5 minutes with Toby Morris

ComicFest 2021 website

Toby Morris is an Auckland based cartoonist, illustrator and writer best known for non-fiction comics that investigate political and social issues. He produces the monthly series The Side Eye, published by The Spinoff, and is a four time winner of ‘Best Artwork/Graphics’ at the New Zealand media awards, and ‘Cartoonist of the Year’ winner for 2019 and 2020. He has written and illustrated several kids books and three graphic novels, including 2019’s Te Tiriti O Waitangi.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic he has colloborated with Dr Siouxsie Wiles, producing graphics that have been viewed millions of times around the world, and he is now producing graphics and animated videos for the World Health Organisation.

Twitter: @xtotl

Q: What first got you interested in comics?

I was always realy into drawings, then when I was about 9 or so I got got given a stack of old Asterix and Tintin comics, and I just loved those.

Q: What is your average day like?

These days I’m a creative director at The Spinoff and Daylight Creative as well as working on my own comics, so a lot of the time I’m now working with other illustrators, helping them out, then still trying to find time to make my own comics too. It’s busy but I’m really enjoying it.

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

I’m got a new book coming out in August that I’m really excited about – it’s called Dad Man Walking and it’s a collection of short comics and cartoons about the ups and downs of being a dad. Lots of what I’ve been working in in recent years has either been very serious politics or socal issues, or over the last year a lot of very serious science or public health graphics, so it was a bit of a change to work on something less serious.

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

No not really – I end up working in all kinds of different times and places these days, I’ve had to get good at just getting on with it wherever I am or whatever is going on around me. If I’m working alone I quite like working with some background noise – either a podcast or sometimes a basketball game or a tv show that I’m not really watching.

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

In terms of drawing style and storytelling I’ve always been very inspired by Herge. In terms of making comics journalism or non fiction comics Joe Sacco has been a huge inspiration.  Then there’s lots of other NZ comic artists I love, and political cartoonists too. And these days I’m working with lots of younger illustrators who make me want to push myself and try and new things.

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

There’s so many! I feel really lucky to have the chance to commission some artists through our comic of the month series at my job at the Spinoff – I’ll forget people I’m sure, but I’m a huge fan of Ant Sang, Indira Neville, Giselle Clarkson, Sarah Laing, Zoe Colling, Kay O’Neil, Sloane Hong, Hana Chatani, Dylan Horrocks, Mat Tait, Stefan Neville, Dan Vernon, Michel Mulipola, Sharon Murdoch, Sam Orchard… there’s so many people making cool stuff!

Q: What is your dream comic project?

One where I can pause time and just work on one thing for a while! I’ve got an idea for a fictional series that I’d love to do one day. One day I’ll get time!

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

I’m really looking forward to meeting and talking with Selina Tusitala Marsh,  I love the Mophead books. I’ve always thought of them as comics, so I’m very excited to talk to her about that!

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

I’d usually say Captain Haddock, but my hair is too long at the moment for that! Might have to be a werewolf or something, or Chewbacca maybe.

5 minutes with Giselle Clarkson

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

Giselle Clarkson is a freelance illustrator and comic artist based near Wellington. Her science illustrations and comics can be found in all sorts of places, from bumper stickers and t-shirts, to Auckland Zoo and the NZ School Journal. She publishes a regular comic about children’s books online at The Sapling. Her recently illustrated books for children include The Gobbledegook Book: A Joy Cowley Anthology and Egg and Spoon: An Illustrated Cookbook (Gecko Press).

Website: giselledraws.com
Twitter: @giselledraws
Facebook: @GiselleDraws

Q: What first got you interested in comics?

When I was a kid I loved Tintin, The Far Side and books by Raymond Briggs but I didn’t realise they were “comics”. I often drew Far Side style cartoons of my own. It wasn’t until I was at university and started reading webcomics that I found cartoons made by women! Discovering stuff like Hark! A Vagrant, Hyperbole and a Half, and Nimona made me realise how broad and accessible the medium was – comics could be so many different things, and I could make them too.

Q: What is your average day like?

I work full-time as an illustrator and my studio is at home. I try to keep pretty standard office hours, but I’m a morning person so all my best work is done between about 7am and lunchtime, sometimes even earlier if I wake up with an idea and can’t fall back to sleep! The best part of working from home is never having to set an alarm clock, wearing track pants, and if a drawing’s not quite working – going out into the garden and pulling some weeds for a bit usually solves the problem.

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

I make a mental plan for my workday the night before – if I wake up knowing what my goals are for the day I don’t dither and procrastinate! So in the morning I sit down at my desk with a cup of coffee, and read the news and my social media feeds until the coffee’s gone. Then I put on some music, a favourite radio show or an audiobook and get to it. I have to have something to listen to while I work or else my mind wanders too far away and then takes my body with it.

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

My favourite picture books from childhood are what inspired me to write and illustrate in the first place, but it’s other people working and making comics and graphic novels in NZ right now that keep me motivated and inspire me to make new work.

Q: What is your dream comic project?

As part of my job I sometimes get to join scientists out in the field or on expeditions and then turn my experiences what I’ve learned into a comic – I just want to do more of that! I’ll always be up for combining my love for comics with my love for adventures in wild and remote places.


5 minutes with Zak Waipara

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 Sally Bollinger: Comicfest feature

This year’s ComicFest event was a huge success, with over 1300 attendees on the day! Thanks to all that came along, and if you couldn’t make it, podcasts of the panel discussions will be available online soon. Until then, you can enjoy the last of our 5 minutes with interviews with our guests!

Next up we have Sally Bollinger, creator of both webcomics and video webseries. At Comicfest, Sally was on the A Wellington View – Local Cartoonists panel, along with Jem Yoshioka, Giselle Clarkson and Robyn Kenealy. Find out more from Sally below:

Image by Sally Bollinger
Image by Sally Bollinger

Q: What first got you interested in comics?
A: We had a lot of Tintin books in my house as a child. And when my dad would read to us (chapter books mostly) I’d draw the scenes and characters. Then I brought a graphic novel of the Hobbit and realised I could be doing this myself. So I did.

Q: What is your average day like?
A: Sadly an average day isn’t necessarily comics related, but it is always about stories! The week is usually about webseries, and the weekend is hopefully about comics. So I’ll chat to my flatmates, answer emails, edit a script or a video, drink tea, stare at the script with a feeling of doom, tidy (because I need to “think”), actually finish the script (because it turns out I haven’t forgotten what words are). Storyboard a loose comic, then get to drawing! (Yay!) I’ll do a couple of warm-up drawings, sketch out several pages, ink, scan, maybe colour or just tidy up the image. Maybe I’ll have a meeting in the evening. Then I might play Mah Jong with my flatmates or we’ll dance to musical numbers while we make dinner.

Q: Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?
A: Recently I’ve been creating a zine called the “Comic of Whimsy” about the silly things my flatmates get up to. But on a bigger scale I’m embarking on a webcomic with the Candle Wasters that is a part-webseries, part-webcomic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Our Hamlet is a 14-year-old girl who draws angst comics in her Wellington bedroom and who’s best friend is a cactus. It’s got a lot of magic realism elements that we couldn’t pull off on screen but can do in comic form! (also I get to learn how to draw a giant, maniacal, human-faced horse.)

Image by Sally Bollinger
Image by Sally Bollinger

Q: Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?
A: Going for a walk before I start working, so my brain feels alive. Putting on a wash first thing. Lots of tea. Listening to music while I ink. But when I really get into the work it’ll be midnight before I think to check the time.

Q: Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?
A: Chris Riddell, Shakespeare, fairy tales and the opinion of my younger sister. As well as Dylan Horrocks and Tim Bollinger.

Q: What or who are your favourite NZ comics or creators?
A: I always go back to Toby Morris’ Alledaags: a year in Amsterdam and Katie O’Neill is excellent in every way.

Q: What is your dream comic project?
A: Whenever I read a really good fantasy novel I always imagine I’d make an excellent comic. So, if ever JK Rowling or Patrick Rothfuss suddenly, oddly wanted a New Zealand comic version of their works I’d be keen. Basically I’d love to explore a fantasy world, or just do a good adaptation of Hamlet.

Q: What are you excited to share with ComicFest attendees? Just a taster!
A: I’m keen to have a big ol’ chat about what everyone’s favourite comics are. But also excited to talk visual storytelling across media, and I always have a few Shakespeare facts up my sleeve.

Q: If you were to enter our cosplay contest, who/what would you dress up as?
A: Comic book character would be Black Jack by Tezuka. Or Kvothe from The Name of the Wind.

You can find Sally’s work online in a number of places!
Online comics: quietly-exploding.tumblr.com
Online webseries: The Candle Wasters on Youtube
Hamlet webseries/webcomic pilot: on YouTube!

5 minutes with Giselle Clarkson: Comicfest feature

ComicFest is back for 2017! On Saturday May 6th at the Central Library there will be panels and workshops all day long for comic-lovers of all ages. You can also pick up a free comic from us on the day and celebrate Free Comic Book Day, courtesy of GRAPHIC! Head over to the ComicFest Facebook event for all the details, and to receive event updates.

Giselle Clarkson is a Wellington-based freelance illustrator who is also interested in tramping, growing veggies and making music. She currently has a monthly comic being published by NZ website The Sapling, often featuring the influence of books on her as an illustrator. At ComicFest Giselle will be on our A Wellington View – Local Cartoonists panel along with Jem Yoshioka and Sally Bollinger, moderated by Robyn Kenealy. Come along to get an idea what it’s like to be making comics in NZ’s capital city!

Q: What first got you interested in comics?
A: There were lots of comics/cartoons on the bookshelves when I was a kid – Tintin, Asterix, The Far Side, Raymond Briggs, Spike Milligan, Rupert Bear – all things that had belonged to my parents or older brother. I loved reading them but it never occurred to me that they were a thing I could ask for more of.
It wasn’t until I was 16 or 17 and discovered webcomics that I realised what the possibilities were! But after that it was years before I started really making and sharing comics myself.

Comic by Giselle Clarkson
Comic by Giselle Clarkson

Q: What is your average day like?
A: I work freelance from home – I wake up early, make coffee, drink it at my desk, fluff around online for at least an hour and then start work. I like to take my breaks in the garden – poking around for interesting insects or something edible.
I love working in my pyjamas and having a flexible schedule, but I’m often working late at night and weekends don’t really exist. Going into town for a meeting is pretty exciting for me!

Q: Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?
A: I visited the New Zealand subantarctic islands last year and I’ve been making science communication comics about all the amazing stuff down there and the environmental threats the region is facing. Travelling on a ship for 19 days with a fairly small group of people was a pretty incredible – in a positive way! – experience in itself so I plan on telling a story about that too.
I’m also doing a regular comic about picture books for kids’ literature website The Sapling. Coming up with a good comic idea every month is not easy – I am in total awe of people who do it every day, or every week!

An image from Giselle's work on The Sapling
An image from Giselle’s work on The Sapling

Q: Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?
A: When I’m writing or plotting I need silence, or I have a fan going to make white noise. When I’m tidying up my line art or colouring it in I go into a sort of auto-pilot mode and if I don’t have something interesting to listen to and keep my mind focused I go absolutely spare with distraction. So I use podcasts to fix that problem.

Q: Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?
A: The NZ outdoors and the need to protect what we’ve got here. I’m really in love with all our wild places.
And people I meet, there are so many genuinely brilliant characters out there.

Comic by Giselle Clarkson
Comic by Giselle Clarkson

Q: What is your dream comic project?
A: Tagging along on scientific expeditions to remote places, drawing and writing about the environment, the science, the people and my experiences.

Q: If you were to enter our cosplay contest, who/what would you dress up as?
A: Hilda from Luke Pearson’s comic series! She always looks comfortable.

You can see more of Giselle’s work online at www.giselledraws.com and on Twitter at @giselledraws

5 minutes with Sam Orchard: Comicfest feature

ComicFest is back for 2017! On Saturday May 6th at the Central Library there will be panels and workshops all day long for comic-lovers of all ages. You can also pick up a free comic from us on the day and celebrate Free Comic Book Day, courtesy of GRAPHIC! Head over to the ComicFest Facebook event for all the details, and to receive event updates.

Sam Orchard is the author of the popular webcomic Rooster Tails. At ComicFest, Sam will be on our panel Should we all be writing political comics? along with Toby Morris and Sarah Laing, and moderated by the National Library’s Hannah Benbow. Check out Sam’s A’s to our Q’s below:

Q: What first got you interested in comics?
A: I’ve always loved drawing – as a kid it was always a really nice way to get lost in my thoughts and feelings and imagination… it still is, actually.
I’ve always loved words and pictures together – kids books by Babette Cole, and all of the Where’s Wally books would keep me entertained for hours. But it wasn’t until I was coming out in my late teens , when I went in search of representations of queer characters, that the power of comics (and in particular webcomics) became apparent. I was trying to find people like me, people I could relate to, and people who made me feel less alone. Up until that point I had been a total TV and Film nerd, but all the representations of of LGBT folk, at that time, were all pretty negative. But on the internet I found amazing queer webcomics by people like Paige Braddock, Kris Dresen and Erika Moen, and it opened up a whole new world for me.

Comic by Sam Orchard
Comic by Sam Orchard

Q: What is your average day like?
A: Well, I work part-time as a comic artist, and part-time as a personal assistant for a guy who runs an organisation in the accessibility/disability sector. So in any given week I’ll be balancing working for my boss, and finding time to draw. Both roles work really well for me, I often get to be part of really interesting conversations in my PA role, and that helps me to think about topics I want to draw comics about. There’s a nice balance of a quite social PA role, and my solitary drawing role.

Q: Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?
A: At the moment my big project is finishing up a children’s book I’ve co-authored, which is being published by Flamingo Rampant (http://www.flamingorampant.com) . Flamingo Rampant is an independent book publisher who published feminist, racially diverse, LGBTQ-positive books , and I’m so excited to be working with them! Our book is a counting book about a little kid’s birthday party – it also celebrates different family structures, queerness, transness, polyamory, disability, and I’m just super proud of it.

Q: Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?
A: I need a lot of noise when I work. So when I sit down for the day to draw I pop my headphones on and listen to podcasts or tv. Shortland Street is my fave to draw to – I found a youtube channel that had put up episodes from around 2003 so I’ve been making my way through the last 15 years of it. It’s perfect because the plot is fairly slow (which means it’s ok when I don’t pay attention, because they’ll repeat it), it’s pretty light (so I don’t get pulled in to the emotions) and it’s just a great show so it keeps me entertained.

Comic by Sam Orchard
Comic by Sam Orchard

Q: Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?
A: Ohhhh, I don’t think I have just one – I’m really influenced by Alison Bechdel, she’s been exploring queerness and queer communities for decades, and her stuff is amazing, complex, and dykes to watch out for is eerily relevant to today. Other big comic inspirations for me are Erika Moen, Lynda Barry, Lucy Knisley, and I’m really loving Blue Deliquanti’s stuff at the moment too. But I get inspired by a whole host of other people too – people like Janet Mock and Laverne Cox, but also the queer and trans activist scene in New Zealand too – people in No Pride in Prison’s, the Gender Minorities organisation, the list goes on.

Q: What or who are your favourite NZ comics or creators?
A: I’ve been a big fan of Robyn Keneally and CocoSolid for years, when I stalked them both on myspace.

Q: What is your dream comic project?
A: A few years ago I published the first three issues of my comic series ‘Family Portraits’ which is a series of short stories about queer and trans people in New Zealand. I’ve got the stories for the next book but I just haven’t had time to sit down and draw them. So that’s my dream right now – to get time and space to crack that next issue.

Q: If you were to enter our cosplay contest, who/what would you dress up as?
A: Steven Universe – he is my fave.

You can read Rooster Tails online here: http://www.roostertailscomic.com/
Find Sam on Twitter at @Sam_Orchard