Danny Nolan

Voice Over (00:00:02):
This show is sponsored by the ComX Shop. We hope you enjoy the show.

Leigh Chalker (00:00:24):
Good day and welcome to episode 10 of Tuesday. Can you believe we’re into double figures with these things? It blows my mind, but before I forget, I’m Lee Chalker and I’m creator of Battle for Bustle and Love. And the end of the show, you gotta like and subscribe. Okay, I’ve gotta get that in or else I’ll forget. There we go. Good on you. Sizzle like and subscribe. And this evening we have as our guest, Mr. Danny Nolan. So how are you mate?

Danny Nolan (00:00:56):
I’m very good. Thank you Lee. Very pleased to be on and thank you for inviting me.

Leigh Chalker (00:01:02):
Super happy to have ya get ice benzy. Now, just for people that are, some people are familiar with the show, other people may be watching for the first time. It’s a show based on six prompting words or questions, which are who, what, where, when, why, and how. And chinwag about wherever those questions and words may take us. So Danny Mate who?

Danny Nolan (00:01:28):
My name is Danny Nolan. I’ve been around for a while. I’ve a writer, a journalist local historian documentary produced musician. Publisher of music and print. And I kind of do all of that and I have for over the last 40 years.

Leigh Chalker (00:02:00):
Yeah, right. So you’re a busy man.

Danny Nolan (00:02:04):
Yeah, I have great hobbies. So I’m recently retired and I think I’m in the lucky position where I can’t get bored cause I’ve always got something to do. So,

Leigh Chalker (00:02:21):
So always been creative?

Danny Nolan (00:02:23):
I think so, I think so. I’ve always been attracted to creative people where I grew up. I better, where I grew up in the seventies, it was very much, we lived in a housing commission area, very much. Cars and skinheads were huge lots of gangs. But I always hung around the people who like music and by drawing or did other things that weren’t the norm. Just wasn’t a big gang person. And I think it just went from there. And I met a lot of like-minded people growing up who are still my friends to these days. And it’s great seeing, oh guys our kids now achieving far more things than we ever could. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (00:03:20):
Why do you think that is, mate?

Danny Nolan (00:03:22):
Huh?

Leigh Chalker (00:03:23):
Why do you think the kids now are achieving more than what you were back in the late seventies and stuff? Do you think it was the gangs and that or lack of technology?

Danny Nolan (00:03:32):
I think it lack of technology maybe help, but I think it’s support. I don’t know. I think we learned from our parents that we could be better parents. Especially where I grew up. I remember my sister telling me too saying do you reckon we are better parents than mum and dad were. And I said well I know I’m better father because I hugged my kids <laugh>, things like that. And we have a closer relationship but you’ve gotta remember how they were brought up to were up during the war and different priorities. And they were saying when we were kids how can they be like that? And then like I say to my kids, I couldn’t understand some of the things they like. Not at all. It’s baffling now. I’ve got my olders my older kids are in their mid thirties and they’re saying, yeah, why do they like that stuff? It’s the whole generation thing. It just flows, you know? Learn to accept it. Yeah. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (00:04:41):
I find myself wondering about the same. I never thought I would. And then slowly it, I guess it creeps in, doesn’t it? Yeah. Just little phrases or something you’re not quite sure what is going on or whether it’s a compliment or whether it’s they’re throwing something at you. It’s like, what? I don’t know.

Danny Nolan (00:05:00):
But I throw it back at it. My kids had no idea what the word grouse was. <laugh>. Oh, that’s grouse ace. How you talking about? Yeah. Yeah. See we get our own back at you kids. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:05:16):
Yeah. Don’t

Danny Nolan (00:05:18):
Even watch tv. They don’t watch free to wear. The only reason they use the television in their own houses is for gaming. Pretty much everything else is done on the phone or on their laptops. And me, I still love my big screen ally. I’ve gotta have it. I’ve got a massive collection of DVDs and CDs because as I tell my kids, I don’t like to rent my movies or rent my music on Spotify, even though I do have all the streaming services, I you don’t get the extras. Yeah. Cause example Lord of the Rings the DVD sets with all their extras. I think I watch once a year and that’s what really got me into model making and stuff like that. That’s another thing I forgot to mention. I, I’m actually a model maker. I do things like I’ll show you later when I talk about the comics and things I’ve done.

(00:06:30):
And once I was all over Australia, cuz I’ve built a hobbit house in my backyard. It was so inspired by the Lord of the Ring <laugh>, all the extras about what they call the biggies the miniatures that they make and all that. And I built a hobbit house in my backyard and the local paper had a look at it and because it was the Leader press, which is owned by Mur Press, it went to the Harold Sun, which was picked up by the Australian <laugh>. So it was all over Australia. Got picked up by the Daily Telegraph, the KU mail. I was on Sunrise <laugh>

Leigh Chalker (00:07:13):
Did they actually have people turn up at four o’clock in the morning wanting to see this Albert House man

Danny Nolan (00:07:19):
<laugh>. Well I fixed that problem because there were a lot of people who did wanna have a <laugh>.

Leigh Chalker (00:07:26):
I wonder why

Danny Nolan (00:07:28):
We have this huge estate, cuz I live in now I live at the foothills of the Dan Nugs. There’s a lot of old properties around here and there’s one called Commo that has a botanical gardens in it and they have open days for the cfa. So I donated to them for their children’s garden about five years ago. So no more hop <laugh>.

Leigh Chalker (00:07:52):
Oh well mate, at least you did it Cuz it’s funny that you mentioned the extras in the Lord of the Rings cuz I must have watched that a thousand times. And vividly in my mind that scene where they first built tree beard and they’re in a little shed and they had to roll it down a street to the studio and there were three dudes pushing it on a skateboard. And one bloke with this big staff pushing the point

Danny Nolan (00:08:18):
<crosstalk> our

Leigh Chalker (00:08:20):
Lines that were hanging across the street up so they could roll this thing to the studio. That blew my mind. I thought that’s fantastic.

Danny Nolan (00:08:27):
Absolutely.

Leigh Chalker (00:08:28):
So, no, I’m with you. I’ve watched that too. Unbelievable.

Danny Nolan (00:08:32):
Well

Leigh Chalker (00:08:33):
I built a city once, Danny, so I’m going on record with you here. I was so inspired by science fiction when I was about 25 and 26 and I liked, I was coming doing comic book stuff but liking videos and things too. And I built out a cardboard and paint and sculpted figurines to sit in the archways and stuff. A giant city in the spare bedroom of the house that I was living in. And it took me about three months. So I was very devoted to this city. So there’s actual photos of that somewhere. I haven’t thought about that in forever, but

Danny Nolan (00:09:11):
I can relate to that. <laugh>. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:09:14):
<crosstalk>. Hey you just do these things now, <laugh>. I totally get it.

Danny Nolan (00:09:21):
Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:09:22):
Yeah, no I get it mate. I’m with you. I’ve done some, yeah, yeah. I used to go in there and set all the lights up and take photos of these. I had to stop motion and stuff. I spent hours on this thing.

Danny Nolan (00:09:34):
Well’s. How you learn to do things, isn’t it? Yeah, I did that. I remember when digital cameras first come out, I found out that you could take a whole heap of pictures and you could do stop animation and we did that too. Oh geez. That was back in the early two thousands. And well making film clips of just weird little things that we did with just pieces of music. So yeah, that was great. And you got your little programs that you could get out of the magazines, the computer magazines and just stitch ’em all together and all of a sudden you had this wonderful little animation. You thought, I’m so proud <laugh> these days. I do. Shouldn’t even do it on their phone. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:10:17):
I know, I know. But see, I guess that’s what we get back to from earlier. I guess the times and the technology that’s afforded to people now carrying around bloody bigger now. They were tiny, those cameras used to carry around with sitting your hand and all that. But you look at people now, they’d be like, how did you love that thing around? It’s like,

Danny Nolan (00:10:39):
I think I’ve gotta be a draw here. That <laugh> I just use walking around the street. Oh no, no, no, no. I’ve always embraced technology. I’ve never been afraid of it. It’s like with music too I’ve never been kind of, cuz I’m a child of the sixties and seventies, I’m supposed to that music and I was in the eighties, I was in my twenties. That’s the music that defined you. I refuse to do that. And I still like the music that my kids play as long as guitar based. I, I’m happy. I don’t like people

Leigh Chalker (00:11:17):
I won’t do. So I guess when you started your creativity and you said you hooked into music and people were drawing and stuff, what got you into the comic book side of things, mate? Were your mates drawing comic book type stuff?

Danny Nolan (00:11:34):
This, oh, starts from when we’re growing up. I grew up in a house full of books. My dad had a library we were always encouraged to read which is different from a lot of kids I grew up with. They just would not read. They just thought it was weird. That’s something that we all instilled in our own children. They all love reading. And I have a massive library now in the other room. And we were also very lucky to live very close to Gordon and Gotch who were distributors of news agents material. And at the time Superman comics would be all the DC reprints from KG Murray and we can offer nothing because they’d send them back and they’d rip off the front covers and they’d just wanted to go around and get ’em, get ’em. So we did. And mum and dad never saw anything wrong with comics at all cuz we were reading. That’s all I cared about. And I loved that stuff. And we had millions and millions of ’em. And of course my friends liked them, so we just shared them around and it got to the point where I thought I can do this. So we used to just scribble my brother and I, my brother was a big part of the creative process, my younger brother.

(00:13:00):
So what happened there, we started doing our own little pitches here and there and developed our own styles and we always showed them to each other. But that was it. Just, we drew character tours of each other and things we did. And if you’re good at art at school, you got to do the posters for the fate or whatever and stuff like that. And as we got older, our tasting comics changed. We’d find the underground comics in, you’d go into the city and you’d go to these places that Archie and Ju sold the boot league records or what the ANGs called the head shops. The Bong shops bought the bongs and all that stuff. And they’d have the underground comics like Furry Freak Brothers, crumb staff, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez, all of those guys. And I just loved it because it was so rude and funny.

(00:14:04):
And the funniest thing we had at the time was Mad Magazine. Also a very big influence. But these things just, that was just another level of where you could go. But having those comics to read. And then the street press in Melbourne was really big back in the seventies. You had loose leaks you kava, I’m trying to think what other ones. They had High times loose licks, that was street press. And they’d have all these similar cartoonists to the American Underground. And they were all talking about dope and music and sex. And for 13 to 15 year old guys, whoa, this is the be’s knees, it was going to R-rated movies, but it was in your hand. It wasn’t porn, it was just different. It wasn’t capes. So when we were about 18, 19, I think I was 19, he was 17, we decided to put out our own and that would’ve been in early 80 I think. And we sat there and we sussed it out and we worked on it and worked on it and worked on it. And it took us about three years to finish. And that’s what that is. Yeah. Wow. And where are we? Oh god, that got it. So that was what we did used print <laugh>, written like that. Wow.

(00:15:56):
And it took so long to do and by the time it finished we’d actually got careers <laugh>. And I always remember the week it come out, I moved up to Queensland with my job for six months and then I never got to see any of the distribution part of it. And Joe, my brother, he didn’t do any of it. He just couldn’t be bothered. So he said, oh, we finally finished. Now we’ve got a thousand copies printed. And so we just went down the pub and just, we also lived near the Monash University and just gone and threw ’em out to people. This cost of fortune we’re not gonna make any money out of it. And the funny part it was that we spent so much time on it and when it finally printed, it was kind of like the excitement had all died out <laugh>, we were proud of it, but we thought, oh geez, we couldn’t do a second one. And at the same time, because it had come out and took so long to do he went into the center of Australia because he started doing the towers for early mobile system, early start of office Telstra, and going woo woo all the way up to Western Australia to do, just start plotting out and building the tower so they could do the whole infrastructure.

(00:17:40):
And he never got back into it again. I often thought what, when we come back to it thought why don’t we do another comic and I don’t wanna do it. He says now they use computers. And cuz he was a penny in, not like Dave died, but he just thought you had to have some kind of computer degree to do cartoons. And so he just didn’t do it. It was a bit sad, it was a bit of a waste of talent that way. Cause I never liked my drawing style I thought was horrible and I could never get the character look the same in two panels. Whereas it was consistent all the way and he could draw hands. I still can’t draw hands. So we went our own way. So we thought, and I look back at it now, I thought when that happened, about 83, if we have been serious about it, we could have made something of it. Because at the same time you had all the guys from Cyclone you, Dave DeVry what’s his name? Peter Zaki and Gary Chandler and Glenn London doing their stuff. You had mini and alternate world comic bookshops. Two of the longest running comic shops in the world had only just started there as a physical presence.

(00:19:13):
What else was there? Dave died just you hadn’t even joined the Army yet. <laugh>. So <laugh>, no thinking at that time. And the guys from Scar were only just starting out and doing all this stuff and I think there’d only been two comic conventions in Australia. So it was that long ago. And I felt like we could have been part of that scene, but we never were because we walked away from it.

Leigh Chalker (00:19:44):
Well I certainly hope you look back on it now. You know were just mentioning before that, after all that work, you’re a bit, oh okay, it’s out. But do you look back on that work now that you and your brother did and you feel pride and

Danny Nolan (00:19:59):
Oh certainly do. Especially Joe died about five years ago. He chose a lifestyle that a lot of people wouldn’t choose and it took him in the end and I wanted to do a tribute to him. And so I actually did my first drawings and redid what we call a rat tails. That was one of the main stories from Woba and I’ll get into that later. Now. What happened after that is he went away, didn’t want to do drawing anymore. I got into music. It was the post punk period where we were getting all happy and doing music and then the jobs took over, got married, had kids and did nothing for geez, oh about to the two thousands, I think there was a 15 year old, 15 year period where just decided no, there’s too much growing up to do. And then at the turn of the century my first marriage ended and I was a single dad with the kids. And so I worked part-time to bring them up and I had a bit more time on my hands. So I started to write again.

(00:21:30):
And during that period I met two really important people in my life. One was James Schwan who was a sculpture tattooist. And another guy was the Ed Redman who was a main instigator and the creation during the creation of Red Bubble, the site where sizzle like that. Yeah. So I started writing stories and I picked up a people magazine one day and they had these stories and I thought this is just someone’s turned a bad dirty joke into a long form, I can do that. So I had a story in the back of my head and I put it together, sent it in, they liked it and gave me $300 and printed it <laugh>. I thought, okay, that’s good. So I did that again and they sent it back, said, no, don’t like this. I thought, oh, is that how it works? I thought, you know, get picked.

(00:22:46):
That’s it. You’re in <laugh>. So this is a learning curve. And I thought, oh geez, yeah, you really do know. Have to learn grammar a bit better. So I did again and once again I got selected and got paid for it. I thought, oh this is alright. So I might start writing instead. But with that newfound confidence was the same time I met joined Red Bubble, which was a big creative community back then. And everybody just kind of was very encouraging. So you say community is Unity. That’s where I first learned that nothing was rubbish, even though it was a lot of it rubbish. But you know, just saw people improve. And during that time I got to meet a lot of people and a lot of these people were designers and because of that they were all doing t-shirts and bits and pieces and I thought, oh, I’ll do these little bits of satire and just make these silly t-shirts.

(00:24:02):
And then a long time, this guy called Simon Cherry who had an idea for a chess set, he made a chess set and with this chess set it was just, he did all the black pieces and he got eight people to do the white side of the board. And when he got a mate, he asked me, he goes, do you reckon you could make a story outta this or do something? So I had all these pieces of chess and chess pieces and I thought, oh yeah, that’s a horse. I’ll write a biography on that. And biography on that and biography on that and biography on that. And they seemed to like it and it was quite successful. They sold a lot of t-shirts, then they did a second phase where they wanted to have a chess game. So I built the chess game up outta these pieces, did a lido for it and they seemed to like that.

(00:25:13):
And then ended up going to the New York ComicCon, the art pieces. And as with Red Bubble and ended up being a book somewhere here. Where is it? Yeah, end ended up. You’ve got a portal there mate. Yeah, a little book. Wow, I can’t see that. Yeah, the Game of Kings. It was Game. Yeah. So that was quite good. I don’t know, you can’t see that. I can’t get the camera, the angles, but it was just all nice pieces of art. Can you see that? Oh ge. Yeah. Just holding up a little bit mate. Yeah, yeah. Beautiful right there. And that had what happened during the second phase, this is where the cartoons start coming into it. The designers didn’t want to do the action pieces. And so Simon had all these contacts with people who liked doing cartoons and some of those people give the names of them. I’ve forgotten you may have seen one or two of them on Drink and Draw. I’m pretty sure Damian Shanahan may have been on there. Peter Fairfax. He was, yeah, he did it too. And there were some great names. Ben Burn, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Cranburn. He did the Cranburn Comic.

Leigh Chalker (00:26:53):
Yeah, that I have heard of him and I have heard of the Cranburn.

Danny Nolan (00:26:58):
Yeah I work with him and Simon. But basically a lot of people from that went on to do Better Think Simon went on to do all the covers for Umbrella and Madman DVD releases. Steve Austin ended up drawing for 2000 Ad Magazine, he was a UK artist. Lilly, she’s got quite popular down here and Matthew Dunn, he does album covers for God Speed, you Black Emperor and Auggie March. And it was really good. And cause they did that, I thought, oh I wonder if any of ’em will do comics with me, comic strips. So that’s when I started to do short comics. I’d write them and then yeah, 2000 ad has those short stories.

Leigh Chalker (00:28:08):
Yes, I do know too. And Dave,

Danny Nolan (00:28:11):
Well Dave will know him because

Leigh Chalker (00:28:13):
Mine Burn. Cran Burn.

Danny Nolan (00:28:15):
Yeah that should be an end. Cause when I,

Leigh Chalker (00:28:19):
No, I’m a huge fan of 2000 ad Danny, believe me, that was I cut my teeth on there.

Danny Nolan (00:28:25):
What are they? Fags Thugs Tales, what were they?

Leigh Chalker (00:28:29):
Yeah, the Thugs Tales that Future Shops. Future

Danny Nolan (00:28:32):
Shops. That’s it. I thought they’re perfect cuz when I was at our red bubble we did these things called fiction, which were 150 words. There was a story with a start, a middle and an eighth. They were kind of like a paragraph with a punchline. And a lot of those stories that I did were they got into, geez, here we go. It was gonna be,

Leigh Chalker (00:28:56):
I love seeing people’s portals mate.

Danny Nolan (00:28:58):
Yeah, they like flash. I’ve got stories all through these anthologies. Another one. And a lot of my Comic <laugh> a story originally started as stories cuz they translated so well and that’s what made me 2000 ad I thought, oh okay, I’m gonna try 2000 ad. So I sent a few off and they were polite and said No we’re not, we don’t think these are any good. So I did the next best thing. I went to a place called Future Quake who is also a UK publisher but they’re also a gateway to 2000 ad. A lot of people who worked for 2000 ad come from Future anyway, future Creek were great. I did three stories with them and one of ’em was with Dave cuz I think I met Dave through a Facebook group.

(00:30:08):
I don’t know, I think it was an international one, artists looking for writers or stuff like that. So I sent historical nuclear family about a family who were in a bunker and the telescope to tell ’em what had happened had broken. And when they finally went out to see if anybody was alive, they were in space cuz that chunk of land had broken off through the new nuclear war and drifted into space. And Dave did a fantastic job of that and they accepted that straight away. And so I ended up giving that to Gary as well. And it also another publication in the US where it won an award of I become a finalist in. So that was great. And Future Quake been, I had a few stories with Future Creek ready to be printed, but the guy who was the mainstay behind it, the editor Dave Evans, committed suicide and it just all fell apart. That was a bit sad. That was kind of the second suicide and three years that kind of affected my life and that was so I’m big advocate of mental health these days because of that, you know, don’t know how important it is until it affects you in some way. So anyway, getting back on then we found out that, I found out that Dave was also doing stuff for decay Darren CAO’s publication. And it was funny because all the stories that went to Future Craig that got published were rejected by him. <laugh>.

(00:32:02):
Okay, that’s right. So not enough Australia, but for the international market. Yeah, good on you. And I had a two in decay and Darren had this habit of sending his magazines off to Pat Mills from 2000 ad. And one of the stories he thought was absolutely fantastic was one that I did with an Argentine Argentinian artist called Tara Sang. And oh that was great. And I thought, Woohoo, look at me. Pat Mel’s like my story. Yeah, yeah, that’s all it was. <laugh>. But that started a relationship with Carlos and Carlos. We ended up doing another story in retro sci-fi, which was another really great story. I don’t think the case going anymore. I think he’s closed that down and he’s only doing retro scifi. So as you can see that if it wasn’t for Gary starting up repre, I don’t think there’d be a market for any of that stuff anymore.

(00:33:10):
So I submitted the story with Dave and a story with Ben Michael Burn the Cranburn Gary and Gary said, yeah I’ll take any of them with those guys. So we were in first re and because of that he asked me if I wanted to do a Rick McClune story. So I did Rick McClune. So I did Rick McCluen number three with some American artist called Art Wo, I don’t know, I’m assuming that’s an alias. I dunno anything about him. And now I’m gonna do another one here. I just did the check on the lettering a couple of weeks ago so I dunno when that’s coming out. That’s up to Gary. So that’s another one done. Yeah, yeah. Okay. And in between that so that was the comic side of things and while all that was happening from the 2000 onwards I made the hobbit hole.

(00:34:18):
I told you I was on tele but I also wrote a book about my troubles when I was a teenager. And that is in its fourth publication now. Fourth edition, yeah. That’s about a novel or about a holiday I had when I was a teenager with my mate Martin. And we got really drunk and stoned and did horrible things in Queensland. Not long I went to live up there. I hope I never saw anybody. But yeah so that’s cool. And that’s still available through gimmicks and Amazon and few other places. So yeah, we’re quite happy. Well

Leigh Chalker (00:35:00):
That,

Danny Nolan (00:35:00):
Sorry, go

Leigh Chalker (00:35:01):
Ahead. You’re right. Go ahead. Published that, you publish that yourself or get someone to do

Danny Nolan (00:35:09):
That one itself. I love local history cuz I write for the local newspaper. I’ve been doing that for 15 years when I first moved to here. So I do features about, cuz it’s this area was one of the first founded after Melbourne. It was a holiday location the here in Soreto because of the heats and the smells of Melbourne and a lot of the history’s still here if it is ruins or whatever. But there was a thing that happened about seven years ago about where I grew up. There was a train that used to run all the way from the big huge where chats and shopping centers. Now it’s probably one of the biggest shopping centers in Australia and goes all the way across town to Latrobe University. Now this was built at the turn of the century before either of those existed. And it was fantastic, was just had a great story.

(00:36:08):
It was built by John Monash, the great first world war leader and engineer because it was right in my backyard, I loved it. So I helped with researching and producing and that’s the Outta circle line there it is in DVD and Blueray Blueray has all the extras on and that was fantastic cuz we got to do a premier and in the Campbell well cinema and it went all around Australia and I dunno why they tried to out the sps but I don’t think they were interested in or something like that. But it’s still available on DVD and that was fantastic. That was a very proud moment. So

Leigh Chalker (00:37:00):
Great show Danny, Rick clu issue six be carrying out in six weeks. Thank you Mr. Der

Danny Nolan (00:37:08):
<laugh>.

Leigh Chalker (00:37:09):
So six weeks mate. And you can add, I know that

Danny Nolan (00:37:13):
I went to Home Cooked Festival to finally meet who these people were who were on this Friday drink and drawing. Gary was there and he goes, oh the story you sent me. I said, yeah, the one you didn’t like because they had the aliens at the end <laugh>. And he goes, no, the other one that you changed. Oh okay great. And so yeah, another American artist, I think this one. And of course Mr. Kru Darren Close has done the letters again. So it should be interesting.

Leigh Chalker (00:37:46):
Yeah, with your stuff, just so people know that could be interested in getting it. Is it like can they reach out to you and get copies of I’ve got, it’s a, and everything

Danny Nolan (00:38:01):
I’ve done now I is free. You can get it all in digital form unless you wanna buy a physical copy, then you can do go through. I said that there’s got links there, you can buy that through. Any of you can buy Fish Pond, Lulu Dimick, Amazon, they’ve all got it. If it’s got a ISB in on it, they’ll find it. But all my comics I put all my comics into anthology form. There’s two, there’s it’s called Art by Others Story by me Volume one and volume two. And also the second part of my tribute to my brother Joe Pius and Pius and Moles of benches in Rat Town. So they go the physical copies are on the comic site shop. There’s two copies of Wombat there. They’re priced a bit higher because they’ve got cultural and historical value, but any money it’s made from them. I said Shane can keep for the comics. Yeah, I don’t wanna make money from my comics. It’s never been something I’d be interested in. I just like to see it in print. Then I show my kids and they go, oh that’s nice dad. <laugh>

Leigh Chalker (00:39:27):
Veering, veering into another question that we usually ask is like you’ve ob because your talent for me you love your comic books and you write and I guess it’s usually a where, but where do you go for your inspiration? Where do you find that time? You’ve slowed down a little bit now with your kids being more grown up so cause you’ve obviously got a cool little office space there looking in the background behind you and stuff too. You’ve got lots of artwork and a spinner rack over there that you had and some guitars and things. So is that your little domain mate where you go to be creative?

Danny Nolan (00:40:09):
This is my D of Iniquity but <laugh>,

Leigh Chalker (00:40:14):
I

Danny Nolan (00:40:14):
Live in a big house and all the kids have left. We’ve only got one child left at home now. We, Lorraine and I met, I had three and she had four but they were very young when we got together. Now the youngest is 26 and she’ll be with us for a while cuz she’s got special needs. But we’ve both got a studio. She’s very big on quilting and knitting and of course I like to write. So we’ve got all these spare rooms. So I’ve got another room that’s got a piano in it and the guitars and then we’ve got in the next to the kitchen dining area, there’s my library <laugh> and then another area where it’s got all the music as well. But talking about this room, one of the things you were talking about, what inspired me when I was younger, these two things that really made my brain go twang when I was about 11 and also about 15. One of them’s there, you can see over my left shoulder yellow submarine. I absolutely was bound by that Beatles. I could yeah know nice music. But the yellow submarine, the movie blew my brain. And to this day I still can’t get enough of the models and the bits and pieces. I’ve got seven different types of yellow submarines that have come out over the years. So i’s been a long time finding all those and little flying gloves and stuff like that. And the other was this guy here, captain Bill Vibes? Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:42:07):
Right.

Danny Nolan (00:42:08):
This Tony Edwards was one of the most brilliant artists. He used to write for a magazine called Tracks a surfing magazine in the seventies. It’s Companion to Ram, which is a rock music magazine and it did these most beautiful black and white art. I just advised anybody to look up Tony Edwards Captain, big Vibes Art. It was rude, it was crude, it was disgusting. But the line work is absolutely gorgeous. I know, I gotta show you. Yeah, give you an idea. I think I find something that I people who his fan will already know that what he’s capable of.

Leigh Chalker (00:43:00):
I was going to say to you just then I had heard of Captain Good Wife because I was quite sure Mr. Gary Chalen did a drawing of the character on a drink and draw one night and Gary’s just popped up and said Captain good vibes, essential Aussie comics.

Danny Nolan (00:43:19):
I love him. He doesn’t do any kind of comics anymore, hasn’t done ’em for decades. He does paintings and I think even if you mention good vibes to him, he’ll just heat a piss off <laugh> it. It’s not a part of his life he does anymore. But I couldn’t get enough of that. And I wish I could draw a like him, but I can’t. Just not good enough. But just the fact that his comics, which is so funny, is so hilarious and well thought out that I think that along with the American Underground comics and what they put into one page was just, most people couldn’t even, oh there you go. I never knew that. Yeah, I actually saw the, when was that? That wasn’t last week was it?

Leigh Chalker (00:44:09):
No, probably. Well from memory last year, maybe October, November, I think.

Danny Nolan (00:44:15):
Well I was saying to Shane, I think that when it first started he said, well what did you have couple of good vibes as a <laugh>? A lot of people probably wouldn’t even know who he is, would you say?

Leigh Chalker (00:44:25):
Yeah, well I had, that was my first encounter with Captain Good vibes. So when you just brought it up then I was, in my mind I’m like, I’m sure that’s what Gary drew that night. We were talking about it and then he had that question, have you had that for ever in a day? That copy of that book mate? Cause it looks like good

Danny Nolan (00:44:45):
Collected works. I got that about five years ago when I saw that it was available, I paid a lot of money for it because I thought it was worth every cent of it. And it’s probably one of my favorite books along with my Jamie Hewlett Gorilla stuff and my Gerald Scarf and Ralph Steadman books were a big fan of as well. Oh yeah. So lots and lots and lots and lots of stuff in here. That reminds me of all that up above my bald head there is the front page from the paper that with the Hobb halt. Yep.

Leigh Chalker (00:45:30):
Yeah I think that’s great man, that seems like you’ve got all bases of creativity covered man, that was

Danny Nolan (00:45:39):
So

(00:45:40):
Lucky. That’s it. I did this thing, I found music when in the Red bubble days we had a challenge. I started, I had a group and it was called I Am the Band. And Cause there were band called Gorillas Come out and they were a virtual band. There was no egos, it was just like the arches basically. So I tried to do that and it was really popular. So we released a cd, oh I released it through my publishing company and then I decided to release the stuff I did, which is a band called Quiet Riot, which is quiet Q C H I O R T as in choir. And it was a Gregorian Monk punk band. And I put it up on Band camp and Reverb Nation and last year I got notification that it entered the charts again in the Melbourne alternative charts. And I thought, oh it’s cool <laugh>. It was just stuff made from found sounds in my guitar from 30 years ago that I just did again. So yeah, I’ve been lucky with just about everything. I’ve just stumbled upon things and people who have been very generous with their time. And

Leigh Chalker (00:47:11):
It sounds like you start and your brother obviously had a good bond mate for creativity and meeting the people in Red Bubble and that obviously spurred you on and kept you like your sign apps is going for the creative stuff as well.

Danny Nolan (00:47:24):
Things it did I think after Wobe comics and Joe and I go in our separate ways and 15 years of just doing nothing, it just exploded. And I was just lucky to be at the right place at the right time.

(00:47:44):
The guy Ed Redman, the guy who was the creative director of Red Bubble I’m hoping to see him again soon. He actually left Red Bubble and he does print on demand t-shirts, his own company, he’s got his own places, he’s got his own studio where he makes little houses. He does models of well known buildings made out of Bamboo. And recently he got Jack White from Stripes Fame. Yeah, <inaudible> Third Man Records. He ended up doing a whole heat for him as well. Just wonderful. I feel lucky cuz I’m two degrees separated from a lot of famous people. <laugh> through somebody else but famous people myself. Yeah, I’ve just been lucky that way.

Leigh Chalker (00:48:42):
Oh well make Positive Energy attracts so it’s meeting those people that are like-minded and all that. I

Danny Nolan (00:48:52):
Think that’s the problem too because I make a lot of comments on things and I think I always get taken out of context sometimes because my humor doesn’t really in the written as it is sometimes not taken away. It’s meant to. And I think I get in trouble for that a lot cuz people just, I don’t think understand my sense of humor. So

Leigh Chalker (00:49:20):
It’s always that I understand cuz in the early days of social media and stuff, I was writing things that I thought were <laugh> and then other people didn’t think so <laugh>.

Danny Nolan (00:49:40):
Oh okay. I didn’t realize that. Oh, there’s two ways to look at things. And mine always seemed to be the insulting <laugh>, but sorry

Leigh Chalker (00:49:52):
About that. Stress you. Yeah, they’ll let it stress out. So I guess look, why do you keep doing it to yourself mate? Why do you keep going back in writing and doing the Rick Clu comic issue six that’s coming out in six weeks, your next one, what is it that just pushes you on

Danny Nolan (00:50:16):
All of a sudden I’ll be lying in bed and I’ll just get an idea and I’ll go and write it. Both Rick Clus, I had that idea from nowhere to finished in less than a week and I was so happy with it. I thought, oh it just flows. When it happens, it flows. There’s still a ton of stuff Got that I’ve never published. Yeah, I’ve got a whole heap of science fiction stories and two pages and eight pages that I’ve never shown anybody because I think that’s the trouble of being a writer is that you can’t promise anyone’s success. You can’t, unless you pay your artists, it’s never gonna see the light of day. You don’t say the law today. So cuz nobody’s gonna say, oh they’ve got this great idea for a story to an anthology and then, oh okay, now we’ve gotta try and find an artist for you and stuff like that.

(00:51:17):
So I don’t know it gets a bit tricky that way. I’ve been lucky with people like Dave and all the other guys I’ve had because they gave it a shot and they did it well and so you don’t try and push your luck and say, oh, do you wanna do another one for me? No, because they’ve got their own style that they’ve gotta continue on with in their own career. So if I get lucky, I get lucky. That’s why it’s been good with Gary. Gary will match you up with somebody. I do have one project that that’s been going for about five years of Carlos and Jelly. It’s kind of halfway through, it’s well into production and that’s a one shot 24 page steampunk story. He’s done a brilliant job on it, but he’s wants to hand color it not via computer but more as a water color. And when that’s finished I think I might publish that myself. I won’t do a Kickstarter or anything and then just sell it as it is. I that’s

Leigh Chalker (00:52:37):
Just do say it a couple hundred copies and put it in.

Danny Nolan (00:52:41):
That’ll be like my tribute to Wombat I think Just do it again. I, if Gary’s watching, Hey Gary, I might shoot you up for a distribution deal or something. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. <laugh>, I can always put it in the comic shop so Shane can carry a hundred copies <laugh>, but Well

Leigh Chalker (00:53:03):
You never know you’re in the right place to ask these questions. Yeah,

Danny Nolan (00:53:07):
True. Well that was the other funny thing. We were talking about the guys in Drink and Draw and how there’s a bit of renaissance in the comic industry and I thought it’s not really a bit of a renaissance because there are a lot of guys I’ve met on the way to get here. Oh Dave the I will tell you what the name of it is, it’s the head of Lieutenant Captain Stanton, the biomechanical head of Lieutenant Hillary Stanton. That’s the name of the comic. There you go. So take from that what you will. So it’s about a guy who gets shot in the head and things turn out a little bit odd at the end. It kills a lot of people. What are you talking about? See that’s why I didn’t like we were talking about the comments. So

Leigh Chalker (00:54:11):
Yeah, you’re talking about the Renaissance.

Danny Nolan (00:54:13):
The Renaissance and it’s great that it, it’s come out but I thought hang on. No, no, this is is a second wave. This is the second tier because there are so many people in comics at the moment who have got so big in the last 10 years in Australia. And I remember when you could just go up and talk to them before they were even at the Tom Taylors, the Christian Jones the John Summer Rivers Paul Masons Christian Res, all those guys, they’re only in their forties now and they’ve all had international success and they started just off everybody like yourself. And it just went like that so fast. See 10 years ago, gestalt had one comic they did themselves. Let them, now they’re international, they own I dunno if they own, but they’re responsible for the deepen. That’s like in its third season there’s a cartoon show. So I’m assuming somebody’s gotta have some kind of IP there. So that’s why it’s always important to put on your comics creator created by Lee Chalker. There you go. So when somebody comes knocking on your door looking for your film rights, you go, hey that’s me. Do

Leigh Chalker (00:55:53):
That. Yes. It’ll depend on who the filmmaker is that you’re love people

Danny Nolan (00:56:07):
In Australian comics who have done comics, who have made a lot of money from their comics just selling it to production companies for so much. We’ll hold it for five years, we’ll have the rights after five years they go now we doing it. You’ve made a whole lot of money for nothing. So why do you remember that there’s money to be made somewhere?

Leigh Chalker (00:56:31):
I think with talking about it earlier, the oh here’s Tom McGee just showed the deep on Netflix to my new housemates earlier this night. So lol, there you go. Cause what we were talking about before with technology, I mean technology as you said, has advanced so rapidly that no corner of the world is essentially out of reach anymore mate. It’s don’t have to get on a jet plane and go get a hotel room and hope to meet people by chance in almost, well you just message ’em half the time and you may get lucky to get a reply like but Australia’s got beautiful talent man. Such a big country that everyone’s doing so many different things from all angles and everyone’s stories add to the flavor of what they’re doing.

Danny Nolan (00:57:32):
We’ve always punched above our weight Australia. Well I’ve made comics with the Irish, the English Americans, Argentinians and Australians. And that just goes to prove, and I’ve never left the country <laugh>. Oh except to go to New Zealand to go to see where Lord of the Rings is made you go, goes back to that bloody DVD and the extras. Yeah. So you’re absolutely correct. The world is so small now thanks to technology, I wouldn’t have met any of these people or work with them if it wasn’t for technology. I couldn’t imagine it happening.

Leigh Chalker (00:58:18):
Yeah, for sure. What Australian comics are tickling your fancy these days?

Danny Nolan (00:58:32):
Okay, good on you. <laugh> <laugh>. I don’t read a lot of Australian comics mainly because I don’t read a lot of comics. I keep getting back to the classics and catching up on because I didn’t read a lot of comics and I’m not a big fan of Kate’s. I’m just falling in love with the artists. Neil Gaman, Ellen Moore Brian Ca va s, all those guys and all their works cuz they’re so good. But what I’ve got over here, Australian comics, well I’m just looking at yours, I’ve got yours there and I’ve got torn there and I’ve got all the brick clus there just about anything from referee at the moment. I like the fact that the presence was a good idea and I’m a bit sorry that slowed down but I understand why I did. So that was good because it showed, it was Peter Wilson’s story with the Little Aliens. I thought that was hilarious.

Leigh Chalker (00:59:51):
Yeah, suppose

Danny Nolan (00:59:52):
Yeah, that was crazy. That was one of the strangest things I’ve read. But I loved it because it was just rude and silly. What else

Leigh Chalker (01:00:06):
Is mate? It was an awesome project to be part of to be honest with you. That’s how I got to meet a lot of people doing that and being part of that project. Yeah, Peter Wilson’s a beast. All of those people. There’s Tony Men, there’s Ed Kiley’s, they’re all dudes that are doing their thing and doing improving every day when you look at their stuff.

Danny Nolan (01:00:34):
Well D Dave’s stuff is fantastic. He’s amazing tales. And the funny part about it, when I went to home cooked I what you always think, cartoons and comics, A young person sport. But Dave is older than me and I met the guy who wrote one of his first comics with and also did a lot of the work with Matt Kind for The Cursed, which is another fantastic comic as I said. I love that series So well Drawn. But Rogerson, geez he must be 70 and he’s editing work and writing stories.

Leigh Chalker (01:01:17):
Have you ever read the Roger SSON and Dave Dye comic book Cut Down?

Danny Nolan (01:01:23):
Yeah, I’ve got it

Leigh Chalker (01:01:24):
Mate. I read that a couple weeks ago. That was awesome man. That comic book and so is Time Fault. I recommend both of those two, two comic books. And Dave’s a champion bloke too, so it’s

Danny Nolan (01:01:38):
Read a few times.

(01:01:43):
He’s his best work. I probably is probably still yet to come, but that Anza book got it in the landscape version cuz he read it as a portrait. I’ve got signed copy of that and oh I love that. I show that everybody, look this is how you do a narrative, this is history. This is more fun than reading a book. This actually shows you what’s happened. Cuz I didn’t realize that he went over there. He’s been to Gal politically a couple of times, actually sat there and drew mats and got the feel of it and that all comes out in the book. Lovely stuff. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (01:02:26):
Oh it’s amazing man. Like that. That’s a great story about Dave’s book because this and the thing that I love about comic books and it’s a weird thing that when it’s out, no one that’s been involved in the creation sees it like, oh it’s out and thanks very much they devour, put it there, when’s your next one coming out? But they never realize how much work, effort and thought and strength and of Will should I keep doing it, will I do it? That sort of thing. It’s comic books great like that man. And to hear that story of day of traveling overseas to like Ally and that to study the maps and all that blew my mind. I have heard that story before. It was an awesome story and it is tops Mr. Chalan. It’s a great comment. Yeah,

Danny Nolan (01:03:17):
I reckon you can see the money and the effort in it just by the sheer detail he’s got to and so passionate about it too. And while I was at home cooked, you got a little addendum <laugh>, a little 22 page topic you can add to it. Yeah, I had to get that to add to it where

Leigh Chalker (01:03:42):
We, well I’m jealous that you own that. A signed copy of Dave Dye’s work

Danny Nolan (01:03:47):
<laugh>, I think you’ll find it for anyway, you’ve gotta come down here. You are up in the never, never up there in Townsville. Oh

Leigh Chalker (01:03:55):
I’m pretty close to there. Yeah, well yeah. Yes

Danny Nolan (01:04:00):
Gary there should be

Leigh Chalker (01:04:01):
In every school.

Danny Nolan (01:04:02):
I actually asked Dave if it was at the Australian War Museum cuz I was up there last week and I thought, oh geez, I wonder if he’s got it up here. I think he did send a copy, a few copies because I can imagine having a stack of 50 of them sitting on the exit through the gift shop there and people just go, you, you’re walking away with it because yeah,

Leigh Chalker (01:04:27):
A hundred percent, huh? No, well he got nominated for, oh I’m a hundred percent with you mate, it should be in the memorial can and stuff like that.

Danny Nolan (01:04:37):
It’s

Leigh Chalker (01:04:38):
Great comics. So yeah, this bloody brilliant. So I guess what would you say to someone Denny like that is coming into comic books and stuff like that, mate, what would you say is I guess a piece of advice for them from you in your experience on your travels?

Danny Nolan (01:05:10):
I really dunno. I’ve just stumbled through everything. I have just been lucky to meet people but I suppose the main one is if you’ve got a passion stick to it. That’s what I tell my kids today. I did another thing that was indirectly cuz my son’s in a band and he’s got a new single coming out next week. It’s quite a popular band in Melbourne. And so I sat here with my movie maker and made promos out of his, the new video, just stuff like that. And I’d never done that before but my passion was my love for my son and his music. So I did that. So don’t just stick to one thing, just give everything to try. It can’t hurt <laugh> but

Leigh Chalker (01:06:07):
Well yeah, you’re a hundred percent right

Danny Nolan (01:06:09):
Cause I can’t give anybody advice cause I’ve just been so lucky. I live very close to a comic shop that is probably the oldest comic shop in Australia, perhaps even maybe even the world of the world. And the owners there are fantastic and Joe is writing a be all and all book Joe Italiano about my life in comics and if anybody’s gonna be able to write a good history. Cuz most of the histories, I’ve got John Ryan’s panel to panel here. They all end about 1975 and there’s no really distinct thing happening. I know Daniel Best is doing one on cyclone and I have great faith that he’ll do a good job of it cuz his job on Len Lawson and Newton Comics I own. Both of those are brilliant and fantastic and I actually gave both copies to those to Joe as part of the history he’s doing. But now I’m helping him in a small little way with that. So my love of history is helping someone do a history book. So finding things that he didn’t know about. Defunct publishers Local Act who big in the early two thousands that

Leigh Chalker (01:07:37):
I remember act. There you go. I do believe it or not many, many eons ago. Cause the Battle for Bustle, it’s out now is the third version. Oh, okay. Did a really weird version back in the early two thousands and sent it off to local act and he was a nice dude and gave some advice and sort of set me on this 20 year path. But yeah, I do remember local Act very well mate. So yeah, they do have a place for sure. They had a lot of books out at the time

Danny Nolan (01:08:08):
They did. And people who come from there with Simon Cherry and Ben Michael Burn and Damon Shanahan who did Pizza Man and all those guys. I sent three scripts to him, but that was before I knew what a script was. I just sent him story outlines. I thought, oh these are good for a story. He said, fuck dude.

Leigh Chalker (01:08:28):
I was just drawing completely of on a conscious, on like a three paper and drawing word bubbles and writing the script <laugh> as I was going and just sending photocopies off to this dude, Ben. And I dunno what he was thinking at the time, what is this madness? But I’ve still got those pages here. I found some the other day and they’re funny. It’s like, it’s very unusual. But he was a good dude.

Danny Nolan (01:09:00):
I believe that’s the only way to learn. Experience is something you get 10 seconds after you need it basically. And it’s true. You send that and go, well, and usually most people politely go, instead of doing it this way, why don’t you try this way? And you go, oh, okay. And then about a year later, click go. Oh, okay, <laugh>. Because yeah, you’re gonna do it that way. You do it his way. Yeah, so that’s fine. I remember the first scripts I wrote. Yeah, you say a man jumps off a first panel establishing a man jumps off a bridge and rolls three times and grabs his gun and aims and shoots and then says 15 lines of text. And that’s not one panel. <laugh>, you just think, oh, an artist will do that. And you realize that, oh no, now I’ve gotta break things down. And that’s how it works.

Leigh Chalker (01:10:05):
Yeah, yeah. Work is your learn mate. I guess learn is your work sort of thing. I guess that’s the only way to get started, mate, is just to pick up a pencil and let it piece of paper and just have a go at it. So

Danny Nolan (01:10:20):
No other way. I still reckon with a lot of guys, if I do have to have one bit of advice I wish there was more editors, good editors for people. You can’t just write a comic, draw a comic and then get it printed because this need help. There’s always gonna be someone who’s gonna help you with your phrasing. <laugh> phrasing, <laugh>. I probably did that today. Phrasing and what works and what doesn’t work. It’s always good to have someone else’s perspective. You can’t start and finish and just say, boom, I’m gonna go and print this now. Cause you’ll regret it because you’ll look back at it and go, oops, I made so many mistakes. So I’d like to see more editors. But yeah, they’re probably pretty unappreciated a lot. So we’ll see what happens there. But I think that’d be the most important thing is if I could advise anybody, always let someone look at your work first and don’t be precious about it just because you did.

(01:11:41):
It doesn’t make it fantastic. Someone’s always gonna tell you where you’ve made a mistake and especially proofreading. The best thing I’ve ever had, especially in my journalist work, cause I have to do 800,000 words a month for a story. The feature, well probably every two articles, every three months maybe is having it read back to me and Grammarly because if I try and find my own mistake, I just read over them all the time and just miss the same thing. So that’s why I always use Grammarly and use the function on PDFs and words that read back to you. So <laugh>, there you go. I used to have two children who one works in for the government in Canberra and another one is a teacher at Deacon University. Both of them know how to do report writing and proofread. I give them my stuff and they never do ’em for me. <laugh>, I’m not doing this. It could be bothered. So yeah, I wish I had somebody who could do that for me too. So until that now the technology, the read back to your function on Word, is it the best thing in the world cuz then all of a sudden you see oh that doesn’t sound right. So if it doesn’t sound right to you that you’ve gotta correct it.

Leigh Chalker (01:13:18):
Yeah, well I’m with Peter Lane there with his comment that his wife edits his work cuz I’m very lucky that I work with Tam on Battle for Bustle and she <laugh> edits an awful lot and I’m currently getting a big list of things that <laugh> gotta have a little closer look at over the next few days mate. So I do think it’s very important for editing and you’re right mate, just even getting someone else to have a look at your comic book before it’s printed as meant more to marry really it’s like that’s one thing about this comic community that I’ve learned from not only just the creative energy but I guess as you get to know people and you become friends with them, get to have a trust of and a confidence in, hey not, I’m not gonna be precious actually would you like to read this and let me know what you think Or would you like to have a look at that sort of thing?

(01:14:17):
And I, I’ve found that invaluable men, to be honest with you cuz like I’ve said, I live in Townsville which is very far north Queensland and there’s not a lot of people that are like-minded in terms of comics up here and there’s no conventions and it’s a long way from things and you can get stuck into your own little rut of this is what I’m doing, this is how I’m gonna do it. And it’s good just to have advice and people you can belt ideas with and that what’s sizzle. Bring that up again. Dave Die Roger Proof read and has the Proof Reader’s guide available as a pdf. I have seen that on Facebook pop up.

Danny Nolan (01:15:00):
I haven’t met the man and I think he was a lovely man and when I saw who he worked with, I thought, geez, he’s obviously a very well respected man too. So I’m gonna have to chase it up now. You’ll have to send me a link, Dave, on that one. Cause

Leigh Chalker (01:15:18):
It was I think maybe a week ago mate that he was putting that up and letting everyone know that it was still available. I’m pretty sure I saw that cuz. Yeah, no I, I’ve read enough of Mr. Stinson’s work now to know I like his writing mate and definitely add Dave Dye into the mix maintenance. Definitely worth having a look at those comic books. So nothing wrong with that at all. But I guess where are we at now? Where are we at Denny?

Danny Nolan (01:15:50):
I didn’t do a Eds and write down the

Leigh Chalker (01:15:53):
No, no, no that’s alright Cause see I’m an egghead and I always write the things down even though I say ’em all the time. It’s like I like to just go through and double check everything and make sure that everything’s in order. But mate, chinwag mate, what else is on your mind?

Danny Nolan (01:16:12):
What else is on my mind? Well this year I retired this year has been the year that I have stopped suffering fools. I remember on year’s day we were sitting at a party, first party New’s Eve party we’d been to and ages the wife and I and a whole heap of friends thinking, oh I wonder if this world year’s gonna be any different from any other. I feel like last year’s good year you’re finally getting there to Covid. In February we decided that we were gonna take a holiday up to Port Campbell. No not Port Campbell. Port Douglas that had been canceled twice because of Covid. It’d been sitting there, it had finally been booked in and just before we went I had a routine ultrasound because when you’re our age, my age every time you go to the doctors they go, oh yeah, they’re elevator levels. You’ve gotta go here because apparently it’s all free. So doctors make a fortune. So I went and had that, went back to work and now I get all these letters saying, oh I need to see you right now. Oh fantastic.

(01:17:41):
And I get told that I had cancer of the kidney. So I’m okay. I says, oh we’ve gotta go and have all these tests. So I go back to work and I say, Hey guys, I’ve gotta have all these tests. If I found this rugby huge lump on my kidney and they go, oh it’s probably the wrong day to tell you that the company is closing down in Australia. <laugh> all been made redundant. I Okay, okay, so the wife come home from work and I said, guess what happened to me today <laugh>. And I told her and she went, oh no. And I said, yeah, let’s go on a holiday. So I went on a holiday and when I got back from holiday I went and had the operation that was all at success work closed down and we made redundant but we’d been there a long time.

(01:18:36):
So there was only four of us. I was lucky because the other two guys I worked for were Spanish nationals. They actually had to leave the country and they’d made a great life here. Seven years they’d been here. And so I thought, well what am I gonna do? I thought I’m gonna retire. So I had a nice holiday a successful operation that was, people talk about the public health system from the moment that I found out. They said we can do this operation next week. And I said, I’m going on holidays, <laugh>. And they said, okay, we’ll put it off till when you come back from holidays. I said good. So I was nice and relaxed had the operation because I had the Operation Recovery, I missed all of the mess that involved closing the company down but got all the benefits. And since June I’ve just settled into being Mr. Relaxo. Just relax on that, trying to figure out what I’m gonna do. So how’s your life <laugh> so far? It’s been good.

Leigh Chalker (01:19:54):
Yeah, well you, I guess you’re obviously gonna let loose with a bit of creativity there mate, I,

Danny Nolan (01:20:02):
I’m really excited that the Sun’s releasing this new song and the video that’s been going for a while now I’d like to be involved in that but he doesn’t want me to be involved in that because I’m an old man but I, I’d still like to tell everybody, shout it from the rooftops but there’s a lot of gardening to do and hopefully I’ll get some of these stories. Well thanks to Gary. There is another comment coming out in six weeks, Rick clu number six digging up the past involves a bit of stuff that huge and maybe a couple of dinosaurs, not live ones, dead ones. And hopefully we’ll see the mechanical biomechanical head of Captain Hillary Stanton come out and then that’ll be my piece of resistance. If that’s as good as it is, I think I might end it on that <laugh>, just leave it at that.

(01:21:03):
So other than that if anybody wants any of my stuff and read it for free, you can download it from my blog, my website, which is Dvn 61. Just type that into Google and you’ll come up as the blog of Danny O and it’s got a million things and it’s got my news articles of local history. It’s got my obsession with cartoon bands, <laugh> the history of my life in a band and all my bits and pieces of comics and stuff and reviews. I do reviews of comics. There’s a link there to all my comic scripts too that have been published. So if you are an aspiring writer and want to know how to lay out comics that have been published that might be the best guide. But they’ve all been published so you can get an idea how layout works and maybe flow and stuff like that. So it’s all free.

Leigh Chalker (01:22:14):
Well hopefully there should be people out there that try and learn from every one they can make what I mean information is very valuable mate. So how

Danny Nolan (01:22:25):
Did you learn how to write comics? Did you have any idea that it was in script form? I had no idea until probably about 2010 I reckon before, I

Leigh Chalker (01:22:42):
Guess I always did I wrote short stories like yourself and was drawing images to go with the short stories and just I think slowly over time I started interweaving the two. But it wasn’t really until I guess as with local act where I was honestly just sitting down with a three piece of paper and just like I want it to do this. And drawing it in great detail and sketching on that and then having the word bubbles laid out in the artwork and then writing the script as I was going. And then that’s page one, this is page two. And then I guess I got a bit more savvy with hey there’s gotta be a bit of an easier way or what’s the way in the dude, I forget his name from Local Act was like oh

Danny Nolan (01:23:36):
A

Leigh Chalker (01:23:38):
Yeah. And I was a bit like a script <laugh> watch this thing called a script. And yeah, then I sat down and I guess back when you used to buy trade paperbacks and stuff, a collected stories like 10 or 12 pages in the back mate of comics in layout form and pencils. And then they’d have a page or two of the script. So I went on this mad like oh I can just scratching out bits and pieces of every bit of info I could until I worked out okay page one, panel one and doing it that way. And then just slowly, strangely enough over time have reverted back <laugh>.

(01:24:23):
I did it and thank God I’ve got Tamara that comes along and goes like man, let’s sit down and really knuckle this down and tighten this up. And that’s where comes back to an editor, someone else that can look over your artwork, a co-writer with Tamara help me get to hear. But I’m always wanna continue learning mate cuz it’s a passion for me now. And much I guess like yourself at the time you think, yeah it’s printed and you do your marketing thing but then it’s not until you come back or you take a moment away to reflect and you go like wow, I really enjoying the process of enjoying the people I meet, being part of a community and learning and stuff. So I guess I’m still in a phase of evolution. I guess Danny in a weird way. So can’t I’d be a terrible teacher teaching people about comic books. I tell you <laugh> like how do you do it <laugh> not sure.

Danny Nolan (01:25:28):
I think the hardest part I have is with teaching is being patient if they don’t get it right the first time I I’d, oh no, no, no, no, no. Whereas I, I’d ask every question on the book, I’d probably be the worst student rather than the worst teacher. Oh yeah. Cause I just asked so many questions but I also lucky that I just met a lot of good people who are willing to share and help me along the way.

Leigh Chalker (01:25:59):
Yeah.

Danny Nolan (01:26:00):
Well anyway,

Leigh Chalker (01:26:02):
You’ve been good with your creativity. So mate, before I wrap up the start rolling down into the wrap up of the show question, what do you think of where Australian comics is at now at the moment? Do you think it’s strong? Do you think it’s work in progress? What’s your thoughts on that?

Danny Nolan (01:26:25):
I think it’s coming along but this still seems to be different sections and different groups and people don’t know what other people are doing. I’m surprised I’ll say this, I’m still surprised that you haven’t had Steve Carter and Antoinette Ryder on Drink and Draw yet they’re royalty. There’s so many people I know you’ve gotta work through them. But I don’t think people appreciate the history of Australian comics. I know that guys sizzle and spy, it’s good to see people like Gary Chalan and Dave and Glen Lumps and all those guys getting prominent of place because they were the guys who kind of kickstarted the new age. But there’s a lot of things that people don’t know. Like as you said one of the major players in comics at the moment is sizzle.

(01:27:48):
Three years ago he didn’t even know there was an independent scene. So I think people need to not only get to meet others but learn about in the past Sizzle we got here fats for Comic. I’ve been in two of those probably legends and they’re in your backyard, did he even know they existed? Just have a look around and see and if your history, we have a better appreciation of what they went through and how to maybe proceed a little bit further. And I think with Sizzle and with what’s happening with Rob and yourself promoting it can only be healthy. It was never like this when I was young and starting out, as I said at the start of the show when I started out at the same time you had all these comic book legends in different things in comic book shops and in creators and publications we’re all starting at the same time, but they’re all running independent now. It seems like everyone’s a unit, but I still reckon it could be probably a bigger unit, you know, could draw more people into the fold. I think that’s big enough. This is all we can encompass at the moment. I think we still need to draw more people in and encourage more people.

Leigh Chalker (01:29:40):
Well mate, I can tell you from being someone that is a community member of the Australian comics and stuff and just with my time with Comex is for me as an artist and a creator, it’s been so helpful and awesome man. And just to be part of it and meet people that I never thought I would and have friends that I otherwise would never have had the opportunity to meet, man. So positivity really is here. And if comics an interest or creating writing of all facets, like editing through penciling, inking like collectors, all of those sorts of things, they’re all important mate and they’re all inclusive. So hopefully we can keep the vibes happening mate and get more and more people to come and be part of Australian comic books, mate. Well

Danny Nolan (01:30:39):
You doing fine. Well you’ve got you in the Northern Townsville and you’ve got Laura Marshall in Perth so you know have this big encompassing and everybody in between. So it’s good to see. And I would also like to say that talking to you, it reminds me of, I watched this show on tv, it’s called Arms Brush with Fame and you kind of do that, you draw things out of people. I’ve really enjoyed this. Now I’m expecting to see a picture of me somewhere. Do I close my eyes for 30 seconds and you’re gonna pull it out?

Leigh Chalker (01:31:21):
No, this is one of the early times on a live stream. You’ll see me not draw, mate. So I think that’s why. No,

Danny Nolan (01:31:28):
You’ve

Leigh Chalker (01:31:28):
Got a great presence. I always enjoyed, I’ve always enjoyed talking to people Danny and it’s a great to be honest with you man, it’s a great pleasure doing this show, man. So I’m gonna keep doing Chinwag to meet people like yourself and everyone else that comes on in the past and the future as often as I can, man for as long as I can. Cuz yeah, I love Australian comics too mate. And grew up on history and the history of everything from going straight back to the early days through to the sixties, seventies, eighties, the whole lot. One of my goals would be to get people that were interested from those eras like fifties and sixties and seventies as far back as I could get to come on and have a chin rag and tell us about the stories and how hard it was for them to get their comic books out there and what the environment was like at the time.

(01:32:28):
Even talking to some of the dudes in the nineties with their printing presses, now it’s an email, boom, off you go, you’ve done it on. Two days later a box turns up with your comic books. It’s a crazy, so much happening and does happen, but it’s a beautiful thing, man. But Danny, I’d thank you very much for the very kind words tonight mate, and thank you very much for coming on the show. It’s been a pleasure, man. Cause yeah, tonight I’ve learned a lot about you mate and I certainly hope that with your enthusiasm and your writing, you keep going mate and keep digging into the community mate and exactly Mr. Time for more comics, mate and mate, on that note, I’ll wind the show down and thank you Peter.

(01:33:25):
Now tomorrow night we have Shane and Lauren Armstrong Martial Arts Lady. Rass is known amongst the Colmex community and they’re kicking off their Oz Comex show. So that’s at seven 30 Queensland time on the Comics Network Friday night drink and Draw. The main character is Judge Dread and the special guest that evening is Mr. Gary D from Applications. So that’s Friday night at eight o’clock. And mate I’d just like to ask you to and subscribe the channels because the more people we get, the more rich we can have to tell people stories and stuff and well,

Danny Nolan (01:34:11):
I can subscribe or ask, I will write horrible comments under your I don’t know, YouTube’s comments or something like that. I dunno. <laugh>

Leigh Chalker (01:34:21):
<laugh>, you’ll know <laugh>. So thank you very much Danny. And look everyone next Tuesday night is Mr. Sean Keenan of comics to movies. So he’ll be on the chinwag for episode 11. And everyone remember, community is Unity, keep doing comics.

Danny Nolan (01:34:43):
Thank you. Bye.

Voice Over (01:34:44):
This show is sponsored by the ComX shop. Check out comx.cx for all things comics and find out what come is all about. We hope you enjoyed the show.