Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (00:12):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Aus Comex Show. I’m here with Shaden, wrong way. There we go. Hello. We are here to talk to Chris Wood about what he’s up to at the moment, but before we do that, I just wanted to announce the shows we have this week. We’ve got, let’s make a comic book tomorrow night. That’s the same time as this show, seven 30, depending where you are. Of course, Eastern Standard, Australian Eastern Standard Time should always say that in case someone in America goes Eastern Standard. I might be on that show. We’re having troubles filling the third spot, so if you want to be the third spot, let me know. If I can’t find someone, it’s me. Comes down to me. So I might be on the show drawing, I’ll be on the show drawing sometime, but it might force me to do it tomorrow Anyway, drink and draw. It’s the drink and draw off week crew. And we are doing Shazam, so get your art in. I should probably put that up where you send your art.

(01:17)
There it is. So send your art to Comex Show slash Art and well not send it to there, sorry. Go there and there’s a form. Submit your art, submit all the information we need. Most of that information is so that we can share it to the right places on other social medias and credit you. That’s what I’m looking for. And the other thing is I and Kes are going to the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fair here in Brisbane at the UQ campus on Saturday. We’ll be there from 10 till four. Come and meet us, come buy some comics. We are taking, not just Comex Studio, we are taking the entire shop, all 100 ish comics, hundred titles I should say, because there’s multiples of each title. So we’ll be taking the whole thing with us. And yeah, so come meet us, come buy some great Australian comics. But yeah, enough of that nonsense. Let’s start the show and meet up with Chris and I need to get on the right screen to do that. Let’s do it.

Sheydin Dew (02:41):
Hey Chris.

Chris Wood (02:42):
Hey, how you going?

Sheydin Dew (02:44):
Really well, how are you? So good to have you back on the

Chris Wood (02:46):
Show. Yeah, good. Yeah, I love to be back. I mean, I love this show, as you guys know. Big fan of what you guys do over there. I think I was on a show not long ago, it wasn’t isis, which turned out really well

Sheydin Dew (03:01):
About a year ago, I reckon

Chris Wood (03:03):
On this one. I did one the other week. I think you were on the drawing one. Let’s make Oh, that’s the one. Yes, I was on the drawing one and when I used, I remember because I watched it back a little bit and it was a great show, by the way. But you know what? I used my iPad, so the angle for the whole time was like this, which is not very flattering. So I’m trying to get a really high shot here, trying to make a little appealing for people. But yeah, I think we did a show Shaden about a year ago to talk a little bit. It was a blast. And yeah, I’m happy to be back and talking about all the projects we’ve got going on and yeah,

Sheydin Dew (03:41):
Because I think last time we were actually kind of hinting towards some of one of your projects that we’ll be talking about tonight. We’ll be talking about two projects, which is really exciting. But for those who probably don’t know you, give us a little bit of a spiel about what you do.

Chris Wood (04:04):
So I’m based in Perth actually at the moment. I’m in Bunbury, which is the second city in wa. So even more remote from everybody else in Australia. But yeah, so I’m an artist at the moment. Lucky to be full-time. I do comics, cartoons, illustration projects. Recently this year I joined an agency Solid Lines, which is within the Jackie Winter umbrella. And it’s been a blast. I’ve been able to work on some things that I haven’t really worked on before. I did a magazine illustration, which is something I’ve really wanted to do for a long time. And yeah, it’s been a crazy, crazy year, but I’ve been working hard on two comics Coffee Table, which I’ve talked about before, but also Dream Walker, which I’m, I think I kind of talked about a little bit and showed the tease a little. We had kind of here talk about a little bit more in depth. And yeah, there’s the page on the side there, a couple of pages. So yeah, really keen to just sort of chat, talk, shop and talk about those projects. And also, yeah,

Sheydin Dew (05:23):
Absolutely. It definitely sounds like since last time we talked, you’ve been really busy, obviously next to me showcases a few of your projects, what you’ve been doing recently. So let’s jump into one of your major projects that you’ve been doing recently, which is Dream Walker. Can you give us a little bit of an insight about what it is that you’ve been doing with that project?

Chris Wood (05:48):
Yeah, so Dream Walker is the second book, expanding the series within the Adii verse, which is kind of like Scott Wilson, who’s the creator, writer extraordinaire. He’s kind of the brainchild behind that. And that kind of runs through Gestalt as well. So we’ve got Wolfgang from Gestalt, who’s the editor on that. And for this book in particular, we’ve got Molly Hunt, who is a pretty incredible artist within her own and also a really talented writer. And the reason she was brought on as well is because this book is, they’re all including myself from the Kimberley, so up north west of wa. And the character is from the location as well. And the main character is kind of like This’s, this woman named Man Gala a little bit in the past. And she is basically searching for her child that’s taken from her and she has to go through this huge adventure space, sci-Fi action and everything. It’s a crazy project, it’s a big issue. The first issue, 32 pages. And I was able to have the opportunity to lay it out, pencil it, ink it, and colour it as well. So it’s a pretty amazing project and the scope of it is insane. So yeah, it’s a pretty crazy book.

Sheydin Dew (07:38):
Yeah, absolutely. And I believe you told us that the colouring is kind of a new avenue for you. Is that correct? Can you tell us a little bit about what that has been like for you, that process?

Chris Wood (07:51):
Yeah. Well I am like a pencil iner really is what I focused on for a long time. And I kind of did colour things. I’ve coloured a few covers that I’ve done. I also colour the little weekly cartoons I do as well, but nothing to this scope or scale. So it was a bit daunting. I was kind of confident I could do it. But also because I’m a pencil and iner, I have strong opinions on colouring and I’m actually quite, maybe not critical, but I really know in my head what I think looks good for colours. And sometimes I look at books are Marvel and DC and I’m like, I dunno if I would’ve done that, or I dunno if that’s the best way to approach colouring. So I really had to put my money where my mouth is. I’ve had kind of strong opinions that I don’t voice too often, but just in my head, things you like in comic.

(08:55)
So I kind of had to put my money where my mouth is, and I think it worked out pretty well. I mean, now when people see the pages, they always talk about the colouring and they don’t talk about pencilling. And again, I’m like, I did it too. I overshadow myself too well. But yeah, no, it’s been a blast. But also it’s been interesting coming up with a streamlined procedure for doing colouring rather than having a hundred layers. How do I actually just make it as efficient as possible because I’m on it’s intense deadlines. So finding that journey has been interesting, doing a bit of research on colouring, and now I’ve got to the point where I don’t have sprawling files of a billion layers, which I had in the past before this project.

Sheydin Dew (09:54):
Wow, that sounds really, really interesting in how your growth mindset has developed. I’m interested, however, dream Walker seems like a really large project. Can you give us a little bit of insight how long this has taken you?

Chris Wood (10:11):
Yeah, it’s taken me a little bit. I think we talked about it for a while. Hey everybody, how you going? Thanks for coming. Yeah, we were in talks for a while. I met Scott, geez, might’ve been a, let’s see, year ago, can’t remember, probably earlier than that at paf. We had a good chat. Cool. And we wanted to get something going. And this project, he was sort of building at a very foundational level, and I think you kind of had me in mind. And then I had Coffee table out, so I had my own creator and work with a writer, Kieran Alexander, who is a absolute genius writer. So I had that book out and they saw that book and they were kind of interested. And then I did a variant cover that might’ve been end of last year, did a variant cover for Dark Heart, which is the first book in the dig series universe, which they really loved, which was awesome. And then we were kind of in talks of scheduling, how are we going to do this? And I think I started work during February, march, might’ve been end of April, mostly May. I got started on the book and it’s going to come out this month. So yeah,

Sheydin Dew (12:01):
What a huge credit to you to get all of that done. It seems like it was a really interesting process. Can you maybe walk us through, obviously you’ve had so much input into this book with the colouring and everything that you do, your strengths. Yeah. Can you give us a little bit of a walkthrough into how you actually created the pages as such? What is your step-by-step process?

Chris Wood (12:25):
Yeah, well, yeah, I can talk a little bit about that. So essentially I like to work pretty regimented in terms of I’ll do all the layouts for a book and I’ll do all the pencils and I’ll do all the things and then I’ll do all the colours. I feel like it’s easy, I try to make it, I don’t like to jump around too much because each level of the process has different skills. I feel like inking has different, requires totally different skillset or mindset I should say. Then laying out pages. So laying out the pages is probably the most fun. I do that first and it’s just like how interesting can I make it? And I try to be pretty experimental in my layouts. The coffee table is very, we’ve got panels and nothing goes outside the panels, but once it filters through, you’ll see the third page of Dream Walker coloured.

(13:36)
There’s a lot more going on. So that was a lot of fun. And then so layouts, then pencils, usually I go pencils and inks, but I kind of did a hybrid of rather than doing, kind of meshing them together in a way as a bit of an experiment because I feel like if I just sit down and pencil too tightly and then ink, it can get a little bit, you lose a bit of energy. So I tried to, the pencils were a little looser and tried to leave more space, do some drawing essentially. And I think I worked out pretty well. I did struggle a little bit early on the project to like, okay, how am I going to do this? What is the look that it’s going to be? Because when I kind of pitched my involvement, when we had those early foundational discussions, I said, look, I want this to be essentially able to stand up against a super comic,

(14:40)
An American publisher with power, so multiple dc so can it be in that vein? And then I had to think of how’s that actually. So I did struggle a little bit in that sense, the first maybe week and a half I had to make up that time. So then after I inked it and at each level it gets the go ahead, you get the thumbs up or things that want to change. Thankfully there wasn’t actually that many amendments or anything, or it was good feedback, but nothing much. I didn’t have to redo a page, which is awesome. And then I went into the colours and that was tough at the beginning. As you can see, coffee table there is black and white and there’s some grey values, but being able to colour 32 pages was a little tough. And I had to sit down and just say, look, I’m just going to do some research.

(15:36)
So I followed a lot of colorists that I enjoyed and kind of got to the point where it’s like I have flattered all and then kind of flat it on one layer, just random mask colours, just crazy colours. And then above it, the next layer is kind of like the shadow, but it’s like a dark purple, dark blue. And then I have another layer, which is just an empty layer. This is probably super technical and no, I love it. Makes sense, but I’m really interested in, I didn’t know how to really do this. So you’ve got the flats, then you’ve got the base, then you’ve got a blank layer, and then I could just hide the blue and click one, click each flat, put the blue back on, and then on the blank layer colour, whatever the flat area was. And then I would just merge it down blue and then just do the whole thing again until eventually that blue layer was a colour page and it allowed me to put those colours on.

(16:49)
But then kind of have the shadows all kind of be the same from the same colour, darker blue and all the colours. Before that I would just pick random as colours from the wheel, but I actually only coloured using maybe a dozen colours. I think I probably looked at someone colorist YouTube and Zoom paused it screen, zoomed in on a process video and took the colours that they used and I would just colour with those. So my red was super red and probably quite technical, but I don’t know if that made any sense. But being a game changer in terms of the process of colour the day.

Sheydin Dew (17:39):
And I think we get a lot of artists watching the show as well. So from one artist to another, it’s always really interesting to hear people’s processes, no matter how technical they are. If anybody does have any questions in the comments, make comments, make sure to send them in. You did touch on a little bit about your favourite stage in that process. I want to hear what you found was the most challenging step in that process.

Chris Wood (18:08):
The most challenging as in the most challenging stage where it was the layouts, pencils. Yeah. Yeah, probably the colours. I mean, I think in terms of, I’m not trained, I didn’t go to university or anything, and I feel like that’s okay in terms of basic drawing ability, I don’t think you need to, but in terms of colour theory, I feel like you do get a head start if you’ve gone through any sort of training or classes or anything. So I kind of just had to use my gut and that was probably the most difficult and the most second guessing of myself I guess, which does take up a lot of time. It’s very easy to, if I can just draw something out, I’m okay with it, but if I’m drawing, I’m like, this is actually any good. That kind of really slows me down. But I think it worked out really well and it’s actually given me a lot of confidence, which I didn’t have it colour, but yeah, probably colouring, but some panels, I mean it was difficult to, layouts is very much problem solving for me. And it’s like, okay, even that first panel, it’s like they wanted four seasons in one page and to show the passage of time, that in itself was like, okay, well what’s my approach to that? So yeah, little things like that. Right. Yeah, absolutely.

Sheydin Dew (19:38):
And I think that page that you were just mentioning was executed really, really well. And I think it’s so great to see indigenous representation in such a cool comic, especially for superheroes and stuff like that. And I think

Chris Wood (19:52):
You

Sheydin Dew (19:53):
Put such a cool modern twist, especially with the colours. I mean, anybody who knows me, definitely a colour girly. So seeing these pages are, Ooh, okay, this is going to be interesting.

Chris Wood (20:05):
Yeah, I think we discussed this for the last time with your project. I think we might have similar taste in terms of colours. I really like that bright pink I was able to use, and I actually took those cues on the second two pages from what was already established in Dark Heart. But my version of it, I kind of like those pinks kind of almost neon pinks and stuff.

Sheydin Dew (20:32):
I think it’s such a cool modern twist on it. It’s just really fresh to see. I think,

Chris Wood (20:38):
Yeah, just to build off that, actually, just to come back to it, I mean, this was a really important book for me to do because my family is aboriginal, but it’s something that we, of the history and stuff, not as close to it as we could have been if things had gone differently and if I had this book or even just any of the Indi books when I was a kid, it really would’ve changed, probably changed my life and really made me feel, I dunno what the word is, but a lot better growing up. If I had these books, it’s super hard book, but it, it’s Australian culture and people that look like people that are from here. So I do think it’s an important project, which is why I was very excited, daunted, but also ultimately really committed to do the best work I do. So I just wanted to get that in there.

Sheydin Dew (21:42):
Yeah, no, absolutely. I’m

Chris Wood (21:43):
Glad. Discuss that a little bit.

Sheydin Dew (21:44):
Yeah, I’m glad that you did touch on that as well, and I think that’s really admirable that, and also congratulations that you’re able to do that. I’m pretty sure younger Chris would be applauding you now. And I think, yeah, and I think it’s really important for that kind of representation to be shown now, especially for younger generations as well. Leading on from that question, from that segment I should say, was there anybody during this journey for you that has helped you along the way?

Chris Wood (22:22):
Yeah, in terms of my journey in general, or do you mean the project or

Sheydin Dew (22:27):
Journey in general or the project or if there’s anyone.

Chris Wood (22:30):
Yeah, I would like to talk. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I would like to talk just in terms of the project, this is the immense faith that they had in me to just do the entire book has been amazing. That comes from Scott Wilson, who’s the writer, and the script was really strong as well. I talk about a lot about my process, but also it doesn’t work if the script’s not very good at the writing’s not very good. There’s a lot of really cool action scenes. There’s a lot of subtext as well. It’s really well done. That’s Scott Wilson and Molly Hunt’s script, so full praise to them. I’ve also got a really good editor on this project. Wolfgang, kind of the editor of Geal Ol who are amazing. Having a good editor is really good. So this is a pretty big moment for me and just having the whole team be onto it and really supportive, but also really keen on the best we can. So this, it’s been immense in terms of just my journey in general.

(23:42)
Yeah, I guess my family have been super supportive. There was a time where I was just working at Baskin Robbins and I was living at home and red cheap. So that sort of support can’t be taken. I have to acknowledge that hundred percent. There’s been a few people that really believed in me and had complete support when I said I was going to be a comic book artist all those years ago, most people, I’ll be honest, they didn’t really think it was going to happen or they didn’t think there was much of a career there, much of a future there. But I kind of did it anyway and with the help of people in my family and friends as well along the way. So yeah, I mean it’s been huge. And also just the opportunity to work. I’ve had some pretty crazy, just I think almost 99% luck opportunities.

(24:53)
Hooking up with Chris Batter knock for the horror comics we did was massive in terms of really testing whether or not I could sit down and draw for a living draw 10 hours a day. That was huge. And we only met by chance at the local comic shop. Shout out to Keith from Quality Comics. Lemme put my name forward to him. I kind of came in, I was so miserable, and I came in and I was like, I didn’t have any work. I came into the comic bookshop that I’d been to since I was a little kid and I said, I’m an artist. He knew me, but I didn’t go around telling people I wanted to do comics at that stage in my life. And I went to him and I said I was even moving out of, anyway, that’s the whole thing. But I had no prospects.

(25:49)
And I said to Keith, Hey dude, I’m an artist. Is there anyone making comics here? And he’s like, oh yeah, Chris came in, he’s doing horror comics at Bad Harvard, which no longer exists unfortunately. Like, oh yeah, I’ll pass on an email. And then I was getting paid doing comics with them, which was amazing. Tough experience. And then just random stuff like the cartoons, I was out of work. I lost my job with Covid when Covid happened and I wasn’t getting any benefits either. The way it worked out, it was like I flipped through the cracks, I wasn’t getting any Centrelink or anything. And then I opened my email to try and get something going through or something. And it was an email from Daniel Smith who is a big person in my life career wise and friend who works at Regen Strategic, which is like a consultancy, but I have a lot of journalists, so they do a lot of cartoons. And then I was doing cartoons. So it’s been insane. There’s a few key moments where I’m like, this is so weird. How am I getting these opportunities? But I think that’s pretty much everything in terms of key people, a little bit of a snapshot into how crazy, just craziness of things and things lining up. It could have gone the other way. I could still be working basketball immensely grateful.

Sheydin Dew (27:26):
Absolutely. And I think that’s, I feel like it’s always interesting hearing people how they get their foot in the door into how they do their projects and how they get them started. Pretty much, if anything, I think you could write a book about that whole story. It was so interesting to hear. Funnily enough, the fourth monkey, thank you so much for sending that comment in because that is going to lead into my next question. He says, I love the coffee book, the coffee table. I have a copy signed by Ki. Very cool.

Chris Wood (27:57):
No way. That’s awesome.

Sheydin Dew (27:59):
I guess that’s a great segue to lean into what have you been working on since we talked, which is another project, the Coffee table, which I remember you talking about last year. Can you tell us a little bit more about that project?

Chris Wood (28:15):
Yeah, so that’s another weird coincidence. Kieran, the writer for the coffee table was working in quality comics and we hadn’t really talked or known each other, but I had a book from Bad Harvey in there and maybe a poster as well. And he basically said, Hey, look, I’ve got a script. I’m a writer, you’re an artist. Can I give you my script? And I was like, sure. I wasn’t really, people say that, I’ll give you a script. I’m like, okay. And usually they’re great. But this one was spectacular. I mean, I read it on the way home on the train, and I was like, I got to hook up with this guy and we got to do some work. And that was another, at that stage I was doing Be Harvey, but that kind of ended and I was like, let’s just do as people that hadn’t really done our own books, let’s just put our heads together and try and do something that in a genre that we both enjoy, which is kind of like we’re both really into image comics and though the quirkiness of that world, which he absolutely loves.

(29:36)
So Coffee Table. Yeah, I mean that’s been a long time coming and that was probably like 2020, so that’s a long time ago. This is kind of something we’ve both been working on for a long time. It’s quite a large project. It’s about a hundred pages and it’s kind of something we’ve been doing in our spare time, although recently this year, but the past year I should say would be trying to get it finished, which we’ve been pretty successful in doing. But yeah, coffee Table is a book about two roommates Slack of roommates who realise their coffee table, if they put a certain type of coffee on it, it disappears and a hundred note appears. And it’s kind of like a lot of the problem etiquette they get into with that, but also about what is the mystery behind this coffee table and that sort of aspect as well. So yeah,

Sheydin Dew (30:33):
It was so

Chris Wood (30:33):
Funny seeing the pages because I did these, maybe the pages that are showing up here. Maybe I did that in 2021. To me, look, it’s very strange to look at that long ago pages I did that long ago. But yeah,

Sheydin Dew (30:48):
Yeah, I mean I think it’s been so interesting for me to see that particular project, the coffee table from what we spoke about last year to now seeing it like it is now, there’s been a huge development with that. And it was such an interesting story as well, being able to read through it now. It’s such an interesting concept. So I commend Kieran on his writing. It seems like a really interesting story. And yeah, you’ve definitely conveyed it really well. Your artwork is just phenomenal. And I’m pretty sure I said that last time too.

Chris Wood (31:23):
Thank you. Thank you.

Sheydin Dew (31:25):
And I guess it kind of just goes to show your process in which you were talking about before, and I also wanted to ask whether or not, now this is one of my favourite questions as well, I like to ask particularly artists is how they overcome creative block, because I’m sure everyone kind of comes to that at some point in their career and it’s always really interesting to see how people deal with it in their own ways. So do you have a strategy to overcome it at all?

Chris Wood (31:58):
Yeah, there’s kind of two answers to this one. I think on one hand I to call it getting, I think I heard this from someone, I didn’t make this up, but getting up and just looking at a comic when I was first starting out, that was a bit more intense. I used to have certain comics and I used to basically read them before bed and then fall asleep and they would be in my bed. It was just trying to get something to stay. But I call it getting my vitamins in. So just waking up or when I’m on a lunch break looking through Pinterest or just grabbing a comic and just looking through it, enjoying it and then putting it away, I feel like that keeps me motivated and looking at things that I like I guess is important to me.

(32:59)
Oh, actually no, there is a really good answer to this. My attitude is I try and find the hook into the drawing, whatever I’m drawing, whether it’s a page or a panel or whatever, scene or setting or person. What is the interesting part of this drawing? What do I find? What could be fun about this drawing and really latch onto that and then kind of I guess nurture that. That’s been really helpful. And I think it’s super useful just in general. I mean, drawing has been just amazing for my life in general. Little strategies I picked up from drawing that I can apply to other things, but that’s probably a big one. Just I try and find just what’s the fun little thing. It might just be one little line. I’m like, okay, this is cool. That’s an interesting shape or so that’s probably the real gold standard question.

(34:00)
But also the other question is if I’m on deadlines, I don’t have a choice, I look at my bank account or I look at, I got contract, I’m like, I got to get this done and I don, I can’t really not do it and I’m getting better at, I’m probably not the best at managing my time across large projects and big projects. I think that’s something you get good at. I think sitting down and drawing every day for long hours, it’s kind of something that’s a skill in of itself. How do you not just screw this, I’m just going to go do something else. How do you just literally sit down and draw for those long hours? And I think that’s maybe tolerance you build up. That’s how I think about ’em. Yes, a lot of the times I just don’t have a choice. I’ll unfortunately do stay on online to finish things, which isn’t good. I don’t recommend it. I try to do less of that. I, I’m trying to do more of the first answer. The second answer, yes.

Sheydin Dew (35:12):
It’s always interesting. Yeah, I always like asking it because I think there’s a lot you can learn from other people’s ways of doing things, I guess, or habits. So it’s always interesting to see both perspectives. Obviously as a professional, you do have contracts here too, so I definitely understand that. But at the same time it’s like how do you balance a mental wellbeing as well, because it’s quite taxing sitting there and drawing day in, day out, I guess, enough with the heavy. I know that recently you attended, and for those who don’t know what PCAP is, it is the first comic arts festival I believe, which I have been wanting to attend, but every time I go to apply, I miss out on the applications. So can you tell

Chris Wood (36:00):
Us, I’m going to remind you, I will remind you for next year. Please

Sheydin Dew (36:03):
Do. Please do. Because

Chris Wood (36:05):
I always, I’ll remind you multiple times,

Sheydin Dew (36:08):
Tell us what your experience was this year.

Chris Wood (36:11):
Yeah, look, I mean Perth coming Arts Festival, it’s a great festival, it’s a comics festival and I love those larger festivals I guess, or conventions I should say. But they’re not just comics. And there’s something to be said about a grassroots local festival for comics. There’s a passion for comics there and people go there for comics, which I used to think that that’s, oh, isn’t that a nice thing? People go there for comics. But I’ve actually noticed over the years that I’ve gone and speaking to people, they actually kind of make more money. I dunno if I could say this, but I think anecdotally, I think if you’re running a booth and you’re selling comics, you might actually do better at a festival like that than some of the larger festivals because people go there for comics. You won’t get people walking up and being like, oh, what’s this?

(37:09)
I’m here for other things. So that’s been really good. So it is really good to see that enthusiasm on both sides. So artists who are selling comics and people who are coming in, yeah, it’s a wonderful festival. It’s at the state library, which is a huge place to have that event. And it’s across two days. I think what’s interesting about PCA is it’s across two days. The first day is an academy, I guess it’s an Academy Day I think they call it, but it’s an industry day so anyone can come. But really there’s talks and networking opportunities for creators. So I think that’s something that I love about AF that I think is unique in a way where it’s like, yeah, you can listen to creators from anywhere in Australia, come visit and talk about their experiences and meet people. I think meeting people, I mean the comics industry in Australia, everybody’s really awesome that I’ve met and it’s great meeting people.

(38:24)
That’s what I love about paf. This year was really good, really successful. I was a bit working up until the day, so I was kind of really tired, but I didn’t really do too much legwork in terms of manning boots and stuff, which is always good. I was able to enjoy it around a little bit. But yeah, PF is great. Seriously come to P af, it’s is awesome. A lot of Perth maybe has a chip on its shoulder, but I dunno, I is nice. And there is a really strong community, local community that kind of coalesces around P af. PC AF is kind of the hub, but it also allows the community to revolve around, oh, the planning and are you going to PC af? It actually just centralised or maybe brought people together in a cool way. And I know that I spoke to some people who are trying to take what is being done at places like PPC and paper cuts and kind of bring it to over east, which is an exciting prospect, having more of these local events around, which I’d love to see.

Sheydin Dew (39:52):
Absolutely. And yeah, speaking from paper cuts, I guess a lot of people kind of compare Adelaide, which is where I’m from for those who don’t know, and Perth is that I hear a lot of similarities between the two cities. And now that there’s similarity between PC and paper cuts, shout out to Owen. I know that Owen, one of the organisers of Paper Cuts was at PC AF this year. Great to see those two festivals starting to really, I guess grow bigger and bigger every year. So it’s always good to hear what’s going on around the country in different states. And one day I will be there at PCA and I’ll be able to meet you in person.

Chris Wood (40:35):
Yeah, that’d be awesome

Sheydin Dew (40:36):
Talking about your projects. I would love to see it in person. So yeah, I

Chris Wood (40:40):
Guess that’d be great.

Sheydin Dew (40:41):
Yeah, stemming off from that as well. I asked a lot about who has been big influences in your journey, your career, but I want to know what you wish someone had told you before you started your journey perhaps?

Chris Wood (41:00):
Yeah, that’s a good question. Well, probably, I mean obviously I drew a lot as a kid. So I mean, as a kid I just wanted to be work in comics and do that. I guess I’m trying to think, do I want to frame this as would I want kid me to hear? But maybe I’ll say around 2017, I’ll be honest, I kind of dropped out of uni. I was like, I’m going to do comics, and nobody thought it was a good idea and people told me as much and that’s fine. I mean, that’s their opinion. But yeah, maybe I would say I wish someone had said, yeah, it’s doable or there is something that I learned.

(41:54)
It took me a little bit of time to learn, but my thinking is drawing comics, there’s so many things involved in drawing comics, you can actually apply to other things. So I do cartooning, I I’ve done illustration for magazines and other things, other projects and it’s like, yeah, there’s a lot of foundational ability aspects that you can just storytelling as well that you can use for other things. And my thing was I wanted to do comics, but now I’m just like, I want to be an artist so I’ll do lots of different things. I’m trying to broaden my scope and I can come back and do comics.

(42:42)
So I guess, yeah, maybe I wish someone had to said, yeah, look, learn this basic craft and you’ll be able to use it for a lot of different things. And that’s been something I’ve done the last year or two, which has been really successful. And something to be said about how hard comics is. Other illustrators that don’t come from comics, maybe they can’t do comics because it is that intense and everybody who makes comics, I mean we all make comics here in this community at comics and it’s like, yeah, it’s really hard, but now I’m in a greater ecosystem of illustrators. It’s like, yeah, I got a lot of strengths from that that people don’t have. So

Sheydin Dew (43:32):
Yeah,

Chris Wood (43:32):
Absolutely. I think don’t be afraid to try other things outside of adjacent to comics because I think there’s a bit of overlap and you can learn things that you can come into comics. So yeah,

Sheydin Dew (43:45):
Absolutely. I think I would agree with that as well. I mean as someone who is currently doing a degree in design, which is a little bit backwards, some people may become into comics from design, I’m not sure. I’m sure there’s one, but going from comics into design, there has been so much that I can apply from the layout and structure of comics to applying into so many different things, digital prints, all kinds of things of design, and it has helped me so much hope it’s given me a leg up. So I would definitely agree wholeheartedly with that. There is so much you can apply it from comics.

Chris Wood (44:21):
No, definitely.

Sheydin Dew (44:22):
Yeah. I guess we’re getting onto the tail end of the interview. Thanks again for all your time, but these are the really hard hitting questions that I love to ask and I think a lot of people get a lot out of it. And that is, what do you think the Aussie indie comics scene needs more of?

Chris Wood (44:45):
That’s a tough one. Look, I just think it just needs to keep growing and I think that it is growing. I think yeah, just try and put out the good work. If people keep putting out good work, it’ll just keep snowballing and it’ll bring more younger people in and then there’ll be more talent and it’ll just keep snowballing. And I think we haven’t really reached the critical mass of how large the community is and things that are coming out, but I think we’ll get there eventually. I guess the other thing is I’m kind of over talking about why the industries in Australia maybe isn’t successful or isn’t where it should be. I’m I kind of over those conversations, I kind of see ’em as negative conversation. It’s like, oh, this is why this doesn’t work. And I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know how helpful those kind of conversations are. I think it’s just like let’s all just be super positive and keep making comments and keep highlighting your show. I think why I’m such a fan of comics and you guys is because you actually take positive, you actually do something positive in your actions, but it’s like, yeah, you highlight comic artists or sell comics and put people together that would never meet, right? So yeah, that’s kind of my rambling about Australian industry.

Sheydin Dew (46:30):
Absolutely. I think that is definitely true. I think if we want more positive things and we not highlight the positive things that are already there and let that snowball and do its own thing. On the flip side of that, what do you think are seen does well at already?

Chris Wood (46:51):
Yeah, I think there are a lot of projects that really are Australian and maybe not consciously leverage that, but they are just from Australians that are comfortable being Australian, I guess. And there’s a lot of projects that are like, I love because they are just Australian and they’re not afraid, they’re not pretending to be American comics. I think that’s important as well. Maybe that’s where the industry goes more into, because I think there’s a lot of value in those two people that live here, but also maybe other people across the world want to read that stuff. I dunno, it’s just a guess maybe. I dunno. It’s just fun projects that are Australian I think is awesome that maybe European comics I love, but I don’t know they, they’ll do a Western and I’m like, you know what I mean? I dunno, maybe I’m not getting across my point. But yeah, there’s a lot of Australian comics that are just so Australian that you can just feel like it feels good and maybe they’re not conscious, they’re just Australian. Yeah, it’s really good to see and embrace that aspect to it. Let’s have Australian characters and things said in the past and things like that. It’s awesome.

Sheydin Dew (48:35):
Yeah, for sure. And I think it’s a huge credit to you because I think it’s wonderful to see more indigenous representation in our comics as well. So a huge applause to you. I think what you’re doing is fantastic and it’s always a pleasure to talk to you as well. My last and final question is where can we find this upcoming book and where can we also find the coffee table as well? Where can we find your work?

Chris Wood (49:05):
Yeah, so actually I think there was a links that I sent. It was like a pre-order for the Dream Walker issue one. So there is a pre-order link website at the moment, and you’ll be able to get that when it comes out probably in most comic book shops, at least in every state I would say. I don’t know for sure. At the very least, you’ve able to buy it online as well. And if you just go to the Uverse website, so that’s set to come out this month. We’ve got a few things I’m working on the cover at the moment, which is interesting, that process, but that’s going to be really good, I hope, in terms of coffee table, that one has a little bit more complicated journey, I think still the go, although we have put out limited copies at PC AF and other festivals.

(50:07)
I think we’re going to pitch it to publishers in general and see where it goes. We are going to pitch it to image, so that might be fun to talk about whether that’s successful or not, and just other publishers, whatever publisher, let’s try that way first. There might be something to this book that people might like that might have a broader appeal, and then depending on how that goes, that’ll decide how the book comes out. But we’re totally happy to self-publish at the end of the day. But yeah, we’ll probably update on that journey because I think it’ll be interesting, Michael. It’s just try and apply to publishers within their application, which is all different and there are limitations there, so that’ll be fun. We’ll give that a go, why not?

Sheydin Dew (51:07):
Absolutely. And I wish you all the best as well for how that goes. I’ll definitely be watching as I have been in the last year, so I’ll be looking out for those updates, for sure. Otherwise, Chris, that concludes my interview for you tonight. Thank you so much for your time. Otherwise,

Chris Wood (51:26):
Thank you so much.

Sheydin Dew (51:27):
That’s all good. S do we have any other final announcements that you want to bookend our show with tonight?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:34):
The main one is like the video. That would be great. Share it with your friends so more people get to watch this and get to know a little bit more about Chris and his projects and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already. That helps us bring out more of this content and help more creators get the word out about themselves. So that would be awesome.

Sheydin Dew (51:55):
Absolutely. That’s the main one. Otherwise, thank you so much to everyone who’s watched and thank you again, Chris, for coming on the show. It’s been a pleasure to catch up with you and catch up on everything that you’ve been doing in the last year. Thanks again.

Chris Wood (52:08):
Yeah, thank you so much. I love covering the show. I’ll try and come on at least a few more times this year, I reckon. I just love it so much again, what you guys do, so amazing. If you’re here supporting and still watching after me talking so much. Thank you. You guys are awesome. Seriously, thank you so much.

Sheydin Dew (52:27):
Fantastic. Thanks so much guys, and we’ll tune in two weeks, otherwise, catch all the other shows during the week as well. Thanks so much guys. We’ll see you later.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (52:38):
See you. Bye.

Voice Over (52:40):
Check out Comex CX for all things Comex and find out what Comex is all about. We hope you enjoyed the show.