BentoComics.com – Keeper of the Soul

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Still at my weekly run of uploading comics to Bento Comics, and this week we have a… story that isn’t quite one. Yet. You’ve all heard the story – the Magnum Opus that kinda dies in the making because the creator got distracted; the 20-volume story everyone has in them at the start of their career, before they move onto other, better things… Still, worth reading as a “mood piece”.

Rundown: Bento Comics is a new website that permits users to read and compile their own short story anthologies. It then prints the book at a printing company called Lulu, and delivers the personalised book to your door. A new publishing model, if you will.

Short Story of the Week: A little girl sits with her family inside their fortress, when a loud knock is heard through the door…

E-book: Available on the right-hand side of this page, where it says “Ebook Available in .epub!”. It’s DRM-free, and Epub can be read on all platforms EXCEPT the Kindle. I’d like to charge USD$0.99 for this story (like iTunes), but the system isn’t yet in place so you can download it for free.

If you don’t have an e-reader like the iPad or Nook, you an download e-readers for your PC – here’s 2 programs you can download: The Adobe Acrobat eReader, and the Barnes and Noble eReader.

 

Keeper of the Soul

Click here to read on Bentocomics.com!

 

This is The Story That I Just Can’t Let Go Of, because it has such a great beginning. It may have been drawn years ago, in 2003, but even then, you can tell that fantasy (cloaks and great halls and weird costumes) is one of my favourite genres to draw in. I simply throw a lot of time and energy into drawing Fantastical Settings, probably because I feel that’s where comics really outshine other storytelling mediums. It can take 12 hours and 1 person to draw a really evocative landscape in a comic strip, while in a movie it’ll take a team of animators and millions of dollars for an equivalent. There’s just no match for the springboard reality comics provides.

BentoComics.com – Sleeping Chick

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Last week I was at a Graphic Novel conference in Melbourne, so no update last week. This week I’m back, and to get back on topic, I’m still doing my weekly run of uploading comics to Bento Comics. This story has been posted on this blog before, but hey – it’s cute and a lot of people liked it.

Rundown: Bento Comics is a new website that permits users to read and compile their own short story anthologies. It then prints the book at a printing company called Lulu, and delivers the personalised book to your door. A new publishing model, if you will.

Short Story of the Week: The Sleeping Chick wakes up!! And finds itself all alone… well, not really.

E-book: Available on the right-hand side of this page, where it says “Ebook Available in .epub!”. It’s DRM-free, and Epub can be read on all platforms EXCEPT the Kindle. I’d like to charge USD$0.99 for this story (like iTunes), but the system isn’t yet in place so you can download it for free.

If you don’t have an e-reader like the iPad or Nook, you an download e-readers for your PC – here’s 2 programs you can download: The Adobe Acrobat eReader, and the Barnes and Noble eReader.

 

Sleeping Chick
Click here to read on Bentocomics.com!

 

I came up with this story while I listening to Great Minds of Fantasy talk about their work. Neil Gaiman and Garth Nix were on that particular panel at a Publisher’s conference in Melbourne, and instead of absorbing what they were saying, I was thinking about chickens and eggs. And doodling on the Penguin writing pad they gave everyone for free – maybe it was the Penguin logo that got me thinking.

BentoComics.com – Shoes

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Remember, there’s a Graphic Novel Convention in Melbourne this Anzac weekend. But back on topic – about Bento Comics again, this week it’s a short-horror story called Shoes. It’s a 5-page horror story in both Japanese and English.

Rundown: Bento Comics is a new website that permits users to read and compile their own short story anthologies. It then prints the book at a printing company called Lulu, and delivers the personalised book to your door. A new publishing model, if you will.

Short Story of the Week: A man walking backstage at the Chinese Opera encounters a lone shoe… in the middle of the night. It’s the first time this story has been on the Internet.

E-book: Available on the right-hand side of this page, where it says “Ebook Available in .epub!”. It’s DRM-free, and Epub can be read on all platforms EXCEPT the Kindle. I’d like to charge USD$0.99 for this story (like iTunes), but the system isn’t yet in place so you can download it for free.

If you don’t have an e-reader like the iPad or Nook, you an download e-readers for your PC – here’s 2 programs you can download: The Adobe Acrobat eReader, and the Barnes and Noble eReader.

 

Shoes

Click here to read on Bentocomics.com!

 

This story was drawn recently as part of the “Journeys” anthology, where a bunch of comic creators got together and contributed their own short stories. The collection was printed in Japanese (and English in my case) and sold at Comitia ’09 in Japan. I think it did pretty well.

Graphic Novel at The Wheeler Center

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Wheeler Center
 

Drawing In, Drawing Out is three day event coming up at the Wheeler Centre which throws a spotlight on the graphic novel. The conference is in Melbourne, and will be held over Anzac Day weekend:

 

  • Friday 23 April – Key note Address with Shaun Tan
  • Saturday 24 April – Panel Discussions
  • Sunday 25 April – Day of Workshops

 

The graphic novel is a form that still attracts more than its share of stigma and snobbery, but its audiences are evangelical, its writers inspired and its sales enviable. And some of the most exciting developments in the form are coming out of Melbourne. With panel discussions, workshops and talks, and the help of some of the leading artists and writers in the field (including Bernard Caleo, Queenie Chan, W. Chew Chan, Oslo Davis, George Dunford, Nick Greenberg, Bruce Mutard, Sharn Tan, Andrew Weldon and others) the Wheeler Centre is going to colour in the picture.

We hope you can join us at the Wheeler Centre to celebrate and discover the graphic novel in all its forms.

You can check the website for the Event Schedule – you need to book for events. I personally will be attending a panel and hosting a workshop – details are as below:

Date: Saturday 24 April – Panel Discussions
Time: 3.00pm – 5.30pm
Title: Publish or Perish?
Featuring Queenie Chan, Oslo Davis and Nicki Greenberg. Chaired by George Dunford.

Date: Sunday 25 April – Day of Workshops
Time: 2.00pm – 4.00pm
Title: Drawing Manga – Workshop with Queenie Chan