COMX Indie Comic Reviews

 COMX Indie Comic Reviews

In 2023 Max Ferada (author, and creator of Stellarlands) and I were asked by COMX studios to look into creating a local comic review podcast concentrating on local Indie comics. We ended up recording 12 for the year and felt pretty confident that it may be an ongoing concern into 2024.

Check it out...

Here is the playlist from the COMX YouTube site HERE

And here's a sample

Presents and Presents Noir Review.

 Presents / Presents Noir

Released October 2021

An anthology of individual creator stories by new to the scene publisher Shane Syddall’s ComX. Shane along with Gary Deller’s revived REVERIE is sparking a bit of renaissance in the local comic scene.

Presents goes a long way in pushing this brief forward.

Firstly, I have to congratulate Shane on the brilliant quality of the product. Great paper stock, vibrant printing and colours and delivered with a great amount of thought to how the product could be hurt in the post. Combine this with the fact that the product consists of two omics at 48 pages apiece. The initial outlay from the original Kickstarter is indeed incredible value. Many have delivered a whole lot less for a whole lot more.

Now back to the comics.

This twin edition release includes seven creators taking on all art/writing/lettering duties and one collaboration.

Launched through Kickstarter in July, digital copies were distributed in September and physical comics in October, pretty much meeting its promised timeline, missing by a month because of the usual CoVid related stuff that we’re going to miss when we have to make excuses when this plague finally goes away.

To coincide with the physical distribution Presents volume 2 has been announced.

As mentioned earlier one edition is full colour and the other black & white titled Noir. Both have noir type elements.

Noir’s (and in my opinion the releases) highlight would have to be  Impulse by Dave Dye. Any new work by Dave is cause for celebration. It scares me to think how popular Dave would be if he had started his comic book career 20 years earlier before he left the army. His artistic style is much suited to the black and white/ pen and

ink brief of the comic, Gilbert Shelton/Dave Sheridan/Robert Crumb come instantly to mind when viewing his work. Dave also has a good grasp on flow and narrative and is one of only two stories in the collection that is a complete tale. A story of unintended tragedy with a nice twist and a very black humour climax.

 Killer Bea by Tony Menzies was the other complete tale but I wasn’t sure if this story was an introduction to the character and future stories or a stand-alone story. Either way, it went a bit too far in driving its story point home and left little to the readers' imagination.

Other stories included in Noir are Bin Kitty by Duncan Pranevicius and the Sword and Sorcery Marathon by Leigh Chalker and Tamara Gayland. 

Moving onto the all colour edition Foes by Peter Wilson kicks off the book with a well-drawn, very funny tale about Aliens and Demons that has a lot happening in it. Which may be its biggest problem. The panel per page count made it difficult for these old eyes. Pages that are that busy, really make for hard reading.

Vivian Jones: Occult Detective by Isaac George is reminiscent of Ryan Lindsay’s Deer Editor as it conveys the right amount of silliness and atmosphere to drive the story forward.

Final Dragon by E.D Kearsley is drawn in the 70s pulp comic style but with a lot more violence and action than was allowed back then. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the core of the story.

In the last story Rob “Spedsy” Lisle’s Frederick Cheloni Turtle Detective drawn in his distinctive style, this tale had its moments but so much was going on that it was obvious that it wasn't going to be resolved. which led to a tad of confusion. I suppose that it’s inevitable in an anthology that has so many continuing stories The good news is unlike most anthologies dependent on Kickstarter funding it looks like a 12-month wait is avoided by ComX pushing forward to produce the next edition in a decent time.

Value and packaging a big fat 10

Content: all up a solid 7.

We’ll see what number 2 has in store.

Presents & Presents Noir are available through www.comx.shop

 

Alternative Worlds - Australia's Oldest Comicbook Shop

Alternative Worlds  - Australia's  Oldest Comicbook Shop

 

My first visit to ALTERNATE WORLDS  was a pleasant surprise on so many levels. Back in 2013 I had, while researching something totally unrelated, read an article that I found via a link via another link of the best local comic book shops in Melbourne. Much to my surprise one of the most highly recommended was just two streets from my current employment. This was too good to be true, so I jumped in the car and promptly couldn’t find what I thought would be an obvious landmark. You know, a shop front with lots of colourful poster and a large sign.

Nope. I was travelling on a main thoroughfare down a very busy Bayswater Industrial estate at lunchtime. I then realised the shop was in one of the estates. So, I turned into what I hoped was the right driveway and checking either side of the road making sure not to collide with errant forklifts, that’s when I saw it. Sandwiched between a car upholster and to this this day I’m not sure what the guy on the other side sells but it seems to still be old newspapers, unregistered cars and broken electric motors. In the corner was a door with a small sign above it ALTERNATE WORLDS. I parked the car in one of the many spots available and walked towards the heavy solid door. The sign said it was open.

Now here’s the thing. ALTERNATE WORLDS is an optical illusion, which adds so much to its appeal. Its location belies what is on the other side of the door. Because it has no visible office or windows it appears as it is a back door to one of the neighbouring premises but as you enter you feel like any one of the Doctor’s companions the first time they enter the TARDIS.

 It’s a lot bigger on the Inside than it is on the outside.

ALTERNATE WORLD is a warehouse with over 400M2 of floor space, divided into several areas. The entry where all the new releases are, the toys and collectables to one side and huge bookshelves of Graphic novels and art books and Manga to the other. Whilst down the            

 

back is the game playing area and the massive collection of over 2000 boxes of archived back issues and rare comics. Being a Thursday, as I was later to find out, new release day (actually, it’s usually Wednesday night, but the plane was held up this time) and the shop was quite busy with regulars getting their fix. I just walked around for about half an hour soaking it all in.

For a guy in his early fifties, rediscovering a passion for comics long dormant due to …. basically life, this was nirvana. I had fallen back in love with illustrated stories thank to Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison and was playing catch up thanks to the likes of the League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Watchmen,WE3 , the Crossed series among man others. I had even had a few scripts published with some very understanding artists. The star had aligned. No more long trips into the city to inspect the shelves. And I have been a regular visited every Thursday lunchtime ever since. Some people go to the pub or the Pokies once a week. I go to my local comic book shop.

Move ahead a few years.

The Upholster has moved and ALTERNATE WORLDS has taken over the building, signage is a lot more prominent and I still don’t know what the guy next door is selling. My guess is rust and wet newspapers. ALTERNATE WORLDS is now my new haunt and I feel very comfortable there, so I took the opportunity to take a moment and sit down to talk to co-owners and operators of ALTERNATE WORLDS Joe Italiano and Peter Hughes about their own and the shop, what I got was a fascinating history of Australian Comics in the last quarter of the 20^th Century.

ALTERNATE WORLDS is Melbourne’s (Australia’s) longest established comic book seller, having it’s roots back in the early 1970s from Joe Italiano’s house where Joe, a passionate comic book reader started bringing in comics from overseas to satisfy his own appetite for new comics which evolved into supplying others with the same interest who were also looking for missing books from their collections. In 1977 the genesis of ALTERNATE WORLDS evolved from IMAGES IMAGES. During this period Joe took over The Australian Comic Collector (TACC)  to bring attention to new comics and to use as a vehicle to sell and trade comics. This was funded by a Science fiction and comic club Joe started at RMIT (which is still running under the name Science Fiction and Gaming  Club) Along with Moris Sztajer and likeminded people from the club this led to the Comic Art Show held in St.Kilda in 1978 which was the precursor to the first Comic Con held at RMIT campus in 1979. This was supported by the Club and the venue supplied free of charge by the University. Though there were no big name overseas names, there were plenty of artists, primarily newspaper comic strip and political artists. During this period Joe met his future partner Peter Hughes in Melbourne’s SPACE AGE BOOKS and struck up a friendship after bonding over an issue of Captain America -issue 215 to be exact according to Peter- and other mutual interests. A busy period ensured from this point Peter joining with Joe to process and pack IMAGES IMAGES mail orders and producing TACC and in 1980 Joe, Moris and Peter staged COMICON II at Sheraton Motel in Melbourne. Once again there were no overseas talent, but they managed to get one Peter Ledger, who was gaining a name as a colourist in big name comics overseas. It was also one of the first times Cosplay was introduced to a convention. These conventions continued in different venues and guises during the 1980s these tended to be more Science Fiction based under the name Phantasacon. During that period TACC was handed over to others to produce to the work load of running IMAGES IMAGES and the conventions. After giving up TACC, they found they missed it and created a more newspaper styled affectionately named Baby TACC which eventually morphed into ALTERNATIVE WORLDS Pre Oder Catalogue which is still published every month till this day and is one the first of its kind pre dating the larger US publishing house editions. IT was also during this time Joe wrote a Super Hero RPG  Super Squadron which was released in 1983 and for a while was distributed in the USA. It is during this period you can see some of the work Peter and Joe contributed as aspiring artists themselves. For Peter it was a four part series BLOODSWORD with Robert Shaw in the original REVERIE by Gary Dellar from 1983 and Joe cover art for TACC No.1.

Due to various circumstances within their professional and extracurricular pastimes, it was decided to expand the mail order business into a fully-fledged a comic book shop, though at first they were hesitant to make their hobby their job. However good sense prevailed and then  in 1988  the   IMAGES IMAGES name was changed to ALTERNATE WORLDS and the shop was opened at 40 Chapel St. Windsor. ten years later saw a  move up the road to 76 Chapel St to bigger premises. This was augmented with another store opening in the mid-1990s in Bourke Rd Camberwell but closed when the introduction of the GST made it an unproductive venture. When the prestige of a Chapel St address pushed rents to stupid levels ALTERNATE WORLDS  found a new home in its current location at  Malvern St Bayswater in 2011. Closer to home for the owners and a large warehouse space to house the massive collection of rare and back issue comics and cards.

Though more settled these days, Joe and Peter are still passionate about their work, both have a keen sense of what is happening in the Industry and the scene in general. Joe still attends and supports the big Conventions with a large stall of stock. He was recently a guest at the regional Gippsland GeekFest as special presenter.  Peter not so much these days , he‘d rather look after the shop.

The lack of shop front and a main street or Shopping Mall position does not phase the owners, stating that finding such a location would be cost prohibitive, especially with the amount of space the require storing the stock they want to carry. Joe believes they are one of the only true “comic shops” in Australia where you can get all current editions, along with variant covers and have a good chance of finding recent and long discontinued lines in the store. Not just what is currently available and  not to be seen again once the run is over. By moving a little off the main thoroughfare is not an imposition for foot traffic, if people want to come, they will come regardless. Plus, on the weekends parking is plentiful. Both men are collectors and cater for collectors and the current set up is the perfect solution.

To enhance that last point ALTERNATE WORLDS has begun a new monthly program where on the fourth Saturday of each month boxes are opened, and treasures unearthed from its collection of over half a million issues with the introduction of PREMIUM ACCESS COMIC DAY. Where the vast collection of rare comics dating back to early last century, Australian and US underground, Golden and Silver age tiles titles as well as magazines and early popular titles. Each event is different and surprise to behold. On the very first one I attended I found my Holy Grail, A RAT’S satire magazine from the early 1970s. Pure gold. Something I was convinced no longer exist, not even an image on the internet. So, believe me, there are surprises aplenty.

On a parting note I asked both Joe and Peter after forty years were they looking at slowing down or you up for another forty?

Both replied simultaneously:

Peter: We’re not going anywhere.

Joe: No way. Bring it on.

ALTERNATE WORLDS is located at 11 /13 Malvern St Bayswater Victoria and trades Seven days a week opening at noon.

 originally published on the Australian Comic Journal (now defunct)

Newton Comics -the Amazing Rise and Spectacular Fall- Review

Newton Comics -the Amazing Rise and Spectacular Fall  by Daniel Best.

Way, way back in 1975 when I was thirteen I found a new comic in the Milk bar, it was The Planet of the Apes a spin-off of the popular movies and TV series.

I was so excited about this comic that I didn’t even care that the story continued onto the next issue, so I kept an eye out for other titles by this new publisher Newton Comics. Well, you could imagine my disappointment when hot on the heels of Planet of the Apes came countless Marvel titles. I quickly became aware that Newton was doing the same as GK Murray (whose self-contained black and white DC stories I’d grown to love) and were releasing reprints, but in my opinion not as good. Soon these comics were everywhere and my passion for the Planet of the Apes series waned as this was also the time that I discovered American underground comics. Newton eventually disappeared off the newsstands and seriously I could have cared less. It seemed like mass produced rubbish. I did however, many years later as my interest in local comics grew, wondered what happened to them.

Well I don’t have to wonder anymore, thanks to Adelaide author Daniel Best’s Newton Comics -the Amazing Rise and Spectacular Fall. A book entertaining on so many levels and a captivating reference of a short but tumultuous time in the history of Australian comics, and one that up until now was largely ignored. Besides being a comprehensive listing of all the Newton Comics catalogue with cover images of all available issues, it also tells the amazing story of how, in a short span of three years Newton Comics deserved the title chosen for the book.

Maxwell Newton

Best does a great job filling in a gap about Maxwell Newton and his comic publishing history, that seems to get passed over in his own biography and by many Australian comic book historians.

Newton was a child prodigy who grew up in Western Australia and counted among his school alumni John Stone (the man whose signature was on our bank notes for a long time) and ex PM Bob Hawke. He was talented journalist and economists who wrote for major National papers including the Australian and the Financial Review. He was accused of spying by the Gordon Liberal government and started the Sunday Observer in Melbourne where the idea for Newton Comics was formed and how Maxwell Newton went on to screw Marvel comics out of a small fortune on his way to a self-destructive lifestyle.

The author goes into what transpired over that period in some detail, including original documents and interviews with people who were in the thick of it, he also continues as Newton’s publishing career and life collapse due to his many excess’ which include alcoholism, suicide attempts and a stint as a pimp, only to clean up his act sustainably.  Eventually leading him to abandon Australia (with the help of Rupert Murdoch) building for himself a respectable career never to return and dying at the age of 61 in 1990.

Best also gives us insight to the collectability of the product as well as comprehensive list of available comics and ephemera, even supply a script of a possible Australian story that may have been published had things turned out differently.

Why we have TV mini movies on media personalities like Dulcie Boling, Ita Buttrose and Kerry Packer when we had a Larry Flint/Ian Fleming hybrid running amuck upsetting politicians and the establishment in equal measure. A man with amazing resilience and ability to bounce back from whatever crisis he found himself in (usually self-infected) This man is a major motion picture waiting to be made.

Newton Comics -the Amazing Rise and Spectacular Fall  was made possible by a 2013 Pozible crowd funding campaign and a lot of people had faith in him to make it a reality, and I’m glad, it’s  a fantastic read and an important research document for the series Australian comic collector. Daniel Best has written a well researched and entraining book that sheds light on a period many tend to skip as blip on the radar in Australian comic history.

Newton Comics -the Amazing Rise and Spectacular Fall   is available as an Ebook via Blaq Books www.blaqbooks.com.au

The transformation of Cerbil Penfold to a rat by that bastard Ron Weasley.

A What if... story, that continues on the Harry Potter series. This one is about a grown up Ron Weasley and his chosen proffesion.

NOW

Even the thickest of students knew the first and most important rule of wand craft:The fat bit you hold, the thinner end where the sparks come out always points away.
These were the last thing that went through Cerbil's mind as he watched his wand fall to the ground with the pointy bit with the sparks was aiming straight at him.
He didn’t even get to finish his last words as a human, it ended something like
         
 “Fuuuceeeeeek”

BEFORE

Cerbil Penfold was playing bad guy to Eric Spinethorp’s badder guy as they interrogated the man sitting at the table in the dungeon type room that was the basement of  the most feared wizard in Europe: Lord Chandor.
The red haired man at the table had been caught spying on the Master and now Cerbil and Eric wanted to know what it was he had found out.

“You’re a dickhead Weasley, how did you think we wouldn’t recognize you?” Cerbil yelled at their victim.
Weasley just sneered at him.

“Are you so stupid to think we have never read a paper or had a casual conversation with anyone in the wizard community?” Cerbil slammed his hands onto the table and put his face inches from Weasley’s. “You think we wouldn’t recognize the late and great Harry Potter’s best friend?”

Weasley looked Cerbil in the eye, that trademark Weasley sneer still smeared across his face.

“If he were alive today you’d be a bit more cautious, the Ministry will find me and if they don’t, I will. I never forget a face”

“Here, memorize this Rain Man”  yelled Eric as he slapped Weasley off his chair with the Metropolitan white pages phone book.

“Good one Eric, the oldies are the goldies” laughed Cerbil.

“Thanks Cerb, anyway Weasley how great a wizard was  Potter? To kill himself  scratching his nose with his wand and blowing his brains out?”

Ron Weasley dearly wanted to scream that Harry’s death was a horrible accident but lay still to create the illusion he had been knocked out.
It took every fibre of his being to do so.

Hermione had had some influence over him that had stuck, patience being one of them.

“Hey Eric I think you may have broke him” laughed Cerbil “Oh well I think it’s time we taught Big Red here a lesson on snooping”

Cerbil pulled out his wand and proceeded to do a  transmorph curse.
Weasley recognized the start of the deadly charm and with his fingers did another thing he was grateful to Hermione for teaching him. He worked a simple hand spell.

Something most wizards forget when they mastered wandcraft and considered hand magic child’s play.

Weasley uttered the simple spell under his breath and with a twitch of his fingers directed it at Eric.

The simple little sneeze spell had catastrophic effect on Eric who sneezed just as he finished the chant part of the curse and dropped his wand.
Eric copped the full blast of the curse and the wand snapped in two as his body fell on top of it and transmorphed into a common rat.

NOW - AGAIN

“What the..?” yelled Eric and kicked Weasley as hard as he could in the head sending blood flying and knocking him senseless.

“You bastard”

Eric saw the rat and Cerbil’s broken wand and knew Cerbil was finished. No one could reverse that spell especially with the casting wand destroyed.
Cerbil was doomed to remain a rat for the rest of his life.

Eric raised his wand and aimed it at Cerbil in a sense of duty to his fallen friend.
He sent a blast at the Rat just as the door opened and no other then Lord Chandon stuck his head in.

Cerbil the rat bolted out through the opening and ran down the hall as Eric stood there with a blank look on his face.

“What is going on here Spinethorp?, why are you shooting at me, where is Penfold? And why the hell is Weasley bleeding from his ears like that?"

This was going to take some explaining thought Eric, and for a second actually thought of pointing the wand at his own head.

It would probably be easier.

Free Comic Book Day 2019.

Free Comic Book Day 2019. Alternate Worlds

Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) had a double impact this year falling on Star Wars Day –May the Fourth (be with you). The worldwide day of celebrating the local home of all things comics and pop culture has now been going strong for 17 years and usually coincides with the release of a comic based blockbuster movie. This year, of course, is the massively popular Avengers Endgame, which at the time of writing is headed to being one of the biggest grossing pictures of all time.

It would be nice to say these blockbuster movies worked their release days around Free Comic Book Day but in fact, FCBD was actually started around the release of the first Spider-Man movie back in 2002. Despite this FCBD is still a popular date on the calendar and has turned out to be a great family-friendly event.

Some comic stores in the city centre have lines reaching over two hundred metres long before opening but out here in the outer suburbs, it’s a bit more laid back. My local comic book store Alternate Worlds in Malvern Street Bayswater. The day tends to be far busier than normal but without the crazy crowds that seem to descend on their big city counterparts.

Peter Hughes reaction to the big crowd

However, this year was a little different. Alternate Worlds were a lot more inclusive this year, with special prizes for kids under 12, in the way of costumes and trivia contests but for us more mature fans, owner Peter Hughes and Joe Italiano displayed some of their more collectible comics in a million dollar plus exhibit of rare and historical comic books, many from Joe’s private collection.

Joe Italiano and the Million Dollar Wall

It was wonderful to see parents strolling around on a Saturday morning with children as young as three and four dressed as Iron Man, Thor, Spiderman among others flipping through comics seeing which one they want to take home. The Dad’s as excited a the kids in some cases.

Every year the many comic book publishers issue special comics as samplers, stand-alone issues for those new to comics featuring old and new characters. Surprisingly not the more popular movie based characters, which I like, as it feels less exploitive.

The Million Dollar Wall

But this year I was excited to catch a glimpse of these rare comics on display. I have a love of comic book history predominantly Australian but it’s always nice to see something so rare that they have the same price as a small house. Because believe it or not, old and rare comics are commodities much like wines, coins and books these days and can command huge prices at some of the most prestigious auction houses. As an example, the original comic in which Superman first appeared – Action Comics No.1 was last sold in 2014  at over 3 million US dollars.

Whilst that particular comic wasn’t on the board, there was in no particular order. Amazing Fantasy No.15 1963 (the first appearance of Spider-Man) Action Comic No. 252  1959 (the first appearance of Supergirl)  Tales of Suspense 1963 (The first appearance of Iron Man) Superman No.8 1941 and Batman No.9 1942 (Both 1940s editions of the world-famous heroes when they were first starting out) and Captain America No.15 1942 (with the slightly racist war-time  title Nazi’s & Nips) A quick search on Google in the price guide sites and you soon realise why they called it the Million Dollar Wall.

Though a more subdued celebration of Free Comic Book day, Alternate Worlds still made an occasion of it but I have no doubt local comic book shops the world over had a big boost in sales this weekend.

Watchmen Parodies

I found these amusing , you can find more at Watchmencomicmovie.
This first one is from a special edition MAD Magazine from the 2008 ComicCon

   

 

This one I believe to be very clever. What if Stan Lee wrote Watchmen. After reading this it makes you thank goodness Alan Moore started writing for comics.

 

 

For more silly parodies go here SOMETHINGAWFUL