Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (00:13):
Welcome to the Oz Comic Show. I am Shane or Siz as people know me and this is Shaden. Oh, wrong way, that way.

Sheydin Dew (00:23):
Hello.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (00:25):
Hello everyone. Thanks for joining us. I’ll just quickly go through a few things before we start tomorrow. Let’s make a comic book is having a break just for this week, so don’t worry. It’ll be back next week. Friday nights, drink and draw. The theme is dla, so get your dazzlers in. And just so everyone remembers, this is where you go to submit your Art Comex Show slash art, and that’s a form there to send in your art. And I’ll be doing long shot on Saturday for the amateur hour and just a bit of a warning over the next couple of weeks, we might be a little bit few mistakes here and there because we are swapping streaming programmes because there has been a big change in the way this one works. It’s pricing structure so they can go get stuffed, quite frankly. Yeah, but that’s not what this show’s about. This show is about Peter Wilson. So let’s get our butts in gear and get over to Peter.

Sheydin Dew (02:03):
Peter, welcome. Thanks so much for joining us tonight all the way from the East coast. I believe it’s such a pleasure to have you on. First and foremost, I had such a pleasure reading foes. For those who don’t know, foes is all about aliens, demons, and donuts, and quite simply, it is just an absolute pleasure to read. It was so easy on the eyes, and the way that you write is just so witty. So for everyone who probably isn’t familiar with yourself, can you give us a quick introduction of who you are and what you do?

Peter Wilson (02:43):
Yeah, so I’m a graphic designer by trade. Oh, Nick. Before good old S came into my life, I had two self-published very short comics under my belt, Crimson and Brasco, which was a superhero parody really, where I cut my teeth figuring out how to make comics. And as I was making them, I really started to explore the indie scene and started reading who else was out there, started following the right people and then lockdown happened, and about halfway through that, good olds reached out and said, Hey, I’m doing this thing. It’s a coms network. I was like, that’s not a thing. I haven’t heard of that. He’s like, I want you to join.

(03:27)
I didn’t think much of it until the next day. I Googled and checked it out and realised, how did you get the Dave die? How did you get SPEDs? He, how did you get all these people? Surely he’s confused me for a real artist and I would’ve left it dead out of insecurity. But he persistent and said, why haven’t you signed up yet? He’s the form. You are just as good as these guys. And he was a big champion of my work. The comics calendar came out and that’s where FOS made their first debut. And then the donor battle, which you can see here, wrong side, originally ran in Comex Presents one through four, I believe. There’s an intermission in issue three though. And yeah, here we are working away. I’m currently working on Issue two at the moment and working on the second Comex

Sheydin Dew (04:21):
Calendar. Amazing, amazing. So you’ve definitely been quite busy recently, I guess diving into this little comic creation of yours, it’s just full of colour and full of character. Can you give us a little bit of an elevator pitch of what it is about?

Peter Wilson (04:38):
So the idea is these two monsters, one demon, one alien, ous and Zero have come to take over Earth, come to do various nefarious deeds, but constantly get in each other’s way. So in this instance, they’ve both been summoned to take over the world, and they both probably could have been pretty successful, but by pure happenstance, they wander into the same coffee shop, both reach for the same donut, and they can’t move past it. They’re both as petty as they are powerful. So the battle just keeps escalating. At any point they could walk away, they refuse. There’s no higher message. It is just two petty beings who can’t let go of a grudge.

Sheydin Dew (05:18):
It’s so fantastic as well. It’s so well paced as well. It’s just such an easy read and it’s so enjoyable and so easily digestible as well. It was a real pleasure to read and it was just really refreshing as well. A lot of the stuff that I’ve been reading has been quite dense in what it’s about. So reading this was just a real breath of fresh air. So yeah, congratulations to you for releasing this as well. Simply the way I would describe your writing and your art style is merely just whimsical full of character and quite honestly, very witty. But I want to hear how you would personally describe your style

Peter Wilson (06:06):
A lot of the times to get inspired for FOAs. I’ll look at things that are much more sincere and not comedy

Sheydin Dew (06:13):
Really.

Peter Wilson (06:14):
Absolutely. I’ve said before, one of my favourite things is those really bad documentaries on the paranormal. You see on YouTube, my house is haunted. I was abducted. It’s watching those and I feel bad for ’em. They are totally sincere

Sheydin Dew (06:33):
And

Peter Wilson (06:33):
I do believe that they believe they’re experiencing something,

(06:38)
But at the same time, there is a level of humour to it. I once watched an Australian documentary on UFOs, and this man claimed that UFOs always followed him. He said, look, there’s one now. The camera spins. Oh no, it’s ducked behind a cloud. It’s like, okay. And I realised if you put that in a comedy, that would just be really funny. I can’t make that serious. But the sincerity of just a really bizarre premise, but executed with total conviction is something I really enjoy. And also just my love of sort of sci-fi and horror films really informed it. It’s kind of your basic stress relief. I was the kid, I wasn’t allowed to watch horror films. So I’d go through video Easy and look at the DVD covers of all this horrific imagery. Your mind Cs up its own story. Then years later you actually watch it and go, that was nothing. That’s embarrassing. I was really scared of Chucky for a long time, and that kind of follows through with foes. I really liked the horror imagery, but then the letdown, if you actually meant ous, he’d be scary for about two seconds and then he’d throw around tail. He’d ask you for 10 bucks or something very underwhelming. So maybe it was a coping mechanism scared, look how dumb these monsters are.

Sheydin Dew (08:01):
No, I love mentis. He’s such a cute character, which I think is just so contrasting with what you’ve just said. It’s such a contrast of what inspired you to what you’ve produced, and I think you’ve implemented it in such a fun way. So that’s a huge credit to yourself as a creator. I guess kind of deep diving into a little bit more of your background, how long have you been drawing for?

Peter Wilson (08:31):
Oh, a long time now. I used to draw and write on and off. I’d go through spurts through high school, early twenties where I’d do nothing but draw for a week. It was always very terrible and then I’d leave it. I didn’t really start pursuing it and doing it constantly every day, probably about 10, 15 years ago. Now, I’ve told this story before, but I fractured my in a motorbike accident.

Sheydin Dew (08:56):
Oh no.

Peter Wilson (08:57):
So there really wasn’t much I could do for about two weeks. It was just lying flat, particularly after the surgery. I wasn’t allowed to do much, but drawing I could do. So there wasn’t much else to do except draw, take painkiller, watch daytime tv, and then immediately go back to drawing because daytime TV’s terrible, and I’m also very claustrophobic by nature. So having to lie still and dead still really played havoc with my mind. So drawing was an escape, and every time I finished a drawing, there was no reason to go back and go, well, I’ll make it better because what else have I got on today? And it just kept going and going, and that’s when I started doing the first few draughts for Crimson and Rascal and realising I love comics. I’ve always read comics. Why can’t I do my own? At the end of it, I’ll have always draw, but I’ll have a product as well.

Sheydin Dew (09:49):
Yeah. Wow, that’s so inspiring. I didn’t know that story actually, and the fact that you’ve come from this and have produced something of this magnitude, I guess you could say. I think there’s a huge, and that’s super inspiring. I guess continuing on the conversation of how you started drawing, what would you say some of your strengths are in your creative skillset?

Peter Wilson (10:19):
I think I spend a lot of time on the script before I start drawing, so I think I’m quite good at making sure that what I draw relates to the story

Peter Wilson (10:33):
And

Peter Wilson (10:33):
Reflects hopefully what the reader should be feeling as they’re reading it. There can be a tendency to start with drawing what’s just cool and the story comes second. Sometimes that works perfectly, but that just doesn’t work. I think that the story can suffer. It can stagnate. I think pacing can be off if you do that, and Tom McFarland famously said he could sell a comic that looks cool, but if it’s written well, it’s harder. But I disagree with that. I think you can do both.

Sheydin Dew (11:11):
Absolutely.

Peter Wilson (11:12):
Pretty ballsy. I disagree. Todd, CLE, who are you?

Sheydin Dew (11:17):
No, I think you’ve done that perfectly as well in foes. Your characters are just full of, I don’t know, they’re just so fun and your writing is just paired so well with it as well. Oh, thank you. It’s just a really, really nice balance of both, so yeah, kudos to you. Having said that, are there any particular skills that you’re currently learning or improving at the moment?

Peter Wilson (11:44):
I feel the big one is always anatomy, especially for comic artists, even for someone’s very cartoony style like me, you never want to start looking sy. You don’t want to start realising, oh, I’ve drawn the same expression several times, or I’m using stock poses. You want to keep pushing it and having fun and practising your fore shortening. That’s definitely something I’m always trying to work on more.

Sheydin Dew (12:10):
Absolutely. There are actually quite a few moments infos that I noticed that you really did push that and you’ve executed it perfectly as well. Oh, thank you. So yeah, good on you for constantly doing that. I think anatomy is always a constant uphill battle with a lot of artists. I definitely can vouch that for myself, so yeah, good, good on you for constantly improving that particular skillset. Another question I’m really interested in is what particular medium do you prefer to work in?

Peter Wilson (12:41):
Digital.

Sheydin Dew (12:42):
Digital? Yeah.

Peter Wilson (12:43):
When I first started with my back, it was sketching, and when I did design at tafe, there was a big emphasis on traditional media, which I think really helped. I think it’s good to have a background. I think it’s good to practise that even if you don’t feel you’re good at it or don’t enjoy it. But these days I think it’s so much quicker. Recently, I used to, for half of donor battle, I used the track pad on my Mac.

Sheydin Dew (13:12):
Really?

Peter Wilson (13:14):
Yeah. I would draw a pencil, take a photo of it, put it in an illustrator and trace it with that. So by the end of it, my fingers would be like that. Wow. Oh my God. It wasn’t until someone pointed out to me, that’s really stupid. I was like, well, how else do you do it? He said, my good friend Robbie Don sat me down and showed me how to use a tablet. So started using a tablet, and now I’ve recently upgraded to the iPad. So much simpler, streamlined issue too is coming along so much quicker. I can just sit down anywhere, anytime and backed you out A quick paddle. Right. It’s really hard

Sheydin Dew (13:48):
To go back. Yeah. I use the exact same method for no man’s land. I used to do the inking traditionally, and then I’d colour it digitally in Photoshop, but now it’s just all stream wide through iPad, so I get it. But yeah, the fact that you’ve come from doing it on a track pad to this now, I think that’s a huge development. That’s super cool. Talking about more about comics and whatnot, I’m interested to hear what you like to read. What kind of comics have inspired you?

Peter Wilson (14:26):
I’m a huge reader. If it looks vaguely interested in comic form, I’ll read it. For a long time, I collected DC primarily Batman,

(14:38)
So I think I’ve got 700 some ridiculous number of Batman comics and Batman related comics, and then I discovered a reprint of Ninja Turtles. One by Mirage came out. I thought, ninja Turtles, that’s cool. I’ve heard good things about this comic that it’s nothing like the cartoon. I’ll pick it up. And it just blew my mind that this was just two dudes in a lounge room, and that really woke up to like, okay, let’s get past the mainstream. What else is out there? So I just started consuming anything and everything. My day job is a support worker for disabilities.

Sheydin Dew (15:16):
Oh, there you go.

Peter Wilson (15:17):
And the hours can be very odd. You can do one from seven till nine in the morning. Then you’ve got nothing till three to five the afternoon. So I’d go to the library rather than trek all the way home, and they always, they’ve just started to get awesome graphic novel selections. So if you haven’t been to your local library, I urge you to check it out. You can get some great reading done, and I would make a point to pick the weirdest or things I wouldn’t really normally read. They had the first 50 issues of Avengers ever printed in a big omnibus. I had never read Marvel. I had never read Golden Age, but by the end of it, I was hooked. I loved it. Stuff from Japan. It’s how I discovered if it looked, I read it. So these days I tend to gravitate towards the more cartoony stuff. Scotty Young, he’s Fairyland series is just hysterically funny old back issues of the Tick I adore. Oh, nice. They’re so fun. Ninja Turtles again have rebooted with an issue one, so I’ve jumped back on that bandwagon friend of comic Lauren Marshall did a variant for issue one, get one. It’s amazing. Where’s my pile? I’ve got a pile of stuff. I’ve got a pile of Old Wizard magazines I’ve been reading.

Sheydin Dew (16:36):
Oh my

Peter Wilson (16:36):
God, that’s good.

Sheydin Dew (16:39):
It sounds like you’ve got such a plethora of different pieces of inspiration. It’s nice to

Peter Wilson (16:45):
Knowable. There’s just piles of comics everywhere.

Sheydin Dew (16:50):
That’s just fantastic to hear. I think

Peter Wilson (16:54):
A random selection for what’s near me, this is some random slave labour graphic novel. Wow. I think it’s about a couple. It’s a tank girl.

Sheydin Dew (17:04):
Oh, nice.

Peter Wilson (17:07):
This is the Art of the Lion King.

Sheydin Dew (17:09):
Oh, awesome.

Peter Wilson (17:11):
That was a good font.

Sheydin Dew (17:12):
Yeah, it looks like it.

Peter Wilson (17:14):
He is a random collection of old ads from Golden Age comics, x-ray specs.

Sheydin Dew (17:19):
Wow.

Peter Wilson (17:22):
It’s just all piled up. It’s a bit worrying. I should sort it somehow, but yeah, so anything and everything I try to read, I particularly like it. It’s a good exercise to read something and try and think of something that it did do well.

Sheydin Dew (17:34):
Absolutely. I think there’s definitely an advantage at doing that because you probably having picked up something that you wouldn’t normally read, you’d probably be inspired by things that you didn’t even think of that great habit to pick up as well. Giving people that you don’t well up and coming emerging artists a chance because you never know what you’re going to find, but yeah. That’s awesome. I guess delving into more of the meaty questions about foes, I want to know how long this project took for you.

Peter Wilson (18:11):
Oh, a long one. The first eight pages existed in some form for a long time. There was no script. It was almost like storyboards, which is why the first couple of pages have almost no dialogue. It’s just slowly setting the pace and setting up the weird characters. But then it started to really meander and it was getting out of control, and I was redoing it and redrawing it, and then I just left it. It was becoming overwhelming. It wasn’t until I was given a deadline with comics presents one that I really thought, okay, let’s structure it. Actually, let’s get this one done. It seemed I was really enjoying drawing it. It was just taking too long

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (18:54):
That Susan is

Peter Wilson (18:57):
So that it would’ve been close to three years.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (19:00):
Wow.

Peter Wilson (19:01):
It was also big hiatus halfway through, which I think by presents three, my partner got diagnosed with breast cancer and obviously had to take a lot of time off. She’s much better now. She’s totally fine now. She’s doing great.

Sheydin Dew (19:13):
That’s a relief to you

Peter Wilson (19:15):
And look, it’s what solidified my love of Comex and my love of this community is how everyone banded together. Not to say, well, can you hurry up and finish it, but to actually get my pages done for me?

Sheydin Dew (19:27):
Yeah,

Peter Wilson (19:27):
That was really awesome. Three, I had done some random three page zines for Fs just for fun, just to sort of practise drawing them, and it was Shane’s idea to get those pages, get people to call them and print them for me so I didn’t have to, and yeah, that’s how that got done. Here’s an example of one of them.

Sheydin Dew (19:49):
Wow, that’s amazing.

Peter Wilson (19:53):
Kickstarter.

Sheydin Dew (19:56):
Oh,

Peter Wilson (19:56):
So it’s essentially the same story. Dementia tried to get a victim, but Zeros already had dibs on them, so there’s an alien version and a demon version.

Sheydin Dew (20:07):
That’s phenomenal. That’s so cool to see where it’s come from to where it is now as well. But yeah, that’s a huge credit to you, Peter. That’s some serious dedication to getting this project out. Congratulations to you.

Peter Wilson (20:25):
Getting good feedback helps too. I think you can. It’s cool to say you’ve got it done in your own time, but I wouldn’t have if people were assuring me that they liked it and they wanted to read it, so

Sheydin Dew (20:35):
Absolutely, and what a pleasure it is to read as well. I guess reading it as well. I came across a few Easter eggs as well, which I thought was really funny. You’ve mentioned that you worked on comics presents. It also states that you worked on the Moose and your first series, Crimson and Rascal, but one of the Easter eggs in there was that you have Cirus Station in one of the scenes, and I thought that that was a great little nod to the sru, so I thought that was fantastic to see

Peter Wilson (21:18):
Cameo.

Sheydin Dew (21:19):
Yeah, and

Peter Wilson (21:21):
I was going to draw them in at one point.

Sheydin Dew (21:24):
Amazing.

Peter Wilson (21:25):
I thought it would be a bit too distracting, but who knows? Maybe in future issues that could happen

Sheydin Dew (21:29):
Maybe. Maybe, but it’s just such a great contrast and it just kind of goes to show how well knit together the community is as well. I love the way you write as well and how the characters describe A UFO as a giant Frisbee. I love the way that the aliens pronounce or how you write Earth is URF. I love the way that it help. I love the fact that the train, the announcement in the train scene, it says train departing. If you missed it too bad and how that vessel of vehicle, I guess you could say is a metal worm. I think it was just really witty and really fun to read. Another thing that

Peter Wilson (22:16):
Take a lot of just average boring stuff and thinking how would a monster who has no context for what he’s seeing, even if he’s a super genius alien, if he hadn’t seen a train before, he might think, oh, maybe it is a worm. Okay, do already pretty dumb doesn’t know most things, so I think Deus would get most earth references and pop culture references, but he’s still pretty dumb.

Sheydin Dew (22:45):
It would’ve been so fun to write these characters. It is. It definitely looked like it was, and I think you’ve done it really well as well. I also liked the fact on page three you drew the alien and it looked like that picture of the real alien from Congress in America a few years ago. Shane, do you have the image of what Peter did? One of these don’t look like the other, can you give some context behind this image? For those who don’t know?

Peter Wilson (23:21):
It was a bunch of Air Force dudes were asking the government to give clarification on UFOs that they had all claimed to have seen, and basically they wanted a bunch of stuff declassified. They wanted to know if they were in danger, not necessarily aliens, just UFOs. It could have been Russian spies, it could have been Chinese spies. It could have just been experimental stuff, but the media really took to the UFO angle.

Sheydin Dew (23:45):
Oh

Peter Wilson (23:45):
Yeah. For the first time I could really get topical, and so I took a screenshot and drew my boy in there. Nice. Didn’t like being talked about.

Sheydin Dew (23:57):
I love this so much. It’s such a good meme as well. You’ve done it well. You did it so well. Yeah. Just on page three, it just looks like the real alien. It’s just laying there and I just couldn’t,

Peter Wilson (24:10):
There’s the Roswell Autopsy video. Alien autopsy video

Sheydin Dew (24:17):
Is where I

Peter Wilson (24:18):
From.

Sheydin Dew (24:19):
Ah, right, right. Recognise it.

Peter Wilson (24:21):
Yeah. Cool. I tried to go with a real classic alien demon iconography,

Peter Wilson (24:27):
But

Peter Wilson (24:27):
The followers only have the very broad stuff. Tarot cards, you can see there crop circles, so they don’t really know what they’re getting into. That men in black photo is also taken from an actual security cam footage of what people claim to be the real men in black ufo. A creepy seven foot dude in a trench coat said you didn’t see anything. Then stole, always filed and walked off. Find those real life stories and sort of pepper them in.

Sheydin Dew (24:58):
Yeah, absolutely. I guess it goes back to what inspired you previously, what we were talking about. It’s just nice to see it all sprinkled in, I guess, and executed beautifully. I guess talking more about your process, you mentioned a little bit about your storyboards and how you didn’t work off a script for a little while there. Can you tell us a little bit more about that process and how you work?

Peter Wilson (25:24):
Yeah. That was a one-off because Crimson and was so heavily scripted and I realised I probably spent too much time worrying about those scripts and layouts and fos came to me very visually. All my other ideas come to me in a what if sentence, but fos. It was, I saw the characters and I saw the city straight away, and then the story came second. Even though Don Battle admittedly is a very thin story potential, other stories came very quickly. The characters came so quickly and they worked so well together because they’re opposites and that’s Comedy 1 0 1. You put two opposites in a room together and they’ll either despise each other, but you’re going to have a laugh. They might get on, they might not, but and just luckily demons and aliens, they look, you get those cliche, the horns, the hoofs, furry legs, fork, tongue, total opposite to a big grey bulbous head, so they look totally different.

(26:29)
So I started drawing it without a script. I thought, let’s just see where it goes. Let’s just have fun drawing it. So I started with the city, how I saw it, the creepy building, and I was like, in my mind, I was building up suspense. I knew how they looked and I was really looking forward to drawing them for the first time and only when it got to about page eight and I realised I have not made any progress in the plot at all. I’m just drawing cool things that I did. Each panel you see in the first eight pages, there’s probably three different versions of each one.

Sheydin Dew (26:57):
Oh, wow.

Peter Wilson (26:58):
Yeah, it was too much. It was ridiculous. They’re great. Always watch. So I think I found a good medium now where I’ll write a script with the gist of what needs to happen because ideally at each phase, the script drawing it, lettering and editing, you can find a way to keep it fresh and keep it going. You find new things you can add that sort of elevate it that little bit more, and I’m quite happy with the process I’ve got now. I think it’s worked well, especially for issue two. I think I’ve got it down a bit finer.

Sheydin Dew (27:36):
Yeah. Nice, nice. Well, that’s good to hear. It definitely definitely shows that you had a lot of fun on this project that’s clearly conveyed and I just hope that, I’m sure that fun will continue to be conveyed in issue two and I can’t wait to continue reading about the donut feud. What is your favourite stage of that process?

Peter Wilson (28:03):
Each of them have their own writing’s. Fun. You’re just throwing everything at the wall that’s issue two. Now, here on the side, that’s the first page, there’s going to be black and white like that, and that’s the second page.

Sheydin Dew (28:15):
That’s awesome.

Peter Wilson (28:16):
It’s going to be a darker story, leaning a little bit more into the horror aspect.

Sheydin Dew (28:21):
Nice.

Peter Wilson (28:23):
But yeah, that’s been fun and then there’s going to be a second story which will become

Sheydin Dew (28:28):
Amazing. What would you say is the most challenging part of that process then?

Peter Wilson (28:39):
The hardest part is when you sort of get to the real technical stage, you’ve got to lay out the panels. You got to make sure everything looks good. You got to make sure each, because you get to some and you realise you’ve got this big arrival, big spooky moment, and it’s in a tiny panel, doesn’t work. Sometimes you realise you’ve given yourself too much and the joke lands in one panel. You don’t need to make it a whole page buildup sometimes that’s funny, but you don’t have to editing’s always hard when you have to go back with a critical eye or even when you’re inking for the first time and you realise, wow, these are rubbish, even though they are rough and they are allowed to be rough and unpolished.

Sheydin Dew (29:18):
Yeah,

Peter Wilson (29:18):
Absolutely. It occasionally gets disheartening when you realise, oh man, I do suck. But then you sort of look back and you see the whole thing, not just the trees but the whole forest and you’re like, oh, no, no, it’s coming together. It’s okay.

Sheydin Dew (29:30):
Yeah, it’s those moments where you pull back and you look at the entire picture. Exactly. Some artists, we tend to look at the details and tend to miss the bigger picture, and it’s not until you look at the bigger picture, you’re like, oh wow, look how far I’ve come and look what I’ve created. So yeah, I definitely resonate with that, that’s for sure.

Peter Wilson (29:49):
Absolutely.

Sheydin Dew (29:51):
Was there anyone who helped you along the way in creating foes?

Peter Wilson (29:56):
Yeah, quite a few. As I mentioned before, Shane was the one that really kept it going and didn’t give me time to doubt myself. Really appreciate him for that. My partner Jess, is amazing at going it’s three in the morning. That building doesn’t need street water. Leave it go to bed. Well, when I wake up with a migraine the next day, she goes, that’s on you because you stared at a screen all night instead of sleeping. Oh dear. She’s also very good at saying She won’t coddle me, she won’t say, this looks amazing. She goes, this looks amazing, but you don’t need it because the story’s illegal, slowed down, and she’s always right, and it’s really good that it’s objective. It’s awesome to get that ego boost and you do need encouragement and positive vibe, but you also need someone who’s going to give you the truth in your art

Sheydin Dew (30:46):
To have a good balance of both,

Peter Wilson (30:48):
And she’s very good at delivering critiques like that. That’s also an art in itself.

Sheydin Dew (30:53):
Yeah, absolutely. Oh, that’s amazing.

Peter Wilson (30:56):
My mom’s super creative as well. Oh, is she works as No, she paints in her spare time and makes jewellery and does a bit of everything, but it was never enough just to draw. Just to be talented and creative was fine, but that’s not what impressed her was making time to do it every day and actually progressing, working hard at it is what she always drove home. It took me a while to learn that, but once I got it was I realised I should have been listening. You should always listen to your mom. They always know. That is what I’m saying.

Sheydin Dew (31:30):
I definitely think I read that in the first few pages of foes. You had a list of people that you wanted to thank and then I think at the very end of the book as well, you had just a huge wave of support of so many local artists. I couldn’t count how many there were, but there was so many names at the back of the book and it was just fantastic to see that everybody really came together to support this project for you. So massive. Yeah,

Peter Wilson (31:59):
I had these trading cards made for the Kickstarter and so many amazing artists contributed. Oh

Sheydin Dew (32:04):
Yeah.

Peter Wilson (32:07):
But so many great names and look, there’s yourself.

Sheydin Dew (32:11):
It was definitely an honour working on this project as well and being part of it. It was

Peter Wilson (32:16):
Unbelievable. The outpouring of people who support it and were asking me when is it ready? I woke up to three measures saying, you got projects we love, did you know? It was really

Sheydin Dew (32:27):
Great. I think it was just a fantastic example of what the comics community can do as well, and it was just really wholesome to see everyone getting behind yourself. I think everybody can agree when I say that you are very much a loved artist amongst the community, so it was fantastic to see this project finally come to fruition. I guess we’re kind of getting onto the tail end of the interview, so these are some really deep dive questions that I really enjoy asking. Other than FS two, are there any other projects on the horizon or is it just F two that you’re focusing on?

Peter Wilson (33:09):
Really just FS two at the moment. I did some lettering for Lee Chalker on his puzzle. I did the sort of editing and lettering on that. Really fun working. We were together on another comic show promoting that,

Peter Wilson (33:24):
And

Peter Wilson (33:24):
That was fun. That was a great experience, really. It’s not always easy working with someone. Just because you get along with ’em personally doesn’t always mean you’ll do a good comic together. For whatever reason, we just clicked and it came together really well.

Sheydin Dew (33:37):
Absolutely. Yeah.

Peter Wilson (33:40):
Me and Robbie will be doing another few pages for the next verus if SPEDs. He’s still doing that all the issues before so far, and that’s always, I tend to write, he does the art and there, but no pretty empty docket at the moment, just working on the comics calendar and whatever Shane gives me.

Sheydin Dew (34:00):
Right, right. Well, but otherwise there’s enough space for you to really focus in on fos too, that I’m sure everybody’s really excited to finally get as well after this amazing debut as well of fo. I guess another great question I like to ask artists on this show. I think it’s really good. I guess suggestions for fellow artists that may be watching tonight as well is how you overcome creative block. If ever you come across it.

Peter Wilson (34:33):
A creative block is usually a sign and you need a break. It doesn’t have to be a big one, and luckily in comics, depending on how much you do, there’s always another job, so you can’t get a good picture going. You just can’t draw. Luckily, there’s always a bit of writing you have to do or a bit of editing so you can always jump ship and do something else. If I can’t draw, I can do a bit of inking for another panel I’ve done and usually that gets the brain working, relax. You’re probably overthinking it, or alternatively, you just got to put down your devices completely and go for a walk, and that’s also really good for you.

Sheydin Dew (35:15):
Yeah, yeah, well said. I think I definitely fall into that category. Sometimes you

Peter Wilson (35:21):
Can’t force, you can’t make it happen if your brain’s saying no, you’re only going to stress yourself out base or you’ll put something really

Sheydin Dew (35:29):
Bad. Yeah, exactly. I think that’s really well said. I definitely get myself into that mental frame where I’ve been sitting at the desk for too long and I just need to look at something else or switch it up a little bit and think about and focus on something else outside or wherever, so yeah, I think a lot of artists do the same as well, which is nice to hear that it’s kind of like a common thing to overcome or to help combat a creative block. I really like this question too. What do you wish someone had told you before you started your comic journey?

Peter Wilson (36:09):
Do it if you love it because it’s a grind.

Sheydin Dew (36:12):
It is a grind, yes. Yeah, well said.

Peter Wilson (36:15):
There’s a big difference between being a comic maker or wanting to be seen as a comic maker. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of making posts about what you are going to do or showing nothing but work in progress shots because it gives you the same endorphin rush. It gives you that same sense of satisfaction of look what I’ve done, but nothing compares to actually finishing the page.

Sheydin Dew (36:40):
Yeah, absolutely,

Peter Wilson (36:42):
And you’ve got to stay on target with that and be prepared to draw a lot and things that aren’t necessarily fun. You got to get perspective, right. You’ve got to get some stuff in the background there. You don’t always have to go as detailed as I do or some other artists do. You can keep it simple. You could potentially be drawing things like toasters and trash cans seven times from seven different ways, and if you can deal with that, you’re set, you’re fine.

Sheydin Dew (37:09):
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. No, you definitely triggered me when you said background backgrounds are like my, and I wish somebody had told me that, is that you’re going to need broad backgrounds because yeah, I hate backgrounds quite frankly, but yeah, that’s it, and you’ve got to be used to drawing things over and over and over and over and not get tired of them. I guess in a way, you’ve got to really love your characters, Nick May. That’s a great rule to stand by. Yeah, and you’ve got to love it or else there’s no other point. Yeah, I agreed. Is there any ultimate comic goal for you in your project? Where do you see this going?

Peter Wilson (37:59):
I’ve got, I think the next three issues of foes, not so much scripted, but in a list file. I know the story, I know the beats. I’ve got vague notes and visuals and scribbles for I think about eight issues after that. Sometimes it’s really simple. Wouldn’t it be funny if there was a hundred dementias and they all died horribly, like s that later on sometimes beginning, middle, end, here’s what should happen and each one has its own. Not all of them will look like donut battle. Some will be black and white, some will be grey, some will be a bit more sketchy. A lot of that is purely to keep myself interested and try new things, and so the reader doesn’t think it all looks samey, but ultimately I think I would like to get to about 10 issues minimum. I think it’d be cool to have 10 and then have that as a big trade.

Sheydin Dew (39:00):
Yeah, absolutely. And what

Peter Wilson (39:04):
In mind when I get to it, it’d be cool to one day get to that realise, okay, no, I’ve run out of steam. Let’s let’s wrap it up. That’s

Sheydin Dew (39:15):
What we’re going for. That would be such an awesome portfolio for you to have as well, like 10 comics under your name and just foes as well. That’d be fantastic to see. I definitely want to see that is just

Peter Wilson (39:29):
To focus on the story at the moment. Otherwise I get overwhelmed and how much am I going

Sheydin Dew (39:32):
To do? You don’t want to do that. Also, are you taking foes anywhere to markets or events, conventions, et cetera?

Peter Wilson (39:42):
I recently got into my local comic store, which was cool, comic games and entertainment.

Sheydin Dew (39:48):
Congratulations,

Peter Wilson (39:48):
Maitland. So that was really cool of him. I didn’t know he had followed the Kickstarter, but I’ve brought enough comics off him to put a deposit on a mortgage of a house, so I’m glad he did and he was really excited when he said, Hey, fos did well, and I was like, how do you know who I am? He is like, you dropped a, apparently I dropped one of my cards and he followed it, which is really awesome. Yeah, awesome. So he had a few issues up on his shelf. I hadn’t done a in a while. I should get to, I managed to sell a few at a local pop, bam, which was a con here at Lake Macquarie Libraries.

Sheydin Dew (40:26):
Amazing, amazing.

Peter Wilson (40:29):
Yeah. I did a talk on cartoon character design and they gave me a chance to quickly say, and I’m selling comics in that corner. Amazing people did. It’s always flattering when kids buy your comics because it’s harder for kids to know what they’re going to spend their pocket money on, so if they decide I want this comic, you must have struck a chord.

Sheydin Dew (40:48):
Yes, absolutely. Are there any particular conventions that you would like to table at in the future? Perhaps?

Peter Wilson (40:55):
I’d like to do some of those smaller ones. I feel there’s sort of more of an exciting community there. The people that go to the smaller ones are there really because they love it. Exactly, and doing supernova and the big ones, the ComicCons, they’re fun, but it’s staggering how many times I heard, I don’t really like comics from passerby, and what I want to say is it wasn’t the comics, you wouldn’t be here. And then I realised I look like an old bumpy man on bloody catch kids, no respect. He’s so talented that people overlooked it,

Sheydin Dew (41:32):
But I guess, yeah, I definitely agree with you. The smaller ones, people really do come for that reason, so that’s why I particularly love going to those ones. I know for a fact, Peter, that Adelaide would love to have you hopefully in the near future, paper cuts will be back up and running. Oh, you

Peter Wilson (41:49):
Very cool.

Sheydin Dew (41:50):
I would love to see foes there and I’m sure a lot of other people from Adelaide in the comic community would love to see there too, so maybe that could be something on your radar. You never know.

Peter Wilson (42:00):
Love what Adelaide

Sheydin Dew (42:01):
Is. Adelaide they love. They love too. I guess we’re getting into the tail end of our interview. Some of these questions again are some of my favourite ones. What do you think the Aussie indie comic scene needs more of?

Peter Wilson (42:23):
I think we’ve got so much talent at the moment. It’s crazy to me that we’re not more well known. When I see some of the art that my fellow comic creators are doing to me they should be as every bit as famous as the mainstream dudes. I think we just need that one foot in the door, that one thing. Back in the day it was used agency distribution. God knows how hard Siz works at getting us out there. He’s tireless. Well, we just need that one mainstream thing and then we can say we’re actually too cool for the mainstream thing. Like a Kurt, actually corporate distribution sucks, but I guess we’ll do it. We never needed it, so we can still hold onto our indie cred.

Sheydin Dew (43:11):
Yeah, absolutely. No, well said. Yeah, that’s the dream. That’s the dream that we’re all working towards. What do you think,

Peter Wilson (43:22):
Oh, what happened?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (43:28):
Well, what do you think? I think we haven’t lost it. We might’ve lost a totally,

Sheydin Dew (43:36):
Am I back? Oh, there,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (43:37):
You’re there. I dunno the questions.

Sheydin Dew (43:39):
I think we’ve got a bit of a windstorm here in Adelaide, so it’s probably blown me off the wifi. For those who don’t know, I hotspot everything in my studio to my phone and my phone only gets full coverage in the window behind me, and that’s the only place that you get full coverage. So apologies for that when it’s a bit stormy here in s really deliver to Birdwood. What I was going to say, what do you think the Aussie comics scene does well at?

Peter Wilson (44:08):
I think community is a big one. We’re all big fans of comics, so there’s always a lot of hype. When someone says, I’m doing a new comic, there’s always a lot of sincere awesome. I want to see that, and I think that’s going to the bigger cons and actually meeting people in person. Everyone’s so excited to actually meet each other and scissor signing autographs and it’s huge and that’s really exciting to be like, oh, cool, this dude’s shorter than I thought, or this dude. A lot louder in person and that’s really exciting in itself. So I think community’s a big one.

Sheydin Dew (44:49):
Whenever

Peter Wilson (44:50):
A newcomer comes along, I think is a big welcome. I think there is a tendency in a lot of creative fields to sort of cover fame or I have my position here and I don’t want that usurp. So when a newcomer comes on, they have to prove themselves. I don’t think’s much of that really in comics. There’s a lot of awesome, another comic dude, come on in.

Sheydin Dew (45:12):
Yeah,

Sheydin Dew (45:13):
Absolutely.

Peter Wilson (45:14):
Yeah, that’s rare and it’s a real treasure.

Sheydin Dew (45:17):
Absolutely. I think Shane is a real treasure with everything he does as well. And don’t worry, Shane, when you meet me in person, I guarantee I’ll be way shorter than you. You’re not the only short person in comics, I swear. But yes, I think we owe a lot to Shane and what he’s built, especially here at comics. I think the community here is really strong in that sense, I guess. So definitely an advantage there.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (45:47):
Good man. Good man. And it sounds like Nick’s expected me to do even more.

Sheydin Dew (45:52):
Oh, comics. I like your thinking, Nick May, he’s an ideas man. Wouldn’t that be cool? That’d awesome. That’d be so cool. Is not tall. Although speaking of tool, Nick, I’ve met you in person and you are a big friendly giant. I was slightly shocked when I first met Nick May. I was like, wow, you are really tall, but I’m really short, so I guess you’re friendly. We’ve got two more questions before we wrap up and the last question that I really like asking is what would you say to someone who’s starting their comic journey?

Peter Wilson (46:41):
Make sure the idea you have is one that you love. Absolutely. Because you’re going to be doing a lot of work on it, so you need that to really sustain you.

Sheydin Dew (46:52):
Yeah, absolutely.

Peter Wilson (46:54):
And if you’re working with someone, make sure they’ve got plenty of creative input as well. Don’t be precious.

Sheydin Dew (47:02):
Yeah,

Peter Wilson (47:03):
Absolutely. Give take.

Sheydin Dew (47:05):
Fantastic. No, I like that. I think that’s some solid advice as well. I guess it kind of comes back to what we said before. Yes, yes. Snick May is the big friendly Papa Pookie. If you know, I guess when you were saying when we were drawing characters, you really got to love drawing that character because you’ve got to be doing a lot. And I guess when you start your comic journey, you’re going to be doing comics a lot, so you’ve really got to enjoy your idea or your concept. So yeah, I think that’s really well said. Yeah,

Peter Wilson (47:38):
Nothing wrong with starting small either. I know it’s very popular to create the next MCU of Big Interconnect, this character that then have a spinoff and I’m going to do a hundred issues, do one shot first, see how you go. Great. Also discipline.

Sheydin Dew (47:54):
Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s something that I personally wish I did as well. Like bite-sized pieces and then slowly grew from there. So yeah, I think that’s wonderful advice as well. Definitely. No shame in starting off small. Exactly. Finally, Peter, where can we see more of your work? Where can we see you

Peter Wilson (48:16):
At the Comex store? You can find all my stuff there or you can message me directly if you’d like to see my stuff. I’ve got digital versions of all my stuff available and there’s a handful of fo left, so getting quick if you want one. Yes, follow that link.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (48:34):
There’s the new shop

Peter Wilson (48:38):
All Star comics as well. You’re everywhere. I’m very lucky. It’s very surreal seeing photos and I know that book. I’m not used to that level of having my stuff away. I’m used to doing all the sales and mailing and shipping myself. It was really surreal to know that people can buy my stuff and I’m not even involved

Sheydin Dew (49:01):
Living the dream mate, living the dream. That’s all I believe. Your tag up above is where you can find your artwork on Instagram as well. Yes. To make sure to drop a follow to Peter as well and check out some of his artwork and check out those if you haven’t already. It’s a real treat. I absolutely enjoyed every single page that I read so much. I asked it too, but otherwise, Peter, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Absolute pleasure. Is there anything else to wrap up the show with?

Peter Wilson (49:34):
Yes. Jane’s got one. Oh, sorry. No, you go. I’ve got nothing.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (49:38):
Okay. Sorry. I thought that was directed at me. All I’m going to say is like and subscribe peoples, it helps the channel like and subscribe.

Peter Wilson (49:50):
Yes.

Sheydin Dew (49:52):
Fantastic.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (49:52):
Sorry about that. I thought my name was dead.

Sheydin Dew (49:54):
That’s okay. And just to recap for comers, what shows have we got coming up in the next couple of days?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:04):
Tomorrow’s show of let’s make a comic book. I always say Draw is not on, so don’t go looking for it. But Friday drink and draws back and it is Dasla. So sending your art to the submit form that’s at Comex show. There’s a form there. Yeah, I think I’m doing amateur this weekend as well. Cool. And then back to normal next week with all the shows.

Sheydin Dew (50:35):
Heck,

Peter Wilson (50:36):
Honestly, when I’m going to be on his show, let’s make a comic. So to answer you, ed, whenever you want, you let me know.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:41):
Oh, okay. Cool. I’m onto you now.

Peter Wilson (50:45):
Good. What have I done?

Sheydin Dew (50:50):
Fantastic. Well, otherwise, Peter, thank you so much again for being on the show. All things about your little demon friend, your alien friend, and the donut that they are fighting against. We’ll be back with another show in a fortnight, I believe. But until then, we’ll smell you later.

Peter Wilson (51:10):
Bye all.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:11):
Not all, bye. Check out comex.cx for all things Comex and find out what Comex is all about. We hope you enjoyed the show.