Tad Pietrzykowski

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

Leigh Chalker (00:25):
Hello G Day and welcome to episode 31 of Tuesday Chinwag. So G Day Ben. My name is Lee Chalker, creator of Battle for Bustle and Co-creator Ring around the Rosie, which you will hear more about later in the week. And on this evening’s show, I have the creator of the Dark Nebula celebrating its 41st year, I believe, coming up very shortly, but I can be checked on that in the Tick. And we have Mr. Tad Tchaikovsky. How are you, sir?

Tad Pietrzykowski (00:58):
Not bad. And you said that like a Polish National.

Leigh Chalker (01:01):
Oh, thank you. I’ve been practising for hours.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:05):
You have? It was a spirit course.

Leigh Chalker (01:09):
Yeah, yeah. No, no. Thank you mate. Thank you for your help with that. It makes perfect sense now. Now mate, for anyone watching at home and for yourself, we just based basically show on six little prompting words, questions, who, what, where, when, why, and how. Sometimes we do not get through those things. Sometimes we do. We just have a chinwag about all things comics and sometimes it veers off into all different areas and parallel universes. So Tad, I’m just going to get straight into it, mate, with who

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:45):
Indeed, who is the dark nebula? Well, with the who, as far as that’s concerned, it didn’t just magically pop out of the ether in 1982 on the newsstands, it was what you’d call a lifelong journey. I guess in a way it’s like having an imaginary friend you actually bring to life. And all through my formative years of in school and then later in college, I mean I was forming all the elements that would come to be the finished product that everyone saw in 82. And even after I did that, I found ways of improving it without reinventing the wheel because I remember when my dad came home when I was like five or six, however early in life that was, and the first Marvel comic I ever had, I can honestly say that I was doomed from that point onwards because I didn’t want to just read comics.

(02:57)
I wanted to write comics and I didn’t want to write other people’s characters. I wanted to write my own. I knew that from the outset. And I’m talking about the days of tales to astonish and tales spent being on the newsstand. That’s how long ago it was. And there were characters that I came up with and I had worked out these stories in my head and they were all in my head. And then a character would pop up. And I’ll give you one example. I had a character who could turn into organic steel and as soon as I read Giant Size X me, number one, I put that character to bed because Marvel and Dave Cochran came up with Colossus Cos. So that was out of the picture. I mean, there was a storyline that I had worked out for Dark Nebula where he met his future self and they were at odds.

(03:59)
Well, when Jim Stalin did the Warlock MAGA storyline, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing that either. So these ideas, you have them, and I like to think, well, I had them first, but that’s neither here nor there because they’ll never saw the light of day. But while other characters came and went, this one thing stayed with me the whole time and step by step it all sort of came together. And I remember when I was in fourth form, and this was 1975, it was my first opportunity to put it to paper because the one thing I was always proud of was being great at English composition. And even though it may not have been the most popular kid in my class, whenever it came my turn to read my composition in class, everyone shut up. There’s just dead silence. And they let me read my composition and usually they were humorous, they were entertaining, there was no strife or tension about it and everyone knew they were going to enjoy ’em.

(05:20)
And this one English composition, the teacher wanted us to write something creative, something from our mind for something original and it wasn’t going to be something read in class. And I wrote basically the first half of what would become the dark nebula, his origin. And the teacher just loved it. And because I said to be continued, she said, well continue it. So I did. I wrote the rest of the origin and that was my first attempt at the Origin. Now last wine, two years after that, when I was doing the higher school certificate in 1977, my major work in art was the dark nebula. I had six panels that I provided of the origin plus the cover as well as the script. And I still have all of that by the way. So if anyone was to call me out on it and say is bull excrement or whatever, then I’ve got the receipts there to put pay to that.

(06:36)
And the name Dark Nebula. Very simply, there was an exclamation by the super scroll in Avengers 94 in the crease scroll wall where he says by the black Nebula. And I thought that’s, I like that. But then I thought black was a bit bleak and I thought, what about dark? And that’s when I settled on Dark Nebula and I didn’t just stick by the name. I actually went and researched because back then you had to go to the library to read encyclopaedia and that I researched Dark Nebulas and there’s a dark nebula in the Southern Cross constellation, it’s called the cul sac. Look it up, it’s there. So it’s kind of cool when you can actually integrate things. And I can tell you now that other elements that fed into my brain, I’d watch a B Sci-fi film like this island earth or whatever. And there were elements in that that subconsciously stayed with me and other things I’d seen in my childhood and dismissed or forgotten, I’d watch them again and I’d go, holy crap, this must be where I got this from.

(08:01)
It was so many things that was so unconscious. And it’s not like I sat there and took notes and I’d say, well, I’m going to use this from this and that from that or anything like that. Anything that I would later find was from something else, I’d go, oh, that’s right. And it’s just amazing how these elements came together. It’s like if anyone’s watched the movie Finding Neverland about the story of how JM Barry came up with Peter Pan, they’ll see that there were different elements that came to him from the things that surrounded him, like the creation of The Lost Boys and all those other things. And in much the same way I’m able to go through the etymology of Dark Nebula. But I can tell you now that script that I turned in for the higher school certificate in 1977, I had a reread of it or tried to have a reread of it recently.

(09:07)
And oh my God, I can tell you now that from 78 to 80, I went to art college in Wagga at Rivera College, which is now Charles Sturt University. And in those three years while I was doing my art diploma, I was also taking dark Nebula to the Fat farm so that by the time I finished college and I got off a bus, I got off a train at Central, I knew that the concept was fully formed and then it would take me a couple of years before I finally got the graphic novel off the ground. But without word of a lie, I did shop it around to the Sunday papers and I was nearly picked up. But if I was going to get dropped from consideration for another strip, I don’t think I did too bad to be shoved out the door by Judge Dread. So yeah, that was, I guess if I could say that I was in good company, I’d say that was the case. I mean, if I was bumped by something like Tocan or Starry or anything like that, I mean that would be very disappointing indeed. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (10:28):
Oh, judge Dreads a good one to be with mate, you know what I mean? Got bumped by Judge Dread. That’s something that everyone can say.

Tad Pietrzykowski (10:36):
Well that’s right. And look, back then I was even, I remember going to see Mad Max two and it inspired me to come up with an idea for a comic strip I just never pursued, which was bridging the gap between Mad Max one and two, which I thought would be really good, but I was too focused on dark nebulous. So I mean if I did something like that, it probably would’ve prevented or taken, steered me away from Dark Nebula and I wanted to stay focused because Dark Nebula was mine, whereas Mad Max was Kennedy. So yeah, I rather write what I write for myself rather than a write it for someone else who’s probably got a better say in it than me.

Leigh Chalker (11:30):
Yeah, no, I can understand that mate. It’s when you get your baby, that’s what you want to focus on. So Dark Nebula is yours now, mate, I’m not remiss. I know you obviously don’t have ’em with you now because you’re not in your main comic zone. You are a huge collector of comic books, you’ve got lots of artwork, original artwork that I’ve seen over time and stuff. Now, did you ever keep, well, obviously if you kept those six pages beforehand, Dave, have you got that original page? The very first one? Am I correct in remembering that it was in a college university newspaper? Yeah, for one page. That was one of your first times at that point. Did that come out? Am I correct in thinking that?

(12:30)
Are you there mate? Frozen up. Oh well. Alright, well while Tad is coming back, I’ll do a little jig for when everyone freezes up. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for the channel helps the algorithms and stuff like that. And it just gets more people’s eyes on these shows, on products, on things that will help Australian comic book artists. So Friday night Drink and draw this Friday at 8:00 PM is tab was just talking about things that leave marks on your subconscious when you’re a kid. And the topic on Friday night Drink and draw this week is Battlestar Galactica. So you get your artwork in to the site that’ll be shown in a tick and you can get shown to people. And it’s episode 97 on the way to a hundred and week tad. Are you back mate?

Tad Pietrzykowski (13:30):
I’m now never worked with children, animals or wifi. Sorry about that. It happened at the worst possible time. You were just about to ask me about my comics. I know. I’m not in my regular haunt, it’s just like this is where the heat is.

Leigh Chalker (13:52):
Yeah, yeah, no, understandable. The end of the question was because you’re a collector and you were saying earlier you’ve got original artwork and we’ve seen some of your original artwork collection. I’m correct in thinking it came out in a newspaper many years ago, didn’t it? After you were shopping around, there was a college thing and then you went into a couple of years where the original graphic novel is done by you. You did all the artwork and everything as well, didn’t you mate, because

Tad Pietrzykowski (14:26):
That’s right, I did. This father’s

Leigh Chalker (14:29):
Quite iconic, I’ve got to say. And yeah, let’s get into all of that. With you were pumping at that point, your mind was, you said you sort of grabbed dark nebula by the collar at that stage I guess you’d saying and feeling confident about that, that was your creation mate. When did you just finally fist on the table and go, I’m claiming it.

Tad Pietrzykowski (15:00):
Yeah. Well basically since after I finished college, as I say, I did shop it around and the reason why I was shopping at Round as a Sunday comics trip, this is something a lot of people don’t know. Back in the seventies when I was still formulating a lot of the concept behind Dark Nebula, we had a very interesting lodger at our house in Tempe. Paul Power who went on to be a storyboard artist in America. He’s been there for like 45 years and he did the storyboards on movies like Robocop Predator Earth Girls Are Easy Top Gun. The sixth day he did the production art for Accidental Hero, 70% of storyboards for Welcome to the Jungle. Well back in Tempe, he was ghosting John Dixon’s Air Hawk and the Flying Doctor. And then he went on to do his own comic strip, which was Professor Om.

(16:09)
Now I was watching him put these pages together from Blank Sheet to final lines, and he always worked with a brush and it was just amazing stuff. I studied what art supplies he used, how he measured his lettering lines, and all of his lettering guides were drawn by hand or with a ruler. So I studied all the technical aspects of that, and in a way that was because I studied how he was putting comics together that fit into what I put together with my art learning at school. And then at college, it wasn’t like one was divorced from the other, it was all part of the same thing, so I just needed to feed that into it. But actually in my final year at college, I had a bad experience with a previous lecturer and one of my other lecturers got me back on the horse as far as comics were concerned and wanted me to do an underground comic about the college, which meant four letter words, the whole box and dice.

(17:27)
And that turned into a phenomenon. It was only 16 pages, but it was very memorable and I actually, this will really put the cat amongst the pigeons for people who like to get prototype appearances. I actually snuck the dark nebula in that and it was just a gag. It was a cheap gag that I thought, well, it was really trying to show just how offbeat the college was because back then I had the suit and I’d run around the silly bugger I am and the Dark Nebula made appearances on, Hey, hey, it’s Saturday and at the 1980 Melbourne Cup and all this sort of stuff.

(18:18)
But by having the character in the comic strip, I’m sure there’s a lot of collectors out there wondering now how can we get ahold of that? Well, you can’t because it was a college paper and I think it was probably used after it was used as reading material. It was also used as dunny paper. So good luck getting hold of that. But yeah, it was a lot of fun. And yeah, 1982, well actually it was 81 after I wasn’t able to get a look in at the newspapers, I thought right head down, bum up. I’m putting together a 64 page graphic novel. And here’s the funny thing, I knew it was going to go 64 pages, even though I hadn’t put a book like that together before. I knew in my mind’s eye that the pacing, everything was going to work out at 64 pages and of course it was.

(19:19)
So it took five months to put the art together. I was doing an average of a page a day from Blank Sheet to Final Line. And the way I was doing it was I would do two framing pages together so that I knew that there couldn’t be any glaring differences between the page on this side and the page on that side sort of thing. Anyway, I was doing a bit of extra work as in an extra for TV and movies and that and I’d be getting my call up. During that time I was putting the book together and nine times out of 10 I’d be getting a call back on a country practise and there was everyone bored as hell waiting for the crew to have the next shot set up and then I could just get on with the next shot. And everyone’s just, they’ve got nothing to do, not even the stars, they were just waiting to do the next scene, get those lines out of their heads and move on to the next shot.

(20:31)
So I got to know a lot of the classic cast of a country of practise while I was doing di Ula because Shane, port, Brian Winsell and all the others, they’d come up to me and asked me what I was doing. And it got to the point that Shane, Shane Portis or Brian Wenzel or whoever would say, oh, so what page you up to today? That sort of thing. So that was a bit of really cool behind the scenes stuff, but it was five months cover to cover and then I took it to Hannan Print to get it printed and they were doing those really crappy federal comics reprints, the ones with the tissue paper covers and the not so good paper quality interior. Well, I wanted to last, so I said to them, I wanted to do a 64 page graphic novel. I need a quote on this, but I want to have it on a higher GSM than you do your federal comics.

(21:35)
And I wanted that insight and out. And so that’s what they gave me, the quote, that’s what we agreed on. And when it came to printing the covers, the guy operating the print machine, he just saw comic. And so he loaded up the regular federal comic tissue paper covers and they printed 10,000 covers on the lower grade paper and they tried to buy me off with a $300 discount, and all I could see was my books weren’t going to last. And I said, no, I want what I paid for. So they had to pulp 10,000 covers, which probably brought a tear to their eyes, but it was their stuff up. So anyway, that was mate,

Leigh Chalker (22:25):
Stick to your guns.

Tad Pietrzykowski (22:27):
Yeah, that’s right. And to this day I’m seeing copies of my books show up on eBay or wherever, and they’re in great shape. Unless someone saw it as being done paper in a sheltered workshop sort of thing, they’d all be well taken care of. In fact, just recently, as you’re probably aware, I was invited to Sydney Supernova. Well, in the lead up to that, one friend of mine put his copies of my books up on eBay and my first graphic novel went for $338 in that auction. There was some pretty heated bidding going on in that and then hot on the heels of that while that auction was going, someone else put up a copy of that same book. And to me it looked like it was in as good a copy as any of mine that I have here. My file copies, I studied the scans of it, and that went for 3 55.

(23:39)
And the guy who, well, actually both guys who ended up winning them, they were clearly dark Nebula diehard fans. One was Peter Healthy over at WA and the other Darren Row who’s here in New South Wales. And Darren, when he said that he’s the guy who bought it, he said, the most I’d paid for a copy, a comic of any sort before that was a Star Wars one for 200, and it showed how much he loved dark nebulous. But having said all that, it just goes to show that if you plan ahead, sometimes these things go your way. And that’s why unless someone really had an issue with their copy and decided they were going to feed it to their dog or something, nine times out of 10, those books really stood the test of time, which is what I intended back then.

Leigh Chalker (24:42):
Oh man. I actually saw it must have been a post on one of the social media sites that had that on eBay and I did catch a glimpse of it. I didn’t realise the final price, but I got How do you feel about your comic books turning up on eBay?

Tad Pietrzykowski (25:05):
Look, I don’t mind at all. In fact, I’ve got to tell you something. The other day, this guy who I’m buying stuff from on and off, he actually unearthed copies of my books and he showed that the issue one that he had or that he has not only has both Lumsden signature and mine, but it’s an old school signature of mine because these days I just use a Sharpie. And I guess you just have to hope that it’s an authentic signature because I think the two people have got the worst signatures are probably myself and Frank Miller.

(25:48)
But no, this was an old school signature where actually you can actually see that I’ve written tad, whereas these days it’s more like twin lightning bolts. I mean that’s the way my signature was then on its way to where it was now. But no, I think it’s great. I just like to see what the market thinks of it all. I mean issue one of Dark Nebula in that same auction I mentioned that the graphic novel went for 3 38 issue one. I was floored when I saw that it closed at 280, 2 50. Now that’s a bloody good price. And I can tell you now that that copy found its way back into my hands at Sydney Supernova because the guy who bought it got it in time so that he could take it to Sydney Supernova to get me to sign it. And I said, mate, how cool is that?

(26:47)
I said, you pay that much for this book, you deserve a signature. And that’s what it comes down to. But I have to be honest, I had to, well in the last year or so or however long it was, I had a lot of people bugging the hell out of me for copies of number one. So if you’ve got a spare copy of number one, you can sell me. And of course the answer was no. If I got rid of my copies, then I’ve got no copies and then I’ll still have people bugging me for copies of number one, which is why I went and had this done, this replica edition of Dark Nebula One. Now it’s very obviously different from the original because it’s got the different logo, it’s got the RIE brand on it and it says 40th anniversary limited edition, which is all true, but without word of a lie, I wanted to make it as faithful to the original as possible.

(27:47)
And that’s why the Inside Front cover, apart from the changing of two words to be replica edition instead of the month and year of the original and changing the interior ads to being current ads, I think one of the current ads I put in there was Peter Lane’s, sky Skies, cavern Library, just have a look here. Well, I’ve got Rick McCune. Yeah, sky’s Kevin Library, and he was chuffed that it got a look in there. But otherwise, with those changes with the ad pages and everything, the whole thing is laid out exactly as it was because Marvel did probably the worst replica edition of any comic. They wanted to make sure that no one could mistake their reprint of Marvel Comics, number one for the original. And they did it as a hard cover. And then they put in all these extra pages and they put in the editorials and everything, and all you wanted to do was open it up and read Marvel Comics.

(29:02)
Number one, you didn’t care about the outside of it, the way they screwed it up so much that it really spoiled the experience. And I thought, that’s how not to do a replica edition. This is how you do a proper one. And what I’m going to let’s slip is that I’m in the process of getting colour replica editions of issues one to eight ready. So they’re going to be under the RIE brand, they’ll probably have the current logo on them as well, but when they’re all finished, then I’ll release them so that people can have, if people have picked it up from issue nine, and by the way, the reason I restarted the title from issue nine is that unlike Marvel and DC I do know how to count. And if you’ve only had eight issues, I think the next step is nine. I hate all these new number ones.

Leigh Chalker (30:08):
I get confused. I’m easily confused like yourself collected when I was younger and dad did and stuff, and I like issue 467. You know what I mean, of the whole run. Do you know what I mean? I just like that instead of six number ones every two years and rebooting, restarting, and I can’t keep track of anything. But

Tad Pietrzykowski (30:32):
There was a time, there was a time that the character who had the most number ones was Aquaman and now really? Yeah, no, they did several miniseries of Aquaman. They had the original title that went to issue 56, and then they resumed it from 57 up to I think 72 or something like that. And then there was a mini series and there was another mini series. And I’m thinking, hang on, got all these new Aquaman number ones. And that stuck with me. But then now Marvel have obviously blitzed that because they’ve probably got more spider, more amazing Spider-Man number ones than Aquaman would ever see. So it’s just nuts. Yeah, I agree with you. You need to have the numbering right. And even when they create this legacy numbering, they still screw it up. Marvel included the mini series, renew Your Vows in the Numbering for Amazing. They could have just, and that’s one of, I don’t know how many miniseries, but because they chose that to be the one that would help with keeping the numbering up, I just thought that was screwy. Another, Hey, dont’s online. Okay, Don Diego, I always call him Don Diego. He knows that because Zorro is one of my favourite characters of all time. He

Leigh Chalker (32:06):
Likes that.

Tad Pietrzykowski (32:08):
Yeah. Oh no, he definitely, look, I would’ve killed or died to do Zoro myself, but that’s all right. I’m glad it was in the hands of reliable people I know. But no, Marvel Dunno how to count. They resumed, took up the numbering of strange tiles and then continued as Dr. Strange from 1 69 to 180 3, and then they then resumed strange tiles from 1 69. So that means there’s all these other issue numbers that are in limbo. But now with Dr. Strange, they now say the legacy numbering is up to 300 and whatever, or 400 or whatever. So where was the numbering? What numbering did they stick with? Did stay with the Strange Tales or did they stay with the doctor? Strange for those issues, you’ve got to pick one and the other one journey and a mystery that they went from Thor to Journey and a mystery from 5 0 3 to 5 21, and then they stopped that title.

(33:17)
But then when they brought out Thor 600, they ignored the fact that this was a continuation of journey into mystery. And so they ignored those 5 0 3 to five 20 ones, but over at C. And like I say, I have the same issue with dc. They came up with Flash 700 or seven 50, whatever it was, and when I worked out their numbering, they screwed up. They actually omitted one series of the flash where Bart Allen Alan Impulse was the Flash 13 issues. So issue seven 50 or whatever it was, should have been 7 63. But yeah, for me, like I say, dark Nebula nine is easy for me because there was only eight issues before that.

Leigh Chalker (34:12):
Well, because a reason for that isn’t there, because when I was a young fella, dark Nebula was kicking on. And I’ve shown you, and I’ve spoken to Jason Paulos about it, the classic dark nebula cover of Grandstander in front of the poster spray painting. And that was the first Don amazed by your comic knowledge mate.

Tad Pietrzykowski (34:42):
It just leaks out of my brain, mate.

Leigh Chalker (34:45):
Mate, it’s good stuff. I love it. Yeah, no, that was like when dad and I went to the news agents, that was one of the ones where he said, man, just get whatever you want. And that stuck out in my mind. And after that I remember it just sort of disappeared a little bit. What was the reason for anyone that doesn’t know what your thoughts were and why you slowed it down to pretty much your stop at that point after being so iconic? I mean, you’ve got dudes running around in your suit and stuff. I mean now that’s ingenuity like marketing man, you know what I mean? You self dressing up as dark nebula and getting into those places and getting that out there back in the day, that’s pretty awesome too. So you were humming, you were pumping, so what were your thought processes behind pulling it up there for a few minutes?

Tad Pietrzykowski (35:43):
Well, let’s just backtrack to the costume. I was the original cosplay, when you think about it in that respect here in Australia, I mean I knew that people were dressing up in the Halloween parades in Rutland, Vermont because we used to see that in the early seventies comics. But here in Australia it was just unheard of and people just thought I was weird, which is probably a fair assessment too. But now every man and his dogs wearing costumes and well, I can say Dark Nebula did make an appearance at recent Supernova. It wasn’t me in the suit. I won’t do that. But yeah, but now going to your question about why I pulled up stops my original intention after I got issue eight out, I was going to take a three or six month break and that was it, and that was going to be my plan.

(36:39)
Then I was going to do issues 9, 10, 11, and 12 and then maybe call it a day. But we went to the comic convention that year. These were the ones that George and Chrissy from King’s Comics used to put on. And I got up one day and I was talking about my plans moving forward about 9, 10, 11, and 12. And then the next day the guy, the rep from Marvel Comics got up and basically his spill was, and this is what I took away from it, we are going to flood the market with so much extraneous marvel crap that everyone’s going to want to buy that because it’s Marvel and we’re going to flood you little bastards down the S bend down the sewer pipe. And I thought, well, I could do one of three things. I could continue publishing and set my money on fire or flush it down the dummy or I could do another thing.

(37:42)
And that’s just not continue because I have to say that there were problems I had with the distributor, the printer and the distributor. They had their formula that they knew works for them and all they were doing was just dumping. They weren’t distributing comics, they were dumping comics on news agents. And if a news agent didn’t sell any comics, it didn’t matter. They just keep sending them that comic. And after a good showing of Dark Nebula one, I saw a steady decline for issues 2, 3, 4, and five. And while that was happening, I kept arguing with the distributor, I need to see the breakdown of where these comics were going. And they kept saying, no, no, no, we’ve got our formula and it works and all that sort of stuff. They were trying to fob me off as if I didn’t know any better than them.

(38:44)
And in the end, because I was the customer and I said, look, I insist because this is my money. So they finally showed me the breakdown and I looked at these news agents that sold out and I looked at these other news agents that sold nothing and I said, right, what I want from this point onwards is I want you to these copies that are going to these news agents that are not selling any, don’t send them anymore. They don’t get ’em anymore. These are my books. I am saying now they don’t get them, but these ones that are selling out, take these ones over here that have been flushed down the dummy and put ’em over there. And I can tell you now, issues six, seven and eight, the second half of the trial of the Dark Nebula as well as the two part Dark Nebula Southern Squadron crossover were some of the bestselling issues that we had.

(39:40)
And even then I was thinking outside the square. I mean I remember I had some Sydney returns of the graphic novel and I got Gordon and Gotch who were handling my distribution and then to send them over to New Zealand and then with issues seven and eight of dark Nebula, when I got my Sydney returns of those, I got NDD news agents, direct distributors to send them over to New Zealand. So at least those books were getting repurposed and that was an important thing. But because I had those problems with the printer and the distributor and they were trying to, I guess what they would really try to do was discourage me from doing business with them. Even though I was a great customer. I mean, I did more than what was expected of me as far as our arrangement

Leigh Chalker (40:44):
Dropped out again. Alright, we’ll come back to that and we’ll get back into our little bits and pieces where Tad works out his internet, the problems with live streaming, that’s just how it is. Hey, it’s like, well, we’ll just move on. So wait for Tad to come back. So don’t forget that these shows, the Friday Night Drink and Draw and Chinwag are all sponsored by the Comex Shop. So the Comex shop’s running across the top and here and there, COMEX Shop. Shop, there you go. You can go there and you can get over 100 Australian independent titles. So it’s got a flat rate of $9, doesn’t matter whether you buy one, doesn’t matter whether you buy 10, 20, it’s all nine bucks. So get in there because there’s a whole heap of dudes that work really hard and creators ladies as well, that work hard to get their stories to you.

(41:37)
So jump on board and support Australian independent comic books. Also, there’s plenty of other places, as Tad was saying, the Dark Magula is published through RIE publications, which are also on the internet, and you can get plenty of stories from them too. You can even get the dark mea, but we’ll come to that later when Tad pops back in and look, I might just take a minute for, oh, here we go, I’ll come back to that. Here we go. How are you mate back? It’s all right, mate. I’ve got my ads written down here in case it happens. So it’s all good to go, so

Tad Pietrzykowski (42:12):
That’s all right. Yeah, yeah, I’m here for how long? Who knows? Work with children, animals or wifi? I maintain

Leigh Chalker (42:20):
Indeed. Indeed.

Tad Pietrzykowski (42:22):
Yeah. So I guess I think I got to the end of that story anyway that they stuffed me around from something to breakfast. So yeah, I just didn’t feel like doing it. And it was after for many years in the intermediate time when the internet was showing to be a real thing.

Leigh Chalker (42:59):
Okay, going to phase three. Alright, so while Tad’s fiddling around there again, I’m going to have a quick chat out loud about next Tuesday. So next Tuesday is going to be a little bit different. So we’re going to have a whole heap of, it’s not, it’s going to be a traditional chinwag so to speak. I’ll still be here, but I’m bringing a whole heap of mates. I’m bringing a whole heap of X people, creators and stuff and going to talk to you and introduce some of the creators from Comex to the public and to people that you dunno about because there’s a lot of people that do work behind the scenes and stuff and they’ve got a lot of great comics. So you’ve got S wants to bring it up. You’ve got Stella Lands at the moment, which is a Comex product now it’s 50 odd page comic book that is on Kickstarter right now coming down into its last 11 days, 10 days.

(43:58)
So you should probably get on that. I’ve read it. Damn good comic book Max should be really proud of what he’s done there and so should Shane and the guys, it’s great work. So there’s also other levels and things you can buy along the lines. I think there’s Cirus Perceptions is another comic you can pick up, which is Comex related. And so yeah, next week’s just basically an intro of the crew and have a talk about up and coming promotions and stuff like what’s coming in the future, what everyone’s doing. And we’ll come back to Tad. Okay, mate, you’re back.

Tad Pietrzykowski (44:39):
How dare I interrupt your Ed just to drop out again.

Leigh Chalker (44:43):
It’s all good, man. It’s all good. All right. Back to it.

Tad Pietrzykowski (44:49):
Yeah. Well, for the longest time in the wilderness years, I guess we could call it, between Dark Nebula eight and the launching of the dark nebula.com, I did think about putting my comics on the web to reach a wider audience and it actually took a near fatal car accident 20 years ago to set the scene for what would then later take place. I was out of play and most of the injuries were to my face and jaw, which is why I look so pretty. But the fact is a radio announcer with a busted jaw isn’t much good for anything. So I had months of convalescence ahead of me and thankfully I also had really great friends. And the number one great friend in that is Gary Chana, who I dropped a line to while my jaw was wired and just mentioned that I was looking to put the dark Nebula online and he put in the tonnage, he did all the hard yer, got me on the right track and everything, and I was scanning artwork while my jaw was busted and everything like that.

(46:12)
And it wouldn’t be till 2006 that the dark nebula.com was launched, but the groundwork was laid in from the end of 2003 and once it was released to an international audience, that’s when I really learned what the world thought of the character. I mean, I was getting fan emails from places like South American countries and Italy and all other corners of the earth and it showed me that the Dark Nebula wasn’t just an Aussie character, it had universal appeal. And that meant a lot to me because I guess it’s a real proving ground when people from different cultures with different mindsets, they embrace something like the Dark Nebula. And when I had the dark nebula.com startup originally, and it was under Web Comics Nation, I think they were called, I thought, I don’t want to just have the dark nebula there. So what I also included, and I like to think that this helps to keep this brand alive as well, I ran a web comic of the Dark Nebula and Golden Age southern cross related material that was run in the Southern squadron,

Leigh Chalker (47:51):
And we will come back to that if nothing else. I’m getting a lot of practise tab, so it’s all right. I’ll have these ads down pat like and subscribe the Comex channel so we can get bells and whistles and stuff and more people come there, more eyes on there, more comic books, more support, more fun, more chin waggons. It’s all a circle. So jump in at like a hula hoop. So there you go. Now getting back to next week’s show, it is about Comic X and what’s going on, what’s coming up in the future and stuff like that. So there’s going to be a few people there. I hope you do tune in because it should be a lot of fun talking about Stella Lands, talking with Peter Wilson about Foes talking with well sped and me about Ring Around the Rosie and that is Friday.

(48:48)
Yeah, so that’ll be in your face an awful lot talking about what’s available in the shop. I’m talking with Sears, talking with SPEDs, he talking with heaps of people. So I guess it really is a chinwag. I don’t know. What do you think, Shane? Is it a chinwag or is it not? I’ll leave it to the boss. He’ll let me know. I’m sure you’ll all know as soon as I do, you’ll probably know before me. Yeah, so I mean, has anyone got any questions that they’d like to ask? Because I can sit here and talk to you about some things and make wait for Tad to get back. What do we got? Well, we’ll talk about Stellar Lands because that’s the one that’s out right now about Comex. So if Shane lets me, COMEX is a community, well comic community that’s set up by Shane and Kerry and they do publishing, they do these live streams, they help people that want to get out into publishing comic books and stuff because it is difficult, can be a little bit tricky. And here he is, we’re back and Tad’s getting into some tricky stuff about comic books and internet, isn’t he? Well,

Tad Pietrzykowski (50:09):
Here’s the thing, this is not a really good ad for Telstra.

Leigh Chalker (50:15):
No, no. Had some issues with Tasmanian internet over the time too made apparently. So if they want to watch the show, they can take some pointers. Internet providers.

Tad Pietrzykowski (50:30):
Yeah, I know they’re all big on signing you up, but then after that they go, oh, too hard and don’t get me started on the NBN. Honestly, trust me, that the arguments I’ve had, and a lot of the problems are because of them and they’re the ones that seem to come off Scot-free because there’s no right or reply with them. So anyway, the web comic was up and running and we ran those three features on there. And then at, actually, this is the interesting part, the website, the dark nebula.com was launched in October of 2006. That same month there was the launch of the Heroes and Villains exhibition at the State Library of Victoria. Now I was invited to be a part of it and I thought, oh yeah, look, it’ll just be the dark Nebula, just be a part of it, maybe a little part or whatever.

(51:44)
I didn’t think much of it, but then they kept sending me their literature and all the information that they had and it seemed they were using this iconic image of dark nebula from the cover of issue six, the second part of the trial of the Dark Nebula. It was the last Glenn Lumsden cover on the title. It was Glenn and Dave did that cover anyway, and the more more I thought, you know what, I should go down there for this. And I was doing the new enterprise incentive scheme at the time, and so I was factoring going down to Melbourne for the opening of the exhibition and just as well because apart from getting a double page spread in the booklet, they had one white wall, which was a larger than life image of that image from the cover of Dark Nebula six. Now I could think of four other features that were more prominent that could have been more deserving of that treatment.

(52:52)
Fatty Fin Ginger Eggs, Felix the Cat or Air Hawk and the Flying Doctor, they’re known internationally. And the Dark Nebula was only just coming into international recognition at that point. And that told me something that has stayed with me since that the Dark Nebula was seen as a mile marker in comic book production. I mean there were other comics that came out before Dark Nebula. I mean, look for me, when people say, well, we got into comics because of dark Nebula and obviously you did too. For me, the example I saw on the Newstands when I was still formulating Dark Nebula was the work of Gerald Carr. He did Brain Master and Vixen and Vampire and all that. He was doing what I had planned to do and I then started to do five years later.

(53:57)
But he did those and there was outcast, which was done I think by the people at Minute or books and a few other things. But people saw the Dark Nebula as the rallying point and it obviously led to what followed. I do know that by releasing that book, it led to the creation of Cyclone because while the book was originally at the printer back in 82, I first met Gary Chana and we were talking about, he was asking me about what my comic was and everything. And without word of all lie, I did not even have one sketch of Dark Nebula. All of the artwork was at the printers. So here I am trying to talk this thing up and really feeling lost at doing it. And thankfully Gary did the wait and see and then when the book came back from the printer, he could see that I was pretty serious about what I was doing. And anyway, that did lead to the creation of Cyclone because I brought Glenn Lumsden in. He and I’d been trading comics back in the seventies and he was always showing me his art and I kept telling him about all the stories I was going to do and when it looked like we were making cyclone happen, I thought, well, I’ve got to bring Glenn in on that. And then Dave Dre joined us fresh out of AKIs and that created the Fab Four.

(55:31)
We really set the bar for comic book production back then. And then we saw a few other things come out. I mean obviously Don came in at the tail end of Cyclone to do Southern Aurora comics presents and put out some really fine books. I mean those first three issues for me, I think it was just like a continuation of what we were doing. And then obviously later issues of that book, he was experimenting with other stuff and that was fine too. It was Don’s Batten ball, the rest of that. And as you know, I was bowing out of the scene at that point. Mind you having said that, the grand standard story that ran in Southern Aurora comics presents number three that was shown to Mike Richardson at Dark Horse and he liked it. He really thought it was great. And I knew I

Leigh Chalker (56:38):
Telstra internet, just when it’s getting good, I’ll tell you. All right, sis, back to Stella Lands mate, until Tad comes back. What have you been drawing lately, Lee? Well sped if people want to know mate. I’ve been doing the second issue of ringing around the Rosie of late and doing an awful lot of stuff with Ryan Valla working on a couple of little sneaky projects doing an awful lot of painting that goes with one of these projects. Ryan with his battery hen, which will be with Rosie Kickstarter launching on Friday. I guess he got me kicked off, man with the mixed media thing. And Ryan and I are always in constant communication and like to challenge each other artistically. So seemed like a good idea to have a crack at it. But hopefully that’ll be out at the end of the year, early next year.

(57:43)
That will be called My Mind is My Fortress, which will be a big mixed media trade paperback. Honestly, at this point it’s tracking for about 64 pages too. So working on that, looking forward to next Tuesday and the launch of Rosie with Stella Lands and with Ben Battery Hen and the upcoming foes. And what have we got here as came? Hello mate, welcome back Tad. Although I had so many Stella Land questions for you. Well, you can ask a Stella Lands question and I’m sure I’ll try and answer it as best as I can if you want sk. Thank you all for sped. What have you been reading? Okay mate. Weirdly enough, twice this week I have read Adventure Illustrated by Mr. C and Tim McEwen and those guys and stuff, which I got copies of the other day and speak. Awesome. Studied every page for as long as I could, man.

(58:57)
Probably one of the best comic books I’ve read in a while. Stella Lands was a good comic book I’ve been reading. Well, I like the Stella Land story. sk the Stella Land story was good. It caught me by surprise. I would say you sort of have an idea of what something’s going to be before you open it, a preconceived idea, which is terrible really, but we all have ’em from time to time. And by the end of it, man, I was super surprised. I actually think it’s a great quality comic book man. And people should have a look at that on the Kickstarter because it’s well worth it. The art is sweet. Max’s writing is really, really solid, man, and it really does set up chapter one of an increasing and ever-growing universe. And funny part is Max was on one of these shows a couple of weeks ago and he was talking about how he’s a huge fan of The Wire and I gravitated towards that because I also am a huge fan of The Wire.

(01:00:08)
And when Max was talking about how he wanted to take different elements of the universe, different particular, I suppose areas industrial and space and government and all that, I can see where he is going with that and I look very much forward to it. So yeah, man, get it, check it out. And sk for my own ego, how was the lettering? The lettering was very nice, mate, but your lettering’s always very nice. It just does what you like to do mate, and just goes with the flow of the page and gently guides the reader through from panel to panel, man. So for that, it’s right on point. Everything’s lovely about it. And sp okay, you have to write an ongoing title at Marvel. What characters do you write for?

(01:01:05)
Man, I probably, he’s a bit overdone there I think to an extent, but he’s still cool and he’s still one of my big, when I think back on it, and I’d probably have a crack at Ghost Rider, I would like to do that. But I’d also like to draw Ghost Rider I think. I reckon some of my artwork might be suited to that depending, so I’d probably throw my hat into the ring on that. And here’s Tad and all right, see man, I’ve got to say though, Telstra internet while not very good, it is bringing you back men. So we can be very appreciative of that.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:01:48):
I think it’s been bringing me back, kicking and screaming. I was going to say, you’re probably running out of ads. I was half expecting to see you juggling chainsaws or something while you were waiting for me to come back on.

Leigh Chalker (01:01:59):
Yeah, no, well mate, look, I’ll let out a little secret here. All right. And Mr. C Cha, when if he’s watching or when he watches this back, I’ll have a chuckle, but my nickname is shit talker Chalker mate, so I can talk underwater. Apparently it’s one of those things in my family that they have a laugh at, so I’ll just ad lib and freestyle as best I can. Man, I’ve got thankful I had SK and Spie. They’re helping me out with some little questions here and there, which thank you very much, gentlemen. But before Telstra internet goes bottoms up again, tad back to you.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:02:39):
Yeah, back to me. Actually, what I’m going to do, I’m going to put this on the screen for people to see. This is the dark Nebula cover that you did for me for Dark Nebula 12. And yes, we do believe that SOIs looks like Shane Stel. But yeah, no, I got to say one thing I’m enjoying about being back in the game and the reason I’m back in the game is again because of Gary c Cho and I’ll, I’ll get back to that in a sec, is that I’m getting a lot of people wanting to turn in covers for me, which is great. Actually, one person who promised me back when I was doing the original run of the title, he said, I will do a cover for you. And that’s France Cantor whose work has been seen in Australian penthouse or Playboy or whichever.

(01:03:41)
I’ve lost track of where his work’s been. He does a whole lot of high-end artwork. Well, I hit him up and said, mate, I remember you said you wanted to do a cover for me. Is that office still on the table? And he said, absolutely. And he turned this one in for number 12 as well. Now if you’ve got 3D glasses, and even if you don’t have 3D glasses, I’ll get it out of the plastic so you can have a bit of look at it. But if you’ve got 3D glasses, there’s a 3D effect on that, which works perfectly with 3D glasses. And I have to say that France is an absolute gentleman that he came through with the goods on that one. It was just because some people, when they say they’ll do something for you, you never hear from them again. But when I tapped him on the shoulder, he didn’t Bo, he didn’t back up. He said, I’ve got this idea. I said, well, you go for it. You do what you want. Which he did. And it looks fantastic. And everyone has thought has said as such. In fact, I even had a small poster made of that, which I had at Sydney Supernova and the 3D effect works just as well on that. So I’ve been getting a lot of people turning in covers for me, and I guess I’m getting more offers for covers than I have with issues coming up.

Leigh Chalker (01:05:08):
Yeah, yeah. Oh no. So anyway, well Tad’s coming back. Yeah, the first Australian comic book that I ever got was the Dark Nebula and inside of that was Jason Paulo’s artwork. So that blew my mind and made me realise that there was other Australian comic books out there at the time. So in a very strange, I guess cycle cyclical way many years later, I got to talk to Tad when Telstra allowed. So sometimes it comes down to whether you live or not with a fascist internet provider that’s very picky and choosy. And the opportunity came up between talking and I asked and he agreed. And I got to at about 42, make one of my youthful and childhood dreams I guess become a reality. So it was most enjoyable. I learned an awful lot doing that cover. That’s why sometimes when I’ve talked on the shows and stuff before, collaborating with people is just the best thing. You learn so much men just from other people, ideas, tips and things. You don’t have to take ’em all but some stick and resonate and work for you in whatever fashion they do.

(01:06:33)
But it is a shame about the internet tonight. But I hang in there for a little while and see if Tad comes back and we’ll get as much out of him as possible. But back to SPEDs question. Yeah, bud Ghostwriter, I think that’d be the one to go. I’d also, if I could dabble into the 2000 ad universe, I reckon I probably wouldn’t mind having a draw and a dabble at a BC Warriors, because that’s got a lot of open slather and man, those robots are really cool. And I love those dudes, Joe Pineapples. He’s like the coolest guy ever and oh, thank you Peter. Thank you mate. I appreciate that. There’s heaps of fun to draw, man. As I said, there’s a lot of things that life gives you a few cannonballs sometimes mate, but you got to pick yourself up and gives you a lot of opportunities as well that when you have time to look back on things and reflect, you realise how lucky and grateful you are for those opportunities. And thank you to Telstra Internet. I’m very grateful. Okay, tad back mate.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:07:53):
Back. Yeah, so I’ve got a lot of covers that are lined up for future issues because there are so many people lining up to do ’em and I think that’s great. Mind you, there are also some covers that I’ve had done, which I’m actually proud of how they turned out. Where is it? Of course it’s not at my fingertips. Here it is. No, that’s not it. Don’t you hate it when that happens? Probably by the time I get to show this cover I’ll have dropped out again. Here we’re

Leigh Chalker (01:08:34):
Tomorrow you’ll be promoting Dodo.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:08:37):
Yeah, probably. There we go. This one here, it’s a mixed media combination. The background of it is a painting by fine artist Ken Raffe, who was also the fur of my partner, McKayla Ken actually gifted that cover to me years ago, I did seek permission from him in the months leading up to his passing. And I said, look, I think this’ll introduce your to a completely different audience. The figure in the foreground is mine. And Dave Dre put it all together to work the magic. Yeah. So anyway, it was just nice to be able to pay tribute to Ken, who I’d fostered a great relationship with and was trying to foster a better relationship between himself and his daughter and all the rest of that. So I guess it’s just a matter of seizing what opportunities there are. I mean, I’ve got a neighbour who actually does still a photography and he’s snapped images of dark nebulas from the night sky, and he’s given ’em to me and said, here, use these in your books and I’m going to be using them. So it’s not something we haven’t seen before. I mean, Jack Kirby pioneered mixed media in his work back in the sixties and seventies.

(01:10:18)
But to be able to do those things now, I think, well, why not? Rather than labour over painting this nebula or doing whatever with that use, whatever tools are at hand. But circling back to Gary and really getting the dark Nebula back from issue nine onwards was something we talked about. We talked about it a few years ago and it would’ve happened sooner except one of the side effects of my motor vehicle accident 20 years ago was in fact PDSD and HyperX anxiety as well as depression. And when we were getting ready to launch Cyclone Force, I’d finished doing the advanced diploma of Screen and media and I hit the stop button and I was just not doing anything, which I think went for 18 months to two years or something like that before I would even, it’s something I struggle with from time to time.

(01:11:34)
But once we got restarted with Dark Nebula nine, and when Gary turned in this cover for Dark Nebula Nine, which is a tribute to Captain Marvel 29 from Marvel comics, Marvel being one of the spiritual fathers of the Dark Nebula, as far as I’m concerned, as soon as I saw that cover, I thought, yeah, you had me there. And it was a tryout book to see what the market would think of Dark Nebula, because the original contents for Dark Nebula nine was what wound up being dark Nebula 10. And that’s dinosaurs in Tasmania. And I’ve always had this cover sitting there. This book was actually done over 30 years ago. I mean, when I said I was going to do Dark Nebulous 9, 10, 11, and 12 back in the early nineties, I wasn’t kidding. Dark Nebula nine had been completed and it was probably the longest living inventory story in comics history as far as I’m aware. Anyway. And Shane Foley puts it best like this. He drew that as he was getting ready to go into Queensland Ambulance and I printed it as he was retiring from Queensland Ambulance 30 years later, I, my case

Leigh Chalker (01:13:07):
I guess.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:13:08):
Yeah. And honestly, I’ll tell you now, when it came to releasing Darknet, the dinosaurs in Tasmania story, I had to be sure that it wasn’t dated. I mean, I knew the artwork wasn’t dated because it was still as fresh for me as it was when Shane turned it in. Hang on, I’m moving left. I should be moving. Right? And there was nothing wrong with that. I just needed to know that the script I was turning in for it was the best it could be. And I kept massaging it. I left it really till the last minute to lay it down because I wanted to make sure it really popped. And thankfully it did. And this is where the marriage of words and pictures comes into play for me. The words are there to supplement the images. Now, if the words do more than that, if you don’t have the proper marriage of words and pictures, if you’re not letting the artwork breathe and it’s being suffocated by the words you failed, it’s just got to be the right mix. And I needed to know that all the words that needed to be on the page were in fact on the page.

(01:14:34)
And literally I’d go back and I’d see a panel, I’d see a caption, I’d go, I can par that down even more. And I did. I got it down to the bare bones because if you can take it right down to the bone as far as the dialogue’s concerned, and it tell as much of the story as it needs to so that the artwork is there doing its job, then you’ve hit the right mix. And that’s just how I feel about it. It’s not a matter of, oh, look, I need to show people I know how to swallow a dictionary in AAU at the same time. No, no, no, no, no. It’s not the Odyssey. It’s not War and Peace. It’s not Catch 22, it’s a comic book. It’s meant to work in its form and its form is words and pictures. Yeah. So anyway, I try and put less words in the comic than it took for me to give that little diatribe just then, because you, I can talk the leg off a horse, I can talk underwater with a mouth full of marbles. I worked with a guy who was even better than both of us combined. He was a race caller and everyone called him the All Night Chemist. He never shut up.

Leigh Chalker (01:16:10):
Well, I think I’d rather shit talk at your mate.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:16:15):
I like that. That’s a really good nickname.

Leigh Chalker (01:16:21):
Oh mate. Two peas in a pod, mate. Nothing wrong with having a yarn. That’s what Chin, that’s right. Racehorse bloody call it. I think of that, I think of that 12th Man, dude, what was his name?

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:16:35):
Oh yes, Billy Birmingham. Was it, hang on

Leigh Chalker (01:16:38):
Doing that, racing on those cassette tapes that used to hear years and years ago, given Dark Nebula, like we’ve spoken about your back, you’re geared up and stuff. Going back a little way after your accident, I’m assuming with all of going to Melbourne and seeing that huge standee of dark nebula and stuff like that, that would’ve started filling you with a lot more confidence I imagine as well to get realising that your creativity has made such a huge impact. Also, back in the day too, when you were humming, you guys did a convention in Sydney. Yeah, the cyclone dudes where all your stuff went off and you were really popular at that one as well. That’s a nice story that I’ve heard over the years. That is a good one. But what I want to get to now is coming into the 41st year and stuff, you’re doing some things with Ry as well, like there’s the Dark Nebula and there’s crossovers coming. There’s a whole heap of stuff that’s moving along with varying writers and artists and that as well. Now for my knowledge, are they all separate limited series or are they in the continuity of what you’re doing with the dark nebulous trajectory in its solo comic?

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:18:22):
Okay, with the miniseries, the Dark Nebulous Southern Squadron miniseries is that’s really a retelling of the dark nebulous origin with the squadron tightly integrated within it. Because when I first approached Dave about it, I thought, if I’m ever going to do the origin again, I want to do it with the squadron. And as you’re well aware, we relaunched the Ogle Club and we’re all getting energised by each other and all of that. And the time was right to sell Dave on the notion of the Dark Nebula and the Southern Squadron Mini series. And we’ve got all sorts of behind the scenes plans with that as well. But it was meant to do two things. One, it was meant to basically relaunch the characters and be a new starting point for readers now without the burden of 41 years of history to go chasing up. Because some people might like the challenge of chasing up dark nebulous one to eight and cyclone one to seven, and my original graphic novel and all that.

(01:19:39)
But some people may not, and all they want to do is read the here and now. And I’ve found with the promotions I’ve done with Dark Nebula, largely through the Grail Hunters group on Facebook, that people have come on and said, I’m here for the, I want to buy all your new comics from here on in. And it’s nice when people say that, but I also think those people need to be rewarded. And that’s why the reintroduction of the Dark Nebula formally with the Southern Squadron, because then it also formally reintroduces the squadron without people having to worry about, again, 40 years of history to chasing up. But also it’s something new for the old time readers because they’ve read the Origin before. So if we just represented the origin verbatim, what were they there for? I mean, it’s just the same stuff, but no new information. Well, I sold Dave on the idea of doing the story. I said, effectively look at the original graphic novel and look at the scenes in between.

(01:20:55)
And I gave him that basically as my idea. And Dave took that and he ran with that. And he said, well, what if we did this? What if we created this subplot as well? Whereas while the dark Nebula fighting in outer space or becoming the dark nebula and outer space the squadron are doing, dealing with this same issue on the ground, there is a terrestrial aspect to it that the squadron have to deal with. So part one is Mark Medulla becomes the dark nebula while the southern squadron are battling this terrestrial threat. Part two, the characters collide, and I mean that it’s meant to be fun. But then part three, the heroes really get their act together and deal with the threat. And so it’s a very satisfying introduction or reintroduction of the characters. That’s that one mini series. Then Dave’s is still doing the dark nebula, sorry, the southern squadron and torn where the squadron meet the characters from torn.

(01:22:20)
And look, I’ve seen part one and it’s a ripper, it looks fantastic, and I simply love how Dave’s kept the night fighters humour alive in it. Every time a certain word said he burst out laughing. That’s all that has to happen. And it tells you all you need to know about the Night fighter, and I think that’s fantastic. Then there’s a third miniseries, and that’s Dark Nebula torn. Well, that was one that I coot with Hayden Spar, and we talked very, I guess we got very detailed about it because it made sense. I wanted the dark nebula torn story to be as different from the southern squadron torn story as night is today. And so the best way to do it was I decided that we needed to put torn in dark nebulous sandpit in outer space.

(01:23:35)
And effectively I picked up elements of a storyline that I had worked out for way, way, way in the future. And I thought, well, why don’t I just bring them forward and get this story told? And as I say, Hayden and I plotted it together, and as far as the story and artwork are concerned, it’s going to be the Hayden and Ben Sullivan show. And look, I’ve got as much glory as I need in it because I created the dark Nebula. And I’m not saying that with a big head, but I want this to be more the Hayden and Ben show and let them shine. Why not? I still have an active hand in it. It’s not like I’m going to say, oh, you can’t do this and you can’t do that, or anything like that. But I’ve basically participated in the way that I would like to with that and just let the young guns run with it.

(01:24:40)
So that’s the story there. And as you’re probably aware, there is a fourth mini series. It’s a two part mini series that’s sort of going side by side with all of that. And you’ve spoken with Bo about it, the Southern Squadron Dark and part one of that was an add-on for the dark nebulous Southern Squadron Kickstarter. And part two is going to come up in a forthcoming Kickstarter, which one? I’m not entirely sure. We haven’t exactly worked all those those ins and outs with it. So yeah, there’s those things. And I also have to say that that’s not the start and finish of my involvement with Ry. I’m sort of an unofficial editor on a couple of the titles, which means I just go over stuff and I just make sure that everything’s in place. I went back over the first few issues of Rick McLoan and made my suggestions and all the rest of that too, just to smick them up a bit more because the thing I bring to the table is I’m really old school English. I’m not talking about Shakespeare, old English. I’m talking about proper grammar, proper spelling, all of it. I mean, I’ve got a very useless superpower. I can open a page and spot the typo in, nothing flat, my eyes just go straight to it and look, I’m happy to contribute that little thing because you only get one chance at a first impression. That’s really what it comes down to. And if you don’t catch it before the readers catch it, you are the one with the egg on your face.

(01:26:45)
Sometimes mistakes slip through to the keeper, and that can’t be helped because we’re all only human. But as long as you put your best effort in, I think that’s the most important thing. If you strive for excellence, if you can strive for way up here in the stratosphere, it’s better than aiming here and being lucky if you get one inch off the floor. That’s the thing. Aim high is really all I can say about that.

Leigh Chalker (01:27:21):
Well, mate, I would think I know Hayden and I know Ben and mate, you got a damn good combo there working.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:27:29):
I’m going to add one more name to that, and it’s the guy doing the colouring. That’s Graham Jackson. Now, when I told Graham about the project, I said, I think this might be one you’d like to be on board with. And I showed him some of Ben’s artwork for it. He said, I’d kill or die to be involved in this, or words to that effect. And he just did some samples. And the next thing I knew Gary ler had locked him in, which was fantastic. Now that’s what I call an A team. And speaking of a teams, I mentioned that I did the dollar trades back in 2007, 2008. Well, I did the colouring on those, and effectively that’s the colouring for issues one to eight of dark nebula. Now, if I wanted to just use that colouring and just put those books out, now I could, but looking at the colouring I did back in 2000, 16,008, some of it stands up, but some of it really, I’m looking at it going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

(01:28:43)
And so I tapped Graham on the shoulder for that and said, how would you like to smick this stuff up? Because all he needs, I mean effectively treat the colouring. I did like colour flats. I was colouring in what I’d like to call a Silver age style because that’s the tone I always love with my books. And Graham took that and really went to town with it. He’s already turned in the recoloring on issues one, two, and three. And look, if he sees a page that doesn’t need much work, he won’t do much work on it, which is fine. So it’s like small, medium, large, like small being, yeah, this is good, medium being okay, let’s take care of this, and large being, whoa. And so he’s done one, two, and three. He’s currently working on torn as well as on dark nebula torn, and then he’ll probably come back and do issues 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 in between different, and that’s what I call an A team.

(01:29:58)
Yeah, I have to say when he turns in some pages, he makes me, when Glen Lumsden used to turn in pages to me and I saw my script in a different light from because he threw down the gland and said, here’s my artwork, do it justice. Well, naturally, Graham looked at the project as it was colouring and all and saw that as the gauntlet had being thrown down and he was equal to the task, there’s some panels which I look at the backgrounds and I go, wow, look at this detail here. This is an approach that I would never have thought of. It’s like when someone draws your character and you see it in it through different eyes, through a different lens, and it’s the same with colouring when the coloring’s turned in and you see things that even you didn’t imagine when you thought, this is the best that we can do.

(01:31:03)
Well, guess what? It might’ve been the best you could do then, but here’s the best you could do now. And I will say this about Graham’s colouring. Never once have I thought that he is chucked a Neil Adams on me or anything like that. You might’ve seen some of that Neil Adams recoloring on jobs that were perfectly all right, but then he has to put the Merck and all this stuff and it just ruins it. Well, that’s what Neil Adams did. But what Graham does is proper value added, brings it up to date, steps it up that notch, but keeps it within the spirit of how it should be. And that’s a big difference between sadly what Neil Adams would have done to his artwork. And what I’m seeing now, I can say with all honesty, that when people get their hands on dark nebula torn, their jaws are going to drop because Hayden’s script, Ben Art, Graham’s colouring. It’s the price of admission that’s all used

Leigh Chalker (01:32:19):
To it. Yeah, no doubt, man. No doubt. Yeah. I’m keen ads, man. I know there’s a lot of people out there that are keen ads too, mate, after the 40th anniversary and it’s still going, but I just had this weird memory. We were talking and you were talking about your colouring, and you know how you said earlier that some things are just in your subconscious. Was there a, I’m not sure whether you’d call it a documentary or was it like a 15 or 20 minute film that I’ve seen somewhere and you were being interviewed by someone and you were actually talking to them about how you were learning to colour the dark at the time.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:33:08):
Actually, you’ve segued into something really good for anyone who would really like a crash course in the dark Nebula, go to YouTube and type in the death and the life of the Dark Nebula. It’s a nine minute documentary and basically it’s, well, it’s a crash course for people to bring themselves up to date. The most important thing about it was I wanted to connect a few dots for them and touch on the cultural impact the characters had. Like I said, it was considered a mile marker in Australian comic production, and it certainly led to the formation of Cyclone, and I know a lot of people are now calling me like a grandfather of Aussie comics. Mind you for me, the grandfathers of Aussie comics were people like John Dixon and Paul Wheeler, Monty Wedge, all those guys. But yeah, we are the old guard. But yeah, no, that little doco I felt was important because I guess I just needed to let it do what I like my books to do best, and that’s to do most of my talking for me.

(01:34:28)
I think they say a picture paints a thousand words. Well, why drown a picture with a thousand words? This page here though of my colouring, and this is the second part of the original chaos war, that’s an outer space image. Now, all I had to work with was black and white. The black you see in the background was all white. It might’ve been space, but it was there like a blank palette. And I really took my time doing that colouring. Now, I can’t wait to see what Graham does with that because I’m proud of that page, but if Graham brings something new to the table on that page, I’ll be just as excited as I was when I put that colouring in myself. And that’s just it. It’s all about finding a way to get excited about what you do. I mean, actually, this is very important for aspiring creators.

(01:35:42)
I see a lot of projects that people think there’s a lot of promise in, and they fall flat. Now, unfortunately, a lot of people have their eye on the long game. They’re looking at the movie deal, the TV deal, whatever. They’ve got stars in their eyes and they think this is going to be the best thing. But I think the problem they have with those projects is they forget the most important thing about putting it together. Forget about the financial remuneration, forget about being the best thing since sliced bread. Have fun. I mean, honestly, what is so hard about having fun? Have fun along the way, be excited about what you’re doing. I mean, you’ve got to feel the electricity running through your veins. When you come up with this line and you think, holy crap, that’s great. I mean, sure, always, always make sure that it is the best you can do and don’t just rest on your laurels, but make sure that it’s something that’s going to land.

(01:36:57)
I mean, I know one thing I do know how to do, and I don’t lean too hard on it, is that I know how to work humour in my stories, but there are different types of humour. I mean, you could have a series of dick jokes, one after the other, and the whole thing’s just going to be like repetitive strain injury RSI. You’re just going to go, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Enough’s enough. And yes, you’ve done it again and again and again and again. And honestly it gets tired. If you read Dark Nebula 10, the Dinosaurs in Tasmania, I guarantee you there’s a knockdown drag out joke which lands, and I’m proud of it how I executed it. And the best thing about a gag like that is it’s the gift that keeps on giving because it does come in for an encore at the end of the story.

(01:37:56)
Now, again, I wasn’t entirely sure how that’d be received, and it landed, the audience told me what I needed to know. I rang a comic shop up and I was just trying to get some back issues off them, and they were stocking my book, and they said, we’ve got a lot of people down here having a chuckle over your comic. And I thought, chuckle. Oh, of course, yes. Right. Okay, great. Just had to stop and think for half a moment because when I’m in collector mode, I’m in a different mode from creator mode. I do keep a separation there. And when you know that you’ve delivered the goods, that’s important. Like I said, I’ve had people say that they’re going to be on for the duration, and that’s great because it shows mission accomplished. And I guess that’s also important too. I mean, all you need to do is fall at one hurdle and people might go, well, no, I wasn’t like this as much as the previous one.

(01:39:05)
That’s probably why I’ve got so many pop culture references in Dark Nebula 11 and 12. They just rolled off the top of my head and they weren’t, I guess you could say the whole thing was organic. For me, it’s a difference. Between’s something that’s organic and something that’s forced. If it’s forced, you’re trying too hard, take a step away and have a rethink. But if that’s the way you’re going to go, be prepared to be burnt in effigy or burst in flames spontaneously yourself. But if it’s organic, it comes together on its own. And I think that’s important too. But I do have to say that there are a lot of people out there who really need to have someone else look over their work. It doesn’t hurt to get a mate to someone who knows what they’re doing, to just cast an eye over it and just make sure you haven’t missed anything or does this joke land or whatever. It is so important because again, you only get one chance at a first impression, and that’s a very important thing.

Leigh Chalker (01:40:29):
I would agree. I think what you’ve said about having fun is a super important thing as well. For anyone out there that’s creating as well. I’ve found with me in my personal experiences, if you’re a hundred percent right, if you’re not having fun, you just got to pull it up for a bit, man, and you just got to stop and you just got to remember what you’re drawing for because when you’re drawing, I mean, we’ve all been drawing most of us since we were kids and stuff, so as you get to adulthood, you’re still drawing because it’s fun, it’s a release, it’s something. Creativity is an amazing way of being able to spend time with yourself and think about how you handle yourself and stuff. But fun is the most important thing, man. And I’ve found that if you can increase your fun, and as you said earlier, when you start talking to people you found with Hayden and Ben and the colorist, and you are getting like, whoa, look at that. You know what I mean? And you are getting GED up from seeing what they’re doing. As you said, you are starting to feel some electricity like buzz through that keeps the fire burning, doesn’t it, man? Well,

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:41:47):
That’s right. And it’s also good when you’re working with people on their own features. Actually, I just saw a message from Don Teo about bring

Leigh Chalker (01:41:59):
Up back in the day, gave him some guidance with Jonathan Hound Pi.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:42:04):
Well, that’s right. And look, it doesn’t hurt to bounce ideas off each other because we all value each other’s opinions. I mean, I don’t think I have all the answers. I might have a few answers, but by the same token, look, people make suggestions to me about this or about that, and I take them all on board mean. But if it means taking it away from what the essence of the story is, then the answer’s no. But by the same token, if you can work with each other on the correct mindset of what the material is, then it can happen. Look, I remember when I was doing my Colour trades and I was putting together the two Southern squadron trades. Now I put myself in Dave’s shoes because the squadron, his baby, and I thought, well, I need to think that if I was Dave, would I be happy with what Ted’s doing?

(01:43:29)
I came up with some neat titles for my Colour Trades. The first one was Dark Nebula Origins, the second one we called Nightmares and Deceptions. Third one was Naturally the Chaos War. The fourth one was the Trial of the Dark Nebula, and the last one was Allies and adversaries, which was the two part Southern Squadron crossover. But for Dave’s, I wanted to have titles that popped, and the first one, it just wasn’t happening, it just wasn’t working. And then all of a sudden it hit me, it was staring me right in the face, and I rang Dave and said, mate, I’ve got the title for your first colour trade. He said, what’s that? I said, hold onto your brain cells. He said, perfect. I put myself in his shoes. And the second one was, it was a title, which on the surface you’d think, well, this really sucks.

(01:44:31)
But when you saw how it worked on the cover, because it was an overlay of one word, I wanted to use Double cross and crossover. So I made that double crossover, but with the double cross and the crossover overlaying, so the cross part was in both colours and fonts and all the rest of that, and that worked. The title Double Crossover sucks, but in context and in how it was for that cover, it was spot on. And that’s a really important thing too. But as you’ve been on the Ogle Club and we, we’ll just brainstorm, you wouldn’t believe, and everyone is there throwing their 2 cents worth in, and it’s great. Bo throws in all sorts of neat ideas that we take on board, and it’s great. I mean, that’s what Mates do. It’s not like, well, where’s the check in the mail for this one or that one?

(01:45:42)
But also circling right back to Paul Power, who he made me the editor on his books on his East Meets Western professor on, well, he brought me on board with issue three of East Meets West, and I then did the editing on issue three, and then the material that was going to be issues four and five, I went forward and edited them. And then I went back and I fixed up issues one and two. Issue one didn’t have too many problems, but issue two had one word and it was Australian word. It was either did do or corrobor, I can’t remember, but it was in there like 15 times, never once spelt the same way twice and never once. Correct. And I needed to fix all that up. It was harmful to the book. But the first thing I noticed, and look, Paul’s a great storyteller. He’s not the kind of person you teach how to suck eggs. But the first thing I noticed,

Leigh Chalker (01:47:05):
Okay,

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:47:06):
The first thing I noticed, because Paul’s experience in his subconscious, it was like the whole Sunday comic strip thing. I knew that he did the ear hawk and the professor on Sunday comic strip, and he was putting these pages together over 20 years or so. It was like an immense jigsaw puzzle, but each page would be another part of the story. And he asked me what I thought about whatever aspect of it, and I said, look, reading through it, I think we can save a lot of words here. He said, how’s that? I said, look, you’ve got all these multiple mentions. You are having him say Professor Rom, professor on Professor Rom, professor Rom. And I said, that works for a Sunday comic strip because obviously people are picking it up every day and you need to know who this character is, who that character is.

(01:48:09)
But I said, in a graphic novel, it’s a different story. And I said, if we reduce the mentions, it gives the artwork more room to breathe and we can actually tell more of the story over a broader thing. And that’s when I learned that my strength as an editor was to not to smother the writer’s voice with my own, but to give the writer’s voice clarity. And Paul could see that’s exactly what was coming out. I wasn’t just smothering his voice with mine. His voice was coming out loud and clear. And there was one page, I think I spent half a day on it, and it was spiralling around and around and up and down an espen like you wouldn’t believe. And there were so many duplications of mentions within that page, and I cut it to the bone and I put in the two words that needed to be put in there, the words alien anthropologists. And once those words were in there, that was the key aspect to that story that needed to be told. And it wasn’t told anywhere else, but once those words were put in there, bingo, mission accomplished.

(01:49:34)
And that’s working with a seasoned professional like Paul. And I have to say for Paul to trust me with his material stuff that he would guard probably more so than any member of his family or gold or anything like that, I think that heartens me, that he trusts me that much with it, and I’m glad that I didn’t disappoint him. He’s got two more books coming out very soon, and everything that I’ve been saying is leading up to what I’m about to say with these two books that are coming up. They’ve been in the works for the last five years or so, and he’s finally just getting the bastards out. Now I work with BLA and Indie Planet over in Florida, and what I’ve done is even though I’ve got my local release of Dark Nebula done through Jeffries, I had the neat idea of putting my files on file at Kala and Indie Planet so that US based collectors can just buy it locally.

(01:50:50)
Why the tyranny of distance of postage costs, which are through the roof when you can just buy a local edition of it. Now, conversely, I said to Paul, look, I know you’re doing your Kickstarter for these two books, sweet Revenge and Professor Rom, and you’re getting them printed over there, but what if you did the inverse and had a local release here seeing as he’s an ex-Pat Oz and have it available for local readers to buy it. I know that there’d be people who’d want to buy it because of my involvement in it. And I’ve got to tell you, there were two huge reveals that I really would like to share, but I can’t. I was allowed to share it at Sydney Supernova. But let me just say that I got to work on pages by two total legends in American comics, and they were two of the most exciting things I’ve been involved with in my whole time doing comics. It’s just nice to know that I got to do that. So

Leigh Chalker (01:52:07):
When are we going to find out? When are we going to find out?

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:52:10):
Well, not too far away, I hope, because at the moment, the books are still in the hands of Tom Luth, if anyone’s familiar with Tom Lu’s work, he’s been up and down and you name it, he’s worked on it. He’s an ace designer and he’s just finishing up the book design for both the books. And like I say, these books are actually, they’re loaded with material. They’re like, I think 68 or 72 pages of story, not just the lead story, but there’s all these backup features that Paul’s been able to use because he has access to them, which is fantastic. And without giving away anything, I can say that Paul Power was the protege of Alex Toth met when Alex came to Sydney to work at Hanna Bara’s for Super Friends. And from that moment onwards, they were as good as gold. I’ve seen more handwritten Alex Toth letter grammes than I’ve probably had hot dinners in my life. It was just a stack like that and those things that thin, it was amazing to see Alex t’s lettering as his handwriting. And I learned from then that I shouldn’t do running writing anymore. That was another thing I learned from the Paul Power experience was I dropped running writing and I just did all caps and I did lettering for a while, and that was until I had the car accident and this got screwed up. So I can still letter, but I’d rather not. I’d rather just use a font.

(01:54:14)
But there’s so much that so many things I’ve been involved with that I haven’t revealed to people, and I’ve actually got to reveal them here. The Paul Power Connection, basically the Finding Neverland elements of dark nebula, all of those things, I don’t get to talk about those things. So you manage to squeeze my brain in between Telstra dropouts.

Leigh Chalker (01:54:48):
Yeah, yeah. Well, mate, that’s what Chin wags. They just go in strange directions some days, and it’s lovely just to be able to talk, man.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:54:57):
And that’s the true way that interviews should go. Look, when I was in radio, I had difficulty getting my brain around doing interviews, and I came to the conclusion that all it is are two people are having a private conversation and everyone else is privy to it. That’s it. As long as you relax rather than, because the one thing I hated in radio was people would say, I’m going to ask you these questions. And it was all formal, and as soon as they start, the other person stiffened up like a surfboard and you just didn’t get the best out of them. And that’s why I think that’s how conversations like this work, because all we’re doing was we’re having e yarn and everyone else is sitting back and being gobsmacked by it. I dunno. No, it’s good. It’s fun. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (01:55:52):
Oh mate, it’s great because I love doing ’em because I love learning. I mean, obviously being part of comics now, I guess I get voracious on it because I’ve been reading it since I was a little kid and I’m partaking in it now. And the opportunity to talk to yourself, like people with history stories, like record ’em on this, give them to other people. The people are listening. It buzzes me, man, every Tuesday. I love it because man, the other thing is too, you’d know yourself just from our conversation now, Australia’s got such a rich comic book culture, man, realistically, a lot of it isn’t known. You know what I mean? And I love getting it out there and letting people like yourself talk about their experiences and things. Because the weird part is the more I talk to people like yourself, you notice parallels with the experience of what I’ve gone through to a certain extent.

(01:57:07)
When you were talking about things, being organic and having a chemistry, I worked by myself for a long time on Battle for Bustle before Comex came about, and I became part of the community and I’ve met great mates, best friends through this, colleagues and stuff, people I admire and creative partners with that. And once you do find that organic thing that happens, ring around the Rosie, was it for me, mate? You know what I mean? With sped and Ryan Valour and Ben Sullivan, it just went through its processes. It was about communication. It’s about talking and dancing ideas off each other. And I mean, not every idea is the greatest idea in the world, you know what I mean? But as you were saying, that’s what you got your mates for. There’s no wrong ideas. You just pick the ones that are going to get you from point A to Z mate and have fun along the way. So I feel enriched men that you’ve had similar experiences with your time.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:58:12):
I just wonder if in say, 200 years time and someone’s deciding to do a class on Australian comic production 200 years ago or whatever, and they find all of these chin wags of yours and especially this one, they’re going to go, what were these guys on?

Leigh Chalker (01:58:37):
Just good vibes, man. Good vibes. That’s all it is. It’s enthusiasm, man. And I mean, God, you’ve been going for like 41 years with the Dark Nebula man. So utter respect for that. And for me personally, if it hadn’t have been for the Dark Nebula, I may never have found all the other Australian comic books out there, man at the time, and dug my way back through and found them in secondhand bookstores and knew what I was looking for and things like that. Cool. It’s surreal for me, man. And I know it is for my other mates that are similar ages to me and younger that I talk to. And as I said, I’m very grateful for getting to do Chin wags and stuff, man, and meet you guys and talk to you and sit across from me and yarn and things, man, it, it’s been one of the highlights of the last few years for me, man. The 15-year-old in me’s blown out man still. So it’s crazy. Hey man, I want to get onto a slightly different subject with you.

Tad Pietrzykowski (01:59:52):
Sure thing.

Leigh Chalker (01:59:53):
Yeah, you are pretty legendary with your comic collecting around the place. So just quickly, how many you reckon you got? What’s your favourite? What’s, what’s your holy grail? You got any tips for anyone out there that wants to get into collecting comics where they should have a think about picking up a few issues here or there and slabbing them and tucking them away?

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:00:26):
Yeah. Well, I can tell you now that in my years of collecting, I’ve had collections come and go, and I had a great collection, which unfortunately got broken up in a divorce. And believe me, I had the earliest appearances of Mr. Mixes icks in Superman. I actually had a Superman comic. I never thought I would have Superman 30, which was illustrated by Jack Burnley. And I read this story in a DC reprint, wanted the world’s deadliest villains, and there was some stuff in there and I’ll never get ’em again. Unfortunately, that got sold, all that collection got sold. I never thought I was going to collect again. Yet, one day after a few years of misery, I thought, no, this is what I want to do. This is what I want to have, this is what I want to spend my money on. And I was lucky that my new jump on point was before everything went bananas, I bought my ths. While Thor was a dead title. I mean, this was after Dan Jergens took the title and well, I can’t really repeat my opinion of what he did to that title, but take a wild guess because he killed that title. It was so toxic. It was out of print for like 3, 4, 5 years, I dunno how many years. But Thor seemed to be conspicuous by his absence before j Michael Stravinski came along. Well, I bought all my early thaws while Thor was a dead title and had a smell on it, you wouldn’t want to believe.

(02:02:26)
And if you’re able to buy titles while they are not the best, I remember the first time I bought X-Men, I had X-Men one to 66, while X-Men was a reprint title for five years. There was no new X-Men comics, just multiple attempts at restarting the X-Men. And in that time, no one people were just happy to offload them. So I bought them, and that was back in 19 74, 75, and I was buying my spies when they weren’t that popular. But I’ll tell you now, with this current collection, I bought a lot of books during the global financial meltdown. I happened to have the money for it. That’s when I picked up my X-Men and my Spider-Man again, I bought them as runs from people who were just trying to get money together.

(02:03:30)
And now those books have gone ballistic. So my advice is if you’re going to pick a title, pick a title that’s not popular because it probably will be again, I mean, at one stage I looked at Spider-Man, and I looked at Wonder Woman, and it turned out that you probably could have bought a complete run of Wonder Woman for under what it would cost you to buy a complete run of Spider-Man. But that’s different now because did the movies and everything’s changed. And the same with The Flash. When I was lucky, I got my Flash comics before the TV show and before the movie announced, and now you’re looking at Showcase four, which is wow, you look at prices and you think You’re kidding me, right? Mind you, I’m wondering if we’re going to see a spiral down of prices on that because of the movie, because the movie is tanked and it wasn’t a bad movie.

(02:04:32)
I actually got to watch it and I got to enjoy it. But a lot of people have issues with Ezra Miller. I have my problems with him because of his behaviour life, but I do a separation. It’s like with certain comic artists, they might be right wingers and Trumpists and Off the planet and all the rest of it, but I still love their artwork. I don’t care about their politics. I like their art. And it’s the same with actors. I mean, obviously I do have a problem if I’m going to watch anything with Kevin Spacey now, even though he was a favourite of mine for the longest time. So yeah, I dunno, maybe we’ll see a dip in the price of Showcase four, but that’s one of my holy grails and I’m proud to have that. I got that before all of that. And I got Amazing Fantasy 15 before everything went bananas with Spider-Man and all that. And it’s actually signed by Stan Lee. So yeah, I’m doubly chuffed with that.

Leigh Chalker (02:05:46):
Have you got that one CGCS slapped or is that loose so you can

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:05:52):
That was CGC slab. Well, both of them are, but yeah, again, I’ve read the origins of both characters. I don’t need to crack the slabs or anything like that. And the other thing too, when people lose their minds about books that they need and all the rest of it, I’d rather spend my money on just buying more books. I mean, if a Slabbed book is the cheapest of that book at the time, I’ll get it. I remember I was after, and here’s a great example. I just wanted a copy of Amazing Adventures 11, the first issue of Hank McCoy the Beast, when he becomes the Blue Furry Beast. And I just wanted to have that book again, the best valued price of that book was a 7.5 slab book. I’d prefer to have it raw. In fact, I did get another copy raw later. I’m not going to crack the slab, but when people spend their money on going out of their way to getting the books slabbed and everything, as I say, I’d just rather buy more books. And it’s up to individuals. If people want to slab their books good on them. Actually, the one copy of Dark Nebula, one that I sold in recent times, this is going back about a year or two, a collector who was really dying to have it.

(02:07:22)
It wasn’t the best copy, it was the worst copy of the copies I had. It doesn’t mean that it was in crap condition or anything, but when I found out what it was getting graded at Halo for, I thought, wow, maybe my better copies would come up really great because this copy was coming up as a six point n, and that’s a good grade to have. That’s actually a decent grade anyway, as I’m talking about buying books when they’re not hot and all the rest of it, the one title I’ve always kept when my collections have been sold or I’ve sold them or they’ve been sold under me or whatever, the one title I’ve always held onto was Iron Fist, the Chris Claremont, John by Iron Fist. I loved that title when I was a Child, sorry, when I was a teenager. And I’ve always held onto it.

(02:08:30)
And the only difference is every now and again, I’ll think, you know what? I want to buy another run. And so I’ll buy another run of one to 15 of Iron Fist. I just simply love that title and another series that I can’t get enough of. And at the drop of a hat, I might go, yeah, I’ll get another set of this is The Dead Devil Born Again storyline. I know that they’re calling the new Daredevil series Born Again, but season three of Daredevil was the Born Again storyline. They used so many elements from that, it was fantastic and they did it justice. And that’s only seven issues out of Dare level. I always think that they’re the best value because it is the best story in that title. And yet in relative terms, they’re still bloody cheap. So it’s all about what people really want. If they can’t go another minute without this particular title in their collection, then chase it. But make sure you’re chasing things for the right reasons. What can I give you an example of? Well, actually, I’ve given you a couple of examples right there. But one book that if I ever saw another copy at a reasonable price, I’d probably say, yeah, I’ll get that. And that’s Silver Surfer number four, the Thor issue now

Leigh Chalker (02:10:11):
That’s with the famous Bassima cover. Yeah,

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:10:14):
Yeah, that’s right. And the interior, honestly, they’re to Die for because you’ve got John and Salal working together. And it was just mind blowing the first time I ever read that story. And in fact, the first time I ever read any of those silver surfers was when they did the Newton Comics reprints. And the funny thing was, I held onto those Newtons for Dear life, and then when I finally was able to get my hands on the original, I got rid of them. Well, now I’ve got to tell you, it’s kind of nostalgia creeps in. And I think, you know what? It would’ve been nice to hold onto those Newton reprints because they were how I got to read those stories first place. Same with the Australian Reprint of Savage Tales, number one. I did manage to track that one down, and I think I got three copies of that now because that’s the first time I got to read the contents of Savage Tales, one with the Barry Smith Frost Giants daughter story.

(02:11:16)
And there was, that’s right, the Origin of the Man thing with that beautiful Grey Morrow artwork and things like that. And once I got my hands on the original, I turned my back on the Australian reprint. But then sometimes you get nostalgic for certain things, and that’s what, I guess I’m sort of being driven that way myself. It’s amazing to see Australian and other international reprints of comics going for banana prices. You see them and you go, holy dooly, how the hell is this happening? Because for me, a reprint is a reprint, but there’s become a niche market for international releases of certain stories of certain comics. I mean, apparently in Europe for a while, and it was only for a short while. I dunno how long after the Silver Surfer title was cancelled by Marvel, I’m talking about the 18 issues. That was Lee Sima and all the rest of that.

(02:12:29)
And then they got Jack Kirby on for the final issue. Apparently in Europe they did New Adventures of the Silver Surfer in a foreign language. It was in a comic called Nova, and I only found out about this really recently, and they did it for a while, and then it just became too cost prohibitive for them to continue. But just to be able to read new adventures that you’ve never seen before, that kind thing excites me. There was a brilliant article in Alter Ego is Alter Ego Issue six. I know this because it had a couple of other brilliant articles in there and a cover, the original, what was intended to be the cover for Dr. Strange issue 180 1 I think it was, or no, 180.

(02:13:21)
And there was a story in there about the story behind the story of this one issue of Sergeant Fury and the Howling Commandos. But a separate article was all about how in South American countries where they were able to reprint adventures of Captain Marvel, as in Billy Batson, Shazam, captain Marvel and the Human Torch from Marvel, the Golden Age human torch and all that. Apparently in Argentina or one of those countries, they decided to do new adventures, which had these different characters from different comic companies meet. So you’d have Captain Marvel and the Human Torch in an adventure together. And I think, wow, forget copyright. Just go for it guys. And these are stories we will never see, which is a shame because that’s a part of history that is limited to a specific area.

(02:14:31)
And I guess no amount of reinventing the wheel or No, I mean, first off, you’d have to get comic companies to agree to crossovers like this because Marvel obviously still owns the Human torch, and DC owns the Shazam Captain Marvel. And maybe they could do it as like a Superman Spiderman thing, a Marvel DC crossover set in Golden Age. But then where are the pages? I mean, how do you reproduce a story that you’re not entirely sure? You’re going to have the whole story of things like that. And then those stories are lost to the world

Leigh Chalker (02:15:14):
And all that beauty. But we’d be cool to see some of that stuff though, I tell you, that’s stuff that just never would’ve been done. Only that one time. Really? Hey ta, just one of those moments in time, man.

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:15:30):
Exactly. I mean, someone probably said it’s nice that we are reprinting Captain Marvel and the Human Torch. Why don’t we just put ’em together and then boom, just like that. And look, it’s funny that when Dave and I were talking about doing a dark nebulous Southern squadron thing, the first time we ever thought about that was in the early days of Cyclone. And I went around to Dave’s place and we got on the Slops, you wouldn’t believe, and we come up with some really weak story idea that just never went anywhere. And we come up with this villain, Carl Van, I think his name was, you can guess where we got the name van from and all of that. That just went in the midst of time. Yet one thing that we’re using in the new origin of the Dark Nebula and the Southern Squadron was that Mark Medulla and Lieutenant Smith, she was a trainee when he was like a major or something like that. And they had a relationship before Mark and Anne got together, and it just seemed to make sense. Why not? So even though, well, let’s just say that night on the Lops didn’t go totally to waste. So yeah, if you got a good idea, why kill it in the crib?

Leigh Chalker (02:17:09):
Yeah. Well ideas too, man. They Gest and here you were all worried about your banker character not living on, but because of Chinwag Banker has re

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:17:24):
Reemerge saw the lighter. That’s as far as he’s going to go. Believe me,

Leigh Chalker (02:17:32):
I’m pretty happy with, if that’s how far it wants to go, I like mistake the claim that Van is maybe not fully shaped, but the idea is still there and it’s here. It’s all burst out on Chinwag. So as we start winding down the show and stuff, I like to, I guess with creators in general, and particularly with established ones like yourself, what would you say? I always like to ask, why do you do it to yourself? And I always like to ask, if Little Lee was coming to Tad with his artwork and some ideas, would you, and this is where I want to go, this is what I want to do, what would your advice be, mate? So why do you do it to yourself and what would you say to Little Lee?

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:18:26):
Well, let’s address Little Lee. First off, at Sydney Supernova, this mother and son came up to me and she was trying to tell me that her son was looking to do comics. And I looked him in the eye and I said, mate, I have been where you are now. And as long as you stay with it and you develop it, you take your time, take however long you want to do it, build your world, build your universe, it’ll all come together for you. I just wanted him to know that I could see young me in him. That was it. Just because he literally took me back to those early days when my dad brought home comics and I was dreaming up my own stories, like imaginary friends or anything like that, bringing my imaginary friends to life, so to speak. And it doesn’t hurt to let them know, to let other people in to know that you can relate to them.

(02:19:46)
And that’s so important. I mean, if nothing else happened at that Sydney supernova, I would like to think that that was probably the single greatest thing that I was able to do, was to be able to stroll down memory lane in that respect and be able to try and encourage a young one to really pursue that dream. I mean, when we did the signing for Adventure Illustrated one at King’s Comics a few years ago, there was Gary, Tim, Michael, and myself. I was a blow in because I didn’t know that I was going to be there till the last minute and said, well, hang on. My name’s on the credits. How about I come along? And I signed some books. So I did.

(02:20:41)
And one thing we noticed, a lot of kids were there with their parents and the kids were showing their artwork to us. And I think I’ve very said something very similar to one of the kids there. And look, if we lose sight of the kid within us, the one that got these wild ideas of putting these books together and everything like that, and that they were going to get this story out of that it, we’ve all got a story in us that we just want to get out there. We just want to get it out of our brain, put it on paper get it out in the world and whether it succeeds or fails, at least we’ve done it. We can look back and say, I did that and life’s full of too many regrets without having to add that to our list of regrets. And that is so important. But having gone through all of that, what was the other part of the question I’ve sort of forgotten about.

Leigh Chalker (02:21:50):
Why do you do it to yourself for those?

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:21:53):
Oh, why do I do it to myself? Yeah. Look, the truth of the matter is I got bitten by the bug all those years ago. I think if my dad had his time over again, he may not have wanted to just bring those comics home to me. Who knows? My dad was great, so was my mum. Both my parents in the time I had with them, they actually fostered and encouraged me and I’ve never lost sight of that. And if I turn my back on all of that, then I dishonour their memory as well because they could see what I got out of these comics.

(02:22:34)
When I was really small, I picked up Captain America one 13. The wrap up to Cap is dead storyline, the Jim Steranko one, and that CAPAs apparently dies in issue one 11. Then issue twelves, an album issue, a fill in issue by Jack Kirby. And I’m thinking, well, where does the comic go from there? And then halfway through issue one 13 when the Avengers are down for the count and so is Rick Jones’, Bucky, all of a sudden and Hydra has won all of a sudden bang caps back on the scene. And my mum bought me this comic because we were getting on a bus to either go to St. Peter’s or Marrickville. And I got to that part where cap’s back and I went, mom, mom, captain America’s Alive. And she must have just looked down at me and regarded my innocence in that moment because this was all new to me.

(02:23:35)
I didn’t know that this was all like a fake out thing. It totally sucked me in. But these days when they say, oh, let’s do a Captain America is dead story, I go, oh, okay, you’ve done it 15 times. The only time it was any good was when it was done the first time by Jim Staco. Give it up while you’re behind. And that’s the problem. They think that they can reinvent the wheel and do something even though it’s been done 15 times before, that their one’s going to land. And yeah, that’s a shame. But the reason I do it to myself is because I’ve still got breath in my body and while I’ve got breath in my body and I’ve got the ability to just get these stories out there, I’m happy to do that. There is one story I have coming up and it is the story I’d like to think will help define both myself and Shane Foley as creators.

(02:24:40)
And every time I talk to Shane about it, he knows how excited I’m about it and I’m hoping he’s still as excited about it as I am. But it’s a story where I take the dark nebula places he has no business being, and that’s all I’m going to say about it. And even just talking about it now, I’m still excited about it. And I would like to think that that excitement will translate to the readers and maybe give them the same feeling that I got when I opened that Captain America one 13 and Mom, captain America’s Alive, that sort of thing. And if you can just give people that moment, because I guess what it comes down to is there’s still a part of us that’s a child. And if we can just keep that child alive in all of us, and even though the world is crap at the moment, and you are wondering which way it’s going, comics for me as a child was all about escapism.

(02:25:59)
I mean, especially after my mom died. I was 10 when my mom died. And that was a devastating experience. And for me and to have lost one of my best friends in the world and someone who fostered my love of comics, and every time I buried myself in a comic while my life was miserable, I escaped it. And that’s what comics were originally for. They were for escapism back in the Great Depression back in the Second World War. People escaped all of that to enjoy these moments. I mean, people go to the pictures for the same reason, escapism. And if we can provide a little escapism, just a moment of joy that might strike a chord with someone, then it’s mission accomplished. So yeah, well, like I say, well, I’ve got breath in my body. I’ll keep doing it.

Leigh Chalker (02:26:58):
I like it. I think that’s a perfect answer. And mate, for what you said to the young fella at the ComicCon the other day, I might be a little bit older than that young fella, but I was that young fellow’s age and I first picked up a dark Nebula comic mate, and that’s what got me thinking that I could be part of Australian comics and such as well.

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:27:27):
Well, you are.

Leigh Chalker (02:27:29):
I am. And very, very happy and proud to be here, man. Yeah, and thank you. And thank you for Dark Nebula and thank you for the 40 years mate. And I wish you every success in the future with it, mate, and keep on pumping ’em out and your enthusiasm is God man is so it’s good that you’ve still got it, man.

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:27:56):
Well, I like to keep the child alive in me as well. And if I can only do that by, I mean every time I come up with a new idea, with a new concept and I run it by someone and it flies, then I know that I guess it’s the closest I’ll ever do to giving birth because I’m giving birth to ideas and that’s important. So when I run out of ideas, I mean I guess that’s like, that’s almost like creative suicide. You don’t want to run out of ideas. And the moment you do, then you have to ask yourself, will it ever come back? Actually, when I was getting ready to do the dark nebula.com and I had to put the new origin together for the website when I was literally laying down the script, I was going through the motions because this was still very raw after my divorce and I felt creatively dead inside.

(02:29:19)
And yet here I am finding myself doing the thing that life has led me back to because I had a busted jaw and I didn’t know if I was ever going to be back on the radio. And so all I did was I just put down blocks of script and if it was any good or any bad, at least I was putting it down. And I went to the next page and the next page and the next page and the next page, I got to this one page in Origins. It was the second story. It was retelling the origin of my other character, planet Earth. And this one page, I did one line and then the next and the next and the next and the next. And all of a sudden I thought, holy shit, I’m back. Because that page was just pure gold the way I saw it.

(02:30:18)
I mean, it was just this great little bit of dialogue into play between Mark and Ann and Terry Stratton who was Planet Earth and I could see straight away. And then once I got that page done, I went back and I fixed every other piece of crap that I did before that. I can tell you that now. But just knowing that I was back in the zone was so important. And it’s as long as you’ve got that creative spark within you, you’ve got a shot. But if you’re doing a Jerry Conway or a Brian Michael, like same stuff, different day, oh, I’m bored. Oh look, I’ll just do this and I’ll sell this to the fans and they’ll love it. And sorry, there’s original, there’s organic and then there’s forced. And I don’t like the forced stuff. If you’re not inspired, go find something else to do. Even if you think to yourself, well, this isn’t working for me, go out, dig a ditch, whatever, come back. And when you feel inspired, then get into it. But don’t just do it because you’ve got to do it. If you’re doing it because you have to, then you’re not doing it because it’s fun. You’re doing it out of obligation. If it’s out of obligation, good God give up. But that’s not saying to people give up. It’s saying, look, take a breath, go away. Come back and have another look at it.

(02:32:00)
And most important, if you think you’re coming within range of a cliche, spin it on its ear for God’s sake. Spin it on its bloody ear because if you’re doing something you’ve seen a thousand times, find a way to change it. One thing I love a movie’s about asteroids slamming into the planet, and I wanted to do one of those stories, but I didn’t want it to be another Armageddon or another Deep Impact or another Stargate SG one episode that did the same thing or another Meteor. I found a different solution. And because I’ve come up with a different solution, then I know that it’s a story that people would love to read. So again, asteroids slamming into a planet, I guess you’d really, rather than call it a cliche, you’d call that a trope, but if you can find a trope and you can work with it and give it your own spin, then that’s good too. So yeah,

Leigh Chalker (02:33:07):
Always keep that imagination running, mate. And a good friend of mine in a conversation a month or two back reminded me that one of the things that my dad said to me once was always look at the world with reverie. So always everything out there can feel your imagination. And you’re a hundred percent right tad about creativity being fun and creativity can do lots of things for you. It can save your life. I know because I’m one of those people that it has done it for. So I’m looking right at you and it’s led tad to some healing and rebuilding and confidence and stuff. And dark nebula still goes on, and hopefully it never stops, mate. So I’m real happy for you and I’m super thankful, man. Very grateful you popped on the show tonight because it’s been awesome. So Tad, where can anyone that likes the dark maybe will pick up your stuff, mate? Where can they get it?

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:34:09):
Okay, well they can pick it up from me. How you do that directly. Actually, there is one way directly. There’s Owner Indie the website, owner indie. I’ve got a little shop on there, and I can tell you without word of a lie, I’ve got, let’s see, I’ve got issues 9, 10, 11 and 12 on there, and also Replica edition number one. I’ve got to say with regards to replica edition number one, I had such a run of it from the comic shops. We’ve seen replica editions have become the new big thing. They’re doing everything from Amazing Spider-Man, 1 21 and 1 22 to Spidey one, whatever else. And they’re doing great guns for both Marvel and dc. But to see it happening with an independent title like Dark Nebula, I thought, wow, okay, didn’t see that coming. So I’ve got replica edition one as well as 9, 10, 11, and 12, and Dark Nebula Southern Squadron number one. Let me see if I can wouldn’t, it’s not one of those ones. There it is. It’s right there.

(02:35:39)
Hang on a sec. Just trying to do this without the glare. There we are. Gotcha. And that covered by Shane Foley was a homage to Fantastic four issue 58 with Black Bolt from the inhuman as well as the Fantastic four on it. Something else I’ve been doing when I’m working with talents like Ash, Matty, this here is a metal variant of Dark Nebula, Southern Squadron number one. That’s a premium book that retails for a hundred bucks, but that’s for the really serious collector. I like to keep my books within reach of people. I don’t think that they’re all meant to be museum pieces. There are people who really seek the pricier books and look for them. I’m able to cater for them, but not about greed. It’s all about making sure that I’ve got the funds there to move forward so I can do Dark Nebula 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, all of that sort of stuff.

(02:37:01)
And Dark Nebula, Southern Squadron two and three, because there’s nothing worse than having an incomplete story. I mean, how many times have we seen a TV show that ends with a cliffhanger and that it doesn’t come back for another season? Well, that can be a real pisser when it comes to reading a comic. Actually, one example of that, when innovation was doing Lost in Space, they embarked on a 12 issue run Voyage to the bottom of the Soul. They got halfway through it, they got to issue 18 and innovation folded. But then Bill Mummy and Michael Kovich, they didn’t let it go. And thankfully they found a way of getting the rights themselves and being able to just release Voyage at the bottom of the sole as one entire graphic novel. So the material that was supposed to be an issue is 19 through to 24, finally got to see the light of day and people got to read the end of that story.

(02:38:10)
So yeah. Yeah, I’m keen on just getting these stories out, but owner indie is one place. And look, if people want to get digital copies of my books, if they go to indie planet.com, that’s where I’ve made them available for us customers. There are digital copies of these books as well of 9, 10, 11, 12, and replica edition number one, because I think why not? It’s got It is got to be accessible to people. The thing I’m probably proudest of is the fact that kids can go to my website, the dark nebula.com and read the early adventures for free. Now why is that? Is because the one thing I like to promote more than anything else is literacy.

(02:39:16)
And if a child will read a comic, it’ll lead them to read books and they’re not illiterate. So I mean, that’s something that has been concerning people for decades. The Australian Pictorial Social Studies series in the fifties was created for that very reason. Ken Raffe, who I mentioned earlier, my partner’s late father, he was the art director on that, and he was telling me about how they did that because they were about promoting literacy. Actually, when he was trying to explain their pictorial social studies to me, I knew straight away what he was trying to explain. And I was trying to very politely interrupt him and say, Ken, I know what you’re talking about, and I have a box of them at home, but I let him finish the story. And then I told him that, so that when we got home that night from visiting him, I just walked straight in, reached down, found the box, and said to McKayla, here, this is what your dad did before you were a twinkle in his eye. Yeah. Anyway, and then next time we saw him, I said, was this the stuff you’re talking about?

Leigh Chalker (02:40:37):
How did he react to that?

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:40:39):
Oh, well, at least he knew I wasn’t bullshitting him at the time. It’s all well and good to politely say to people, oh yeah, I know what you’re talking about and all that. But then you bring the receipts, you say, here, look, told you I had a box of these. And Mikayla said, yeah, he just walked straight in, reached for that box. And there they were.

Leigh Chalker (02:41:03):
Yeah, that’s great, man. That would’ve made him super happy, like seeing that as well and finding out that his daughter’s partner wasn’t a bullshit artist. So you probably ticked two boxes there, mate. Win-win. Well,

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:41:16):
That’s right. Yeah. No, look, we had a great relationship. Whenever we’d go and see him on a Sunday afternoon, we’d sit down, we’d have a glass of scotch or whatever, and he would always share his stories of the pictorial social studies. And one time I’m thinking, I wonder if he’s got, and sure enough, he had a Len Lawson story in him. Everyone had a Len Laws, everyone from that vintage had a Len Lawson story in them, and he shared his one about, and they just thought this guy was odd. Anyway, yeah, so it was interesting to say the least. But yeah, he got to share a few memories with me and I always appreciated it. It’s like, again, life is made up of moments, and that was one of them. And again, this is another one of them. So I think it’s important that we do tell these stories, otherwise they get lost in time.

Leigh Chalker (02:42:24):
A hundred percent agree mate. A hundred percent agree. And you’ve told me a heap of stuff tonight. I reckon you’ve told a whole heap of listeners some stuff they didn’t know either, mate, so, and man, thank you so much. Hey, seriously, I’m very grateful, man. And I know I say that a lot, but I’m grateful to you. I’m grateful to everyone that comes on chinwag, the people that watch and everything like that. And like I said, meeting people like yourself and Gary Chandler and Glenn Lumsden and Dave Dre and Beau, and everyone that’s in the Australian comic community, man really fills me up full of goodness. So I enjoy it immensely. All right, well, Mr. Tad Koski, how’d I go then go. Alright.

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:43:17):
Still in that almost stuffed it you. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (02:43:22):
No, I tried, but I gave it a go. I gave

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:43:26):
It a go. Yeah, no, no, you did pretty well. But that’s all right. There was just a slight intonation there that

Leigh Chalker (02:43:35):
I think that was more from the fact in my mind I was thinking to myself, are you having another go at this, Lee? What are you doing?

(02:43:42)
Did it once? I should have did it right, once. I should have stopped. Oh no. Oh, well live dangerously I guess. But no, thank you mate. I greatly appreciate that. So everyone out there going to check out some dark nebula if you haven’t already. As Tad said, it’s available in those places and there’s plenty more coming up and Tad’s got plenty of stories involved. So thank you very much, mate, for tonight. So as I move off onto our credits this evening, do not forget to like and subscribe the channels because with more content, we’re able to bring you history and have great moments like this where people that love their comic books can learn about creators and their inputs and all the little intricacies that go into making one of these beautiful things that we all put so much effort into. Now, Friday Night Drink and Draw is episode 97 from Memory and it’s Battlestar Galactica.

(02:44:43)
And I got to say I’m on that one because I like Battlestar Galactica. So it’s one of those things for me as a kid too. So if anyone out there wants to draw Battlestar Galactica and they can’t be on the show, if you send your artwork into art at Comex Studio, you’ll get it shown. So that’ll get eyes on it for you, and that’ll get people looking at your artwork and you can just have fun with it. You don’t have to be Michelangelo, you can be whatever you want as long as you’re having fun. That’s what Comex is all about, and that’s what Friday Night drink and Draw is all about, mate. So don’t forget, the Comex Shop, which sponsors these shows has over a hundred independent Australian comic book titles, $9 flat rate shipping. So that’s one comic for Bucks, 10 comics for nine bucks.

(02:45:29)
You can do the mathematics from there, but nine bucks is all you’ll pay. So rest assured on that, or you can get up C like who’s the boss? So don’t send me emails. Okay. Now there is a Kickstarter running at the moment. It’s for Comex and that’s for Stella Lands. So that’s got about 10 days left on it. Stella lands.com, X studio if you want, into Galactic as well. It seems to be the theme of this evening. Go and check that out because those guys have done really well. It’s a great quality comic book. I’ve read it. I loved it and I’ve thrown a picky up of it today on Facebook because I enjoyed it. I read it twice. So that’s how much I enjoyed it on Friday with the drink and draw. We do have Ring around the Rosie and Battery hand dropping on Kickstarter.

(02:46:16)
So Battery Hand is created by my mate, Ryan vla. It is awesome. It’s man genius, Ryan vla and Ring Around. The Rosie is Co-created by Edy, Rob, Edy, Lyle, myself, Ryan V and Ben Sullivan. And that drops Friday. So next Tuesday’s show. We’re doing a little bit of a different chinwag. As I said to you earlier, I guess it’s like a meet and greet of as many of the Comex creators and contributors and the people who work behind the scenes want to come on the show and meet people. And anyone can ask any questions. We’ll do a little bit of promo stuff and that, but we want to build the community and let everyone know what’s out there, what’s coming, and just give some encouragement and appreciation and be grateful for all the people that do a lot of stuff behind the scenes that you don’t often see. So I’d like to give them their time to shine and look, as I always say, look after your mates. If you haven’t heard from one of them in a while, just give ’em a ring, send ’em a text, send ’em a meme. Just say good day. You never know. You could put a smile on their face. And helping your mate out might help you just as much as you are helping them. So other than that, community is unity and we’ll see you next week. Thank you, tad, you’re a champion.

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:47:37):
No worries. Thanks Lee. Appreciate having the opportunity to melt people’s brains.

Leigh Chalker (02:47:46):
No worries, mate. See you later.

Tad Pietrzykowski (02:47:48):
Bye. Okay, catch you later. Bye.

Voice Over (02:47:52):
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