Jason Paulos

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

Leigh Chalker (00:00:25):
All right, good day. Welcome to Tuesday Chinwag episode 18. First one for 2023. I’m in my new uniform. Very happy about that. Now, little Lee, once upon a time in June, 1991, first came across my next guest in this comic book here, and it was quite taken by your artwork mate, and it’s a great pleasure for me to meet you today. So welcome all to Mr. Jason Paulos. How are you sir?

Jason Paulos (00:01:07):
I’m very well, thank you.

Leigh Chalker (00:01:09):
Thank you. That’s good to hear. So we’ve had a fun start to the morning. Lots of laughs, few tears. It’s been a lovely day. Drizzling here in Townsville, so can’t complain about these things. Now the show, for anyone that’s hasn’t seen the show and is going to be watching it at home based on why and how, look, to be honest with you, sometimes we don’t even make it past who, cuz the narratives just veer off into many different directions. But it’s a great pleasure to kickstart the show and the year with Jason. So mate, I’m just going to get straight into it. Jason, who are you mate?

Jason Paulos (00:01:57):
Indeed I don’t know. <laugh> man. And I’ll do stupid things and there’s no real logical reason for why I do the things I do.

Leigh Chalker (00:02:14):
Yeah. So you like living on the edge?

Jason Paulos (00:02:19):
No, no. That’s the thing. I just dunno any better. And I just never stopped doing the same things that I wanted to do when I was a kid.

Leigh Chalker (00:02:32):
That’s a lucky thing. You’re still doing them.

Jason Paulos (00:02:36):
No, it’s a stupid thing because if I had any sense I would’ve given it up and tried something that was more successful. But there’s nothing else I really can do.

Leigh Chalker (00:02:49):
Yeah. Well when did you start drawing? What was the thing then?

Jason Paulos (00:02:58):
Well, I was talking to my mom yesterday who’s 84 and I said, mom, I’ve been doing this for a long time, blah, blah blah. I started when I was five and she goes, you started before that.

Leigh Chalker (00:03:13):
Are you an only child or you got brothers and sisters?

Jason Paulos (00:03:16):
Two older brothers.

Leigh Chalker (00:03:19):
Right? Lots older. They were the sporty type. You were the arty type or Little

Jason Paulos (00:03:24):
Bit. A little bit, yeah, A little bit like that, yeah.

Leigh Chalker (00:03:27):
Yeah. Right. So now from, you can obviously correct me, but I’m assuming your New South Wales boy natural born and bred from a big, where are you from?

Jason Paulos (00:03:40):
No, I grew up in Brisbane and I moved to Sydney after I left art college when I was like 17, 18. My mum reckon it wasn’t when I was 17, but I think it was. I mean I went to grade 12. So how old were you when you finished grade 12?

Leigh Chalker (00:04:03):
About 17,

Jason Paulos (00:04:04):
Maybe it was 18. She’s probably right.

Leigh Chalker (00:04:07):
Yeah.

Jason Paulos (00:04:08):
Yeah. I just moved here on a whim. I had no money. I came here on a Greyhound bus. It was kind of a crazy thing to do at that age, but I just felt Brisbane was kind of like a prison. I didn’t feel like I belonged there and there was nothing, I had nothing going for me there. I didn’t feel like there was a future for me there. I mean, there wasn’t one for me in Sydney either, but I had a girl girlfriend that moved here and said, why don’t you come down and move and live just in Sydney with me? Sure, why not? So I stayed.

Leigh Chalker (00:04:48):
Yeah. So you came down with the plans of pursuing an artistic career mate, or you had your mind set on other things at that point?

Jason Paulos (00:04:59):
No, no. I went to art college. I’d already started drawing comic books when I was a little kid. And by the time I got to art college, I’d already made plans to do the hair but comic. And in fact, I started drawing it in Brisbane when I was in art college. And people who remember me from there would remember me working on that first series of hair butt comics before I met Bo. And I brought those plans sketches to Sydney where I published the mini comic hair buts. I did four of those and I wrote those and created all the main characters except for Tuts in that first four issue, which you could buy at King’s comics of Comic Kingdom in 19 89, 19 90 in Sydney where I started working as a graphic designer.

Leigh Chalker (00:06:04):
Yeah, so hair, but hair is the first. That was, how long were you working on that? Was that an idea that popped in your head one day when you were younger or what was the fermentation of hair, but because it’s become quite an iconic Australian character,

Jason Paulos (00:06:25):
I had a dream when I was going through college around about that age. So what am I 17? I had a dream. I was in a department store and I for some reason got calls to the manager’s office and as the manager was getting angry at me, oh God knows why, it just made notes. There was this polished wooden sculpture of this hippo head and it started moving and talking in the dream. And I woke up and that image on the first cover with the head on the side kind of smiling, that was from the dream.

(00:07:11):
I don’t know why it came to me as a piece of wood. I mean it’s just makes no sense. But then I drew that down as the cover. And then the title Jung isn’t d P’s my brother or Jung isn’t DP My brother, which was the first hair but story I wrote. The first story wasn’t the Origin story, Bo wrote that later. The first story that I wrote, which introduced here. But Rocky, Byron and Fabian Stringfellow and Grunt, who were the first baddies the story title Yung is Deep. My brother was graffiti on the toilet wall at the art college I went to in Brisbane, Queensland College of Art when it was campus. And that made me laugh. Yung isn’t dp, he’s my brother. I knew about the song, he Ain’t Heavy. He’s my brother.

Leigh Chalker (00:08:05):
Yeah. And

Jason Paulos (00:08:06):
It just was just such a weird thing to write on a toilet wall. And that was the name of the story.

Leigh Chalker (00:08:16):
Oh yeah. So was that, you kept that in your memory. That was it. That image, that title was like, boom, this is what I

Jason Paulos (00:08:28):
Was away off. And

Leigh Chalker (00:08:29):
Then ker, you’re off and running. That’s

Jason Paulos (00:08:32):
It. That was all I needed. So when I was a young kid, used to my dream was to have a daily comic strip in the newspaper cuz I love Crock and Wizard of IED and BC on the Rocks and all those American gag strips. And really my goal was really to come up with a character that I could do get in the newspapers, the three panel G Strip. That was my dream when I was a really young kid, but I could never come up with a decent character. In fact, I don’t think I even put pen to paper for a daily strip. But I’d practiced drawing comic books in my spare time as a kid.

(00:09:21):
And then when the hair but character popped into my head, I thought, well that that’s good enough. I’ll just go with that. Because I just really wanted to have my own character. I thought that’s what you were supposed to do. I thought that’s what everyone did, created a character. But later I realized that people were quite happy to just want to be that artist on Batman and stand in a queue at a convention and have an endless portfolio reviews. And I didn’t have a career in mind. I just thought that the ultimate artist was a creator, not a technician. Where you had ideas, you wrote stories, you drew the stories, and you did everything, which is what the gag strip guys did. So I didn’t really understand the comic book industry at all. I didn’t understand Well wasn’t one here and there still isn’t really.

Leigh Chalker (00:10:16):
Yeah, yeah.

Jason Paulos (00:10:19):
How

Leigh Chalker (00:10:19):
Did you decide on the mini comics side of here but,

Jason Paulos (00:10:24):
Well, I must have seen some, but the only one I can remember at King’s Comics was Electric Ferret by Jared Ashworth. But it wasn’t stapled properly. He just stapled it with one staple in the corner, <laugh>, get a bunch of a four s and just staple it down the side and you’d cut your fingers on the staples at the back.

(00:10:44):
But I thought, well won’t be that hard to fold it and staple it down the middle, the proper little booklet thing. And as far as I know, mine was the only mini comic apart from his that was on sale in 1989 that was stapled properly. And then, well I’ll do a little editorial page at work cuz I was a graphic designer so I could do type setting and I could get free laser prints and photocopies. And I ran ’em off at work and took them to comics, kingdom and King’s Comics and sold ’em for a dollar.

Leigh Chalker (00:11:20):
And you’re on your way.

Jason Paulos (00:11:22):
Yeah. And over the next five or 10 years, lots of mini comics started appearing through the nineties. Yeah. Soon there. Stack of mini comics there.

Leigh Chalker (00:11:33):
Well you must

Jason Paulos (00:11:36):
Was the first cuz Jared was the first. Yeah. But no one else was stapling it properly. He wasn’t stapling it properly. So one was the comic that was actually saddle stitched, like a proper, a little booklet.

Leigh Chalker (00:11:52):
Yeah. So you must have always had a love of minis because I’ve noticed in the last week or so, mate, that you’ve produced another mini comic that you’ve had up on Facebook and stuff. So what brought you back to that was, has it been a while since you did a mini, you just had, I’m going back to mini’s for a bit. Is it what you were saying? You, you’re just doing whatever comes natural to

Jason Paulos (00:12:21):
You. Yep. I looked into Kickstarter and I did an e Kickstarter, which sorry, a hair but Kickstarter with all the mad stuff.

Leigh Chalker (00:12:31):
And that

Jason Paulos (00:12:31):
Went well. But I ended up with a pile of books that I couldn’t sell and I planned to do another one with all the unpublished eek stuff that’s left over from the second trade paper back, which never happened. And it was just sitting around and sitting around and I prepared a kickstart, a campaign. I pretty much just had to green light that and just press the button. But I just couldn’t face the online hustle that you had to do go through to get it going. I don’t like being in front of a computer. I’m in front of a computer enough to produce artwork. And I look for reasons not to be in front of a computer these days. Cause I want to be mentally well and I want to be healthy. I don’t want to be tied to a screen for one second longer than I have to be. Cuz I’ve had a long career as a graphic designer. And I’d come home at night and I’d draw comics at night for hours. I was super focused, super hardworking. But I had a job all the time. I did all that stuff. I wasn’t doing it for a living.

(00:13:49):
Now I’m in a situation where I don’t have a day job. I don’t need to have a day job and I can get up in the morning when everyone else is on the way to work and I can think about what I’m going to do. And at the moment, mini comics, which I just can print myself on my laser printer,

(00:14:08):
It just seemed like the perfect no stress alternative where people, if they want it, they can get it straight from me. I don’t have to drink tons and tons of them that align around forever. Boxes getting moldy. It just seems like a bare bones, easy, low stress and I can put out what I want and I don’t have to worry about color. I don’t have to worry about all the pre-press production stuff. Which quite honestly I’ve just got zero patience for I at the moment. I’m happy to do the work cuz I enjoy the work. But that’s about all I enjoy. I don’t enjoy the hustling. I just won’t hustle, refuse to hustle anymore.

Leigh Chalker (00:14:59):
Yeah, no that’s fair enough. What turned you off the hustle? Just the,

Jason Paulos (00:15:05):
It’s complete. Just hitting yourself against a brick wall every fucking time and just the general apathy of your average comic. Yep. Fan.

Leigh Chalker (00:15:14):
Yep.

Jason Paulos (00:15:14):
You know what I mean? You’ve been to conventions and you sit there at your table and you see all these people walking past all day and it gets depressing. You know, just say, well why am I bothering doing this? But my reason for doing it now is because I’m good at it. I’ve been doing it for a long time and that’s worth something to me. The fact that, yeah, it’s not many things in life where you can do something better than other people.

Leigh Chalker (00:15:49):
Yeah,

Jason Paulos (00:15:49):
That’s a pretty sort of precious thing to me. That I’ve got a background and a body of work that’s all mine. I own all of it. It’s worth nothing, but I own all of it and that’s meaningful to me. And I guess if I’d gone down the route of moving to America, going to conventions or whatever and queuing up, maybe I could have got a job inking transformers or something and done that for years. But I’m glad I didn’t.

Leigh Chalker (00:16:27):
You’re obviously proud of the fact

Jason Paulos (00:16:32):
The idea of creative ownership is something that not many people have.

Leigh Chalker (00:16:39):
Yeah,

(00:16:41):
No. Well that’s where I was getting to cuz you’ve seen I mate since as I said to you, I mean this is 1991, I would’ve been about 14 or 15 when I grabbed that offer a news agent shelf and saw your artwork. And it’s the biggest compliment that I can give another creator, just from my personal thing, this is what I look at is I don’t even have to see your name in the credits to know that’s Jason Paulos artwork. You know what I mean? Picture a mile away. So really your art style I guess is, it’s unique you, you know what I mean? Which is I think, I mean I know for me that’s what I’ve, I’ve chased with trying to improve my artwork is finding my voice. So you’ve got your voice there man. What brought you to this after your hair butt minis and stuff, how did you come to the Dark Nebula and Tad P and Southern Squadron and stuff back in the day?

Jason Paulos (00:18:00):
Well, when I moved to Sydney, I immediately started looking up the cyclone guys cuz I thought that was my career model. I thought, well I’m in Sydney, I can try and meet these guys. And as far as I knew, they were all doing comics for a living and that was partly true. Gary was a graphic designer living in Chippendale. He was doing travel brochures and graphic design like me except he was working for his himself. So he had a schedule which allowed him to do cyclone and the other cyclone guys would come to his house, Dave would go to his house. So I met Dave and Gary’s place. I wrote Boin a letter cuz I bought side and the rock on the New stance in Darlinghurst or something, which is where I lived. He lived around the corner.

Leigh Chalker (00:18:55):
Yeah,

Jason Paulos (00:18:56):
I was so excited. I thought, wow, I’m right in the thick of it in Sydney. Whereas Brisbane, there wasn’t really a comic scene to speak of that I knew about there

Leigh Chalker (00:19:09):
Though

Jason Paulos (00:19:09):
I’d already, when I was a kid, I’d go and visit Ian Gould’s comic shop in Rome Street in Brisbane when I was 10. And I’d hang around there with my drawings and I’d annoy him cause I had no money, hang around there and annoy him. And eventually after a few years he enlisted me to draw his superhero comic called the Liberators, which was a homegrown justice league type thing. And I drew an issue with that. I penciled it and another guy inked some of it. And as far as I knew, we were one of the only self-published books in Brisbane at the time. And in any case, several years later I was in Sydney and I was hanging around the cyclone guys and they were on the edge of imploding and ending then, cuz I didn’t really understand the economics of it and how hard it was to have a normal life and then do this as well. But I was always fine with working two jobs. So I just thought, well comics will be my second job till it starts paying and it never did. So I got stuck in graphic design for 25 years doing brochures and annual reports and stuff

(00:20:42):
And sort of hated it the whole time. And now I guess I’m in a situation where, and then I went, then I started freelancing, doing storyboards

Leigh Chalker (00:20:55):
For

Jason Paulos (00:20:55):
Ads for the drawing book agency in Sydney. But that all died in the ass about 10 years ago cause of the internet. And then by that time I’d moved to the Blue Mountains, which are in black heat, which is where I live now. I built this studio myself. And I’m sort of scraping by doing freelance art, freelance art jobs. This, I don’t do a lot of this kind of stuff, but that’s for a travel the blue man that kind of,

Leigh Chalker (00:21:37):
Yep.

Jason Paulos (00:21:39):
So I do sort of have a commercial comic style and other stuff like that. I just did. Sky’s cabin library.

Leigh Chalker (00:21:50):
Yes.

Jason Paulos (00:21:51):
For Peter and I get a phantom work, thank goodness. So

Leigh Chalker (00:22:10):
Like you say, you’re chipping away mate. You, you’ve always been chipping away.

Jason Paulos (00:22:14):
Yeah. Plug away. My mom says you’re plugging away Jess.

Leigh Chalker (00:22:18):
Yeah, yeah.

Jason Paulos (00:22:20):
Someone’s gotta do. Someone’s gotta be me and be the guy that keeps doing it and keeps doing it. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (00:22:27):
Is it quite most

Jason Paulos (00:22:28):
People quit, most sensible people quit

Leigh Chalker (00:22:32):
Particularly

Jason Paulos (00:22:32):
In their twenties cuz they get a partner, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, and they stop because they’ve suddenly got a life. Now I always manage to do both at my own personal detriment I might add.

Leigh Chalker (00:22:46):
Yeah, I take it it’s a compulsion for you mate. It’s just something you’ve always needed to do is to just keep drawing and stuff.

Jason Paulos (00:22:54):
Yeah. More so now than ever because I’m finding being in my fifties is pretty brutal. Yeah. I don’t know, it seems like the toughest time for reasons and having something that that’s yours that you can own and that other people can’t do is a big deal. And same, I’ve got a couple of bands and I record music and we muck around writing songs and stuff and yeah, I’m grateful that I’ve got the time to devote to that. Whereas I guess a lot of people are probably still doing their nine to five.

Leigh Chalker (00:23:44):
So you’re fully, I guess you’re immersed in your art mate whether it is drawing and music as well. So

Jason Paulos (00:23:53):
If I can keep getting away with it, I’m going to keep getting away with it.

Leigh Chalker (00:23:58):
Yeah.

Jason Paulos (00:24:00):
What I don’t take for granted and if I had to get a nine to five kind of thing, I’d obviously have to do that cause I’ve got a family, I’ve got three kids to feed and stuff, but there’s no nine to fives up here in black Heath that doesn’t exist up here. So you just have to make it work. I can’t go back to Sydney, it’s too expensive. I fled Sydney about 10 years ago cuz I was in debt. So it was a real struggle to get here. But once I got here I realized, hey I don’t have to struggle anymore cause I’m not living in Sydney.

Leigh Chalker (00:24:40):
Yeah. Is it the community where you’re at? Is it artistically because it creative I guess flourishing or is just a lovely little small town where everyone’s relaxed and that helps you with your art and

Jason Paulos (00:25:04):
Yes and no. I mean you get a lot of weekend artists up here, weekend paint types. They build their studio in their leafy yard and they contemplate their Navs Navs and

Leigh Chalker (00:25:16):
<laugh>

Jason Paulos (00:25:17):
Splash a bit of paint around and they get it in a local gallery. But I don’t have friends like that. My friends are tour guides and ambulance workers and firemen and the sort of people you don’t meet in Sydney and they’re not sort of really into art and that. But yeah, I guess you get a lot of people who think I’m in the mountains now, I’m going to be an artist now as a lifestyle change. Whereas I’m sitting down and grinding out pages. And for me it’s kind of like a job. I’ve got a job mentality.

(00:26:02):
I start at nine in the morning and I’ll try and go all day. If I can get a couple of page done then that’s a good day’s work. But it’s more of a it’s not sort of a self-expression type thing. I want to tell a story and that’s hard. That’s hard. Mm-hmm Proper storytelling, it’s a grind. You’ve gotta churn the stuff out. You can’t sort of labor over stuff or I don’t like to. Yeah I try, but I’m always moving on to the next page trying to get the page count. Yeah. Because that’s supposed to

Leigh Chalker (00:26:48):
Man, you’re a beast with your artwork. I mean you are so productive. It blows my mind man, how much stuff you churn out. I I’m I’ve been reading for example, when I was a little kid and you could get all your comic books off at the news ages and stuff. Your one staple there man was the Phantom. So I’d always nothing new on the shelf. I’ll go and get the Phantom and things and it blew my mind man, when you started doing the Phantom because from this dude that I saw in 1991, suddenly getting and doing the Phantom and things like that and super original stories and stuff too. In that I imagine very structured, regimented, I suppose myth of that character. You’ve managed to maintain your identity with all of that. How did you come around to getting to the Phantom mate? What brought you to that?

Jason Paulos (00:28:06):
Back in the day when I’d publish Hair Butt, I’d go looking for supporters at comic shops. Yep. I try and enlist the comic shop owners to get behind the book and maybe book an ad. Back in the day, Stuart Hale from issue one said to me, you know, need to sell advertising to make some of your money back cuz you’re going to lose money publishing comics. And I’m like, oh God, really? Oh shit. So King’s Comics always took a back page ad and Phantoms zone at Parramatta run by Glen Ford would always take the inside back cover and thank God for that because that was a chunk of my printing bill, which I then could then invest in the next issue. And Glen, when he ran Fandom Zone was a really cool laid back dude, he’s an illustrator. I could really, we got along well and then when I found out that he bought free publications, so he went from being a freelance phantom artist doing covers and this and that for Jim Shepherd when he found out the license was up for sale cuz Jim Shepherd passed away, he bought it and I heard about this and I sent a phantom pin up to him just as a by way of, Hey, I heard the news this out and he printed it as a cover. And so that was an old relationship that was always a good one. That surfing would a good stead later on I could have never predicted that was going to happen, but that happened right at the end of story. The storyboard market dying cuz of the internet.

(00:29:51):
So art directors suddenly didn’t want to pay people like me to do storyboards for ads. And the industry was dying because people weren’t making as many TV ads anymore. Anyway, so that was my in main income. So the Phantom sort of stepped in and gave me a bit of semi-regular income. But the thing is, living up here, you don’t need, it’s not as expensive to live up here as it is in Sydney. And I couldn’t understand why all my mates were still in Sydney in jobs they didn’t like when they could sell their house and buy a house up here for cash. But Covid happened and then everyone did that 10 years later. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (00:30:37):
So

Jason Paulos (00:30:39):
I couldn’t have timed it better really.

Leigh Chalker (00:30:41):
Yeah. And how was it that morning that you sat down to start your first phantom page? How did you feel? Did you have to pinch yourself at that point? Did you have that little realization of, wow man, I’m about to go on this journey with the ghost two walks? What was that feeling like

Jason Paulos (00:31:08):
To me at the time because I’d already done a lot of staff, it was like, okay, this is another job. So I just treated it like any other job. I try and be mindful of the deadline. I try and beat the deadline if I can. I always try. And so if someone needs something in a week, I’ll say sure, but then I’ll deliver it in two or three days. And to me at first it was okay, this is another comic job, right? It was different to the other ones cuz I was aware that you had to get certain things which I didn’t get. I kept forgetting to put the rings on the hand and stuff. And I call up Glen and said, I’m really sorry about that cover, I forgot the rings. And he’d say, ah, that’s okay. The fans have to complain about something.

(00:32:10):
I think he quite liked the idea that the fans have got something to complain about because otherwise they’re going to complain about something else to him. And that sort of, and I thought, okay, well this is a good job. The deadlines are easy, your editor’s great, you’re just losing ’em alone. But at the end of the day, Phantom fans what they like and they’re divided in two camps. There’s a traditional ones and there’s the ones that want it to continue and progress. I definitely didn’t win any traditional fans cuz my stuff didn’t look like Cy Barry’s stuff. But no one does can draw like Cy Barry. There’s never going to be another Barry. And some of those stories through have reprinted nine times. So how many times can you reprint the sing pirates or stuff like that. So luckily Glen has supported local artists and he’s continuing to do that in the face of honestly some pretty harsh criticism because the traditionalists don’t want guys like me with my weird looking horror looking phantom skinny looking. I love Cy Barry, but I can’t, I’m not even going to try and draw likes. I’ve tried to draw Cy Barry. You can’t, cannot draw Cy Barry.

Leigh Chalker (00:33:39):
Well I think that’s where you have to, what we were just talking about before about identity and stuff too. Man, I’m not going to lie to you either. It’s, there’s been varying issues of the phantom that I’ve picked up and I’ve done the whole, I’ve read that before. I’m not just picking it up for the continuity of the numbers. Do you know what I mean? I’ll leave that this fortnight. But the next fortnight I come through and I go, oh something new. Something by a local Australian artist and stuff. Because I mean it’s good to see that there was the covers last year with the Australian female creators one of X’s great mates, Lauren Armstrong Marshall did a brilliant cover. Yes. Glen Lumsden man who, he’s a wicked artist coming through and he’s

Jason Paulos (00:34:46):
Like the Brian Boland of Australia

Leigh Chalker (00:34:49):
Man. Well

(00:34:52):
Yeah, no he’s good man. I spend a lot of time looking at those covers when he does things and those giant size ones. But yeah, no that’s cool man. Cuz I like the fact for me definitely I appreciate the traditional side and stuff too, but I like the guess the progression of the character and the art and the stories and stuff too. Man, I don’t think things should stay stale if you know what I mean. Maybe that’s too strong a word, but things moving forward’s a good thing man. Like a shark I guess. Man, stop swimming, it dies. So you gotta keep on moving. But no, that’s always wondered how you got into that cuz Yeah. But again, great character and stuff. So next thing I guess now you were, so you’ve gone from hair but you’ve done some dark nebular and things like that now you yet always, cuz I like the fact too, you’ve got that mentality.

(00:36:02):
If I’m writing it, I’m penciling it, I’m inking it, I’m learning on the spot, doing it all yourself cuz yeah, I like to have that idea too, man. That’s how I guess I got started up in Townsville. I, I’ve have any friends that are into comic books man. So I couldn’t sort of turn someone, I couldn’t turn to someone and go, man, this is a great story idea. You wanna write it? Yeah, I’ll draw it. It was okay I guess I’ll do it all. So yeah, you know sort of get stuck doing it. But babe it’s like people don’t like it, they don’t have to buy it Don. But I have fun doing it.

Jason Paulos (00:36:47):
Right.

Leigh Chalker (00:36:48):
Yes. I mean

Jason Paulos (00:36:49):
As much as I like playing music, the frustrating thing about that is what I want to play music, no one else is available.

Leigh Chalker (00:36:56):
Whereas

Jason Paulos (00:36:56):
Comics, if I want to do something I don’t have to wait for anybody to turn up or call me back or approve something. I can just go for it.

Leigh Chalker (00:37:07):
Yeah, well funny cuz you and I were having a yarn the other day organizing the show and just having a chat and we were having a laugh cuz she said, oh are you in a band too? And I laughed with you and was like, no, not at the moment but for many years when I was younger and that I used to play music cuz I guess creative you do when you come outta school. And that one of the things that I found incredibly frustrating man was trying to get four or five people into the one place at the one time to create magic. I guess in your mind my one was happening at that stage. I mean to me it was beautiful to everyone else. It was probably a shouting into a garbage bin, falling down some stairs or something, man, I dunno. And then, yeah, I just got to that point where it was just like, I found it easier I guess just to rely on myself if you know what I mean. I could control my output and what I wanted to do and things like that. So I get that. But did you ever find that with your music, does it conduce with your artwork? I guess you’d be listening to lots of music when you draw and I don’t assume you’re the sort of dude that’d sit in silence in your studio, are you?

Jason Paulos (00:38:40):
No.

Leigh Chalker (00:38:41):
No. So do you find your mood and what you’re drawing is dependent on the music that’s playing in the background?

Jason Paulos (00:38:51):
No though I would like to listen to music. I can work for hours in total silence, no problem at all. I don’t even notice sometimes. And to be honest, having to go to my screen and fast forward the ads or find a song that I like or a video I haven’t seen yet is getting to be more of a distraction. So that kind of stuff, I’ve never, I’ve never needed to anything to get me going because when I started I was a kid, I had no distractions. No, no alcohol or drugs or records or anything. You’re just in a room.

Leigh Chalker (00:39:40):
Yep.

Jason Paulos (00:39:41):
You’re not always happy either. You’re not always in an ideal situation. So what I started really young, so for me just the act of doing it is something I’m really just super comfortable and confident with just cause I started so young and I dunno any different.

Leigh Chalker (00:40:05):
Yeah, well I find obviously don’t from that I’m assuming you’re not a dude that has a TV playing in the background and you drift off and 10 minutes goes by watching the latest movie or something and coming back you just dropping in the zone.

Jason Paulos (00:40:25):
Yeah, look, honestly, my attention span has been whittled away by YouTube. Everyone else was like, I’m just as much of a consumer of junk media than anybody, but I can hyper focus on drawing. It’s just a nat natural thing. And if I can just get lost in what I’m doing and once, especially once I get into a rhythm, say if I’ve been doing something for a couple of weeks and I’m refining everything down I don’t wanna stop because I know how hard it is to get back into that zone again. The problem is my neck and my shoulders are constantly seizing up. So I’m constantly cracking my neck and readjusting my shoulders and trying really hard to take breaks, walk the dog or anything like that.

(00:41:32):
Because what I’d done over the years was I’d kind of worked so hard at the drawing board in the wrong position that I’d started to have real issues with my should my back to the point that years ago I’ve got up to go to work cuz I’m sitting at a computer all day and then sitting at home for hours drawing till 11 o’clock at night, midnight, whatever. My back seized up and I couldn’t walk for a couple of weeks and I thought I’d, I’d fucking broke on my back. I thought I’d I’d slipped a disc. All it was, my muscles were just so tight. Mm-hmm That they just wouldn’t let go anymore. They just seized up and I was like an ironing board and my boss was calling me, hassle me to come back to work. I couldn’t walk properly. All I needed was some relaxation therapy and some regular exercise, blah blah blah.

(00:42:24):
I didn’t understand that. I didn’t understand that I could maintain that. So even at a certain level of discomfort I can could maintain it through certain therapies or exercises or stretches or just breaks or whatnot. And so if a younger artist says to me, if you’ve got any advice, I just say, I don’t tell ’em anything about art or drawing. I say get some exercise, have a break, go outside. But I’m assuming everyone works as hard as me and as obsessively as me. And I just don’t think a lot of people do. It’s just part of my personality. I’m a work a workaholic. I mean when I built this place, it was during lockdown, I’m just like, I want to build a new studio. I’d already built two in the backyard at a pallets and because I didn’t have a lot of money but I had time. So I just started putting the stumps in and freaking figuring it out. And like I said, I already built a couple of sheds in the back, my old studio which used to be there and another studio over there don’t have a huge block.

(00:43:29):
And I just went at it for seven months every single day. And I had injuries and I lost heaps of weight. I was looking really fit and I was just sore every day in pain. But every day I just came back and kept throwing myself against this wood and throwing this wood around. It was like I was just bashing my body up against all these materials and I just couldn’t stop. It was just an absolute obsessive thing. And that that’s just how I am as a person. Yeah. I just freak people out cause I’m so intense and I’m like I don’t mean to be, sometimes I just think everyone’s like me. But if I really think about it I just sort of go, you know what? I need to probably just back off and chill out of it because people just don’t get it. They just think I’m angry all the time or whatever. And I’m really not. It’s just, I just sort of get consumed with one idea and I can’t let it go until I see it through to the end. And that’s one thing I would see when I started doing Aussie comics. See all these Aussie comics and no one could seem to finish anything. Like you get dudes that would start a couple of pages and everyone would come to the pub and show their pages and some dudes are just showing the same pages over and over again. They’re never navigating the thing done.

(00:44:51):
So my first ambition was I’ve gotta finish a story.

(00:44:57):
I’ve gotta see this idea right through to the end. How do I do that? Because you get bored or you get stuck because you paint yourself in your corner with, so I had to really teach myself how do you write a story that’s going to sustain because you want people to read it too. No good people can read it. You know, give people the stuff. They go, that’s good. And they put it down. I say, what are they putting? What you want is people to go, oh wow. And they’re reading it before they even know they’re reading it because yeah, you’ve got your craft to the point where you how to draw someone’s eye in and how to keep their interest in the story to the end. They may not like the story, but if they’re written and getting to the end and figuring out what happens, then that’s huge. That’s the next level in storytelling because you’ve actually sucked the reader in and they’re reading it without even realizing. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (00:46:00):
Would you say that just from starting early young, you’ve like self-taught yourself? Yeah. These things over time, just through sheer trial and error. And I guess your workaholic nature mate, cuz I assume you’d be the sort of dude that’s last job you want to do the next one better than the last Is that Yeah. You know, are always trying to improve yourself. Yeah. Along the way. Did you have anyone that would give you their two Bobs Worth men? Did you have a mentor or anything? Think about this mate. Have a look at that. And they obviously helped you rock it off. Absolutely. Yep.

Jason Paulos (00:47:01):
Dave <inaudible>, Glen Luton.

Leigh Chalker (00:47:03):
Yep.

Jason Paulos (00:47:05):
Main. Well the main ones I used to live, I used to work around the corner from Dave in Sury Hills. I’d go there at lunchtime and I’d hang around to studio while he was working on Rip Snorter or one of the other strips that he was doing with Glen for magazines. So they were probably maybe, I dunno if they were doing that Batman that never got published. Archie Goodwin Batman, but absolutely. Yeah. And Dave will talk about the three act play story system,

Leigh Chalker (00:47:36):
Which

Jason Paulos (00:47:37):
Is fascinating to me.

Leigh Chalker (00:47:40):
And just for anyone while I’ve got you there, for anyone that’s going to watch the show that is not familiar with that three act play, mate, what is it for anyone that comes across this?

Jason Paulos (00:47:51):
It’s nothing really. I mean it, it’s nothing now, but at the time it’s like, oh, a beginning, middle and an end. Oh that makes sense. Oh, when you have a problem that needs to be solved, the story is how is the so the hero and solved problem? It’s like, okay, well that’s a pretty basic but useful sort of structure. There’s a million things as well as that. The Char character driven creating characters that have an internal logic that is your Bible for the story. So don’t have your character suddenly changing their personality halfway through the story. There’s certain checks and balances you need to put into place for yourself. Cuz you’re not going to have a mentor. I’m lucky I could send stuff to Glen if he’s not busy and he’ll read through it and I mean he’ll rip it to shred. I did 160 page Houdini versus Rasputin graphic novel. I wrote it, colored it, lettered it, and I sent it to Glen and he said I wasn’t sure about it. I knew that I’d lost my way

(00:49:07):
And I changed direction because I just kept running into false. I kept running into brick walls with the storyline and I knew it was a mess. I knew it was a mess. I sent it to Glen. He goes, Joe, so dunno, I don’t know what the hell is going on in this story. And I said, yeah, you know what? You’re right. Thank you. I needed you to say that. And he goes, look, if you want me, if want me to, I’ll, I’ll go through and maybe we can cut it up and save some of it and I can. And just said, forget it man. I constructed in the bin 170 color pages of really nice artwork. It was a real moment. I just thought, well fuck this up. I’m never going to go back to this. This is my lesson. And it’s also a measure of me as an artist that I can throw away that much work and then just keep moving on with something else. The idea being that your best work is always around the corner and don’t try and pass something off that’s half baked just because you did it.

Leigh Chalker (00:50:17):
How long would you have spent doing that?

Jason Paulos (00:50:20):
That’s why I’m so annoying. Cause I’ve worked with people in the past and I’ve pulled them up and said, this ain’t cutting it, mate. Yeah, I’m going to have to spend hours and my neck is going to stop moving in about a week. I’m going to give myself whiplash drawing this story. But it’s, shoot mate, it doesn’t make sense. You need to fix it. Come on. And I made some enemies, mate. Believe me. Particularly with writers, they don’t want to hear the artist critiquing their story. And some of them have said to me, to their <laugh>, at their own disadvantage, they’ve said, you are the artist. You draw what you’re told. I’m like, fuck you,

Leigh Chalker (00:51:00):
<laugh>

Jason Paulos (00:51:02):
Myself. Whiplash drawing your stupid story. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:51:05):
I was going to say, how did you handle that

Jason Paulos (00:51:08):
One? Yeah. And you make anything because it’s like, well you might be happy to stay in your amateur little bubble. Well, I’m moving on. I’m going to keep pushing myself. And it’s all about the story. Now, back in the day you’d sit in the pub and you’d have these long debates about what’s more important, the art or the story. Well, and you’d sit around, you’d try and make the writers feel better and say, oh, it’s equal. It’s equal and bullshit. It is. The art is absolutely more important than the story in comics. And all good comic writers know that and they accept that. So they write with that in mind. That’s now their job. Okay. I’m the writer of a story where the artist has to do his absolute best in order to sell it to the reader. Right? Yeah. That’s why when you walk into a comic shop, you’re not looking at a whole bunch of scripts on the wall. You’re looking at artwork. Imagine, imagine go you going into the comic shop with all these Alan Moore scripts. I mean, maybe they’d sell like I’d buy one because apparently the script, right? If I’ve got a script and I’m reading it and I’m fucking bored, I ain’t going to want to draw it. No one’s going to want to draw it. Certainly no one’s going to want to bloody read it, mate. Yeah. So then you went in the bend, goodbye. And how

Leigh Chalker (00:52:28):
Long did Houdini take you though, if it was 107,

Jason Paulos (00:52:32):
Eight years while doing storyboard jobs and being a dad and all that stuff? Yeah, I wanted it to be like, I thought at the time, well you know what, the problem with Australia is, there’s no Frank Millary, Alan Moore types doing this big magna opus. So no one’s doing a dark night or a Ronan or a Watchman. People, I really need to do something ambitious. I’ll do this big thing. And I read a book on a Houdini, I felt very clever and I thought, yeah, yeah man, I’ll totally do this and it’s going to be this big thing. And it’s like, well it’s a big Turkey. It’s a big white elephant is what it is. So if I can be that brutal with myself, mate, I’m not going to mince words about your shitty script that you’ve done one measly draft and you expect everyone to kiss your ass cuz you finished something.

(00:53:21):
Well congratulations. But it’s still shit. So try again or try do another draft. I read a lot of interviews, that’s how I learn. Cause there’s no internet, right? So I would read interviews of writers of any kind in magazines and newspapers. I’d get Will Eisner quarterly and he’d have shop talk at the back and he’d interview joke Jack Kirby, they’ll all talk about their working methods. Do you letter first, do you letter afterwards, blah blah, blah. And I fucking read this shit over and over again. Right? Because that’s all the only place you could find out about how to do comics was articles in the back of Wizard Magazine or something like that. Because if I’m going to knock back bodie’s hair but script, right? I better have a good reason. I can’t just say to a writer who’s been up all night writing this great script that they think is great. I can’t just say and yeah, I just don’t like it.

Leigh Chalker (00:54:17):
Yep.

Jason Paulos (00:54:18):
I’ve gotta go. Well, I don’t like it because I don’t think the characterization’s solid, but the gag, I don’t think it’s that funny. I mean, I’d have to try and I owed it to him to learn a little bit about writing so I could at least give him a halfway informed opinion as to why I don’t want to draw that to his credit. You write another one and then you write another one. I’ve got a folder full of them.

Leigh Chalker (00:54:47):
Yep, yep. Did you find that, I guess for the failure of Houdini, improved you as a creator from that point?

Jason Paulos (00:55:05):
Absolutely.

Leigh Chalker (00:55:06):
You came back more resilient and went, this is where I,

Jason Paulos (00:55:09):
Well it’s a badge of honor. It’s like, look at what I throw out. My credibility as a creator is judged on what I throw away. You know what I mean? So I threw that out. So what are you going to throw out as a writer or whatever like that. Not everything you do is good.

Leigh Chalker (00:55:33):
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Paulos (00:55:34):
I mean it’d be great if we all had an editor looking over our shoulder telling us what’s good. But you never get that. You don’t even get people, I used to say to people about the fan, some of the phantom stuff said, do you read it? And I go, yeah, it’s great. They go, no, but do you like the story? They, yeah, sure. I go, yeah, but why? Oh well your artworks great. I’m like, yeah, I know. But just because you can understand who’s walking in the room and who’s coming in. So that’s all my storytelling mechanics. That’s me trying to tell the story. But if the story’s a Turkey, then people just aren’t going to, they’re go aren’t going to want to get another one. So I can make a shitty script. Make sense. But I can’t make it a good script. I can’t make it a good story.

Leigh Chalker (00:56:25):
Yeah. Do you find that when you take on a job with a writer, you do take your time working the script out with the writers that are receptive to how you feel about the changes and thought processes and stuff. Are you happy to take weeks, months, at a time until they get it? Right.

Jason Paulos (00:56:46):
It doesn’t get to that because there’s two kinds of riders. There’s an amateur rider and there’s a professional rider. And I’m not talking about money, I’m talking about attitude and working habits. And the amateur ones are always the ones with the biggest attitude and the biggest ego. They’re always defensive. They don’t want to collaborate. And the professionals like Andrew Constant for example, who’s done a night wing for DC right? He’ll call me and say, Jace got any ideas for stories? What do you want? Draw? And I’ll be like, oh shit, no one’s ever asked me that before. We are doing the Raven. Okay, so the Raven is a put created by Paul Wheeler hand.

(00:57:36):
Here we go. Have I got some Raven? Yeah. So, oh, that’s not one. Oh it doesn’t matter. So I said to him, let’s do Druids and Witches or something. And he’s like, great. Okay great. So he’s asking for my input. He respects me as a creator and a collaborator. So the message is, comics are a collaborative art form. Your artist is also the storyteller too, cuz he’s telling the story in pictures. He should be better than you. He or she should be better at you at telling the story in pictures. You shouldn’t have to give the artist a grid to follow. The artist should know which the artist should have a favorite page grid. Mine is the five panel.

Leigh Chalker (00:58:31):
Yep.

Jason Paulos (00:58:32):
Right. Mine’s kind of like the Jack Kirby grids, right? I’m a Jack Kirby grid guy. Most people have, what are you talking about? You what? What are you talking about? I’m like, mate, the grid is the page divided up into boxes. Yep. Right? Some artists prefer certain kind of it, it’s a stylistic choice, right? There’s no right or wrong one. But for me it’s a six panel Jack Kirby six panel, five panel, four panel. If you are going up to si. So if your writer is writing seven or eight panels per page and they’ve forgot to put an establishing shot and there’s no close up, you’re kind of fucked. Cuz you are then going to have to put that in and suddenly the page is looking really crowded and he’s not writing 35 words per panel, which he’s supposed to do.

Leigh Chalker (00:59:22):
Yeah.

Jason Paulos (00:59:22):
There’s rules to this stuff. You could, so Alan Moore the other day, he’s saying 35, I think it’s 35 words, a panel. If you are doing over that, then you’re screwing up because you’re not giving the artist a chance to do his best work. If you are not helping your artist do a great art job, no one’s going to read your brilliant fucking script. Sorry. Yeah. What’s your next idea next? You’ve gotta have more than one idea guys. You’ve gotta come up with idea after idea after idea.

Leigh Chalker (00:59:58):
Well, with your prolific nature of creation, what do you have? I guess a little shoe box full of ideas. Do you come up with? You do. So you could be sitting there one word or prompter.

Jason Paulos (01:00:20):
That’s just one of my own files of shitty story ideas. But what happens is if you collect enough of these, I’ve got binders full of them.

Leigh Chalker (01:00:31):
Yeah. You

Jason Paulos (01:00:32):
Forget that you write them, you put ’em away and then years later you go, oh, I’ll think I’ll revisit this pile of shit ideas. And you’ve forgotten some of them you can’t remember writing and then you go, oh that’s not bad. That’s actually not bad. Or I can use that or I can rescue that or Yeah, that’s so bad. That’s so weird, so bad. But they’re all useful. You stick ’em in a folder and I’m an artist, I shouldn’t be doing that. But the thing is, it’s being in a band, if you’re in a band with, if you’ve got a bass player that can also play guitar and play the drums, you’ve got a better band. So if you are working with a artist who can also, or at least understands a bit about writing, you’ve got a much better chance of doing some quality work. Cause they’re bringing something else to the table.

Leigh Chalker (01:01:25):
Yeah, no, well I wanted to ask you that because you man, you are prolific and I’ve often thought to myself,

Jason Paulos (01:01:33):
Yeah, I’m very annoying.

Leigh Chalker (01:01:36):
No, no mate, I find this sorted. I love doing this show and I love meeting for today. Exa example. I love meeting you today because I find it inspiring and motivational for me to, I was going to have the day off drawing and now I’m after this I’ve, I’ve gotta get onto the next issue of battle for Buse. I’ve got

(01:02:11):
Cover to do. Lemme put these theories into practice. Yeah, no it’s good. When, I love the notion too of do these ideas. When you go into your studio like 9:00 AM in the morning, you are and you get yourself set up and you’re ready to rock and roll. The idea is obviously for you cuz you’re a thinker from talking to you don’t come to you between nine and five. You’re obviously the sort of dude who could be out walking the dog and just have a moment where you are like, oh and you seem to be an observational person as well man. Are you the sort of dude that likes to say sit in the street and across the road there’s two people going about their business and you watch ’em and see how they I guess come together or come apart one of those dudes. Do you go home and sketch that sort of stuff with these ideas?

Jason Paulos (01:03:22):
Yeah, all artists are observers and sort of voyeuristic in the sense of if I’m walking down the street, I’m usually looking sometimes I’m looking for trouble and I’ll see it first because I’m checking out the body language of someone or something doesn’t seem right or yeah, I’m super sensitive to particularly crowds I don’t like. I don’t like crowds and I never liked going into Darling Harbor and seeing the fireworks and all that because it crowds scare me. People scare me. And I think a lot of artists are super sensitive to things like that. The kind of people that are around them, the sort of vibe you’re getting, but just how people look and dress. When I used to draw storyboards they used to ask for certain kinds of people, certain age groups, ethnicity, blah blah blah. And you eventually got to know how tribal people are now.

(01:04:35):
So if you get a baby boomer lady over the age of 60, she’s probably cut her hair short silver, they don’t dye their hair, they don’t wear no makeup, they’re boomers, they’re kind of like uni intellectual sort of types. They wear kind of climbers gear, they wear trousers and you, that’s a type that’s my, that’s auntie. And then you get the more hippie types, they grow their hair, it’s still gray, they grow their hair long, sort of the more hippie sort of arty far types. And you go, you’re in that tribe and you can break people down into their little tribes. Nowadays it’s like essays. My 16 year old always made forays. They all wear boots over their heads all the time. They all wear tracksuits and even the girls. And so that’s ache. You’re ache tribe or,

(01:05:31):
And so when you’re telling a story and you are trying to populate a page with a credible environment, if you are too lazy to put people in there, then it’s not going to sell the story. So you’ve gotta put the time into the background people, what are they doing, how are they dressing? And try and keep up to date with it too. Cause one thing with storyboards was my first storyboard job, they said okay, we need a car. So I drew a cool comic car, like the car from Creepy magazine or the Groovy Ghoulies or something and they’d like, no, we want a high wk. What the hell is this 1950s hot rod you’re drawing. I say, well it’s a cool car. They’re like, you got to modern cars. I’m like Ah shit, I hate modern cars. Fuck like electric shapers. There’s no hard, there’s no hard angles. It’s horrible. You’ve gotta be able to bust out a credible looking esque sort of car, which now I can do in my sleep.

Leigh Chalker (01:06:33):
But

Jason Paulos (01:06:34):
Leap for me at the time it’s like shit, I’ve never wanted to draw a car.

Leigh Chalker (01:06:38):
But that would’ve improved your artwork X potentially, cuz it’s like you were drawing stuff that you weren’t comfortable with, I guess to begin with. So that would only be a positive.

Jason Paulos (01:06:52):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah because you also can’t draw Olivia Newton John chicks with Bang Hairdos and guys with, as much as I love the comics from the seventies cuz I was a kid in the seventies, you can’t keep drawing everyone with fled trousers and stuff. One of the things I like doing about E cuz I can draw, do all that retro shit cuz it’s like I’m playing homage to seventies black and white horror comics, which is what I grew up with. Cause I didn’t live near a comic shop.

Leigh Chalker (01:07:20):
Yep. Yeah, yeah, no. Well I

(01:07:28):
Grew up on, my dad collected comic books in the eighties and that marvel and things and bits and pieces of Australian stuff and he cool dad and he had one eye man when your mates used to come over for the first time, this is a house I grew up in, if you’re sitting at the dinner table and then suddenly he’d be like, oh Troy, Troy, come over here, I’ll hurt me eye. And Troy would come over and he’d like flick his glass eye out onto the table. It unusual I guess, but everyday occurrence for me. You sort of gotta be, oh, come on dad. Not the eye thing.

Jason Paulos (01:08:08):
So

Leigh Chalker (01:08:09):
My imagination always spurned off from that sort of odd behavior, I guess. And I started to really, particularly one of my first jobs my first job was at Woolworth’s. So in the Townsville City and if anyone’s ever worked at a supermarket, everyone’s gotta get food. And you see some people that you’re mixing with the ups and you’re mixing with the downs and everything in between. And you can see some sights. And when I was younger I used to sit on lunch and sketch out people that I’d see in the shop and all that. I used to enjoy that. And then through the nineties you went through the whole marvel. Everyone’s huge, massive, I look like a God. And then the one dude that made the triggered me when I was young was Larry Stroman with Ex Force because you came out of that hole, everyone’s a Hercules to suddenly seeing this dude that was drawing people with hunch shoulders, bigger bottoms, clothes that didn’t quite flow the same way.

(01:09:33):
But in reality, those things do happen because there is a dishevelment. Not everything flows in a picturesque type way. And it’s a cool thing to observe people. I can’t say I’m with you, mate, I’m not a huge crowd person, but I do. When tam’s off doing her thing and you have those moments at the shop and you’re sitting, I always like to plunk myself in the middle of one of those walk aisle ways. And you get people cruising through, man, they’re on their phones and they’re bumping into each other and they’re getting angry with the other person for walking in. I always have chucked with myself and I find that sort of stuff helps with my artwork too. Cuz yeah, I find if you don’t observe things I notice then it’s a trip. I’m completely amateur and indie compared to where your art level, so your stuff is more. Well I appreciate that cuz that’s what I try to do. I found that I was, without observing people, I found that I was falling into little traps of faces were becoming similar, that sort of stuff. I found that going out and sitting amongst people and looking at different expressions on people’s faces was helpful to artwork because I find that none of your characters in the backgrounds of things that you do ever look the same men.

Jason Paulos (01:11:24):
Yeah. Well that’s because I don’t want it to look story because one of the time saving trips, trips for doing storyboards is that you have a generic set number of face types. You’ve got the square George White guy, you’ve got the pretty blonde girl. You’ve got the old lady and you just alternate between and you never draw the old lady. You literally always, well back <laugh> back before advertising went woke <laugh> cuz everyone’s mixed couples now on the ad advertising on telly. But back when everyone, you had to draw white people all the time, cause the art directors would say, we don’t want any Asian people. We’ve gotta make them all 30 to 35 Caucasian fact blondish, blah blah blah. And so you get into the habit of doing that. And that’s something that doesn’t fly in comics cuz you don’t want your comics to look like you’re cutting corners.

(01:12:24):
You are. But you’re just doing it in a nuanced way and you that people like you are looking hard and everything cuz comic audiences are brutal. They, they’ve got the best of everything to look at. They don’t need to be looking at your shitty artwork. So they’re looking for the mistakes and the shortcuts. So when you give him something that is extra, they remember it, you go, oh yeah, Paul always, it’s always worth having a look because he, he’s, he’s not lazy. He rushes <laugh> a bit sloppy at times. But you have to strike a balance. You have to have a deadline style.

Leigh Chalker (01:13:05):
Yeah. Well that, that’s something that you mentioned to me the other day was what you just called there, the deadline style. Yeah. Is that, you also said just a little while ago that you like to get in before the deadline. So do you set yourself when you come in at nine in the morning, say, do you go like, right, I’m penciling, I’m inking this page by five and then I’m walking away from it. That’s the page done. If I don’t get what I want done, I’ll get it. What’s your thought processes there?

Jason Paulos (01:13:42):
Yeah, yeah. I’m brutal. I’m really hard on myself. Yeah. Yep. I, yeah. I don’t leave Paiges half finished. That’s a habit I developed when I was younger cuz I was very time poor. Everyone was always taking my time off me and I hated it right from when I was a kid. It was like, no, you’re not drawing today. You’re going to be working in the garden today. You’re going to be digging holes. Like, oh God, when am I going to get to draw? So then it gets worse as you get older, you, you’ve got kids, you’ve got relu, you’ve got a partner, you’ve got a boss, you’ve got your friends, they all want your time. So when you get to the drawing board, you just, you’re determined to try and get value out of that time before someone comes and takes your time off you. I’ve always been selfish about my time because I had to be, no one’s ever going to say, Hey Jason, you should do some drawing today. Tell you what, I’ll look after the kids, I’ll take ’em shopping. You spend all day drawing, mate, you deserve it. You’re amazing.

Leigh Chalker (01:14:47):
That be a perfect world, man. I don’t wanna leave that world. Hey, how good with that day.

Jason Paulos (01:14:52):
No one’s ever said that to me. I’ve always been like, you know what, I’m drawn today. Screw you guys.

Leigh Chalker (01:14:57):
Yep.

Jason Paulos (01:14:57):
Cooked. I cooked dinner, I’ve done the yard. It’s like, leave me the fuck alone. I mean it. I will get angry at you if you threaten my time.

Leigh Chalker (01:15:07):
Yes. So you,

Jason Paulos (01:15:08):
I’m

Leigh Chalker (01:15:09):
Terrible. But that’s how you’ve had to develop to get this increment of work out

Jason Paulos (01:15:17):
A choice. No one’s paying my rent. So I’ve gotta pay my rent. I’ve gotta cook my food, I’ve gotta buy my food. I, I’ve got a normal adult life. I’m not living in my parents’ basement. A lot of comic guys do. So I make sure I zoom through the day so I can get to the drawing board at a certain time. This is back in the day.

(01:15:38):
Work during the day. Gotta do some exercise work, get up in the morning, go to the pool, swim at a kilometer, go to work, hate it all day. Hate my work all day, get home. I used to draw while I was at work mate, I, I’d designed the Christmas catalog and I’d get that done, put it aside and I’d be coloring shit on the screen. And I made it so my, off my office, my computer, my screen faced me and no one could see, no one could get behind me. They had to walk into my cubicle, my office and come all the way behind me to talk to me. And my boss busted me once. Super awkward.

Leigh Chalker (01:16:17):
Yeah. Yeah. And what magic were you creating there? See, your boss should look, looking back in hindsight, he’s like, man, look at this. Paul Lost dude. He’s just pumping out classic stuff here man. What were you doing at that point? Bits of everything or you had, you were hell bent on Hair bud or E or what were you really into?

Jason Paulos (01:16:44):
Well at the time I was doing Eek and you’d go onto forums. There was a couple of forums where a comic artist would go. There was a Pulp Faction forum, which was an awesome one.

(01:16:53):
And there was another one in America, the Shane Blinds message board. He was like, I think he was an animator character designer or something. So what I would do is I’d do a page of E and I would then put it up on the forums. People would comment on it and then I’d do another one and they’d comment on it. So I’m basically producing web comics for free for people just to try and get some kind of input because you, you’re hungry for people’s input. You want people to see stuff, you want people to read it and comment on it. You don’t always like the comment, the comments, but who else is doing what you are doing? To the extent that you are doing it, it’s like you may not like what I’m doing, but you are doing nothing.

(01:17:36):
What are you doing <laugh> doing it. You may not like the style or the genre that I’m doing it in, but I’m going to finish this story next week. I’ll get a page 12 will be done next week. And it might be a bit of a lame story. I don’t always write a full script. Sometimes I’ll just go for it. I’ll just draw a splash page and I come up with a catchy title. Death Wears Hot Pants. Yeah, cool. That’s a great title for a story. Death Wears Hot Pants, I don’t know. So page one, there’s a stripper walking down the street. Page two. She see. So I’m at work, I’m bored stiff. Yeah, I’ve done all my work. No one’s asking too much of me in that job. So I always find jobs where I could bunk off. So my career was slowly going down the toilet as a graphic designer. I got progressively worst graphic design jobs, low rent, LA graphic design jobs. I ended up designing Christmas catalogs, get all that done. And then I’d keep my page rate. Keep the page rate, keep the page rate going. Produce. Yeah, produce. So yeah, just Chris, crazy mentally ill fucking behavior like that.

Leigh Chalker (01:18:54):
<laugh>,

Jason Paulos (01:18:55):
No sense. It’s a detriment to your life. But really you’re supposed to be doing other stuff with your life and you know, you’re supposed to be going camping and bloody Well I’m just a weird guy. Just what the fuck am I doing with my life?

Leigh Chalker (01:19:14):
Yeah, no I man, I get it because I’ve got friends and stuff too that family members that want me to be doing other things as well. But I guess I need to draw too. I can only go a certain amount of days where I like to sneak, man, I’ve had people over, they’re inside having dinner and shit and next thing I know I’m getting a phone call cause I’ve snuck you out into the granny flat man. Cause I’ll just finish off inking this thing.

Jason Paulos (01:19:53):
That’s weird mate. That’s

Leigh Chalker (01:19:55):
Weird. Yeah man. Well if it is, it’s the way it is man. So I, I’m just, see it’s not weird when there’s two <laugh> you and there’s you and me right now. It’s weird when there’s one of us doing it. But now that, see we’re a group. But no, I can totally sympathize with you man. With that.

Jason Paulos (01:20:19):
Hey mate, I’ve, I’ve gotta go to the bathroom which is right there.

Leigh Chalker (01:20:24):
Yep. Gimme

Jason Paulos (01:20:25):
One. Gimme

Leigh Chalker (01:20:26):
20 seconds. That’s Sorry Jane, man. No, no, you’re alright. You’re right. I’ll have a little chat about a couple of things while Jason’s at the Indisposed. So for anyone that’s watching the show while we have our slide intermission now Wednesday night have tomorrow night we have the Oz X Show. Friday night we have the drink and draw and Sunday night there’s a new show that’s starting it’s called the Sunday Spotlight now that’s with Sizzle and Peter Wilson and the guest on that show is me. So you gotta put up with me a couple of times this week. Everyone out there, I do apologize, but it’s just how it is. So don’t also forget to liken subscribe the videos and the comments community because that helps with all the algorithms and all the webby things as you go. So boosts the channels off to more people so they find out what the X community is all about which is an important thing and it helps us keep the X going and Joe’s like this happening. Also don’t forget that on January the ninth at 3:30 PM Queensland time the comics latest comic book Sizzle and Doug into the Multiverses coming out. So be there, be Square, try and get a number, whatever number you want to get. Everyone’s trying to get number one, but <laugh> mine, I’m only kidding. But we’ll see how you go when you get into it. So, alright, end of intermission. Back to Mr. Paul. Now mate, I next question. Haven’t always just done Australian comics, have you, you, you’ve dabbled off in other comic books around the world at any stage?

Jason Paulos (01:22:31):
Yeah, a little bit. I did one job for DC I got published in a magazine, heavy Metal. There’s been a few Indie American Horror anthologies, notably Iry Magazine by Mike Hoffman, which is an anthology. He reprints some of my stuff sometimes. And he also used to do a thing called Bloke’s Tomb of Terror. And I was in the Creeps magazine for a while. The DC job didn’t turn into more DC jobs. More was the Pity and the Judge Dread magazine was a reprinting of an eek story. So the Eek stuff has found its way into Heavy Metal magazine as well. And it’s kind of found its way around the world. There’s a German guy who’s going to license some hair but reprint stuff in a German magazine.

(01:23:37):
I forget the name of that, but you know, do stuff for so long and you lose track of where it’s going and who you’re doing it for. Which sounds kind of like a bit, I don’t know, a bit, well I dunno what that sounds like, but you, I’m not getting any copies sent to me. Everything that comes to me from the US I was in a, the reboot version of Gori, which was an eighties horror. So I did a 10 pager for them and I’ll never see that it got stopped at customs. So I’m getting a Frank Forte put out an Eek Halloween special issue with a foil cover or something. I, I’ve never received it because for some reason cause of Covid, all my books are getting stopped at customs and so I don’t even know where my stuff’s sending up sometimes because I’m not always getting a printed copy for my files, which isn’t a big deal.

(01:24:40):
I’ve got so many comics. I mean if anyone wants to buy my comic collection, let me know. I’ve got thousands of them and the stuff that I’m in there’s no point in me keeping boxes of Ecommerces. So, which is why I don’t wanna do a Kickstarter because I’ve got enough stuff. I like to get a copy of what I do for the Phantom. Cause sometimes I have to refer to it and I love seeing my stuff get published. That’s really what I’m doing it for. It’s not about the money because the money’s terrible. The money’s terrible in comics, you’ll never get reimbursed for the true hours you put in. Right? Yep. What I’m in it for is seeing it in print, that was always my big buzz. It’s like, ah, it’s been printed and you see the stuff pile up and it’s a real joy.

(01:25:30):
What you forget is great if you’re at the point where you are forgetting you’ve done so much stuff that you are forgetting what you’ve done and people are actually pointing it out to you and you are going, oh really? I did that then that’s awesome. That’s like, that’s a blessed place to be because that means your priority are right you, you’re producing, you, you’re just moving forward, you’re producing more and more stuff. You’re not worrying about anything except the work. All this stuff is piling up behind you in a pile and people just discover. They discover, it’s like, oh wow, here’s a Jason Paula’s story, we didn’t know that was in there. Or Wow, check this guy out. I never knew this. This guy’s been going for years and check. I get that every now and again. It’s really rewarding to me because I don’t hustle, I don’t promote myself.

(01:26:18):
I just assume everyone knows about me now. But everyone should know what I do by now. If they don’t know what I do then I can’t do anything about that. That’s not my fault. Cause I’ve be doing it for so long. If people aren’t paying attention then I can’t help that. I can only do so much to get my ugly face in front of people. And the work speaks for itself. Yes, you do the work, you put it out. If it’s any good you’ll get something back. But you don’t wait for that. You don’t wait for a medal, no one’s going to give you a medal. You just have to assume you’ve got a lot to learn still. And you feel that way. Well how I feel now is I know what I can’t do and I know what I can do so I just concentrate on what I can do.

(01:27:09):
I can’t do what Glen Luton does. I can’t make every panel look like a cover. I try, that’s the goal. But I can’t justify that kind of focus. I’m not that kind of artist. And you need different kinds of artists. You need the Brian Boland you, right? Because the fans need stuff like that where they can just look at it for hours and hours and sort of jerk off over it. You know, need guys like that. But you need guys like me too, cuz something’s gotta go in the middle of the bloody comic and often cover. I’m not having to go at cover artists who knows this that cover artists aren’t really comic artists. Comic artists are the guys who turn the pages out that are responsible for all the reading pleasure that you get. You can’t be a cover artist and an interior artist if they’re two different animals.

(01:28:07):
And I’m an in, I can do covers, but I’m not a cover artist. I’m an interior artist. I’m the guy that gets the meat of the comic done that goes between the covers. Put Brian Baldon on the front and you put fricking Jim Bakery or he was a 2000 AK artist who was legendarily fast but competent. The stuff was good. You could always, well he created skis, didn’t he? That’s right. And Steve Dylan who went on to do Hellblazer. Yep. A really good worker day. Workman-like artists whose job was to be right with the writer. And yet your tight with the rider, you’re a team, you’re a duo, and you are telling these stories, you’re getting them out. Because if we all sat around waiting for Brian Bolan to do his next comic, we’d all go and do something else. We’d go and buy a book. Yeah, yeah. Well that’s book boring.

Leigh Chalker (01:29:04):
Well along the way, I guess from my small time in comparison to yours amongst the industry community, I’m realizing that there are different facets and there are the cover artists, the commissions, the interior artist. I guess it is broken down into what you particularly as a creator want where you want to fit, shirt you wanna wear. So you don’t sort of realize that when you first start, but you do I guess cuz man there’s brilliant cover artists out there. I totally get where you’re coming from and there’s artists that blow my mind. But you never see them on the interiors.

Jason Paulos (01:29:53):
No. You know, just see those guys, those guys get the awards.

Leigh Chalker (01:29:57):
Yeah, those

Jason Paulos (01:29:58):
Guys get the Stanley Awards. Guys like me, there’s no Stanley Award for me. I’m the most prolific comic artist working in Australia at the moment. I’ll never win a Stanley Award cuz I’ve entered it three times and I’m not going to do it anymore. Fuck ’em. Right? <laugh> just keep giving it to the same guys. Bless. They’re all mates of mine. But fuck. Look, how many more pages do you have to churn out before someone goes, Hey this guy’s an actual, he’s making coin books. Yeah, everyone else is doing pinups.

Leigh Chalker (01:30:31):
Yeah.

Jason Paulos (01:30:32):
No one wants to buy a book of pinups. They wanna buy the Raven and they want to check out the cool Andrew constant story with the funky Jason Pauls artwork. And guess what? There’ll be another one he’s already done the next two. The Troy’s mad. You just think, fuck man. I don’t know I what you have to do to get people’s attention really

Leigh Chalker (01:30:54):
Well man, I would say that I

Jason Paulos (01:30:57):
Bitter

Leigh Chalker (01:30:59):
<laugh>. Yeah, exclusive <laugh> on the chair stage. Jason’s better. Good mate said with good humor though sir. Yes, good. Oh yeah, absolutely man. For one, admire your prolific output. Bit amazes me. I’m slow man. I will dittle daddle over page forever. But I realize that deadlines aren’t for me man. I’m doing it for self-expression and pleasure. Yeah mate. Well I feel like that’s my place. So I’m happy that I’ve found that and getting to meet people.

Jason Paulos (01:31:49):
Not everyone can do deadlines that that’s a certain thing that you just have to be, have to be born that way. I do everything quick. If I do something, I want to get it done because there’s probably something else I want to do or something that needs doing. And I’m just a very high energy, annoying person. That’s just how I am in every aspect of my life. I’m not like a sit around, I’m like, let’s go. Come on, we doing this. Well let’s go. Like I’m really annoying.

Leigh Chalker (01:32:27):
Yeah, no, well again, I don’t find you annoying at all. I’m enjoying this immensely. You’re a high energy dude man. Which is good or it’s good. It’s motivating in all hell next when you finished one project, right? Do you comic Bookwise to add to this? Cuz I think you’re going to say no. Do you ever stop and have a day off or do you come out there the next morning and you’re make work for yourself. If there’s no phantom or raven or anything happening, you are like, I’m going to do this as an eight page comic book and you sit down and you bang it out,

Jason Paulos (01:33:17):
That’s how you get work. That’s how I promote myself by making some work happen. That’s why I’m doing E.

Leigh Chalker (01:33:27):
Yeah, because

Jason Paulos (01:33:28):
I’ve got downtime between paid jobs and at the moment I’m getting away with being able to do that. And what I find is people are very product orientated. If you don’t have something for sale or a product that you are, I mean I say I don’t want to hustle. What I mean is I don’t want to go looking for work that isn’t suit me. I don’t want to bend myself out into a different shape that isn’t me to get work. What I want people to do is come to me for the things that I do best. So I’m going to be much happier doing a job for someone who likes what I do. But you get this in commercial illustration all the time. They say, oh we really like Chris Wall stuff, but he’s not available. Can you draw like that? And I’m like, no, no, I do what I do and Google me. I don’t even have a website anymore.

Leigh Chalker (01:34:28):
Yeah, yeah.

Jason Paulos (01:34:29):
There’s heaps of my artwork there that comes up straight away.

Leigh Chalker (01:34:33):
Well you’re pretty prolific with your Facebook stuff too. I’ve noticed the last week you’ve been pumping out pages of a little short story you’re doing now. Yeah, that Am I correct in saying that? That started off just no script, no idea sort of thing. Just you having a pun.

Jason Paulos (01:34:57):
Storytelling experiment and like the Houdini thing all over again, except I’m not doing a huge thing. So if I’m going to do an experiment, I’ll make sure it’s a small project so if it fails, it’s not a huge collateral loss of time that I couldn’t be spending on some publishable work. So the idea is I’ve got enough material that I haven’t published yet in printed form that is going to be five issues, 24 page issues. So I’ve got about 130 pages or so of stuff people haven’t seen.

(01:35:37):
And so I’m going to need some new material in about six months for issue six or whatever, or issue 10 or whatever. So can I just sort of bust this shit out? I don’t know. So I did it and I got to page 13 and I sent it to Glen Luton and I was fully expecting him to say, Jason, I can don’t underst why? And he goes, it’s great. He goes, it’s a great story and it’s catchy. It’s really readable. Easy to read. Yeah, it’s music my ears. And he goes, yeah that that’s great. And I’m like, oh wow. I did it. It worked. But I’ll do another two and it won’t work as well. But that’s all right. I’ve got a script from Dylan here, which I found in my file and it’s thinking outside the box and it’s set on Alien Planet, it’s set on an alien prison planet and it’s five or six pages and it’s great. It’s got a cool little twist ending. And that’s next on the drawing board. Thanks Dylan.

Leigh Chalker (01:36:36):
Very good. Molly, you go, there’s an exclusive tea. Hey. Yep. And when you starting that one, as soon as you’re finished with me here today, I guess you’ll be like, oh, I’m on the bloody.

Jason Paulos (01:36:47):
I don’t have to take the nine year old to the pool

Leigh Chalker (01:36:51):
Enough. Well indeed. Well mate, we’ll start winding down. Now. One of the things I guess that I always like to ask, because Australia’s a big place, the world’s a big place and there are people I guess like me that are late bloomers, suffer things like imposter syndromes got ideas are sitting in their rooms, drawing that sort of stuff and wondering how do I talk to people, meet people, get their stuff out there, just want to have a punt getting into a comic book. What are some words of advice from a bloke who’s been doing it for one of the most prolific comic book creators in Australia? We’ve heard your motivations here today, but what’s some of your advice to those people that are sitting out there mate that want to do it?

Jason Paulos (01:37:46):
Well if you’re talking about people who haven’t done a lot yet and they want to know how to go about doing it, you send me an email or you send Glen Luton an email. Everyone, there’s no stars as far as I know in Australia, everyone’s quite approachable and they’ll give you their time or I will, and you can send me a script, you can send me a stuff. But if you’ve got a clear idea of what you’re doing and where you’re going and what you want to do and you’ve got the ability to produce, then there’s nothing I can tell you. So I guess it’s it what sort of artist you want to be and what you enjoy. You’re good at do. You’re good at figure out what you’re good at you maybe you’re doing stuff that isn’t really, or you’re doing it because you think you want to get published or that people will pay more attention if you draw a certain kind of way or a certain kind of comic for example. But you’re just not feeling it. So just figure out what you want to do first and find someone that’s already doing it because that was definitely helpful to me.

(01:39:11):
And you know, can only benefit from some good advice. Even some shortcuts I try and tell people some shortcuts like visual shorthand, how can you fill up the blank pages? How can you start getting rid of those horrible blank areas on the page that scare the shit out of you? How can you build up a story or an idea for a character in a way where you’re not going to be going up blind alleys and chasing red herrings and wasting time drawing in a style that isn’t really achieving what your goal is. Now if you’re doing comics, your goal should be telling a story. I’m sorry, I mean that’s a storytelling medium. Otherwise maybe you’re a cover artist. Maybe you’re this sort of artist that just wants to do this credibly detailed Jeff Darrow piece that people are just going to go be amazed at. If you’re a storytelling guy, you need to guy or go, I’ll keep, sorry I’m old.

(01:40:30):
You need some shortcuts, you need some craft, you need just a few little tips just to get you producing, just to being more productive. Cuz your goal with storytelling as any writer will tell you is turning out your first draft, just getting a stack of pages done and you go through it and you edit it, you self-edit it, you figure out how to edit, you figure out what to keep and what to throw away. You can’t keep everything. You can’t just keep passing off the same shitty idea to the next, oh here’s a story I wrote. No you didn’t. You’ve been passing that same story off to three different people. You’ve just been changing the name of the character. Right? No, chuck it away. Work harder, try harder. Like I say to the kids, did you do the thing now I tried Try harder <laugh> like you gotta try harder. I can help help people for free. If people want me to mentor them, just send me an email. Got endless enthusiasm for helping people that remind me of me because everyone needs more help.

Leigh Chalker (01:41:46):
Yeah, it’s man that’s an awesome thing. Your thing stupid,

Jason Paulos (01:41:53):
Your style and your whole thing. It’s different to my thing. You’ve got your own thing going on. So it’s kind of hard to, I can’t help someone like you because you are doing you your are way. If you’re on your way then you just need to find a space in your life and people in your life that can support you going on your way or you find other people that can help you do that. But if you’re trying to find your way in the sort of artist you want to be and the stuff you want to do, then there’s gotta be someone there that’s doing it. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (01:42:29):
No I just find what you’ve said an awesome thing man. Because the community is all about well community and encouraging people to be self expressionistic and get better at their art and enjoy their art and stuff like that. Yeah, you’re a hundred percent right men. There’s so many different areas where an individual can fit in to what they want to do with their creativity and stuff and That’s right. It’s super cool man here in new, make Yourself available for those people to reach out and just say a and have a yarn about. Cuz when I was a young kid, much like yourself, I looked at this and I wondered how these things and you guys did all this and I had to buy trade paperbacks and Wizard magazines and read the articles in the back and get an idea of layouts and paneling and all that too mate.

(01:43:37):
And yeah, no it’s all good man. It’s all good because I’ve had an excellent talk with you today man. It’s been a real buzz for me dude, cuz obviously for when people watch it on Tuesday we’ve had a prerecorded show because you’ve got such a busy schedule. But for me, first day of 2023 man, one of my big ticks off my bucket list of getting to talk to creatives that I’ve admired for so long is you meant I feel like I’m off to a good start for the year men. So hopefully momentum keeps along bud and yeah, thank you so much dude. Now just one more question. Anyone that’s watching the show that wants some of your stuff man, where can they reach out to you and get you your comic books that are available at the moment?

Jason Paulos (01:44:42):
Well I’m on Facebook. You can email me jasonPaul@bigpo.com. I guess they’re not in the shops, they’re not going to be in the shops. I don’t bother sending anything to comic shops anymore. So yeah, you can find me, people know me, know how to get in touch with me.

Leigh Chalker (01:45:04):
Yep.

Jason Paulos (01:45:05):
I’ve got a phantom cover coming out in a couple of weeks and they’re probably going to start printing some of my backlog as well and you know, can write to through publications I guess. Yeah. Not doing anything modern. I don’t have socials.

Leigh Chalker (01:45:28):
Well you got your mini comic Calm me just recently. Recently

Jason Paulos (01:45:33):
Just me friend me on Facebook. I guess for what that’s worth. I do have an Instagram page, which I ignore. I think I was on Twitter once.

Leigh Chalker (01:45:45):
<laugh>, you tweeted, I

Jason Paulos (01:45:49):
Like Facebook cuz you can put a bunch of pages up, you can whack a story up and people can click on it. I mean I just realized the other day you can’t do that on Instagram. All you get is one little landscape panel and 83 letters. It’s like that’s no good to me. There’s too much, I’ve got too much to show. I’m too big for Instagram. I can’t explain what I’m doing in a tiny little

Leigh Chalker (01:46:20):
Circle. Yeah,

Jason Paulos (01:46:22):
It’s not for me.

Leigh Chalker (01:46:24):
Yeah, well that’s fair enough mate. People

Jason Paulos (01:46:27):
Won’t take the time to find my stuff. There’s a, it’s a rabbit hole and that’s a great thing. I’m the sort of person, people come across me and they feel like they’ve discovered me. It’s like, oh my God, this guy’s been going for years, he’s done all this stuff and it’s different and they get it straight away. It’s like, oh wow, you like the same comics? I didn’t like image comics. When Image comics came in the nineties. I hated it. It sucked to me all this shitty artwork, shitty over colored artwork that everyone was going fucking nuts over and they still are. I still don’t get that. That was a disaster to me. I was like, oh my God, are people, can people not see that this is shit To me the golden age was the sixties, seventies, Dick fucking, the fucking Neil Adams 2018. I mean that’s still the shit for me. Man

Leigh Chalker (01:47:29):
Is my boss.

Jason Paulos (01:47:30):
The end image to me was a cult of personality. You’ve got these rockstar artists who know fuck all about drawing, right? I’m not talking all of them, but people now look back at that as the good old days of comics. It’s like, no that was the end of the good old days of comics. That was a line. So I’m old school man, that’s where I look. That’s where I get my inspiration from.

Leigh Chalker (01:47:55):
Yeah, yeah. No that’s cool. Well I mean, as I said, I’m a hundred percent with you at 2000 a D, that was my teeth on that man. The first comic I bought of that prog number 400 or something when I was a kid. And dad was like, what the hell? And I bought it because at the time it was like 55 cents man. And it was cheap and I was like, who is this judge Dread? Who are these A, B, C Warriors? What is going on here? They

Jason Paulos (01:48:26):
Print, they printed my drawing when I was 13. They printed it. Yeah. And I bought the issue off eBay cause I lost it and it says on the thugs nerve center drawing by Earth, Lex, Jason, Paulo, Tara.

Leigh Chalker (01:48:40):
Yeah. And

Jason Paulos (01:48:40):
I lost seven pounds, 50, which was $15 best day of my life. It’s like, oh my god, I got printed in in 2018.

Leigh Chalker (01:48:48):
Yeah, yeah,

(01:48:51):
Yeah, yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah mate on that note with mines being blown, I reckon we might wrap that up bud. And thank you so, so much for anyone out there. Jason’s just opened himself up for a yarn and a chat. Try and get onto as much of his stuff as you possibly can because the man’s prolific. The man to me is been doing it since I was a kid and he’s someone that I admire greatly mate. as we said, Wednesday night com, oz com X show Friday night drinking and draw Sunday night, brand new show Sunday Spotlight featuring guest me sorry, but I’m back. And on next week’s Tuesday at Chinwag, which will be back to live Tuesday night, seven 30 Queensland time. We have good comics, man in Nick May. So looking forward to that like and subscribe to the channels again. And once again, thank you very much Jason Paul Lass and hey, don’t forget community is unity. See you all later. Thank you.

Voice Over (01:50:08):
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