David Tulloch: Sage Advice

All Unicorns to Battle Stations by David Tulloch is a slice of life webcomic that updates every three days at www.virtuallycomics.com

338

from Extra Ordinary http://ift.tt/1tZscAX

Birthday Hat

Joe did legit research on the best sherlock holmes hat – because Joe is “nothing if I’m not legit” (direct quote).

from Rooster Tails http://ift.tt/1oK3YKh

Debra Boyask: Are There Any Real Geeks In Palmerston North?

Scanned from 'The Ancient Geeks' by Debra Boyask. You can read the whole zine at the Auckland Libraries Zine collection at the Central City Library.

Liam Bowen: Library Dentures

Go here to see more of Liam's work.

Marina Williams: Sevillana

Marina Williams is a kiwi comic artist and illustrator, currently based in the UK. See more of her work at Sevillana Comics.

337

from Extra Ordinary

Michael Sanders: The Tattoo

A Colonel Kernel comic strip.

Corn have been battling the Green Vegetables for centuries. There is an ongoing battle waged in your vegetable garden. Colonel Kernel is a senior commander in the Corn Army. He’s domineering, aggressive and could use a good dose of anger management. The Green Vegetables are an alliance of Broccoli, Peas, Lettuce and Asparagus (BPLA) and are ruled by a Broccoli commander. Each side has its allies, and its secrets, and does it’s best to gain an advantage, any advantage it can. The battle continues …

More Colonel Kernel comic strips and stories by Michael Sanders are available at http://otherramblings.yolasite.com/colonel-kernel.php

Who Are We

I’m not sure if all transguys experience this – but it happens to us A LOT.



from Rooster Tails http://ift.tt/1lpsyuT

[review] Liam Bowen: People

“PEOPLE”

By Liam Bowen

Self Published Zine, 2014

For copies contact: liamarbowen@gmail.com

Reviewed by Maryann Savage

This zine collects Liam Bowen's sketches of people between 2010 – 2014.  Most of the sketches were done on public transport.   Liam's simple sketches use the minimum number of lines required to express the character and likeness of each person he draws.  Although there's not much written description in the zine, his personality creeps in.  Noting that some drawings were done on a trip to China, Liam says

            looking back at this time, I just acted like a big kid, and was totally irresponsible.

And

            in 2010, I found myself without any of my regular hobbies, with no-one talk to ...

Thus these mostly wordless pictures are informed by the melancholy fact that in his loneliness he's drawing  people, over and over and over again.

Looking at the images is like encountering Liam briefly on the bus yourself:  you get a tiny insight into the surface of his life, and are left wanting to know more.  This mirrors the way that his drawings of people express his own curiosity about them. These aren't dead representations:  they feature what Liam finds amusing or interesting – someone's big dark glasses, their stubble, their jowly chin. 

Liam reflects a few times in the zine on why he chose to draw people: 

           

            to get a feeling of 'this is what regular folks are like'

            …

            it was probably a matter of, 'that girl's pretty, I'd like to stare at the back of her head for a          while.'

This zine may be mostly images, but Liam's thoughts between 2010 – 2014 are here, in the drawings:  his humorous and gentle and affectionate and yearning need for people.  I think there's a reason we draw people over and over again – because we like them, even just regular people, people on public transport.  Just being on public transport gives you something that the cold images you see on TV and in magazines glosses over  – you're there with the immigrant communities, the poor older people and the poor younger people, and there's a real warmth in that, a genuine homeliness.  Once you're used to travelling on the bus or train, when you switch to riding in a car, you can really miss that sense of being in touch with these living, smelling, mussed up human beings.  That sense of human connection without the need for words is well articulated in Liam's simple but beautiful drawings.  

Eddie Monotone: Kai Iwi Lakes

Excerpt from an ongoing autobiographical comic strip by Eddie Monotone. You can read the whole thing here: http://edmocentral.com/slothsandtrolleys/

Matthew Kelly: Kiwiman in "The Building that Barfed"

Kiwiman in "The Building that Barfed", by Matthew Kelly

A 5 page short story.

Kiwiman stories meld superhero action, mystery and comedy. Here the slightly comical New Zealand 'Super Agent', Kiwiman, investigates dangerous toxic waste dumping in Hauraki harbour, uncovering a sinister trap with him in mind!

336

from Extra Ordinary 

Matt Emery: Goomu!

Matt Emery's Goomu! from The Guzumo Show

Bonus Time

I’m back! Hope you enjoy the bonus double length comic!



from Rooster Tails http://ift.tt/1mXjliT

David Tulloch: Lego

All Unicorns to Battle Stations by David Tulloch is a slice of life webcomic that updates every three days at www.virtuallycomics.com

[review] Ducklingmonster: MY PEDALS KISS ME DEADLY (WHAT I'M THINKING WHILE PLAYING)

“MY PEDALS KISS ME DEADLY (WHAT I'M THINKING WHILE PLAYING)”

By Ducklingmonster

Self Published Zine, 2014

For copies contact: ducklingmonster@gmail.com

Reviewed by Maryann Savage

Ducklingmonster's solo musical performances are authoritative.  She stands tall on stage, her head often thrown back, with a calm and focussed expression.  Her voice is loud and clear, and swells over the audience in long, sustained notes, punctuated by shrieks and growls.  She dances precisely and fearlessly, punching the air, and often walks into the audience, dancing directly in front of them, even when no-one else is moving – as is usually the case.  People in Auckland at small rock shows don't dance much.

So it's interesting to read, in this zine, what's really going through her mind when she performs.  She frequently experiences doubt and anxiety. This isn't a simple account of what she feels – it's an art zine, and fragments of her thoughts are juxtaposed with images from the movies Repo Man and Kiss Me Deadly, slightly transformed through her drawings to suggest a merging between the events of the movies and the events of her performances.  I've only performed myself to an audience a few times, but I've noticed how strange it is when you're playing music and the audience simply stands there, the laser-like focus of their attention entirely on you.  Ducklingmonster quotes lyrics from the band Husker Du, the context changing them into a comment on her performance anxiety:

see the blank expres[sions]

waiting for progression

They're standing still

in time, place and time

+ no-one's moving they're

only standing still

in Ice cold Ice cold

Ice

Ducklingmonster covered this song live, and I can confirm that everyone there did, indeed, stand still and watch. 

One image that particularly appeals to me in this zine is the drawing of the private eye and his femme fatale, Velda, from Kiss Me Deadly.  The pair stand framed in the white light of what looks like a shop front, but which also stands in for the blinding light of the stage, with Ducklingmonster in front of her audience, framed by the darkness of the night outside.  Written across the white centre of the drawing is the self doubt of the performer:

“Nobody Is At This Show”

and, of course, the local performer's secret misery:

“I'm not paying to play”

– which is the way that it works out for most small bands.

This is a zine that straddles the boundary between the 'personal' and 'art' zine genres.  It doesn't have the treacly self-indulgence of some personal zines, but nor does it hide the artist's feelings behind a wall of opaque images.  Instead, it satisfyingly balances feeling with the mystery of art. 

The Tangled Garden page 6

“To Dreams” Cover Page 1

from DrawingSilence http://ift.tt/1qYNqjU

335

from Extra Ordinary http://ift.tt/1ndyewk 

Marina Williams: Sevillana

Marina Williams is a kiwi comic artist and illustrator, currently based in the UK. See more of her work at Sevillana Comics.

Pritika and Coco: Pop Culture

Scanned from 'This Is Not A Comic' by Pritika and Coco. You can read the whole zine at the Auckland Libraries Zine collection at the Central City Library.

Guest Comic Ash Spittal – Page3

The final page of this battle epic by Ash Spittal! We will be returning to our regular programming next week



from Rooster Tails http://ift.tt/1mgxbLB

Debra Boyask: Punky Brings Home The Cake

Scanned from 'The Ancient Geeks' by Debra Boyask. You can read the whole zine at the Auckland Libraries Zine collection at the Central City Library.

Guest Strip Ash Spittal – Page2

Page two of the epic three page comic that Ash Spittal did for me – stay tuned for the conclusion!



from Rooster Tails http://ift.tt/1lVkDtp

Michael Sanders: Know Your Terrain

A Colonel Kernel comic strip.

Corn have been battling the Green Vegetables for centuries. There is an ongoing battle waged in your vegetable garden. Colonel Kernel is a senior commander in the Corn Army. He’s domineering, aggressive and could use a good dose of anger management. The Green Vegetables are an alliance of Broccoli, Peas, Lettuce and Asparagus (BPLA) and are ruled by a Broccoli commander. Each side has its allies, and its secrets, and does it’s best to gain an advantage, any advantage it can. The battle continues …

More Colonel Kernel comic strips and stories by Michael Sanders are available at http://otherramblings.yolasite.com/colonel-kernel.php

334

from Extra Ordinary

Happy New Year: Sarah Laing

Sarah Laing is a fiction writer and graphic designer. Find more of her work at http://sarahelaing.wordpress.com/