Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (00:13):
Welcome to the A Comic Show. We’re back after a bit of a break and today first thing I want to talk about is Drink and Draw. This week is Speedball and his other character, he became later after Civil War Penance. So you can draw either, you can draw both up to you, whatever. And the only other thing we have running until Christmas is this show and recent reads on Mondays. So yeah, tune into those on the same channel, but that’s about all I’ve got to say. So I think it’s time that we jump into the intro and talk to Aiden.

Sheydin Dew (01:16):
Welcome. Welcome, Aiden. Thank you so much for being on tonight’s show. I’m pretty sure it has been just over a year since I first met you, so thank you for being on tonight.

Aidan Roberts (01:28):
Oh, look, thanks so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here and nice to see you again. And Shane, I think we’ve run into each other at some of the cons, haven’t we?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:38):
I guess?

Aidan Roberts (01:38):
Or is that just in my dreams?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:42):
No, we did run into each other once I was running around.

Aidan Roberts (01:45):
Oh, and we

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:46):
World North. Yeah.

Aidan Roberts (01:49):
And plus the Chinwag with Lee Talker as well. That’s where we last met online. Anyway, lovely to see you guys. Thanks so much for having me.

Sheydin Dew (01:57):
Not a problem at all. I have been so excited for this interview ever since I was given the opportunity to read Dead City Lullabies at the CA last year. So my list of questions have just grown ever since, to be quite honest with you. So I’m ready to dive in if you’re

Aidan Roberts (02:18):
Absolutely, yeah, let’s go.

Sheydin Dew (02:19):
We’ll start with some intro questions. For those who don’t know you, can you give us a little bit of an introduction of what you do and what Dead City Lullabies is all about?

Aidan Roberts (02:30):
Yes. Elevator pitch. So I’m an illustrator and writer, obviously. I created Dead Civil Alibis, which we go into more. I have a day job, but I’ve also spent many years in the music industry. I’m a musician in rock and roll, in theatre, in various other projects. And it was during one of those things, I was doing a production of King Lear. This is 17 years ago now. And I came up with the idea for this thing sitting on a train staring at Sydney Harbour and imagining it with no boats and no cars and no people, and just got this sort of flash of an idea for a setting for a lone character’s tale. And that’s sort of the seed of where it began. It developed all these years. And finally, it’s now the book that you’ve read. Well, the first part thereof, and it’s going to expand from there. It’s my passion project. It’s the thing I’ve been thinking about nonstop for the longest time of anything in my career. And yeah, it’s very exciting that people are now responding to it. When you’ve got something like that that just seems to only exist in your mind or your wishes and your dreams, and finally it starts to take shape, it’s really exciting, really gratifying. And so I can’t wait to share more of it and talk about it all tonight.

Sheydin Dew (04:14):
Absolutely. Having read this book amongst a hundred plus entries last year, wow. What struck me the most was your art style so detailed and it is the level of continuity throughout. It’s just breathtaking. It really, really stood out to me. Thank you, mate. As you can see, it is scrolling next to us here, and you can see some sneak peeks or some of the pages and just how beautiful they really are. I really want to hear in your words how you would describe your own style.

Aidan Roberts (04:58):
Well, I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, and the things I drew as a kid back in the eighties were I wanted to draw dinosaurs and I wanted to draw spaceships and things from the big movies that affected me as a kid, which were Star Wars aliens, which I saw way too young. But that whole sort of used space thing that seemed so greasy and real and Blade Runner, when I finally saw that was a massive influence. And I wanted to try and create things on paper that felt like it was real, but completely of another universe, if you will. And also growing up, I drew a lot of very, very extremely silly comics in high school. I won’t share any of those here, but privately I could.

(06:03)
And so I sort of danced about with what I wanted to do as a person who draws for so many years until I started to get into graphic novels probably in my twenties. And I was like, wow, you can tell a really cinematic story with pictures and words and some of the stuff that was, I mean, I’d always read comics as a kid, but some of the things I read as a young adult, the first thing that comes to mind is from hell, the graphic novel about the Jack the Ripper murders that I thought, wow, what a way to take a tail onto the page visually that is just so all encompassing. I want to do that, I want to do that. And that’s always been the goal, but it’s just been a matter of chipping away over the years to get better at however I wanted to tell stories. And then finally I had a story that was mine that wasn’t connected to anything else that I could use as the drawing board, if you will, for that. And so I’ve spent all this time, all these years just trying to get better, trying to get what I think is good enough to illustrate the story that’s in my head. And that involved doing a lot of study of other artists and doing actual study of anatomy and fundamental drawing skills.

(07:42)
And I developed this style. I think that is kind of very organic and very, how do I put it? I’m not too afraid of making marks. So if you look closely in Dead City Lullabies, there’s stray marks and things that are sort of a bit overdrawn and suggestions of other things, but it all sort of adds up to make your eye believe in what you’re reading without questioning it. And I think you mentioned it so detailed. That’s because I can’t leave something alone. I read it a lot of amazing comic books where there’ll be some really strong detail in the focal points, but everything else is just a mere suggestion. But I can’t stop there to keep tipping away at. And then of course, this one is full colour too, so I use colour and layers as a cinematic tool, I guess. So it takes a long time to do, but it comes out beautifully and it almost looks like a movie. I’m very happy with it. And other people have had a lot of kind things to say about it. So that’s really, it’s cool. It’s becoming a thing.

Sheydin Dew (09:00):
Yeah,

Aidan Roberts (09:01):
Absolutely. That was a long answer to how would I describe my style, but yeah,

Sheydin Dew (09:06):
No, I think that

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (09:08):
Stunning,

Sheydin Dew (09:09):
Beautifully. I guess you touched on a few points where I really want to explore. You talked about some of the artists that you looked at when I first read Dead City Lullabies. I couldn’t help but look at your MEC designs, your really detailed spaceships that are kind of sprinkled throughout this particular volume of your book. I can’t help, but

Aidan Roberts (09:42):
Yeah, there’s not a lot of it in there. But yeah,

Sheydin Dew (09:44):
I can’t help but ask, do you know of any artists by the name of Carlo Orano or Darren Quash by any chance? Because your MEC designs just,

Aidan Roberts (09:56):
I have heard those names, but I can’t connect them to drawings in my mind. I’ll have to Instagram them.

Sheydin Dew (10:02):
No way. Because you have hit the nail on the head. And I just couldn’t help but think, wow, he must’ve studied Darren and Carlos’s work because it’s just so well done. And it kind of brings me back to my days when I studied at a place called CDW Studios that did concept design for films and games, and this stuff just really kind of echoed those two artists, which was a real credit to your drawing skills. Well,

Aidan Roberts (10:32):
Thank you. That’s really interesting because a lot of what informs my designs are the great concept artists. The ones who immediately pop to mind, they’re all men, but Ron Cobb, Sid Mead, Ralph Macquarie, all the people that were attached to those big properties I was telling you about earlier

Aidan Roberts (11:02):
Movie

Aidan Roberts (11:02):
Properties. So I studied all, when DVDs came out, came around and there was all the DVD extras, which aren’t really a thing anymore. Sadly, there were all these, I would relish the opportunity to look at all the concept drawings and watch the artists go through the various iterations of how they arrived at the SCO in aliens or whatever. And that’s where I sort of learned how things fit together before they’re built for a movie. And so in designing the ships and stuff for this, there’s not a lot in this first volume, but there will be more, I dunno if you can see in the pages that Shane’s chosen, but there’s a kind of a dead me in the bottom of that canyon that is bipedal. So it’s, if it were working, it would look like a dinosaur. And a little bit like the Walkers, the Empire strikes back in the Hoff battle, that kind of militaristic sort of practical, there’s no flourish to the design, but by their nature they look like a creature of some kind. I’ve always liked that sort of something that feels alive, even though it’s a machine and it’s got bits hanging off it and stuff. That’s sort of, I guess what informs most of my designs. And if it’s a little bit scratchy and rough and got bits missing, all the better. It will feel more real.

Sheydin Dew (12:42):
Exactly. Yeah. And it’s like you said, you have those stray lines that you were talking about prior. I think it just adds more layers to your drawings. It really showcases where you started, and then all the colours and all the top layers and details and whatnot really just seal the deal, really. And I think it’s, the layering of the details is just phenomenal.

Aidan Roberts (13:11):
That’s very kind. So let me show you an example. In the pages that you’re seeing flipping over, you’ll probably see this. Let’s try and get it straight. There we go. Which is just like, I’m not going to tell you the character’s name because that’s a spoiler alert, but the guy who’s sitting in that house on the cliff.

Sheydin Dew (13:32):
Yes.

Aidan Roberts (13:33):
And you’ll see that’s all the drawing was on paper, but you’ll see all this space I’ve left. I was like, well, I can do the rest in procreate a. And what you’re seeing with those colours is a combination of digital illustration, but also pictures of the sky that I’ve taken or a watercolour texture I’ve made and scanned and combined and made inverted the colours or whatever.

Sheydin Dew (14:07):
And

Aidan Roberts (14:07):
So I find all these colour palettes just from sifting through my own stuff. So I haven’t thankfully stolen anything, but it’s a way of taking black and white drawing and just, I’m just making it leap out. And what’s the guy, the guy that made me want to go help letter with a colour is a guy named Matt Rhodes. I dunno if you’re familiar with his work.

Sheydin Dew (14:34):
I’ve heard the name

Aidan Roberts (14:35):
Colour in his projects is Just Look him Up, Matt Rhodes.

Sheydin Dew (14:42):
I will, yes. I think, yeah, there’s just so many elements that you kind of lay it in, and I think that in itself tells a story as an artist, I guess. And again, just leaves a lot of layering for your story to be built on, which I thought was really, really interesting, especially coming from a conceptual drawing background. It was really refreshing to see that level of detail within a comic.

Aidan Roberts (15:12):
Cool.

Sheydin Dew (15:13):
Thank you. You did touch on colours as well, and everyone who knows me knows that I’m a colour girly. I really want to know why you chose these specific colours. It seems like it’s a real driver in this story. Is that, would you say that’s correct?

Aidan Roberts (15:29):
Yeah, if you look at the book, I have a copy here it starts. Let’s get past the prologue, which, but it starts, that’s nighttime. And then dawn

(15:50)
And it’s dawn in a desert. So I thought, what does the dawn in the desert look like? What are those colours? That’s my favourite colour scheme, which is that salmon orange of the sun coming up behind the horizon and the sky is still that kind of violet colour. So you’ll see that colour scheme throughout my stuff. I just think it’s so gorgeous when I see it in the morning, look, I wake up at 5:00 AM I’ve got a 3-year-old. I look out outside, I go, man, that is beautiful. That’s like life. But of course she goes into a very deep place in the desert that the sun doesn’t touch until maybe the very middle of the day. So I thought, well, that would still look like pre-dawn, so it would be very, very blue and grey. And so most of the time you spend in this first part of the book is that except for this vision in the middle, which if you’ve read it, there’s something else. But yeah, so those sorts of, those bluey grey colours, those slightly, I don’t use a lot of black in my inking. I don’t do big blocks of black. I left the, well in this book, I let the colour do that work, which is a lot more time consuming and can go wrong and takes a lot of trial and error. But I think it looks right for part one at least.

Sheydin Dew (17:19):
I think you’ve absolutely done it justice for sure. We’ve really allowed it to breathe, if I can say. A lot of the panels just have just so much going on. But at the same time, it’s balanced really well in the regard that it’s not overly crowded, in my opinion anyway, but I just think it’s just really, really well done. And I guess kind of leading on from that, you mentioned before you showed us sketches and then you also mentioned procreate. I want to know a little bit of how you’ve bounced between those two mediums and if there is a favourite one that you prefer to work in.

Aidan Roberts (17:58):
Yeah. Well Drew, I guess you’d call it the pencils and inks in the comic world, but for this, it’s just, I did the drawings originally in a ballpoint pen, a black ballpoint pen, just a cheap one on really nice paper, sort of a two, three size. And I just wanted it to look like that could be the comic that would work in black and white, and then it wouldn’t matter. I’ve sort of, and that’s why you see a lot of detail because with the ballpoint pen, you can be very, very light and do a lot of crosshatching and stuff very gently and not screw up the drawing, and then you can really dig in and get those nice hard outlines and stuff. I love ballpoint pen.

(18:59)
And then I thought from there, well, I’m going to have to make a colour. I’m not going to risk brutalising it with watercolour or something. I’ll do it digitally. Photoshop is amazing, but it’s not portable for me. So the only means that I could do it in the park at lunchtime or on the train or in bed or was the iPad and what’s the Go-to software on the iPad? That’s procreate. I know there’s others, and I’ve toyed with all of them, but procreate is the best one. There are things that doesn’t do super, super well, like scaling, forgive the tech speak, but it does this anti-aliasing, which makes it nice and soft when you scale something. But that can be a problem. You can get mismatched sort of line weights and fuzziness and stuff. So you have to just get the line work right before you go into procreate. And then you can go hell for leather with colours and layers and basically chop up all the black lines into foreground, mid-ground background. And each of those has a colour layer behind it. And each of those has an atmosphere layer in front of it if

(20:16)
I want to that far. So you can see there’s a lot of mist and stuff that sort of comes in front, and it’s magic for that. And I’ve got a lot of textures and brushes and stuff that I’ve bought over the years. I’ve got this huge scrolling collection in procreate, so it’s like my toolbox. And I know there is more powerful software out there, but it’s the one that works for me. And I built this whole comic, even did the lettering in procreate.

Sheydin Dew (20:46):
Oh, okay. Yep.

Aidan Roberts (20:48):
Wow. So they have certainly put it through its paces. And I bought it for what, 8 99, 10 years ago, given me all, it’s a very generous software package.

Sheydin Dew (21:05):
It is. It it’s, isn’t it. And I’m glad that you touched on your lettering because I think in this particular volume, I think it’s Alice, who is the voice or what would you

Aidan Roberts (21:20):
Ai The ships. The ship’s onboard ai.

Sheydin Dew (21:25):
Yeah. And the way that you’ve done how she kind of comes in and out as well. The communication’s a bit fuzzy.

Aidan Roberts (21:33):
Yeah. The signal breaking now. Yeah. Yeah.

Sheydin Dew (21:36):
I wasn’t so sure. Done. So well done. I think there was a lot of consideration done there, and I think it came really, really well. And then even the,

Aidan Roberts (21:45):
I’m glad to hear that, because you’ve got to find solutions.

Sheydin Dew (21:49):
Exactly. You

Aidan Roberts (21:50):
Can’t just do a

Sheydin Dew (21:51):
BI

Aidan Roberts (21:54):
Thought I have to visually make it, we can’t hear it.

Sheydin Dew (21:57):
And it’s so, well, it is really clearly visually communicated that it is coming out. It’s very glitchy, and I think you’ve done that really well. And then even the change over to just the text as well, I thought you’d done a really well. Yeah, you’ve communicated that really well, really clearly.

Aidan Roberts (22:16):
Yeah. Where she says, thank you. Yeah, where she says, I can’t hear you for er, which is a, I swear, word switch over to Unicode, which is actually a font name. Understood.

Sheydin Dew (22:33):
Okay. No, I think, yeah, that was a really, I like how you handled your type or your lettering in city level. But yeah, I guess moving on from that, I really want to delve into more of your process. You talked a little bit of your drawing process. I know that you were the sole creator of this project, and sometimes as creators, the only creators on projects, when we do it solo, we have to wear many different hats. And I really want to kind of know what was your process from start to finish to where it is today? How has that looked for you?

Aidan Roberts (23:20):
Yes. So I’m a bit of, because I dream up ideas for projects and I have skillsets in a few camps, I’m always thinking of how can I make that happen without needing to rely on other people, which is not the healthiest way to go about things in terms of getting projects off the ground. But I always think, can I do that? Can I do that by myself? And in the case of this, that involves writing it really well, which it’s very hard to do’s about 15 draughts of the script for this volume. Finally, I’ve got a good enough. And even then I had to just shave a whole bunch out of it, too much talk, too much talk, look at this really beautiful pictures that do enough. So I had to keep it really practical, the dialogue, and there’s no exposition in it except for those bits of box texts, which are a journal that someone could be reading. We don’t dunno that yet.

(24:41)
But aside from that, the clues to piecing the whole story together will lie in the pictures. And so the dialogue and stuff, it took so long to get that right. And so I’ve drawn the whole thing, even when it wasn’t the final draught, I knew what needed to happen. And in a way, the action and the lack of informed the script and it all sort of s dance between the writing and the pictures, basically, that just took so long. But of course, while I was doing all that, I was imagining it like a layer further, and that is, what would it sound like? What would it feel like if it were a film or TV series or something? And so me being me, I say, well, let me write some music for it. So we ended up

(25:37)
With this. So it’s kind of like there’s a soundtrack to not volume one of the book, but there’s a soundtrack to the whole thing, and that’s what that record is. And so it all just sort of eventually took years, but it eventually developed a kind of life of its own. Even though I have to do all the work, I feel like it’s rolling now, so it more easily comes out of me. So volume two is coming folks. I’m about, I’ve drawn most of it. So then I’ve got to go through the whole, well, I’ve set myself up for a big job with the colour style and stuff, so I’ve got to do all that. It’ll take a little while, but it’s getting there. So I think there’s going to be four of them to tell her story, but this much wider context as well that could become other stories.

Sheydin Dew (26:44):
Wow.

Aidan Roberts (26:44):
If I live that,

Sheydin Dew (26:48):
That’s super exciting to know that number two is well and truly on its way.

Aidan Roberts (26:53):
Yes, we’re through it.

Sheydin Dew (26:54):
When I first read it, I was just like, I need to know what happens next, because it ends on such a big cliffhanger. And I guess when I first read it, I’m not sure if I mentioned this before the show or not, or whether or not I mentioned it to Shane, I’m not sure. But when I first read it, the first thing that popped into my head, and I’m not sure if you intended this, was it gave the Lost City of Atlantis Vibes. Was that in a conscious thing in your head when you wrote it, or

Aidan Roberts (27:29):
As in the myth of the velocity of Atlantis or particular film? Yeah, I mean, those kinds of stories have always intoxicated me.

Aidan Roberts (27:41):
When

Aidan Roberts (27:41):
I was a kid, I had this book of myths and legends, and it was illustrated really beautifully. I’m sure I’ve still got it. And there was maybe four pages on the velocity of Atlantis, actually. And I remember thinking, wow, I was six. I was like, is that really there? God, I hope it’s there. How could we ever find it? Of course, at the time, they’d found the Titanic at the bottom of the sea, and I was like, maybe they’ll find it land. So yeah, that whole thing of the lost civilization that I guess archaeology is all about is really quite thrilling. And a lot of people say, what does Dead City Lullabies mean? Aside from, it’s sounding nice, I guess you could say it’s like a lullaby is a song. Oh.

Sheydin Dew (28:44):
Oh, no. Oh no. We’ve lost Aiden. He might. I’m hoping he does. Hopefully. Oh, much to ask him. And that was questions too. We’ll give him a second. That’s a good question. That was a good answer. God, and I really wanted the answer too, because this is something that I’ve Oh, you’re back. We lost you. You’re back. Okay. I think we were talking about Lost Civilization. What’s about, my wife started watching Netflix.

Aidan Roberts (29:16):
Oh no.

Sheydin Dew (29:23):
Oh no.

Aidan Roberts (29:26):
Yeah, so there is something about the Dead City Lullabies. Oh yes. I guess the original concept for these stories were a series of vignettes or short stories telling just a fragment of the Tale of the End of a Great Civilization. And I wrote this nine short stories that were that, and they were very disparate, quite non-descript, big civilizations that were coming to their end. And I called these nine stories, the Dead City Lullabies, and I thought that was a nice title, and this is one of them. And it’s like, it’s the satisfying story arc within the context of something that I may not tell explicitly, but you’ll be able to piece together from what you get from this book of the end of this civilization. And yeah, it’s not necessarily a very bleak thing. It’s sort of like the renewal of things, I guess is the philosophical.

Sheydin Dew (31:01):
Interesting. That’s a really

Aidan Roberts (31:03):
Interesting lens that you’re looking at this from.

Sheydin Dew (31:06):
Wow, okay. Even that’s piqued my interest even more about this story. I have my suspicions of who the character is at the very beginning of the story, which by the way is one of my favourite parts of this story is the way you’ve drawn that sequence is phenomenal. But I guess to kind of thank

Aidan Roberts (31:28):
You so that those 10 pages are the clue to the wider picture.

Sheydin Dew (31:37):
Fantastic. I do apologise, my mom has just started the quad bike. If you can hear a slight purring sound, we drive away soon. I live on a farm. For those who dunno, I live literally above the barn. Anyway, I guess to circle back is

Aidan Roberts (31:52):
Cool.

Sheydin Dew (31:55):
The reason why I thought of the Lost City of Atlantis, and especially with kind of nods toward the movie, is that the colour choices that you’ve, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read it, but Oh, well, there’s the page right there actually that I was in reference to is that there’s these two marks that appear on her neck, and that actually reminded me and cast me back to when I was under the age of 10, and I was watching that movie Lost City of Atlantis, and she’s got the necklace that floats and a part of it’s a key to unlock the city, and it’s exactly the same colour. And I was just like, oh, I have to read the entire story to know whether or not it’s similar in some way. Really? Yeah. I was like, alright.

Aidan Roberts (32:43):
So I wasn’t aware you were referring to a particular film

Sheydin Dew (32:48):
And also now

Aidan Roberts (32:49):
There’s a bit of a lag here. Yeah. Is I noticed that

Sheydin Dew (32:53):
With me.

Aidan Roberts (32:54):
Okay, so it’s about three seconds. It was about 12 seconds, so we’re getting better.

Sheydin Dew (33:00):
Oh dear. Oh dear. Apologies.

Aidan Roberts (33:03):
Yeah, no, I’ll say something and then

Sheydin Dew (33:08):
Hopefully I do have a tendency of speaking quite fast, so I’ll try and slow down. I’d like to chalk it up that it’s just my excitement. But yeah, I guess moving on, moving into it is, I guess also it kind comes back to the MEC designs as well. That’s another notion that I kind of saw a similarity between the Lost City of Atlantis as well. But all of that aside, I found you through as a judge of a awards, I would really love to talk more about your experience going through such a big award ceremony. What was that like for you?

Aidan Roberts (33:51):
Yeah, it was so cool. This is my first comic book, so I really feel like a newcomer to the scene, although I’ve been working on this for a very long time. I was just thinking to myself, how do we get this out there to like-minded peeps? And I knew of the ledgers and the CAA and I thought, well, look, I’ll put it up for consideration for that. See if I get a bite. Fast forward to Gary contacting me and saying, you’ve actually won one of the awards. I can’t tell you which, but I just wanted to tell you in case you were able to make the ceremony, which is in Adelaide where Den is. And I said, yeah, yeah, I will. Absolutely. I’ll fly there. We’ll spend the money, we’ll do it. Yeah. So to take home the gold ledger for the first chapter of my first book was I suffered a bit of imposter syndrome going into that room, but I was like, yeah, hi, I’m Aiden. And I was like, my book’s dead seated otherwise. And people were like, yeah, yeah, I know it. I was like, wow. So I was really super, super humbled and delighted by the attention that it got, and just the response and shade in you. I remember you came up to me at the bar, I just wanted to say I bloody loved it.

Aidan Roberts (35:41):
And

Aidan Roberts (35:41):
I was like, well, shit, I’m actually doing something right, and I’m familiar with your work shape too, which is phenomenal. So I was like, okay, maybe I’m talking to the right crowd. These people I guess get where it’s coming from, and that’s so beautiful and was really inspiring. And so I took home this trophy and I was like, yeah, I won the gold ledger shit, so I better make that second volume happen. Yeah, I mean, it’s so generous what the Comic Arts Awards of Australia do and way back in time to when it was originally called the Ledgers, what that team have done purely just for recognition and celebration of Australian comic work. It’s really generous and really lovely, and I don’t take any of that for granted, and I really love the legacy stuff they do every year, and I think you can learn a lot from just paying attention to what, it’s almost like a repository of almost like the Library of Congress for Aussie comics. So yeah, I was very, very honoured. So lovely. It’s on my piano though. The award takes pride of place. Good.

Sheydin Dew (37:13):
That’s awesome. I’m glad it’s front and centre in the household, I guess. Yeah, big shout out to Gary who organised last year’s event. I think it was super amazing

Aidan Roberts (37:28):
To have it. That was his last, I believe

Sheydin Dew (37:30):
It was it. And for those who didn’t attend or didn’t watch the live stream, Gary actually went home with a very handmade award to thank him for his contribution to the comics community. I think he’s been doing it for quite a while. But yeah, it was lovely to meet, it was a room full of creativity that night, and it was fantastic to see everyone. Also shout out to sped, who is a co-creator on this channel who does the drink and draw. That was the first night I met Spie in person, so that was pretty fantastic. Pretty phenomenal to sit next to him having met him online and then obviously yourself as well. It was really nice just to put faces to the creations that night. It was a really spectacular event and then obviously was followed up by paper cuts, the comics festival here in

Aidan Roberts (38:29):
Yeah, I was so bummed I couldn’t make that.

Sheydin Dew (38:32):
Oh, next time, next time. It was just tied so well together. And I think a lot of Adelaide creators were really proud of how the festival kind of worked that week. So yeah, it was just really awesome to see a real buzz or creativity here in Adelaide, I guess. So yeah, again, congratulations, Aiden. I think that was a really well-deserved for you and yeah, thank

Aidan Roberts (39:01):
You, mate.

Sheydin Dew (39:02):
What an entry into the industry as well. I think very commendable and very admirable.

Aidan Roberts (39:09):
Yeah. Thank you, man. I, I’m humbled and yeah, I feel like it’s rolling now and that was the boost of confidence I needed too. But yeah, it’s just so lovely. I just wanted to mention there’s been some very lovely discussion in the chat. I’m not sure how to respond to it, and I know we don’t have a lot of time, but

Sheydin Dew (39:34):
Yeah. Yeah,

Aidan Roberts (39:35):
Absolutely. Do you want me to address one or two of those things? Yes, you want to? Totally, yeah, just one that just popped out. So is it Hai Doha? I’m not sure how I pronounce that. Which one, are the landscapes real places? If not, how do you keep them consistent, which is a really cool question.

Aidan Roberts (40:02):
There

Aidan Roberts (40:02):
We go. A great question. No, they’re not real places and I guess it’s easy to keep them consistent in the setting of this chapter because it’s a canyon in the middle of a vast desert. So I just had to build up my chops of creating rock formations. But I did have to, for certain scenes where a lot of stuff sort of happens in the same place, I obviously had to map it out a bit. So where that machine is lying, there’s some sort of formations and stuff that if I’m drawing from the opposite camera angle, I to say, well, I’ve got to include that, because people who are really paying attention and the cinematographers out there and stuff will go, ah, where’s that rock formation gone? So continuity is just that other thing you have to think about when you’re drawing something like this. So the city too, I mean the stuff you’re seeing in the prologue, there is all just tiny little kodachrome snapshots I guess. But eventually when you are in a city environment, I’m going to have to have, I might have to do a sketch up model of the whole thing so I know where I am and what I have to draw question.

Sheydin Dew (41:29):
It’s funny that you brought that up as well because that’s actually a technique that I used when modelling, modelling my own town in my comic. I actually 3D modelled it so I knew where all the territories were.

Aidan Roberts (41:38):
This is no man’s land.

Sheydin Dew (41:40):
Yes. And might I say it is a great, great technique, then you can really immerse yourself in. Yeah. Did we lose anything?

Aidan Roberts (41:55):
Totally.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (41:56):
Yeah.

Aidan Roberts (41:57):
Yeah. I mean anything like that, even if you had Jenga blocks or something that you photographed that can serve the same purpose to say your point of reference is consistent.

Sheydin Dew (42:10):
Yes.

Aidan Roberts (42:11):
I can still hear you, but did you lose me?

Sheydin Dew (42:14):
You come in and froze for a second.

Aidan Roberts (42:15):
Okay,

Sheydin Dew (42:16):
You

Aidan Roberts (42:17):
Got me again,

Sheydin Dew (42:22):
I guess moving on. No, no, not it’s technology. Can’t help that. We live in a big country as well, so the internet in Australia. I guess moving into some of our tail end questions, just to round out tonight’s amazing interview, I would really like to get to know a little bit of what you think of the comic industry. We have already touched on the CA awards, but I want to get more of an idea from you, and this is some of my favourite questions to ask on the show as well. But first and foremost I want to ask is, you mentioned that Dead City Lullabies Tour is on the horizon. Are there any other projects that you’re working on outside of comics or within comics at all?

Aidan Roberts (43:12):
I certainly do commission stuff, and the occasional job for something like storyboards for an ad or a album cover for someone or that sort of stuff, there’s always something boiling away, which is nice. But the only other, one of the things that is slowing down the completion of volume two is I’m working on a book for my daughter for Christmas, which is an adaptation of, oh, here we go. I gave Shane some pictures earlier,

Aidan Roberts (43:44):
An

Aidan Roberts (43:44):
Adaptation of ET the Extraterrestrial in storybook form for her. Why did that come about? Because I had the vinyl soundtrack next to my player one day, and she said, what’s the moon record daddy? It was on the back and it’s got the Elliot on his bike in front of the moon with et. I said, oh, that’s from a movie called et. It’s very beautiful music. And she said, what’s et? I said, well, it’s a story about a little boy who meets a little alien who’s lost, and he has to help him get back to his spaceship and they become best friends. And she’s like, I need to know more about this immediately.

(44:29)
Well, when Daddy was a kid, this movie was the biggest thing, and it’s just such a wonderful story. And she became completely enthralled with it, primarily through John Williams’s music. And I would say, okay, this is when the men are chasing him through the forest, and this is where they et makes the bike fly, and he’s feeling sick now and time’s running out, and this whole thing where we listen to the soundtrack and her imagination was so sparked by it, and all of the play we’ve been doing often centres around ET Elliot and the family and the men chasing him. And so it’s become this centre of our lives again. So 40 years later, suddenly I’m thinking about this story all the time, but I can’t let her watch it because those of you who remember the film, it’s so magical, but there is some stuff that’s a little bit strong in it and way too strong for her. So I thought, what if I could give her something in the interim that does the same thing as that film and I can leave some stuff out of it and reshape it a little bit just so it’s a bit more age appropriate. So I thought, well, I’ll do a storybook. So it’s a kid’s book version of ET, and it’s about 80% there. I need to finish it to give it to her at Christmas time.

(46:05)
So yeah, there’s some sort of in progress shots. So it is just a little family project, but it’s become a big thing. And my publisher, Tim from Wild North Comics, when he is, what’s this ET thing you’re talking about? I was like, oh, well, this, he’s like, oh, could we publish it? Can we make it a whole thing? I was like, it’s a great idea. But I mean, you could probably see some similarities with the colour work and stuff. The way I approached it to Dead City Lullaby. It’s a way of keeping my chops flowing as well. Yeah, it’s just been really wonderful. So stay tuned. I will be able to give people copies of it probably on a pre-order basis when it’s done, but it’s not licenced by Universal Pictures or anything, so it’s a fan project anyway. That’s

Sheydin Dew (46:56):
Amazing. Yeah, what a fantastic family project. I think that’s really heartwarming as well. I’m sure she’ll be over the moon come Christmas where I would be literally, so to speak.

Aidan Roberts (47:13):
I’m so glad, but I’m not letting it stall Dead City Lullabies. I’m still chipping away at that, but it slowed it down a little bit. But early next year, we’ll have volume two, I promise.

Sheydin Dew (47:25):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Can’t wait. I’m super, super excited. I guess you’ve been so busy with all these projects happening. I personally like to ask this question to artists in particular, and I’m sure we’ve got many artists watching tonight, and that’s how you overcome Creative Block. I know as artists, we all kind of experience it in one form or another, and I’d really like to hear your insight and how you overcome it.

Aidan Roberts (47:58):
Well, I guess with Dad City Lullabies, I suffered a fair bit of writer’s block with it, but I managed to free that up. I did a lot of study and I did a lot of methodology stuff that helped free up the ideas. And so once I got a really satisfying arc mapped out in amongst this massive universe I was trying to create that didn’t have time for, I managed to distil it into this, and I was so excited that it was enough to get the drawings just spilling out for a while. And this was during Covid when

(48:43)
We were locked down, and I was like, well, when I’m not working on my computer, I guess at least I’ve got that to do. And it was always like my, even though it was sometimes hard every day, I would say, listen, if you can just make a couple of marks on the page, you’ve gone some of the way there. And it was just trying to discipline myself enough to at least make a few marks, and more often than not, that would then spill onto three pages. I’d get three pages done in this whole late night session. I’d be like, wow, I’ve got heaps done. So just the very doing of it is even if I’m really not in the mood, it’s like I’m not in the mood to go there. I’ll try and force myself to, because it does free me up. I need to just trust in that I’ve got it. I’ve got it sitting there, it’s going to come out. You just need to, it’s like going to yoga class or whatever. It’s like, I’m not up for it today, but I’m going to feel better afterwards, so let’s do it. I’ve had to have that sort of workday approach to it. Otherwise, if it just, I could just let it go, but I’m not that kind of person. I need to get through the swamp. If you’re not feeling it, you’ve got to find a way through it. There will be the other side when you’re feeling better about it, I guess. I don’t know. It’s pretty vague answer, but

Sheydin Dew (50:16):
No, no, I think everybody’s got their own answer to it, and it’s always interesting to hear everybody’s different approaches to it. So whatever works for yourself might actually work for another person. They just haven’t found it yet. So I always really enjoy asking those questions because then a viewer can actually take something from it and find an amazing answer while they’re at it. I want to also point out, I think we’ve got some more questions coming through on the chat. I just wanted, now I should know this because I was a judge last year, but when is the Comic Art Awards this year? Does anybody know?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:54):
Actually been myself. I know they’re in Canberra and I’m

Sheydin Dew (50:58):
Pretty

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:59):
Sure late November, but don’t quote me. I think that’s what you

Sheydin Dew (51:01):
Said. Yeah. Yeah. I do believe that if you type in to Google, it should come up. I do believe they also have an Instagram account where you can find that information. I do apologise. I was not pre-prepared to know this information. I know this information. Were there any other questions that we missed? I believe William asked, just got here liking it already. When is the Kickstarter?

Aidan Roberts (51:28):
Well, the Kickstarter happened at the beginning of this year, so that’s enabled it to become the book and the record because the Kickstarter was very successful, so I was able to properly get them done. So whether or not there’s a Kickstarter for the second volume, it’s a matter for me and my publisher to decide. But yeah, if there is, it’ll be less of a kickstart Kickstarter than funding the printing. There’s a very elaborate Kickstarter that we ran and lots of rewards that I’m still getting through, including some original commission pieces and stuff. So it’s a lot of work doing a kickstart, so much work to do it properly. And that’s time that could be spent just making the next one. So I’m not sure if we’ll do a second one, but stay tuned. We might do

Sheydin Dew (52:35):
Well, you cross that bridge when you get there, I guess. But still there’s a lot to look forward to, which is fantastic. I believe Joo has just put in the answer we’ve been all looking for, which is the 29th of November for those who want to, it’s

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (52:48):
Very late November.

Sheydin Dew (52:49):
Yeah, very late November. So that’s really exciting. So there’s a lot happening it seems, on the comic scene. And speaking of the comic scene, I really want to know what you think the Australian comic scene really does well at and what perhaps we could do better at?

Aidan Roberts (53:09):
Like I said earlier, I do feel like the new kid on the block in the comics scene for sure, because my engagement with the comics world at large has been specific and sporadic throughout my life. I’m not like a comic collector, and I’m not really into all the big properties like the Marvels and the dcs so much, although I love Batman. So I feel like a little bit of an outsider. However, the people I’ve met since getting dead seated lullabies out there, and the artists I’ve met and the writers I’ve met have enlightened me to this whole community of superbly talented storytellers and artists that I’m really excited to get to know and collaborate with and have this whole journey with. Because I feel like, although I’m getting old, I feel like this is the start of this whole new journey, which is so every con I go to and stuff, I’m like, oh yeah, I love your stuff. I feel like an excited kid with it. And I have a few closer mates who have been doing it for many years, and I feel like there’s a general feeling of it’s hard to get your stuff out there. That’s a thing because there’s just so much content on the internet, and there are so few comic bookstores compared to when I was growing up in the eighties.

(55:00)
So it’s an ocean. People are waving and go, I’ve got this cool book I’ve done, and people come and check it out. It’s hard. It’s hard to reach people, but stuff like the C aaas and stuff like your show guys, other things that make the community feel like a valid and a cool thing that is worth slowing down and listening to and paying attention and seeking out the books. And I feel like that is really healthy in Australia and internationally as well. But there’s obviously no shortage of talent and great ideas and stories. This is, we live in such a big country with very little funding and so few people for the landmass, it can feel like a bit of a desert here to getting your stuff noticed. But there is lots of great avenues and government grants and stuff, and yeah, that is really a lot of countries would not have.

(56:13)
So we are quite lucky. It’s a cool comics community to be in, I think mean these days too, just with this kind of stuff is global anyway. There’s hopefully people listening overseas right now. And so you can reach other humans everywhere. You just have to slow down and do it again. Another sort of ethereal answer to your question, Jaden, but I think it’s hard to get in any of the creative industries. It’s really hard to get to make connections and make this stuff sing in terms of reaching people. But if you have the patience and the fortitude to do it, the rewards to come in. Yeah, I guess that’s how I feel about it.

Sheydin Dew (57:11):
Yeah, I think especially as much dedication that you’ve put in, it does pay off. And I think you are just a great example of that, and I think it’s very admirable to see your story and hear about your story tonight as well. You did touch on conventions as well as one way of getting out there. Are you going to any in the future or have you been to any recently?

Aidan Roberts (57:38):
Well, I was at Supernova in Melbourne and also Supernova in Sydney. We had a table, a wild North comics table, and in Sydney because we finally had the nice glossy books and stuff. I did a bit of an Aiden Roberts table, so I had all my original art and obviously the book and comic stuff, and it was the amount of the foot traffic alone at a con for people who stop and go, oh, this is cool. I like this. Opens up a conversation and you meet all these people and you learn all these things and you make connections and you meet some of your heroes. It’s really cool. And there was a really sweet little one in Ashfield in Sydney recently at Asheville Library. It was the, I can’t remember the name. They’ve all got this similar sounding names, these conventions, but it was really beautifully run.

(58:38)
It’s very small, and they had a sort of market hall and artist alley and stuff. And I finally met Nicholas Scott, who I’m a big fan of. Cool. She was really cool and seeing her stuff, I was like, I’ve been wanting to see your stuff physically for ages. She’s like, oh, well look, I’ve got some of the big ones here and check this out. And I was thinking to myself as I was looking at her stuff, I was like, wow, I’ve been reading her stuff for 10 years now. We’re just hanging out in Asheville Library, nerding out about line weights and stuff and different kinds of inks and whatever. And I thought, this is just so lovely. This is where I want to be with this. And just gradually making those little connections. So cons are where it’s at for feeling inspired and meeting people.

Sheydin Dew (59:31):
Yes. Well said. And I think when you said it, the small one really was quite nice, a nice experience for you. I would second that because I personally find that the smaller conventions that are tailored towards comics specifically or other niches is really great. Sometimes more so than the bigger conventions because those people are actually coming for that specific reason. So they’ll be combing those aisles a little bit more thoroughly than say, at the bigger conventions where there’s a lot more attractions. Whenever I’m talking to people who are thinking about getting into comics and whatnot here in Adelaide, friends and family, I always tell them it’s the smaller conventions that I have a lot more fun at and I meet a lot more people at, funnily enough. And having said that, I really wish that somebody had kind of told me about those smaller conventions and how powerful they can be. I really want to ask this question to you, and that is, what do you wish someone had told you before you started your comic journey?

Aidan Roberts (01:00:49):
That’s a really good question.

Sheydin Dew (01:00:53):
I like this question.

Aidan Roberts (01:00:57):
I want to answer it. I don’t want to just waffle vaguely. What do I wish someone had told me? Learn anatomy sooner.

Sheydin Dew (01:01:11):
Yep. I agree. I agree.

Aidan Roberts (01:01:14):
The reason being, reason being, and I only sort of had a general understanding of what the human body looks like and how it moves, and animals as well, but particularly people, because that’s what we most easily connect with when we’re looking at artwork. The most familiar thing, I suppose, is that the subtleties of how a body moves and how muscles stretch and body language and all that sort of stuff can’t just happen. You have to pay attention to it and go, oh, that’s really interesting how neck muscles will do that when a certain under threat or whatever, all those sorts of things, I never realise, oh my God, I’m going to have to consider all that if I’m going to be successful, what I’m trying to do. So I did a really deep dive for a few years, and that paid off so hard. Now I know how to draw a person falling off a ladder if I have to. That was just the most, and it’s not boring, but it is a fundamental, and that’s one of the things I wish someone had said, you should do this now when you’re like 16 and get really good at this now and get this bit out of the way. But yeah, I feel like I’m always still learning. Everyone’s always still learning, but yeah, but can I just briefly add on to that? Something someone once said to me that I never forgot

(01:02:58)
Is actually my high school art teacher. Her name’s Lisa Slade and Shaden, she’s one of the gallery directors at Gallery SA now, and I saw her when I was, yeah, and I went and visited her at the gallery. She somehow found out I was in town. We hadn’t seen each other for many, many years. And I went and saw her the next day after the CA awards, and she took me on this tour with the young kids that she was showing around the gallery and giving them tips on how to talk about artworks and stuff. They were going to be tour guides and stuff, and she’s like, this is Aiden. I taught him before most of you were born, and I hope he learns at least something from me. And when she said that, I was like, yeah, yeah, no, I learned the most valuable thing from you.

(01:03:56)
And that was, she’s like, you have to not be afraid to fail. You have to embrace failing at something. It teaches you something. This is when I was frustrated. I was like, I can’t make this pastel drawing work or whatever. She’s like, just let it happen. Let it look shit. It doesn’t matter. I remember she said that to me. I was like, okay. And then she was like, it may still be shit tomorrow, but you may actually, when you divorce yourself from it, come back and go, oh, now I know why that looks shit. And I’m excited to try again. I remember her saying that I’ve applied that to almost everything I’ve done since. That’s really cool. So yeah, she was my Mr. Holland, if you will, that high school teacher that just put that little spark in you. Yeah. Anyway,

Sheydin Dew (01:04:55):
What a wonderful story as well. And it’s funny that of all the places you met her here in Adelaide, and there’s a saying here in Adelaide, because we are such a small city, most likely on a day-to-Day basis, if you’re in the CBD, you’ll run into someone that you know or your friend knows, your cousin knows or whatever, and we always say, Adelaide, am I right? Kind of thing. And that just goes to show Adelaide, am I right of all places that you meet your high school teaching? That’s just crazy. Yeah, that’s phenomenal that you cross past with her all these years later.

Aidan Roberts (01:05:37):
Yeah. So shout out to Lisa. She’s a really wonderful human. Yeah, very infectious person. And just it gave me that little spark to, it’s okay. It’s okay to screw up. It’s worth screwing up because that makes you what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

Sheydin Dew (01:06:00):
That was a little shout out to one of our regular guests who come up on the drink and draw shows. Nick May, he is also a teacher. My best friend, Emma, shout out to you,

Aidan Roberts (01:06:11):
My wife.

Sheydin Dew (01:06:12):
There you go. Teachers are the best people. So shout out to all teachers out there. I think you guys are doing amazing, especially now that it’s crunch time and we’re heading towards the end of the year. I can only imagine how hectic it is for everyone. But I guess that’s kind of gotten last question of the night, and that is, you’ve talked a little bit about your Kickstarter and how it was completed earlier this year. So where can we find your work? Dead City Lullabies. Do you want to give us a spiel away? Okay,

Aidan Roberts (01:06:46):
Yeah. Yes, please. Go to my Substack, which is dead city lullabies.substack.com. And that is sort of like the repository for all things to surrounding the story and the artwork and the whole tale of how this thing began. So it’s a really good place to, it’s like, I call it my Blu-ray Extra, the Substack. It’s like where you go to really dig into it. I used to have Volume one up as a free download before the Winning the Ledger award and then being published by Wild North, so it’s no longer available for free, but you can buy the book from Wild North Comics. So just Google all this, buy substack, Google Wild North comics, check out all the other cool stuff on Wild North as well, so you can get the book. You can also buy it digitally and the record, you’ll also be able to buy from Bandcamp from Wild North website.

(01:08:07)
It’s not yet on Spotify and all that stuff. It’s only on Bandcamp presently. That’s because life is very busy, and I’ve got to get around to doing all this stuff, but you’ll be able to stream it pretty soon on Spotify and Apple and that whole thing. That’s awesome. So have a listen to that too, because that’s a whole other conversation my musical world. Just have a listen to that on Bandcamp, and please let me know what you think. But yeah, start with the Substack, and although it’s been a little slow lately, that is where I’ll do all the big announcements and make the world building stuff and little behind the scenes things. And so yeah, keep an eye on that. And yeah, please thank you everyone for your patience for part two. I know it seems quite absurd, like comic issues being more than a year apart, but because it’s a one man show, it just takes a long time, so yeah.

Sheydin Dew (01:09:10):
Yeah.

Aidan Roberts (01:09:11):
It’ll be

Sheydin Dew (01:09:13):
As a dad as well, you’re on your toes constantly.

Aidan Roberts (01:09:16):
I’ll tell you what. Yeah, that’s a whole other hour long conversation.

Sheydin Dew (01:09:23):
I can only imagine. Yes. I can only imagine how busy it must be juggling all of those things at once. But otherwise, Aiden, a huge, congratulations again, a year on, you’ve done a phenomenal job and what a start to what I’m sure is going to be a very successful comic journey for you. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to jump on tonight. It’s been phenomenal to talk everything Dead city lullabies. Yeah. I don’t know, did you want to end with anything else, Shane? Any reminders for, or yourself, Aiden?

Aidan Roberts (01:10:04):
Yeah, I just want to say thank you, Shaden. It’s lovely. To chat to you. I’m sure we’ll get a chance to do more of that in the coming times. And Shane, thanks again for pulling it all together, man. Pleasure. And shaden, I believe you’ve got no man’s land back in stock, so I’ll be getting a copy from you. I’ll be ordering one of those. Check out the work if guys aren’t familiar with it.

Sheydin Dew (01:10:37):
I love this cross, but the show is about you. But thank you. Thanks. Thanks guys. Any other reminders?

Aidan Roberts (01:10:46):
I just wanted to say thank you to all the people in the chat. There’s been some really nice little comments and questions and stuff. I’m reading all those. It’s really nice. Thank you.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:10:55):
Oh, nice.

Sheydin Dew (01:10:56):
Yeah, I think it’s been a really good night of interaction, which has been fantastic. But yeah, any other reminders for upcoming shows this week? Shane?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:11:06):
The main thing I want to say is if you’re watching, don’t forget to the video, subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already. If you’re watching from one of the other places, come over to YouTube and subscribe. That would be awesome. It’s comex net au. The show that we’ve got later this week, which feels like it’s later, later, but it’s actually just two days away. Friday night is drink and draw. We’ve got speedball pendants. Send in your art. It’s Comex Show slash art. Send in your art. We want it early because I’m still getting my head around this new platform. So the later the pitch is coming in, the more difficult it is for me. So yeah, that’s pretty much all I’ve got to say. And thank you very much for Aiden for coming on the show.

Sheydin Dew (01:11:47):
Awesome.

Aidan Roberts (01:11:48):
Thank you, siz. Thank you. Thanks everyone.

Sheydin Dew (01:11:52):
We’ll see everyone in two weeks time. Until then,

Aidan Roberts (01:11:55):
I’m going to try something new.