Sheydin Dew (00:14):
Hi everybody. Welcome to the Oz Comic Show. I’m here with Shane and tonight we are talking all about battle bustle with the one and only Lee Chalker and Peter Wilson. Unfortunately, today Shane won’t be talking as much as unfortunately he has a sore tooth. But otherwise, I’m here to talk all things announcements and upcoming shows. So for everyone watching tonight, we have got, let’s make a comic book tomorrow at seven 30 Eastern Standard Time. So last week we found out that Bitsy owes a Space Octopus $20. So make sure to tune in tomorrow and find out why. Perhaps Friday night drink and draw that is actually going to be a special show and that is on at eight 30 Eastern Standard Time and that is going to be Nicole Kane and Chris Pit’s debut as the host. So if you hadn’t already known, drink and Draw will be on every week with the original and the new crew in rotation every fortnight.

(01:19)
So you can catch a show every week. This week’s theme will be Batwoman. So you can also send in artwork for both shows, and that is I believe, provided by a link down below. So make sure you send in your artwork for Busy Trade, cat and Batwoman. If you are interested in going on a show, make sure to register your interest as well. I think we’ve got a link down below too, so you can be on one of our shows. We’d love to have you on. Otherwise, for announcements, I believe we’ve got Stella Land by Max Ada launching tomorrow, which is really exciting. So make sure you get onto that. Otherwise, a reminder for the Moose is going to be ending at the end of the month, so make sure you jump on that for August. The Mac Bros who’ve done Gods Among Men, they’ll be at Be Con on the 25th of August with special hard covers, collector cards and other comics titles. So make sure you catch them there. But otherwise, let’s proceed on with the show and find out all things about Battle for Bustle. When you’re ready. Hello, welcome guys. Thanks so much for being on the show. It’s so awesome to have you guys on tonight. Obviously we’re talking all things Battle the Bustle, which I believe is written and drawn by the amazing Lee Chalker, who you might’ve seen on Tuesday. Thank you so much for being on tonight, Lee,

Leigh Chalker (03:10):
Thank you very much for having me, Shaden. I’m very happy that you’re happy and I’m very happy to be here. So yeah, I’m looking forward

Sheydin Dew (03:18):
And of course the amazing Peter Wilson above me who did the lettering and editing. So amazing to have you on the show.

Leigh Chalker (03:27):
Thank you for

Sheydin Dew (03:28):
Having me. Absolutely, absolutely. Let’s jump straight in. Battle for Bussle. When I read it was so striking in the artwork, Lee, super contrasting and there’s so much detail in your artwork that I’ve always, always admired. So reading this particular issue was just phenomenal. Perhaps either one of you, if you guys want to maybe give your best elevator pitch perhaps of perhaps if anybody watching tonight hasn’t read it yet.

Leigh Chalker (04:08):
Okay, I’ll have a go. And Pete, you can correct me. Look, basically it’s a dystopian future in a very large megalopolis. The city is called Bussell and there are five classes from top to bottom and there’s a sixth unofficial class. Basically it’s machinery versus people caught up in tech and machinery and there’s an element of humanity that have gone back to basics and believe in nature and simple living and faith and peace and harmony, et cetera. And they’re trying to grind out a living amongst the encroaching megalomaniacs basically, that are trying to take over this city and wipe out all free will. A gentleman who was in the lower class of pedestrian called Christopher Battle 0 9 1 1 7 7 was frustrated and basically cracked as people can do under certain amounts of stress. So he struck an authority figure in his workplace and this was the first element of rebellion that had been seen in the city for several hundred years.

(05:34)
It brought forward the authoritarians and their leader a one to basically quell this act of defiance. And through this act of defiance and him basically fighting against the arch nemesis who the whole city feared and embarrassing him, he created basically he turned into a martyr. He disappeared for 15 years and was tortured, tormented, kept alive as a play thing to be experimented on. And over time certain elements of rebellion and uprisings began happening. And then basically a group led by Reverend Frank Lenox, Hansen sa, Brad Macka and Haki Gecko decided to break Christopher out of incarceration and bring him back into the real world. And it’s about a man who was subjugated treated like an animal and is caught up between being treated cruelly, having lost his family, being broken down to become less than an animal, and these people while trying to encourage him to lead their city to freedom and overthrow this authoritarian regime are also trying to treat him as gently as possible and lead him back to humanity and help him to rediscover the fact that he was a father, a brother, like a nephew, a friend, and basically find his humanity along the path.

(07:12)
So this series here of Volume two issue one starts off with him having been rescued and in the lower depths of Busle, which is the caverns and caves of the old city because Busle has been built up over a thousand years, several thousand years on top of the old cities. So there’s just layers and layers and layers of old buildings, et cetera. And he’s currently in ity, which is basically a home of warrior monks and they are trying to bring back Christopher, teach him what he’s all about and what he’s doing. So yeah, that’s where we’re at with volume two. Issue one, and if you haven’t read the first volume before this is I think I designed it around being able to pick this comic up and just flow into it as its own separate story anyway, so it’s up to the individual whether they want to go back and see things or whether they want to start from here. So yeah, that’s basically it, not so small.

Sheydin Dew (08:28):
Well, I had the honour of doing just that, so I launched myself straight into this and I want to do just that is I want to pick up those recent four issues beforehand and read through because it is really deep kind of story and you really do portray the dystopian aesthetic really, really well and there’s just so much to look out on the page. It’s really, really beautiful detail that you put in. But yeah, I guess for a question before you both, because obviously you both have got prospective comics, I really want to know how you would describe your art writing styles. Maybe we can go with you Peter first.

Peter Wilson (09:16):
Working with Lee is amazing. It worked as well as it did considering how different our styles are, at least in terms of art. I think we approach our work fairly similarly, but they look totally different. Mine is much simpler and it’s wacky, it’s cartoony, it’s funny. Lee’s really reflects bustle in that it’s brutal, it’s detailed, it’s you feel the characters, what they’re going through just by looking at them. I mean I hope you do it, but mine’s an alien getting clobbered over the head versus the man going through 15 years of trauma and discovering zen meditation and coming out the other side. But I do think we have a lot of core things in common, which is that we work from the heart. If it doesn’t particularly grab us, we won’t do it. And we’re both fairly detailed oriented, I think, in our art.

Sheydin Dew (10:12):
Absolutely,

Peter Wilson (10:13):
Absolutely. Yeah, so coming together, that was really a lot of fun. We kind of just got each other quite quickly, I think it’s safe to say.

Sheydin Dew (10:23):
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. How would you describe your artwork work, Lee?

Leigh Chalker (10:34):
People may be disturbed by this, but I would say it’s an exact reflection of my mind. I like details, I like giving things lots of thought, much to some people’s irritation. I take a long time to think about things and probably get caught up a little bit in it. The artwork is me for sure, and I think it’s something, I dunno den, it’s hard to question answer that question because what I am is in the artwork, it’s not all of me. Obviously there’s a darkness in the artwork, but there’s also in darkness, there’s also hope and love and I hope people see that in the story itself. Yeah, well in a weird way, it’s autobiographical. Peter knows this, so yeah, I don’t know. Shaden, it’s hard because I just do what I do.

Sheydin Dew (11:54):
You do it very well in my mind. I guess leading on from that, I would really like to know both respectively a how long you have both been drawing and what inspires you to draw. Did you want to start, Peter?

Peter Wilson (12:13):
Yeah, so I’ve been drawing a long time now, either drawing or writing. I was always doing both. It took me an embarrassingly long time to put the two together and work on an actual comic. I didn’t think I really got serious about it around the same time as I was studying graphic design. And that’s when I, now what can I do with this past time that I’m always, can I transfer that into anything practical?

Sheydin Dew (12:42):
Absolutely

Peter Wilson (12:43):
Didn’t learn much in the way of design work, but it did make me go, well, I’ve got all these skills to use all these different programmes. Maybe I’ll make my own comic. I love comics. Let’s give it a shot. And you haven’t really looked back since as to what inspires me to draw usually it could be anything. It could be usually I’ll just have a funny visual in mind and it’s how do I get there then how do I get to that absurd moment or even just a sequence of funny facial expressions as well. Is there a story behind that I could make that happen or is there an aesthetic I like if I’m watching a lot of say seventies horror or bad eighties, you know what I want to draw that I want to do my style, I want to impose me on that genre or that or parody that or sometimes just because I want to keep my hand busy and on board and then sometimes you strike gold through that.

Sheydin Dew (13:39):
Yeah, I think again, it’s such a, obviously I said to you, Lee, that you’ve got such a contrasting that it’s so black and white and it’s really contrasting, but even the team that you guys have formed is even contrasting in itself in the fact that a lot of the work that I’ve seen from you, Peter, is quite, it’s really quite joyful and quite humorous in some ways. And obviously in Battleford bustle there’s a darker undertone in the storyline and I think you guys have done really well in complimenting each other and forming such quite a strong team. Might I add, I think you guys, I think

Peter Wilson (14:21):
A lot of what works is it’s kind of opposite sides of the same spectrum. On the surface, Lee stuff looks very dark and brutal, but there is joy and love there.

Sheydin Dew (14:32):
Absolutely.

Peter Wilson (14:32):
Mine looks very joyful and cheerful, but there is also darkness there. They’re both monsters. They do want to take over the world and I guess we kind of just hit the right odds.

Sheydin Dew (14:43):
You guys really compliment each other in the way the story moves I would say, and how many layers there are in each respective piece of work. What about you, Lee? When did you start picking up a pencil and laying down some lines?

Leigh Chalker (15:00):
I don’t remember the exact date, but an only child and was left to myself, so was encouraged to do artwork and encouraged to draw. There weren’t computer games and computers and stuff around at the time. The TV was only allowed on at the nighttime, so it was either read the comics that were laying around, fell in love with comics, decided to start trying to draw those people. Had a lot of questions in my mind that led me to just developing my own stories. And when you’re an only child, you play with yourself a lot in the dirt with cars, with toys, things like that. You’re making up your own stories. I’ve always been around stories drawing went with that, picked up really early that it was the thing for me because I like to write, but I also like to draw. I like the amalgamation of both of those crafts.

(16:00)
I guess you think I want to write a book, but I never really had it in me to go into the depth and the detail in bustle of what I can do in a comic book form and things like that. I see in comic books that you can tell a story without words like you mentioned details. I’m so particular with the details because I get, one thing I don’t enjoy about particularly some comics is the fact that they’re very just, that’s what you see and that’s what you get. I like people going back and rereading comics and seeing that that man in the background is actually adding to the story, but I missed that the first time. And then you see that person with six panels later and there’s a theme going on. So I just like doing things like that and I guess I just got caught with it.

(16:51)
Obviously I have been through periods of drawing and not drawings. Been the only consistent artwork in general is because a painter more so I class myself as a painter and I guess a musician and a sculptor and all sorts. It doesn’t phase me what I do just as long as I’m creating creativity is the only constant that I’ve ever had in my life. Everything I guess that I’ve ever had or been close to has at some point left. And just through times of turmoil, it’s been the thing that’s turned to and got me through some pretty heavy dark times. So it’s just something that I guess as I’ve gotten older, I think for a period I tried to run away from it, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realised that to a certain, it’s just sort of what I am. It’s part of me as much as I guess what my arms and legs are, man. So I can’t do anything about it. I’ve just got to keep going.

Sheydin Dew (18:02):
Absolutely,

Leigh Chalker (18:04):
Keep going.

Peter Wilson (18:06):
Lee’s the only guy who says, I’ve got to work on the front cover. I’m going to sculpt it. You don’t hear that from any comic artist.

Sheydin Dew (18:14):
Question is very cool. Looking at the front cover, Lee, tell me about the front cover please.

Leigh Chalker (18:24):
Well, basically, okay, look I’ll a bit and then I’ll bring it back in. Okay, so lemme just, I had two and a half years off battle for Bustle, obviously because I was going through alcoholism and some pretty severe life changes that not all of them were brought upon by myself, but obviously these things happen in life, which brought on many things in terms of a spiritual path and a veering off into varying just a different style of thought life, really, man and awakening to different things and stuff. And through a period of trauma over the last year, I wasn’t going to come back to battle for Bustle because it was heavy in my heart with a lot of loss and a lot of pain because it started being an ode to my dad who died when I was young and he was the comic book man and started at that.

(19:44)
And then I just went through some heavy stuff. I mean, I won’t go into it. A lot of it’s private, so I’ll keep that between myself and my friends and family that know. But it was heavy. Definitely say that, probably dark, very. And I was drifting into that and it was through the help of friends circumstances that I started realising I can’t really walk away from battle for bustle. This is something I’ve put 25 years into and I want to come back to my city. And then I started, now I ask myself what my intentions are with everything and I was like, what are my intentions with things? This is what I want to do. I want to complete it, but I want to bring, I don’t just want to draw. I was getting a bit bored with just pencilling, inking, that sort of stuff.

(20:37)
When I’m trying to paint, I’m trying to sculpt and all over the shop and I just thought, well, how can I bring all of these things that I love together? And then I remember being a little boy and seeing the amazing Spider-Man issued 200 and something and there was an actor who dressed up as Spider-Man. And there was a real photograph of an image that they tested on this cover of Spider-Man. And that always stuck with me. And I remember thinking when I was about six or seven thinking that like, man, that’s really cool. And then all these other, particularly the Vertigo line, Dave McKean and stuff, like their sort of ideas in Sandman. And that was stuck with me back in those days. And then I was sculpting and I’d done some things and I was doing short films and then I’d realised probably about six or seven months ago that I’d turned older than my dad.

(21:33)
So that was a really spin out moment. And I realised I was very sad about it and tripped me out somewhat. But then also in perspective and having time to myself to I guess analyse and go back through things and reflect that I realised the battle for Busell was no longer his story. Now it was mine. So that opened the door to Ryo. I’m not living in that dude’s shadow anymore. So my intent is to take battle for bustle forward in how I want to do it now. And so I wanted to bring in through my meditation and spiritual practises and my teachers and stuff like I was talking to particularly Valerie and overtime B and just different people that have been teachers and there for me to bounce ideas off and started understanding what the difference between thought processes, intuition, starting to understand my intuition more starting not to question myself too much, doubt myself.

(22:44)
Just go with things, sit in flows, wait for points, be quiet in the mind, let it come. Just lots of things changed. And then I started to, the story started developing again and I could piece it together and I changed a few things and I brought in Zen Buddhism to it and I brought in a lot more love and harmony and family and things that make life good when everyone, and so that’s where the differentiation, it became really people. The one thing that I find that I get really frustrated with about how we live now is that no one seems to have time to themselves. They don’t seem to be happy with what they have. They seem to be wanting, yep, I’ve got it, and move on to the next object and the next thing, the next thing. They’re chasing a dopamine hit when they think that buying that thing is going to make them happy when 10 minutes later they’re bored of the thing and they’re not happy and the whole thing.

(23:38)
It’s only you that can make yourself happy from within at least appreciating what you have around. And that may be your dog, that may be your loved one, your family, your brother, your sister. I don’t know man, what it is for each individual. It’s an individual’s choice. So I just see people just sort of zoning and droning around man and I guess nature and people being amongst it. And simplicity seemed to be a bit shunned at the moment. So I really brought that tech MEC versus nature nurture sort of back into it. And then when I got to the sculpture, I realised that the best thing to do to express that and be a real point of, Hey, I’ve changed, and this is how the story’s going, is the tortured arm, sculptured arm of Christopher with all the wires in it. And the thing that he’s grasping onto is the flour.

(24:45)
And as he’s opened his hand, I’m hoping that amongst all the horror and the turmoil and people have said it’s a bit overwhelming and it’s brutal and stuff like that, but I hope people while they look at that, they can also focus on the flour and see that amongst the brutality there is beauty. So I guess it’s a matter of perspective. So it seemed the obvious thing to do to me based on what my thoughts were of that Spider-Man comic. It’s something I wanted to try. I did it, it’s about a metre by 90 centimetres big. Took me about three days to sculpt. I wired up the hand, I was keeping an eye on particular flowers. Peter was with me. I was showing him I had flowers, does this work? What do you think? I like this flower like that.

(25:34)
And I’d set it up in this room, my studio, and I’d hung lights and everything and I had all this idea that I was going to get particular lights and do. And then I’ve got a model of a Millennium Falcon hanging from the roof there. And I just had a little LED torch and you got it in your mouth and you’re trying to set things up and all the lights were out. And I was having a cigarette and I thought I’ll just put the LED torch up on the Millennium Falcon. And as I was doing it, it was dark, the Millennium Falcon due to the weights sunk down and then started swinging and it was just swinging straight across like man, it was just one of those weird moments and it was like, oh dude, this is it. And yeah, just jumped up and got a couple of minutes worth of footage and then sat there and took a multitude of photographs only to realise that the first photograph was the best as you do. And that first photograph is that cover. And as soon I saw it, I thought, no, that’s it. That for me sums up everything in one image for what it’s about moving forward. So that’s how that came about. I

Sheydin Dew (26:54):
Think you’ve captured it really, really well. And I think funnily enough, there’s a few comments that have actually come through. Shane, I believe, oh yeah, sorry, spider Guy said that that cover is lit with a fire emoji. We’ve got another one saying, hi guys, awesome cover as well. So I think a lot of people would say the same thing. That’s a really, really striking cover and such an amazing story behind it too. I didn’t know it was a sculpture. So that’s another really cool fun. The phone

Peter Wilson (27:28):
Is totally untouched, by the way. I haven’t done any editing on the cover

Sheydin Dew (27:31):
Really.

Leigh Chalker (27:32):
Yeah, so that’s all lighting and everything. Yeah, yeah, that’s all

Sheydin Dew (27:36):
You. That’s amazing. In a

Peter Wilson (27:37):
Bottle.

Sheydin Dew (27:38):
Amazing. I really want to delve into more questions about the process because I understand that it was a team effort, so I would love for whoever wants to start maybe talking a little bit about process and each individual’s role and how you guys came to have what is right next to me.

Peter Wilson (28:02):
Lee came to me saying, I’ve got a proposition for you, we’ll talk about it later. And I thought, okay, I could be getting inducted into the mafia. I could be. It was very ominous. So we had a video chat where Lee went into this is the right history, isn’t it Lee?

Leigh Chalker (28:22):
Yeah, man.

Peter Wilson (28:24):
And then Lee explained that he wanted kind of almost a remodel. He wanted a new logo, he wanted a new look, he wanted almost a fresh start and someone to tackle the lettering. But he was very clear from the get go. It was never just lettering, it was always feeling it out. It was more like drawing with letters. And luckily I saw it straight away when he said, I need a logo. The thing again in mind was texture. What I think of with Lee’s thing, you feel everything. So I think as soon as the chat was over, I started bashing out loose things of what we could do. I started looking at protest graffiti for the logo.

Sheydin Dew (29:09):
Yes,

Peter Wilson (29:10):
The idea is some poor citizen and bustle had enough, threw up a quick thing with a big roller brush and ran off.

Sheydin Dew (29:18):
Amazing. And then

Peter Wilson (29:20):
The fists, he said he wanted something with people in the city. So you’ve got the protest fists in one B, the city in the bustle. And it came together really quick and it was just a lot of fun. And then the art came in thick and fast. I touched it up to make the blacks a bit richer really. I didn’t touch the artwork except for that. And I think Lee’s first feedback when I started handing back lettering samples was, that’s awesome, but more push it, get weird with it, really feel it out. And it was a lot of fun. I was like, stuff I can’t do in photos. It just wouldn’t work I could do for this.

Sheydin Dew (30:00):
So did you find that there was quite a bit of freedom in doing that, such a big contrast from your personal projects to doing this? Yeah. I’d also love to ask whether or not there were any challenges or if there were any things that you really enjoyed doing in that process?

Peter Wilson (30:19):
I really enjoyed really, instead of having, my character is mostly just shout angrily. So they’re just big lettering. The more nuanced A one, the villain of the piece. He goes from shouting and being bombastic and loud, but when he’s quiet, he’s scarier. He has a much more menacing, chilling voice. So really exploring that with the lettering and making it, you almost have to feel it as you type it. And then drawing the speech bubbles, no two speech bubbles in this one are the same. They’re not circles, they’re custom shapes. Each one is kind of to compliment Lee’s style more. So some guys have very fluid speech bubbles. They’re very soft almost if they’re whispering a ones were just jagged lines all the way through. He’s spitting them out, he’s carving the words onto the page every time. I thought that looks pretty cool. They said, yeah, it’s cool, but you can do more. It was awesome discovering all these new textures and we got into a pretty good groove I think.

Sheydin Dew (31:33):
Yeah, absolutely. It seems like it came together quite seamlessly. It did, yeah. What about you, Lee? Were there any challenges or anything that you really enjoyed about this particular issue of battle Busle?

Leigh Chalker (31:48):
No challenges with Peter at all. Peter, from my perspective, Peter was exactly what I needed and knew he was going to be. That was an intuitive decision on my behalf. I’ll talk about Peter’s involvement and then I’ll talk about my challenge with the Yeah,

Sheydin Dew (32:08):
I’d love to hear.

Leigh Chalker (32:11):
I obviously known Peter A. Long time. Peter and I have been friends for ages, fan of his work, seen everything he’s done, read everything he’s done. He

(32:28)
Just admired his calm, his peace. And at that time it was just someone, I guess I’d come out of a really frenetic, angry period of my life and I needed someone calm that was gentle to a certain extent. And Peter, do you want to do this? And he was like, yeah man, we’ll have a talk. So I said to him a few things just to ga him and I said, I want word bubbles to be leaves falling droplets of water. And he was looking at me and I said, I don’t want anything to be like that. If it’s going to be like that, I want it to be like this. I want more if you want it. I want it to be big, bold. I don’t want you to follow rules, I want you to push it outside panels. I want you to push. I just want limits, push out. And I told him, I said, dude, I’ve just been going through all this stuff and when I was talking about I want it to be water, I want it to, that sort of thing, I was like, look, I apologise to you if this sounds ridiculous. And Pete was like, nah man, I get where you’re coming from my dad something like you did two years ago.

(33:58)
He’s like, you man, he’s all calm and he does his meditation and he’s all on this and straight up Pete was like, yeah man, I got you. And I was like, okay, cool, no worries. And then he was doodle in a way while he was talking to me and there was part of me thinking, oh, he’s taking notes and as I said I needed it to be leaves and processes and things. He went like that and like this and like that. And I’m like, yeah, exactly. And he is like, yeah, I got you. And that was the moment where I thought, yep, cool. And so I said, give me a couple of weeks. So what I had to do is I had battle for Bustle issue. It was going to be battle for Bustle issue five, and it was going to be a big comic book.

(34:41)
It was going to be about 50 odd pages. And I decided that I didn’t want to do the 50 odd pages, so I split it, but I didn’t have a page limit at the time because I had to obviously let it go to where I thought it could naturally stop. So this one is what it is now. And Pete and I moved on with everything from there. I didn’t necessarily need to see anything from Peter, I just knew it was the right thing to do. Once I’d seen the logo, and I obviously had a couple of people that I trust dearly with that I speak to about do you think of this direction? And they were very much like, yes mate, we see that. And just with how the words were, the writing of it, there was nothing. It was just absolutely pure flow. From my time with Peter, everything we spoke about, we hit every mark.

(35:55)
I was not someone that was on top of him all the time. I was busy doing other stuff while he was doing that. I allowed him to have his freedom and that in itself was the difficult part for me. And one of the difficulties sha, and to get back to the main crux of the story is I’ve been working on this comic book for 25 years, man. You know what I mean? And I’ve always had an element of, yeah, I started this in 1998 and so to give up I’ve had other people help me and work with me.

(36:38)
And I guess it wasn’t enjoyable to a certain extent, hence the heaviness of it being so long in creation, you go through a lot of changes in your life and ups and downs. And so I knew it was something in me too that I wanted to give Peter and invite him into my world to play, but I also knew that I didn’t want to be the person that was this control freak. You know what I mean? There’s a certain element of when you invite someone in, you have to let them be them because that’s the beauty of that person. Yeah, absolutely. And the trick is I guess it’s a comeback to a certain extent, but I guess to a certain extent the comeback is personal, sort of I guess apologising to myself, it was difficult. It was difficult, but the end it was beautiful.

Sheydin Dew (37:45):
Absolutely. And I think, yeah, again, you guys compliment each other so well. I think you guys are honestly quite the dream team and I guess what better person to have by your side than Peter Wilson? Having said that, I do upload guys. I have just realised I’ve plucked my laptop into charge, but I haven’t actually switched the power outlet on, so do apologise. I’m just going to step aside. I’ve done

Leigh Chalker (38:08):
That before, mate. I’ve done that before. Don’t worry about that. Yeah, I think I did that last week on

Sheydin Dew (38:17):
I’m not in my usual settings and everything is out of whack, but that’s okay. Onwards. Now kind of moving into a little bit more of the tail end of the show, I really enjoy these kind of questions because they kind of ask a little bit more the comic scene and perhaps what you guys have got in store in the future. And having said that, have you guys got any future projects on the horizon at the moment? Did you want to start Peter?

Peter Wilson (38:46):
Yeah, I’m plugging away on FS two at the moment. As always, I thought it’d be ready by the end of the year. It won’t be, but it’s getting there. Good progress. There’ll be two self-contained stories.

Sheydin Dew (39:01):
Amazing, amazing.

Peter Wilson (39:03):
One will be slightly darker. It’s a parody of The Exorcist Little girl gets possessed by Deist and who else can get him out, but an even worse monster and zero. The second one is the boys are kidnapped by a cosmetics company. We’re no longer allowed to do tests on animals, but they are allowed to do tests on monsters. They don’t technically exist, so it’s a bust out big, all the others.

Sheydin Dew (39:33):
That sounds cool. Amazing, amazing. What about you? Is there anything else on the horizon for you at the moment?

Leigh Chalker (39:41):
Look, sadden the battle I went through to get through that comic book. That’s it for me for a little while. I am obviously working on bits and pieces, there’ll be stuff pop up, but man, I’ll finish whatever I’m finishing next when it’s finished I guess. So it’s just a matter of once the vibe and the feeling’s right, and I’m in the right headspace, I’ll start the next issue of battle for Bustle. Pete will be with me again for that because it’s heavy, it’s heavy stuff, but I’m just having a little break at the moment. I’m just enjoying Chin Wags. But come August, I’ll have a few weeks off Chinwag too, just to my mind is a fortress Lee. Thank you Ben. Yeah, I’m just going through the motions at the moment and being very proud that I finished this project for my own reasons. It Nelly didn’t happen. I Nelly walked away from it all and yeah, if it hadn’t have been so right now I’m just going to not be one of those people that jumps into the next thing. I just want to just take this moment to reflect on the last two and a half years and just have a moment and just soak it in and

Sheydin Dew (41:11):
You should definitely enjoy that moment. You’ve definitely earned it and yeah, cross those bridges as you get to them. That’s right. I really enjoy asking this question as well because I always find it really insightful in how each artist approaches it because I think we all tend to cross this challenge from time to time and that is a creative block and how you guys both get through it. Did you want to start Peter?

Peter Wilson (41:38):
Usually if you get a creative block, it’s a sign that you need a rest. I find usually the quickest way is to do something completely new, even if it’s as simple as watching a movie. Nothing about walking somewhere you’ve never been before, trying something new. I’m lucky because I do the drawing and the writing and the lettering. If I’ve got a block on one thing I can usually jump ship and do the other and that helps as well. So I don’t want to say if you’ve got a creative block pile, I want to do more creative things. You might get into trouble, but give it a shot, try something slightly, try a new hobby, try something.

Sheydin Dew (42:19):
Yeah, absolutely. Would it be the same for you Lee? Do you take breaths and you find that that helps or

Leigh Chalker (42:27):
Look, I haven’t taken too many rests for the last two and a half years because it’s got me through things. So I’ve just kept the momentum and giving up one addiction in terms of a couple of addictions. I had to put my energy into drawing and things and creating. But no, I just tend to find that I like to just ground myself man. I try and just do simple little things man. Whether it’s just playing with the dogs, chilling out, not thinking too much, not stressing about too much. If I have a blockage, I don’t push it, I’d accept it and I know that it will pass and I’ll come back to it the next day and if it’s still there I’ll just walk away and go and do something. I dunno, I just have a different look at things. I used to force things and push a lot of things sometimes and I find that when you force anything, man, whether it be people or projects or whatever, it turns to shit. It doesn’t work mate. You know what I mean? So I’m just a little bit more like, no, I’ve learned those lessons now man, if it’s not moving I’m just let it just give it time man.

Sheydin Dew (43:44):
It’s a lot like what you said at the beginning of the show. Just go with the flow, right?

Leigh Chalker (43:49):
Yeah, well going with the flow doesn’t necessarily mean people go No, it goes with the flow. It’s an airy fairy thing. It’s not really, the flow is a principle in Dow, which basically means life is a river and you can hang on to the edges and force yourself to hold onto points and things and worry and that’s worry and concern. But sometimes you can just let go and just see where it takes you and not stress about certain things. That stress is going to come as an artist, you’re going like sportsmen and that you’re in form and you’re going to come out of form. But all the best lessons that I’ve learned over the last two years of being in the Casse man, you know what I mean? In the climb up, as hard as it was, I can look back now and go like, yeah, I’ve recognised those lessons for the slope down that will come. You know what I mean? So I don’t know man, I let people, I just try and take it steady, man. I’m in no rush with anything. I’m not competing against anyone but myself Sha. So it is what it is for me man. So the moment at this second,

Sheydin Dew (45:14):
Absolutely. I guess I also asking this question as well and that is, what do you wish someone had told you before you started your comic journey? Did you want to lead this one, Peter?

Peter Wilson (45:35):
Yeah, I guess the big one was get used to repetition. It’s not like doing a drawing, get used to drawing. If you’ve got a set background, get used to drawing that background from a lot of different angles, get used to seeing your characters in all sorts of ways, I wasn’t quite prepared for that.

Sheydin Dew (45:52):
Yeah, I think that’s a really good answer. I don’t think I’ve had that answer on this show before, so I think that’s a really good one. Absolutely. What about you Lee?

Leigh Chalker (46:09):
I probably would’ve started on smaller projects that would’ve been wise instead of going into a 25 year giant life spanning saga. But look man along the lines I guess it’s like just do what you got to do. It’s like if that’s what you want to do, then do it. If you listened to everyone that told you wouldn’t do anything, then you just wouldn’t get anything done. And sometimes you’ve got to drive, you’ve got to listen to what your creative voice is telling you. If that’s what you want to do, give it a go. If it doesn’t work, just pull up hold, come back to it, work on something else. I mean, I dunno man, it’s like you take people’s advice, you listen to some good stuff, you listen to some bad stuff, you take it on board what you want. I dunno man, I’m not much of a teacher. I don’t really, I don’t know, I just think people just do what people should do. As long as you’re not hurting and maiming people man, then just enjoy your creativity because it can help in many ways, mental health and all those sorts of things. And if more people were creative, the world would probably be a better place, man. So yeah, I’m not going to do what you guys,

Sheydin Dew (47:30):
We’ve got another comment coming in saying that they too liked the logo, so kudos to you Peter. Thanks. I think you’ve done an amazing job on that. Thank you. Another really cool question for you guys. What do you think the Aussie indie comic scene needs more of in your opinion? We’ll start with you Peter.

Peter Wilson (47:53):
Tricky money. I know we’re getting there, but what we need is we really need that foot in the door for big distribution. I think back in the day it was getting a news agency, we need that sort of modern equivalent I think.

Sheydin Dew (48:16):
Yeah, absolutely. What would you say the Aussie comic scene does well at I

Peter Wilson (48:22):
Community really well?

Sheydin Dew (48:25):
Absolutely.

Peter Wilson (48:26):
I think for the most part we all get along, we all respect each other’s styles. I think we’re all happy to meet and chat and I think that’s really amazing. That’s very rare.

Sheydin Dew (48:36):
Absolutely. And I think, yeah, to go off of that, I think there’s a lot of support there too. Obviously quite a few people in the comments are regulars on some of the shows too, so it’s always you guys there too, supporting other artists. What about you Lee? What would you like to see more in the community?

Leigh Chalker (49:00):
Look Jayden, to be honest with you man, I don’t really know how to answer that because I honestly don’t know how to answer that because I just want to see people happy. Look, I’ll put it to you this way. I see a lot. I don’t go on social media much, but I mentioned this on chinwag and things when I go on social media, I see while there is a sense of community, I see people having disagreements about this and just the most ridiculous things, you know what I mean? And I see a disunity to a certain extent with ego and that I really wish people would just stop being art is subjective. What the creator wants to create is entirely up to them. It’s a beautiful process. The process for them could be anything. It could be saving their life, it could be telling their story of their mother.

(49:56)
I mean who cares what that person at the back really thinks. It’s like do it for you, put it out there, accept that you’ve done a beautiful thing and just art is subjective, it’s just the process. That’d be the only thing I wish would change. Look man, I’m not into awards, I’m into, I just like, I think encouragement’s better. I think if you hear all these stories about people try things and they get people run them down so they stop doing things, that’s a disgraceful attitude for those people that are running them down, the whole toxicity and that those people need to pull their heads in and just accept the fact it’s a big medium, it’s a beautiful craft and if you want it to live, then let people do their thing, man and have their voice. No one else has a right to stop your voice.

(50:51)
So just if you feel like you want to do something, then do something. Absolutely put it out there. It’s easy. You can find distribute, you can find publishers, you can publish it yourself. There’s plenty of steps. There’s communities like X where there’s people you can reach out to, they can give you directions and avenues to go. I mean I’ve had help from those people. That’s how I got this comic out. Just appreciate what is around you just I guess so I don’t know man, I don’t get into the details and the politics of it. I did when I started and it didn’t work for me and I realised that I want to stick to my lane and my lane is battle for bustle doing my thing and peace, love, and harmony to everyone out there that wants to do this stuff, man, I ain’t getting in your way. It’s like a big playing field. So get it out there.

Sheydin Dew (51:47):
Absolutely, absolutely. And what would you say the community does well at then? What are some big ticket items for you?

Leigh Chalker (51:56):
Well, I think that diversity of community is beautiful because it’s not just superheroes and capes mate, you know what I mean? You’ve got such, I mean look, you do have your superheroes and your standard swar and that’s beautiful, but you’ve also got deep and meaningful like comic books, slice of life comic books. You’ve got comic books that Ben Hutchings and his career’s comic books about diet and stuff for babies, the nutritional values. I mean there’s not just one small cute avenue of creativity in Australia. It’s a beautiful thing. There’s so much out there. There seems to be lots out there. It’s more than I ever imagined. So it’s just encouraging people. I think that’s a beautiful thing. I mean I’ll tell you, I wouldn’t have got that issue out if people in this community hadn’t encouraged me and believed in me to get through the shit that I’d gone through and come on dude, get it out there. So that to me is a beautiful thing about Australian comic books.

Sheydin Dew (53:16):
Absolutely. And it just seems to be getting better and better. So it’s always amazing to see new faces pop up. So I would agree you there, that’s for sure. I guess that kind of concludes most of my questions about your amazing project that you guys have both produced. Have you guys got any upcoming conventions or markets events that you guys are attending soon at all?

Peter Wilson (53:44):
I’ve got on the 27th I’ll be at Pop bam, which is a Lake Macquarie festival and I’ll be giving a brief talk lecture if you will on our cartoon character design.

Sheydin Dew (53:58):
Amazing. We’ll make sure to pop down then and catch Peter there. That sounds super amazing. I wish I could go.

Peter Wilson (54:06):
That’s what I’ve been working on the last couple of days, putting that together.

Sheydin Dew (54:10):
Amazing. Where else can we find some of your work guys? Lee, where can we find you?

Leigh Chalker (54:19):
You can find, well what do you want me or do you want the book? You can find me on a Tuesday night. On Tuesday Chinwag, which is on the Conex network. So I’m there. My next week’s guest is Mr. Nat Carmichael. So I’m looking forward to that. You can find the new issue of Battle for Bustle volume two issue one exclusively at the moment in the Comex shop, which sponsors all of the live streams and in the Comex shop is over a hundred titles. Now when you buy Battle for Busle issue volume two issue one available for a limited time is the digital copies of volume one issue one to four and you’ll get them free with the purchase of Battle for Bustle. This new issue, however, I’m also adding to that Shane and I have had a discussion and he knows this as well.

(55:15)
If you buy any comic book from the comics shop, you will get Battle for Bustle volume one issue one through four for free. And that is to encourage anyone out there that may be thinking they want to get someone’s work, they haven’t quite got over the line, but I want to give you people something for supporting Comex. I want to help people get over the line. I want to see Australian comics get out there and I mean I just want to help the community and Comex and everything I can do. So that’s what you can get at the Comex Shop now. So go and get it as me mate. SPEDs, he says get your face around it. So

Sheydin Dew (56:08):
Amazing. Good on you. Good on you for helping out comics. Obviously we couldn’t have done anything without the man right next to me. Shane, what about you Peter? Where can we find more of your stuff?

Peter Wilson (56:22):
You can hit me up directly or go to the Comex store, got FO’s issue one, still available and also got FO’s trading card, so I’m going to embarrass you both. There’s our very own Shade’s card.

Sheydin Dew (56:36):
Oh my God.

Peter Wilson (56:37):
And Lee’s

Sheydin Dew (56:39):
Heck yeah,

Peter Wilson (56:40):
And they turned out great.

Sheydin Dew (56:45):
Well other than that, I think that pretty much wraps up the show. Thank you both coming on and giving us your time. It’s been wonderful talking all things about Bustle and really it’s been so insightful to hear the processes that have gone behind the pages from you both. I think you guys have done a really good job at complimenting each other’s styles and really bringing this to fruition I guess. But otherwise, I think that’s all from me. For anybody who did join us late, I will wrap up the show with some announcements. So obviously we’ve got, let’s make a comic book tomorrow night at seven 30 Eastern Standard Time. So make sure to catch Bitsy the tra Cat. We’ve also got Friday Night Drink and draw. These shows usually would be on Fortnight, but as of this week there’ll be a weekly and Nicole Kane and Chris will be making their debut as hosts.

(57:46)
So there will be the original and new crew in rotation every fortnight. So make sure to catch this week’s theme, which is Batwoman. And of course make sure to send in your artwork for both shows, either a fan of Bitsy the Trade Cat or that woman, I believe we’ve got that link there, so make sure you send it through there. You can also register your interest if you want to be on the show. I believe we’ve also got a link for that too. Just there. As for announcements, just another reminder, Stella Lands by Max Ferrata is launching tomorrow to make sure you get on board with that. And if you haven’t already, make sure to jump on the Moose. That’s going to be until the end of July. Otherwise you can catch the Mac Bros at Spend Con and the 25th of August. They’ll be there with their limited edition hard covers, collect cards, and also some comics titles. But otherwise, you can also catch Lee Chalker on his Tuesday Chin Wax. Again, I just want to thank you guys for being on the show. There’s been amazing and thanks for everyone for tuning in. We’ll see you guys in a fortnight. Thanks so much.

Peter Wilson (58:57):
Thanks guys for watching.

Sheydin Dew (58:59):
Bye.

Voice Over (59:00):
Check out comex.cx for all things Comex and find out what Comex is all about. We hope you enjoyed the show.