junky Comics in Brisbane.
From the 1940s through the 1970s, many local reprints and translations of American – as well as British, European, and South American – comics were published in Australia. Since the 1980s there have been fewer local reprints and more direct importing of foreign comics.
In the 1940s, following the banning of the importation of American comics, a number of Australian publishing companies were formed producing comic books, using local comic book artists. Most of which disappeared in the 1950s as a result of import bans being lifted, a censorship campaign, and the introduction of television. The predominant publishing companies during this time included:
Since the late 1970s, the comic scene in Australia has been largely driven by self-publishers who created, printed and distributed their own books, with a few publishers who were willing to publish the work of others gradually emerging. Of these, some companies, such as Phosphorescent Comics and Gestalt Publishing, managed to become professional publishers of Australian comics and graphic novels.
Since 2002 international publishers have increasingly begun to publish graphic novels by Australian comic creators, beginning with The Five Mile Press (Dillon Naylor) and Slave Labor Graphics (J. Marc Schmidt, Jason Franks) and, more recently, Allen & Unwin (Nicki Greenberg, Mandy Ord, Bruce Mutard), Scholastic (Shaun Tan), TokyoPop (Queenie Chan, Madeleine Rosca), Seven Seas Entertainment (Sarah Ellerton), and Finlay Lloyd (Mandy Ord).
The first true Australian Comic Convention was Comicon I (June 1979) [7] held at RMIT in Melbourne. Comicon II (June 14–16, 1980) [8] followed at the Sheraton Hotel in Melbourne, and Comicon III (1981) was held in Sydney.
The Australian Comic-Book Convention was held on 16–18 January 1986 at the Sydney Opera House, featuring international guests for the first time, including Jim Steranko and Will Eisner, who allowed the Spirit to be depicted as a koala while Spider-Man was a kangaroo. The convention was organised by three principles – Peter Mitris, Richard Rae, and former Federal Publishing licensing consultant Peter Greenwood (who is now based in Los Angeles as a worldwide licensing manager for classic television). They had hoped to turn it into an annual event based on San Diego Comic-Con, but a lack of corporate sponsorship for such a large event caused it to be a one-off.
It was the forerunner of the many later OzCon conventions, held from 1992 to 1998 in Sydney,[ citation needed ] with an additional event in Melbourne in 1997, and the comicfest! events, again in Sydney from 2000 to 2002.
Supanova Expo is Australia's largest con. It has been held in Sydney and Brisbane each year since 2002 and 2003 respectively and growing to include Perth and Melbourne since 2008. It features, in addition to comic books, a mix of current TV pop cultures, from science fiction and fantasy to anime and manga. It features special guest comic book writers and artists and actors from currently in-vogue series, movies and anime, as well as special effects creators.
National Library of Australia
State Library of New South Wales
State Library of Victoria
Sergio Aragonés Domenech is a Spanish-Mexican cartoonist and writer best known for his contributions to Mad magazine and creating the comic book Groo the Wanderer.
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality, and violence. They were most popular in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s, and in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
A graphic novel is a long-form work of sequential art. The term graphic novel is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and industry professionals. It is, at least in the United States, typically distinct from the term comic book, which is generally used for comics periodicals and trade paperbacks.
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons or comics. Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literary and graphic components of the work as part of their practice.
The Phantom is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The character has been adapted for television, film and video games.
Jeff Smith is an American cartoonist. He is best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone.
Ivan Brunetti is an Italian and American cartoonist and comics scholar based in Chicago.
Drawn & Quarterly (D+Q) is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, as well as the quality of printing and design. The name of the company is a pun on "drawing", "quarterly", and the practice of hanging, drawing and quartering. Initially it specialized in underground and alternative comics, but has since expanded into classic reprints and translations of foreign works. Drawn & Quarterly was the company's flagship quarterly anthology during the 1990s.
Moonstone Books is an American comic book, graphic novel, and prose fiction publisher based in Chicago focused on pulp fiction comic books and prose anthologies as well as horror and western tales.
Eric Ernest Jolliffe was an Australian cartoonist and illustrator.
The Ledger Awards are prizes awarded to "acknowledge excellence in Australian comic art and publishing." Named after pioneering Australian cartoonist Peter Ledger (1945–1994), the awards were first held in 2005 to help promote and focus attention on Australian creators and their projects, both in Australia and overseas. Initially, the awards were held annually and announced online on or around Australia Day, 26 January. In recent years, they have been held at the State Library of Victoria on the Friday evening before the Melbourne Supanova convention.
Batton Lash was an American comics creator who came to prominence as part of the 1990s self-publishing boom. He is best known for the series Wolff and Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre, a comedic series about law partners specializing in cases dealing with archetypes from the horror genre, which ran as a strip in The National Law Journal, and as a stand-alone series of comic books and graphic novels. He received several awards for his work, including an Inkpot Award, an Independent Book Publishers Association's Benjamin Franklin Award, an Eisner Award, and nominations for two Harvey Awards.
Gary Chaloner is an Australian comic book artist, writer and publisher. He is known for his creations The Jackaroo, Flash Damingo, Red Kelso and The Undertaker Morton Stone, as well as his work on Will Eisner's John Law.
Dean Mullaney is an American editor, publisher, and designer whose Eclipse Enterprises, founded in 1977, was one of the earliest independent comic-book companies. Eclipse published some of the first graphic novels and was one of the first comics publishers to champion creators' rights. In the 2000s, he established the imprint The Library of American Comics of IDW Publishing to publish hardcover collections of comic strips. Mullaney and his work have received seven Eisner Awards.
Ronald Keith Chatto was an Australian comic book artist and writer. He was the first Australian illustrator to draw a full-length episode of The Phantom comic.
Gerald Carr is an Australian comic book writer, artist and illustrator, best known for his creations, Vampire! and Vixen.
Canadian comics refers to comics and cartooning by citizens of Canada or permanent residents of Canada regardless of residence. Canada has two official languages, and distinct comics cultures have developed in English and French Canada. The English tends to follow American trends, and the French, Franco-Belgian ones, with little crossover between the two cultures. Canadian comics run the gamut of comics forms, including editorial cartooning, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, and webcomics, and are published in newspapers, magazines, books, and online. They have received attention in international comics communities and have received support from the federal and provincial governments, including grants from the Canada Council for the Arts. There are comics publishers throughout the country, as well as large small press, self-publishing, and minicomics communities.
Sydney Leon Miller was a prolific Australian artist celebrated for his black-and-white work as a cartoonist, illustrator, caricaturist and comic-book author. Known professionally as Syd Miller, he was employed as a staff-artist for Smith's Weekly from late-1922 until 1935, when he left to pursue a diversity of freelance work. Miller created a number of comic-strips during his career, most notably the iconic 'Chesty Bond' character as a marketing campaign for the Australian clothing company Bonds. He also wrote and illustrated the Rod Craig comic-strip which was serialised from 1946 to 1955 and syndicated across Australia and internationally.
Black House Comics was an Australian independent comic book and graphic novel publisher. Publisher Baden Kirgan started the company in 2008 when he decided to create an "Australia Vertigo" comics arm within his commercially successful printing company—Jeffries Printing Services. The original idea was to publish dark stories within multiple genres in a quality print product. Black House Comics' signature title was The Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes.
Maurice Bramley, was a New Zealand born Australian cartoonist and commercial artist.
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