Hourly Comics Day Training

February 1st is Hourly Comics Day! For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's the day when comic makers from all over the globe make a small comic for every hour they're awake! Some people like Lucy Knisley are SO excited that they're doing practice runs. I thought that was a pretty good idea, so I did one, too. Just to see how much work is involved. Each panel ended up taking about 5-10 minutes but lord help ye who decided to watch a movie - catching up is tough!

Anyways, I implore you cartoonists out there to try your hand at this. It's a great way of just getting something made. And that, my friends, is worth 5-10 minutes of your time every hour.

Making The Grade

This is my comic submission for an upcoming publication called Blood and Thunder. It should be out in early March. Knowing the publisher, Leigh Rigozzi, I'm sure it's gonna be a million miles above spectacular. He's an incredible cartoonist and zine maker who's been making and creating for as long as I've known him. He was at the Tasmanian School of Art when I started there 10 years ago. I wish I had gotten to know him better back then, but I was waaaayyyy more interested in spending my time trying to woo a beautiful blonde Tasmanian lass named Briony.

Leigh now lives in Sydney and is part of the team that runs the Rizzeria, a printing workshop that includes a magical RISO printer. Imagine a regular copier that instead of making regular copies, it screenprints. Yes, it's that cool. The very mention of its name to many cartoonists will produce spontaneous drooling and speaking in tongues.

If you're ever in Sydney, find those guys at the Rizzeria and marvel. Just marvel.

Guest Comic by Ben Hutchings

About a month ago, I was at the Tango 9 (Love and War) and Tango Anthology launch in Melbourne. While I was hangin' and chattin' with the Australian Comics Elite, Ben Hutchings came up to me and told me that he wanted to make a comic for my Diary Of A Work In Progress site. Naturally, I was flattered. Incredibly flattered. But I thought that his kind offer was more likely an alcohol-induced obligation that would probably be forgotten. But, throughout the night Ben was more steady on that promise than he was on his own two legs. He kept repeating to me that he wanted to make a comic for me.

So I had to take his word for it.

And today, I got an email from him with this little gem. It's got Ben's great absurdist sense of humour. (If you ever get a chance to read any of his sold out Lesson Master Comics, you are in for a great treat!)

So, thank you Ben! You're a LEGEND!

PS: There have been a few other great artists sending me some spectacular art. I'll make a post in the next few days to highlight some of my favourites.