The first Ladies Auxiliary meeting was last night at Squishface. It went great! Rebecca Hayes and Katie Houghton-Ward did great talks about how they got into comics and what they’re working on next (Rebecca: theatrical design, Katie: new story for Heavy Metal).
You should come to the next one. Boys are apparently still allowed to attend. Also, send us suggestions for which lady cartoonists we should ask to speak!
The Emerging Writers Festival is running a writers residency called Words In Winter at the NGV Studio (the glass box at Fed Square, next to the Atrium). David is going to be in there working on a choose-your-own-adventure story set in the world of The Precinct.
These are some characters from the story. It will revolve around Det. Ackersley (centre), an angry loner cop, having to deal with two idiotic Protective Services officers (security guards with guns). Little punk hoodie children, Myki machines and Melbourne’s mayor will almost certainly be made fun of.
David’s rostered on to work there Fri June 8 (evening, ‘til about 10pm) and Sat June 9 (in the afternoon), but will drop by at other times, and tweet when he does so you can come by and bother him!
The nice people from http://www.mangaarts.com.au/ dropped by Squishface with a pack of Copic Multiliners. I (David) have been using these (a 0.5 and a 1.0) for my comics lately, but now I’ve finally had a proper play with a BS (the one with a Small Brush tip) and finally realised I could probably learn to use a brush pen if I just drew bigger. Here’s a page of futzing around.
You can be in our exhibition! Coming to Melbourne Fringe, Sunday October 7! Start drawing on coasters NOW.
David is going to start making greeting cards for sale at Squishface. He’s starting with some hand-drawn ones. If anybody likes them he might do a print run. Would you give this thank-you card to your grandmother?
Lots going on at Squishface this week!
The first LADIES AUXILIARY DRAWING NIGHT is this Thursday May 31. This will be a new monthly event wherein two arty ladies will address the gathering and show examples of their fine work. Then drawing will commence. There will be snackage and tea (our new Squishfacer, Jo, will make certain of this)! This month our guests are Rebecca Hayes and Katie Houghton-Ward.
If you missed Squishface’s appearance on Channel Ten’s The Circle and weren’t able to view it on Ten’s site (many people’s browsers didn’t like it), here’s a YouTube version you can check out. It doesn’t have the intro or outro because David used a converter software that only lets you make 3 minute clips. Sorry!
Jo Waite has also been making it into the newspapers in recent weeks. Though she’s pretty casual about it all as she’s been getting write ups for years.
There’s a really good article about the Squishfacers who went on Caravan of Comics on the back page of today’s Melbourne Age! This is what it looks like in print. You can read the article online here.
And please note: Sarah’s talk at the Emerging Writers Festival takes place 3pm THIS SUNDAY (May 27) at Melbourne Town Hall, and Squishface will have a table at Page Parlour in Fed Square THE SUNDAY AFTER (June 3).
If things go well, it looks like some Squishfacers will go to Gippsland in July for an exhibition and to run some comics workshops!
It’s being organised by the good people at Cowwarr Art Space (where David did a week’s residency last year working on his Bret Braddock comics) and would involve the Art Space and the nearby Gippsland Art Gallery in Sale. Carolyn at Cowwarr Art Space helped organise for Sarah and David to be involved in the Gallery’s Big Draw in 2011.
So if you’re in/around the Gippsland Lakes area (or can get there), stay tuned. Hopefully we’ll have dates soon.
For now, check out Cowwarr Art Space’s newsletter.
And here’s Benno reading part of The Three Baddest Bandits of the Wild Wild West while Azza flicks thru the story..
Ben, Azza and Jase Harper made this thing called a Picklet. What’s a Picklet? It’s a digital pop-up book you can read on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
Stewart Haines built the app and the software that lets you make these things. YOU can make one yourself and sell it via the Picklet app!
Here’s pics from the Picklets 1.0 launch. Ben and Azza performed their Picklet story: The Three Baddest Bandits of the Wild, Wild West!
