Category: ComicFest 2021

5 minutes with Zak Waipara

Ligia

ComicFest 2021 website

Zak Waipara (Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Ruapani, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu) is a lecturer in Digital Media, at AUT, and previously taught at Animation College. He has worked in animation for Māori Television’s children’s show Miharo, as a graphic artist at the NZ Herald, written and drawn comics and illustrated a range of books, and is completing a PhD on comics, children’s books and indigenous storytelling.

Website: zakwaipara.carbonmade.com

 

Q: What first got you interested in comics?

My Dad would buy comics for me and my two brothers from petrol stations, to entertain us on long car journeys. There was something incredibly engaging about comics. I was hooked from then on, always wanting to read them and then to try drawing my own.

Q: What is your average day like?

My days are always different. I teach in Digital Media at AUT, but am also studying toward a PhD. I still do freelance work (when I can manage it) and self-directed projects. My days are always busy! I try to fit in some exercise, and something creative where I can.

Q: Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?

Ōtea is a ongoing comic project for kids, based in the world of Māori myth and legend. The story follows Kurutai, a nature sprite of mysterious origin, and Mokotawhito, an ancient tuatara, as they attempt to retrieve the fragmented life-force of the island, before calamity occurs. The comic series incorporates lots of native flora and fauna, and supernatural beings (or Patupaiarehe), with amazing abilities, magical histories, as powerful and appealing as modern superheroes. Ōtea: Rock of Ages Parts 1 & 2 are published, and well as lots of side material, including some downloadable resources, which you can access here at Tales from Ōtea.

Q: Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?

A bad habit of mine is checking social media first thing, a better habit, when on deadlines, is to check my Google Calendar and Trello lists, if I have been organised enough to make them, and see what needs doing. I find music playing in the background, or a movie that doesn’t demand much attention, can be useful to keep me working.

Q: Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?

My father’s artwork growing up initially, and my Māori culture continues to inspire me. I was a big fan of X-men comics growing up. Studio Ghibli films are also a favourite of mine.

Q: What or who are your favourite NZ comics or creators?

It’s always possible to miss people out in a question like this, but I will mention some artists that I think deserve attention, Michel Mulipola, Ant Sang, Munro Te Whata, and up and coming artist Lincoln Moa, Jem Yoshioka, Katie O’Neill, Alex Cara, Sarah Lund, Li Chen, and Rachel Smythe. I am also quite fond of the Captain Sunshine comics from the 1970s, illustrated by Colin Wilson.

Q: What is your dream comic project?

This is a hard one, I have so many projects I want to tackle. Some small, some large. I sometimes wonder whether given the chance, whether I would like to work on a big franchise property like Marvel or DC, but I remind myself, that I have my own work that needs completing!

Q: What are you excited to share with ComicFest attendees? Just a taster!

I might be able to show some of the work on my current PhD projects, depending on the format on the day, since I have lots of work-in-progress art in prototype book form.

Q: If you were to enter our cosplay contest, who/what would you dress up as?

Some students have called me Tony Stark on occasion, but I think it is really only the facial hair and my tendency to wear Iron Man t-shirts!

5 minutes with Dylan Horrocks

Ligia

ComicFest 2022 is Saturday 7 May — and this year will be fully online! Find the full programme on our ComicFest website. ComicFest is a joint venture between Wellington City Libraries and the National Library of New Zealand.

ComicFest 2022 website

Dylan Horrocks has been writing and drawing comics, graphic novels, cartoons, and prose fiction for more than 30 years, including Hicksville, Sam Zabel & the Magic Pen, Batgirl, and Hunter: the Age of Magic. His work has been published around the world in various languages and won the Eisner Award and the Sir Julius Vogel award, among others. He currently lives in Wellington, where he teaches comics and visual narrative at the Victoria University of Wellington School of Design Innovation and is drawing a graphic novel about fantasy role-playing games.

Website: hicksvillecomics.com
Twitter: @dylanhorrocks

Q: What first got you interested in comics?

I’ve loved comics for as long as I can remember (partly thanks to my Dad, who kept me well supplied with a range of old classics and obscure contemporary stuff – from Carl Barks and Tintin to Edward Gorey and Zap comics). I grew up wanting to write stories and draw pictures, so comics just seemed like a natural form.

Q: What is your average day like?

I currently teach comics and visual narrative at the Victoria University of Wellington School of Design Innovation (phew!), so my days are often busy with classes and post-graduate supervision. When I can, I’m writing or drawing (in notebooks or on the computer). I relax with a book or TV (I love weird old movies from the 1930s-50s). And about once a week, I spend the evening playing role-playing games (like Dungeons & Dragons) with friends.

Q: Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?

I’m working on a bunch of projects, but who knows when they’ll see the light of day? The ones I’m most focused on at the moment all come from my life-long obsession with role-playing games (not just D&D but also innovative indie games, etc). I’ve been researching the history of the form and exploring different ways of thinking about story and narrative inspired by gaming. I’m even designing my own RPG rules. I’ve also self-published two issues of a little side-project, a series of zines called Darkest Dungeons. It’s inspired by an infamous 1985 religious comic about how D&D is a Satanic cult, but I’m retelling their deliciously lurid story with added context and new perspectives. It’s way too much fun!


Q: Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?

One thing I do is alternate between working on fancy paper, in a cheap notebook, and on the computer. Whenever I get stuck, I shift to a different medium and often that gets me going again. It’s like each format uses a different part of my brain. Recently I’ve also been drawing on an iPad Pro (in Clip Studio). I still love drawing on paper, but it’s interesting learning a new set of tools.

Q: Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?

There are so many! Hergé’s Tintin is a huge influence on my work. But one New Zealand cartoonist who’s had a big impact on me is Barry Linton. He drew comics for more than 40 years, and left behind an extraordinary body of work. I hope someone gets it all back into print soon. Other recent inspirations include American cartoonist Gabrielle Bell (whose diary comics are hilarious and lyrical) and, from Britain, Gareth Brookes, who made the art for his most recent graphic novel using pyrography and embroidery!

Q: What or who are your favourite NZ comics or creators?

I’ve already mentioned Barry Linton and there are other earlier NZ cartoonists I’m fascinated by: Eric Resetar, Harry Bennett, and Jack Raeburn (all of who were publishing locally in the 1940s and 1950s). Rita Angus drew some gorgeous newspaper strips in the 1930s (as Rita Cook). And Joe Wylie, Laurence Clark, and Colin Wilson (along with Barry Linton and others) made fascinating comics in Strips magazine in the 1970s.

There are so many amazing cartoonists working in NZ right now and their work is reaching an ever-wider audience: Sarah Laing, Toby Morris, Tara Black, Ross Murray, Mat Tait & Courtney Sina Meredith, Ant Sang, Katie O’Neill, Ben Stenbeck, Rachel Smythe, Jem Yoshioka, Michel Mulipola, Li Chen, Sam Orchard, Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom (among others) are all getting well-deserved attention for their graphic novels or webcomics. And there are countless people whose work I try to follow: Alex Cara, Timothy Kidd, Brent Willis, Indira Neville, Laya Rose, Sally Bollinger, Karl Wills, Andrew Burdan, Kirsten Slade – and so many more!

A cartoonist whose work over the past 40-odd years really needs collecting is Tim Bollinger. He’s drawn so many gorgeous, complex, utterly New Zealand comics for various magazines, newspapers, and zines; I’d love to see them brought together between two covers. These days, I get to see loads of amazing students’ comics, too. Look out for one of our former students, Liliana Mañetto Quick, on The Spinoff, where she draws a delicious regular comic about eating in Wellington. I know I’ve left out too many names in this brief list: there’s far too much wonderful work being made!

Q: What is your dream comic project?

I have so many dream projects and I’m working on several of them right now. The elusive dream is to find enough time to actually finish them….!

5 minutes with Kay O’Neill

Ligia

ComicFest 2022 is Saturday 7 May — and this year will be fully online! Find the full programme on our ComicFest website. ComicFest is a joint venture between Wellington City Libraries and the National Library of New Zealand.

ComicFest 2022 website

Meet the artists with our “5 minutes with…” series! First up on the blog we have an interview with Kay O’Neill, an author and illustrator from Christchurch, best known for their work on the award-winning Tea Dragon Society series. They mostly write slices of life with fantasy elements. Their favourite tea is currently vanilla rooibos. 

Website: ktoneill.com
Twitter: @strangelykatie
Instagram: @strangelykatie

 

Q: What first got you interested in comics?

I was fortunate to have dial-up internet early enough to be deep into the neopets.com craze as a kid, and a big part of that was the rich creative community that formed around the virtual pet-raising game. The in-game weekly digital newspaper featured both ongoing storylines and one-off gag comics, and really got me started viewing comics as a natural way of expressing stories and characters from a young age.

Q: What is your average day like?

I try to balance work and rest as best I can. Mornings give me good energy, so I try to get up at around 7.30 and have a solid, uninterrupted morning of work until lunchtime, with some coffee and stretch breaks throughout. I’ll put on some music, and that helps me get the most of the time I spend in front of the tablet or computer. The afternoons I leave up to fate- occasionally I have energy to continue working, but often I’ll do some gardening or go for a walk.

Q: Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?

The final book in the Tea Dragon series came out in 2021. It was bittersweet to end a series that has been such a huge part of my life, yet I am very happy with how the book turned out and with each character’s journey. It feels like saying goodbye to old friends, but with excitement for what lies ahead in store for them. I also have a couple of exciting new projects that hopefully will be announced soon!

Q: Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?

I used to divide my attention between my work and a background activity such as watching a Netflix series or video game streamer. However, after I decided to try going a couple of weeks just listening to music while I work, I discovered how much more connected I feel to what I’m doing! I’m able to make better decisions, and feel like I’m getting the most from my art. I know it’s different for everyone though, and I have friends who can only focus if there’s a secondary activity playing. I think it’s important to experiment with various working environments, and keep changing and adjusting and learning what you like.

Q: Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?

At the moment, I’m looking for a lot of inspiration and motivation outside of the art world. I love hearing stories of older people who have lived active, engaged and meaningful lives through their daily activities, connection with nature, and community.

Q: What or who are your favourite NZ comics or creators?

New Zealand webcomic authors are making incredible things at the moment! Rachel Smythe, Jem Yoshioka, Chelsey Furedi and Kale de Wild just to name a few.

Q: What is your dream comic project?

I’m very lucky in that I’ve already pretty much made it- The Tea Dragon series is exactly what I wanted it to be, with so much wonderful support from my publisher and readers. I’ve never needed to compromise anything, and it’s full of the elements and themes I love most. That said, I’d love to work on something collaborative in future!

5 minutes with Dylan Horrocks — from ComicFest 2019

Ligia

Next up on our special feature “5 minutes with…” we have Dylan Horrocks, a cartoonist best known for his graphic novel Hicksville and his scripts for the Batgirl comic book series. His works are published by the University of Auckland student magazine Craccum, Australia’s Fox Comics, the current affairs magazine New Zealand Listener from 1995 to 1997, the Canadian publishers Black Eye Comics and Drawn and Quarterly, and the American publishers Vertigo and Fantagraphics Books. He currently serialises new work online at Hicksville Comics.

Q: What first got you interested in comics?
A: My Dad has always been interested in comics, so I grew up in a house full of classics like Carl Barks’ Donald Duck as well as underground, European, and experimental comix. He also taught film, and watching the movies he’d project on our living room wall made me realise you could use visual narrative to do anything.

Q: What is your average day like?
A: I recently started teaching at the Victoria University of Wellington School of Design, so my days have become very busy. I’m often either in class or planning a class, or looking at students’ work. Otherwise, I’m probably at my studio writing or drawing. To relax, I watch old movies, read (often history), or play table-top role-playing games with friends.

dav

Q: Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?
A: I’m working on a long non-fiction comic exploring the history and culture of Dungeons & Dragons. It’s about world-building – the urge to create an imaginary reality so detailed it begins to feel almost real – and how the emergence of fantasy role-playing games 45 years ago introduced a new way to inhabit these fictional worlds. There are other, shorter, comics I’ve drawn recently, but that’s the big one that’s occupying my time.

Q: Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?
A: One trick I learned a while back was to leave something unfinished at the end of each day. That way, when I sit down to start drawing or writing, I don’t have to stare at a blank page; I can just pick up where I left off – and before I know it I’m back in the groove.

Q: Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?
A: There are so many! Hergé’s Tintin is a huge influence on my work. But one New Zealand cartoonist who’s had a big impact on me for most of my life is Barry Linton, who died last year. He drew comics for more than 40 years, and left behind an extraordinary body of work. I hope someone gets it all back into print soon.

 Q: What or who are your favourite NZ comics or creators?
A: Again, there are too many to mention even a fraction! Strips was a New Zealand comics magazine published between 1977 & 1987. Barry Linton (who I mentioned above) was one of its founding artists, but there were so many great cartoonists in there: Colin Wilson (the main driving force for the first few years), Joe Wylie, Kevin Jenkinson, Laurence Clark. There are earlier comics I’m fascinated by, too, including the work of Eric Resetar, Harry Bennett, and Jack Raeburn (all of who were publishing locally in the 1940s and 1950s). These days New Zealand has a large and diverse comics scene, with many cartoonists whose work I find inspiring. And every week I find someone new who’s putting out beautiful zines or webcomics. Each new discovery is like a treasure: an Instagram post or a page in a student’s sketchbook.

dav

Q: What is your dream comic project?
A: I have a comic I daydream about now and then. Sometimes when I’m lying in bed half-asleep, or when I’m walking to work in the morning, I’ll think about it. So far, all there is to show is a few words in my notebook. It may never happen. But I love that stage in a project, when everything’s still open, possible, uncontained. When it really is still a dream….

Q: What are you excited to share with ComicFest attendees? Just a taster!
A: That depends how much I get done between now and then.

Q: If you were to enter our cosplay contest, who/what would you dress up as?
A: I reckon Toby Morris and I could do a mean Captain Haddock and Tintin (now, if we can just find the right dog to play Snowy…).

You can find Dylan online in the following places:
Twitter: @dylanhorrocks
Website: hicksvillecomics.com
Instagram: @dylan.horrocks

5 minutes with Jem Yoshioka — from ComicFest 2019

Ligia

Edited 07/21: Jem Yoshioka is back for ComicFest 2021! Have a read of our 2019 interview with Jem ahead of this year’s ComicFest — coming up Saturday 21 August at the National Library in Thorndon.

Next on the list is Jem Yoshioka, an illustrator and comic artist living in Wellington, New Zealand. Deftly weaving words and pictures together, Jem’s comics tell evocative and emotional stories with themes of belonging, place, and heritage. Jem’s current webcomic project is a soft science fiction romance between an android and a human called Circuits and Veins.
Jem Yoshioka appears at ComicFest with the support of the New Zealand Cartoon Archive.

Q: What first got you interested in comics?
A: I have always loved to tell stories and draw pictures, so in a way I feel like I was always on the path to comics. I read a lot as a kid and loved picture books fiercely.

Q: What is your average day like?
A: I work a full time job in communications, so I spend my day getting to help tell people’s stories and make sure things are understood by as many people as possible. I walk to and from work along the Wellington waterfront. I spend my evenings drawing, with breaks for dinner, chores, or whatever. It’s a balance that has worked well for me, but I am careful to be mindful of my limits and not push myself too hard if I know I need a break. Lately I’ve been playing a lot of Tetris and Star dew Valley to recharge when I need to!

Q: Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?
A: My webcomic Circuits and Veins is my current biggest project. I’ve been updating it since July, 2017 (coming up on two years, goodness!), and it’s honestly such a rewarding project. Long form serialised webcomics are notoriously difficult to keep going, and some weeks are a lot harder than others.

Q: Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?
A: I’m constantly listening to podcasts or watching YouTube. Podcasts have helped me so much to keep focused and motivated when I need to meet a deadline. Having my ears occupied helps keep my mind from straying away. I’m a big fan of Actual Play podcasts (listening to other people play table top roleplaying games), because it’s like a form of collaborative storytelling. My favourites are Friends at the Table and The Adventure Zone. If you have recommendations, let me know! I’m always looking for new ones.

Q: Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?
A: That’s a tough one. Can I say my grandma, Taeko? She’s led an amazing life, growing up in Hiroshima, Japan, witnessing the horrors of war as a young girl and teenager, meeting my granddad in Japan, and moving to New Zealand in the 50s, before you could even really find rice here, let alone the right kind of rice. Whenever I get stuck I think back on who she is, that she still has such a lightness and humour about her through everything. It makes me feel strong again. This has been something that has been coming through in my art since 2015, when I started writing autobiography comics exploring my connection to Japan and my Japanese heritage, which of course is all through her.

 

Q: What or who are your favourite NZ comics or creators?
A: I love Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe, published on Webtoon. Rachel’s my best friend and we’ve known each other for half our lives, so I’m a bit biased. Rachel is a master illustrator and her work is so expressive, emotive, and even now her sense of storytelling, drama and comedic timing all work together to make me gasp. What else could you want from a comic?

Q: What is your dream comic project?
A: To be honest, I’m doing it! Making Circuits and Veins is honestly a dream, and I’m so happy that so many people love reading it. It does have an end though, and I’m also equally excited about my next story, which will be a fantasy story based on Japanese folk stories. I tried to launch it last year as Starstruck, but I wasn’t completely happy with the execution, and splitting my time between two ongoing comic projects wasn’t the smartest, so I’ve pulled it back to the drawing board. I chip away on concepts for it in between updating Circuits and Veins

Q: What are you excited to share with ComicFest attendees? Just a taster!
A: I’m keen to talk about what it takes to update a regular serialised webcomic, and also about how to balance comics and non-comics life.

Q: If you were to enter our cosplay contest, who/what would you dress up as?
A: Marceline, from Adventure Time. She’s got the best style.

You can find Jem online in the following places:
Instagram: @jemyoshioka
Twitter: @jemyoshioka
Blog/Website: jemshed.com

5 minutes with Sarah Laing — from ComicFest 2019

Ligia

Edited 07/21: Sarah Laing is back for ComicFest 2021! Have a read of our 2019 interview with Sarah ahead of this year’s ComicFest — coming up Saturday 21 August at the National Library in Thorndon.

We are pleased to have Sarah Laing for our next “5 minutes with…” feature. Sarah is a Wellington-based writer and illustrator who has had novels, short stories and the graphic memoir Mansfield and Me published. A collection of comics from the past ten years is forthcoming from VUP – Let Me Be Frank will be published late 2019. She also the co-editor of Three Words: An Anthology of Aotearoa/NZ Women’s Comics and has illustrated a number of children’s books.


Q: What first got you interested in comics?
A: My dad was a big comics fan – he’d grown up on the war comics you could buy at the dairy – so we always had comics lying around. Tintin, Asterix, Garfield, Charlie Brown. My cousins had a big stash of Disney comics and I particularly liked tales of Uncle Scrooge and his mountains of money. I also used to read Bogor in the Listener, and wrote some fanmail to him, with my own fanart of hedgehogs and snails. He offered me a job when I grew up – I wonder if that offer is still on the table?

Q: What is your average day like?
A: Up until recently I’ve been finishing off my Let Me Be Frank manuscript – a collection of my comics over the past ten years, to be published by VUP in late 2019. I’ve got to be an almost fulltime cartoonist thanks to a CNZ grant. Almost fulltime, I say, as I have three kids and various part-time gigs, including mentoring creative writing students, and illustrating for a number of publications. Right now, since I have submitted my manuscipt, I am lookng for a proper job to pay my bills – feel free to hit me up!

Q: Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?
A: My most recent project I talked about in the previous question, but I worked on a great project last year, in collaboration with Dr Giacomo Lichtner, the Italian Embassy and the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand – it was an adaptation of Denebedetti’s account of the SS raid of the ghetto in Rome. You can read that comic here.

Q: Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?
A: I waste an awful lot of time and feel incredibly guilty about it, and then sometimes I’m freakishly productive. I have to check Facebook, Instagram and Twitter each morning before I start work, and I also have to make myself coffee and a piece of toast and peanut butter. When I’m in my productive phase, I allow myself to draw badly and make mistakes, focussing instead on the shape of the story and actually completing it. The drawings may look terrible at the time, but when I go back to them, they have a looseness and a spontaneity that I like, and I often wonder if they are better than my final illustrations.

Q: Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?
A: I have so many influences and inspirations! I am a huge fiction reader, so always have a novel on the go. I love all the women I follow on instagram and support on patreon, like Gabrielle Bell and Sarah Glidden, Mimi Pond Lisa Hanawalt, Summer Pierre, Glynnis Fawkes and of course the indominatible Jillian Tamaki. I am also a big music fan, and my latest discoveries include Nilüfer Yanya and Charlotte Adigéry. Nature, films, TV (Russian Doll! So good!), art, foreign cities, family, friends, random encounters… all of this feeds into the psychic soup I take ladles from to make my work.


Q: What or who are your favourite NZ comics or creators?
A: Again, there are so many people I like and I always scared of making these lists for fear of missing someone off! I really love Sophie Watson’s comics, and I’m excited about her larger project she’s working on. Ross Murray’s latest book, Rufus Marigold, is great – I’m looking forward to hearing him talk about it at ComicsFest. Giselle Clarkson makes hilarious, beautifully drawn comics, and I really admire Zoë Colling’s autobio works. Indira Neville is hilarious and arresting, and Kirsten Slade is unmissable. Sam Orchard makes great comics about his life as a transman, which always hit the spot. The greats are still great – Dylan Horrocks, Ant Sang, Toby Morris – and I really love the irreverant lo-fi nature of Brent Willis’s comics. Austen Milne is an up-and-coming cartoonist who I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of, and I wish I could see more of Meng Zhu’s comics, who was in Three Words…. Arrgh, gotta stop now!

Q: What is your dream comic project?
A: I have a few graphic novels bubbling away in my head… my dream involves being published by Drawn and Quarterly and being invited to all those American and Scandanavian comics festivals!

Q: If you were to enter our cosplay contest, who/what would you dress up as?
A: Hmm, tough call. Tove Jansen? Rita Angus? Or maybe Vivienne Westwood. Or am I meant to be choosing a fictional character? In that case I’ll go as Little My or Rachael in Bladerunner.

You can find Sarah online in the following places:
Instagram: @sarahelaing
 Twitter: @sarahelaing
Blog/Website: sarahelaing.com