While we look forward to ComicFest 2024, meet Isobel Joy Te Aho-White in this “5 minutes with” interview.
What first got you interested in comics?
I grew up reading the Asterix and Tintin series, both were staples in New Zealand libraries in the 90s. My twin sister and I would get stacks of them and swap them after we’d done reading.
What is your average day like?
I start work late and go to bed late. Usually, my day begins with emails or meetings before I ease myself into drawing, with a break to cook dinner, which is another thing I enjoy doing. Then I’m back to it. My best concentration happens around 8pm-2am, that’s when I get the bulk of my work done.
Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?
Currently working on a comic for school journal that is sort of an autobiography about what it was like growing up as someone on the autism spectrum. I have a couple of personal comics in the works too. One in the linework stage, the other I’m still researching/conceptualising.
Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?
My day is quite rigidly structured around the peaks of my creative energy. I work from home and like to drink copious amounts of tea and listen to podcasts (usually politics/crime related) while I work.
Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?
Many and varied … pūrākau māori, botanical illustration, kōwhaiwhai design and folk art seem to be constants though.
What or who are your favourite NZ comics or creators?
Cliff Whiting, Peter Gossage, Robyn Kahukiwa, Gavin Bishop, Ant Sang and Mat Tait.
What is your dream comic project?
The one I’m conceptualising at the moment, it’s a historical graphic novel about Scandinavian settlers in Manawatū, they were brought over by the crown to clear forest for farmland and essentially stranded here, in a jungle that they had no idea how to interact with. The tangata whenua formed strained alliances with them, helping them to survive in the forest, while knowing the crown had brought them there to essentially destroy it. That’s my whakapapa, on both the Ngāti Kahungunu and Danish sides, and so it’s a story I’ve been keen to tell.
What are you excited to share with ComicFest attendees? Just a taster!
I’m on a panel with Zak, Daniel and Munro “Sharing Te Ao Māori and Mātauranga Māori through Pukawaituhi”. We have some interesting talking points lined up and I’m excited to see how the kōrero evolves.
If you were to enter our cosplay contest, who/what would you dress up as?
That’s a tough one, I dunno! Maybe I would like to dress up as one of Junji Ito’s eldritch horrors.
You can catch Isobel at the below event:
Panel: Sharing Te Ao Māori and Mātauranga Māori through Pukawaituhi
With Isobel Joy Te Aho-White, Munro Te Whata and Daniel Vernon. Hosted by Zak Waipara.
Learn how Māori artists are innovating the comics medium with visual languages grounded in mātauranga, pūrākau, and tikanga Māori. Join Isobel Joy Te Aho-White, Munro Te Whata, Daniel Vernon and Zak Waipara as they follow and nurture the whakapapa of waituhi whakakata me ngā pukawaituhi.
