Tag: Sarah Laing

ComicFest 2019: Comic Book Festival from May 2 – 4 at the National Library

Monty

Call comics what you like – sequential art, graphic novels, cartoons, manga – Wellington City Libraries loves everything about this expressive, influential, diverse medium. Our fourth celebration of comics, and local cartoonists, ComicFest 2019, is ready to kick off on May 2 – 4, at the National Library, 70 Molesworth St!

ComicFest 2019 interviews & more

With the recent closure of the Central library, the National Library have come to the rescue with a generous, well-timed offer to co-sponsor and house ComicFest in the Te Ahumairangi Foyer, Taiwhanga Kauhau Auditorium, and programme rooms on the corner of Molesworth and Aitken Streets.

Once again, ComicFest will be giving away 1,000’s of free comics on Free Comic Book Day, with the brilliant support of Graphic comic store, who will be providing local sales of cartoonists on the day for the first time.

We couldn’t have staged ComicFest without our all-important sponsors – the National Library, Graphic comics, Creative New Zealand, the New Zealand Book Council, the New Zealand Cartoon Archive, Weta Workshop, CoNZealand, Penguin Books, Unity Books and Wellington Zinefest

For more information on all the events at ComicFest, scroll further down the page for our complete programme, but expect FREE comics, panel discussions, presentations, workshops, Kids cosplay, quizzes, film showings and prizes from Weta Cave, Unity Books and CoNZealand!

Saturday – 4 May Programme

For all 3 days scroll further down

 

Full ComicFest 2019 Programme

Thursday 2 May

6:00pm – 8:00pm | Mystery ComicFest Film

Can you guess this classic Science Fiction film? Help us celebrate the start of ComicFest with one of the most beloved science fiction films of the 1980’s, based on a pulp classic novel and comic strip, and boasting a killer soundtrack! Please fill in the form to book a seat at this limited entry, free event. (Programme rooms)

Friday 3 May

5:30pm – 6:30pm | ComicFest Star Wars Quiz Night

Is the force with you? Are you are Star Wars mega brain, or are you a Padawan rather than a Jedi Master? Put your knowledge of the Star Wars universe to the test, in our very special Star War’s quiz. Join in groups of up to 5, and fill in the form to reserve a place at this limited entry, free event. Fabulous prizes provided by CoNZealand! (Tiakiwai Seminar Rooms)

Sponsored by CoNZealand, 78th World Science Fiction Convention.

6:45pm – 8:45pm | Roger Langridge – A Career in Comics (Presentation and Workshop)

Eisner winning, London-based cartoonist, Roger Langridge has worked for major and independent comics publishers across the world and is visiting Wellington as part of ComicFest 2019! Roger will provide a presentation on his career in cartooning, with examples of his highly regarded comics. Join in later, as Roger provides the chance for all to create a unique and creative comic strip of their own, based on formal constraints provided at random!

Please fill in the form to reserve a place for the Presentation for this limited entry, free event.

If you would like to go to the Workshop, fill in the form to reserve a place at this limited entry, free event.

(Auditorium / Tiakiwai Seminar Rooms)

Sponsored by Creative New Zealand

Saturday 4 May

All Day | Free Comic Book Day | CoNZealand Area | Drawing competition|

(Te Ahumairangi Foyer)

9:00am onwards | Free Comic Book Day

Grab some free comics from us and chat comics with our librarians at the National Library! Comics from all different publishers and for all age ranges are included in the selections, so there will be something for everyone. Thanks to Graphic for providing free comics, and book sales of local cartoonists on the day!

Sponsored by Graphic comics

CoNZealand, 78th World Science Fiction Convention Area

Come and talk to the crew of CoNZealand, the 78th World Science Fiction Convention, and find out how you can join in the fun between 29 July and 2 August 2020, when SF and Fantasy authors from all over the world, including Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon and George R.R. Martin, will land right here in Wellington.

Drawing Competition: Can You Comicify That?

Come to the library and draw a ‘comicified’ version of your favourite character from a book, movie or TV show! Submit it to our drawing competition and be in to win a bunch of awesome prizes, or bring it to the Zine Crafting Table and learn how to turn it into your very own homemade comic! Entry forms available from the National Library during ComicFest. All ages and drawing levels welcome.

9:00am – 10:00am | Tea Dragon Workshop with Katie O’Neill (Workshop)

Kids (and big kids!) are welcome to join author of The Tea Dragon series Katie O’Neill in creating some new species of Tea Dragons based on suggestions from the audience. Feathers or scales? Wings or horns? And most importantly, what type of tea will they be? There will also be a demonstration by Katie of how she creates the colourful pages of her graphic novels. (Programme Rooms)

Sponsored by The New Zealand Book Council

10:00am – 10:30am | Kids Cosplay!

It’s May the fourth, so here’s your chance to dress up as your favourite Jedi, Robot or Sith Lord! Or come along as your favourite comic’s character to get lots of spot prizes, free comics from Unity books or a Weta Cave Workshop tour pass! Limited to children up to the age of 12, free entry. No weapons, or military cosplay please. (Te Ahumairangi Foyer)

Sponsored by Unity Books

10:30am – 11:30am | Comics Masterclass with Ant Sang (Workshop)

Join cartoonist creator, Ant Sang, of award-winning comic Shaolin Burning, and recently released graphic novel Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas, for a workshop covering some of the fundamentals of comic storytelling. Should I use a close-up or wide shot? Big or small panel? How do I make a story that readers can’t put down?! All these questions will be answered, and more… Please fill in the form to reserve a place at this limited entry, free event. (Programme Rooms)

Sponsored by Penguin Books

11:30am -12:30pm | The Future of Storytelling : A Look Inside the Art of Dr Grordbort’s Invaders (Presentation)

Did you know that Weta Workshop develops mixed reality games? Using the comic books of Dr. Grordbort’s, their gaming studio released Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders, available exclusively on Magic Leap. Weta Workshop’s Senior Artist, Jesse Barrett, delves into the challenges of expressing the world of Dr. Grordbort’s in a whole new medium and the solutions they uncovered while working within mixed reality. Learn which key elements Weta Workshop’s artists look for when translating from one medium to another and how to retain the vibe of an original source material. Attend this presentation and be in with a chance of winning a Weta Cave Workshop Tour pass. Please fill in the form to reserve a place at this limited entry, free event. (Taiwhanga Kauhau Auditorium)

Sponsored by Weta Workshop

12:40pm -1:40pm | The Ascent of Children’s Comics (Panel Discussion)

There are more amazing comics made for children’s and young adult audiences than ever, aimed at diverse audiences across every age group. Join Eisner award winning cartoonists, Roger Langridge and Katie O’Neill, New Zealand Post Book Award Winning author, Ant Sang, Giselle Clarkson from, ‘The Sapling,’ and cartoonist-chair Sarah Laing, as they discuss the growing phenomena of children’s and young adult comics internationally, and in New Zealand. Please fill in the form to reserve a place at this limited entry, free event. (Taiwhanga Kauhau Auditorium)

12:40pm -1:40pm| Comic Zine Crafting Table (Workshop)

Want to learn how to make and publish your own homemade comics? Check out some of the comic zines from the Wellington City Library zine collection made by local comic artists, and learn how to make your own with the volunteers of Wellington Zinefest at our crafting table. All ages welcome. Please fill in the form to reserve a place at this limited entry, free event.

1:50pm – 2:35pm | Digital Comics Demo with Michel Mulipola (Presentation)

Join comic book artist and illustrator Michel Mulipola, as he demonstrates digital tools whilst drawing live (and live streaming) on the big screen! Bring pen and paper, and join in with Michel as he provides story-telling tips, panel composition ideas and illustration guidance. All welcome! Please fill in the form to reserve a place at this limited entry, free event.  (Taiwhanga Kauhau Auditorium)

Sponsored by Wellington City Libraries

2:45PM – 3:45PM | Stories from Aotearoa / New Zealand (Panel Discussion)

What is a New Zealand comic (and who’s reading them)? How do we foster and celebrate diversity in comics? What stories aren’t being told? And what can we learn from New Zealand’s cartooning history? Join Jem Yoshioka, Paul Diamond, Alex Cara and Ross Murray to hear their perspectives on New Zealand cartooning in 2019. Discussion chaired by Hannah Benbow, cartoon and comics librarian at the National Library, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa. Please fill in the form to reserve a place at this limited entry, free event. (Taiwhanga Kauhau Auditorium)

Sponsored by the New Zealand Cartoon Archive

3:55pm -4:55pm | Perspectives on the Cartooning Life (Panel Discussion)

The physical and digital world of comics creation and publishing has changed massively in recent years. What are the ways a cartoonist can succeed, and sustain a modern career in comics and cartoons? Join award-winning cartoonists, Sharon Murdoch, Michel Mulipola, Roger Langridge, and chair Dylan Horrocks as they discuss their brilliant careers, comics today and their views on the future of cartooning. Please fill in the form to reserve a place at this limited entry, free event. (Taiwhanga Kauhau Auditorium)

Sponsored by Creative New Zealand

5 minutes with Sarah Laing: ComicFest feature

wclstaff

ComicFest is back for 2017! On Saturday May 6th at the Central Library there will be panels, talks 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.

Sarah Laing self-portraitFirst up on the blog we have an interview with Sarah Laing, who recently authored her first graphic novel, Mansfield and Me. At ComicFest, Sarah is running a character design workshop from 10-11am, and from 12-1pm Sarah will be in conversation with Dylan Horrocks discussing how they each create longform graphic novels. It’s a super exciting line-up, and we hope to see you there!

Q: What first got you interested in comics?
A: We always had comics at my house – the usual suspects – Tintin and Asterix, Donald Duck, Charlie Brown, Footrot Flats. I grew up reading them. My interest was rekindled in my 20s through Tank Girl and Julie Doucet, and later by Marjane Satrapi, coinciding with the rising popularity of graphic novels, a contentious term in comics circles! It did mean that there were more comics to get out from the library.

Q: What is your average day like?
A: I drop my kids off to school then I come home and mess about a bit – I tidy up and read stuff on social media, hating myself a bit as I do it. If I have paid work – an illustration or comics commission – I’ll work on that, or else I will draw comics for my blog or work on my big project, which right now is a kids’ comic about the houseboat and giant stingray world of post-climate-change New Zealand. I try to work on paper, since I spend too much time on screens, but I find myself using digital media all the time, whether it’s google images for picture reference or it’s spotify or my podcast list for stuff to listen to as I draw.

Page from Mansfield & Me
A page from ‘Mansfield & Me’ by Sarah Laing

Q: Can you tell us about a current or recent project you’ve worked on?
A: Last year my graphic memoir Mansfield and Me was published by VUP and I’m still recovering from that! It’s about me wanting to be a writer, and Katherine Mansfield, NZ’s most famous writer, and how our lives overlap. I like to think that Mansfield would’ve been a comics fan too.

Q: Do you have any traditions or rituals that help you when you get to work?
A: I always feel like I should have tea and toast at 10am and when I get to the inking/colouring stage I get to binge listen to podcasts. I just finished S-town, which is a fascinating character study of an ordinary/extraordinary life in small-town America. I am also driven by a completion complex so once I get momentum up I work quite quickly. I try to update my blog weekly now that I’ve got a Patreon page, and I generally dedicate Tuesday or Wednesday to those comics.

Q: Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?
A: My biggest inspiration is life, observed, around me.

Flowers for the Teacher comic
Flowers for the Teacher comic from Sarah’s blog “Let Me Be Frank”

Q: What or who are your favourite NZ comics or creators?
A: I hate picking favourites! And in fact I’m not sure if I believe in the concept. There are creators whose work I always really enjoy – the obvious ones, like Dylan Horrocks, Toby Morris and Ant Sang. When I was co-editingThree Words I got to know work by lots of amazing women – Giselle Clarkson, Sophie Watson, Jem Yoshioka, Sally Bollinger, Zoë Colling for starters. Indira Neville’s comics are always hilariously irreverent, and she’s just co-curated an amazing collection of LP-sized comics that go with music, Sonic Comic. Last year I enjoyed Ross Murray’s series about anxiety, Rufus Marigold. And Jonathan King’s comics are gloriously surreal. Arrgh! So many people! I’m missing people out! I always feel a low punch in the gut when I don’t see my name on a list.

Q: What is your dream comic project?
A: I have never collaborated on comics and I think I’d really like to try that out. You know how collaborations in music always work out better? Lennon and McCartney, Morrissey and Marr… I want to find somebody or something to spark off.

Q: What are you excited to share with ComicFest attendees? Just a taster!
A: I am really looking forward to talking with Dylan Horrocks about writing longform comics – his process is quite different from mine and I always find how to talks quite inspiring – they give you a fresh perspective on your niggling or roaring narrative problems.

Q: If you were to enter our cosplay contest, who/what would you dress up as?
A: I don’t know, Björk? Or maybe Rachael from Blade Runner – she had the most amazing suits and hair.

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

5 minutes with Sarah Laing – Comicfest feature

wclstaff

Comicfest 2015 is here! Head over to the Facebook event for all the details and to receive event updates. There are panels and workshops for comic-lovers of all ages, and don’t forget to come along to the Central Library on Saturday 2nd May to pick up a free comic book on Free Comic Book Day, courtesy of GRAPHIC!

SarahLaing-selfieToday we’re talking to Sarah Laing about her comic work, and what we can look forward to at her Comicfest panel and workshop. Sarah Laing is a Wellington-based novelist, cartoonist and graphic designer. She’s contributed regular comics to Metro magazine, Little Treasures, the AA magazine and many international anthologies. She ran a comics blog, Let Me Be Frank, for a number of years before she put it on hold to complete her Katherine Mansfield-inspired graphic novel. Pikitia Press published five issues of comics selected from her blog. Her most recent novel, The Fall of Light, encapsulates drawings evoking the dreamscape of a troubled architect. Sarah has also illustrated children’s books, and although her work mainly deals with adult themes, her children are petitioning her to draw a kids’ comic next.

What is the first significant comic related job or project you remember working on?
When I had my first son in 2003, I started a Mama diary, recording all the frustrations and minutiae of motherhood, and my attempts to finish my first novel. I’d just finished Marjane Satrapi’s Persoplis series and I was inspired to start drawing again.

Can you tell us about your current, or most recent project?
I am working on a memoir/biography inspired by Katherine Mansfield, charting her life and my desire to be ‘a writer, a real writer’*. I have also just completed a short residency at Wai-Te-Ata press at Victoria, working on comics inspired by Patricia Grace’s novel ‘Tu’.
*’Oh to be a writer, a real writer’ is a quote from Mansfield’s diaries.

SarahLaing05Who/what is your biggest influence or inspiration?
Before I wanted to be a writer or a cartoonist I wanted to be a singer. I think one of my biggest inspirations are musicians – at this moment I most admire Björk. She is constantly reinventing herself, she reveals her most intimate, visceral experiences, she is avant-garde, innovative, and uses her entire voice – the ugly and beautiful parts of it.

What are you excited to share with ComicFest attendees? Just a taster!
I want everybody to know that they can make comics – you don’t need to be a good drawer. And comics can be anything: poetry, abstract art, a rip-roaring yarn, a diary. Comics is a powerful medium in which to express your own take on the universe, your own world view.

Do you have another job outside of comic creation, or any significant hobbies you enjoy?
I’m a novelist and a short story writer. I voraciously consume novels and podcasts and I also love watching all the great TV series that are coming out these days. I used to go to the movies and bands all the time, before I had my 3 kids. Now I garden, cook, work as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.

You can catch Sarah at her Comicfest workshop and panel at these times:
Saturday 2nd of May 10 – 11.30am – Comics 101 workshop with Sarah Laing
Saturday 2nd of May 1 – 2.00pm – Panel: New Zealand Women’s Comics with the editors of Three Words
SarahLaing04

A ComicFest recommendation: NZ Book Council

Monty

This year’s ComicFest has once again been lucky enough to have the backing of the NZ book Council. They’ve kindly sponsored cartoonist and novelist Sarah Laing for Free comic book day involvement on the 2nd of May. Here’s a NZ book council recommendation with some help in drafting from the Book council’s very own Lynette.

The fall of light“If you are looking to swot up before ComicFest hits Wellington City Library delve to the bottom of this article to discover Graphic Novelist, Rachel Fenton’s recommended reading list. Beneath the barrage of Hairy MacLary and Maurice Gee, Rachel has gone in to bat for the fantastic comic book and graphic novel creators of Aotearoa.

Included in her top reads is Sarah Laing’s, The Fall of Light and upcoming anthology Three Words; an Anthology of New Zealand Women Comics and Cartoonists, edited by Indira Neville, Sarah Laing and Rae Joyce.

Check out the books, then check in at the City Library on Saturday 2 May from 1.00pm to meet the editors and creators of these truly awesome works.”