Here are some sample art from the first 20 pages of “The Dreaming” v4. It’s a supernatural-thriller-romance story, yes, it has very strong psychological-horror romance elements.
Now that I’ve let it sit for a bit and done some editing, it’s 250 pages, but that may change after I lay down the pages for v5 and look at the thing as a whole. As you can see, I’m going all-out with the art!
Two exciting things! My latest “Women Who Were Kings” book “Catherine the Great” #4 was nominated for the Young Adult section in the ALIA (Australian Library & Info Association) Notable Australian Graphic Novels of 2023 Shortlist.
It’s always wonderful to see libraries embrace graphic novels, especially local graphic novels by Australia creators. For Aussie comic creators interested in getting their works into libraries through library suppliers, here’s my guide on how to do it. Don’t underestimate the importance of libraries to books and book culture–they and librarians (whether they’re public or school librarians) are very, very important!
Secondly, the comics site GlobalComix interviewed me for Women’s History Month on “The Dreaming” and a host of my other work, so many thanks to Jackson and Nen for doing that and the live broadcast.
For those who don’t know, GlobalComix is the successor to Amazon’s Comixology, where people can read and upload their own comics/manga/graphic novels. They have an app, and Image and Top Cow also publishes on there, so it’s a great place to check things out on.
Click here for the interview.
Librarian Marissa King from the ALIA (Australian Library & Information Association) Graphic Novels Group interviews me about “The Dreaming”, thanks to Iurgi for setting this up.
Libraries are very important for preserving the works of Australian creators, and I have here a link that will teach you how to list your comic with Australian library suppliers (NB. If you don’t have an Australian distributor, your work MUST go thru a Library supplier to get into a library).
Here is the podcast version: https://shows.acast.com/64ac9152062a1f00115dde8c
“The Dreaming” is being republished in 2023 by IPI Comics, an imprint of Australian publisher IFGW Publishing! This story is a Lovecraftian take on the Australian classic “Picnic at Hanging Rock”, about twin sisters who attend a remote Australian boarding school where schoolgirls have been known to disappear.
The original story will have some minor rewrites/updates to suit a more modern audience, so it’ll have some new pages and redrawn art. There will also be a vol4, which will be a standalone story set in the same universe involving characters connected to some of the original characters, and hopefully the main storyline can continue in a part 2 after that.
Here is an interview with Soda and Telepaths about this, thanks to Anthony Pollock.
Here’s an interview with me from a while back, by Bettina Burger who is researching Australian Speculative Fiction. This interview was done before the rights to “The Dreaming” left the previous publisher, so what I say about “The Dreaming” will be different now that the circumstances are different.
I have an interview up with ALIA CYS Scoop, a newsletter for librarians. It’s on my work and also the Australia Comics & GN Database that I set up, and which is managed by ALIA librarians. Many thanks to Petrina for organising the interview and putting it up!
I have an interview with Jun Sugawara-san (and his translator Garrett Hudspeth) of Animator Supporters, who are a charity that supports underpaid animators struggling in the anime industry. Underpaying animators has been a long-time problem with the anime industry, to the extent where the industry could collapse, so here is Jun-san explaining why that happens.
This interview was conducted with a pre-prepared, bilingual Q&A document, so here is the full transcript with the original Japanese text. We didn’t cover the political aspect of underpaid Japanese animators, but that’s in the transcript. This interview was also hosted by the ACA, at their yearly Stanley Conference, many thanks to them.