It’s not looking like the most festive of Julys at the moment. A combination of complacency and Australian Federal Government ineptitude with quarantining returning overseas travellers and the vaccine rollout mean Sydney, where I live, is deep in the midst of a fortnight lockdown, that may yet get extended by Continue Reading
Comics
Comics review: Wicked Epic Adventures (another Wallace the Brave collection) by Will Henry
There is an exuberant delight in every single panel in Wallace the Brave by Will Henry, the pen name of William Henry Wilson who lives with his wife and kids in Jamestown, Rhode Island from which he draws inspiration for the bucolically quirky of Snug Harbor in which the strip Continue Reading
Up goes the Easter Beagle! Decorating my Easter tree with five pop culture ornaments – Tigger, Snoopy and Woodstock, Bugs Bunny, Taz Devil and Charlie Brown
I have an Easter tree! Yes, that is a little unusual to most people but dig down into the community of fervent Christmas tree decorators, of which I am a happy part, and you will discover that decorating for the festive season twice a year (yes, Christmas in July is Continue Reading
Second life art: New York artist explains why he paints pop culture icons into discarded old paintings
SNAPSHOT“It came to me at a thrift store. I wanted to take something that had been forgotten and change it in a way that didn’t affect its aesthetic and to see if that, in and of itself, would make it wanted again.” (artist Dave Pollot via Laughing Squid) Op shops, Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Moonstruck (TP 1 – 3)
Post-modern storytelling is all about bringing together all kinds of disparate elements, or at least not commonly joined together ones, and making something remarkably beguiling out of them. It’s a common feature of fantasy storytelling now and increasingly is making its presence felt in comics such as the gorgeously queer Continue Reading
Comics review: Coady and the Creepies by Liz Princes + Amanda Kirk + Hannah Fisher
Coady and the Creepies is one of those delightful graphic novels that you love from the first page. That might make it sound like the introduction to punk music-playing 16-year-old triplet sisters Coady, Criss and Corey is all lightness and exuberantly fun dialogue, a whirl of visual fun and vividly-realised Continue Reading
Comics review: Pretty Violent by Derek Hunter + Jason Young + Spencer Holt
Ya gotta hand it to Gamma Rae – she likes to dream big! Superhero big, in fact, and she’s not going to let a pesky thing like a family stacked to the corrupt rafters with zombie-creating, thieving, murderous criminals out her off achieving her lofty goals. But even the protagonist Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Lifeformed – Cleo Makes Contact (vol. 1) and Hearts and Minds (vol. 2) by Matt Mair Lowery and Cassie Anderson
Alien invasions are, for the most part, treated as popcorn-chomping blockbuster spectacles replete with big epic action sequences, lives in mortal and imminent danger and big stakes battles between good (us; for once) and evil (most certainly them). They do not generally have time, what with all the awe-inspiring spaceship Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Lightfall (Book 1): The Girl and the Galdurian by Tim Probert
It’s no secret that life can be tough and unyielding at times, affording us precious little opportunity to push away reality away and pretend it simply doesn’t exist. Which is why inordinately delightful works like Lightfall (Book 1): The Girl and the Galdurian by Tim Probert are such a joyous Continue Reading
Comics review: Planet Paradise by Jesse Lonergan
So, what is it you want from a holiday? A chance to luxuriate by the poolside, drinking cocktails and reading a great book? How about gentle walks along a coastal trail, with towering trees on one side and an azure ocean on the other? Or perhaps you want an itinerary Continue Reading