Dave Dye

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

Leigh Chalker (00:25):
Good day and welcome to Tuesday Chinwag, episode number 25. My name is Lee Chalker. I’m the co-creator of Ring Around the Rosie, which will be coming at you pretty soon, and some other comics that are available in the Comex Shop. Now as the president of the unofficial Dave Die Club, I have chastised myself all day as to how I could be so remiss as to have this champion on the 25th episode when it should have been a lot earlier on in the numbers. But tonight’s guest is a great dude, great Australian comic book artist, and along the lines tonight we’ll hear who, what, where, when, why, and how and get into Dave’s story. So Mr. Dave Dye, how are you tonight, sir?

Dave Dye (01:22):
Very good, thanks Lee. Very thrilled and chuffed to be on with you.

Leigh Chalker (01:29):
Thanks

Dave Dye (01:30):
Very much for the invitation.

Leigh Chalker (01:33):
No, man, pleasure. As I said to you, man, I have no idea why I’ve never done this with you earlier. My God, how many comments are coming in? Thank you very much for all the comments and well thank you and good evening for all of you. Alright, so on with the proceedings. So for all of you watching at home for the first time, the show’s just based on some prompts, so who, what, where, when, why, and how and all things in between wherever it takes us on the chinwag. So Dave, without further ado mate, I’m going to put you centre stage and I’m going to ask you the first one who,

Dave Dye (02:15):
Well, Lee, I think this was probably the hardest question of them all. The who one, because it makes you do a little bit of soul searching, just who am I? And it’s something that most people don’t really think about and I’ve been thinking about it today. Know last week I was watching Angie got stumped with that question. And I remember on an earlier show, Hayden Sparrow said that he thought that Y was the hardest question. But I think who might be the hardest question mate? You know my name. I’m obviously a white Caucasian Australian and I’m proud Australian. I’m very proud to call myself Australian. And I think that comes out a lot in my comic art and all my art. Actually a lot of my art, I like to push the Australian agenda. I’m 64 years old, which makes me on the tail end of the baby boomers. I’m a baby boomer and I’m the sort of bloke who’s some things I’m all the way this, I’m a bit of an old fashioned sort of bloke. I like things how they were 50 years ago when I was a kid. Things were great then. But when you think about it, there’s a lot of great things that we didn’t have then that we’ve got now, and I’m quite happy to have those. So I like the best of both worlds.

(04:01)
So I’m that sort of fella. Someone I used to know called me an enigma, someone who’s pretty close to me. At one stage they called me Enigma. I didn’t know what Enigma was at that stage, but to look it up.

Leigh Chalker (04:13):
Well that’s better than some other names, mate.

Dave Dye (04:18):
I’ve been called most of them too, mark

Leigh Chalker (04:21):
Indeed. Yeah, so I don’t you worry about that over time. Yeah, continue mate.

Dave Dye (04:28):
Yeah, well without going on and on, but yeah, that’s about who I am. I’m very proud to be Australian and I like to try and continue Australianism Australian culture. What we got, I used to say that to me brother and he says we haven’t really got any culture. We’ve got the aboriginal culture, but our culture is all from England and America. This is where we absorb our influences. I like the old the way I starry-eyed. Look at the past, our history, and that’s why I’ll say coba and dinky dye and all this sort of stuff. I try and use as many of those old slang words and things I can to try and keep ’em alive because I’m worried that one day they’ll be dead and no one will know what a wowser is or any of our old terms what they are. So I try and keep those alive as much as I can. You can one person, I’m not the only person. There’s a lot of people out there who do the same. Sometimes I walk down the street and I’ll hear someone say Cober talking to their friend or something like that. And I think, oh, good on you mate, you still got it. There’s still a few of us around.

Leigh Chalker (06:00):
Well mate, there’s nothing wrong with that because there’s plenty of that sort of language I guess up around Townsville and stuff and yeah, no, back down in Gunda, away in New South Wales, there’s plenty of people that talk like that too, mate. And it’s a nice, I guess, romantic air to it, isn’t it? Looking back on that,

Dave Dye (06:28):
Yeah, it’s a thing of the past it it’s a thing of the past, but it’s keeps this, it’s what keeps us unique and that’s what I think I’m worried about is Australian might use it, lose its uniqueness and something people from other countries appreciate our uniqueness. They like it. Yet we are quite almost embarrassed by our accent when we say things that probably not as we consider them not to be highfalutin, the Yanks talk very jazzy and all that. They’ve got all that lingo and we like to pick that up, but that’s only natural. Everyone does that. But it’s just a shame that we have to chuck full our stuff away to pick up the American stuff. I think the British are doing it. They’re picking up a lot of the Americanisms as well, but that’s Hollywood and we are just bombarded with all that stuff that I think it’s good if we can hang onto it, hang onto it, and I just try and do my little bit without being overbearing about it, I suppose.

Leigh Chalker (07:50):
Well one of your comic books is, I’d say one of many, but the one that you focus on is a continual comic book for anyone that doesn’t know is called Amazing Tales, and that is an anthology comic book that Dave does and there’s a lot of different areas of topic that Dave will handle, like science fiction, which he has a love of and fantasy and stuff. But there are some lovely Australian stories in there, stories that I can think of like the bun and different things like that mate, and just some very nice touches. Where did you grow up mate? What was your local

Dave Dye (08:41):
I’ve got a rural background. My parents on both sides were from farming families and their families before them. And before them. Mom’s side and dad’s side I think both came out around about the 1850s around the gold rush time, roughly around then. But they didn’t go chasing gold. They went and settled on land. And in the riverina of New South Wales, which is not far from where I’m living now, it’s only I’m in the Mally now, the Riverina just sort of backs onto the Mally country. So I was born in Nora, new South Wales, but my grandfather owned a farm. He sold it when I was just pretty much born and we moved into town. And ever since after that I was living in, I was a town boy, but on my school holidays and that, I used to jump on the train, the mail and travel down overnight to get out back in the riverine.

(09:55)
I’d work on me uncles and cousins’s farms and I loved it, loved it. So I always wanted to, when I was at school, I followed an agricultural dream and these where my dream of Clancy of the overflow, I read Henry Lawson. Dad was a poet. Dad used to do a lot of bush poetry and he used to play a lot of music and he was mad keen on Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson and all those sort of things. So I grew up with that sort of background. I’ve always had a rural sort of background around me and I always loved it and that’s probably definitely has shaped the way I am now for sure.

Leigh Chalker (10:51):
So would you have family because you wouldn’t have had too many TVs out that way back when you were

Dave Dye (11:00):
Well

Leigh Chalker (11:01):
And talking, making stuff up. Is that the germination of the amazing tales in which you are proceeding to tell now?

Dave Dye (11:14):
No, I think I can remember, we didn’t have a television originally, but I can remember. I can remember as a kid coming home from school, we used to pester mom and dad, let’s get a tv, let’s get a tv. And I can remember coming home from school and I can still see it now, walking along the footpath and looking at the roof and there’s an antenna on top of it. And mom and dad never told

(11:43)
What a surprise we folded in, folded it down the back of the house in the back door. Yeah, that was a big moment. But yeah, we didn’t watch a lot of, yeah, I watched a fair bit of tv. I can remember before we got to tv, listening to the wireless, we had a wireless after tea, we’d turn the radio on and we’d listen to, they used to have a show, I can’t remember, I remember Dexter, it’s an American show radio show, but it had Dexter and we’d listen to that and laugh at Dexter getting into trouble. It was a bit like Blondie. Dad wouldn’t Blondie one of those family sort of things. And he’s in trouble.

Leigh Chalker (12:35):
I’ll take your word for that one, mate.

Dave Dye (12:40):
But yeah, that was, I can remember when we got telly and I don’t think a lot of things shaped my amazing tales probably comes from probably more TV and stuff that I watched when we got tv. I can still remember there’s a movie called The Longest Day Start came to Wagga Wagga, their drive-in, they had a drive-in in about 1965 or something when the big movie came out called The Longest Day about the landing of D-Day. And we travelled all the way, it’s a hundred and something kilometres to Wagga Wagga from Thereand. But after work, dad drove us all there and we watched it. And I can remember seeing the Parachutists in the movie Float Down and one of ’em got caught on this Church Depot, and it must’ve been close to Christmas time because we went to Manley. My grandparents had sold their farm and they were living at Manley.

(13:49)
They actually overlooked the Sydney Harbour. Can you imagine it? They had a huge house there, it’ll be worth about $20 million now. But they sold their property, they got this, and you could see the ships coming in and out of the harbour through the entrance to the harbour. And it was a great spot. And I can remember I got a little notebook, something like this for a Christmas present and I thought that was pretty good. And I can remember drawing these little parachutists in there, drop and German shooting them. I can still remember doing that. So that movie had a fairly decent impact on me back then. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (14:33):
You were just saying the pad that you got, mate, that I could imagine a young fellow or young person getting a pad for Christmas now and they’d probably is there an eye in front of it, but how times changed? But

Dave Dye (15:01):
I can remember also, I got a little trumpet about this big. I used Go, Rowan is this thing, and I’d be going, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Beatles song was out then. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I go, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Leigh Chalker (15:19):
I bet you were a family favourite at dinner, weren’t you, Dave? You coming in? Yeah, yeah, I could see that going for a week. Everyone would’ve been like, oh no trumpet

(15:33)
Mate, because that area you’re just talking about Wagga Wagga and stuff like that. I’ve not spent millions and millions of hours down there, but I’ve certainly had the privilege of being in that area an awful lot. And the last time I was down there, it was quaint. It is what it is. There’s a base down there and stuff and yeah, yeah, we’ll get to that at the end of the show, Bessy, we’ll get Dave to trumpet us out. But it is a lovely town, man. And that was only a few years back I was there. What would it have been like for just people that haven’t been out to that area? The roads are different now. A lot of those towns used to have trains that operated and would go from one small town to another. But now when you go there, the little train stations are all grasses growing through ’em and they’re not used and stuff. The roads, I wouldn’t say are the best, but I haven’t been on there for a while, so I could only imagine when you were a kid mate trying to go as the crow flies, trying to get to that drive-in and stuff. There would’ve been some bumpy driving going on.

Dave Dye (16:59):
I think they weren’t too bad. We travelled down the main drag there, main highway to Wagga. But I think now the population, probably a lot of towns have grown and that, but a lot of the small towns like that, Nora, I don’t think have changed. They might’ve gone down. A lot of ’em have shrunk in size. A lot of people, kids now, they pretty much don’t hang around the smaller towns very much. All the works in the big smoke. So that’s pretty much, they finish high school and they’re off. So that’s

Leigh Chalker (17:43):
A couple of songs indeed.

Dave Dye (17:49):
But yeah, the smaller towns are getting by, but things haven’t changed that much. I went back to the old house in Nand a couple of years ago with me Little Brother, and they’ve got Curb and Guttering in the street now. We never had that when we were there. I remember it as being just a bitman down the middle and then just a bit of a trough for the gutter was just a dirt thing, and that’s how it operated. But now it’s got guttering and all that sort of flash stuff.

Leigh Chalker (18:23):
Fancy

Dave Dye (18:24):
See that? Yeah. But they had some nice trees that used to line along there and they’re all gone, so the natural stuff’s gone. They put in the curb and guttering. So it’s got a little bit trendy and

Leigh Chalker (18:36):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Dave Dye (18:39):
Things have got to advance, I

Leigh Chalker (18:41):
Guess. Yeah. But luckily, as I said, it might be different now, but the last time I was down there, you could see that modern change starting to roll in. But there was still that, well, I guess there was the atmosphere of what it once was, you know what I mean? And how it is. But everything changes, Dave, unfortunately. Things are progress mate progress, they say,

Dave Dye (19:11):
Yeah, they’ve still got drivers out there. We went past a driving plant. My cousin used to be a driver. He was a driver up until just before he passed away. So there’s still a lot of those old things that you’ll hear people say, oh, they don’t have them anymore. But no, they’re still knocking around, still got a job for ’em out in the bush. So still required.

Leigh Chalker (19:36):
So you’ve got your drawer and pad, got your pencils and stuff. You’re sitting there, you’ve got this deluxe look over Sydney Harbour when you’re a kid that would’ve just bought, it’s stuck in your head, you know what I mean, obviously. And you’re experiencing both worlds, like you’re in the bush touch of the city, that sort of stuff. Where was it that the drawing started taking a little bit more seriousness with you and the first time you went into a corner store or somewhere and discovered that there were cartoons and comic books out there, mate, whereabouts and how

Dave Dye (20:27):
Old were you? We would’ve been living in Colac then, which is in Victoria, Western districts of Victoria. We moved down there. We lived in the town of Colac where Cliffy Young was from down around that way. Remember Cliffy Young? Cliffy Shuffle

Leigh Chalker (20:48):
The Runner?

Dave Dye (20:49):
Yeah, the runner. Yeah, he was the old runner.

Leigh Chalker (20:52):
You know what’s weird is that dude was one of my dad’s greatest heroes, man. Cliffy Young used to be out jogging and stuff, and he’d do those big charity runs and all that and the man would run, if no one knows Cliff Young, he would just run It was you,

Dave Dye (21:10):
His gum boots chasing the cows.

Leigh Chalker (21:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s right. And they used to televise it, man, where we lived live and oh, dad used to sit there for hours watching him mate get cheering him on and stuff on the TV and stuff. Yeah, no loved him, man. I think he liked his determination and his endurance for things, man. And I guess his selflessness for just wanting to run and help people man brought, yeah, well

Dave Dye (21:45):
We were living down there and I can remember I would’ve been between the ages of seven and 10 years old then. So in that period there, and I can remember after church on a Sunday, we’d stop at the newspaper shop and dad would give us our pocket money 5 cents or six months or whatever it was in those days, or maybe a shilling or 10 cents might’ve been a bit much. So it was probably more like six months. And that was about as much as a comic cost then. And I’d go buy a comic. My two sisters would go buy a comic. The older brother, I don’t know what he bought, he probably saved it up for something else. He was a fair bit older. And we’d buy comics and we’d take ’em home and we’d read these comics and swap ’em around. My older sister would buy an Archie comic, usually my sister, two years older than me Rose.

(22:45)
She’d probably buy a Donald Duck and I’d probably buy an Uncle Scrooge or a Casper or hot stuff or something. And then we’d all swap ’em around, of course and read ’em all. And then I can remember on rainy days and stuff, we’d sit down around the table, a lot of us drawing, and we’d draw from those. Donald Duck. Or I can remember Dad had these old story books from when he was a young fella and they were mostly text, but they had beautiful pen drawings in them. And I liked the pirate stories. I was getting right into Pirates at that stage. So I can remember drawing the front cover of one of dad’s books, which was a pirate swinging with a Cutlass in his mouth, swinging on a rope with a couple of pipes around him. And I think I did a Reason

Leigh Chalker (23:39):
Flynn at the time that would’ve been,

Dave Dye (23:44):
We had Robin Hood tv and there’s a TV show called Sir Francis Drake and the Golden Hind, and he was a pirate or similar to that. And I used to love that show. We loved all those shows back in those days. So we watched a lot of them. Yeah, so I can remember sitting around drawing back in then back in those days. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (24:09):
Yeah. That’s cool. Oh, that’s cool, man. Here’s sped sy for you, mate. Question for dinky dad. Dave, I’m curious what your goals are in comics and what would be your lofty comic dreams?

Dave Dye (24:24):
My goals, well, my goals are to, I don’t have any long-term goals at the moment. A few years ago, I would’ve probably dreamed of getting a gig with 2000 ad that would’ve been really nice. But from what I’ve heard, they don’t really pay very well or treat their artists and that very well. So maybe I’m glad I’m not, haven’t got mixed up with them. I’m

Leigh Chalker (24:52):
Really happy, Dave. Lucky that’s not a common theme

Dave Dye (24:59):
Been.

Leigh Chalker (25:03):
Yeah. But anyway,

Dave Dye (25:06):
We’ll have the interview one day you one day, mate for this show and get it back at you. I don’t think I’ve got anything like that now nowadays, my long-term goal is to maybe get amazing tails up to double figures in issues. That’d be really good. And what was a, which part? B of that

Leigh Chalker (25:33):
Questions can bring it back up. Got Cs working behind the scenes there. It’ll pop back up. It’s

Dave Dye (25:40):
Long-term goal and

Leigh Chalker (25:41):
Dream lofty. Yeah,

Dave Dye (25:44):
Lofty comic dream. Yeah. Well that might be it too. Just continuing to make comics. I don’t really have any spie. I just want to keep doing comics the way I’m doing ’em probably to get better. It would be better at me art, better at me, storytelling. Those are the things I really want to do. And if I’m happy with what I’m knocking out, hopefully the people that buy my comics will be happy with ’em too. And that’ll be my dream would be to sell more and create more. I’ve given up on those trying to, I once tried to, I sent away a thing to 2000 ad that was probably about seven years ago now, and I didn’t hear anything back and I thought, I don’t even know if they got ’em. And it was just, they would only take a physical submission, not a digital, I just put it in the mail with a return envelope stamped, sent it off and heard nothing. So whatever.

Leigh Chalker (26:50):
I’m not too, yeah, I tried, mate. They missed out, mate. They missed out because I never would’ve discovered, oh, I would’ve, I read 2000 ad, but I mean, you wouldn’t want to be talking to me, man.

Dave Dye (27:03):
That’s right. I’d be too high for Loop.

Leigh Chalker (27:06):
I’m on 2d. You could call me Judge Dave when you were drawing with the family and stuff. So the sparks ignited there. And what age did you start moving on from the Disney type and Archie’s and things to discovering particularly your love of Frank Frazetta?

Dave Dye (27:37):
Yeah, well that came along later on, I suppose. Pretty much the, I started the boy, I haven’t got any examples here, but you know the little battle picture, library war, picture library. They’re small little Army

(27:53)
Training. PAMs, we call them in the Army, little Square Comics. Sure. I started buying them. My sister got a little bit upset with me. She said, I hate reading those things. They’re not funny. They’re hopeless and they’re boring. And I wish you’d go back to riding Uncle Screech, but I was, I’m military. I just love the, since I saw those parachuters getting caught on that staple, I suppose. We used to watch Combat on TV and the Rat Patrol and all those sort of things. So I started buying them for a while. Then I got a little bit older. I got into my early teens I think, and I started buying the British comics, which was Bino and Core. I’ve got the original couple of cores, but it was hard to get a regular run back then. I didn’t understand about you can actually subscribe and the news agent would keep it for you.

(28:56)
I didn’t know about that. I’d just go in hoping that next week’s issue would be there and it might be all gone. You might’ve missed the continuation of your story. So it was a hit and miss sort of thing. So I bought them for a while. And then The Valiant and Tiger and those sort of things, the British ones, they were really funny. I loved them. Captain Hka was in there. He was a military bloke and he made me laugh with tit and who was the runner? Alf of the track, I can’t remember his last name now, but he was a runner and he used to always get into these adventures. Alf Tupper. He was Alf Tupper. And I remember reading those and they were very entertaining and funny. And I think that’s why My Amazing Tales has a variety of stories in them. Because those old British comics, they’d have a war story.

(29:56)
They might have a science fiction story, they’d have a little two page comedy thing about something, a Mexican or something like that, the chameleon. They’re just all different stuff. And that’s sort of why my amazing tales is I’ve got a science or space adventure, Outback, adventure war stories all in one. Then you might have a horror story. It’s all mixed up. And originally when I first brought out animation tales, people were saying, oh, you should focus on one genre. You’ve got three or four genres in the one comic I think you should have concentrate on was just one. And well, I said, well, there is one genre in there and it’s Australian. They’re all Australian people. And that’s the thing that holds it all together. So that was my back. It wasn’t very good comeback. That’s the one I,

Leigh Chalker (30:56):
You stuck to your lane, mate. You knew what you wanted to do. And I mean, God, you just did issue six, like the Beowulf one. So you’ve given us your interpretation of that. And mate, that’s a beautiful comic book because I don’t think people can be remiss sometimes, but Dave, as well as being an amazing black and white artist, he’s also like a watercolorist. You can see that stuff happening on Friday night, drink and draws. He shows you the process. If you do want to learn or see someone that definitely I believe knows what they’re doing and someone that’s influenced me in my art, then have a look at that on the Friday nights. But Dave’s also, mate, you’re a hell of a writer. A lot of people associate you, I guess with your visual content and stuff like that. And you’ve done plenty of collaborations with people. You and Roger Stit seem to have a little bit of chemistry happening there because I’ve read those books and I’ve enjoyed them thoroughly and stuff like that. You said you were military orientated, I guess, in terms of influence with your stories and adventures and things like that. At what age, I know this that other people may not, you did serve in the military for some years. Was that choice of occupation at the time something because of these influences as a young fellow? Yeah,

Dave Dye (32:47):
Yeah, yeah. I think I was destined to be a soldier as it turns out. And we were told this as youngsters, but I never really thought about it much. But my great, great great grandfather was in the Crimean War. He was a hassar over there fighting the Russians. And then before he came to Australia, he got out of the army, British army and came and settled in Alia in Northern Victoria. And then his son, I think as his son went to the Bo War. He died a disease over there. So they erected. There’s a memorial in the failure to him now.

(33:40)
And then my grandfather was in the first World War, although he was a bit late getting in. This is mum’s father. He was born in 1900 or thereabouts, and he just basically joined up and the war ended, so he just missed out. But then my uncle was in the second World War and we had a very close friend who was in like, we used to call him uncle, uncle Rolly Spencer. He was in the second 17th battalion in the Second World War, a rat off to Brook Elma, new Guinea and Borneo, the whole works. And I used to go, he invited me to go and stay with him and Auntie Thelma, I stayed with them. They had an orange farm orchard and I used to go and work there on my school holidays and that night I’d sit down and pester him, can you tell me about the story or what happened? And he’d get his photo album and I’d go out and he’d show me all his photos. He had all these great photographs of when he was in the desert and all that and was just, my mind was just full of it. And he gave me, I’ve got a belt buckle there from an Africa core belt buckle. He gave me some of his souvenirs he gave to me. And so that really got me onto it. I was hooked right onto it by then.

Leigh Chalker (35:18):
Were you writing at that stage? Were you jotting down ideas?

Dave Dye (35:22):
Oh yes, actually. Actually I can remember in it would’ve been 1970, in fifth class, Mrs. Croft, I wrote a story and I must’ve probably just come back from seeing Uncle Rowley and what was the, you have to write compositions at school,

(35:41)
Something, the Battle of Brook. And I wrote about this story, fictional story about Brook, and after that, Mrs. CR said, oh, and here’s the story composition for our favourite war, David Dye. And she had marked it and said it was a good story and all that. So that was back way back when I was 11 years old, that was starting to come out in me, this writing. And I always, that was probably my favourite part of English anyway, was English subject, was doing compositions and creative writing. And I do remember another teacher in high school saying to me, I got it written on the story that I submitted. I was writing stories about farm life then, because that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to leave and go work on the farm. And I’d probably just come back from working from school holidays from another, my cousin’s farm, they had a mixed wheat and sheep and property. And I’d come back from there and I’d written a composition about driving tractors and doing all this. And she wrote at the top of that in a red pen, David, why do I like your storytelling so much? Is it your laid back and easygoing attitude or something? I can’t remember exactly, but it pretty much made an imprint. I can remember it fairly well. So that was encouraging and I really did enjoy doing that stuff.

(37:20)
I can remember also writing some fair rubbish, which may have been influenced by Mad Magazine or Auntie Jack that I’d watched on telly. And that was just a crazy thing about, oh, I won’t even say it. But anyway,

Leigh Chalker (37:39):
We’ve all got to write some rubbish day to get to the good stuff, don’t we, and get better.

Dave Dye (37:44):
But it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Sometimes when you can write something and you can get a laugh, you’re actually laughing while you’re writing it. Oh, that’s fun. You’re having a good time. And I’ve just written a story recently that I’m looking forward to illustrating.

Leigh Chalker (38:02):
Yeah, yeah. And what’s that little sneak peek for? Is it for somebody else or is that an amazing tale that will possibly appear in the next

Dave Dye (38:12):
Issue? That’s for amazing tales, mate. I was actually, I’ve got a story done. It’s an eight page story, so I usually put about 32 pages and an issue of amazing task. So I’ve got one story and I was looking to do another story for that, but this story was, I had something in my head and it just wouldn’t come. And it just started to develop and it took about three weeks to get out. Really took a long time to really nut it down. But halfway through I thought, I’m going to make this a full story, a full length story. So I think it’s 24 pages, so it’ll be a full independent comic. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (38:54):
Yeah, yeah. Now do you do most of your thinking in that little studio room where you’re at? Or do things pop into your head when you’re out with Dinky? For anyone that doesn’t know Dave has a horse that he’s very fond of and its name is Dinky and so yeah, so you know what I’m talking about, but can you just be doing something, you’re trimming the hedges man, and the idea pops in your head to say one of these

Dave Dye (39:29):
That might give me an idea, but I can’t seriously work on it unless I sit down and think about it. I’ve got to sit down and think. And it could be here, it could be in the lounge room, it could be lying in bed. I could be, another good time is if you’re driving, I had to drive to Melbourne recently and back, so that’s five or six hours in the car and you’ve got nothing else to do. That’s a good time to start thinking about storylines and how you can work it. So I find driving’s a good time to, when you’re doing a distance a few hours at time, that’s a good time to actually, because it makes that trip go quick. It’s all gone. And hopefully by the end of it you sort of nutted it out. But I’ll tell you this story I was working on, it took a lot of work. Some of ’em come quick really quick, but some of them you’ve got to really work at.

Leigh Chalker (40:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess you’ve got to put some of them down too, don’t you, just for a little while and then come back to it.

Dave Dye (40:37):
Yeah, a lot of it, I just keep it up here. A lot of it’s just in my head to start with and I’ll just work it out in my, and I’ll leave it up there and I don’t have to write anything down. I just try and nut it out from, I might start it, oh, this is how it’s got to end, so then I’ve got to work out how to get there. Or I might have a sort of how it begins and how it ends, but I dunno what the middle is. So that’s what you’ve got to make those two meet the two and it’s got to be, so that’s the struggle. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (41:12):
Do you find that a lot of your stories, do you find real life experience comes through to your stories that you tell, even if they are set in space with Dropship 15 and things like that, do you find that there is still some correlation with past experiences? Men?

Dave Dye (41:33):
Yeah, a lot of ’em, not a lot of ’em, yeah. A lot of them do come from personal experience or some of the characters might be from people that I’ve met over the years. In Dropship 15 particularly, there’s one particular character when I was on course with her, there’s a six month course, so I got to know the person fairly well and he’s the JE in there, the je, and he’s, that’s him. But he was a nice enough sort of fella, but he had his moments. He’s still a bit of a kid and he’s big and strong and fit, and that’s sort of how the tube is and some of the things that I maybe play ’em up a little bit. But anyway, he’s the Jew and then that first story on Dropship 15, number one, the first story, the, what’s it called? Office. That was from something that happened. There was no, come on,

Leigh Chalker (42:45):
You want to tell it? You want to tell it?

Dave Dye (42:48):
It wasn’t an office romance, but in that story, I made it an office romance, but it was something else.

Leigh Chalker (42:57):
Well, here’s a comment from Danny Nolan and gday Danny. Thank you for watching, mate. Hi Dave. Not only are you an amazing artist and storyteller, you are one of the few people who still does hand lettering, which in my opinion adds a whole new element to your work. And indeed it does. Yeah,

Dave Dye (43:15):
Appreciate that, mate. I did a really good story with Danny that we got published in, he’ll be able to tell me one of the English. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (43:25):
I’ve read that. That’s the one where the people are in the bunker after they decided to come out. And I won’t give the ending away, but no, that was the last panel on that comic book is that story is beautiful, man. I looked at that. I actually had, believe it or not, here you go. I had my first bout of Covid when I was reading a whole heap of day of DI comics, so I don’t want to associate Dave di Covid, but sort of

Dave Dye (44:03):
For Covid.

Leigh Chalker (44:05):
And it just seemed like, because on my bedside table as you do, you get piles and stuff you’ve got to read. And then I just had the opportunity and it just seemed like every bloody comic book I was pulling over to me was a Dave Die comic book. And I do remember looking at that last panel and it was a well-written story too. Danny, so good on you, man. Good story. Nuclear

Dave Dye (44:31):
Family, I think it’s called Nuclear Family

Leigh Chalker (44:33):
To that Effect. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful panel, man. Yeah,

Dave Dye (44:38):
It was a good story. Well, a good thing, I’ve just got a story from JI that I’m working on with you with for Rosie, and when you get a good story, it’s just great and you just start putting it down. Yeah, yeah.

Leigh Chalker (44:58):
Okay. They saw you saying Good day to you. Good on you. Thank you.

Dave Dye (45:02):
When you’ve got, I do these conspiracies, what’s the word? When you work with someone, it’s not a conspiracy.

Leigh Chalker (45:12):
Oh, good on you mate. Put me on the spot. Yeah, yeah, you get together and hang out, you work

Dave Dye (45:20):
Together, but I can’t remember mental. This is why.

Leigh Chalker (45:26):
Yeah, so it’s alright. It happens to me all the time,

Dave Dye (45:28):
But when you get a story from someone and it starts and you start actually doing the thumbnails and you start laying it out, oh, that’s really good and it starts to come alive. Someone else’s story starts coming alive in front of you and you think, yeah, this is really good. Yeah, I’m really enjoying it. And that’s how I’ve got now I’m just working on story for SP and that’s really good.

Leigh Chalker (45:55):
Yeah, no, there’s nothing better. Collaboration is the

Dave Dye (45:58):
Collaboration

Leigh Chalker (46:01):
When you get a good one, mate, they’re pretty awesome. I read that script that you got and I got to be honest with you, man, I was a little bit jelly. Alright. I was a little bit jealous inside mate. It sort of stewed to the top I thought like, oh, I’d like to draw that.

Dave Dye (46:28):
Yes, sorry mate.

Leigh Chalker (46:31):
Yeah, yeah. But it is a good one and I look forward to seeing that. Come on. Yeah, I’ve seen the layouts and stuff, man. And I know what you’re about. I do want to get to say you joined the military at a young age and

Dave Dye (46:51):
Yeah, well, 23, I was 23. I was one of the oldest in the platoon when I first joined up. Most of the fellows that joined pretty much straight out of school, they’re 18 or 19 years old. Most of ’em were in 19. I think they’d done a couple of years, maybe a year of work or something or half a year of work before they actually got into the army or in the platoon I was in anyway. I think there’s only one bloke older than me, he was a Hungarian. Can you believe that one of bloody Alex majors, mob,

Leigh Chalker (47:26):
It may have been a relative of Alex’s. Alex would be cheering on proudly in the background listening to this. He’ll talk to you about that on Friday. No doubt. Because I guess military’s been in you. I mean I am building this up because I think you’ve got, man, you’re firing on all cylinders, but you are reading, you’re discovering Retta, you’ve got your adventures and your things. You’re thinking, you’re working in a career militarily and stuff. When did you start thinking to yourself, I’m here drawing, I’ve got all these stories, I’m going to see how I put one together or if I can do it, what age were you when that sort of brooded to the surface mate and you sat down and just went, this is the one I’m going to have a shot at first,

Dave Dye (48:30):
I think actually I’ve got it sitting up there. No one’s ever seen, I might’ve showed it on the show as on with Angie, I’m not sure. It’s called Red Coals. I was a fireman in the army for 14 years and we did a lot of fire. I was still writing stories. We had a newsletter come out and I’d write stories for that, fiction stories and I do all the cartooning for them when they wanted. I did the cover for them. I did. And any cartoon that was required, I’d do that and I was caricature and all the fellas unit in the fire station or in the unit or whatever, that sort of stuff. I was regularly doing that. And actually that’d be, I did it one year. I did at the end of the year, I’d do a group portrait. I used to do everyone’s caricature just from my head.

(49:27)
I’d sit at home and think, what’s he look like? And I’d try and draw and just from memory and I usually got a pretty close, which was pretty good little exercise. And one year I did a comic of everything that happened that year and it was a story, it was probably about 16 pages long and it had everyone in it and how they’d stuffed up through the year. I’ll tell you, that was one of the greatest, not one of the greatest, but it was really enjoyable watching blokes come in. I gave them each a copy and I put it in their pigeon hole and they’d come in, what’s this in pigeon? And oh, you got one of them? Oh yeah. They’re all sitting down reading it and they’d be laughing and carrying on and then they’d get to the bit where they feature it and

Leigh Chalker (50:20):
Drunk. Did you find yourself alone at the lunch table after that, mate?

Dave Dye (50:30):
That’s right, mate. Yeah. Not many friends after that. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (50:36):
He’ll draw you. I could imagine,

Dave Dye (50:39):
But at the same time would’ve

Leigh Chalker (50:42):
Sparked, that would’ve sparked some goodness in you though, seeing people’s emotions and laughter and stuff coming from it.

Dave Dye (50:50):
Yeah, well I started to buy comics again around about that time too, and they’d changed a lot and I think this was around probably 19 91, 92, so they were a bit different to how they were in the seventies when I would buy them previously and wrote this other story called Red Coles. He was a fireman and he only had one adventure and it’s up there and maybe I’ll do it up or something and print it one day. It’s not a bad little story and it had tomorrow you should just print

Leigh Chalker (51:35):
It as is, Dave. You should just print it as is, man. There’d be people love to see that.

Dave Dye (51:41):
Yeah. Well maybe it’ll be in the next issue of Amazing Tales.

Leigh Chalker (51:45):
Alright.

Dave Dye (51:47):
And it’s one of those morals, I always thought my stories have a moral to ’em and this one did because this was from being in the army. This relates to an experience that happened when I was in the Army at the time, people not thinking, oh, we’re not going to win. We can’t do the job or it’s too hard. It’ll be don’t give up, push through and finish it. You can do it. And that was what the moral was. Don’t give up, push through and do it. And that’s in that little story. Yeah. Well maybe we will print it.

Leigh Chalker (52:30):
Yeah, yeah. I’m going to chastise you, man. Every time I see you now it’s like it’s got red coals, red coals, come on, red coals.

Dave Dye (52:40):
I did another story. There was only a one page and it never finished. That was when I’d been reading Heavy Metal and that inspired me a fair bit as well. That was sort of in the intervening period in the eighties. I was seventies, no eighties would’ve been eighties when I was buying Heavy Metal Magazine. And that really blew my mind and inspired Art,

Leigh Chalker (53:12):
Do it Dave print it.

Dave Dye (53:14):
That’s from, I guess, yeah. What was I saying? Oh yeah. And I was actually in the barracks that I’d just finished my recruit course. I was on my first posting to, I was at Bandana and I was in the lines and I was just bored one end I guess. And I started drawing this comic story and that was probably the first story I started to actually write and put together. And I think the initial thing was here I’m bored as buggery sitting on me bunk, nothing happening. Chegg, he’s in the next bunk over there, bloody reading his stick books and he’s boring his all batshit, nothing going on. What’s going on? What’s that noise outside? Oh, UFOs aliens dropping down out us flying sources and Oh come on, Chegg, get off the bloody bunk. The bloody UFOs are come to get us and no, I’m alright. I’m not doing nothing. So I went out to fight the Martians on own. That was that story. That was a lot of fun.

Leigh Chalker (54:36):
It sounds like a lot of these experiences you’ve had, because your stories are good natured in content. They do tell a story and they are fun. You don’t let yourself get bogged down too much I guess in I guess darkness mate. You can read a Dave Di comic and know that you are going to have a laugh and enjoy the story, which is the adventure when you were there in your bunks and man, I’m just having a chuckle. I have not heard the term stick book in. Yeah, that’s one. From the past mate. While you were working on these things and these stories and you’ve got your military background and your family that we’ve discovered has been associated with a lot of points in the past, history in a military sense of importance in our past and that, when did you decide in your head that you were going to do your first big one, your very ambitious story? Tell people about this man, your hard back. I’m not saying any names. I want you to tell

Dave Dye (56:16):
This. You’re talking about this one.

Leigh Chalker (56:21):
I am talking about that one. Yes. What suddenly, because that would’ve taken you a while.

Dave Dye (56:31):
That one. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (56:33):
I’ll let you tell the story. But the logistics in you, getting that content together and processing it and stuff is a mission and an adventure all to itself.

Dave Dye (56:45):
That goes right back to probably about the year 1999 or 2000 or something like that when I was actually the army because I changed trades and I became an illustrator and they allowed me to go to TAFE to further my illustrating skills. So I decided to do a diploma of visual art and they helped pay for it. They paid for most of it, only had to pay a small bit of it, I think. And I had read the official history by Charles Bean of the Australian Landing at Anzac, and that was a really, well-written a great writer, Charles Bean, and it’s really is a good story. I encourage anyone to get a copy and read it, enjoy it. And so I thought there’s more to, it’d be nice if more people started to or could understand the stories, what those fellas went through at that landing. So I was doing all these paintings. I did a big triptych, not a triptych, what’s paintings? Triptych is three, what’s four,

Leigh Chalker (58:11):
Quadruple,

Dave Dye (58:13):
Whatever that is. I did four panels and

Leigh Chalker (58:19):
I dunno these things Dave, I just do it, man. I dunno what any of it means.

Dave Dye (58:28):
Anyway, whatever it is, someone might know I did one of them, but I was also doing a lot of sketches for it and all this sort of thing, and I was doing a lot of reading for it. So that sort of got me going. And I think in this, you’ve got these diagrams. Can you see any there on that page? Not really, but there’s diagrams of troop movements. I remember drawing in my sketchbook I used to do, I had this thing I had to do at least every day. I had to do one a four page at least of sketches, whether it was one a four sketch or a heap of little doodles or whatever. But I had to fill a page at least one page a day. So I did that for years and years and years. That was my drawing regime that I had to stick to and I was working on all these sketches from that that inspired me to do all these tic.

Leigh Chalker (59:38):
You say this in May, there is educational after all. Yeah,

Dave Dye (59:46):
He’s a teacher. What expect And so it was on my mind a lot. This was around the same time that I had also, I was thinking of Beowulf and the Norse. I was reading the Norse Legends at the same time, but sometimes you have four or five things going on at once, and so that was the germ. And then in the last year of my time in the Army, which was 2010, the last two years, maybe nine and 10, I started actually doing the work. Yiddish Bloody Yiddish. And so I’ll tell you what else happened. I met Monty, wed

Leigh Chalker (01:00:44):
Tell it all. Dave

Dave Dye (01:00:55):
Monty wed is the great, great Australian cartoonist and comic writer and illustrator. So Monty’s done this. I went to visit him in his castle at Williamtown and I got these, the first issue, the first edition that I did of the Anzac legend is set out pretty much like this. That was my inspiration. He was my inspiration. And so yeah, I just started working on that and I wanted to sell it the way he had done that to the newspapers. I was still in the army. I didn’t know anything about how newspapers worked or anything like that. I thought it was still a possibility that they would publish something like that in the comic section of a newspaper. Well, of course I’ve eventually joined the Australian Cartoons Association and realised that the newspapers don’t print comics anymore. So that all fell out. So I decided I just had to do it as a book. So I went ahead with the whole thing as a book and I approached a couple of book publishers to do it. Alan Unwin and Anon Roberson and maybe another one or two and got nothing back, pretty much no answer. So I just had to self-publish it myself. So I just, I’d got out and discharged from the Army by then. By the time I was ready for publication, I just paid for it myself and Self-published it and it went that way. Now,

Leigh Chalker (01:02:51):
This is today when I was thinking about our conversation, this particular point right now is a question I wanted to ask you at this time. When you got out of the army and you’ve done this book, you’ve researched it, you’ve gone through the, oh, they’re not going to accept it, I haven’t heard anything. Then in your mind you’ve gone like, no, I’m going to do it myself. How old were you when you decided that Dave, and the other question that associates with that is I’m assuming you were an older gentleman at that stage, you’d just retired out of the military, you hadn’t, you’d just joined the Australian Cartoonist Association. Man, that takes a hell of a lot of courage to do what you did. What were your feelings like at the time? Did you have any self-doubts or did you believe in yourself enough? Because if you’d been, from what you’ve told me, you obviously incredibly disciplined over a course of years to improve your skills and your storytelling and stuff. Did you just get to a point where I’ve got to get this out even if it’s the last thing I ever do? What was your overall memory and feeling towards that mate?

Dave Dye (01:04:23):
Yeah, I think, I don’t know. Regarding self-doubt and anything like that, I don’t think it came into it. I don’t think I thought about that. I just thought, this is something I’ve got to do and it’s not going to be something that I get halfway through and then put it aside and say I’ll get back to that in another few weeks or a month or something and start again. It was otherwise I was scared. I wouldn’t get back to it and just be sitting a box of half finished drawings up in the shed and 10 years down the check I say, I’ll have to finish that one day. It wasn’t going to be like that. It was going to be all in or nothing. So I worked on that pretty much for four years straight. Pretty much what I’d do is I’d work probably 14 days straight on it and then after that you’ve sort of burn out and you sort of go, oh man, you just got to have a rest. And I’ll tell you the hardest bit is actually doing the research

(01:05:51)
And writing, taking notes, checking cross-checking, going to the library, getting another book, checking that one, checking this, working out the timeline. I tell you, I did so much work on that, that I sit down and try and do it again now to do volume two. And it’s hard, mate. It’s hard, and I just stuck with it and I was determined to get it done. It was a labour of love because as I said, the story is such a great story and there’s some people just don’t know what those blokes went through and the nurses on the ships and all that. I don’t just talk a lot about that as usual, concentrate on the fellas, but those nurses work really hard on the ships. They get a pass and mention, which is, you can’t talk about everything I suppose, but I gave them a passing mention.

(01:06:52)
It would’ve been nicer to give them more. I tried to be inclusive in that. I’m talking about, there’s a couple of Asians in the army, mixed descent aboriginals. I tried to include them as much as I could, but there’s not a lot of information there. But I just had to get them in there as well. The Indians that were involved, the English soldiers that were there, a lot of people forget that they were there, the French were there, they were forgotten. So we just got to include everyone and try and get ’em all included in the whole story. But it’s mostly concentrate on Australia and the New Zealanders. But it had to be told and I wanted to do it. I really thought it was something that was worthwhile doing and I enjoyed doing it.

Leigh Chalker (01:07:48):
How many? 14 days straight. So I am going to assume that either Dinky wasn’t on the scene there or Dinky was rather unhappy at that stage because he had 15.

Dave Dye (01:08:05):
I didn’t have a horse at that time.

Leigh Chalker (01:08:08):
I didn’t have

Dave Dye (01:08:08):
Anyone me to worry about

Leigh Chalker (01:08:11):
Me and my lovely

Dave Dye (01:08:11):
Wife.

Leigh Chalker (01:08:13):
Yeah, mate, that’s a lot of work. Did you just research out of books or did you go and do some travelling and go to

Dave Dye (01:08:23):
Yeah, I went over to Turkey twice. Went over there twice. First time I was actually, first time I went over there was when I was in the Army still, I was in Iraq and we got leave. We got two weeks leave while we were over there, over there for six months. In the middle of it, they give you two weeks off to go. A lot of blokes had the opportunity to go home and others went to Europe or travelled around while they were over in that area and I thought, well, I’m over in Europe or basically Europe’s just over there, not far away. It’s the closest I’ve ever been. It was actually the first time I’d ever been outside of Australia. So I thought I’m going to go to Europe while I got a chance. So I had a look around London and then ducked over to Istanbul and went to Gallipoli and had a three or four days, quick look around the peninsula, then Anzac Cove, et cetera. Then actually it was before I got out of the Army as well. In September, 2010 I think it was, went back a second time and I spent a full week in Anzac Cove. I stayed at Chana Lee, which is a little town no Jay about I stayed at, which is just about eight kilometres from the cove, and I got a little scooter and I just ran in and went backward and forward when I wanted, and I spent a whole week on the peninsula there. That was great. And

Leigh Chalker (01:10:04):
That was just also to get the lay of the land so you could get a visualisation of what you were putting down to make it more accurate.

Dave Dye (01:10:12):
Yeah, yeah. I took photos from here thinking, okay, this is looking up, I’ll be able to, when I draw the fellas landing at the beach, I can draw this and this will be the background that they saw. And it hasn’t changed. The actual coves changed a little bit. They’ve got a road running around there now, but a lot of the scenery is, it’s untouched. It’s just a lot of bushes growing back now. And when they landed, of course it was all native bush and stuff there. So it’s what there is there now. Only after you see the photographs of Gallipoli, Anzac and that, and there’s no trees in that. They’ve all been blown to shit. They’ve all been blown away. Away. When it’s in its now you’ve natural condition, which is how it was when they landed. There’s a lot of scrub in that there.

Leigh Chalker (01:11:12):
Did you have a drawing pad with you that week made as well. Yep,

Dave Dye (01:11:17):
Yep.

Leigh Chalker (01:11:17):
Took, have you ever released any of those sketches

Dave Dye (01:11:23):
From

Leigh Chalker (01:11:23):
The originals?

Dave Dye (01:11:25):
No, no, no. I took mostly photos, but I did take a few sketches because it was just a lot easier to take a photo and move on because there’s so many places I wanted to go to. And there still, I’d like to go back if I did do volume two, which I’ve always, I’ve told a lot of people I’m going to do volume two, I’d have to do another trip back to go spend more time around Ula Bay and also the way the Kiwis went up, Roton Ridge, et cetera, which leads ’em up to Hill 9 7 1 and up the back there. I haven’t been up there and I’d like to walk up there and experience that and take some photographs, et cetera of that. And that story is a great story to tell if you ever get a chance to read about the New Zealanders attack on Hill, the not 9 7 1, but the one just before it, I just can’t remember the name now, mental blank. That is a great story of what the Kiwis did there. They kicked the Turks off and then actually got shelled by their own battleships, British Navy Sheldon. They had to retreat back off the crest and then the Turks took it back and all sort. It’s great story mate and incredible what those blokes did.

Leigh Chalker (01:12:55):
One of the great courage indeed, mate, it’s different. Yeah, it’s very courageous stuff and a huge moment in history, mate.

Dave Dye (01:13:10):
Yeah. When you get there and you actually, if you ever go there, you walk over the terrain, you get a real feeling for get off the track, go down, walk down a couple of those gullies, you understand what those blokes had to put up with because some of ’em are like this and they’re down and then up on the other side and getting shot at the same time and it was a hard job.

Leigh Chalker (01:13:35):
Yeah, I could imagine there’d be a heavy veil hanging over that part of the world too, mate, that you would’ve felt the first day you got there.

Dave Dye (01:13:46):
Yeah, I get a bit focused sometimes. I think the only time I sort of got a bit like that was when I walked through the cemeteries. When you walk through the cemeteries and you’re looking at all the names of the

Leigh Chalker (01:14:11):
Yeah. All those young fellas you’ve done well mate, doing that story, I can see it still resonates with you.

Dave Dye (01:14:25):
Yeah. When you That’s what I kept away from them. I had a walk through ’em, but if you focus on the job at hand, you could do that and you just pay your respects. I

Leigh Chalker (01:14:48):
Mate, I would say that’s, from what I’ve seen and read of your work mate and seeing how passionate you are about it right now, I would say that you probably paid your highest respects from passing on that story to people that have read that comic book. And look, that’s the beauty of comic books mate, being able to tell stories and pass on this info and letting those people live on, mate, I reckon you Well man, you’re blowing me out man. You really, I’m like all emotional with you here brother. It’s like, no, I love you Dave, man. Wow, that’s really beautiful mate. Yeah,

Dave Dye (01:15:35):
It just gets to me when I start talking, talking about, that’s tough.

Leigh Chalker (01:15:43):
Yeah, that’s all right. Alright, well we’ll have a breather and we’ll move you on.

Dave Dye (01:15:48):
Let’s talk,

Leigh Chalker (01:15:50):
Yeah, we’ll move you on to something a bit different mate. We’ll move you on to let’s go with your collaborations with Mr. Roger Stits, who you’ve done of now. Now I’m hoping it was indeed Danny. I’m certainly hoping mate, that if Roger’s listening at some point in the future that he’s interested in a chinwag because that’d be a great honour to get him on too. But mate, whereabouts did you come across Roger and what was the initial agreement to start doing comics with him, mate, because you’ve done a few.

Dave Dye (01:16:34):
Yeah, Roger, he wrote a story for cut Down. He wrote Cut down for a film. It was a film script and he wanted to make a comic out of it and he approached a number of people to do that and he couldn’t find anyone who would take it on. And he was looking through, I think he went to home cooked comic show in Melbourne there because he’s a Melbourne and he saw someone selling a copy of My Amazing Tales, number one, and he had a look through that and he said, oh, who’s this? And bloke, I don’t think he bought it off him, but he got the name contact deals out of it, details. So Roger’s sort of in a situation, he’s a retired teacher and that sort of thing, so he’s got to count his pennies a bit. So he’s bit frugal how he spends his money, I think.

(01:17:46)
And anyway, he got my contact details and he contacted me and said, if I asked me if I’d be interested in reading the script, and he told me the background of it that I’ve already told you. And so I read it and I said, yeah, that’s a bloody good story. I like that. And I’m surprised no one will illustrate it for you. I guess the reason is because it’s not about superheroes and that sort of thing is why you couldn’t get anyone to illustrate it, but it’s a bloody good story, mate. Yeah, I’ll illustrate. So I’ll illustrate it and the rest we put it out together.

Leigh Chalker (01:18:24):
Yep. Because I’m glad you didn’t stop because last year one of the Covid Dave Die comics that I was reading was Time Fault and Extreme Time stories. They’re tricky. They are a lot trickier than what you think. I’ve thought about a few and couldn’t ultimately get it myself, so left them go. But Roger’s writing and story on that was awesome. Your artwork, man. Beautiful. Just for anyone watching at home that doesn’t know, look, I love art all facets of it, but black and white traditional artwork for me is a thing of it’s a one and it’s very difficult as anyone that does it knows one line can totally ruin 20 or 30 hours of drawing very quickly if you’re not concentrating and you’re not with it. And man, there’s some, your black and white artwork in that comic in particular is absolutely on point to me, man, I have gone over that book dozens of times.

(01:20:02)
Dave is a legend. That’s why. And yeah, no, look, I’ve read that three or four times, man, and looked at your artwork more, but that was actually, and I don’t do competitions and I don’t do someone’s better than this, someone’s better than that. I’m pretty fair. All things I like encouragement and just seeing people do their thing. But that was the book from last year that really stuck out to me, mate. So I would recommend if anyone hasn’t read Time Fault to go out there and have a look at it because there’s an ongoing joke that Dave has a portal. We’re not quite sure how big the portal is behind the computer monitor because no one ever sees it. But whenever someone talks about a comic from any period, Dave seems to be able to reach into this compartmentalised parallel universe that he has in the back there and drag it out. So yes, but no man, I don’t think I’ve ever told you that, but I wanted to pass that on to you tonight. Thanks

Dave Dye (01:21:10):
Mate. I’ll let Roger know that too. I’ll pass it on to him. He’ll appreciate that bit of feedback.

Leigh Chalker (01:21:16):
Yeah, yeah, no, it was superb, man. Just a damn good story, mate. Yeah,

Dave Dye (01:21:20):
Well Roger’s a very good writer. Underappreciated too, probably.

Leigh Chalker (01:21:28):
Well, hopefully not because I certainly hope not because he’s a writer. All right, mate, I definitely agree with you there. So Dave, you’re doing this stuff and I guess because I’d had a dabble in Australian comic books in about 2011. My first publication was I was published in a Killer short story and then I disappeared off to do Battle for Bustle and Live and all that sort of stuff gets in the way and you slow down a bit. But I had managed, in my occasions of poking my head in like to see who was on festival lists or who was bringing out books, that sort of stuff. I had seen Dave die popping up quite a lot. So it was probably when X came together, it had been going for a little while. But the calendar, we’ve spoken about it before and the calendar was the first thing the Comex had done.

(01:22:38)
It had brought 18 Australian creators and characters and artists and stuff together. And when it was launched on Kickstarter, there was dual advertisements, like one artist’s image and for their month was advertised with another artist and their month and stuff too. Now I’m not sure whether these things were random or they were planned, I dunno, but the answers to these things escape me or no one’s ever told me. So either way I’m out of the loop. But anyway, moving on. One of the coolest things, and actually I would probably say that coolest thing at the time was seeing the advertisement that morning for the first time and noticing that I was being advertised with you mate as That’s right,

Dave Dye (01:23:35):
Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (01:23:37):
I remember sitting there at that moment and going like, wow, that’s really cool. There’s my stuff next to Dave dies stuff. So that was a really surreal moment, man. Destiny, there you go. Life is a funny old thing. And then I guess, mate, we started delving into or getting more and more involved in X over the last few years with the Friday night drink in drawers and getting, I guess a lot more familiar with live streaming and podcasting and stuff. And I guess what I want to ask you man, is from your time previous and experiences to when, because I know you’re an avid lover of the community and stuff, you’re always there. You’re a huge part of it. Massive part of it man. What has your thoughts and feelings been towards X Mate since it started and your involvement?

Dave Dye (01:24:53):
Yeah. Well X was the thing that I was looking for for ump years, well, since I got out of the Army and started doing the comics. The comics community with Sizzle and Kerry and yourself, you’re a big part of it, you and Spie. It was what I was looking for the whole time I joined the Australian Cartoonist Association and it’s quite good, but it’s different and you only get together once a year for them. I live out here in the sticks in the big cities. They have a get together every month or something, the Australian Cartoonist Association, but it’s no good for me. But this, and especially with these meetings that we have the drink and draw Friday nights, our little chats and that afterwards. And that’s something I look forward to every week. I really enjoyed it. It’s something that I’ve really been looking for since I started doing the cartoon and the comics, so I get a lot out of it. It’s done a lot for me. Really appreciate it.

Leigh Chalker (01:26:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, mate, I’m pretty sure I can speak for everyone. Community is Unity Kerry. Yeah, mate. And I’m pretty sure I can speak for everyone saying that, man, we have learned heaps from you mate, man. Honestly, I I’ve always thought you’ve represented yourself truthfully and as yourself, man, every time I’ve seen you. But I’m like, now I’m getting emotional mate because mate, dude, what I thought and I just reinforced for me what I’d already thought about you as a creator and a bloke mate and yeah, no, here we are says is the brains Dave as the heart. So

(01:27:17)
I know it sounds really know strange to a certain extent on top of that, but I would 100% agree with Dave with I feel the same way about the community and hopefully with what you’ve seen tonight, there’s a genuine love, genuine appreciation and respect for everyone to feel exactly how they need to feel when they’re talking about what they’re passionate about with the Comex guys. And it’s a place to learn. It’s a place to talk, it’s a place to make friends. It’s a place to build comradery and make, as I start winding it down, I’m just going to say what an absolute honour it was tonight, man. No, honestly man, you have fully just blown me out dude. My heart’s beating, man. I’m trying hard.

Dave Dye (01:28:30):
You keep it beating mate. We don’t want to stop it.

Leigh Chalker (01:28:33):
No, mate. You might have to take over the show in a minute and bring it home. It might be on the desk. It’s like wow. But anyway, alright, as we start winding down,

Dave Dye (01:28:45):
Can I do something before you wind and wind up? I just, I’ve got some things here. I wanted to show you things that I haven’t had a chance to show anybody because they just sit my hands. Let us

Leigh Chalker (01:28:56):
Keep going. Your floor is yours mate. The floor is all yours. Just

Dave Dye (01:29:00):
Quickly, I used to do sculptures and stuff, so this is a sculpture that I did years ago. This is a slave. It is probably hard to make out his features there. So that is, I’ve got a couple of sculptures, they’re out in the garden just sitting around out there in the weather. But that’s all they’re good for. Really. This is a painting that you might,

Leigh Chalker (01:29:34):
That’s out in the garden. There’s Dave die, statues out in the garden. That’s all they’re good for. Get out of here man. Bring them inside. Whatcha doing? Give them to me.

Dave Dye (01:29:47):
You like Iver? He mate.

Leigh Chalker (01:29:50):
I do mate. I’m a huge fan of Iver.

Dave Dye (01:29:53):
Yeah, well he’s the inspiration.

Leigh Chalker (01:29:55):
He’s everywhere man. Unbelievable. Dave, we’ve got a comment here from Richo mate. I first met Dave at the Adelaide Comic and Toy Fair, a humble man along with many others who convinced me to get back into comics. Me and my dad love your stuff.

Dave Dye (01:30:12):
Good on you. Thanks mate. Appreciate that.

Leigh Chalker (01:30:15):
Thank you very much for the previous comment as well.

Dave Dye (01:30:18):
Yeah, these are oil paintings of course.

Leigh Chalker (01:30:27):
Yeah man,

Dave Dye (01:30:29):
These are sort of those ones. My dream of being like Iver Hillel. Then I’ve got me dream of being like Arthur Streeton or Frederick McCubbin. I paint these there

Leigh Chalker (01:30:44):
Any hiding these days. Is there a secondary portal full of all your artwork? Please don’t tell me that you are keeping your artwork in a box in the shed, mate.

Dave Dye (01:30:57):
There’s the Adelaide Hills. I painted that. That was one morning out near Woodside. Beautiful frosty morning that was, I remember painting that one. And

Leigh Chalker (01:31:11):
Have you ever

Dave Dye (01:31:14):
This one here mate?

Leigh Chalker (01:31:18):
Man,

Dave Dye (01:31:21):
That’s called the Giant Killers.

Leigh Chalker (01:31:23):
Yeah, that’s dude standing on their saw. Yeah.

Dave Dye (01:31:29):
Yeah. These oil paintings. That’s me. Oil.

Leigh Chalker (01:31:37):
Show ’em all. Dave put ’em all up.

Dave Dye (01:31:40):
That’s enough.

Leigh Chalker (01:31:42):
Oh, stop it. It’s never enough.

Dave Dye (01:31:44):
And then the other thing I’d do is caricatures family. That’s a family. These are workmates. When I was in the army got here, here’s one of the old padre, he was getting posted to Bible bashing Skype, pilot, some Bible bashing. So yeah, that’s another thing. I’ve got a bit of variety, bit different skills that I like to indulge in.

Leigh Chalker (01:32:27):
Mate, you blow my mind, man. Unbelievable. No, no, you do mate, because unbelievable. And Ben Sullivan. Dave’s Beowulf was excellent.

Dave Dye (01:32:43):
Is that the one you had to buy, Ben, because you spilled the coffee on it?

Leigh Chalker (01:32:51):
I, that’s a pretty good deal, man. So for a spillage of some coffee, Dave,

Dave Dye (01:32:57):
I think he’s worried I might’ve set him up. No

Leigh Chalker (01:33:05):
Goodday. William. Dave, my favourite question prompt and the reason why I decided this time around man, this was going to be the last one. The last question of the lot is because it’s always an individual answer to the creator and the person that does this stuff. Why do you do it to yourself?

Dave Dye (01:33:34):
Why? Because I love it mate. Because I love it. It’s great

Leigh Chalker (01:33:41):
Indeed.

Dave Dye (01:33:43):
I love it. And I enjoy writing stories and I enjoy drawing and creating art, creating anything. I like creating anything, actually anything creative is enjoyable. But my thing is comics and storytelling. So that’s why I do it. It’s pretty busy.

Leigh Chalker (01:34:07):
Have you found that creativity has helped you through an awful lot of experiences in your life mate and been a good thing?

Dave Dye (01:34:17):
I dunno, I’ve never looked at it like that. I’ve never looked at it like that. I think it’s just something I do. It’s a bit like breathing. It’s something you’ve got to do. You know what it’s like if you haven’t done it for a while. I put down a, I said a couple of years ago, I’m not doing anymore comics. There’s nothing in it for me. I’m not getting any enjoyment out of it and blah blah blah. There’s other things I could be doing. So I put my pen down for a few months but then picked it up again.

Leigh Chalker (01:34:52):
They chew away at you. Hey, they chew away at you when you don’t do it for a long time. My mom knows me to the point where throughout my whole life, if I’m not drawing for an extended period of time, she’s automatically alerted to there’s something going on or there’s some loss is happening with Lee. Yeah, she was talking the other day, we were just having a conversation about all those old comic books that I used to do when I was a kid and we were just talking and having a laugh about that and couldn’t keep a pen out of my hand and stuff, mate. You know what I mean? And it’s just one of those things, man. But I’m a hundred percent with you. But Dave, mate, I love you man. I really do. No, tonight, no, I’m not even saying that jokingly, mate. Dude, if you were here right now, I’d hug you man.

Dave Dye (01:36:02):
Thanks. I’m embarrassing about that.

Leigh Chalker (01:36:05):
No, you should certainly not be Dave. Absolutely not. Don’t ever be embarrassed, man, about that respect, man. Respect to everyone out there that’s watched this evening. Thank you very much. It’s been a pleasure this evening. My pleasure. I really, man, blown out. I completely lack of words man, for what I’ve just experienced tonight. It’s unbelievable. I might race from Townsville to Melbourne to tackle that dude, man. Yeah, watch out. Might have to get physical. Alright, so back onto business for a little while. I’m just going to try and cap the emotion for a tick.

(01:37:07)
I just want to let you know that now, don’t forget to like and subscribe the channel so it helps out all the algorithms and stuff like that and all those spacey things that people understand more than I do. And as you like and subscribe these things, you can meet creators and people involved in the Australian comic book community as you just did Dave tonight. And if there was anyone out there that could represent the Australian comic book community, I would say Dave is the perfect representation mate. So thank you very much. Friday night drink and draw episode 91 is my understanding. So this Friday night is sizzle and sped and Nick and that topic is vampires. Now if you want to get a second dose of Dave, he’s there every Friday night and he is flying his wares and he has a camera above his artwork. As he’s doing them, he is showing you a master artist man, as you can see while painting the sculptures and stuff is showing you right there and then on how to do things. It might give you some ideas, it might help you out. You can even throw in the line and ask him a question, mate, you’ve seen more person. He is and he loves that sort of stuff.

Dave Dye (01:38:34):
Quite happy. If anyone wants any help with anything or has any questions about anything, I’m more than happy to respond to anyone. Just send me an email or a message.

Leigh Chalker (01:38:47):
Now. There you go. Straight out of the horse’s mouth so you don’t have to listen to me. Confirmed by the man himself. Now I guess next week I have part two of another special individual to me. Mr. Gary Shaer is on the show next week coming back to have a yarn, few announcements and stuff. And I haven’t seen Gary for a while and I’m looking very much forward to seeing him and having a talk. Now these shows are brought together by the comic studio. So Shane and Kerry put a lot of effort in to put this, well be part of the community and open up these avenues for people to be part of it and to learn and just be part of it. And if you’re sitting at home and you’re nervous, don’t be nervous. We were all nervous. We all started off, believe me, we were all sitting at home before that first live stream Friday night drink and draw going.

(01:40:00)
I don’t know any of these people. Who the hell is this? I’m by myself. And then in later times you find out that sped, he actually had me in the crosshairs because we were all competition. So luckily sped, he’s tempered down that side of himself and humour has come to the fore. But look, in all honesty, I would’ve to say that the reason I do choose Dave Chinwag and the reason that I love being part of this community is exactly for what Dave has represented tonight. Exactly the best way. I can’t articulate it any other way than that. So, all right, I guess I’ll see you next Tuesday. Be kind to people, look after ’em. You never know what people are going through and sometimes just a smile can help ’em out of a huge situation. So be good. Look after each other and remember, community is unity.

Dave Dye (01:41:09):
Well said mate. Cheers,

Leigh Chalker (01:41:11):
See you, dad. This

Voice Over (01:41:12):
Show is sponsored by the Comex Shop. Check out comex.cx for all things Comex and find out what Comex is all about. We hope you enjoyed the show.