Join fellow Flinders University Alumni and artist of the amazing South Australian comic Hail, Rosanna Lam, as we chat all things creative!
TRANSCRIPTION (there may be errors in the following text)
Sizzle (00:12):
Welcome to episode eight of the New season of Oz Comic Show. We are here tonight with Shaden as our host.
Sheydin Dew (00:20):
Hello. Hello.
Sizzle (00:23):
And tonight we’ll be talking to Rosanna Lamb. She’s the artist on Hale series which is up to seven, I’ve just been told. And so without any further ado, let’s talk to Rosanna.
Sheydin Dew (00:38):
Let’s go. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Comments Show Tonight we have got a very good friend of mine also a fellow alumni from Flinders University, Roseanne and Lamb. Thank you so much for being on the show. How are you? Hi,
Rosanna Lam (01:13):
I’m good. Thanks for having me.
Sheydin Dew (01:15):
Oh, it’s our pleasure. We are super excited to talk all things Hale. I had the pleasure of picking this up during the very first time I went to Supernova back in 2018. So it is a real pleasure to finally talk all things about how it was made and talk a little bit about your creative journey and how you kind of got into it. So I just wanted to kick off the show as always on a little bit about the actual creator. So how did you get into drawing exactly? I would love to get into that.
Rosanna Lam (01:49):
Yeah. Okay. So I guess I’ll start off with a little bit about myself. I specialize in mainly character art and portraits. I started drawing really young on pencil and paper, a lot of kids do and later found that I could actually study and refine these skills to work towards a career. So I studied digital media in uni and then I did some comic work as artists for Hale. Then later did some freelance work for our jobs here and there to name a few. Actually would you mind doing a screen share for me?
Sizzle (02:33):
Yep.
Sheydin Dew (02:36):
Oh my gosh.
Rosanna Lam (02:37):
Yeah. Yeah. So to name a few, there were some character art that I did for a board game. We’ve got some character art for a graphic novel.
Sheydin Dew (02:55):
No Way
Rosanna Lam (02:56):
Is really cool.
Sheydin Dew (02:58):
Amazing. We’ve got some real big content there.
Rosanna Lam (03:03):
Stuff for I think this was CD cover for Rachel Car. I think she was on a show. What was it? It said it was The Voice. The Voice. That’s right. She was on The Voice so no way. Really. Yeah, and there was like a, oh
Sheydin Dew (03:24):
My gosh.
Rosanna Lam (03:27):
But I guess a little bit about what inspired me as a kid. We can exit the, oh wait, actually, there we go. We’ve got some Sailor Moon here. Yeah, so basically I grew up watching a lot of animated kids movie shows like classic Disney, Salem, moon car Cap soccer, and a lot of Studio Ley stuff which all had that soft, gentle, but also whimsical kind of look to them, and they’re all very detailed and colorful with amazing storytelling. Plus Sail Moon and Card capta. Sark started off as a manga series, which is super cool and also played a lot of file fantasy. Oh my
Sheydin Dew (04:18):
God, this is Final Fantasy ever.
Rosanna Lam (04:22):
Yes, I played a lot of Final Fantasy and Secret of Man and all that. I’m very stylized fantasy based and with a lot of Norse mythology inspired creatures in law. But my all time favorite and the reason I started drawing more and digitally was a visual novel, cold Hotel Dusk. So it’s a visual novel slash puzzle game that was on the Ds absolute my absolute favorite game. So yeah, at the time I was actually unaware that these beautifully anime characters, although quite clearly stylized, were actually rotoscoped very comic book Ink and Marker style kind of drawing style with very well-written and drawn characters. So I guess all of that had a contribution to me being passionate about drawing because I wanted to create something like that, but in my own way. So that’s how I came about drawing.
Sheydin Dew (05:32):
Oh, wow. Oh my God. So how old were you when you discovered Hotel Desk?
Rosanna Lam (05:37):
Oh, I don’t, don’t know. It was probably about maybe last year of high school when I was in year 12.
Sheydin Dew (05:47):
Okay. So
Rosanna Lam (05:47):
Just before start playing this just before uni, I remember wanting to be able to draw digitally because of this, because wow. Yeah, see, there’s any better pictures.
Sheydin Dew (06:04):
That’s such a cool style. That is so awesome, and the fact that it’s all animated as well, even better. But the fact that you are inspired by final Fancy seven, I am very impressed because during <laugh> high school journey, I absolutely loved Tifa. I think she was so badass.
Rosanna Lam (06:26):
Yeah, my favorite was Aris.
Sheydin Dew (06:29):
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And that was one of the reasons why I went to uni, and that’s where we crossed paths.
Rosanna Lam (06:35):
Oh, nice. Nice, nice.
Sheydin Dew (06:37):
Yeah. Yeah. That’s amazing. So you’ve told us a little bit about your background and whatnot. Obviously we both went to uni and we did the same kind of string. That’s fantastic. And we both kind of fell into comics, which is even better. I kind of want to jump a little ahead now. Can you tell us a little bit about some projects that you might be working on, whether or not that’s just some still pieced art pieces or whether or not you might be doing something else
Rosanna Lam (07:06):
At all? Now what I’m working on now, now, <laugh>. Okay. Actually, I can show you a picture that I started a couple of days ago, if you like. I’ll do, yes, please. Yeah, I will do a screen share. I’ll stop that one and then I’ll present another one. Let’s see.
Sheydin Dew (07:32):
So everyone watching Rosana has only just mastered the screen sharing button, so <laugh>,
Rosanna Lam (07:39):
There we go. That one. Oh, cool.
Sheydin Dew (07:44):
Oh my God.
Rosanna Lam (07:45):
So I am a huge fan of the last of us, and they recently released the live action last of us three episodes in, I think on HBO or on binge or something. And this is the main character, one of the main characters, Joel played by Pedro Pascal. So that’s what I’m working on at the moment. Very excited,
Sheydin Dew (08:11):
<laugh>, amazing stuff. And it’s still got that kind of graphic el element that you’ve always kind of artwork. And again, it’s super a bit of a nod to Hotel Dusk that you showed before as well. I can see the influence there,
Rosanna Lam (08:26):
Which is
Sheydin Dew (08:26):
Amazing to see.
Rosanna Lam (08:27):
Started off with, started that <laugh>.
Sheydin Dew (08:34):
Nice. Oh, cool.
Rosanna Lam (08:35):
Yeah, and then the outline and then the color. But yeah, I’m slowly working on the background but yeah, that’s what I’ve been working on. I’ve also just have a couple of portraits that I’m working on as well, but I don’t think I have them here.
Sheydin Dew (08:54):
Yeah, no worries. Fantastic. And I heard that you heard else before that you have been doing some freelance stuff, so you’ve been working a little bit with graphic design, the graphic design industry, and a little bit of illustration. Yeah. How’s that
Rosanna Lam (09:08):
Going?
Sheydin Dew (09:09):
Was that, how’s that been for you? Yeah,
Rosanna Lam (09:10):
Sorry. How’s that been for me? Yeah, yeah pretty good. Actually it was last year when I was working in graphic design for a local company. I did a lot of marketing, a lot of social media content, stuff like that. A lot of printed and digital work mixed in and logo work as well. That was really fun. I actually really enjoyed it, but it was just a lot of work, and I guess I sort of wanted to take a break from it because I wanted to go back to what I’m passionate about rather than actually just working on things that are for specific companies, if that makes sense. Yeah, so more creative freedom, I suppose. So yeah, I took a bit of a break and currently I’m just doing what I wanted. It’s going well.
Sheydin Dew (10:15):
Yeah. Nice.
Rosanna Lam (10:17):
Yeah, I think I’m wanting, oh, sorry.
Sheydin Dew (10:19):
That’s fantastic to hear. That’s awesome. Yeah,
Rosanna Lam (10:24):
I’m wanting to make a online store, maybe do some prints and all that like yourself.
Sheydin Dew (10:32):
Oh my gosh. I will be your first customer, I swear.
Rosanna Lam (10:36):
Yeah. So
Sheydin Dew (10:38):
That is amazing. Yeah, so awesome. So we’ve talked a little bit about your past present and a little bit of your future, which is fantastic. I kind of want to get into the nitty gritty stuff now. So you went to uni, obviously. How did you get into comics in that time? How did you do it?
Rosanna Lam (10:58):
Oh, well, what’s the story? I think specifically, I think it was Hale that got me into comics. So how did I start?
Sheydin Dew (11:09):
How did that all come about? How did Hale come
Rosanna Lam (11:11):
Into
(11:12):
Yeah, okay. So I hale start off with me as a uni student who attended a pitch for 2D artists to join a project for one of our classes. I remember it wasn’t compulsory, so I didn’t actually end up putting my name down for anything. But a few days later, my topic coordinator came up to me and asked if I’d be interested in becoming lead artist for this project because the original lead artist had to leave the country like a fancy internship or something. I was a bit hesitant because I didn’t really believe I had the skills. Mind you, I’d barely touched any digital art at that point, and I was overloaded with existing assessments, stress and work outside of uni. But she insisted, and her reasoning was like my art star that I’d shown in one of my portfolios actually had similar qualities to the art star that the original lead artist had. So it took a bit of convincing, but I eventually agreed a bit of a people pleaser but I got to gain experience as a comic book artist skill build game exposure network, and work in a great team. And that’s how I really, I guess, came about with comic creation and actually getting into the comic industry.
Sheydin Dew (12:44):
Absolutely. That is amazing. That’s so cool to hear that. We kind of came from similar realms, I guess. And thank God you did actually get onto Hale, because I definitely think you’ve definitely made it to what it is now. So how many issues is Hale? Is it finished or is it still going or?
Rosanna Lam (13:02):
Yeah, it’s finished seven issues. And I believe each issue was about, I’d say like 20, 25, 30 pages which was a lot. So seven issues. We did have it up online for a bit, and we did sell it at conventions and all that. We even had a couple of events at Green Light for new releases, so that was fun. Oh, cool. But yeah, I think it lasted two to three, I’d say two and a bit years. It took two and a three, two and a bit years to complete eight to 10 pages per month back to back.
Sheydin Dew (13:51):
Yeah. Yeah. And looking at the inner front cover Shane, I don’t know if you want to pull this up at all, but there are so many names on this, such a huge team that you worked alongside. So were all these also undergraduates as well?
Rosanna Lam (14:11):
Yes, yes. We’re all, yeah, I think we came from different streams. Some of us were in the same classes, and some of us didn’t actually know each other. We just all saw the same pitch and we were like, yeah, let’s do it.
Sheydin Dew (14:24):
Oh my God. So that would’ve been such a cool networking opportunity for you.
Rosanna Lam (14:28):
Yeah, I got to meet a lot of cool people, a lot of cool comic creators with who are like-minded and yeah, it was great.
Sheydin Dew (14:38):
What was it working in such a big team? Did you find it challenging or did you find it really refreshing?
Rosanna Lam (14:45):
To be honest, it was efficient, but it was quite challenging. So we would communicate mainly through email and Messenger but we had monthly meetings sometimes even more where well, first off, Miranda and I would prepare the comic panels based off the script that she had written. We’d upload ’em to the Google Drive where everyone else would upload their work as a part of the pipeline for others to work off of. But then after that, it would reach the background artists first. Then it would come back to me for the penciling and drafts and inking. Sometimes other artists would help me ink. Everyone had a different role then it would reach the colorists then back to me for every time glass le showed up then back to Miranda who did the dialogue, speech bubbles and sound effects. So it was a lot of work, but it was quite a rewarding experience. I, I’d say.
Sheydin Dew (15:48):
Yeah. Yeah, I bet. That’s amazing. So that’s really quite different to the norm that we get on this show where a lot of people go at alone, but it’s really refreshing to know that some people have done it in such big teams and to to hear how that kind of went for you. That’s super amazing. So what kind of software did you guys use when you were creating the comic?
Rosanna Lam (16:14):
So, well, the script was written on a Word doc. Sometimes it would just be a Google Doc where everyone could just sort of see it. But we worked on mainly Photoshop. I believe some people had other art programs, maybe paint tool si or a Coral paint but mainly Adobe Photoshop. That was how we, so if they worked on a different program, they would have to import it to Photoshop and then save it as like a PDF or something, or like a P S D for us to actually use. Yeah, and I used a graphics tablet. I’ve actually got it here. It was this exact one. It was the ah five touch in the medium. Oh, nice. I’ve recently upgraded, but this works specifically with Adobe products, so I didn’t have trouble trying to get it to work. So yeah, that’s the stuff that we used to create.
Sheydin Dew (17:23):
I bet that Wacom tablet is very sentimental to you if you’ve used it since that’s been with you for a,
Rosanna Lam (17:29):
It’s been me for a very long time. It’s still going strong.
Sheydin Dew (17:35):
So what are you using now? Do you have a different Wacom tablet?
Rosanna Lam (17:38):
Yeah, so I’ve actually recently gone back to this Intru, this Wacom tablet just because of the compatibly compatibility issues that I’ve been sort of with other tablets. The one that I upgraded to was the Huon tablet. So it’s the one where there’s an actual screen, like a monitor that you draw on, but that worked with Adobe for a little bit, but then every update after 2021, it just kept crashing. So yeah, I’ve gone back to the trusty old Wacom.
Sheydin Dew (18:19):
No, it’s still going strong, going strong. Yeah, if that’s any nod to Wacom and it’s trustworthiness, I don’t know what is. So yeah. So kind of bringing it back to Hale four viewers who haven’t read it, can you tell us the synopsis or a little
Rosanna Lam (18:37):
Bit about Yes actually, I’ve written some notes down because it’s been a while, so let me go take a look. See, right. All right. So Hale, for those of you who don’t know, is a superhero comic. It was made for an inclusive demographic but mainly for women who might be suffering from an invisible illness such as depression or anxiety. The comic follows a woman named Lena who turns to glass when she experiences anxiety, and us as the reader go through that journey of her learning how to cope with her emotions learning how to control the glass, and ultimately turning her weakness into a superpower to fight bad guys and save people.
Sheydin Dew (19:31):
Amazing. I could not have said that, and I think that really encompasses it really well, especially with the first issue. I reread it, obviously I bought this back in 2018, so I’ve had it a while, but I reread it just so refresh myself and just made me want to buy all the other six issues all the much more. I’m just, yeah, I really have to know what happens to Seth. I won’t spoil anything.
Rosanna Lam (19:58):
Oh, yes, yes, yes.
Sheydin Dew (20:00):
Yeah,
Rosanna Lam (20:02):
<laugh>
Sheydin Dew (20:03):
Me. Is there any romance that blossom at all?
Rosanna Lam (20:07):
Oh, well, yeah. So with that, Seth I guess can be seen as a romantic interest but it’s more so platonic to begin with because he’s such a nice person. I think we didn’t really have a lot of time focusing on Seth as a character. We couldn’t really develop his character a lot more than Lena, for example, because she’s the main character. We see her all the time but we didn’t want to have him as just the romantic interest. Yeah. So yeah Lena does have other romantic interests, but if I were to remake Hale and if I actually had the time, I would sort of really more focus put more focus on Seth, because he’s such a good boy. He’s such a great character.
Sheydin Dew (21:01):
So interesting that you say that. And I think it’s really, really refreshing that you say that, you know didn’t want to put too much emphasis on a love story and that there’s more empowerment towards women suffering with those invisible illnesses. And I think that really put a cherry on top for me when you said that, because I think that gives it even more depth to that story. It’s not just a super hero comic. It’s got a lot of undertone and a lot of relevant topics that it touches on when you said that. So yeah, that think that’s fantastic that you said that. I do ask, do you have a favorite character Hae? Who was your favorite to draw
Rosanna Lam (21:45):
My F That’s a tricky one. I, I mean, I love drawing all the characters, but I think my favorite would be Ebony. So Elena’s best friend she is her, her body type. She’s a full figured woman. She’s got great taste in fashion and she has the best judgmental expressions. And it’s just so fun drawing her and because all the characters who want to make them more realistic and more relatable to the readers. So her body type is not the typical one that you’d see in a lot of comics. Not, I’m not saying that as not all comics are like that, but yeah. Yeah. So Ebony Ebony, so she’s got the black, dark, wavy hair and she appears the nice clothes.
Sheydin Dew (22:44):
She appears in the first issue. She
Rosanna Lam (22:46):
Appears. Yeah, yeah. Yes.
Sheydin Dew (22:47):
She’s the best friend at the office.
Rosanna Lam (22:49):
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, best friend, the law firm.
Sheydin Dew (22:53):
Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s fantastic. I’m so glad that you said that as well. Cause it’s always really nice to see body positivity in comics, especially nowadays. So I think it’s really, really nice that it’s so inclusive and really shines a different perspective on women in comics. So I think that’s fantastic to hear. Yeah. So good on you. Was there something that was super challenging when creating the comic? Besides working within perhaps a rather large team? Was there anything else challenging?
Rosanna Lam (23:27):
Yeah, yeah. So the most challenging thing that I experienced whilst drawing Hale was finding the time to actually draw. Because yes, I was a full-time uni student. I worked as a freelance artist, had a cafe job and a retail job, and I was also volunteering at a aged care center. So I was basically running on fumes, even though Hae was a part of the topic that we had in uni one of the topics that we had to do a project on it was a lot of outside of uni work, A lot of my own downtime was just hail. So that was quiet an experience. It was stressful at times, but looking back we actually made something out of it. Yeah. So that was rewarding.
Sheydin Dew (24:33):
Yeah. Yeah, I was just going to say, it would’ve been super rewarding regardless of how tough the process was. I mean, you got your name printed on something and that happens sometimes. So you dunno. You’re doing really
Rosanna Lam (24:46):
Well. Thank you.
Sheydin Dew (24:47):
So you said we’ve talked a little bit about your characters and whatnot. It is a little fun question for you. If you can inherit any traits from one of your characters, what would it be and why would it be a characteristic? Would it be a superpower? Would it be dress sense?
Rosanna Lam (25:08):
Okay. I don’t want to spoil things, but I suppose if you’ve read hail, you’d know that Seth has a superpower as well so he actually can actually heal people. So if I could inherit something like a trait from a specific character, it would be healing ability mean that would come in handy, I think.
Sheydin Dew (25:42):
But that makes me even more curious about this comic book series now that that’s throwing a spanner in the works. So you’re going to just more curious for sure. So what kind of characters would you most likely to become friends with in Hailey?
Rosanna Lam (25:59):
Most likely you become friends with? I think Seth, again, to be honest. But there’s also another character named Monica. She’s also I think her name was Monica. Oh, Jesus. It’s been way too long. She works as a reporter and she’s very sassy, very she’ll like joke a lot with you, and I think I should make a pretty good friend, I reckon.
Sheydin Dew (26:30):
Yeah. Nice. Oh, okay. So how many characters are there in Hae? Do you remember how many
Rosanna Lam (26:36):
They are? Yeah, there’s quite a few. So there’s Elena, Seth Ebony, we’ve got the Shepherd, we’ve got love interest we’ve got Monica Police Officer. There’s at least seven at seven characters.
Sheydin Dew (26:51):
Who took the longest to design, do you reckon?
Rosanna Lam (26:55):
The longest? Well, yeah, the longest the to draw was definitely Lena in her glass form because although I had a custom glass brush that Elaine the original artist had actually made for me I would go over every highlight and shadow of every shard draw cracks and put in the extra effort to make her partially transparent in some areas. But I guess after her it would definitely be the shepherd because he’s known as the dog killer, the one with all the dog collars down his forearms. So that that took a long time to just draw all the different colored colors and all the different designs on the colors.
Sheydin Dew (27:47):
Oh, wow. Yeah. And you did that manually? That’s crazy.
Rosanna Lam (27:50):
Yes. Yeah.
Sheydin Dew (27:52):
Oh my God. Well, actually, just so everybody knows what you’re talking about, the glass effect, because obviously that’s a huge, huge highlight. I’m just going to click to a random page here, is just so people know exactly what we are talking about. This is Lena’s superpower, so to speak. And I think the last page in this volume, I’ll just pop it up now. I think this spread is absolutely familiar. I don’t know how you and obviously with front cover as well, you get a bit of a taste of what’s to come but I think you’ve just rendered that absolutely beautifully rosana. I think you should really give yourself, thank you, you’ve really done it justice. That’s absolutely amazing. I also have one more question about characters. I mean, it was a huge highlight for me in my university journey doing character design. So I’m super into characters design. Any the characters do inspired by real life people,
Rosanna Lam (29:01):
I guess. Well, I actually had less creative freedom with how the characters looked in Haile because I followed detailed descriptions from Miranda the writer. But yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if she based them off of real people. But yeah, so generally if I am drawing a character, I would look up reference images. So I guess a lot of the characters that I draw are inspired by real people maybe a specific feature of that person, or I want to convey a specific trait through their personality, something in a pose or something like that or a facial expression. So
Sheydin Dew (29:47):
Yeah. Did you ever do the old trick of having a mirror on the desk? Yes.
Rosanna Lam (29:52):
And having
Sheydin Dew (29:53):
Specific expression As being expression. Yes.
Rosanna Lam (29:56):
Yeah. And anyone who would walk past would be, what the heck is she doing?
Sheydin Dew (30:02):
All these ones? Yeah. Oh yeah. I think all artists yeah, understand that.
Rosanna Lam (30:08):
That’s for sure. It’s really good. It’s really good practice doing that.
Sheydin Dew (30:12):
No, no, absolutely. Absolutely. So yeah, we’ve talked a little bit about your favorite characters, some that were a bit challenging. I kind of want to move into a little bit more about how you did it. So in regards to how you published it, how was that process for you?
Rosanna Lam (30:30):
Oh, okay. How we published it. So Miranda was the mastermind behind the distribution of the comic. She managed to get it up on Kickstarter. So we got backed by a lot of people who were supporting us from the very start, and just people who were just interested in general. But yeah, I think she had quite a few people that she knew at our local comic bookstore. The Green Light Comic? Green Light Comics. Yeah, that’s one. Yeah. Yeah. So she managed to get it in through that would have new events that we’d attend to celebrate, a new release for all the new issues of hail that we’d created. And then we had a couple of ones interstate, and she would email some comic bookstores about hail and they’d be like, yeah, we can sell it physically in store. So we sent a few interstate. But yeah, mainly it was digital and you can actually download it for free through the website. But we also had a lot of merch as well. Did, oh yeah, I think we had bookmarks, mugs, posters. I think at one point we were thinking of shirts as well, like apparel but I don’t think we ended up doing that. But yeah, it was nice having, having your actual comics on the table on the STO for all the comic conventions that we’ve been to. And having just your merch on the side just really adds nice touch to your little table.
Sheydin Dew (32:40):
Yeah. Oh yeah. I remember picking obviously it up at Supernova in 20, 20 18. Were you there? You were there behind the table.
Rosanna Lam (32:49):
Yeah. Yeah, so we were at Supernova. ComicCon acon. We were at the comics Toy Fair and also our paper cuts as well. Recently. We had a few pieces at the exhibition and yeah, I think that was it. Yeah,
Sheydin Dew (33:16):
Amazing. Obviously shout out to South Australians. A lot of those festivals here in like the comic and Toy Fair and paper cuts. Definitely two of my very favorites for sure. How did you find going at conventions? Was it your first time tabling?
Rosanna Lam (33:33):
It was, yeah, so we had a lot of early mornings. I love my sleepings, so it was a bit of a struggle getting out of bed, but I knew it was all for a good cause. And yeah, it was nice having people approach you about your work. And it was just nice having conversations about things that we enjoy and are passionate about. So that was a lot of fun. Even if we didn’t sell a whole lot to begin with it was great just for the experience. And a lot of the time we would also table with people that we knew as well in the comics industry. So at every convention, it’ll always be the same group of people. Be like, hello?
Sheydin Dew (34:25):
Oh, you had the friendly faces there. That was a little less, yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. Was there a convention that was your favorite and why?
Rosanna Lam (34:38):
I, I’d say they were all equally good but I think I’ll have to go with Supernova because that was the very first one that we did. So it holds a special place in my heart. Yeah
Sheydin Dew (34:55):
Of course. And I think the one that you were at, the first one that you were at was also the first one I tabled at as well. So yeah, another similarity, another common ground for us,
Rosanna Lam (35:07):
Which is
Sheydin Dew (35:08):
<laugh>. Yeah, exactly. I just remembered that I, I’ve skipped a question about, and that was, which one was your favorite issue? Obviously maybe don’t give it a why to spoil it or anything, but is there that you really enjoyed doing from start finish?
Rosanna Lam (35:28):
Yes. Yeah. Yes. Which one? Yeah. Yeah. So I’d have to say it was issue seven to the last issue for sentimental reasons, because it was the last one and everyone was kind of sad that it was ending, but also kind of happy because it was the last one but also because there were a lot of action scenes in that one. And I’d never really drawn a whole heap of action scenes before. And it was just really fun showing Lena in a glass form doing all these cool stunts and moves and all that, and she goes up against the bad guy and yeah, it’s super cool. So I won’t say much more because it’ll, there’ll be spoilers but yeah, a lot of glass in that one. So it took probably the longest to draw. But yeah, it was, I think, yeah, so my favorite issue is the last issue.
Sheydin Dew (36:23):
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Do you have any of the issues next to you by any chance that we can see?
Rosanna Lam (36:29):
I have them digitally.
Sheydin Dew (36:32):
Oh, can we see
Rosanna Lam (36:35):
Just the covers?
Sheydin Dew (36:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
Rosanna Lam (36:40):
Alright, just let me see if I can,
Sheydin Dew (36:47):
I’ve thrown you off guard. I <laugh>
Rosanna Lam (36:50):
Kind of share my screen. It’s
Sheydin Dew (36:55):
Done very well to learn it just for tonight.
Rosanna Lam (36:58):
Oh, thank you. One
Sheydin Dew (37:00):
Time to practice, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it, that’s for sure, because I don’t think I’ve seen any other of the covers, so this will be exciting.
Rosanna Lam (37:11):
So I’ll just slowly load them up. So one’s the last one. I think I’ve sent you this one. Yep, yep. First one. Wow.
Sheydin Dew (37:25):
It’s doing a lot for us.
Rosanna Lam (37:27):
Yeah. Second, it’s time.
Sheydin Dew (37:30):
Well, if they don’t load, I will ask the next question on the list. Oh, look at that.
Rosanna Lam (37:38):
Well, yeah, I think they’re just, for some reason they’re not loading through the stream. Yeah,
Sheydin Dew (37:44):
Yeah, that’s right. Threw you a curve ball. But honestly, some of the spreads just even in issue one, and I’m sure it even got even more action packed, like you said. I think that’s just makes it even worth to go and buy the next six. So where can we find hail? Is it still in stores or is it online?
Rosanna Lam (38:07):
Yeah, it’s been a while actually. It’s been a while, but I do know Miranda still has a whole hip. I guess there we’re going to have to do something with them, so maybe in the future we’ll do another stall or something, hopefully, because they were up online before but we had to pay for the website to be up and we just couldn’t keep doing that. So it was available for anyone to read for free. But other than that, yeah, it was at Green Light Comics, but I don’t think they have it anymore. So I think it’s just up to Miranda and I doing another stall again in the future.
Sheydin Dew (38:58):
Yeah. Is that definitely on the cards or is it kind of a platform at the moment? Maybe
Rosanna Lam (39:04):
Yeah, maybe I, I feel like we do have copies of the original seven issues but if I were to make remake, it would be the new one, the new newly remastered version of Hail that we’d probably be selling if we were to have another stall again. Yeah.
Sheydin Dew (39:33):
If you could go or return to another convention, which one would it be and why?
Rosanna Lam (39:43):
Ooh, I want to say are they
Sheydin Dew (39:48):
Haven’t been to yet, or
Rosanna Lam (39:49):
Do did we, did Athletes Stop doing AZ ComicCon?
Sheydin Dew (39:56):
The ComicCon, yes, but I think it’s come back. I think it’s come
Rosanna Lam (40:00):
Back. It’s
Sheydin Dew (40:01):
Coming back this year, the AZ comic. Oh,
Rosanna Lam (40:03):
Okay. From memory. Cause I, yeah, I always really liked AZ ComicCon, but either Supernova because of sentimental reasons, but also os ComicCon because a lot, there are so many comics that you can look at and be an awe of. Yeah, so ComicCon acon, I think ACON as well, because that’s also gaming as well. So a bit of mixture between gaming comics and Manga as well. Manga definitely. Yeah.
Sheydin Dew (40:41):
Yeah,
Rosanna Lam (40:42):
Yeah. Actually, yeah.
Sheydin Dew (40:44):
Throw back to your inspirations, I guess. And that’s funny that you bring up Ahan because that’s actually written above my desk right now, as in my, to go to Ahan. I
Rosanna Lam (40:55):
Never,
Sheydin Dew (40:56):
So yeah, if you got any tips and tricks, please throw them my way. Yeah.
Rosanna Lam (41:01):
Oh my goodness.
Sheydin Dew (41:02):
Yeah. Yeah. So you’ve tabled at ACOM before, did you say?
Rosanna Lam (41:06):
Yes, yes. Yeah. Yeah. I at Aon
Sheydin Dew (41:10):
Was, yeah,
Rosanna Lam (41:10):
That was great. I mean, a lot of people would go to ACON specifically for the anime sides of things so you’d get a lot of people who would be sort of semi-interested in your work. They’ll come up to you chat to you about your work and all that, any other convention. But yeah, although we didn’t sell a lot at acon it was just nice seeing all the cosplay as well. They would come by and they’ll be so friendly. We’ll take photos together and they’ll give you a cheeky plug. Yeah, it was a Afghan’s fun. And also when you are not sitting behind the table and you go around looking at other people’s work and the stuff that they’re selling, it’s quite a variety. Quite diverse creators as well. So yeah, it’s
Sheydin Dew (42:11):
Absolut really nice. Yeah, yeah. Now, did I read also that back in the early days, that Hale was for sale on Comicology? Is that correct?
Rosanna Lam (42:23):
I think so, actually. Yeah, that vague sounds fakely familiar
Sheydin Dew (42:28):
Because it’s really funny because not only did we go to uni together, not only did we attend the very first comic together, we also put our comics on Comicology back in those days. Because yeah, that was what I was doing. I was comparing sales at conventions to online me not knowing anything. I went straight to Comicology. But lo and behold, now we’ve got Oz Comics by founded by the lovely Shane next to me. I would’ve died for the services that he now provides back in 2018. But there you go. No, that’s fantastic. That’s so cool. I guess I really want to turn a little bit of a corner now in the show and I really want to bring it back to a little bit about the comic community here in Australia. Maybe perhaps we can pop ourselves back a little bit back when you were doing hail, what was your favorite thing about the Australian comic industry?
Rosanna Lam (43:35):
My favorite thing, let’s see. I guess my favorite thing about the Aussie comic industry is how supportive everyone is. It’s a small community compared to the rest of the world, but it’s definitely growing and I love seeing that passion in all the creative ways. It is conveyed through different styles and genres of people’s comics and creations. We all love comics but this is my way of showing it. It’s a bit show and tell where everyone kind of ooze and ahs and motivate each other. So yeah, I guess that’s, I think that’s my favorite thing about the Aussie comedy comic industry is how supportive everyone is.
Sheydin Dew (44:26):
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think to build upon that I think definitely in the last couple of years since we’ve released both of our comics I think it’s become a lot more inclusive. So we’ve seen a lot of ways different ways in which women are portrayed in comics as well. A lot of different styles have come to light as well. So I think how progressive that the Australian comic industry has become a step, a huge highlight especially for myself anyway. But is there anything else that you, you’d want to see more of in the comic industry? New York, in
Rosanna Lam (45:06):
Oh, I guess, yeah, I mean similar to you. Well, as we all know, not Australia in particular, but in other parts of the world, a lot of the comic content is very male oriented. I’m not sure how to explain in a way that won’t make me sound like I’m complaining, but <laugh> similar to the typical male versus female gays, or for an exaggerated example, ways in telling a story and building characters where women aren’t only romantic interests and side characters. So a love me, a good inclusive comic where norms are challenged and issues that aren’t usually talked about a lot are brought to light where characters are loved not just for the way they look, but for how they think, for how they feel, and how they can relate to a reader and even inspire them.
Sheydin Dew (46:02):
Yes, absolutely. A wonderful answer. Very, very wonderful. Yes, yes, I agree, Shane. Yeah, no, that’s amazing. So awesome. And I’m so glad that you kind of touched on that topic as well, I think. Yeah. Again, very refreshing. I also want to ask because you are a really successful artist both just not only in Hae, but also in your own personal projects some of your art that I’ve seen on Instagram is just amazing, and I’ve been following you ever since I picked up.
Rosanna Lam (46:36):
Oh,
Sheydin Dew (46:37):
What is your best tip for emerging comic creators or artists for that matter?
Rosanna Lam (46:47):
Okay, my best top tip I’d say for creators is to network. Get your stuff out there even if you don’t think your art deserves to see the light of day, because in all honesty, it does, and it shows progress. And I guess make sure to take breaks. Don’t burn yourself out because that’s how you, you’ll get yourself into a slump and you don’t want that. So yeah. Yeah, that’s my top tip.
Sheydin Dew (47:23):
There’s some decent tips there. And I think definitely something that I wish I learned a little bit earlier, my journey as well. So yeah, I think if anybody is an emerging creator, definitely yeah, pop them in the back of your mind because I think they’re definitely very valuable. Having, now we’ve just talked so much about hail. I really want to know what was your biggest lesson learned while you were creating the hail series?
Rosanna Lam (47:53):
My biggest lesson learnt, oh, I guess because I actually didn’t start off with several drafts of how the characters looked. So I stuck to sort of one thing and showed it to Miranda, and she was like, yep, that’s great. And we stuck to it. And that was, oh, it was the glass, all right, it was the glass. It took me way too long. So I think another tip is to sort of draw characters in different styles in different levels of complexity because depending on how much time you have, which I didn’t have much time at all it can be a struggle to keep pushing out pages and pages worth every month because there was a deadline. So yeah, make sure to organize your time and make sure you actually are taking breaks. Make sure to take breaks and set yourself a timeline and don’t give just one style to the creator or to writer and the person overlooking your art. Give several versions of the art and make suggestions as to how efficient it would be, how simple or how complex it’s going to be, and sort of line that up with your timeline. So yeah, that’s my biggest lesson learned. <laugh>, because the glass was a struggle.
Sheydin Dew (49:34):
I can only imagine as well having looking at that glass. So everything in those panels when she does turn to glass. So that was all manually done. You said that you didn’t
Rosanna Lam (49:47):
Have glass. There was a couple of custom brushes, but the thing was a lot of them didn’t match up with the background, like contrast wise. So a lot of the time I had to go over them several times over just to make them pop out of the page. Yeah.
Sheydin Dew (50:07):
Well, yeah, I can totally understand why you went for the custom brushes. I mean yeah, kudos to you for doing that because yeah, it’s definitely paid off as well. I think. Yeah, I, as digital artists, we love a good custom brush and yeah, I think it’s done. Its justice I think. Really done will.
Rosanna Lam (50:27):
Oh, thank you.
Sheydin Dew (50:29):
Yeah. So now I think this is actually my final question. Yeah, I think we’ve come to the bottom of the barrel. I really want to know, are you planning on doing any other comics? I know you touched a little bit briefly on maybe me remastering it, I think, did
Rosanna Lam (50:46):
You say? Yeah. Yes, yes. Actually, if I could do another screen share. Sorry, I’ll just stop that one and present to you,
Sheydin Dew (51:03):
You’re going to be a master.
Rosanna Lam (51:07):
Yeah, so I think I would love to definitely go back and remaster hail. So this was what the characters, well, Lena and Ebony looked like to begin with. So we have got some concept out for it. So that’s what they ended up looking like. And I recently had gone back and redrew them, so that’s what I think the characters should look like now. So yeah, I would love to remaster hail. I would also love to make small, short comics about my daily life perhaps. That would be interesting. Oh cool. That’d be fun. And yeah, I think that’d be something interesting to do. Short snippets of daily life of Rosa or something. I dunno.
Sheydin Dew (52:01):
I love it. I love it. So perhaps zines.
Rosanna Lam (52:05):
Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah.
Sheydin Dew (52:09):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there’s such a huge convention circuit here in Adelaide, and I mean even in the eastern states, that stuff is just super popular now and again, like me, I’m very interested in doing that too. So there you go. Yeah, we’ve crossed paths a lot.
Rosanna Lam (52:30):
So yeah, we have. Wow,
Sheydin Dew (52:32):
That was fantastic to hear that you’ve got some future projects on the pipeline and it’s really nice to know that there’s going to be more of Roseanne lamp to come. Yeah. So that’s amazing. Like I said that was my final question, unless Shane has any other questions or anything else we need to touch base on. Well, I’ll just
Sizzle (52:58):
Add not a question, don’t worry, Rosanna. Okay. I’ll just go, can you please like the video, subscribe to the channel, and just a bit of a word about the channel. We have this show every Wednesday, which is the S comic show. We rotate the host between Shadeen and Morgan. So every second week is someone, well, every week is someone different. So then we’ve also got the Friday night drink and draw which is a lot of fun, organized chaos, I like to call it. We have the Sunday Spotlight where we go into the process, we talk about the process more than the product and the person. And then on Tuesday we have Tuesday, although that’s going on a bit of a break at the moment, but they’ll be back shortly. I, I’m sure. So yeah, so tune into those shows as well when you subscribe to the journal.
Sheydin Dew (53:58):
Absolutely. And just as a final word Rosana, where can our viewers find some of your work? Do you have a
Rosanna Lam (54:05):
Website? Yes.
Sheydin Dew (54:06):
Social media.
Rosanna Lam (54:07):
Absolutely.
Sheydin Dew (54:07):
How can we find you?
Rosanna Lam (54:09):
Yeah so you can find me on Art Station on Rose lamb.art station.com, and also on Instagram and Facebook as Roseanne, lamb art, all one word, no spaces and all lowercase.
Sheydin Dew (54:22):
And it’s probably, it’s definitely giving her a follow on Instagram. Go follow her. Yeah, the artwork is amazing and I’ve been following her for a great long time. But yeah, where else can we find you or ha, is there any others?
Rosanna Lam (54:40):
We did have a website, so we did have Facebook. So if you go Facebook and type in, I think it’s Hail Comic you’ll be able to find some hail stuff there. Yeah, yeah.
Sheydin Dew (54:52):
Fantastic.
Rosanna Lam (54:53):
Yeah, I’m fairly sure it was still alive.
Sheydin Dew (54:54):
<laugh> amazing. And you never know we might see Hail in the future, or at least a couple of by Rosenna. but nonetheless, I just want to thanks everyone for tuning in. Again make sure you see all the other shows that are upcoming this week. I’m sure it’s going to be one heck of a week for the comics channel. But again, I just want to thank you again for coming on the show, Rosana, it’s so nice to see a fresh face on the channel. Happy. Yeah, we hope to see more of your stuff. But again, thanks so much guys for tuning in, and we’ll see you guys next week. Bye for now.
Sizzle (55:32):
Bye for now. Bye.
Voice Over (55:34):
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