Earlier On

I have made a plan to produce and sell at least 3 - 5 books of graphic storytelling this year. These are most of the books I've mentioned last update. These represent a fair bulk of black and white comic work I dove into for the past few years. I've been waiting for a long time to put some of these into bookform and into the shops, and now with abit of luck it's finally going to happen...

As I'm typing this I've finished designing 3 of them, and will now be looking towards someone to help publish them. I've also thought about selling them digitally, so if the printing doesn't happen, these may as well be web-only.


The first book to show for now is EARLIER ON:



Probably considered a author's first ever proper book, as it's a collection of what I called my "earliest" published comic work. Some of this material contained will date back to 2005, when I started publishing minicomics with a crude, confusing style. As a collection, it's pretty solid for it's subject matters . Pretty much nearly all of the stories back then were attempts at whacked out crazy humor, with dark surrealism, fresh from all the sources of inspiration I had like Underground Comix and Heavy Metal, and Family Guy and Trace Hodgeson.



Some, like "The Workless Bum" (Which won me my only award, Favouite New N.Z Artist, at the local Gibson Comic Awards in Wellington) and "Yummy Little T.V's Educational Lollies" (once a 6 page mini, now a 20+ paged beasty, not included in Earlier On, but will be published in full later... look out for copies of Funtime Comics if you're interested, where it's being slowly published in parts), were attempts at a more serious and commentarial sense (in a wierd, cartoony way).




What the book does contained is Bum (a mini about unemployment and working class mocking), plus five other stories:


Hiyi Goes To Sleep is a true inspirational story about a determined, almighty dog... who eats flies.


On The Job was an unpublished mini about the admirible and courageous nature of... Police Officers.


Mony Through Time And Space and The Cup Calculi were both early attempts to experiment with the sequiential language.



Also, we have a very special comic from international comic legend Crank Giller, offering a special unpublished short from his award-winning series "Chin Chitty": Clean Close Shaves, Damsels And Babes!

Earlier On will be my Rattle And Hum, a snapshot of a time of a growing artist, a book to look back to, reliasing the types of stories (or songs...) I should of put the time and energy into and be creating after years of dissatisfaction. The next new books or whatever after these few will be different, more deep and insightful, less confusing... and will feature lush New Zealand landmarks... and The All Blacks (cause we all know, clean green vallies and Sport are apparently the only things worth celebrating in NZ... ahem...)

To you, it'll be new, exciting, you may chuckle, be amazed, get painfully confused... or, with a closed mind, watch as you let the entire book fly above your head as you turn each page, sipping back beer/wine, expecting practical answers... an' gettin' none... NONE!

(...Seriousness and actual attempts at answers will come later from me, don't worry)

I'll post more previews of the other books, in orderly blogging fashion, pretty soon. For now, here's abit from On The Job: