Pikitia Press Blog: richard fairgray

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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Chromacon 2013 and Assorted Auckland Ramblings

A couple months back I had the pleasure of tabling with Pikitia Press at the inaugural Chromacon Illustration and Comic Art Festival in Auckland. This was the first comics event I've made the trek from Australia back to New Zealand for and It was well worthwhile. For a first time comic art festival, organiser Allan Xia and helpers seemed to pull it off without a hitch. This is the sort of event I'd love to fill my calendar with. Amongst the highlights of the couple days I spent in Auckland for Chromacon:

Chromacon was a one day event which for my coming-into-middle-age is the perfect duration for a convention.
It was nice to attend an event down this part of the world with a focus on comics and illustrators, no commercial retailers, just local creative folk.
The audience which I think numbered around 1000 for the day keep a steady flow of people through the venue. Not too busy, but rarely a quiet moment.
Chromacon was a veritable who's who of New Zealand Comics, there were some notable absences and I don't believe there were any South Island cartoonists there but on the whole it was a great opportunity to meet and catch up with a large variety of comic folk at one event.
I got to finally meet Tim Danko in person for a few minutes!
Getting to meet the cartoonists I publish. It's probably not so much of an odd thing in this day and age but I had never met in person, Sarah Laing or James Davidson, despite having published several of their comics by this point. Lovely hard working easy to deal with folk. They make my work easy.
The venue, one floor of The Aotea Centre, in the heart of Auckland, was an ideal place to have Chromacon, easily accessible and a comfortable fit for the amount of exhibitors and audience.
Grabbing pizza and gabbing comics with Kelly Sheehan, Ben Stenbeck and Chris Slane after the show. Heck, even the barman at the pizza joint was a cartoonist (look for a Pikitia Press comic from him sometime soon.)
Heading into the carpark after pizza this was waiting for us:

Grabbing coffee and gabbing comics with Timothy Kidd, Kelly Sheehan, Karl Wills and my little bro Sam at the Auckland Public Library.
On a quest of New Zealand comics archeology at the Auckland Public Library I found some real gems. Evidence that I suspected existed of a connection between two golden age NZ cartoonists surfaced and a NZ "Kramers Ergot" from the seventies? More to come on these developments...

Interview with Chromacon Organiser Allan Xia.
Fuzzy photography of some but not all of the comic folk at Chromacon.

Theo Macdonald and Richard Fairgray

Tim Gibson

Tim Bollinger and Barry Linton

Toby Morris

Sophie Oiseau

Czepta Gold

Dylan Horrocks

Chris Slane

Ant Sang, Ben Stenbeck and Adrian Kinnaird

Jesca Marisa

Damon Keen

Karl Wills

Marc Streeter

James Davidson

Michel Mulipola

Kelly and Darren Sheehan

Art in park

No visit to Auckland is complete without a visit to the St Kevin's Arcade Secondhand Bookshop. Piles of FP Phantom comics, Eric Resetar facsimile comics, the first 2000AD annual, I've bought many a fine comic from here over the years. This time I snapped up some reading for my flight home, an Australian edition of Buck Rogers Annual No. 2. Hundreds of pages of early Buck Rogers adventures compiled in one aromatic pulpy volume.

Before heading to the airport I took a shortcut through the Auckland University Campus to pick up my luggage. My "eagle book eyes" spied a table of old books next to a reception office. A lifelong fascination with old books, (I lived in secondhand bookshop for several months) I was compelled to go in and have a look. The receptionist told me they were donated to the university, who didn't want them, and had put them out for folk to take away. All German texts from the early twentieth century, I couldn't resist the offer of free old books so gathered up as many as I could carry and made my way back through the winding alleys and paths of the University. I'd love to keep all the wonderful paper goods I gather, but I can't, so I sold a selection of these to antiquarian book dealers in Melbourne and Switzerland, which paid for my trip and my coffee bill for the next three months.

A tragic inscription from the inside page of Conrad der Leutnant.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Sunday Gem: Richard Fairgray tumblr

Friday, April 19, 2013

Happy 28th Birthday, Richard Fairgray

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Marriage Equality in New Zealand

I can recall when The New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform Act was passed in 1986 and yesterday marked another historic piece of legislation with the passing of MP Louisa Wall's bill to legalise gay marriage in New Zealand. Several New Zealand cartoonists provided commentary on the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill being passed into law, making New Zealand the 13th nation to allow same-sex marriage.

Al Nisbet

This gallery was compiled from online sources and all images are copyright of the respective cartoonists. Any cartoonists who wish to have their work removed please email me.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

2012 in Review: Theo Macdonald

Theo Macdonald

What have been your cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?

Participating in the Comics Generation exhibition was cool. I've never had my work exhibited, so that was an interesting experience, working out what was worthy of the wall. Luckily the curator, Claire Harris, was very good at identifying that some work was simply better than other stuff. Traveling to Auckland Armageddon to sell my first graphic novel Edward Fisher: Duck, You Flogger was a big deal. This had taken 28 months to complete, so finally releasing it was satisfying, to say the least. It looked fantastic, mainly due to the involvement of Richard Fairgray, who dealt with all the publishing details.

Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the first time in 2012?

The main local work I've enjoyed has been that of the Comics Generation artists: Esther and Sadie Galloway, Zora Patrick, Michael Sanders, and Joel Spencer. There's a common sense of vitality to their work, it had to be created, which I like.

In terms of general comic reading, I've been woefully unadventurous, mainly just enjoying various continuing series, particularly Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, which uses Rodriguez' skills from his previous career in architecture to develop a comprehensive universe. One new discovery has been the ongoing webcomic Multiplex, by Gordon McAlpin, which began as a basic movie parody strip, but soon turned into a full fledged dramedy, kind of reminiscent of Freaks and Geeks. The art is vector, which I normally don't find that attractive, but the understated colour palette and sense of consistency afforded by computer generated work really draws me in.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2012?

This year I've been attempting to watch Woody Allen's entire directing filmography, a difficult task due to the unavailability of many of his works on DVD, but I'm close, three films left before his latest comes out here. I've also gotten into Jim Jarmusch, Orson Welles, and David Lynch, the last of whom's work I've enjoyed in several mediums, particularly his fine art, which is wonderfully textured and offers great insight into his directorial process.

My favourite new releases this year have been Young Adult and We Need to Talk about Kevin, both fantastic character driven pieces, albeit in two completely different genres, comedy and horror. Moonrise Kingdom was perfect, in my mind Wes Anderson is still to put a foot wrong.

I finally got around to reading a lot of the stuff on my bedside table: Howl and other poems, The Trial, The High Window, The Thin Man. There's still a lot to go.

Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?

It's more just been general development. I began rewriting every page of Edward Fisher as I got to it. The panel layouts are denser and more fluid. Does not sleeping count as a working method? Also I started watching Gilmore Girls when drawing, I assume I'll just stop creating when I reach the end of season 7.

Not comics, but this year I started using oil paints, which has drastically improved my style.

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

A couple of days ago I decided I'm going to create a sequel to my comic from two years ago, Theocracy. I've got 19 strips ideas written down, and am hoping to publish it online along with the content of the first volume. I've written some short films, a couple of which I plan on making early 2013, and I want to keep developing my painting skills. One project that should be very interesting is getting a new pair of glasses. At this stage there will probably be two lenses, but who knows what will change in editing?

Also I'll be beginning university in Auckland, which should generate enough angsty angst fun to keep me writing for a long time.

http://skate-ratcomics.deviantart.com/

Thursday, December 13, 2012

2012 in Review: Richard Fairgray

Terry Jones and Richard Fairgray

What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?

Finally being able to release Blastosaurus in print after having no control over the rights to it for so long. Also, launching the book in London was cool, it was strange being at a convention where such a huge percentage of attendees were there specifically to look at comics instead of video games or whatever else.

Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the first time in 2012?

I'm embarrassed to say it but until this year I had never read anything by Dave Sim. It's still all new to me (and surprisingly hard to track down) but Cerebus is just incredible. I really admire his dedication to that project and willingness to have it drive him to such a point of insanity to get it finished.

What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2012?

Finally got around to reading The Secret History, Slaughterhouse V, The Virgin Suicides and a handful of other books that had been sitting in a pile in my office for a long time taunting me.

In terms of film, I sort of liked Looper but not enough to rant and rave about it. I'd like to go on record here as saying that Dark Knight Rises was literally the worst film I have ever seen in a cinema.

Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?

I've begun a few new projects in 2012 which have been fun to work on. The most interesting for me is the Blastosaurus spin off 'No Added Color.' It's a comic specifically designed to be in black and white (the stories rely on it and the art is driven by shadow). It's been fun for me because usually my scripts are so defined when I begin drawing (a 70 page script for a 24 page comic with full panel by panel breakdowns already figured out) and with these stories I'm not limited by issue format or page numbers or worrying about the main continuity (the stories are all canonical but are set in between the significant events of the color series).

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Two new volumes of Blastosaurus, 2 new volumes of No Added Color, 4 new issues of Ghost Ghost, the 20th book of I Fight Crime, the first Ghost Ghost picture book...maybe taking a day off. of No Added Color, 4 new issues of Ghost Ghost, the 20th book of I Fight Crime, the first Ghost Ghost picture book...maybe taking a day off.

http://blastosaurus.com/