ComX Studio and Psycho Janitor

Voice Over (00:03):
This show is sponsored by the Comics Shop. We hope you enjoy the show.

Leigh Chalker (00:24):
Good day and welcome to Tuesday. It’s not quite a chinwag, but it is a Tuesday. Look, it is a Tuesday chinwag to a certain extent, but with a special touch and I’m bringing some Hello Nick May and bringing a whole crew of people here with us today. The point of this episode is this is some of the Comac studio. So wanted to introduce you to some of the creatives and people behind the scenes that you haven’t met and let them talk about what’s their creative angles and comic books and what they do and what they can do and what they like and what they don’t. You know how the show goes. So look, what I’m going to do is I’m going to have a little run around the room so that everyone’s cordially introduced this evening and we’ll just take it away from there and see how we rock and roll. Good day, Bo, how are you? And thank you mate. I tried very hard today. It took me ages with and thank you Kerry. Good on your champion in the background there. Alright, so Rob sp Lyle. Hello mate.

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (01:38):
Good day mate.

Leigh Chalker (01:43):
I’m sure I can all tell you the story of how I came home and spoke to my dog today, which obviously says that Rob’s rubbing off on me because Lloyd got a Yeah. Good day mate as well today. Hello Adam, how are you buddy? We have DHA Silver of Liza Ray, how are you champion? Hi. Good. That’s the ticket mate. Pleasure, pleasure. We’re going to come back to you first man with that huge existential question because you are the only one that has not answered it out of all of us. I’ll give you about 30 seconds to think. All right, now look, we have the boss on the show tonight, so I even wore the uniform tonight. I thought I’d get in trouble, but he’s a nice fella and it’s just how it is. So, hey Matt, it’s Shane Sizzle, SLE, that Comex guy. How are you buddy?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (02:39):
I’m good, thank you. Yourself?

Leigh Chalker (02:41):
Yeah, I’m on a high vibration mate, so I’m going All right. And no plans on lowering it any anytime in the next period. So we’ll see up. Now a dude that does a lot of work behind the scenes of X that we’ll talk about when we come to him is the creator of Foes and Crimson and Rascal, and his name is Peter Wilson. And is Pete there or is he angry or is he frozen or is he not quite sure? Darn for going to Peter at that particular moment where he turned into an ice cube, but a very pretty one. Anyway, Pete, come back to you bud. So moving on this way. Hello Dave. Moving on this way with the Comex hat and the hair everywhere, which I’m quite frankly a little bit jelly of. There you go, you can hear me. This thing’s a piece of shit.

(03:39)
That mop of beautiful hair. Geez. Anyway, is Max Ferrata of Stella Lands? How are you buddy? Hello everyone. I’m great, thank you very much. That’s the ticket for that Is the ticket. Alright? Everyone’s good. So that’s a pretty good start. Pete’s just ducked off the Thor out, so he’ll be back shortly and we’ll get back into FOS at some particular point. Don, thank you Don. Alright, there you go. And look, if we don’t get to, I’m going to do my best to get to the comments and everything tonight, but I’m with me mates, we’re all talking and jiving and stuff like that about Comex and everything that happened and Kickstarters up and come and coming, going, gone and forward and in the middle of and all of these peculiar angles. So Dhan, are you ready mate? Are you ready?

Dushan Silva (04:43):
Yes. Who am I? I’m I draw comics and I love to draw Batman, a big Batman fan since I can’t remember when, but yeah, just loud drawing. My passion is just draw comics, but main thing is it gives you a reason to get up in the morning, you get excited of what you’re going to draw. So just motivation and everything that makes you want to move forward mostly. This is a big complaint I get. I don’t know why, but I just draw that Batman a lot. I have have no idea what’s the reason, but I just love to draw the character. So it’s just draw what you allow I guess. And then you get practise out of it and you can draw anything you want when you have enough. So

Leigh Chalker (06:08):
Mate, can I ask you one question? Sorry to interrupt you. Would I lose 20 bucks if I put it down and bet that possibly the first character you drew as a boy was Batman,

Dushan Silva (06:25):
You would lose? Actually it was,

Leigh Chalker (06:29):
Man, I thought that was sure thing.

Dushan Silva (06:32):
It was rankoff from Star Wars.

Leigh Chalker (06:37):
I was

Dushan Silva (06:37):
Obsessed actually drawing, first time I drew Batman was from 19 95, 19 96 when I saw Batman forever. I sort of fell in love with Batman after that. I liked Batman before, but that’s the movie that made me obsessed with Batman. I used to draw 10 20 drawings of Batman each day and all the Batman characters at that time. So keep on drawing those. Beforehand I was drawing other comic characters. I had a face of, first it was Tower Wars, then it was Aliens and then Robocop X-Men, Spiderman Swamp thing and then Batman. And then Batman was the driving force. And then I used to, when I was 30 10 years old, I used to draw comics. I used to have a company called Ds Comics and just draw comics. I don’t have much of them, but yeah, I just draw comics.

Leigh Chalker (08:02):
Have you got any close by to you within?

Dushan Silva (08:05):
I do actually

Leigh Chalker (08:06):
Go and get them for

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (08:14):
That was a head because he couldn’t hear me.

Dushan Silva (08:17):
This was like my first bat band comic I drew.

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (08:27):
Wow. How old

Leigh Chalker (08:28):
Were you when you did that?

Dushan Silva (08:30):
This was 97,

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (08:33):
Straight out isn. Wow. Is anyone else trying to do the math of how old Duan is? Because

Leigh Chalker (08:43):
Yeah, I was, but I gave up. I’d leave it to you mate.

Dushan Silva (08:51):
I dunno, probably now I’m almost 40.

Leigh Chalker (08:57):
You were 40 when you did that? No, I’m

Dushan Silva (09:00):
40 now.

Leigh Chalker (09:04):
Oh, you’re only a young fella mate. That’s great. You love, so you moved from your Batman forever and where did you want to do that? Were you reading Batman and Swamping and all those things at that time and then you thought I’m going to

Dushan Silva (09:19):
Have, yeah, I was collecting comics and then would I

Leigh Chalker (09:25):
Win 20 bucks if one of the first Batman comics that you ever bought was drawn by Jim Lee,

Dushan Silva (09:33):
You lose.

Leigh Chalker (09:36):
I’m telling you what man,

Dushan Silva (09:38):
It was drawn by Jim, Jim Lee, but Jim.

Leigh Chalker (09:44):
Oh yeah, yeah, I know Jim Map

Dushan Silva (09:48):
Was issue. Have you heard about Maxus, a villain from back then thinks he’s a God? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And there was this issue where he gets this girl who gets amnesia and thinks is his messenger and her name is Hoppy or something and he’s trying to kill off one by one that people who were against Maxi and I think that’s the comic. That’s the first Batman comic I had. Yeah, cool. And fun fact, Liza Ray first appeared in my second Batman comic. So that’s Liza Ray here.

Leigh Chalker (10:39):
So Liza Ray goes back to, when’s this issue out man that you did 97, 98 sort of stuff.

Dushan Silva (10:45):
98. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (10:47):
There you go. Goodday, sk and everyone watching mate. Now let’s go to Liza while you’re showing the original Liesa here. So see you get exclusives on Chin Chinwag. Duchen told anyone that before. It’s like, mate what? Percolated Liza. And what kept you going until the last couple of years where you thought, I’m going to have a damn good, I’m going to get into the life, I’m going to get this angry Chick character hero out there?

Dushan Silva (11:27):
Yeah, I have no idea I needed a, I don’t know how I got the idea, but it’s just manifested a low interest for Batman in this comic and then it just went into her own thing and I sort of did the first slice comic in 2002. So I show you that. The hold.

Leigh Chalker (12:01):
Yeah man, just before you go, it’s good.

Peter Wilson (12:07):
I meant a booth, it’s Supernova with Dhar and there is no greater contrast between the creation and the creator than Dusan and Wise Ray Dusan is the chillest dude on earth. Super relaxed wise. I would avoid her. She scares the hell out of me.

Dushan Silva (12:28):
That was the original Rise array in 2002.

Leigh Chalker (12:38):
And you got that printed in 2002 Rigi Ditch?

Dushan Silva (12:42):
Yeah, with my own printer I had a

Leigh Chalker (12:45):
Oh you did that at home? Yeah. Outstanding.

Dushan Silva (12:51):
And then after that, after 10 years, or I can’t remember, probably 20 years later in 2013 I redid it. So that’s in 2013.

Leigh Chalker (13:10):
And was that on your home, your

Dushan Silva (13:12):
Printer? No, I actually printed from a printer so that and then the final one, that’s the one currently I’m selling. So that’s the first page and that’s the 2013 page and then that’s 2002 page.

Leigh Chalker (13:44):
Yeah. Yeah. What’s funny here, Dhan, you going to, man, what you are showing me here is quite honestly man, it’s a very similar thing to what happened for me and Battle for Bustle because the battle for Bustle, it’s out that people have read is like my bird attempt third

Dushan Silva (14:03):
Russian,

Leigh Chalker (14:04):
That comic book man. So it’s like man, you got the bug, holy hell. It’s like you’ve been doing

Dushan Silva (14:12):
Another thing.

Leigh Chalker (14:14):
So

Dushan Silva (14:14):
Issue, I’ve done licence two and lies issue two, I’m redoing it. So this, I already done issue three, right? This was done in 2000 2018, but I’m redoing it, I’m redrawing it sort of like remastering it now with, so you can see that’s one of the pages I’m doing right now, the new one and in 2018 version. So that’s the 18 version?

Leigh Chalker (15:02):
Yeah. Oh

Dushan Silva (15:02):
Cool. And that’s the current version

Leigh Chalker (15:08):
Wick Man,

Dushan Silva (15:09):
They’re

Leigh Chalker (15:10):
Lovely pieces. How big is that piece of paper that you’re doing that you work on? That’s

Dushan Silva (15:19):
A two size

Leigh Chalker (15:21):
A two,

Dushan Silva (15:22):
Yes. I started drawing everything in a two. Now it’s like you can get so much detail on that size. So some of the other drawings.

Leigh Chalker (15:38):
Wow, I wish you never would’ve told me that. I love detail. I might have four. It’s incredible.

Dushan Silva (15:49):
That’s the colour.

Leigh Chalker (15:54):
Outstanding. That’s awesome. That is awesome mate, that is awesome. Now while we’re talking about Liza, you’re independently publishing and then you decided with having a yarn to says that you were going to bring Liza over to X Studio

Dushan Silva (16:23):
That’s right.

Leigh Chalker (16:24):
Now tell us all about what your thoughts were with that. What do you like about Comic Studio? Why did you want to bring Liza over to this section of the woods? Mate,

Dushan Silva (16:36):
It’s just initially told me, oh do you want to publish from him? But I wanted, I’ve already done it, but to reach out to more people, plus it’ll be in a sort of image comics of Australia, something like that. So it’s cool to have a publisher, I can do it myself, but that won’t be self-contained, something like that. You’ll be in your own box. But this is like a community, each one, it’s like building a universe sort of thing. And I won’t be to be part of that. So plus it’s cool and plus I’m resizing issue one and to fit into actual comic book boards for this and have his corner box and it’ll be officially Comic X Studios published place array.

Leigh Chalker (18:05):
I think you just answered Peter Lane’s question there where he Peter mind. Yeah, you reprinting it with the Comex logo corner box and stuff and that is affirmative Peter Lane. So there you go mate. Well Duchamp mate, you’re obviously staying here with me for the show. But mate, look, I love having you around mate and part of the community. You’re a hell of an artist. I was very grateful and really taken aback by the Haki Gecko drawing that you did

(18:42)
Little while ago and you’re so polite about it. He says to me, here’s some inside GOs since we’re talking, come here, I’ll tell you, you can hear me. He says to me, I want to make some changes. And I said, do you? And he goes, I’ve got some ideas, I want to have a go. And I said, bud, you go man, you do whatever you want to do with the be it’s your shot. Boom, take her away and then a message before the picture and he goes, I made the changes, I gave her shoes. I was thinking shoes. It never even occurred to me, but so cool man, thank you very much. It’s like I’m going to incorporate that now. I’d see the things that happened working with other artists and playing in their little universes and stuff. You get ideas. I mean how they held putting shoes on Deco ever escape me. But Dhan, thank you because it makes perfect sense in hindsight. I should have done it and I’m going to now mate. So thank you. There’s a little battle

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (19:53):
That was a brave choice to put the shoes on her hands

Leigh Chalker (19:58):
Indeed. And he wants to put gloves on Hanson next, so it’s just kidding. Just playing. But Duchamp mate, where can anyone that’s watching here and stuff then I’m sure S’S got the little address down there where if anyone wants to get your comics and stuff like that, where can we get ’em from?

Dushan Silva (20:22):
Comics? Yes. Has it Comics X Shop issue one is there? I think issue two is coming soon. Yeah, two is almost in there buddy. Yeah, almost in there.

Leigh Chalker (20:32):
Beautiful. Alright, so Dhan, stay with us now man, because what we’re going to do now is we’re going to talk to Mr. Peter Wilson because he’s doing something down there and I just wanted to drag him back into the himself. I’ve escaped, I’m down the bottom corner, but I’m zigzagging here tonight now, alright,

Peter Wilson (20:53):
You’re like the worst kind of teacher, Peter at the back. Whatcha

Leigh Chalker (21:01):
And mate, we’ve got, COMEX has got, obviously we’ll come to Max soon because we’re into the last legs of the Stella Lands Kickstarter. We’ll come to Sp and myself because we’re doing with Ben Sullivan and Ryan Fell obviously ring around the Rosie Battery hen Kickstarter, which is going now, but let’s talk about a little bit in the future because Comex has got some stuff happening and sped with Psycho janitor does as well. And we’re going to get to that. But let’s move to the future ever so slightly and let’s talk Mr. Wilson and his F, which is, that’s the Kickstarter address. Yeah,

Peter Wilson (21:48):
That’s it. A pre-launch page.

Leigh Chalker (21:50):
Yeah, yeah. Now with anyone that’s watching that doesn’t know a pre-launch page is you can just jump on that address and there’ll be a little button there that sps, he likes to affectionately say the clicky thing and you click on that clicky thing and that will notify you via an email when B becomes live. And that’s about as technical as I get on Kickstarter. So hope you’ve understood a single bit as that job. Anyway, Pete, I’m not going to go with who for you because we’ve already done a chinwag and people know who you are, but hope so. I am going to come in from a slightly different angle and I want talk to you, we’ll get to fo I want to say thank you for me from me personally, but for comments and stuff like that. But for me personally, because you handle all of the banners and stuff and how Chinwag looks and things like that, mate.

(22:45)
And let me tell you that sometimes you get guests that don’t send their photos in and they’ll send them in on say a Wednesday and you’ve, okay got, they’re on the next Tuesday, so you’re in a little bit of a pickle and rush and stuff like that. And pickles was not used as the safe word. Shane, I’m my add mate. Okay, so just price inverted, I couldn’t think of another word. And Pete just bang banners out and for that I want to say thank you mate and all your help that you’ve done and stuff like that over the time and for the future chin wax. So thank you very much. I’m very grateful for that. For the

Peter Wilson (23:24):
Longest time I was positive, my graphic design degree was useless. I never used it, so thank you. If you giving a chance to use it and put to good use.

Leigh Chalker (23:33):
Yeah, no, no, well I like it mate. You’ve done amazing things with my head and it’s not easy. I’ve lived with it for 45 years and struggled mate, and it was amazing that you just came in and there you go. So for that, I’m also appreciative. Now mate, let’s talk about BS and your upcoming Kickstarter. Hit me. Yeah,

Peter Wilson (23:56):
So collecting the first overarching story that premiered in the first three to four issues of MX presents you’re going to have at this point, there’s about five extra pages of extra donut battle. Goodness, sweet. And in addition to that, a lot of the scenes as the boys there fighting over a donut. In addition to that, some of the scenes you’ve seen in or may have read in the presents books will now be expanded from sort of half a page to overnight, two pages to really sort of have fun and explore the moments that happen between them and exactly why they hate each other so much will be looked at a bit more and a bit more of their power sets and just how petty and vindictive they’re, that said, you’re not going to learn too much from this. It is just two monsters fighting because they hate each other.

Leigh Chalker (24:58):
That sounds pretty good to me. There you go Kerry. Thanks Peter. And you do, mate. Now did you get into some nitty gritty storytelling or were there just some really cool action sequences that you just wanted to bust out?

Peter Wilson (25:21):
A lot of it was primarily I did it because I wanted to have another selling point besides just, you’ve already read the story, what’s the incentive to buy it? Well, here’s a little extra for you and it was fun to do some extra to keep it fresh in my mind. The story had been out for a while and you don’t want to get too bored with it and I didn’t want to be.

Leigh Chalker (25:45):
It was originally presented in Comex Presents issues one, two, and three, which is an anthology series Comex Producers, which is available on the shop I might add. Anyway, back to you Pete.

Peter Wilson (26:00):
So if you want to sneak peek what fo is about issue one,

Leigh Chalker (26:05):
Have a look. Yeah, yeah. Now while we’re in a pause here, I’m going to throw it someone here, I forgot to do this with Dhan, so we’ll come back to him. See? Too excited man, I’m just excited. I’m bubbling. Shane, we have, I haven’t seen this, I don’t dunno if anyone this, but we’re going to have two videos alright? To show what Fos and Liz and Ray are about. So I reckon, what do you reckon Shane? We’ll go with foes first, then we’ll come back in the Liz of Ray and then we’ll come back into Pete. How’s that sound? Sure.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (26:46):
Okay, let’s start with Sweet.

Leigh Chalker (27:14):
Have that, thanks Max. Cool. And these videos here, people will also roll in to Max when we get around to having a yarn. Oh yeah, that’s true. The man with the full head of hair and stop showing off. Covering up mate. Anyway, alright, so let’s go to the next one, mate.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (27:43):
Yep.

Leigh Chalker (28:28):
Standing. That is awesome, max, your champion mate. So veering away from Pete quickly. I dunno why I’m doing so many hand movements, it’s just, I dunno, maybe I’m a magician. What I’m doing, max also as well as being the creator of Stella Lands, does do these videos and stuff for comic studio as well as you just saw two examples of just then and they’re outstanding. They’re very, very good. I like them. Max, thank you very much for contributing to the community. It’s beautiful thing and

Max Ferrada (29:01):
To do, man. Yeah, they’re good fun, good drawings. Yeah, so it doesn’t feel by any means like work, if you know what I mean.

Leigh Chalker (29:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that’s good man. That’s good. That’s the best attitude to have. And we’re going to come back to Max because we’ll also drop you in on a little tidbit that Max isn’t Max’s real name. So if anyone’s got any ideas as to what it is, I’m out of money. I’ve lost my 40 bucks that I came in here. I was thinking I was walking away, pay Lloyd’s food for the week, but he’s starving. But anyway, no, I’m just kidding. Back to you Pete, while you’re looking, don’t try and hide on me Mr. Wilson. I’m sitting down there, I still

Peter Wilson (29:50):
Be guilty.

Leigh Chalker (29:51):
Yeah, hopefully that people might have some fun if I was their teacher mate, you know what I mean? Oh yeah. It’d be interesting at least you might not learn much. You’d probably learn a lot of stuff you wouldn’t learn in school, but hey life, it’s the best educator. Hey mate, what are you drawing there?

Peter Wilson (30:15):
Oh, just a quick zero.

Leigh Chalker (30:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. How long does that take you to do something like that? And I noticed traditional mate.

Peter Wilson (30:27):
Yeah. Yeah. Just to keep my hands moving. It’s always zero or dementia face when I’m just absent. Mindedly scribbling.

Leigh Chalker (30:35):
Yep.

Peter Wilson (30:36):
Tries to keeps me fresh. And you find some new fun expressions when you do it. Usually they’re just angry though.

Leigh Chalker (30:45):
The big question for me mate is why a donut and not a cupcake or lemon car or a lamington or what was the thing that attracted you to that sweetie in particular? Oh,

Peter Wilson (30:58):
There you go.

Leigh Chalker (30:59):
Mr. Scott. The donut from on. It’s actually three years old, the window and

Peter Wilson (31:13):
Through the cardboard now.

Leigh Chalker (31:15):
Oh yeah,

Peter Wilson (31:18):
I was probably just eating one at the time. I think it’s that simple. There’s a lot you can do with a donut with the ring shape, the way they can hold it, they can flip it, they can ring it around their finger. There’s a lot. You is visually very funny. Why a donut in general? It had to be something really small and really petty to make the destruction that they go to get it even funnier.

Leigh Chalker (31:43):
You are talking world devastation in cities on fire and being destroyed. Hey, in this over a donut. This is the great part about foes. I like it.

Peter Wilson (31:58):
They could have taken over the world if they could have just let this one niggling little thing go, but they can’t, they just can’t move past it.

Leigh Chalker (32:05):
Yeah. Now another thing, another thing mate, this is a deep question. These are the things I think about when I’m drawing and before the show, where did the donut originate? Are we talking, was it a generic donut that came out of one of those 12 or six pack cinnamon ones that you get from Woolworths or Cole? Was it more of a brumby’s or one of those franchisee bakeries or was it from the classic old bakery you walk into? There’s the Bay Marie, there’s 47 flies buzzing around in there and there’s an old set of tongs and a paper bag mate. Where was it that this donor originated?

Peter Wilson (32:53):
It came from a very run of the mill 24 hour coffee shop. They probably ordered it frozen and claim that it’s their specialty. They whack it in a microwave and say it’s fresh cooked. It’s about 3:00 AM when zero dementors encounter the donut. So it’s probably not even tasty or fresh. Yeah, it’s probably a factory frozen microwave donut that’s probably been in a truck six months before the, that could be a prequel story.

Leigh Chalker (33:26):
Could be the journey of the donut mate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shane, sorry about that mate. There’s no donuts here unless Kerry flicks one over the top of the computer for you. And if that’s cool, if that ever happened, we haven’t set that up. That would’ve just been one of those great natural moments

Peter Wilson (33:49):
And then it lands. That would great

Leigh Chalker (33:52):
Teamwork. Now mate, when are you thinking about fos? When are you thinking about bringing that out? Man,

Peter Wilson (34:00):
I’m hoping to launch the Kickstarter in about probably just under a month.

(34:04)
That’s what I’m aiming for. I’ve got a lot to organise. I’ve got to get some badges made, get some little add-ons sorted. This is my first Kickstarter, so it is quite a learning curve for me as well as I go. But luckily I’ve had a lot of great advice from different people. It’s been really helpful. Watching people like SP just kick ass at Kickstarter over and over was really inspiring. I sort of used Vegi as a metre of where I should try and hit with my comics. I sort of see what he does and go, okay cool, that’s what I’m going to aim for. Now

Leigh Chalker (34:43):
I love the symmetry in that. It’s round like a donut. There’s Nick May on one edge and then there’s Spie just self confessed like, oh I’ll just take from Nick May and it just rolls around and Pete’s like, well I like what sp he’s doing. I’ll take a little sprinkle of that and then just keeps going around. Then it’s life. The circles of life all measured by a donor. Alright, so don’t forget now Shane, check that address up for fos. This is a Kickstarter address. So once you see this, find it, go there, click the click, click, click thing. And maybe even send, I’m going to do this all night too because I’ve done it today. Maybe send Pete if you want or any of the guys here at, get a mate here you going. As sped would say, but I don’t do it as good as sped. He’s just got something about his voice that makes it sound way better. I know. Look at your disappointment up there shaking you at me like that.

(35:54)
Gee bugger and yes. Alright, so Pete, stay with us and keep talking to us man. And what we’re going to do, Peter Domino effect of inspiration. There you go mate. Community unity like a donor. There’s 2020 fours quote for you Shane. Community is unity like a donor. I’m going to word that into a book somehow. Yeah, it takes me days to think of this stuff, Pete. Let me tell you. I dunno about that. But anyway, moving on now I’m going to Max, we’re going to come back to you at the end to talk, man, before we all have a big old chin waggon and stuff because you are in your last day as a stellar land. So I do want to give your Kickstarter. So I do want to give you the opportunity to give that the plug mate so people remember being at the end.

(36:52)
But briefly what I’m going to talk about with me, great mate, SPIE up top is a little Kickstarter that we and Ryan Bella and Ben Sullivan have got going and that is the ring around the Rosie Battery hen campaign. Nice. So that is the http slash in Rosie. Oh, hang on putting this on screen. Sorry, I was actually testing my memory there Shane because I’m pretty bad at these addresses and I’m glad they’re written down. So even though I’m holding ringing around the Rosie and SP’s holding battery, he we are going to donut this one. Sp can talk to me about ringing around the Rosie mate and I’ll talk to you about battery.

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (37:51):
Well, so ring around the Rosie is a low key dream come true for me. If you’ve heard me talk, which I’m sure you have because I won’t stop except for tonight I’m playing on Lee’s field tonight. So yeah, so I’ve always wanted to make comics for the longest time I thought the secret to success for me there was my writing. I felt my writing was stronger than my art and I found myself right now being able to do both, which is awesome. But so to get to the point, one of the greatest joys is being able to write some words down and then have artists that you respect and admire turn those words into pictures. And lead Chaka. Ryan Vela and Ben Sullivan are three dudes that I would’ve loved to have worked with individually, let alone together on one project. I’ve always had a thing for fantasy, not so rosy is technically fantasy, but there’s blades being swung about there’s, there’s a dark sinister whatnots in the shadows and the only way to dispel those shadows is with violence.

(39:21)
So ring around the Rosie is two stories. It’s the story of a bunch of creators learning how to collaborate after a long time of swearing off, collaboration, coming together and learning from each other both literally and figuratively. Like we have people pencilling and having their work inked by someone else for the first time ever. And vice versa, people inking someone else’s pencils for the first time ever. So there was some daunting moments, some exciting moments, fulfilling moments. And then there’s the story itself, which is of a woman who, her name is Rosie and she, well, as we go forward, we will be exploring her past and giving you bits and pieces about how she became who she is. But when we meet her in this book, she is for all intents and purposes a housewife home looking after her son, while the father is off doing what he thinks is his mission in life.

(40:38)
And that is to look after those affected by the black plague. So the son she’s raising has never met this father because of various reasons we will go into throughout this world, but she has a bit of a secret past herself, Rosie. But when her son was born, she put that life behind her until death made its way to her front door. And so she found herself delving back into her old life, pulling out her blades and taking things into her own hands literally. Then of course a woman in those times dispatching of big brooding male soldiers is unheard. So the soldiers managed to turn this story into a thing of myth, almost this smoked figure that was larger than life that came down and wreaked havoc. And so they themselves then go on a revenge, they seek Rosie, so the hunter becomes the hunted and like a donut that goes around and around until, well in our third chapter it all comes to a head and the life she had hoped to spare from her son makes its way to her son.

(42:10)
And I think it’s a really cool, fun, maybe fun’s the wrong word, but it’s a tale of love, loss and blood. And yeah, as I say, buying it is if you were to pledge, that’d be awesome. But I ask you just to go to the Kickstarter and have a look and just read this, look at some of the pages, click on the video. If it’s your vibe, then yeah, grab a copy or just share and all that sort of stuff. But there are two books as part of our campaign. I forgot what the other one, what was the other one, Lee?

Leigh Chalker (42:55):
The other one mate is called Battery Hen. Now while the four of us made Ring around the Rosie, the busy little legend that he is, Ryan Bella had an idea and he wanted to bring Battery Hen into her own comic book. Now Battery Hen is a bounty hunter, and in this she goes on, I would say some very unusual journey as you can see by some of the artwork. Now the best part of this is it’s a great story. There’s heaps of humour. It’s funny as in terms of just if you know Ryan, you’ll understand his humour.

(43:42)
It’s Ryan basically throwing everything he could possibly think of at a page. Now, none of these things, apart from the letters and stuff like the lettering, which was done by SP and a little bit here and there, we all help each other. This is the donut, see it’s like the donut. And basically man, the dude was changing images in photocopies. He was using highlighters to colour pages, he was using acrylic paints, he was using old sketches and painting over ’em. He was cutting up magazines, like collage them on pages and stuff like that. And all of these, it’s all on the page and it all beautifully came across in that comic book. It’s not a gimmick, it’s not just something that, I mean it’s a piece of artwork, man. And the one thing I can tell you is I’m a huge Ryan LL fan, he’s one of my great mates. It’s been one of the great pleasures in my life that actually have so much to do with Ryan.

(44:51)
And I’ve read a lot of Ryan Villa books and I can tell you that to me, this is the one that I would recommend if someone said, give me a Ryan Veer book, what would you give me? Would scour the pile that’s bigger than me? And I would give you Battery Hen. So if you are interested, you can get Battery Hen as a dual pack or singularly or in a PDF format on the Kickstarter that you see right there. And yes, I would highly, he does do the Best bags, I’m telling you now his villains are crazy, crazy funny and very intense, but can’t speak more highly of it. The whole experience has been probably the best experience I’ve had in my time in comic books and hoping to do it again. There is a story in the back of Ring around the Rosie that goes into how it all came together and the ups and downs of collaborations and people talking, doing their thing and communicating and learning to work with each other.

(46:08)
And it’s special to me too because I like to make a point of it. That comic book was where I found my sobriety. And if it hadn’t have been for Spie and Ben Sullivan and Ryan Valer pushing me along with artwork and trying to keep me going and sending me stories and stuff, I don’t even know if I would still be doing comics to be honest with you. So for that, I would like to thank Zi very much and I would like to thank Ryan VLA and Ben Sullivan. So that’s on rosie.com X studio. We’ll, before we get to Max, hit two videos, check it out and then come down into Max and

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (46:55):
Do it. Yep. Did you say hit the video?

Leigh Chalker (47:00):
Yep.

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (47:02):
Alright.

Voice Over (48:06):
The Black Plague is ravaging much of France. The city of VO has suffered a loss totalling an estimated 55,000. A rogue branch of the French military is responding to Vos plight by murdering the plague at its source, the people infected. And when that death comes to Rosie’s, she responds in,

Leigh Chalker (49:02):
All right,

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (49:03):
The title Ring Around The Rosie isn’t just like a funny play on the character’s name. The book almost served as a telling of how that nursery rhyme came to be. I won’t spoil that part, but it’s one of my favourite sort of that became the gimmick when we unlocked that, putting the story together, the donut of it all, just to bring it all back to that thing, the symmetry of the story, the cycle of violence and whatnot, cycle of sprinkles, cycle of violence, it’s all in the donut of life.

Leigh Chalker (49:42):
That’s exactly right. And thank you James Hollands for so many comments tonight, mate, I am seeing them and I just want to say thank you. I’m not familiar with you mate, so thank you for watching the show. Now, just one little thing too is ring around the Rosie and Battery hen a combination of X and psycho janitor teaming up to bring out two books together in this Kickstarter as well. So com x psycho janitor. Again, it all works together and we all help each other create, and this is the cycle of the community that we are all trying our very, very best to create here with comics and stuff. So just before I leave and head down to Max at Stella Lands, one thing I will say is I did love the fact that SP was the voiceover, the man in that video, and I really appreciate that, but still to this day, I dunno how you got your voice so high to do, the little girl choir mate, some of these secret waste, a whole magic man.

(51:06)
You know what I mean? Let people wonder about this stuff. It’s all part of the wonder. But yeah, no, go and check it out or like subscribe, like and subscribe, whatever. Yeah, do that too. I share it around, you know what I’m saying? It’s like at least somebody does. Alright, so the next one we are going to move on to is a Comex Kickstarter that Mr. Max Ada down here is the creator of, and that is Stella Lands. There is your address, Stella lands.com, X do studio. Now Stella Lands is in the last couple of days of its campaign and chugging along quite nicely. So what we want to do is we’re going to hand over to Max here and have a little chinwag max and for the last couple of days, max. Yes, you’re in the last couple of days, mate.

Max Ferrada (52:06):
72 hours. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (52:08):
72 hours. Oh, is that what it’s down to? What is percolating in your man that if there’s someone on the fence out there that’s thinking, yeah, thinking about the clickity click, but clack clack, you’re not sure, what would you do to push him man to click, click instead of clack? Clack hit me.

Max Ferrada (52:35):
I don’t know. I don’t know if we should be in the ethic of pleading for audience or Readerships. If you want to read it, read it. If you don’t, you don’t. Some people like the Godfather, some people like Legally Blonde, I’m not going to I know

Leigh Chalker (52:52):
Want to click or you want to cl I get it, I get it. Yeah,

Max Ferrada (52:56):
Right. You want to click or you want to click, you want to go up, you want to go down. If you want to be subterranean or grungy or really earthy and kinetic, I don’t contribute to my campaign. Go get a copy of Liz Ray. If you like something more upbeat and light and fun, go save your money and give a chunk to those. I’ve read a few of the smaller black and white comics that I purchased early on last year and yeah, it was great. It reminded me of the chicken fights and family guys very, and it reminded me of what that ice age squirrel would be like if there were two of them and fighting over one acorn. That energy that it gave out people who are in the mood for that probably wouldn’t be in the mood for a very multilayered political soap.

(54:07)
What do they call it? A space opera like Ster Lands. But for those of you who are of that ilk, my main influences, my main inspirations are in fact Blade Runner over Star Wars say or the Wire over Star Trek. Yeah. Shows of that density. And I keep telling people that while I am new to the medium of comic books for the longest time, I’ve been a very wide reader. I read books in general, I consume the canon and I like to tell people that this is the comic book for people who like to read novels in that sense. Not just because there’s a lot of text on certain pages, but it just hits the same narrative beat that you would expect of long form fiction. And also it doesn’t rely on voiceover. Not that there’s anything wrong with voiceover. Yes, thank you Peter Elaine, and for your amazingly schizophrenic taste in all things fiction because when it comes down to it, there is no reliance on voiceover to explain thoughts and emotions. And that’s something that you get in the early marvel. Even in the most recent Marvel. I like to have the situation explain itself like the reader to learn along with the situation in much the same way you would expect from a Cormack McCarthy novel saying something like that.

(56:09)
Yeah. So that’s how I would pitch it if you are on the fence. But if you are more of a reader in general than say a comic book reader, stellar Lands and the world that I have prepared in this universe, in this incredible world building journey in which I’ve immersed myself that this is for you. And yeah, please do you have 72 hours left of the campaign to get your name forever etched and inscribed on those final pages of gratitude and be in on the ground floor of what I hope will be something special. And right there, thank you for bringing the Scholar Lands universe to life. You could be one of the many hands involved in our elevation. So thank you.

Leigh Chalker (57:08):
That’s great, man. I actually watched the show with you, I think you’re on Aussie verse a couple of weeks ago and you were mentioning your love of the Wire and the tv, the Wire

Max Ferrada (57:19):
Love, it’s like an obsession. It’s almost unhealthy.

Leigh Chalker (57:24):
I went through said obsession. I still think McNulty and Omar are two of the greatest characters ever to get onto a TV screen. When you said that your plans with the next issues were to take it in a wire sort of direction, focusing an issue on a section of the universe, whether it be politics, superheroes, military, that sort of stuff. I resonated with that because as soon as you said The Wire and I read issue one, I got you. So definitely I myself loved, not early, but the uncanny X-Men comic books with Chris Claremont and Chris Claremont was very big on a lot of words. It took for a young fellow, you had to immerse yourself and it did create a bit of a soap opera with the characters and the world building and stuff like that, and it was very immersive. So that is an absolute positive that I would give to you about what you’ve created.

(58:30)
The other thing that I would focus on is that it is actually a 48 page comic book, which fully coloured Primo Nick, 15 bucks. I’m not sure about you guys, but to me in this world, that’s not a bad deal for a comic book that size. So that’s on the Kickstarter. You can also jump on there as well. And RA’s perceptions is on there, which is we’ll get to Shane in a tick and he can talk to us about perceptions. And there’s a copy of that Pete Wilson just had up and that’s with the campaign too, so that would be recommended. But as Max said, you got seven. Look, it’s coming from everywhere, man. You’ve got 72 hours. Look how many people have got it. It’s like fantastic. Now Max, yes, I’m going to come back to Pete on this one. I forgot this question. This is the downside of Ad Libs and getting too excited, man. Do you know what I mean? As I have been known to do from time to time, I’m an excitable fellow, but just don’t tell. It’s not such

Max Ferrada (59:48):
A bad way to be, especially when there’s something to be excited about, right?

Leigh Chalker (59:53):
Yeah, man, it’s comics man. I’m with me mates, I’m with me Comex Peeps. It’s like I can’t think of anything better to do on a Tuesday night mate. Like Tuesdays of the chin waggon, boom, boom. And there’s my plug for the night and anyway, and having fun mate with yourself now, quality comic book, what do you like about comics, mate? What do you like about the whole vibe of the thing that’s going on? What brought you to it?

Max Ferrada (01:00:31):
Well, first of all, look what’s going on now I have to give credit to Shane on how exemplary and in his proactiveness that this whole, if I dare say it, this whole empire has been, he is very on his feet, he is very proactive and there’s a rhythm and a momentum to what Comex does. I found myself manning a stall in Supernova, Comic-Con less than six months of knowing the existence of Comex Studio. I have a Kickstarter coming out and I’ve met a lot of like-minded creatives in a very rapid rate I have to say. So with that in mind, it’s good to see that I’m with actual company that is doing something that has blood on its veins. I have a lot of actor friends having a background in films and they’re always jumping from agent to agent. And it’s a common diatribe you’ll find, especially in Australia where the film industry is so small that my agent’s not doing anything, my agent isn’t finding me gigs, my agent isn’t linking me to auditions and so forth.

(01:02:00)
But if we could use that dynamic within the comic book realm, and if I were to call myself, I dunno, Taylor Swift and Shane was my agent, I have to say that he’s hooking me up to a lot of stage shows and so on. So yeah, I have to definitely give credit to the immense proactive nature of Shane. He’s got the energy and vibrancy of a 18-year-old. He doesn’t get tired. And everywhere I go, everybody knows him. I went to Melbourne Metro, I had this on, I had this hat on while I was buying comic books from not just people from the small independent outlets, but from the DC and the actual comic guest outlets. And they saw this immediately. Oh, Shane or Ciz usually, excuse me. I usually directed them to call him Shane by his government name.

(01:03:14)
I haven’t, haven’t completely warmed up to Si yet, but I’ll in time. Yeah, it’s completely obvious that the Comex is making not just steps, but strides and regardless the quarry or the outcome, I’m enjoying this journey. And I don’t think with any other company, I would’ve been already featured in how many three, four live streams this week. So I have to give them a lot of credit. And for those of you who are watching and wondering of an avenue which you could pursue in order to obtain more pledges, I do recommend these live streams. Just as I was talking right now, we got a $44 donation on Stellar Week, so we’re up to 1704. So yeah, that’s great. Yeah, it’s good to communicate, to have your face out there, have an audience or a readership to draw from. And yeah, comics does offer all that. And if sees something in you or if you are wondering on who to approach and Comex takes an interest, I couldn’t recommend them, mark. So yeah, so thanks man. Yeah. And yeah,

Leigh Chalker (01:04:49):
I think that’s a lovely thing. Good on you Shane. And you know what, I would also like to thank before I forget, on behalf of Pete and Duchenne for you doing those videos for ’em today, Mayday are schmick and thank you for your contribution.

Max Ferrada (01:05:05):
Thank you very much

Leigh Chalker (01:05:06):
And your help behind the scenes as well, mate, because it’s very important, I believe, I mean everyone sees my head, everyone sees SP’s, head and scissors head, but no one else sees anyone else’s heads. And believe me, there’s a lot of heads bouncing around over here. Decidedly may look better or worse than mine. So it’s up to you. See, there it is. Now I’m going to be bounce off down to Pete. Looks like he’s gone to sleep there, but I’m waking him up. Mr. Wilson, you rule a crack on the table mate. Come X for you, what are your thoughts, what are you thinking and how you feel and how did you want FOS to come around? Much like same question I asked Max and Dhan earlier.

Peter Wilson (01:05:55):
Well, it was really exciting to be on the ground floor of something like this. It was a very, if I had known months ago during lockdown, that simple message from Shane saying, how would you feel if we started a little company after the calendar went quite well? And I said, yeah, that sounds cool. It would blossom into all this. I might’ve been a bit more daunted, but I think Shay and I are on the same page. He respects creatives, he knows how to work with them. That’s not easy to do. They can be hard to organise, they can be, it’s not easy to get to market, at least not for me, it’s an introvert’s job.

(01:06:37)
Even just to get me on a stream was no easy feat. So he really helped me with that aspect of really kicked it up a notch, my comics. Otherwise I’d still just be selling them to my mom and getting a pat in the back and being assured that I’m a talented good little boy. If you told me I’d now be rubbing shoulders with all you people and the people I used to admire and collect I can now chat to on Facebook as a friend and I’ve helped them with comics that they’ve helped me. It’s really staggering and it’s just really awesome. And that’s the aspect of comics. I like the community and the encouragement and the networking. It’s just been fantastic.

Leigh Chalker (01:07:19):
Be and again, mate, thank you for your contributions behind the scenes to the community as well. Mate, you’re all a huge part of it. Even the viewers out there and stuff that are listening and watching, I’m talking to you guys as well. Without you guys, none of these shows would go ahead and we love bringing this content to you. As you can see, we held a hell of a lot of fun and it’s good stuff. Now I’m going to bounce over to my mate. Sp good. Hey mate, mate, your huge part of com and you’ve got Psycho janitor, which is your thing, but what’s your thoughts the same as these guys? What are your thoughts on the community about Yeah,

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (01:08:14):
Well, so Gary Della at Reverie kind of opened the door for me and pushed me in. And then Shane gave me momentum. He gave me a platform to show my books and to show myself. And I kind of feel like in the indie comic community, putting yourself out there is just as important as your book. I think it goes a long way to get people to support, to support what you’re making when they support the person. He gave me my tribe every Friday night. I hang out with people who have their best friends, they’re mentors, their sounding boards, their advice givers. I hang out with Dave Dye more than I hang out with my friends of 30 years and Sizzle gave me that.

(01:09:27)
So I’m very thankful for that. I have done radio shows and podcasts and all those sorts of things since straight out of high school I was on community radio and I did a podcast for a long time, which is no longer on the internet because it would probably get us cancelled these days. But Sizzle gave me a platform, the drink and draw thing, he laid this thing out and I don’t know, it let me use talents kind of a gross word to say, but reflect one of my other muscles a little bit. And that’s while it takes me a little bit to this is not really who I am to jump on and be all like, yeah, Goodday mate, but at the same time it’s part of me. And Sizzle gave me the opportunity to show that and to use it to forward my own career, but to help forward other people’s, to be part of the giving a platform to people who maybe don’t want to necessarily put their face out there, don’t necessarily want to talk and pulling words out of people and seeing people succeed who maybe came on drink and draw really shy and then a couple episodes later their cherished beloved crazy larrikins.

(01:11:10)
I am very thankful for that and I’m thankful for the leg up that, yeah, and when I say momentum, I feel like since the Devil’s Toilet one came out, I have felt my stuff, my art get better. And that’s by drawing a lot. But it’s also by you guys reading my comics and telling me for better or for worse, what’s the deal with this bit? Maybe tighten this, loosen that, whatever the case may be. So my art’s gotten better, but also I’ve met people who, we’ve become mutual fans of each other. We buy each other’s books. And so with each book that comes out, my audience gets a little bit bigger. And that doesn’t happen without getting aboard the Comex train. And yeah, so since day one I’m a bit of a control freak. I’m a bit of, this is how I think things should be.

(01:12:17)
And so Siz kind of like, well shoot me messages and say, Hey, check this out, what do you think of it? And I’ll tell him how I think it should be. And as I say, always with advice, it’s like take the bits that you think works and chuck out the rest. And I feel like means have a bit of a back and forth where I say, this is what I think. And he goes, cool, I like that bit and that bit. The rest I disagree with whatever. And that’s, I like our little back and forth. I like that he lent on me a little bit when the previous graphic designer left and before Pete showed up, well before Pete, obviously Pete was here, but before Pete, the Reigns officially, we didn’t have to say anything. He just said, Hey, can you help out with these ads? Can you help out with this? And I like that. I like being trusted, I like being relied on. And yeah, I just like it. I like all of it. I like being a part of it. So thank you Susan. Thank you Lee, for giving me the opportunity to say all that. And as always, I like to end things with one of these Goodday mate.

Leigh Chalker (01:13:33):
Alright mate, thank you very much for your contributions to Comex and to me personally. And our road seems to be from the first day that I got Battle for Bustle issue one and the Devil’s Toilet was the ad on the back cover. It seems that strangely enough, you are. And my paths intertwined, mate. So here’s to the most enjoyable creative future.

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (01:14:04):
Yeah, Dhan was showing off earlier versions. This is the Devil’s Toilet from 2004. So similar story with the devil sent. Well, you’ve read the book mate, you’ve read it. But yeah, this was the prototype back in the day and I worked at a printer, so I printed it out. There’s the number two and it never came out, so there you go.

Leigh Chalker (01:14:44):
Yeah, it did. Eventually a little bit down

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:14:50):
All new improved version.

Leigh Chalker (01:14:52):
That’s it. I love the fact that everyone’s all different seeing Dannen stuff today, man, like the artwork and seeing how many times you’ve done and shows the love of that character too, man, I can totally understand with my characters from Battle for Bustle and that having that drive to get him out. Now I am going to shoot down this way with my magic hand. That’s my magic hand, right? The other hand is my cigarette holding hand. So this is my magic hand and I’m going to go to what I guess I affectionately call him. And there’s another fellow that gets his name too, so you can fight over it like the boss. Oh, that’s

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:15:37):
Right

Leigh Chalker (01:15:39):
Mate. We we’re going to have a talk about Cirus perception, mate, and your book, your Now, how did this come together? How did you, there you go. Everyone’s got copies of them. There’s flailing around everywhere. There’s trees screaming out there, man, I want to be part of the next. I mean, God, a tree just fell over in the backyard willingly sacrificing itself to be pul taken. Impressive. Hit me up, man. Where’d it start?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:16:19):
Well, Cirus is a funny one. It started with, if you go back, if we’re going to go right back, it started with me and Kerry looking to open a comic shop and we came up with the name Cirus Comics as the name of the comic shop, which is our surnames combined. Then that didn’t happen. Years later Comex happened. So I made Ris the mascot for, sorry, sorry, Carrie’s just telling me it’s stolen. Apparently Citrus is hers. Cirus was taken and put onto Comex Stolen, apparently, yes, the comics happened. We got rolling, we did the calendar, we started up comic studio, we started printing other people’s comics and somewhere along the line, and I wish I could remember exactly what happened, but somewhere along the line I thought I should do my own comic. And I thought, what better character than the mascot of comics? Just whack him in a comic.

(01:17:38)
And then I went, well, I haven’t really got a story for him. So I thought, well, I had a sort of a story of him, but then I thought, wouldn’t it be cooler now? I think I had input in this, and I can’t remember who from because I have the worst memory in the world. But the idea came up to sort of give artists and writers their own interpretation of Cirus so that it was sort of sort of an anthology where there was a sort of freedom to interpret Cirus, how you wanted to interpret him or her. We have someone making Cirus or her, so interpret Cirus as they see fit to into an eight page story.

(01:18:27)
And then from that, one of the eight page stories was by Hayden and Hayden Sparrow and Ben Sullivan, and they kind of fell in love with what they were doing and they really enjoyed what they were doing and they asked if they could continue on. And I’m like, how long? And they said, until you don’t want us anymore. So I went sweet. Ongoing story in Cirus. So the last story is an ongoing, the first two is a colour and then a black and white, this one. And the colour in the first issue is by Peter Wilson. Just over there. He’s going off the screen and his awesome story actually explains the whole premise. So that was just also, and he did a nice surprise for me where he got other people to do panels in his story to show the different citrus in the many different forms. So that was a nifty little surprise. And then something characters talk together again. Lee,

Peter Wilson (01:19:42):
Do one, get Dhan involved. Now

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:19:44):
You have to do another one. Yeah. And for some reason I thought of the idea of printing the black and white story in the middle on different paper. And I was like, I wonder if this is possible. And I asked the printer and they said yes. So it happened.

Peter Wilson (01:20:02):
Cool.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:20:03):
Wow. So I dunno, it’s probably a better way. Explain the story, but that’s the best I got. I’m sorry.

Leigh Chalker (01:20:11):
Now mate, with where Comex is right now. Right here in the present as we speak. How do you feel about it? Where do you want to go next, mate? What’s your overall thoughts on your heart? Right here? Boom.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:20:35):
Yeah, it’s okay. Sorry. Sorry. This is just, I mean I’ve told a lot of people in previous Chin Wags and other things I’ve been on that I have bipolar and a few other issues as well. Schizoaffective and something else. OCD, that’s the one. And anyway, this has somehow given me something that has given me the strength to battle that, for lack of a better term, I can’t think of a better term. I like a donut battling over it.

Leigh Chalker (01:21:24):
Profound.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:21:27):
Yes. A bipolar donut. There you go. And yeah, so just that alone has been amazing. But even without that meeting, all you guys and girls has blown my mind. Knowing you has been amazing. The fact you know me is fricking amazing. The trip to Sydney Supernova sort of blew my mind a little bit because so many people were like, Hey sis, hey sis. I’m like, how the hell do these people know me? And people coming to the store wanting me to sign their hat and it was so surreal. So it’s been an amazing ride. I dunno what else to say. It’s just so cool. And everyone should be supporting the Australian indie community and industry because you guys just rock. Your comics are amazing. Your stories that you have to tell are amazing. Your art is amazing. It’s just why? Who’s your

Leigh Chalker (01:22:35):
Favourite?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:22:37):
Sorry?

Leigh Chalker (01:22:38):
Who’s your favourite?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:22:39):
Who’s my favourite? Oh, well that would be that sizzle fellow. He does really cool count. Yeah, we’ll go with him.

(01:22:53)
But yeah, it’s just, it blows my mind that it isn’t a bigger thing than it is. It really does. I mean, I didn’t know about it when I first came into it, and that shocked me that didn’t realise that there was this awesome thing underneath mainstream comics going on in Australia. That’s what inspired me to do all this. As most people already know it, it’s amazing. It’s cool, just wow. And the friends I’ve made is, some of the friends I have in this are better friends than my close friends in the real world. So that just, wow. So just that alone and where do I want to go with it? Wherever it takes me. My main goal is to get you guys out there and seen and heard and bought, most importantly, money, money, money for you guys.

Max Ferrada (01:23:56):
We just got another, speaking of which, we just got another pledge.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:24:01):
Oh, sweet. All done, man. Awesome.

Max Ferrada (01:24:06):
Live streams work and yeah,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:24:09):
So yeah, I just want to keep helping everyone. I Sorry for the hug, I’m in it for the hugs. Hear that Dave die. I’m in it for the hugs.

Leigh Chalker (01:24:29):
One of us will give that Dave die a hug one of these days. He won’t know. Hug hard and fast, mate. He’ll think he’s surrounded that Paul bugger. I’ll tell you,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:24:39):
It’ll be a group. There you go. Different angles. You won’t be Stop all of us.

Leigh Chalker (01:24:45):
Yeah, yeah, no. Well, I guess what we’ll do tonight, I think we’ve just sort of about set everything from each of the creators that are here and shame. So I’m going to wind it down and I’m going to leave you with some of my thoughts on the Comex community. So I want to show you some of these. Okay. Now my mother, my beautiful mother has put up with me for 45 years. And in that time she also put up with my dad, who was an avid comic collector. Now, just because Dusan made me think about this, my mum gave me a package recently I’d been going through some pretty average stuff and things weren’t looking real good mentally or physically at that stage. It wasn’t the best version of me. And she reminded me by giving me these, and these were little comic books of the Transformers and masters of the Universe.

(01:26:10)
Oh wow. A comic book I did with an original character I might add called Cocoa Pops the Robot, which someone has said that’s actually rather pleasant for things that you draw. The Adventures of Bunge, the one that I’m most proud of and will one day do another version of the Jaguar hunts in the night. Right now, these go back to 19 83, 84. I was quite productive as a matter of fact. So I must have really enjoyed this stuff. So these are all the little things a little dude used to do. And I had a bit of an existential crisis going on as to what I should do with myself after things had changed. And receiving that package help put me on path. It also gave me plenty of time over the last six months to reflect on where I am as an individual. And recently I have regained contact with someone that knows me very well and excuse me, I’m getting a bit of emotional now because it does mean a lot to me because it’s helped me a lot.

(01:27:17)
And all of you guys here on the screen, off the screen support messages that I received to keep going, plug away and slowly I’m coming back. I’ve been afforded the opportunity to do chin wags to meet heroes, friends, people that I’ve admired for a long time from afar, never thought that I would have the opportunity to meet, which I gladly and proudly call friends now. And it’s because of comics and not just Shane in this, but also Carrie, she’s a very important part of comics. Wouldn’t happen if Carrie wasn’t there to support Shane as well. We are, I guess we are our own creatures. We are introverts that do this stuff by ourselves and we are full of self-doubt. That is the creative process, creative processes to get yourself out there and take the good with the bad and learn is what I’m trying to do.

(01:28:37)
And it’s what all of us are trying to do and get better. Like anything, if you play cricket, you play football, if you get better and more, you practise. So drawing and riding and all that stuff is the same for me. I would encourage anyone out there that is sitting by themselves looking for a group of people like-Minded that you want to learn, want to be a part of, you want to contribute in any way to the Australian independent comic book scene, you can do so by contacting Ciz down there. You can do so by reaching out to Rob. You can do so. Like any one of us at all, welcoming, more than happy to say good day and have a yarn. I would probably say that this is the place for me and I’m very proud to be part of it. And thank you for everyone that watches and thank you for everyone that tries.

(01:29:41)
And the first step to get out of fear is the first step. Reach out because I was terrified to come on and do the first Friday night drink and draw. I was terrified to meet Sped and Peter Wilson and Siz and now I’m in awe of how the donut works. So I would strongly encourage people to have a go. I’d also strongly encourage people to look after their mates because mental health is a big thing and it is something that we do champion here because of CS and because of others in the community. We’re very mindful of people and everyone is treated fairly. Everyone is treated with respect. And that’s how I found my time here. And that is the best thing. The best part of this community is respect. And on that, before I get a little bit more emotion, I would like to just say there’s some other people in the comic studio, Duncan, Vic, Shaden Brook, Jew.

(01:30:59)
They couldn’t be here this evening, but in spirit, they’re with us and they work and do their comics. No man land in Ben Kitty all through the comic studio. There’s a whole heap of people that are regulars on the Friday night drink and draw. There’s Shane, there’s sp, there’s Quick Nick Cleary, there’s Dave Dyer, there’s Alex Major, there’s Nick May and a whole host of other people and guests that are always, those spaces are always welcome for newcomers. Jump on board again, reach out your opportunity, you get your artwork out there, you get to talk, get to meet people. That’s how we all started. And sky’s the limit really. Community is unity. We are all improving. We are all from different walks of life in different parts of the country and we all work together. No egos and that’s how it works man. It’s just best place to be if you’re one of us, you’re one of us.

(01:32:02)
You can be and come in and talk and jive on and just find a place that you could call your safe space. So come along. Yeah, and that’s really all I’ve got to say on that matter, but I’m very proud to be part of the community. Thank you Shane. And to all the guys on the screen and everyone listening. And I will do my best to represent myself and the community as all the best that I can in the time that I’m here. On that note mate, don’t forget to like and subscribe because it’s important to get onto those little quickies and things like that. Helps out the algorithms and spreads the word of what community is about and gets out into more eyes and more people so the community can grow.

(01:32:59)
Doug’s another important member of the crew. Doug got his own comic book Sizzle and Doug, yeah he did. There’s cat starring in that. I would also look, there’s a lot of things I guess there’s the comic shop which has got over a hundred independent comics, Australian comic books, $9 flat rate of shipping. So you can buy one comic or you can buy 20 or as many as you can to fit in the box or boxes. There’ll be nuclear protected because Shane spends about three hours box and it takes about four hours to get the comics out. So they will come to you in that top-notch quality guaranteed that helps people like us and people like you out there buy ink and pencils and paper and when you do make a sale or you do get that printed comic for the first time, as Max has just found out recently, there’s nothing better than it man.

(01:33:57)
It’s one of the best days of your life when you can hold it in your hands. And it’s something that I would encourage anyone to try and do. And you don’t have to do Schick old comic book. You can do like what did back in the day mate. And you can print it out on your home computer printer and you can staple it together and you can still be as proud of your creation as what you could be if you’re sitting in one of the bookshops and shit because you did it and it’s yours and no one can take that away from you. And on that note, I’m going to leave you alone next week. I’m taking next Tuesday off because I’ve got a lot of things to organise for future Chin wags. There’s some pretty big ideas happening and I’ve got a little vanity job that I want to do for a UK crew because I’ve always wanted to publish some stuff in the UK and I decided to take that. So it’s just one of those little things. Another little tick off the box. Now the other thing is too Friday night, drink and draw SPEDs. What number are you up to Brother?

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (01:35:01):
99 this week the road to 100 is almost at an end. And to celebrate episode 100, we are kicking off the inaugural Spie awards. So if you’ve ever wanted to go home with a Golden Spie tune in, you may win. You don’t have to be on the show to win. There will be nominees from right across the Australian comic book industry and so tune in both this week. Maybe we will list some of the nominees on this week, Joe, maybe that’s ambitious of me. But yeah, episode 100 is right around the corner, but this week we draw and talk. Lord of the Rings, thou shall not subscribe. Well it would be good actually if you subscribed So something put the ring on. Yeah, so tune in right here on this same network.

Leigh Chalker (01:36:07):
Thank you mate.

(01:36:08)
Alright, so you can get Liz Ray from the Comex Shop. You can get Cirus Perceptions from the Comex shop or through the Stella Land Kickstarter. You can get the Stella Land’s Kickstarter coming down to its last 72 hours right now on the address that Shane will put up. No doubt if anyone can find it, can’t find it. There it is. Stella lands.com X studio, you have Fs to look forward to coming up. There’s the address fs.com X studio. So click itty clackity on that. We want more clicks than cls on that one. Alright, click and please like and share Sp myself, Ryan Bella and Ben Sullivan’s work as well. We’re very proud of it. And Rosie do X studio. So for the evening, is there anything else gents or should we wind it up for the night?

Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle (01:37:14):
We should wind it up, but I mean this is a promo for me, but Sluggish one and two just dropped at the Comex shop as well. So sluggish two press time at the Comex shop. So if you miss the Kickstarter and you want some sluggish in your back pocket, $9 flat rate, grab some other books, get on the old herb train. I think it’s time we got sad again. Take it over.

Leigh Chalker (01:37:45):
Very good. Well that’s everything for tonight. Thank you very much. And particularly thank you very much for everyone that contributes and watching in your comments and stuff over the last couple of period. Thank you so much for all the guests for our guest season three of Chinwag while I take a week off to reorganise season four, man, it’s been a super fun ride so far. And I’m with Siz and we’re just going to see where it goes man, because I don’t think there’s anything else we know how to do. The only way is forward and let’s have a good time doing it. So remember we’re going to change it up a little bit tonight. Community is community like a donut. You good? Take care. Alright, all

Voice Over (01:38:38):
This show is sponsored by the Comex Shop. Check out Comex CX for all things Comex and find out what Comex is all about. We have.