Vegemite Parrot

I've been thinking lately about some of the short comics I did about Rob before I made the decision to work on a whole long-form book dedicated to stories about growing up with him. In particular, I've been thinking about one story that I have just revisited in part two: the Tale of the Vegemite Parrot. The first version of Vegemite Parrot was originally published by Comicoz in the anthology Australia! alongside lots of other rad Australian comic artists. And I thought you guys might like to see how my stories and style have changed and what things have stayed the same over the last couple of years. 

Let's start with my original mini comic. It's a couple of years old now and I've changednot only my haircut, but also how I draw myself and my family members. I have to admit I cringe a little looking at it now but I quite like the 3-eyed parrots (they have no bearing on the story; I just wanted to draw them). Maybe I'll use them in a future fictional story.

Next up we have the process of taking this story and putting it in the middle of a graphic novel. 'Vegemite Parrot' appears in Oh Brother around the 130 page mark and by the time I was writing the script for part two (January/February 2017), I couldn't really remember what I'd written for the first version. I decided to not really refresh myself about what I'd done because I now wanted the story to work as part of the book, not as a stand-alone piece. So without re-reading the short comic, I wrote a brief description about the Vegemite Parrot story. 

Then came my new favourite part of writing comics: thumbnailing! I took the fairly boring text and added lots of fun pictures to help me visualise what the story would look like on the page. I use red marker because it makes me feel like I'm some sort of fancy editor. I also really like red. 

Then came the actual penciling of the story. Now, I figure out the layout for the panels as I'm doing the pencils, because the layout to me is like I'm having a conversation with someone and I want the panels per page to reflect the speed and flow of the story I'm telling. That's why I use gridded paper note cards that are already cut to certain sizes, so I can play around with what the panels will look like on the page before I draw everything up (a trick I picked up from the very clever Pat Grant and adapted slightly for my personal writing style). Note: My pencils are normally a boring grey lead pencil colour. I made them pink for this blog because I wanted to.

The next step is making people read your work, seeing what they think and then editing it again. I've recently had an edit session (I'll talk about that in a future post) and this little story has yet to get a mention (which is good. It means people think it's a good story)!

And that's it! Technically the next step (which I am yet to do) would be to ink and colour the final art of the story but I'm not going to start inking anything until I finish the whole book and have edited it as a whole. I want my inking to be as consistent as possible throughout the book, so doing as much as I can at the same time is my goal. 

That's the blog for this week. I hope you found it interesting to re-read my old comic and compare it to the newer version of the story. I find it fascinating seeing what changed and what stayed the same. I didn't much like looking at my old work, but I rarely do. That's why I must always be making more comics, because the next thing will be better. Oh yes.

Have a super week!

Gx

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My Go-To Story

Hello hello!

It feels like this year has been the year of short travel trips for me: Melbourne, Norwood and now most recently I've been off to Our Nation's Capital, Canberra. I was there selling my zines at Noted Festival and also getting in some quality hang time with my fantastic pal Kyra (who moved to C-town a couple of years ago for work). 

I didn't realise just how much I missed her face and spirit in my life until I saw her and got to spend time just being around her. Y'know those really great friends you have, that it doesn't matter how long you've been apart, you just fall back into each other's lives? It's a pretty great feeling. Although now I miss her more than ever. 

Anyway, with all these small trips my routine keeps getting all disrupted and it always takes me a little while to get back into the swing of things, respond to emails etc. But I'm back and about to get stuck into Part Three of my book (all about Fears and what the future holds for me and Rob). So while I'm working hard on that, have a read of this little excerpt from the pencil draft of Part Two. It's my go-to story when I'm trying to explain to someone who doesn't know Rob at all just how clever and amazing and perceptive my brother can be. 

This is straight out of my pencil draft manuscript so it's not final art (JSYK). 

Rob really is pretty amazing. 

Alright pals, that's it for this week but don't worry, there will be more coming soon, I promise. 

Until next time, stay indoors, keep warm and watch that movie you've been thinking about seeing but constantly putting off. 

Gx

 

My blog is brought to you by the help of my Patreon Pals. If you want to become a George Rex Patreon Pal, then just jump to my Patreon page here. 

Good Ripping Material

Hey guys!

Guess what? I've finished Part Two of my book! I'm pretty excited about having another 150 pages done of the draft pencils but also a bit nervous about taking on Part Three (the final part), as it will probably be the most emotionally taxing section (it's all about fears and what the future means for me and Rob). But I'll go into all that stuff in a future post. 

Part Two was all about obsessions, mostly Rob's obsessions - from food to TV and item placement to nappies. One of Rob's more frustrating obsessions for me was his ripping paper phase. He would rip pretty much anything, including my math homework. Here are a couple of non-sequential pages from Part Two featuring Rob's ripping abilities:

I've been cleaning up a few of my old school books and papers that have been living at my parents' house and the other day I found one of the original notes my mum wrote to my teacher. I can't believe that I've kept it after all these years (also I thought that the teacher would've needed it).

I'll be sharing a few different snippets of Part Two over the next few weeks, as well as a wrap-up of the differences between working on Part One and working on  Part Two. 

I'll be in Canberra for the next week, taking part in the Noted Festival Zine Fair. So If you're in Canberra for whatever reason on the 7th May, come and say hi!

Have an excellent afternoon, the next time you find yourself in an afternoon. 

Gx

My blog is brought to you by the help of my Patreon Pals. If you want to become a George Rex Patreon Pal, then just jump to my Patreon page here. 

Good Reads // March & April

Oh boy! I've been reading lots of rad comics this past couple of months. While I was on residency I was able to tick off a lot of books that have been on my reading pile for aaaaaages. So let's not bother with chit-chat, let's go straight to the important stuff: comics!

1. Blankets by Craig Thompson

Blankets has been on my To Read list for ages. But it just looked to so big and daunting to read that I've always kept telling myself that I didn't have enough time to read it properly and give it the time it needed, so it just sort of sat in the back of my mind. But during the residency I finally had a big block of time that I could dedicate to sitting and reading. 

And I'm glad I waited. It was a lot heavier (emotionally) than I expected and having the time to sit and absorb the story was not only useful but necessary. Thompson writes about hard-to-discuss events of his childhood and adolescent years and a coming-out of sorts from his Christian upbringing. It's a tough, but well written, read.

For those who love: Autobiography, coming of age stories and beautiful ink work.

2. California Dreamin' by Penelope Bagieu.

I'm a sucker for biographies of pretty much any type (in particular, biographies of musicians I grew up listening to with my parents), so when I saw this comic about Mama Cass arrive at my local I picked it up straight away. 

I was really attracted to the scribbly, scratchy style of illustration and I dug that each chapter was from the point of view of a different character (none of which were Mama Cass herself). Like a lot of biographies that I love, I learnt about things I didn't expect to learn about and it made me want to investigate more about the main person (and everyone surrounding their life). 

For those who love: Mama Cass, musician biographies and pencilled art.

3. Super Mutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki

Super Mutant Magic Academy is another book that I've been meaning to read for a while. I would occasionally pick it up off the shelf at the comic store and flick through the pages, not knowing if I wanted to read it but not wanting to read too much in case I did buy it and wanted to immerse myself in it later. So when I visited a public library that I'd never been to before and saw a copy of the book on the shelves, just sitting there, as if waiting for me, I had no choice but to borrow it (South Australia has a great One Card system, so you join up to one library and can borrow from any in the state!).

When I got the book home, I made a cuppa and got stuck in. Instantly I knew that this was the kind of book I would've loved as a teen. Grumpy, sarcastic teens with teen problems, unrequited love, unexplained magic abilities. Lots of short stories, most no longer than 1 page, that link together slowly over the year, deepening the characters' character with every panel.

For those who love: Angsty teens, magic and secret love. 

4. Baggy Wrinkles by Lucy Bellwood

I had a ball reading Baggy Wrinkles. I bought it for Owen for his birthday and once he had read it I quickly got my mitts on it. Bellwood hooks you into her love of everything oceanic with a mix of personal stories and information comics. The way she writes is just delightful and I loved every minute I was reading this book. My only complaint was that I wanted more! More I tell you!

For those who love: Adventure, the sea and silliness. 

5. Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden

Rolling Blackouts is our very own comics tour guide into how American journalists report on foreign wars. This is a comic that tries to answer the question "What is journalism?"; it's a comic that reports on the reporters. It was an interesting book that felt part journalistic think-piece and part introspective travel journal. As someone who is woefully uneducated in what conflicts are happening around the world and has no idea about the first thing to do with journalism or reporting, Rolling Blackouts was a good place to start for me. I wanted to find out more about everything Glidden wrote about, which for me is a sign of a good book. 

On a more personal note, at the end of the book Glidden talks about having to process everything she experienced on her trip before being able to tackle writing the book, which was not only something that I could relate to but also something that made me feel a lot better. I've been feeling pretty down about the speed at which I've been making my book, and feeling bad about taking breaks from writing it. It's always nice to read that other people have the same feels. 

For those who love: Thought-provoking writing and learning about the world of journalism.

6. Bandette by Paul Tobin & Colleen Coover

This comic was so much fun. A lighthearted romp in the genre of the gentleman (or more specifically gentle-lady) thief. Bandette is cunning, clever and loves chocolate. With her band of 'urchins' she both outwits and helps friendly rivals Monsieur (another art thief) and Inspector Belgique (of the police), while also clashing with more serious foes in a secret society called FINIS. Adventure, romance, chocolate, information about famous art and historically important pieces; what more could you want?

For those who love: Acrobatics, puns and Paris. 

That's it for this post. I've still got a giant pile of reads next to my bed. Every time I get through a big chunk of my reading list I "accidentally" buy more comics from my local. Whoops!

What's been your favourite read lately?

Gx

 

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Harry

About a year ago, almost to the day, our family dog Harry passed away. He was very old and had a(nother) seizure and the vet found many cancers throughout his body. I remember so clearly Dad calling me to tell me of Harry's seizure, that he was taking him to the vet and that he'd let me know what was happening when he knew more. That day I had gotten up early and was cleaning up my study while listening to the Stephen Fry audiobook of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the book about the boy wizard after whom our dog was named). 

Harry was a big part of my life, as are many childhood pets. He was always there for me when I was stressed about Rob, stressed about life. He was to me the perfect dog. Dorky, sweet, a great pal and a bit of an idiot. Even though Harry wasn't our first family dog, he was the first I had a say in adopting. When I drew wolves (my favourite animal) as a kid, I drew Harry.

He was like another sibling to both me and Rob. And I still miss him lots. I still sometimes forget he's gone and when I visit my parents I expect him to greet me when I arrive or automatically go to feed him my leftover fish at the dinner table. 

He was such a big part of our lives that he has a starring role in Oh Brother, in particular in part two (which I have just finished the draft of!). Which of course means that he needed his own character sheet. 

It's been hard writing the stories that feature Harry but I'm glad I can celebrate his radness with others in comic form. My biggest regret is that I wasn't with him when he was put down. I still wish I had seen him one last time, to thank him for being such a great friend and pillow. 

To all the pet pals out there, you guys are the best. 

Gxx

The Burrow

Clothes for my Burrow adventure.

Clothes for my Burrow adventure.

During March this year I was invited to work and live out of a studio apartment in Norwood, South Australia for three weeks by the May Gibbs Children's Literature Trust (MGCLT). I had been awarded the Ian Wilson Memorial Fellowship (in fact I was the inaugural winner) for unpublished authors. So I packed up my things and got ready for an adventure.

The fellowship was created to help unpublished emerging children's and Young Adult (YA) authors and illustrators to have time to work on their current book project. There was also an element of networking and industry meetings. This meant that I spent two weeks solidly working on my book and then one week meeting with librarians, publishers, agents and book sellers to find out more about the industry that is Children's Literature. 

I had originally planned to finish part two of Oh Brother, which I assumed would be about the same length as part one (about 100 pages) during my time at the Fellowship, but I soon found out that this part had quite a few more extra stories and pages. I got 120 pages done while at the Burrow and still have about 20 more to go. Phew!

The essential art supplies for comic book making. 

The essential art supplies for comic book making. 

Even though I didn't achieve my goal of finishing part two (which I was pretty annoyed at myself about), I did get a big chunk of the book done. Hopefully I'll finish part two by the end of this week and then all I have to do is finish part three (and hope that it's no longer than 100 pages), find a publisher who's interested in it and do all that inking stuff. No worries, right?

While I was there I kept notes for myself to write up a little travel comic when I got back into my regular studio (with writing the book all day I ran out of drawing energy by the evening to make the travel journal happen while I was at the Burrow). But I did write up a mini travel comic for the MGCLT Fellowship visitors book. 

On top of getting a big chunk of work done on the book, I also finally got to make a big dent in my reading pile. These are all the books, comics, and zines I read while away from home for the three weeks. I'll talk more about some of my faves in a future post. 

Below is my leaf collection from my time at the Burrow. Each leaf represents a walk I made either around the neighbourhood or into town or to meet up for a coffee with someone. Some of the walks I took helped me to work my way through problems I encountered while working on the story.

Although there are quite a few panels that I drew in part two that I'm proud of (and quite a few I would rather not look at), this was probably my favourite panel that I drew during the Fellowship. I dig the expression on my Mum's face and we all know I love diagrams, cross sections and arrowed foot notes. 

And that pretty much sums up my Fellowship. I had a great time at the little studio apartment, getting up, making breakfast and then getting straight into book making. I think I lived on turmeric lattes and skateboard bread. The bad side-effect is that I do feel a little burnt out on the book at the mo (after working on nothing else for three weeks). I can't wait to have this section done so I can take a breath of air and maybe make short silly comics about nothing important. Or just illustrate some rad ladies. Or food. 

Catch you round!

Gxx

Autism in Film part 2

Hello! This is part two of my Autism in film blogs; if you want to read part one, head over here:

Autism in film part 1 

A lot of the time I can get frustrated with how stories about autism are presented in film (and other mediums too). They often build up to what I call the break-through moment. This is the point in the life of someone with severe ASD where their parents and/or carers, who have tried everything they can to discover a way to communicate, break through the invisible communication barrier. This of course leads on to the person gaining other skills such as socialising, keeping down a job and living independently.

It's great that there are these types of stories out there and they should be celebrated but not to the cost of telling other stories of ASD. Often the way these break-through stories are told suggest that if you try hard enough you will find a way to communicate and if you can't find a way then you as a parent are a failure, that you aren't trying hard enough, that you don't love enough. This is not true. My parents are not failures, they are always trying to find new ways to help Rob lead a happy, fulfilled life and they love him very much. 

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Movie: Life Animated (2016)

A documentary about a young man (Owen Suskind) with autism. 

Tagline: His imagination unlocked an amazing new world.

Owen Suskind is a young man with autism who is currently learning about living independently. The documentary takes you through his past and explains how Owen, who did not speak for most of his childhood, learned how to communicate with others and learned to overcome some of the challenges of autism.

I went to see this movie at the cinema on the only day it was showing that I was able to attend. I was feeling pretty lousy about my art and worrying about not getting enough done on my book so I wasn't in the best frame of mind for a close-to-the-bone documentary. I knew the story of Owen Suskind a little from the Radiolab episode Jucivose, so I knew that I was in for some tear jerking. (I highly recommend the Radiolab episode and actually enjoyed it a little more than the documentary.)

What I liked about the documentary was that it also interviewed Owen's brother, Walt. You don't always get to hear from the siblings and I sometimes I feel so desperate to know that I'm not the only one out there and that it's okay to feel the way I do about Rob.

I enjoyed the film - I still found it hard to watch when it came to the break-through moment, but it didn't make me feel like a failure. I was just jealous. I wish I could talk to Rob, have a conversation, find out how he's feeling. I know that's not going to happen but that doesn't stop me talking to Rob.

(Note: The Owen in this film is not Owen my boyfriend. Owen (my boyfriend) wanted me to make this very clear to you.) 

How much did I cry while watching: 5 out of 5 teardrops.

Movie: The Black Balloon (2008)

A film about growing up with a sibling with severe autism. 

Tagline: Normal is relative.

The Black Balloon is about two brothers, Thomas and Charlie. Thomas is a neurotypical teen and Charlie is a teen with autism. Thomas is just trying to get along at his new school, learn to drive and maybe get a girlfriend.

The movie covers a lot of situations that I too have experienced. Confronting other kids at school about people with disabilities; the bus that would take Rob to his school (which was a special school); watching Mum bath my brother; Rob having a meltdown; forgetting to lock the door; and labelling the images on the screen, amongst others. As the film was also Australian, these scenes really hit home for me and I felt like I finally had something I could point to and go, "This! This is what it's like!"

I've seen this movie many times now with groups of people and alone but every time I watch it, it really hits home how good this film is and how important it was for me to have. What I really liked about viewing this movie with lots of different groups is seeing the different reactions from people. The very first time I saw the film was at an Autism SA fundraiser movie night, so pretty much everyone that was watching had some exposure to someone with autism. This meant that whenever someone didn't lock something or just let Charlie look through someone's bag the whole room would audibly gasp before the reveal of Charlie running out the front door or finding something he shouldn't. Whereas when watching the film with people who had no experience of autism, they would of course gasp after the reveal (when you were supposed to). 

The Black Balloon is my very favourite film about autism (of the ones I've watched) as it most closely represents what it was like growing up with my brother and the feelings I had as a sibling. (Although obviously it was not exactly the same experience that I had.)

How much did I cry while watching: 3.5 out of 5 teardrops (I cried a bit during the film but more importantly, I laughed during the film. Autism can be hard to live with but it can also be fun and silly. This is something that I really want to highlight in my book).

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I'm not sure yet if there will be a part 3 of my series about autism in film. I'll just leave it at two for now. I want to focus on telling my story about autism and family. I want my voice to come through loud and clear and not get confused by other people's stories or views. 

Hope you are having an A+ week!

 

Write soon, 

Gx

Mentor Pals // Part Two // Mandy Ord

Last week I showed excerpts from my sketchbook with Pat Grant, so this week I thought I'd show some of the work I did with Mandy Ord. 

This sketchbook delved more into my feelings about life and comics as well as more interaction between us. I would ask questions and Mandy would answer with illustration. What I found interesting was that my drawing style changed when thinking about what I would write/draw to Mandy. It would suddenly get more inky, I would favour using a brush pen to a fine liner, and I would include more blacks and textures. 

It was nice playing around with style and responding to someone else's work. 

Mandy Sketchbook 12.jpg

Working with Mandy was great. It was very different from Pat as they are different people. Mandy was always good to talk to about life and Rob. She would phrase interesting questions that got me to think about the stories in the book a different way. Mandy also runs workshops regularly and is a fan of finding and creating new drawing exercises. When I visited her we were able to run through a few new exercises I hadn't yet done (but now love). I feel like I should always make more time for drawing exercises. 

When working with both Mandy and Pat we did a lot of walking and talking (and walking Mandy's dog Lucy, which was super great because, dogs), which I found really useful to just talk out my thoughts and worries. I get really nervous when I sit still and have to answer questions, but there is something about walking and talking that relaxes me. Maybe because my brain focuses on not tripping over my own feet (a common occurrence if you're me) and that relaxes me enough to talk about my work and answer harder questions. Maybe because I'm a fidgeter - I need to keep my body moving if I want my brain to keep active. 

Anyway enough blathering from me for now. See you next week for more fun blog adventures. 

Gxx

 

Mentor Pals // Part One // Pat Grant

Last year was a big learning curve for me and my comics. Not only did I delve into the world of long-form comic making but I also worked with mentors for the first time. I've never before worked with someone who was there to help me figure out what on earth I was doing (with the story and with my life as a comics creator). 

I was super lucky to have two mentors that I worked with throughout 2016: Pat Grant and Mandy Ord. I arranged to have a shared sketchbook with each of them, where I would write something , a thought or question or worry, and then post it out to them. They would respond by adding their magic and then post it back to me. 

And I thought that you guys might want to have a peek at some of the pages from the books! Pat's book revolved a lot around the mechanics behind writing and planning the book out. I found this was a great way to keep track of everything Pat was telling me about story structure and writing techniques. Which, as I've not studied any type of writing, was all pretty new to me. 

Working with Pat was really interesting. It took a little while for me to stop being so darned nervous I could barely talk but once I got over that, working with Pat was great. I felt like I could discuss my problems and it really helps to have another pair of eyes to read through your story and discuss it with you. Particularly a pair of eyes that has done what you are trying to do and knows all the feels you are feeling. If you want to read more about what I learnt from Pat, head here to my previous blog post about hanging out with him in his home town of Wollongong. 

Next week I'll talk about and share a few pages from my sketchbook with Mandy Ord. 

I'm almost at the end of my Ian Wilson Memorial Fellowship residency at the May Gibbs Children's Literature Trust, which has been great and filled with lots of learning and making. But I also can't wait to be home with my boy (and my bed!) and getting back in my own studio. Hope you guys are having a lovely week!

Gx

Writing autobio comics

Hello hello!

Because I am again away from the studio this week, working hard on my book, I thought I'd share a blog post from a couple of years ago that I wrote for the SA Writers' Centre. It's all about writing auto-bio. It was originally written as a taster for a Writing Auto-bio Comics workshop I was running at the time, so just ignore all the mentions of workshops. 

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Hello there! My name is Gina; I like to watch television, drink my tea without milk and draw auto-bio comics. What do you do with yourself?

Auto-bio(graphical) comics (writing stories about yourself) are my favourite to write as I get to write from what I know and experience. When I was younger I often found talking to people hard and so I started writing comics about myself that I could share when meeting new pals. They found out a bit about me and it was a talking point. My comics can help work out my feelings or just be a laugh (I also wanted to be a stand-up comedian but found being on stage terrifying so I ended up just writing my jokes down in comic book form).

When tackling writing/drawing/creating comics for the first time, people often think of superheroes — I know I did! My first comic was about a superhero called Menu Man (he’d fight food with food). But as I got older and started reading a broader range of comics, I realised the stories I wanted to tell were about my life and thoughts I had about things I came across in the world. 

Here are some common questions I hear about writing auto-bio comics:

Of course! Just because you weren’t born a chosen one destined to duel the greatest dark wizard of all time or didn’t survive a terrible ordeal doesn’t mean that what you have to say isn’t worth listening to. Everyone thinks differently, and if you think about the world in an interesting way there is nothing stopping you writing well-thought out or funny comics.

Me too! I often worry about what people in my stories will think of how I wrote them or drew them. And tbh they are generally flattered. However, I make sure that I check with whoever I’m writing about and show them the comic first before anyone else. Give them the chance to say “I don’t like how you wrote me there”. Most of the time people will be understanding; just give them the courtesy of being the first to read it.

No sweat! One of the most critically acclaimed auto-bio comics creators, Harvey Pekar, was a writer only and teamed with a variety of artists. Just because you don’t think you can draw (although I bet you probably could) shouldn’t stop you from writing your own comics masterpiece. Comics is a super fun medium to collaborate on. Often comic books will have a writer (or maybe even two), a penciller, an inker, a colourist and sometimes even a letterer.

Don’t be! It can seem pretty scary to write about yourself but it’s not as hard as you think. I know a lot of people who worry about what other people would think of them if they wrote truly about themselves. Do you have a social media account (facebook, instagram, tumblr, twitter)? Then you are already writing auto-bio! So why not add pictures and make it a comic?

There are lots of different ways to write auto-bio comics and no ‘right way’. Here are some of my favourite practitioners of auto-bio comics:

Raina Telgemeier

Mandy Ord

Art Spiegelman

Lucy Knisley

Guy Delisle

Gemma Correll

 

These guys are all great for different reasons - the only thing they have in common is telling their own story from their own special point of view. Have a look at their work (you can see most of them online or in the library) and start having a think about what kind of stories you would turn into a comic.

Can’t wait to see you at the workshop!

Stay excellent, 

Gina xx

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And that's it for this week. I can't wait to share with you guys what I've been working on at The Burrow (that's the name of the studio apartment my residency is at. How great it that!) and have the draft of part two of my book underway.