Black, White and Unread...
...or alternatively titled, 'Australia's most unpublished comic artist'- at least that's the way it felt for me throughout most of the 90's . It seemed that most projects I took on, ended up being shelved. This was mainly due to the common problem in Australian comics of our population not being able to sustain an industry. As a result, comic publishing ends up being an expensive hobby rather than a profitable business.
Don't read this as bitterness towards the publishers though. Having produced a line of comics myself, and running out of money by the end of issue #3, I can totally relate and empathise with the struggles involved.
But that still leaves me with hundreds of pages of unpublished work. At the moment I'm trying to rectify this by putting together a book of unpublished and published comicbook work through POD (print on demand) publishers Lulu. It's taking me a while, but by crikey this stuff WILL see the light of day...
Eventually.
PICTURED: Some unpublished samples from (top) Bug'n'Stump, A Stranger Danger, (bottom) Zero Assassin and Rudy Angel.
posted by Chris Wahl at 1:27 AM
8 Comments:
Hey, Chris!
Yeah, these should DEFINITELY be in print! I'll be in line to order one for sure. And with the way the internet is these days, I'm pretty sure you can live in Australia and still have work published by American publishers. But I can relate about having piles of back-inventory of unseen stuff -- I toiled away in illustration for years before doing more comic stuff and promotion, and I still have drawers of drawings only clients and a few art directors have seen!
...but they're still not as good as yours!!
A Wahl collection??? Oh YES!
I will buy it as fast as my credit card will credit.
Err... that was me. Sorry.
Maggie
found your site on Heri's links. You've got a variety of things that you dabble in. Nicely well rounded. I'll keep checkin on you.
he does, i keep checking! you have an insane talent Chris.
Chris, I can't wait for your book!
Unfortunately, the "unpublished work" hasn't ceased, but I'm learning lately that an equivalent with professional publications is "solicit like crazy - correspond until work is submitted, but never acknowledge anything that arrives." It kind of makes it hard to know when it's okay to offer your work somewhere else!
m cho- You're too kind, sir. I'm humbled by your exquisite brushwork.
Killeroo- It's more from a lack of patience and a limited attention span more than a financial reason as to why I don't draw comics. Drawing a monthly book or even a 32 page single issue seems like a real chore to me.
The thing I like about advertising work is that it's a variety of jobs with quick deadlines. Just the thing to keep me interested.
Maggie- Thanks. Hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later.
ree- Thanks. You have some awesome work on your site.
heri- Thanks, man!
hayden- I'll have to approach Sam first, before I go selling artwork of a character he created.
Ian T- I think the dilemna with my unpublished stuff is that it's work that wouldn't suit overseas publishers. They're all self-contained one-offs that would only make sense published by the characters creators (if that makes sense).
But in a way I've moved one from these pieces, a book compiling the unpublished work seems like the quickest and most painless way to get these pages seen
I think the internet is the perfect place to revive the good old 90's comics (and I am not bitter that Bug and stump shut up shot before publishing the story I wrote from them... much).
I think Platinum grit are doing it right. Love their website.
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