Nicholas “Quick” Cleary

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

Leigh Chalker (00:00:23):
Gday and welcome to episode 14 of Tuesday, chinwag. Unbelievable. Can’t believe I’ve done this for 14 weeks. Excellent. So anyway, I’m Lee Chalker, I’m the creator of Battle for Bustle. And this little show tonight, stars made of mine and well known face from the come community. And Dave Dive would liken him to a Madonnas apparently. So we have Nicholas Quick Cleary. How are you buddy?

Nicholas Cleary (00:00:53):
I’m good. That’s one question down. Whew.

Leigh Chalker (00:00:55):
Well you got plenty more to go mate, so just you hold your horses there man. Just get some. So, hey Kerry. So for anyone that’s watching at home and doesn’t know about this show, it’s just six prompting words, questions, who, what, where, when, why, and how to start the conversation. We have a chinwag about anything in between and I think there’s only been one or two guests that we’ve got through all of those. So we might get, just not even get through one tonight mate. Who knows? Like they’re on uncharted borders. So mate, boom, boom. Straight off the bat. Who are you? Who?

Nicholas Cleary (00:01:36):
My name is Nick Cleary. the nickname Quick through the comics community, which I’m all about. Otherwise I tend to wear three different hats if you will. I’ve got three business cards. First and foremost, I’m a teacher, primary school teacher’s, my number, guess you want to call me for some substitute teaching. Have you,

Leigh Chalker (00:02:02):
Me and Symbol next on your card

Nicholas Cleary (00:02:04):
Then I do. I do S for substitute.

Leigh Chalker (00:02:08):
Ah, like super substitute.

Nicholas Cleary (00:02:11):
Yeah. Well sometimes kids ask, they’re like, cuz I’m a sub, I just turn up. They’re like, how

Leigh Chalker (00:02:16):
You

Nicholas Cleary (00:02:19):
Do you get here Mr. Cleary? And I’m like, sometimes I turn ’em well, I’m just a cowboy. I just come and goes Please. Or sometimes I tell

Leigh Chalker (00:02:26):
Those kids are probably gonna be going home and saying, man, this dude turned up today. He’s cowboy <laugh>. Sometimes

Nicholas Cleary (00:02:35):
I tell him, I’m like Batman, your principal put a light up in the sky and I rushed here to teach you. So I’ve got a few lines for the kids. I’m also a filmmaker, made some YouTube shorts on fury fingers.com and I draw comics. That’s me.

Leigh Chalker (00:02:56):
Yes. Yes. So mate the quick monik, like where’d that come about from even Danny and Dave?

Nicholas Cleary (00:03:07):
Well I wanted, I’d been on a few drink and draw shows and I wanted to be on more. That was my first thought cuz I really enjoyed it. I liked talking, being part of the community and I said to Spy and Sizzle, I wasn’t sure who was in charge yet. I was like, I get my pencils done pretty quick and then I’m just coloring in for an hour. I reckon there’s more value if I could just keep doing quicks quick pictures and keep pushing them forward and of the guy from hey, hey it’s Saturday how they cut to the cartoon comic book. Let’s do that. I reckon I can do that. And they said let’s give it a shot. And Nick’s quicks became a thing also because Nick May had just commented was the other Nick. So we needed to give this nick a name to differentiate them.

Leigh Chalker (00:04:05):
Yeah. Well two great Nicks mate. There you go. Part of the Coex community. Two great nicks and great creators. So what do you find most enjoyable in your time? Straight up mates in the community? You said you come to find the drink and draw and stuff like that. Originally

Nicholas Cleary (00:04:27):
A post on some Facebook comic group is in all of them. It was looking for eight page samples for presents books. And I had eight pages done of my novel, which is now finished. And I sent him the first eight pages cuz they have a cap at the end of that. So this is the kind of thing you’re looking for. And he messaged me back at four in the morning, two days later saying, hell yeah man. And he wanted to chat about it and I was like sort excited and groggy and I was like, yeah, well it’s cool. I love it. Great. Can I go back to sleep now?

Leigh Chalker (00:05:04):
<laugh>? Yeah. Yeah. Right. So then you were suddenly with this eight page sample, you were suddenly thrust into the Friday night world where you mate you just popped to say and show us what you all got.

Nicholas Cleary (00:05:19):
Well I remember I’d watch each show and then it, it’d turn off and I just knew without much knowledge of the game I knew that everyone was still online talking and I could be part of that group. So one night I just joined it cuz I had the old link and I was like, I reckon I can just sneak in. And I remember joining and everyone was like, well that nit guy’s here. And I didn’t really wanna chat. I just wanted to be a punk beer abust comic artist.

Leigh Chalker (00:05:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No that’s cool. Cause filmmaker comics teacher. So always been creative mate. Were you young? What took you first your film or did a comic take or anything like that? I

Nicholas Cleary (00:06:07):
Was doodling at a very young age. I can remember, this is a story I sort of tell now and again, I can remember my sister was drawing figures on the page, my older sister and I was looking at my page and I could only do stick figures. And I looked at her page and hers looked better and I just asked her politely. I was like, can I draw you? Can I just do what you do? And she was like, yeah sure. I just do this, this and this. And I was like, yeah, I got it. And then I could just see her work and replicate it on my page <affirmative>. And then by my second picture I was if not the same, better than her. And then that became a very encouraging thing for young nick. People were like, oh, Nick knows how to move a pencil around and how young people, I got a lot of praise at a young age for doing that. So I kept going.

Leigh Chalker (00:07:01):
Yeah. So did that lead, are you an art substitute teacher per chance or what? A

Nicholas Cleary (00:07:07):
Little bit of art teaching in primary schools. I actually don’t. I don’t love it. It’s kind of those things where it’s my hobby and I don’t like crossing swords too often. <affirmative>. But I’ll do it and the kids appreciate that I can make stuff happen. It’s actually something I do a lot as teachers. I’ll draw on the whiteboard, I’ll draw kids if they’re quiet as prizes, do a quick of a student with a big smile. So I’ve got lots of drawing tricks. A lot of my classes for young people, I’ll just lean to the board and do some stuff and it’s actually quite motivating for them.

Leigh Chalker (00:07:46):
Yeah, right. Does that spear them off into getting encouragement from you or does the minds wandering to storytelling?

Nicholas Cleary (00:07:54):
No, it’s more so whatever boring math task we have to do, I can make it a little bit more interesting if I’m drawing Mario

Leigh Chalker (00:08:03):
<affirmative>. <affirmative>. Yeah, yeah, yeah man. I was never one for maths. Let me tell you. It’s like <laugh>. Oh fact that if someone would’ve been drawing Mario for me, man, I could be making rockets now. Who knows? It’s like, oh well will parallel world. So mate, with now I think you’re most well known in our circles anyway for Detective Buggy.

Nicholas Cleary (00:08:31):
Sure. So

Leigh Chalker (00:08:32):
That’s your baby. Now what?

Nicholas Cleary (00:08:36):
I’ve got my quicks already. I can show a little sample.

Leigh Chalker (00:08:40):
Yeah man.

Nicholas Cleary (00:08:41):
If anyone who’s not acquainted, this is my little bird. This is the detective and I’ve written two books while

Leigh Chalker (00:08:49):
You got that, while you got this up, what was it that brought you to Detective Budgie? What was it? Did you have something? Pigeons? I saw a <laugh> post today that said <laugh>. Yeah, you may have something with pigeons. So where do we go, <laugh>? Read that out. For anyone that’s listening, chuck it up there sizzle when it pops back up, we’ll see it. But it’s from one of your mate. Here we go. Nick made all the birthday cards for our family growing up and we still have lots of them. Gday Nick. All right, that’s cool.

Nicholas Cleary (00:09:32):
Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:09:33):
Any of those? Gabby if you’re out there listening or any of those buggy related, so leave that out there in the universe. Som tell me man, what buing, what sparked it, man

Nicholas Cleary (00:09:48):
I’ve talked this a few times in the come network, but I’m happy to tell it again. I was working at OSH at the time.

Leigh Chalker (00:09:55):
I’m glad you’re happy cuz you haven’t got much choice mate.

Nicholas Cleary (00:09:58):
<laugh> and the theme of the day was drawing animals in human jobs. So there was a police dog and stuff like that. And then I drew this tough looking bird character. I’ve got the picture here and I drew in with arms, big muscle arms and I was like, yeah, this guy’s cool. And then I was like, oh, what if I gave him a jacket, a big matrix coat or Dick Tracy, cuz he’s gonna be a yellow bird I already knew. So you can kind of see that. I drew him and then with arms and then I did the wings and I was like, oh shit, I like this dude. I like him a lot. And I started telling stories in my head really quickly. What if he had wings? What if he lived in a world all bird cartoon characters do where they’ve all got hands like Daffy Dark and Donald and everyone, what if he lived in that world but he had wings and no one knew why and all these little stories kept going off. So

Leigh Chalker (00:10:57):
How long was it between that initial drawing and the story formulating from those

Nicholas Cleary (00:11:05):
Scenes? Well first I just did little Garfield size pun pages. I got them here. Just little gag scripts that I’d give to friends and stuff like that. Yeah, just very quick little doodles, lots of bird funds and people would always say, I wanna see more, bring back that Bunge guy, I want more of him. And I’d do them during class at uni and teachers would end their lecture and come up to me and be like, got you anymore of those bird. So I just felt like he was my guy and I had a lot of stories and ideas for this. Interesting. I picture, I know I see him as a tough guy, he’s really cool. But he is also a loner and he’s cursed and he’s held back from the world because he’s pure and everyone thinks he’s wrong. So there’s sort of an X-men thing in there. He’s a bit like Clark Kent. I really like him. And I have got a few more books planned with that guy.

Leigh Chalker (00:12:08):
Yeah, well I really like him too mate. He’s a good one. When you went into it, did you go into a full blooded mix style of what I wanted or did have any of were you leaning it towards the Noah originally? What was your process meant?

Nicholas Cleary (00:12:30):
Well it’s actually weird and if you know this and you’re reading the first book, it’s obvious. When I started I wanted to do just more gags, gag, a page type stuff and I was keeping it really flat. I like that Garfield feel <affirmative>. And then as it’s doing it more and more I’m getting through pages, I’m realizing I can open this up a bit more and that I want to. So by the end of it, it’s a bit more 3d, the action’s a bit more engaging. So yeah, I’m not sure that answers your question, but

Leigh Chalker (00:13:04):
No, that’s cool. That’s cool. It ticked the box for me man. So <laugh> that works. Hey. Okay. Cuz there’s a lot of world building in the one that I read. It’s not just where you said you started. Yes mate. Yeah, there’s a hell of a world has been built there, avian city and all the lifestyles and the days and the night shifts and all that sort of stuff that go on there. And a good murder mystery. <affirmative>, I guess I’d like to know with you is what, cuz I like world building so that that’s not a secret to anyone. What was it that you decided what, you know, wanted to fill it out, but was there anything in particular that influenced you to go into the levels or depths of the building that you did?

Nicholas Cleary (00:14:01):
Yeah, it was just that first spark of drawing budgie and thinking, oh he’s got wings, no one else has wings. And he’ll be on a new case and each book, there’s only two books and working on the third, now he’s on a new case and they’re straightforward crime cases. But the ones that you are reading and the ones that I’m drawing are the ones that will tap into and sneak into that mytho of why he’s the only one with wings and what that means in C. There’s hints of evolution and things like that that are slowly coming forward in each book.

Leigh Chalker (00:14:39):
Yeah, yeah. That’s cool. That’s cool. So you’re a filmmaker too, so obviously I would assume you’re visual men. So what was it in the film side of things as you were growing up too that played a part in all of this mate? So yeah,

Nicholas Cleary (00:14:57):
It’s, I don’t know, I’ve always just been a bit of a dreamer. I’ve always been like Nick, Nick, oh sorry, what? Yep. I’ve always been that guy in school and at home always just thinking stories. And that’s what it really is. It’s not just, it’s that I want to create and tell stories. That’s really what it is. And I had a thought that you might enjoy the story. When I went to film school for the interview, you see if you got in, I brought in a video I’d made and I brought in some samples of my art cuz my dad was just bring that stuff in Spring it. I’m like, but it’s a film school thing, I don’t wanna see my drawings. He’s like, no, it all works, bring it in. So I held up some of my art, I showed him my video and the lecturer was like, you kind of leaned in. And he was like, so Nick tell me you more interested in pencils. Is that where your is heart lies or is it more of a you want to come to film school and make videos? And I said, I gave him the right answer for him to get into film school. I said, when I’m drawing, I’m thinking about films I want to make. I’m sort of storyboarding, but that’s not true. I’m just telling stories in any medium I can use.

Leigh Chalker (00:16:15):
That’s what I’m so, yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s cool. That’s a cool story. Guess you gotta tell it it is sometimes mate. You know what I mean? To move the process forward in the creative. Yeah. So what was that was? Yeah, what now? Come on, you must have a movie tucked in there somewhere, man. Let’s go back to Little Nick, not the Adam Sandler little Nick, but the little Nick where, what was it? Cartoon, a movie finding a pile of comic books next to the Danny mate. What is it? <laugh>,

Nicholas Cleary (00:16:55):
My movie that I watch the most.

Leigh Chalker (00:16:58):
What’s that?

Nicholas Cleary (00:17:01):
I am an Indiana Jones guy.

Leigh Chalker (00:17:04):
Yeah,

Nicholas Cleary (00:17:06):
I feel like there’s like when men wear watches, this is one of my little bits. If you’re wearing a silver watch with a silver band, you’re a James Bond guy. If you’re wearing a black band,

Leigh Chalker (00:17:18):
You’re a

Nicholas Cleary (00:17:19):
Black man guy. Brown Indiana Jones.

Leigh Chalker (00:17:24):
Oh no, no. Well fair enough. I mean I could get that. That’s cool. What do you like the adventure of Indiana Jones, man? What is it like? Was it Paris Ford? Was it the fact that it all looked real cool?

Nicholas Cleary (00:17:43):
It was lots of things. Just the stories were always exciting and moving and he was the coolest guy. I personally, I think there’s a bit of my dad in Harrison Ford, they’ve got the same generic features and dad wore on a cub growing up. So there’s a little bit of that and I know that. But otherwise those stories are great. They’re the coolest. They’re the functions.

Leigh Chalker (00:18:08):
Yeah. Now I don’t think there’s a single person out there that would’ve seen that movie and not remembered the scene with the dude and flicking the sword everywhere and oh mate, just real casual like bang, there you go. And off he went on his adventures. Man, there’s some awesome stuff in those. Yeah. So we got number five coming out too. Apparently soon

Nicholas Cleary (00:18:33):
I’ll go.

Leigh Chalker (00:18:34):
Have you got baited breath for that?

Nicholas Cleary (00:18:38):
No, cuz I did for four. I was excited and then I was just slapped in the face. <laugh>

Leigh Chalker (00:18:44):
Who? Boy. Oh I, I’m wait to go that

Nicholas Cleary (00:18:51):
<laugh> enjoy.

Leigh Chalker (00:18:55):
Oh they are what they are mate. I guess they, it’s one of the ones that I love for me when I was a kid was Highlander. I always thought that was really awesome man. And then progressively I found they veer off into TV shows and all that sort of jobs that I’m with you. But Highlander had some cool stuff in it, man.

Nicholas Cleary (00:19:21):
Yeah, the opening shots on a super crane going inside. Was it wrestling or something?

Leigh Chalker (00:19:27):
Yeah, I can’t remember the sport. I’m pretty sure it was Boxing man actually. And zoomed across the ring and stuff

Nicholas Cleary (00:19:36):
Around. And you didn’t know how they were filming it, but they’ve also put helicopter spinning underneath the soundtrack. So you’re thinking, did they put a helicopter in that to film that? Yeah, it’s crazy

Leigh Chalker (00:19:48):
Cool stuff man. Cool stuff. But as a kid blew my mind, man. But say to do so. Yeah I mate, mate riding those worms, man still blows my mind. So things so man, where, where’s Detective Nudgy going? Where are you going? What are you want to do? Where

Nicholas Cleary (00:20:12):
I’m starting the third book at the moment, <affirmative> Peter Wilson’s actually jumped on board and he’s kind of doing an intro for me. He’s doing a few pages before it picks up. He was sort of inspired by a budget story he had based on Detective Bug world and he was like, Hey man, I wrote a script, just thought I’d share it with you. Maybe I’ll draw it. And I was like, this is exactly where the next book’s headed. Do you want to just draw it and I’ll put it at the front of my book and then there you go.

Leigh Chalker (00:20:44):
Yeah. So one of the things that you’re enjoying most, cuz you said you reached out and just wanted to beer and other creators and that is one of those little pleasures for you, like a Peter Wilson and you talk and then coming up with that thing and then him contributing to your work and that.

Nicholas Cleary (00:21:06):
Yeah. It’s funny because one of the reasons I did comics is cuz Filmmaking’s all collaborative, you can’t do anything alone. And you’re working with crew and partners and friends and actors. You’re just one past one piece of the puzzle. But that, what I love about comics is it’s just me. It’s all me. I, there’s no negotiations, they’re all my own negotiations. There’s something pure about that. It’s just like, I created this just me. There you go. Have a look at that.

Leigh Chalker (00:21:41):
<affirmative> you. So you measure it on yourself if you think it’s cool. That’s doing so what Gabby Nick was pretty fond of his ninja turtle Cape is a little kid. So Ninja Turtles obviously made a mark on little Mick, so I know. Tell us about your cape mate cuz he

Nicholas Cleary (00:22:02):
Bunch capes growing up, those netball bibs that kids would wear

Leigh Chalker (00:22:07):
<laugh>

Nicholas Cleary (00:22:09):
With a nest on the front or a red cape on the backside. I had a bunch of them show. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:22:15):
Yeah. What was your favorite?

Nicholas Cleary (00:22:19):
I think it was the Ninja Turtles, but I had a Batman one. We had a Robin one, which to make my brother wear he had a soup man one. All the goodness. I think mum made some for me as well.

Leigh Chalker (00:22:33):
Yeah, yeah. That’s cool. So Mum was creative. Anyone else in your family? Creative

Nicholas Cleary (00:22:38):
<laugh>? Yeah, we’re

Leigh Chalker (00:22:39):
All

Nicholas Cleary (00:22:41):
Artists in my family, but most, they’re mostly musicians. So I don’t really know how it worked. I’m just not really driven by music the rest of my family. But you put visuals in front of me, I’m the guy, they all go to concerts and stuff and Nick, you should come. We’re all going. And they’re like once the show starts and I’ve seen everything, I just start the daydream. The music can’t keep me engaged long enough. So that’s my boss. Do

Leigh Chalker (00:23:11):
You draw listening to music or not listening to music?

Nicholas Cleary (00:23:15):
Oh yeah, but I can’t really actively listen to music cuz I just drift away too quickly. I just know it’s all visuals for me. What really excites me.

Leigh Chalker (00:23:26):
What was the last music you were listening to?

Nicholas Cleary (00:23:33):
Let me just check. What was I clicking on earlier? I had some talking heads on <affirmative>. There you go. Just a bit of a

Leigh Chalker (00:23:43):
Little creatures. Was it an album or Greatest Hits?

Nicholas Cleary (00:23:47):
See I wouldn’t listen to an album cause I can’t hold my attention on enough. So I just put one track on from the YouTube

Leigh Chalker (00:23:54):
Playlist. Oh yeah. And then that’s it. You’re in the zone after that one track, are you?

Nicholas Cleary (00:23:59):
Yeah, well actually I found that it’s movies that I put on while I’m drawing, so I’ll put a Disney, Netflix, whatever it is, and then I’ll draw and I’ll look up every so often. But it’s usually just the sound of the story progressing that keeps me

Leigh Chalker (00:24:15):
Involved. Yeah, yeah. No, that’s cool. That’s cool. Cause I do the same then I watch TV when I’m drawing sometimes, but then sometimes I just like the sound of the fish filter, you know what I mean? Yeah. Against the water man over to the side. So yeah, everything’s different I guess depending on your mood. Hey look really, I mean that’s what it boils down to, I guess. It’s all about moods and creativity and setting the scenes. That’s what I like about the quiet time. Similar to you just to You’re alone timer. What’s cool is cool with you and that’ll do. So it goes out there. But all up with detective, have you got, you’ve obviously got a detective buggy plan in the line dabbling on any other sorts of work here and there mate because Yeah, totally.

Nicholas Cleary (00:25:11):
Yeah, I actually gave myself a bit of a deadline working towards tonight. So as of now, pre-order two new books@detectivebogie.net. I’m gonna bring em up. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:25:28):
This is

Nicholas Cleary (00:25:30):
Made it a commercial.

Leigh Chalker (00:25:33):
Lay it on man.

Nicholas Cleary (00:25:34):
<laugh>. This is Flyboy. So this is a book compiled of 10 short stories from some Adelaide artists. From Australian artists, two of my own, there’s a budge story story in there and we’ve got some work by Alex Major, Rob Bla, Nick May, Michael MDOs and Tim McEwen have contributed. Nathan, Ty, Peter Wilson, Dave Die, of course my hero and Jordan Pope. So I’ve got a book up at the store called Flyboys and it’s pretty much done. I just gotta do a contents page and stuff.

Leigh Chalker (00:26:09):
Yeah, yeah. Nice, nice. Well you got a good packer. You got a good crew there mate with you. So, oh,

Nicholas Cleary (00:26:16):
It’s a mad crew. And the stories are, and I’ve also

Leigh Chalker (00:26:19):
Obviously fly boys. It’s the theme is flying.

Nicholas Cleary (00:26:24):
Yep. Theme’s all about flat. So there’s 10 stories about flying that have been interpreted just as that.

Leigh Chalker (00:26:31):
Yeah.

Nicholas Cleary (00:26:32):
And one of the stories that I wrote became too long. So I took it out and I’ve got a separate story now. And that’s Rap Ella with a very Indiana Jones inspired cover here. So that’s also available for pre-order if you are interested in such a thing.

Leigh Chalker (00:26:51):
Yeah, right. You’ve been busy mate.

Nicholas Cleary (00:26:53):
I’ve been busy. No time

Leigh Chalker (00:26:56):
Off for you.

Nicholas Cleary (00:26:57):
It’s all because I really wanna start that next budget book and I wanted a little break from it. So yeah, I put together this book with friends and I wrote a comic book about a girl who can make things spin with her brain.

Leigh Chalker (00:27:14):
And that’s Propeller Ella.

Nicholas Cleary (00:27:16):
Yeah, it’s a story about, it’s kind of based in America during World War ii, but America doesn’t go to war cuz they’ve gotta fight insect monsters inside America. And these insects have disrupted the natural flow of things and a lot of people can start making things move with their mind and young Ella <laugh> and also do that. But we can’t do that because everything,

Leigh Chalker (00:27:46):
Man, you ruined the visual <laugh> that’s better <laugh>

Nicholas Cleary (00:27:51):
Everything. Ella moves spins, that’s her, that’s her vice. So she’s got some flaws in her superpower that she turns into something else. That’s all based on old commando comics. It’s based on Leonard Leonardo DaVinci’s sketchbooks. So it’s got a unique vibe, different to anything I’ve done. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (00:28:16):
Were you always, you just referenced Commando comics? Yeah. Enjoyed those over time? Or was that a research thing where you just went and got a whole heap of here’s a great cover? Dave,

Nicholas Cleary (00:28:30):
I’ve only got, and there’s things that my grandpa would give me, he’d be like, here, read that for a bit. And grandpa was always really encouraging of my art. And these are great books. They just smell so good

Leigh Chalker (00:28:47):
<affirmative>.

Nicholas Cleary (00:28:47):
So I’ve got a little stack of them and that’s the vibe I’m sort of emulating.

Leigh Chalker (00:28:53):
Yeah, that’s cool. That’s cool. So yeah, no, that is good. I’m really surprised with how busy you’ve been making been working hard. It’s good to see you wanna make more comics, that’s the way to go. We like that. That’s

Nicholas Cleary (00:29:05):
It. Cause I’ve been to a few preventions and I’ve got two books. So I’ll pad my booth with buggy stickers or books that aren’t complete. Or the first eight pages that I sent to Sizzle. You can buy that separately just so it looks like I’ve got stuff. But now I’ve got a little collection going and I’ve got another one of my dad’s walking stories as well. So I’m gonna have a good booth

Leigh Chalker (00:29:32):
Soon. Now this has always interested me for anyone that doesn’t know this Nick man, tell the story of your dad from about 12 months ago or so. Cause I know that was influential to you and me meeting and stuff that as well. But great story. Give him a shout out, man. I reckon that’s one of the great stories.

Nicholas Cleary (00:29:57):
So my dad, I’ve got a visual here that helps to tell the story. And my dad walked across Australia basically. So here we go. He walked from the, oh, there’s some notes. He walked from this northern point down to the South point and I documented it from home by drawing a comic page every week <affirmative>. He would Facebook post regularly about his updates and little stories he’d had. So I’d tell little jokes in pencils squiggle form about his little adventures. And it was great. And I got to join him. I got to join him for two days and that was amazing.

Leigh Chalker (00:30:43):
Yeah, yeah. How long did that take him?

Nicholas Cleary (00:30:48):
I think it was correct me later. I think it was three months or something. It was massive. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (00:30:54):
That’s a huge track of a journey mate. Is it something that he just wanna do it or for charity? Yeah, he’s

Nicholas Cleary (00:30:59):
Always wanted to do a big walk and people would say, did you do that for charity? Did you do that for something? No, I wanted to do it, so I did it.

Leigh Chalker (00:31:10):
Yeah man, I’m starting to see the in Indiana Jones and Adventure through here.

Nicholas Cleary (00:31:20):
I do by myself so I can say I do it.

Leigh Chalker (00:31:25):
Yeah, no, that’s cool man. That’s cool. My old man was a marathon runner mate, so that dude was running everywhere. He didn’t start running marathons till, oh, probably early to mid. That’s

Nicholas Cleary (00:31:39):
Probably my dad right there. I imagine that’s commenting

Leigh Chalker (00:31:42):
<laugh>. <laugh> on an Amazing journey. And it’s documented too, that one. So yeah,

Nicholas Cleary (00:31:48):
Read all about it on Facebook. You posted it every day and every seven days there’ll be a Nick original picture there. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:31:56):
Keep light. So you’re gonna you bring that out as a comic book as well with your cartoons. You’re gonna have things like your dad and <inaudible>. Yeah,

Nicholas Cleary (00:32:08):
I’m gonna have a book of, so on one page you’ll have little excerpts from his journey and then what I took from it, and then the next page you’ll have the comic.

Leigh Chalker (00:32:18):
Yeah, yeah. And that’s that go on your butt. I reckon that’s that’s an awesome thing your dad did. But it’s an awesome thing that you’ll have the opportunity to do as well, man. Cause yeah, I followed it. I suppose I missed the first little part until you told me about it and it automatically bomb peaked my interest. And I think I must have followed it for a good two months, me and your dad, cuz he was posting things and tracking the weather and stuff. I’m not going anywhere for a couple of day storms coming in through an pair, gone through another pair of shoes. <laugh> a good story Red. Yeah, yeah. But no good on him for doing that. So I can see where that influences your man with that sort of of adventure spirit, man. Yeah. Oh, good stuff. Now the next, yeah, no, I’m just flashing back to that story now. I remember the bits and pieces in the photos, man. Yeah, that was good. So when exactly did you bring out your film now, your YouTube film obviously you went to film school and stuff, but your YouTube film, am I correct in it? Did of awards and stuff?

Nicholas Cleary (00:33:52):
I made a bunch of YouTube shorts about video games. Yeah. Skits about the characters in the games doing their thing. And we made enough that, or enough good ones video game companies that we were like mocking started sharing it. So we made a metal gear solid one that he kajima retweeted, which was like Walt Disney was celebrating our picture type stuff. And then after that we did to Raider one, we just had the company behind. They were supporting them, sharing it, which was really cool. And then we started getting a little bit of money from companies to do it for upcoming games. So we were growing slowly. It was really fun. And it was always just me and my friends. It was kind of filmmaking on our terms. We just wanted to make, and we weren’t applying for funding, we weren’t getting our scripts checked and crossed off and edited. We just kept making whatever we wanted. It was really,

Leigh Chalker (00:34:56):
And this is dudes that you met through uni or is this schoolmates where instead of playing sport on the weekend, you grabbed a camera?

Nicholas Cleary (00:35:03):
It was both. It was with my film school friends and we were dragging high school friends to be in it sometimes. Yeah. It was kind of the best time because we just had a lot of energy to just keep doing and going and everyone around us was encouraging and saying, can I be involved? We were sort of invincible. We just kept pushing forward and asking for people’s time until they started asking us When’s the next one?

Leigh Chalker (00:35:31):
Yeah. Yeah. That’s cool. That’s cool. Yes, I like it. See man, positivity, man. That’s the best thing.

Nicholas Cleary (00:35:38):
We started our own community and we were making more short films and we had a pool of wrestlers and stunt people and PCO artists that we could just ask to help and they came. It was great.

Leigh Chalker (00:35:53):
So you had wrestlers, you were saying <laugh>, tell me the story come on of how you wrangled in the wrestlers man.

Nicholas Cleary (00:36:04):
Well, we had a

(00:36:06):
Web series and we had a character. It was about goons, it was called Gonzi. It was about the henchmen and video games and what they did in their day to day. And they started a rebellion on all these things. But we figured the villain of the series had to be a hero of a video game. Someone who looks tall and strong and handsome and fantastic. And we were like, who the hell are we gonna get to do this? So we asked some friends, we asked some cosplay friends and it led to a great friendship with Matt, eight foot of muscle with a good looking jaw. And he became the hero of our web series. And then he invited all these wrestler friends in and before we know it, we were just writing roles and thinking, oh, we’ll just get a wrestler to do that at a flip here. <laugh> <inaudible> here. And we just changed the way we wrote. Yeah, it was great.

Leigh Chalker (00:36:59):
You had to think more action orientated obviously with, well

Nicholas Cleary (00:37:03):
We were already doing that. We were always writing action. I think it was really gun heavy at the start. And then we got into more choreography stuff. We worked with a guy name was Anthony Renner and he was just starting out as a stunt man and we got into choreograph some fight scenes and it was awesome working with him. We were sending him Jackie Chan clips and then after a year or so working with Anthony and he was a real hot shot. He was already, he had his foot in the door in the stunt industry. After a year of working with him, he was in Hong Kong making films with Jackie Chan. And now he’s working with, he’s in all the Marvel films. He’s in the DC films. He’s getting thrown around. He’s getting punched in the latest Shang Chi gets a mad closeup. He’s like this angry thumb,

Leigh Chalker (00:37:57):
<laugh>

Nicholas Cleary (00:37:57):
My boy. I taught him everything he knows.

Leigh Chalker (00:38:00):
Yeah. Does he still answer your emails and text me or is it Oh see you later.

Nicholas Cleary (00:38:06):
Well he is so busy. I mean he’s always in Canada or something, but yeah, no, who owns my messages?

Leigh Chalker (00:38:13):
Yeah, no, that’s cool man. That’s a really cool story cuz yeah, the whole idea of just the luck community coming on board, but seeing the stunt man just burst onto the scene. No, he’s running. So that would’ve filled you with some happiness too, man, thinking that your mates become successful. But have you got any idea, this is, it’s strange we’re under talking about stuntman. What exactly do you think would be the thought of someone young thinking that yep, I’m gonna be a stuntman, that’s what I wanna do. Did they start off clumsy or <laugh>? <laugh>, I’m not sure.

Nicholas Cleary (00:38:58):
Cause we got to know him and a lot of his stunt friends really well. That’s one of the reasons we wrote Go Zinc because it was kind of about stuntmen, it was about physical people who have to fall down a lot and they were fine padding and they get really good at falling down. They don’t hurt themselves. That’s the thing. People think that that’s the job to hurt themselves, but that’s not it at all. It’s to make it look like so, and it’s to be safe so you can do it again. So the actor says Do it again. The director says Do it again and again. So accidents happen, but they’re not out there to hurt themselves.

Leigh Chalker (00:39:37):
They want

Nicholas Cleary (00:39:37):
Thinks.

Leigh Chalker (00:39:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, well fair enough. I always wondered what motivated them mate. So it’s an insight there into the Young Ripper Snap wanting to become a stu for the first time.

Nicholas Cleary (00:39:50):
Well yeah, he told us he was working on Jackie Chan film and we were like, oh man, maybe he’ll be in the back of a scene and stuff like that. And surely enough, sure enough, he is in the background of a lot of scenes. But Jackie Chan fights 30 guys and then the last guy he fights who puts up a bit more of a fight is my boy Anthony. And

Leigh Chalker (00:40:11):
Throws

Nicholas Cleary (00:40:12):
Down the staircase and he rolls down the staircase and he lies flat dead almost to say all these goons are finished now. He had the starring roll.

Leigh Chalker (00:40:22):
Yeah, that’s excellent. I like it. Good, good. Yeah, no that is cool with obviously your fondness for your community that you’ve mentioned in Adelaide, south Australia seems to be a pretty thriving community of creators down there, man. Whether it’s comics or film, that sort of stuff. It’s certainly all been pumping. I’ll get you to come back to Adelaide soon because I’ve just seen a lot of stuff coming outta there too as well. <affirmative>, would I be fair in saying that some of the characters in Detective Budgie are based on these people in the community that you’ve met and your friends and stuff like that?

Nicholas Cleary (00:41:09):
Yes, you are correct. Particularly in the second book I started just like if I had to draw a spare bird, I’d just pick a friend. So I mentioned some wrestlers. This is my friend Yama, he’s in there. He’s a nice landing type wrestler guy. There’s some Pall guys in there. They’re all based on my Paco friends. Was it?

Leigh Chalker (00:41:35):
Yep.

Nicholas Cleary (00:41:36):
I can pick him. Henry, that’s Harry. Yep. They’re

Leigh Chalker (00:41:41):
All there. Can they pick themselves?

Nicholas Cleary (00:41:43):
Those guys haven’t actually shown the book to yet the PCO guys, but I imagine once I told them they can do it. But the real treasure of this book is of course Dave Dye features as one of the protagonists because this character’s based on the way he speaks and he’s very Australian. He’s based on my old mate, Dave Dye. Yeah. And Dave knows that he didn’t quite know it fully until the book was finished and it was in his little hands and he read the blurb at the back saying, thanks Dave. And it was great. Dave emailed me something like, just finished your book. Loved it. I loved Frank and I loved him even more, but I realized he was sort of based on me. So

Leigh Chalker (00:42:33):
Yeah. No, that’s cool man. Cause yeah, your characters definitely have particular characters. They’re very different from each other. So I guess that’s after eating it as well. Why? I wondered if you’d had based them on people so that you knew. Well that’s cool. But Dave die. He gets around everywhere, doesn’t he? I think he’s in another comic book out there. I think about Chuck’s mate. Oh, and biscuits. Oh man, biscuit. No doubt he’s listening. So shout out to Dave Die out there. Oh, there you go. Frank looks better than me. Reckon good on your,

Nicholas Cleary (00:43:11):
It’s actually cool when you’re, we’ve got a booth and Dave’s not far and you can sell your book. You like that guy. He’s in this book. Anyone who comes by with Amazing Tales, I’m like, well guess what, <laugh>?

Leigh Chalker (00:43:25):
Yeah. The speaking of which you went to I’ve taken it, you would’ve been to conventions and stuff like that before, but was this the one in Melbourne that you got to meet heaps of people? I’m jealous of you man. Cuz you got to say day an actual person to people right down that way. Was that your first one as a Hey, I’m Nick Cleary. This is Detective Budgie and

Nicholas Cleary (00:43:52):
Yeah, first one Melbourne. It was really cool. Parking next to spy selling books cuz I got to just take all his tricks and stuff. Yeah, it was sort of a tough day. They put us in the corner, which was crazy because SPS and I are the future of Australian comics and they’ve shoved us into the corner. So I don’t know if it was,

Leigh Chalker (00:44:17):
Maybe that’s why they were using your magnet, man. That’s what actually said down into the corner <laugh>,

Nicholas Cleary (00:44:25):
We got a bit wild. We started egging each other on and I would just, if someone was walking by I’d be like, I couldn’t do it for my books, but I’d be like, Hey, I know who you are and you wanna buy that book. And I’d point to spies and they’d be like, who me? I’m like, yeah, that one there. And they’d go over to a book, this one, no next to that and they’d pick it up. And I made a bunch of sales as feds because I was just getting restless and

Leigh Chalker (00:44:55):
She had your beer at least mate or a hot dog

Nicholas Cleary (00:44:58):
<laugh>. Ah, no, no, we’re all need to do that. He got me back a few times, but it was

Leigh Chalker (00:45:04):
Good. Ah, that’s the way mate. So that was in a comic only convention, wasn’t it? And how did you find that? Good. Did you get to meet heaps of people and stuff man, that you never

Nicholas Cleary (00:45:19):
Yeah, I got to meet Gary D, which went well cause I’ve put together a written script for him.

Leigh Chalker (00:45:26):
Oh yeah,

Nicholas Cleary (00:45:27):
On that discussion and stuff. Got to meet Peter Lanson, Peter Lawson, Peter Langton I got to meet <laugh>, a bunch of guys. I got to meet Dick man. That was really cool.

Leigh Chalker (00:45:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I was on that Friday night drinking draw. I think when you’d come back from that and Nick May and Dave die mate, they were practically you knowing over you mate. It was ah look at this bloke. <laugh>

Nicholas Cleary (00:46:03):
The funny guys. Funny guys.

Leigh Chalker (00:46:05):
Yeah. But they had nice things to say about you buddy. So it’s the main thing. What are you Adelaide? What’s what? What’s it like for you as a creator? At the moment I’m,

Nicholas Cleary (00:46:24):
Of all the conventions that they get in Melbourne and stuff, the little ones are where it’s, you can really make some money to sell books. But I will start traveling a bit more. I reckon I might just start carpooling with Dave Diet next time he’s going somewhere, I’m just gonna sneak into the back of his ute. That’s the plan.

Leigh Chalker (00:46:47):
I dunno if you’d have that much space in there man. Gonna travel and he does. I bet you Dave’s got a swag thrown in the back too. It’s for sure Tucked in, keeping his comic books all nice and talking the masses <laugh>. Yeah, no it’s it’s good to know man. Cuz I just see a lot of advertising around a lot of Adelaide, south Australian creators seem to be popping up at the moment and yeah, it just caught my attention so I thought I’d ask one of South Creatives man to see how it was mate. But

Nicholas Cleary (00:47:24):
I can tell you that I’ve snatched up a few for Fly Boys.

Leigh Chalker (00:47:28):
<affirmative>. Yeah.

Nicholas Cleary (00:47:29):
Not afraid to promote Nathan Briston, Jordan Pop. There’s some Adelaide boys like myself and their stories are gonna be in there. So we’ve got our own community in Adelaide and it’s growing slowly

Leigh Chalker (00:47:45):
Well with people like yourself mate. Encouraging people and the comics community and all that. We always encourage everyone that wants to draw or yarn about comics and creativity to reach out and subscribe shows and reach out to the network and things. Cause there’s plenty of opportunities to meet people. Cause I certainly have met heaps of people man. One of the joys, Nick, of doing the Tuesday Chinwag Men since I started was meeting heaps of people that I never thought I’d have the opportunity to. So makes me feel better and shows in my artwork from hints and tips that you get. But I guess why do you do it to yourself?

Nicholas Cleary (00:48:31):
Why do I do it? That’s the question. Mostly because I getting a reaction out of the chaps that I draw. I think

Leigh Chalker (00:48:42):
<affirmative>

Nicholas Cleary (00:48:43):
As drawing yourself is one of my favorites.

Leigh Chalker (00:48:46):
<laugh> not much to draw. Maybe it’s just a round head in there. <laugh>.

Nicholas Cleary (00:48:55):
Well for Quicks that’s probably one of the reasons you’re one of my favorite people to draw <laugh>. Cause I can just get you doing weird stuff quicker. <laugh>.

Leigh Chalker (00:49:06):
Yeah. Why do you drawing at least so much because he does a lot of weird stuff. It’s like, well you gotta wear it. Don’t like that’s cool though. But no, I do enjoy your Quicks man. Especially there’s some funny ones, dude, I’ve laughed out loud at some of those and good. Yeah, no it was really good. What did you think of spy taking over for you for a week? Mate? See us <crosstalk>. I lovely. You had it off.

Nicholas Cleary (00:49:33):
That was great cause

Leigh Chalker (00:49:34):
Well you mustn’t have had some time off cuz you threw in one of your, is it your first ever drawing into with you

Nicholas Cleary (00:49:43):
First in the mail, but I was on the show twice doing regular pictures. So I sent one intro through to Sizzle watching Feds do. It was cool. But the best thing, what I remember most about it was the next week he came back or this was in discussion and he was like, man, someone asked me a question. I couldn’t talk, couldn’t put words together because

Leigh Chalker (00:50:09):
I was

Nicholas Cleary (00:50:09):
In quick mode and I knew exactly what he meant when he said that, but I hadn’t had the thought like that yet. And when you’re in that seat and you’re just listening and what should I draw? And you’re kind of trying to keep your energy going and going.

Leigh Chalker (00:50:24):
You

Nicholas Cleary (00:50:24):
Forget how to talk. And then s SPEDs you’ll be like, Hey Nick, if you had this power and you were this guy, what would you do? And I’m like so it was cool hearing s Spy say Your wires can get crossed in that game. So I go easier myself now.

Leigh Chalker (00:50:43):
Yeah, yeah. No, SPS did an awesome job man. I enjoyed that show. I just thought I’d have a chuckle with you cuz you’ve been doing it so long now man. It must have been strange to have that Friday night off.

Nicholas Cleary (00:50:57):
Well I remember I would watch the show when it wasn’t live catching up and I would do lots of my drawing, my best drawing and that was the greatest people talking comics, people you feel like you sort of know Australians talking comics, you’re drawing comics. It’s the perfect place to be for your mindset. And then I joined the show and now that I’m on it, I definitely don’t watch it. So I miss that content. I miss having it there to inspire me to draw.

Leigh Chalker (00:51:26):
Yeah, yeah.

Nicholas Cleary (00:51:27):
There’s always keeping me going.

Leigh Chalker (00:51:30):
God bless you mate. <laugh>. Oh yeah, me talking. It’s fantastic. Half the I dude, I like the content as well, listening to people. Cause when I’m not on, I tend to come back. I draw pretty heavily on Saturdays and Sundays and stuff myself and love putting it on in the background and having a chuckle and seeing who’s out there, what they’re doing. Some vast improvements in people’s styles and things. And over time you see in people’s confidence come out and just getting used to live streams. Cause live streams are pretty weird things, man. They come into predominance I guess, until Covid. Yeah,

Nicholas Cleary (00:52:20):
Definitely.

Leigh Chalker (00:52:25):
That’s why I guess to a certain extent I’m envious of you guys getting to go to a lot of conventions and get to meet people. Cause it’s like, yeah, being up here, you know, don’t get to do a lot of traveling and stuff down there logistically nightmare. But be cool to meet a whole heap of people, man. In fact,

Nicholas Cleary (00:52:47):
And it’s rare only three or four times I’ve been boothing and trying to sell my book to someone and they’ll just look at me funny and then they’ll be like, you’re quick. <laugh> the guy from Comex who’s always talking about his budget. Yeah, you wanna buy a book. Sure Helps with sales.

Leigh Chalker (00:53:07):
Yeah, yeah. No that’s cool. That’s cool. I guess you enjoy the storytelling side of things. Are you feeling more confident now with the comic book side of things? Is that where you feel like you are heading in that sort of area? Yeah, totally.

Nicholas Cleary (00:53:28):
I feel like I’ve got the stories in my head and they’re gonna be, I feel like I’m confident they’ll be good and strong. I’m not worried about them, but I know my drawings getting better with each book and I’ve said this spreads you a bit. I love looking at people’s first book and then reading their second, their third and then watching it evolve. That’s the coolest. So I’m not likely to ever remaster my books. I kind of want you to see where I’ve come. I think that’s a secondary journey you can take. Not just the budge fighting crime. You can see my art evolve and that’s a story in itself.

Leigh Chalker (00:54:11):
Yeah, yeah. And a good story too mate, cuz you are evolving. Cuz I certainly found your art style pretty unique man. As I was reading it, when you read stuff sometimes, well we got Nick May. Nick is a guru when it comes to storytelling advice. There you go. But when you read a comic book for the first time, sometimes in your mind just automatically recognizes like, oh that’s from level. That’s what that person obviously fan. I’ve learnt from the style, that sort of thing. I didn’t really get that with yours at all man, to be honest with you. I didn’t get a gauge on it, if you know what I mean. That’s not meant to be derogatory at all. That’s just meant from my vision mind. I finished it and I went That’s very Nick. Yeah. So I would encourage anyone to go and check out Detective budget so it’s well worth a read and enjoyment. And the pages smell good cuz I smell much like you smelled with your commander before. Man. I smell all my smell. Smell <crosstalk>. I won’t buy a book unless it smells good, mate. <laugh>. All right, spy’s got a question. So was going to go back redo parts of Devil’s Toilet one until Nick gave me his perspective on it, which was completely changed his moment. Yeah, yeah,

Nicholas Cleary (00:55:46):
I remember that conversation, but I didn’t know he was

Leigh Chalker (00:55:50):
Keep looking forward, Dave.

Nicholas Cleary (00:55:53):
There you go. Yeah, I’ll become a good friend of mine in the comics network. I’ll just send him random ideas and just thoughts and he’ll pat him out or thin him out or just, that’s the thing about storytelling is all ideas are good. If someone gives you an idea for the book or a story, you don’t have to take it. But it’ll often offshoot to another idea, which is better, which will offshoot to another idea based on someone else’s conversation. Then you’ve got a really clear great idea. So

Leigh Chalker (00:56:26):
Do you keep notebook yourself? Yourself?

Nicholas Cleary (00:56:29):
Yeah, I’m a real notebook guy. I’ve got like

Leigh Chalker (00:56:34):
I’ll collect

Nicholas Cleary (00:56:35):
Just notebooks. I just need them in my life. And I also have my iPad with me most of the time so I can do digital sketches. But I’m a real list maker. There’s always a list on my desk of stuff I need to do. Yeah, I need, I know. Yeah. I’m a real list note paper guy.

Leigh Chalker (00:57:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now who’s echoing there? Nick? You’re better at this technological stuff than me. Is that you or me?

Nicholas Cleary (00:57:10):
Dunno, I haven’t heard the echo.

Leigh Chalker (00:57:12):
Oh my

Nicholas Cleary (00:57:12):
Chair’s pretty,

Leigh Chalker (00:57:14):
Yeah, no, I might be gone. I can’t hear myself. There you go. That’s always a plus. Sorry mate. I thought I’d the question before we get interrupted, but when you write Detective Budgie, do you write at first? Do you do the drawings first?

Nicholas Cleary (00:57:33):
Oh sure. I know where the story’s going. I know where the characters are, what’s important, what are the big scene chapters or whatever where they’ll go. I know all that in a rough sense, but I only write a page at a time otherwise, and I’ve said this before, otherwise I’ll feel like I’m just doing something that Nick said to do six months ago and I don’t wanna do that. I want to be being creative each page.

Leigh Chalker (00:58:03):
Yeah, yeah. No that’s fair. Cool. So was that, cuz it’s a big book, the last one you did the 80 pages, something for that. Yeah,

Nicholas Cleary (00:58:17):
88 pages

Leigh Chalker (00:58:18):
I think so did you find yourself doing a page at a time of script with that for 80 pages?

Nicholas Cleary (00:58:25):
Yeah, that’s how it went. There’s like some rhyme that I would write down and like, oh that’s gonna go at that moment. And a lot of the puns were sort of oriented around what kind of bird they were. So I knew all my moments, but then when I came to each page, that’s when I can be creative each time. But that

Leigh Chalker (00:58:46):
Gonna be 80 pages?

Nicholas Cleary (00:58:48):
No, I just kept going. I sort of had an idea that it might be sort of like three comic books maybe, but I wasn’t sticking to it. But it kind of became that. So there’s three parts to it, <affirmative>. But yeah, it can be dangerous because sometimes you’re in, you get to the scene and you pat out some writing and you’re like, oh I thought this was two pages. It’s actually six. Whoops.

Leigh Chalker (00:59:13):
<laugh> <laugh>. Yeah. Oh that’s organic. I guess mainly organic storytelling. Right. But good story. You tweak my interest to find out why he doesn’t have hands and stuff, man. What he is, it’s a cool character man. Is he based on anyone in particular?

Nicholas Cleary (00:59:37):
I like to say he is based on me when people say he’s a cool character. <laugh>. But no, I think it am buggy because we’re all stuck in our little selves and I think we always all feel alienated or different no matter where we are. And Buds just that he’s, he’s kind of broken in a world that doesn’t understand him because we all feel like sometimes

Leigh Chalker (01:00:10):
That’s fair. That’s fair man. So that’s perfectly fair. A lot. You gotta put a lot of yourself into Dan Jo mate. There you go. It’s a great read. So you’ve got a fan there too, mate. They’ve died. Did you know the ending? There you go.

Nicholas Cleary (01:00:24):
I know all my endings. I actually know where the books are going and I know how it’ll end. But I dunno the details along the way, that’s what I’ll figure out.

Leigh Chalker (01:00:35):
That’s fair too. I like that cuz I like film too. And I mentioned before in after shows of Friday drinking and draws and stuff. I’m a big David Lynch fan and I like the way David Lynch seems to correlate a whole heap of ideas and do what you are doing I guess in a comic book form into a film sense. Did you learn that come natural, that style for you man? Or has that got a film school sort of bit of a piecing together that sort of a vibe to it?

Nicholas Cleary (01:01:13):
No, I don’t know. I know that I’ve had producers tell me, they’re like, oh I want a shortlist. And with the Fur Fingers films, we had ideas and we had scripts. We wouldn’t really put shot lists together because we’d get on set and they change anyway because of the scene or location or whatever it was. So you have to be flexible on set. If you’re just try to come up with, if you’re just trying to replicate your storyboards, you won’t make a stronger film as if you were to just embrace what an actor said differently or how they moved on set or the location that you didn’t think you’d get. Everything changes when you’re on set, everything becomes alive and you gotta start scratching your notes away. You gotta start ripping up storyboards and coming up with new shots.

Leigh Chalker (01:02:10):
Well I suppose a slight variance in anything can be like that whole one degree thing, couldn’t it? You know what I mean? If you kept going with that script on a slight change, it might become so Totally,

Nicholas Cleary (01:02:23):
Which

Leigh Chalker (01:02:23):
Is organic story

Nicholas Cleary (01:02:25):
At some point. But no, you gotta be creative on set or you, you’re just slaving away to what you decided two weeks ago in your bedroom when you were writing and drawing it. It’s not farm.

Leigh Chalker (01:02:38):
All right. So what was your first comic book?

Nicholas Cleary (01:02:42):
Detective Budgie was my first official book. But what was my first, when I was at school, I had a superhero squad that were called Synergy. I was in Sydney, so they were the Sydney synergy and they were just knockoff of the Justice League or whatever it was. Can’t really think of characters that stuck around for a long time. It was always just shuffling into changing or drawing teachers at school.

Leigh Chalker (01:03:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nicholas Cleary (01:03:18):
Doing quicks.

Leigh Chalker (01:03:20):
So you were obviously, what commando was your first touch as a young nick of comic books? Have you everyone?

Nicholas Cleary (01:03:31):
I had Phantom comics growing up cause they were like cheap ones. Mom and dad would be like, oh, I’ll get into the cheap one if you wants to come. Dad got me into, well this sounds like my dad’s in comic. He just picked up a fantastic four and he was like, here you go. So I really love the Fantastic Four. I love Ben Grim. He’s my guy. And then I’ve just always reached for the main books, all the dark night returns or whatever it is. The ones that the must have graphic novels or jump into those. So I didn’t grow up in a lot of comics, but at film school actually a guy named Nick gave me a bunch to read. He kept chucking more in my direction. I’ve always loved drawing and storytelling. So loving comics isn’t like it’s not a big thing cuz I just love stories and visual things. So just keep bringing them to me. I don’t care what form they’re in.

Leigh Chalker (01:04:33):
Yeah. Did you find that your comic book output increased with Covid?

Nicholas Cleary (01:04:41):
Yeah, well my covid change a lot. As a teacher in Adelaide, my lifestyle didn’t really change

Leigh Chalker (01:04:50):
And much like up here. Yeah, we just went about business as usual to meet up here. It was so it didn’t really affect us anyway in the far north. Cuz I’ve just noticed from talking to some people at Covid played a big push in them being isolated and stuff. I’m finally gonna do this thing. So just wondered if

Nicholas Cleary (01:05:13):
For me, I got less work done because there was more work for me. In summary, teachers were getting so they needed a Batman to show up the cowboy

Leigh Chalker (01:05:22):
<laugh>. Yeah. Well super, according to your car you got plans on going back, doing any film work.

Nicholas Cleary (01:05:31):
Yeah, we’re working on a pitch application and that’s part of the problem is we kind of evolved to the point where we don’t want to go back towards being those indie kids that make it happen on their own dime. We got some funding from Google to make a web series so we made everything professional level and now we’re just trying to get to the next level again which is one of the reasons I’ve got more comics coming out is cause I need to be creating, I need to have stories coming outta me or I, I’m unhappy.

Leigh Chalker (01:06:10):
Fair

Nicholas Cleary (01:06:11):
Question. Why? Which I sort of dodged before

Leigh Chalker (01:06:14):
<laugh>. Well see it all comes back around me. <laugh> one thing man, some questions get asked an hour ago but somehow they always wind up <laugh>. One of those things I guess one thing as we’ll, slowly start winding down our show and stuff like that mate, one thing I always like to ask our creator is what’s the one piece of advice that you would give to anyone that’s out there isolated somewhere in the far reaches of the very planet? If they came to you and said, Nick,

Nicholas Cleary (01:06:58):
What do you

Leigh Chalker (01:06:59):
Do? What’s the piece of advice?

Nicholas Cleary (01:07:02):
I had to think about this cause I don’t think I’m one to really give advice unless it’s on a story note or something. Nick may but for me, and this is something I figured out once I’d figured it out it’s all about routine. If you can set the routine that you’re gonna draw more often, it’ll just start happening. 88, 90 pages of Detective Bungy meant a lot of sacrifice and work because my body became of instinctively like, oh I haven’t drawn today. I might skip the rest of this TV show and head to the drawing desk and if I went to bed and didn’t do that, I had that feeling of you just waste the day. You just waste. You’re behind now. So it’s all about that routine for

Leigh Chalker (01:08:02):
Me. Was that something that instilled as a young man or that’s just something you’ve grown through?

Nicholas Cleary (01:08:11):
No, definitely not. I feel like I’ve never been very disciplined. So comics is helping me become disciplined I guess.

Leigh Chalker (01:08:27):
And I suppose feeling better seeing your artwork improve as you were saying and not going backwards, going forwards and community. Cuz you’ve had comments from members tonight, man, saying what a huge help and inspiration you’ve been for them as well man, with words of advice and things. But that’s, I mean look mate, I’m all about positivity Nick. And that’s the one thing that’s beautiful about the other creators that I’ve met mate, is everyone’s willing to help and they’re open to questions and stuff and if you do like to draw and want to create stories and stuff, there’s plenty of people out there you can reach out to. Everyone’s available. But I will say one thing before you have the fire, you were saying earlier for comics was just one of those things. It wasn’t like it is, for example, when I was young I was buying everything. I didn’t have a sentiment name, you know what I mean? But I’d buy every comic I could. But dude you’ve grown quite a, what we’d call a portal of Australian comics. So I would say that that’s definitely lit a fire in.

Nicholas Cleary (01:09:47):
Or people ask me, what do you read now? You read Spiderman, you read Batman, what’s your book? And I’m like, no, I just by indie books now I wanna read what my friends are writing. I wanna know more about the Australian indie scene. That’s all my readings start now

Leigh Chalker (01:10:03):
Man. No that’s great man. That’s really good. It is awesome. I guess I’ll start winding the show down and bring it to a close nick, but I certainly enjoyed that conversation cause I didn’t know a lot of that about you. I would strongly suggest anyone check out mixed stuff because I’m about to ask him his final question.

Nicholas Cleary (01:10:27):
I’m just gonna plug,

Leigh Chalker (01:10:29):
There you go buddy. Where do you get your stuff? Where can people recheck?

Nicholas Cleary (01:10:34):
You can pre-order those new books as of an hour ago and I just got a notification, Nick May has just bought some books. So thank you Nick, appreciate you

Leigh Chalker (01:10:46):
Go

Nicholas Cleary (01:10:47):
And I’m not too shy. I’ll throw those covers again if you want to

Leigh Chalker (01:10:51):
Mate, you show ’em you shall.

Nicholas Cleary (01:10:54):
That’s it. You

Leigh Chalker (01:10:55):
Can’t show ’em from Bud.

Nicholas Cleary (01:10:56):
You can get fly boys at detective budget net. There you go.

Leigh Chalker (01:11:03):
There you go. Alrighty, well thank you very much Nick for the good yarn and everyone don’t forget to and subscribe the channel in the show. Terry’s obviously dad, I would assume <laugh>, we can’t wait for the dad book either, mate. It’s I’m very interested in reading that. Let me tell you. So yeah, don’t forget to like and subscribe the channel once again, thank you to Shane and Carrie and the comics and network for Chinwag. Friday night coming up is always drinking draws and this week is spawn, so just letting you know early. If you want to do some drawings and you’re not on the show, you can send them into the channel and they’ll be shown for you. Don’t forget to go to the comic shop for any Australian in the independent comic books. There’s a whole heap of talented people there and if you like what you see there, don’t limit yourself. Go. There’s hundreds of people out there mate that deserve to be read and seen. Next week’s episode is episode 15 and I’ve actually a pre-recorded interview everyone so I’ve got Shade and J on next week, another South Australian creator. So that’s a good one. I enjoyed that immensely. So alright everyone going draw some comics and do your thing. Create check out Detective Budge on that site, comic shop and always remember community is Unity. See you later. See you next week. Thanks Lee. No worries bud. This

Voice Over (01:12:49):
Show is sponsored by the comics shop. Check out comics.cx for all things Comex and find out what come is all about. We hope you enjoyed the show.