August in Australia

In two days’ time I’m heading back to my hometown.

Yep, I’ll be swapping scorching days here (Tokyo) that have hovered around the high 30s — with extra added humidity — for a place (Melbourne) that’s come out of an exceptionally cold winter. Just for 3 weeks, mind you.

What is it about Melbourne?

Strangely enough, the five novels I’ve published and two previous graphic novels have all been set at least partially in that city — and I’m talking up the far bigger metropolis on the south-east coast of Australia, not the younger, tinier town in Florida. I wrote about the infatuation over at Bleeding Cool the other day; in fact I used these very words. To save time and ‘cos I’m lazy, I cannibalized ’em.

Anyway, this time I’ll also be slipping Sydney in there as well.

Why?

Well. 20 years ago Brian Huber, Mateusz Sikora and I banged heads together and created a new record label in Melbourne to support the über-talented local live electronic acts around us in that city.

In exactly 1 week, on Aug. 15 @ Something Else in Sydney, and in precisely 3 weeks (Aug. 29) @ Machine in Melbourne, we get to celebrate two decades on the hop for a label now helmed by the enigmatic Sebastian Bayne.

Voiteck is playing live at that last one, and I cannot wait to see him again, plus I get to kick back and enjoy sets by two of my fave Melbourne DJs: Andrew Till and Simon Slieker.

Here’s the artwork (top left, very pink) for our first IF? CD Zeitgeist (1995), for which we invited on board Voiteck, Zen Paradox, TR-Storm, David Thrussell (Snog/Black Lung), Amnesia (Ross Healy), Josh Abrahams, Adam Raisbeck (Soulenoid), TDM, David Haberfeld (Pura/Honeysmack), Q-Kontrol, Sonic Voyagers (Voiteck vs. Zen Paradox), and the Thomas P. Heckmann remix of FSOM.

Happy birthday, IF? Records.

As an aside, these are set to be my last DJ gigs as Little Nobody, after 20 years doing the after hours pastime. I’ll still make muzak, mind you (when I find time) and I have a couple of upcoming releases to tend to, but — yeah. I’m hanging up the cans.

Anyway, this trip is much more about IF?

Also on Saturday, August 29th, from 1:00 pm in the arvo, I’ll be hanging out with several like-minded comic book creators at Eisner Award winning store All Star Comics in Melbourne for the Sweeet Comics Launch (yes, that’s an intentional typo — shhh).

We’re talking 6 brand new local comics and graphic novels including IF? Commix flagship Tales to Admonish Vol. 1 by me, Matt Kyme, Adam Rose, Gareth Colliton, Asela De Silva, Ken Best and Simon A. Wright, along with Cristian Roux‘s Falling Star Vol. 2, Matt Kyme‘s That Bulletproof Kid #5, Thomas Tung‘s Mini Tom Vol. 2, Hard Boiled #1… and my own Trista & Holt Vol. 1.

Graphic novel, 2015

This baby brings together the first five issues of the run, and we’re selling very limited numbers on the day.

I’ll also be hocking 3 copies of the 348-page Bullet Gal trade paperpack (yep, only three — I have weight restrictions on JetStar and it’s a brute). Actor Thomas Jane (The Punisher, Boogie Nights, The Mist) just bought it from Under Belly Comics at Boston Comic Con… so it must be OK.

Plus there’ll be the Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat graphic novel for $5 and back issues of Bullet Gal for $2 a pop.

And free postcards.

I have to remember to squeeze in fine Aussie food, drinks, friends and family in between all the shenanigans.

Oh yeah, and I’ve been working over the past couple of weeks with outstanding Australian artist Chris Wahl (see excerpt at left), and we just finished a three-page story set to be published in ComicOz‘s Australia!.

This is an upcoming benefit anthology for the beyondblue foundation, a national Australian initiative to address issues associated with depression and anxiety disorders.

As a side note, I received the final wraparound cover art (below) for my fifth novel Small Change — which is being published in the UK via Roundfire on December 11. Here it is, with big thanks again to Alec Goss for the Tom Waits-inspired front cover painting.