Continuing a month of shows about Australasian comics, Alex Fitch talks to Melbourne cartoonist Bruce Mutard about his career so far, from his first graphic novel The Bunker to experimental comics such as Alice in Nomansland, and working on a sequel to his World War Two graphic novel The Sacrifice.
Mutard also discusses titles published by his fledgling imprint Fabilaux, the varied influences on his style from ligne claire to Robert Crumb, and his experience of doing an MA course in comics.
Bruce, one of the presenters at this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival, has been writing and drawing comics for 26 years, producing four graphic novels: The Sacrifice (Allen & Unwin, 2008), The Silence (Allen & Unwin, 2009), A Mind of Love (Black House Comics, 2011), The Bunker (Image Comics, 2003) and a collection of short stories, Stripshow (Milk Shadow Books, 2012).
He also has had short comics stories in Overland, Meanjin, The Australian Book Review and Tango among others, and has illustrated several books for Macmillan Educations’ Stories From Australia’s History, series.
He has just completed a Master of Design in comics studies on the interaction of words and pictures at Monash University. He has conducted many comic workshops, and given talks at Melbourne Writers Festival, NMIT, RMIT, Edith Cowan University, University of Melbourne, Monash University, and presented papers on comic theory at Oxford University, Loughborough University and University of Arts, London among others.
• Panel Borders: Bruce Mutard – from The Bunker to The Sacrifice airs at 11am Thursday 23rd July, repeated 7am Saturday 25th July 2015, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com
• The podcast version of Panel Borders is now also available from the UK Podcasters directory. Visit http://ukpodcasters.com/directory/podcast/panel-borders to nominate the show for an award
• Bruce Mutard’s official web site is at www.brucemutard.com.au
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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