A couple of weeks ago, I finally managed to purchase and obtain Alice Farquharson‘s Matcheld picture from the Liedikijn show. I’m reporting this now, because I’ve been preoccupied with a couple of things.

Since I’m nearly out of hard copies of the Mappa Mundi zine I made back in March, I’ve decided to give away a digital copy for people to print at home. You can download it from here.

Inside the zip is containing the printable PDF and how to fold it. The original was printed to A2 paper, you can try A3. I didn’t test at that size, but if you do, let me know what the results were. It should be pretty straightforward to fold, but if you get stuck, leave a comment.

Just received my False Positive mini-comic and some bookmarks. I could have sworn I felt a button in there, but it was probably just some weird, eldritch-looking beetle, which has now escaped.

Thanks Big Mike!

Jeremy of former street press zine Bizoo and Elouise of Smells Like Zines are coming down to Canberra in late May to participate in a couple of events while in the capital. Here’s some dates.

22 May
Something Else – Some of Our Parts, presented by Scissors, Paper, Pen at the Lonsdale Street Traders.

24 May
Bizoo-Ka! – The Bizoo Book Launch Party at The Front Gallery & Cafe will feature a couple of bands, a workshop, panel talks and a zine fair.

25 May
Zine Master Class – Cut, Copy, Paste at the National Library, where, presumably, you get to make some zines.

Good times to be had.

For more info hit up the Bizoo site (facebook | twitter) or contact Jeremy Staples (facebook | twitter)

I’m looking forward to reading this. I’ve played around with some screenprinting previously, but haven’t had the chance to go back to work on some more.

Incidentally, I also picked up my three copies of the work I submitted for Megalo’s MegaBlah, a series of posters you might have seen on a wall at the latest Art, Not Apart.

Below are a couple of photos of the opening night, plus a sample of the artworks there.

It’s on at The Front Gallery and Cafe until April 8. More information on the exhibition and the artists can be found on the Liedekijn site.

Mr Unpronouncable by Tim Molloy
Basically it looks and reads like like a mix between a Lovecraft and Woodring book. The art reminds me heavily of Jim Woodring’s The Frank Book. Here we find our eponymous protagonist on many adventures meeting blasphemous horrors and committing unspeakable acts. Eventually, all of Mr Unpronouncable’s adventures are going to catch up with him.

Entropy, Arcane, Celetial & Big Bang – Abyss 607
Tiny, single sheet chap books featuring the popular “seers” and creature designs. I wait for the Abyss 607 colouring book, printed on bleed-proof paper.

The Birds, the Beast and the Bat – Eleri Mai Harris
A hipster adaptation of an Aesop fable which finds the Birds and Beasts at odds over music and fashion, only to be brought to peace by the Bat

Burnard The Lonely Bunyip – Gavin The Thomson
A silent story about a small creature trying to find a friend.

Cafe – Alice Farquharson
A brief series of sketches by Alice made during the ACT Comic Meet Monday Nights.

Strip Show – Bruce Mutard
A selection of short comics from between 1991 – 2007 covering a variety of topics, notably the patience one must acquire in order to break into comics (or any profession, I suppose). Bruce sounds like he might be a very patient guy. If you like Harvey Pekar and want to read something similar, have a read of this.

Walking to Japan – Ben Hutchings
A silent comic about a nameless protagonist walking to Japan, growing monstrous to get there.

Mappa Mundi is the working title for a new project where content is printed to single sheet of paper, which is then folded down, like a map. The main idea was to create an inexpensive and interesting read, which takes about the same amount of time as to hitch a ride on the bus. Essentially, each issue has roughly the same depth as a regular blog post (depending on the size of the unfolded sheet), meaning it’s short and sweet.

My test issue was an A2-sized sheet, printed on both sides with a brief blurb and some photos about a topic that I post about regularly on this site: Graffiti. I thought I finally make use of years of street art photos and get some printed.

The result is about as much as I expected and that’s pretty good. The people at Prinstant, who fixed my gaffs in the original draft did an excellent job, especially in the timeframe that I had for the fair.

This entire thing was an experiment, but while I take note of a few of the things from this, I am looking for contributors. So if you’re interested in a copy or want to chat about where this project is going, drop me a line to my gmail (thescreamingwall) or twitter (@screamingwall) or tumblr (thescreamingwall.tumblr.com).

I apologise for my terrible phone photography.

The new comic by Brian K Vaughn, Marcos Martin and Munsta Vicente, set in the future where the Internet crashed and everyone preserves their privacy, even to the point of maintaining a “Nym”, an alter-ego with costume. It is a world where journalists are the police and paparazzi, vigilantes. The story focuses on man with the moniker “Patrick Immelmann”, who works to track down people or dig up their histories. I won’t say much more about the plot, because within the first issue, there’s not a lot without too much spoiling.

The style reminds me of classic hard-boiled stories and Bladerunner. The comic itself is only available at this point via official site – Panel Syndicate – and it’s based on a pay-as-you-like scheme. Being a digital comic, the creative team did think of one thing, and that is make it widescreen. A lot of digital comics, are geared towards reading in a portrait orientation. Which is fine for tablets, but if you’re still lugging around a laptop or sitting at a desktop, you’re still forced to scroll or squint. A widescreen comic gives something new to challenge the layout and the reader, which I welcome. And now I have to wait for the next issue…