Interview – Inherent Vice
Sometimes, we cover something on here that resonates on a personal level for me – and as much as I often write with the “Invurt voice”, there are those special moments when this whole editors hat has to be taken off – and for me, there’s nothing more personal than my love for comics (okay, and sci-fi, and robots, and, admittedly, otters). Feel free to skip what, admittedly, became a bit of a personal spiel, to the awesome comic talents of the Inherent Vice crew below …
Having grown up in the 80s, Saturday mornings were always reserved for TV and cartoons, yet Sunday mornings, you used to flick through the channels (this is pre-foxtel, new gen’ers, and, living in the Northern Territory, we had a whole three channels) only to find them full of god-love evangelistic spiels, or, worse, sport – hardly conducive to a nerdy pre-teens imagination.
Enter the one thing that kept Sunday mornings from being a drudgerous horror of – the comic book. As the perfect foil by which to ignore the crap filled channels, reading comics on a Sunday, was, forgive the blasphemy, my adolescent religion. From the early Transformers comics (US and the A4 format UK version), to X-men, G.I.Joe and the whole plethora of 2000 A.D. comic books, to my ultra favourites today, DMZ and Y: The Last Man, there was nothing more I’d love than to waste time before the parents kicked us out of the house, than to sit down and flick through the pages of a brand new bunch of colour filled pages.
As time went on, the usual fare wasn’t enough – and I began delving into more esoteric fare, digging into manga translations, reading the Watchmen for the first time (and having my mind blown), but, more importantly, discovering the beautiful underground Australian comic book scene for the first time.
The 80s felt dominated by imports, but in the early 90s, new things started appearing on the shelves – for me, it was picking up the first issue of Platinum Grit that did it, and from then on I tired as often as possible to find something new, and local. The continuing Cyclone!/Southern Squadron series was a mainstay, and every time I’d go into the comic store I’d find some form of locally produced, often photocopied, underground zine, packed full of hilarious, witty and utterly Australian imagery and inspiration.
These days, Australian comics/cartoons and artists are everywhere, they write for both domestic and international publications, and publishing houses like Gesalt, Kiseki, Black House, as w huge swath of independently published works are avidly followed and read by legions of fans.
The Melbourne underground comic scene continues a rich traditional in Australian comics, and the showcase of a selection of these artists work at the NGV Studio space in Federation Square is, really, just something to be seen. Wall to wall strips, beautiful artwork, wit, charm and the beautify of the bizarre rolled into a bountiful display of all that is great and good about our home grown creative talent.
When we shot these questions off to the artists involved in Inherent Vice, we didn’t expect the amazing effort that would be put into this reply – and we are all the more grateful, and inspired, for it. Moreso, I’m just happy to be able to continue, for me, a time honoured Sunday tradition …
Cartoons, comics, cartoons – what is it about the format that you guys all love so much? What can you do with a comic, beyond the obvious narrative aspect, that you don’t believe can be accomplished with a "traditional" piece of fine art?
Obviously, its not all about the drawing – a fine piece of literate comic work is also about storyline, narrative and exposition of ideas – how have you been composing the written portions of the work you’ve all been doing, specifically, the collaborative pieces? Storyboarding? Notepads? Napkins?
Inherent Vice seems such an apt description of things, not only for artists, but for comic illustrators in general – how goes the struggle against this vice, or is it not so much a struggle, as an embrace?
Tell us about some of the collaborative work that you’re doing there, and what kinds of works you have been pumping out, and what shape they may take?
You have a 24 hour drawing marathon coming up – what on earth has possessed you all to do this, and, are you crazy? No, really – we’ve heard of the idea, and some great work has come of the format, and you’re also inviting people along to do their own work – what do you hope comes of the marathon? (ed – this event has passed, but it sounded awesome!)
Coffee – how’s the coffee? We’re betting that there’s been a lot of coffee …
How has the group dynamic been thus far? Any interesting tidbits or peeks into the lives of the comic fishbowl?
What do many of you hope to take away, personally, after this whole experience has wrapped up?
We’d like to thank, in order of comic descent, Pat Grant, Michael Hawkins, Ben Hutchings, Mandy Ord, M.P. Fikaris, Sarah Howell, Simon Hanselman and Rebecca Clements for sharing their amazing talents with us for this interview. Check out the Inherent Vice Tumblr for heaps of photos and updates, and, if you are in Melbourne, and haven’t yet been down to the NGV studio in Federation Square, then get down there – you wont be disappointed, its just really, really fukn cool.
