Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (00:12):
Hello, Shane here from Comex and Morgan. Hey Morgan on the Comex, sorry, Oz Comex Show. I’m going to get that right one time. We’re here tonight to talk with Lee. We did schedule it with Lee and Tam, but Tam couldn’t make it, so we’re talking to Lee talker himself. And so yeah, let’s get on with the show. Morgan.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (00:33):
Sweet. Hey.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:01):
Hey Lee,

Leigh Chalker (01:03):
How are you?

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:04):
Good doing.

Leigh Chalker (01:09):
I apologise, mate, to you guys and anyone watching Tamara has been caught up in work stuff today rather inundated. So you’ve got me. So I hope I present both of us to the best of my abilities. So fire away, gentlemen. Let’s have it all.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:29):
All right. You

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:29):
Got any preamble?

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:31):
Yeah, you go, you go.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:32):
I was just going to say we’ve got this comment just came in. This is from Mark. He got his first battle for Bustle from the come shop. Safe and sound. Woo.

Leigh Chalker (01:41):
Awesome. I hope you liked it, mate. Thank you.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:45):
Alright. Alright. Are we into it? Are we doing it because I’m going to go.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:52):
Yep. Doing it. Sorry.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:53):
Super deep. Super deep. Today. Tonight we’re not really going that deep. All right, so let’s just start. I did have one question, but I’m going to skip over that and get straight to it. Battle for Bustle, where did the idea come from? Where did it originate, the main idea for Battle for Bustle, or what was the first idea that kind of burst it for you?

Leigh Chalker (02:20):
Long just stating, mate. Well, obviously my dad was a comic book collector and he and I used to collect comic books together and share and read and swap and all that sort of stuff. And so I guess I always loved to draw and I just used to draw characters while watching movies and stuff. Like all the great eighties movies men or the late seventies, the Star Wars, the Highlander, the Dune, the anything you could get your hands on. And then I just started more of my own characters and just plucking away at ’em and drawing vehicles and getting better and trying to get my head around angles and that. And I had folders and folders full of characters and I tend to jot story ideas down in really quick notes. Sometimes they can make a lot of sense in a paragraph. Other times they’re just like 10 or 12 points scattered over four or five pieces of paper that are jammed into a plastic sleeve, if you know what I mean.

(03:29)
So you come back to ’em and look at ’em. And then my dad passed away in 1998 and one of his things was for me to always pursue artwork. And I’d had a love of comic books for such a long time that I developed a story at the time, which was called Drive, and I wasn’t going through the best, I guess part of my life being 2021 and your father just suddenly disappears when you thought he was bulletproof and you had left it with your mum and by yourself and stuff. So I just got lost in the theatres of my mind and I started this idea Drive was really, I found myself just going around to places in Townsville where the family and I and dad and I had spent a lot of time pondering life as you do and trying to get your head back into the game.

(04:27)
And it was about a similar time that I went on a voracious reading spree, read the Bible, if you can believe that, understand things. I went through the entire Lord of the Ring series, the Bulgaria, the Dune Saga, the whole Roman Empire went back into mediaeval English history and stuff like that. I don’t know, man, I was just at the time looking to absorb anything I possibly could, I guess, to I suppose spark myself out of some semblance of sadness. And then about 12 months later, drive went from a 24 page comic book of single splash pages with conscious of thought into the artwork and started developing curls and things and went on real artsy fartsy thing. Then at the end of 1998, I realised that I had something with some characters and a story that I wanted to say, and I have always been a fan.

(05:40)
Some may like it, some may not. But I guess the every man sort of idea of the downtrodden, but somehow finds through constant kicks and constant boots and stuff like that, they have their moment, they get back up, they just coming back, man, they keep coming back. So at the time I was thinking about this, I worked at a pretty major company, which I won’t name, and it was at the time where they started, you didn’t just write your time sheet, you actually clocked on with your finger, the finger scanner and stuff like that. And then they started dictating to you that you had to do it even if you were at work 15 minutes early, you have to scan on within one minute to the point, you know what I mean? Or you lose blah, blah, blah, this sort of crap. So I started thinking to myself, man, the world’s becoming a bit odd like that.

(06:41)
So I don’t know, man, for 10 years or so, I just guess I just lost myself in the story. And obviously at this point I was developing other stories, but Bustle always shone out to me. There was characters in it. It just had a real family feel, heroes and villains on every side. It offered me an element of, geez, I almost felt like I could get everything that was in my jumbled mind over that period into one of these characters, right? I guess the part of me is here, part of me is there. And I developed them to a certain extent based on people, family and friends that I knew at the time. I thought to build character. I guess I thought at the time it would help if you had a template of what you thought someone’s personality was or what their particular traits were, their likes, like their hates, that sort of thing. And man, it just kept developing. And then in 2009 I sat down with about four or five big ideas. I’ve got ’em all sitting over here, big folders like Battle for Bustle. I’ve got honestly about 60 issues all worked out.

(08:11)
But I chose Battle for Bustle flat familiarity with dad and the familiarity that I thought that it’d be a good way to exercise some demons, I guess. So as I was doing it, I realised I loved detailed artwork. I particularly started getting into, look, I loved a lot of the sixties and seventies stuff. John Reida Sr really sticks out to me. Jill Cain, a lot of that marvel sort of era. That’s what dad liked the eighties. I loved John Raita Jr. When he came through. Obviously you go through that Frank Miller stuff. Todd McFarlane was a bit of a mind blow when he came out and his version of Spiderman, Eric Las and Sam Keiths and you Sandman then you had, and I started thinking to myself that like, wow, comic books are a perfect medium. You can keep ’em pop or you can go psychedelic, you can go full on heavy metal, you can do whatever you want with them really.

(09:10)
So then, yeah, I just absolutely devoted, well, characters were designed 95, 96 story developed for another 10 years and then yeah, 2008, 2009, I hit it and I haven’t looked back. I’ve probably done four or 500 pages worth of drawing, not story wise, but splash pages, anything I can do, just I focused on these characters for so long that that’s really cool. The downside of that was that I lost track of other people’s, the enjoyment of speaking to other people about what you do to create and stuff. So I became isolated, I guess, and brought out Battle for Bustle issue one after I damaged my back and just put it out, see how it goes. Met Shane had the beautiful opportunity to get over a few little idiosyncrasies that I had in my creative process and over the last 12, 18 months, I had the utmost pleasure of meeting you. Two other people out there that I know, and it’s been a really cool journey. It’s issue four, battle for Bustle is about ready to drop in the next couple of weeks. We’re at the printers currently, aren’t we?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (10:32):
Yes, we are.

Leigh Chalker (10:33):
That is a copy and battle for Bustle issue four. So

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (10:38):
I’ll bring up the bigger picture.

Leigh Chalker (10:40):
Beautiful mate. So

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (10:43):
He inflicted the pages if you wanted to.

Leigh Chalker (10:45):
Oh, if you wish me to,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (10:48):
I’ll zoom in on you.

Leigh Chalker (10:49):
Alright, bye.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (10:52):
Nice.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (10:55):
So while we’re doing this question, having read issues one to three, I’m probably not the only one thinking, do you have plans at any stage to release an art book with some of the sketches that you’ve done, splash pages, thoughts? Exactly what you’re saying, almost like a stream of consciousness, not necessarily a narrative, but just a place to compile all that together. I for one, would be very interested in purchasing that particular item if it ever came up.

Leigh Chalker (11:34):
Well, probably not so much specifically an art book, but now that you’ve mentioned it, that’s probably a pretty good idea to think about. Yeah,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (11:44):
That’s going through my head now as well.

Leigh Chalker (11:46):
Yeah, yeah. So thank you for that, Morgan, because I hadn’t thought about that track. But strangely enough, once issue comes out and early next year, depending at time gets away on us sometimes with life and that, but the goal is that in the early 2022 issue five, a battle for Bustle is ready to go, just needs a few touchups and need to fix up the cover. I am currently compiling, I’ve probably got about 50 or 60 pages of images through all the stuff I’ve done, even going back to the original sketches of Hansen and Haki Gecko and stuff like that that I did in 94, 95. Lots of thoughts, original script that I did while I was scratching over thumbnails. I’ve got ad lib stuff. I’m trying to find the best stuff. Well, what Shane and I are hoping is to compile the first four issues of battle for Bustle into collected trade paperback.

(12:48)
And one of the strong things that I wanted to do was have quite a lot of pages in the back to give people, I guess some idea of my train of thought because a lot of time does go into battle for Bustle. I know I probably come across as a bit of a laid back beer drink and cigarette smoking dude, but I take great care in my art. I take great care and pride in battle for Bar, it’s my baby. So yeah, for those that are interested, I wanted to give I guess a bit more of a serious delve into my creative side instead of not so much of a larrikin nature. Oh yeah, and there you go. So yeah, along the way, that’s the next thing. Now that he’s brought that up along the way, I don’t actually know, remember where I came across the Lloyd?

(13:50)
That’s my dog. Sorry, people there having, I thought that was your stomach, so it’s good to No mate, my girdles on the safe is locked. You can’t hear anything and beer and potato in every stubb or a vegetarian like chicken schnitzel there. So yeah, I think it was about 2011 back when internet I guess was dial up and shit. I sort of came across a post by Darren Close looking for contributors to a Kroo comic, but at the time, I’m not sure if it was called Gang wars or if it was just for contributions. And I sent some sample pages to him and over the course of a period worked on things with a different writer and got the thumbnails, did my thing, and I was lucky enough to be in Kroo Gang Wars issue one, which which seems a long time ago now, but I guess that was my first delving into seeing how my art would go. And then I just sort went back on the battle for Bustle Train and just with a sort of renewed vigour and confidence in my artwork and stuff and just followed that until I came to the last couple of years after a back injury and sitting at home on Friday nights, Saturdays with mates, they’d be having beers, I’d be having beers, but I’d be sitting there drawing much as I could do on a Friday night drinking draw and times for myself and they’d be like, why hell you like drawing, don’t you, man? I do.

(15:44)
Yeah. So yeah, that was how Darren fits into my timeline. So yeah, it’s hard to believe that was such a long time ago.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (15:53):
So question, and I’ll take it a slightly different way. What can you do? Because famously you’re a fan of black and white, what can you do with black and white that’s different to what you could do with colour? What’s the benefit that you see out of black and white or just why does it appeal to you more than colour

Leigh Chalker (16:21):
Morgan? I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m a fan of black and white. Everyone knows that, and I do like paint. I wouldn’t necessarily say I prefer one to the other. I love them in both mediums and however they’re presented. I think my love of black and white, basically when I was younger, I came across an issue in a secondhand store in Townsville because you used to have book exchanges and secondhand stores have had comics and boxes. I had the same

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (17:06):
Thing when I was growing up

Leigh Chalker (17:08):
And randomly in Townsville, if you can believe this, I came across issue two. I think it’s issue two, I should remember this better, but I’ve since gone on and bought the other issues and trade paperbacks, but issue two of the Crow by James Obar. And that was one that I guess sat on the bedside table for a while while I belted through my uncanny and as we do back in the day. And then I came, oh, I’ve got to read the Crow, and I read the Crow Man and it just blew my mind. I love the sheer contrast of the negative spacing. The confidence that he had with black is black, white is white, but not necessarily using them so they could intersect and become a picture within themselves. And at the same time I sort of discovering this and leaning towards black and white and loving it.

(18:04)
I came across me Lone Wolf and Cub, a huge omnibus of that from the Japanese comic book from years ago and read that and was like, whoa. And then Frank Miller Sin City started coming out. They call it the Hard Good Night now, but when I was reading it, it was just Sin City and I think it was in Dark Horse Presents, if I recall correctly. It’s in the boxes somewhere. And I was sitting there and I was like, man, damn, that dude can make black and whites work. And then I just went on this crazy as you do when you get a favourite band, what’s their back catalogue? So suddenly I decided what’s the whole black and white comic book world catalogue? And at the time I was already into 2000 ad, so getting a touch of black and white amongst the colours, and I just went back and I started discovering the old Savage sword of Conans.

(18:52)
I started coming across an absolute tonne of Australian comics that were black and white mostly at the time. I’m just trying to think. Then more recently, I guess the black and white thing, I’ve just kept getting hit by it. There’s Blade of the Immortal. I mean there’s so many things that are beautiful about it, but I have a love of painting too. So while I was learning how to do black inking, because inking is tricky, it definitely is. I don’t sort of see inking as tracing. For me. Some people would go, are you tracing? No, no, no, you’re not. Because for me, when I do my stuff, I feel like I’m painting. I love painting and I can sort of veer off. To let you know that I had a pretty bad back injury in about 2017, 18. That knocked me around for a long, long time and I was really quite unsure about myself.

(19:50)
I couldn’t sit down for a long time to draw, difficult to stand up to draw, you know what I mean, for long periods of time. So what I did find easier was sort of getting an easel and painting just to keep in the flow and things. And then I fell in love with abstracts, you know what I mean? I’d always had a love of Pollock with paintings. But then I discovered, oh, I don’t know, man, I just went crazy on art really. And then I started thinking if my back got better, how would I incorporate painting into inking? What could I do that would take it away from just being, I guess black and white following lines and stuff. And then I started coming across like the grey shade dudes. You’ve got people like Wrightson that use hatching for to get their shadowing, right? I mean, my God, the list goes on, but I guess I’m black and white.

(20:51)
I love black and white art, man. I paint the covers though, so I’m not completely out of the colour realm. It’s just that at this particular point in time, I guess I’ve just, I’m trying to push what I can do with my black and whites as far as I can go. It may get a bit hit and miss from time. That’s how it is. Sometimes I’ll get a bit, but I just got to put it aside man, and just move on to the next one. I can get bogged down and that stuff and just learn Black and white also allows you to cover up a hell of a lot of mistakes that can stand out for people that want to know a truth because you can bolex up a foot, a hand, whatever, and depending on the scenario at the end of the day, and because paper’s not cheap, pens aren’t cheap, it’s not cheap. Instead of throwing that page away, you can look at it and go, well, I could change that by putting the enemy silhouette in front of him to take that weakness of that figure away or that physique and stuff. And that helped me out a lot back in the earlier days when I was trying to learn how to better myself. I probably saved a lot of pages that way. So there’s strengths and advantages in everything, I guess, man. It’s just the path I choose.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (22:16):
Nice. And one of the aspects of your artwork, certainly in the black and white stuff is just the level of detail, the amount of artists. That’s quite common from what I hear, love doing. The character work cannot stand doing the backgrounds because there’s a lot of work and that sort of stuff, but your stuff you pick up every single page is so detailed. And the feeling I got when I first started reading was this intensely claustrophobic because a lot of the themes are around cameras everywhere and being watched and all that. And it was this amazing sense of I feel everything is on me and I’m right there with the character and the character feels squashed and oppressed and everything like that. But part of the tool that I think you used to do that was just the sheer volume of stuff that was there and just the layers going back geographically and what you can see in the frame. Anyway, I’m gushing a bit now, sorry dude. But yeah, that’s another aspect I think. And that adds something to black and white where it’s not just two layers over the top of one another, but there’s all this depth that you manage to get, even though you are only using black and white essentially.

Leigh Chalker (23:33):
I think every, some of you that don’t know me very well, me particularly myself personally, don’t really show enough attention to detail in the things that you probably should in life. When it comes to my artwork, I show everything I can because even if you’re looking at a building, I never understood the shortness of time and deadlines. Yes, but I don’t really have that with bustle. I can just put into this story and what I want in the background. And I always used to hate things like empty windows. I used to hate things like a TV screen with no picture on it. I mean, seriously, that just, there’s things that just grate you. And then the missed opportunity by those people being pushed for time because I started thinking that TV could be showing exactly what that person and trying to collate the perceptions and what you can do in the back and just how you can use things and to tell the story. Modern comics to me, I don’t read a lot of them.

(24:48)
I get a little bit frustrated with here I am and there’s the silhouette of a tree in the background, and then there’s a few words I loved. You get just, oh, there it is, it’s gone half a cigarette. I’ve read a $12 comic book. Thanks for coming, mate. I loved when you could go to the comic book shop, pick up comic books, you go home, you’ve made your yard, you’ve bathed your dogs, you’ve done whatever. You’ve got that moment of the week where you’re like, man, this is my three hours and I’m reading my stack. And you get ’em and the opening smell of the page, looking at the artwork, just going like, wow. Reading the ebb and flow and finding yourself absorbed in it and then finding it half hour later, like, wow, that took me half hour to get through that comic. Damn, that was good.

(25:48)
So I guess I want people not just to flick through it and put it down and thanks for coming, Lee. I want people to take the time and hopefully if they read the second, third or the fourth issue, they realise that in those issues, hang on, this ties into that, that had to point back in that issue of what that panel did. So they may go back to the start and reread it because the comic book is actually designed as a straight story. It’s from page one, it’s continual goes along, there’s no chops and changes and big massive time differences and stuff like that. It just flows. And I just want, yeah, comics are a beautiful medium man. And yeah, I get a bit frustrated, I guess that people find ’em so throwaway. Hey Gary? Yeah, good day, Joe. I was hoping that people would hopefully not put Bustle B for B aside, maybe come back to it. So I guess that’s why I’m so

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (26:53):
Detailed. Have a few times.

Leigh Chalker (26:55):
Yeah,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (26:56):
They’re here because of it. They’re right in the portal. They’re right in the portal. We’ve got a question for you from, I think they’re asking if Johnny, the homicidal maniac, have you ever read that? That’s one of their fa, black and whites, they said,

Leigh Chalker (27:09):
No, I never have black comics for that. I apologise. But Johnny, the homicidal maniac, I will write down on a note, a piece of paper and check it out immediately if that is a recommendation. Always love to look at new stuff

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (27:24):
And this is a recommendation. Can you read? Oh

Leigh Chalker (27:28):
Yeah, I can read it from Duncan Tokyo. I will. Thank

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (27:34):
You. He reckons you’d appreciate it.

Leigh Chalker (27:36):
Yeah, yeah. He’s a damn good artist at Duncan.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (27:41):
Oh yeah,

Leigh Chalker (27:42):
Good fella too. The old Russian wrestler, aren’t you mate?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (27:46):
Yeah. Hey Alex.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (27:49):
So this one’s a bit of a tricky one I think for you and for this project because it’s so expansive and because you’ve already thought through so much of it. So normally I would ask about the protagonist, if you could sit down with your protagonist and give them some advice, what would that advice be? Maybe we would have to limit it to the first three or four issues because obviously that advice might change later on. And if you know what’s going to happen as well, so might be trickier, which

Leigh Chalker (28:23):
Protagonist mate,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (28:25):
Because that’s the other issue

Leigh Chalker (28:28):
I’ve done the comic book. I’ve tried to make even the heroes, the villains and the villains, the heroes to an extent. So

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (28:35):
Yeah, she’s done a good job with that too, actually.

Leigh Chalker (28:38):
I guess I would say. Thank you, Shane. I guess I would say there’s two protagonists for me. And the first one would be Christopher Battle, who is allegedly the hero of the story. And the second would be the character, A one who, they’re both opposite sides of the spectrum. They’re both, I guess doing their job, living their lives and have sort of been brought forth into, well then a situation that probably got rather out of hand in hindsight as you go through the story. So yeah, I think Morgan, I don’t mate, they

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (29:24):
Just down with both of them. Let’s say you’ve got both of them in a room, no guns, no.

Leigh Chalker (29:32):
Is there a glass between us? Because, I dunno,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (29:39):
Maybe behind screens or something. Yeah, it’s a hard one. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (29:46):
I guess you could say to Christopher, don’t take the action that destroys your family at the same time, I guess you could say to a one, why were you such a, why were so over the top about your reaction and your vendetta against this character when it realistically wasn’t something that was over the top, you know what I mean? It was just a man having a moment where he lashed out at someone he shouldn’t have. And it could have, I guess been given a fine or something, but people take things to extremes. So I suppose a one did ignite it and due to the subjugation of the masses and the fact that the distaste for the authoritarian society and City of Bussell, they lived in, I guess the pedestrian masses, just they saw that as the spark and it went from there. So I try to, yeah, that was really it, Morgan, I’d say. And honestly, that’s all I could say to the two of them because there’s a big part of me that’s just like, oh man, I dunno what to say to you people out there, but I can’t wait to show you guys, man, where these characters go. Because if you think it’s unusual now,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (31:11):
So this is the thing, it’s done in black and white, but it’s one of the least black and white stories out there because the characters aren’t black and white. There’s more going on and you have empathy for characters you normally wouldn’t or saying in a modern cinematic whatever, they tend to be a bit more that way. But yeah, there’s so much colour to the characters and depth and so many of them as well. And yeah. Anyway, let’s take a little bit of a side shuffle unless sizzle, you got any questions you want to throw in before I go to the next one?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (31:49):
No, we just asked if we’re familiar with Fortnite, but I don’t think we would be Fortnite comics. That is, yeah, apparently there’s a comic.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (32:02):
Okay, so let’s go for a little bit of a detour into June. So question, first of all, are you aware of this dude, he’s a really weird director and I’m going to mess up his name. Roski

Leigh Chalker (32:19):
Alexandro Roski, the old

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (32:23):
Guy

Leigh Chalker (32:23):
Who did the, something about the mountain and all that sort of crazy psychedelic seventies,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (32:28):
Super weird, super, super weird. And he was trying to do the original June movie,

(32:36)
But it never took off the ground because money and all that sort of stuff. And then David Lynch of course did it, but he had, I think it was the artist Mobius that did up storyboards for the whole thing. And there’s this legendary book where he had this whole thing. I saw a documentary on that and while I’m watching that, I’m thinking of, actually, no, it was the opposite way around. While I was reading Battle for Bustle, I was thinking of that because the way Mobius did his stuff, it’s a different style, but I’d see a lot of similarities with that and just the storytelling and the structure. There’s no point to that. I just wanted to know if you knew about it. And then just to get to June, let’s talk about your love share of Dune and how that plays into this stuff

Leigh Chalker (33:20):
Deeply. My favourite book in the world and book series is Dune, the David Lynch 1984 movie. Absolutely to this day, horrified me. And I was like five or six at the time watching this. Okay. It left me amazed, horrified, still with vivid images of more deep riding, shy Ude, the sand worm after he is taken, the waters of life and all this sort of stuff. Just brilliant moments. I love the detail and the depth of June into the characters and that no character was a throwaway. And I loved that. And once I discovered June and I started thinking about that, that’s where I started veering off into Roman Empire stuff. And mediaeval England, the Kings and the Ches and all that sort of thing got a realisation that there are a lot of characters in all of these stories, real or unreal. And I guess we’re all full of so many influences where sometimes I guess we don’t even know how deeply ingrained they are in our mind.

(34:47)
And Dune is definitely a massive part of where Battle for Bustle and the thought started it is absolutely nothing like Dune, but the character, the depth of characters, even someone that’s sweeping the sidewalk, there’s an element if you can see what that person’s gone through or just by the wear and tear of them and stuff like that. So Dune for me, I’d recommend anyone reading Dune, I’d recommend reading it and then go out there and find your own version of it because the Denny version of Dune just came out part one recently, which is quite spectacular in its own way as well. Very glorious and wonderful. So yes, dune, that’s my thing. Yeah, for sure.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (35:51):
Nice.

Leigh Chalker (35:52):
Yeah, I founded at school just in the teachers, you got to pick a novel and it was in the Ignatius Park Catholic School Boys School library. And I found it and it had, I think from memory, oh, I looked the second version of it or something, soft cover page, big thick writing like that big, you know what I mean? You barely see it. You’re sitting at night reading this stuff. Pages are all gallow and motley, like someone’s poured coffee on them and stuff like that. And just loved every minute of it, man. And that really gave me a boom, this could be done. It just, again, comics don’t have to be pop comics, they can be anything, man. Electro heavy metal. It’s like you can be as loose with them as you want, as long as the passion in the story, your artwork, what you’re trying to do is there, Hey, better than none of us are any better than anyone else. But you know what my granddad used to tell me, each of us is just as bloody good as. So if you believe in a story and something that you’re passionate about, then you shouldn’t let anyone stop you. And yeah, that’s what I realised about that time. And thank you Morgan for bringing June up. Actually, I do love June. It’s always good to talk about June.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (37:15):
We’ve got a question. Oh, sorry, we’ve got a question from Gary Tel. In contrast, what are your thoughts on Tolkien?

Leigh Chalker (37:24):
Oh, I love Tolkien. I’ve read all of those books. They were some of the first ones that were given to me by a fantasy loving reading uncle who’s my godfather, and I’ve read the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, I’ve read the appendices. I’ve read all of, not all of them, at least half of the books by Christopher Tolkien and that he tried to piece together like all of his dad’s writings and stuff. And then I will have to say that one of my top five books, people may disagree with me here, I think it was 2007 eight out of Nowhere, Christopher Toki and put as near a complete version of a classic story that his dad wrote with illustrations from Alan Lee. Alan Lee’s another damn good artist too, that dude and John Howe from the Lord of the Rings guys back in the day. And the book was called The Children of Herin and little bit hit and miss because you could see where it wasn’t complete and things were missing and stuff like that. But god damn to this day, I would say that is the saddest book I have ever read. I actually, oh really? I sobbed after reading that book, man, read it voraciously. I would recommend that. So yeah, Mr. Cha, I do very much greatly appreciate Tolkien. I got a lot of his stuff up on those bookshelves there.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (39:00):
I’ll just answer this one for you. There is no Kickstarter for issue four Lee Lee from Wack Comics. There is no Kickstarter. It’s been printed directly and released directly.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (39:13):
So where do they go to get it?

Leigh Chalker (39:18):
Well,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (39:19):
They go to me at X shop. I’ve got to get better at promoting that.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (39:24):
It was right there. You literally just had to tap it into the hole.

Leigh Chalker (39:35):
Yeah, you can get it through, Shane, reach out to either one of us, we’ll get you copies so all can be sorted.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (39:44):
Just going back a little bit, I was going to ask this off the top because I have heard rumours. So your creative process when you are putting something together and walking through that, you’ve spoken about sketches and putting all the ideas together, but how do you actually go about acting out, if you will, the scenario? You know what I’m talking about?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (40:18):
Yeah, he knows exactly what I know what you’re talking about as well.

Leigh Chalker (40:28):
Sometimes I just find myself in a bit of a quandary with doing the thumbnails and things because you do try and get different angles and you’re trying to follow a pattern of movement, so you’re just wondering what’s right. And sometimes I just have in my mind, I know where I want the point of view to be looking, but how do I get there? And sometimes I just find it a little bit easier acting out where the character was to how they could get there and seeing how they are in that position and just standing there and looking and just getting an idea of righto, this is basic pose, this is what I want to do, so I’m going to have a crack at it that way. That’s really it. That’s how it came about. Like Tam will probably tell you some funny stories that

(41:15)
She’s often, over the years I’ve been down here in another room doing artwork in other places we’ve lived and she’s just come in to see how I’m going. And here I am standing there like karate kid, crane pose, like camera, trying to take a photo of myself and stuff to get it closed. And she’s just like, and close the door and walk away. Just sort of, okay, whatever, man, if that’s how you’re doing it, if that’s your process. But I guess, man, I don’t really think of myself as theatrical. I just do whatever I’ve got to do to try and, I guess implement the best opportunity I can to get what I’m trying to portray down on the page. So that means jumping around and trying to take a photo of myself and looking like a buffhead. Then it’s paid off a couple of times. I can tell you it’s like, but the photos are quickly deleted, don’t you worry about it.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (42:16):
That was going to be my next question. When is the book of the photos going to be released?

Leigh Chalker (42:20):
No,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (42:20):
That be my question.

Leigh Chalker (42:23):
Well, to answer both of your questions, no. Yes, that might cost a very pretty penny if that ever came out.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (42:38):
So before we get to the, we’ll go to the penultimate question series. If people wish to donate Indian Ink to you, how would they go about doing that? Is there a special place they could go to buy some ink, support your enterprise

Leigh Chalker (42:59):
Mate? You go to comic shop and you go to battles and bustle.com, and if you buy comic books, I can get ink and I can continue to give you battle for bustle. So there you go. I guess it’s up to you guys if you’re interested in reading or not, which I certainly hope you are because it isn’t all of my oddities rolled into one. So yeah, and the best I can do. Thank you.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (43:28):
It yeah, it is great. And it’s also from the first page, you can just see how much effort is put into it and how much, yeah, all the things you’ve been talking about, they’re all in there. And it’s one of those ones that you, like you said, you can’t just read it once. You just keep going over and over and over because there’s so much. Oh yeah, definitely. And you find things the second time around, so yeah,

Leigh Chalker (43:53):
Well, that was the goal, mate. That was the goal. So I’m glad that you guys also feel like that. I still find things in the artwork when you go through pages that you’ve got organising things and you look, then I date all of my artwork because it’s like my diary. And sometimes I can remember parts of my life and where I was by looking at the pages from that day, month, year, that sort of thing. And sometimes I come back to those pages and I know it’s me, but I wonder where I was at that point that I about that twist in the story or what I was thinking about when I was drawing it at that time. So it’s been a long process and excuse the pun, but sometimes it has been a battle wondering, pushing on through, thinking that it’s worth it. But like I said, sometimes if you believe in something, you got to just take a chance, man. And that sometimes taking a chance is taking a chance in yourself too. And you got to just get out there and do what you can do and make yourself feel happy because that’s what it’s all about.

(45:10)
So yeah,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (45:11):
Spot on. All right, so we’re up to the last question. Yep. The most frivolous question of the night. Favourite food watching your favourite movie, what would they be? This is what the nation wants to know, by the way.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (45:27):
Yes, everyone wants to know this. This is why people tune in for this question.

Leigh Chalker (45:33):
It’s probably not a healthy option the way that I’m going to go here. And probably it usually isn’t. No, I probably wouldn’t want to influence kids, but I’m going split that question into Morgan somewhere where I can drink beer and smoke cigarettes, mate, and I’ll worry about food when it gets later into the night after the favourite meat.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (46:03):
Fair enough, fair enough. On brand. And what if you had to pick a movie? I mean,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (46:10):
It always depends on your mood, but in your mood right now,

Leigh Chalker (46:14):
In my mood right now, I would probably go for Dune after we’ve brought it up, but there’s been others over the years that have struck me just as hard on June. It’s just that I was a young fella and I’d never seen anything like it. But there’s other movies that I’ve seen that have left me just as touched and moved and devastated and stuff. But

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (46:39):
I know what you’re talking about.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (46:41):
8 0 5,

Leigh Chalker (46:46):
I watched them all back to back one night. Honestly, that was the quickest time in my life. I couldn’t believe where it had gone. I looked at Tim and I went, my God, where did it go?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (47:05):
It

Leigh Chalker (47:05):
Was the same. I was so excited and on the edge of my seat. So yes, fan, sorry,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (47:15):
They’re all tuning in. All right, well, are we up to the gift then? S

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (47:20):
Yes, we are. Well, I’ll just quickly answer the other Lee, not you, the Lee’s question. Yes, Lee lives in Townsville.

Leigh Chalker (47:27):
Yes.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (47:28):
And if just a very five second thought here from Lee to Gary’s last question.

Leigh Chalker (47:37):
I like Steve and King.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (47:39):
Nice answer. Okay, so now let’s go to the gifts. I will start with Morgans who’s done a beautiful picture of, and this,

Leigh Chalker (47:55):
Oh,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (47:57):
You can see that?

Leigh Chalker (47:58):
Yeah.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (48:00):
Awesome.

Leigh Chalker (48:01):
I know exactly who that is.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (48:03):
And that was freehand too. That wasn’t that one. That was legit freehand.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (48:08):
That’s

Leigh Chalker (48:08):
That’s a good one, mate. Thank you. I’m

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (48:10):
Impressed by this

Leigh Chalker (48:11):
One. I can’t think of too many other times he’s looked any better mate. So good on you. You champion.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (48:19):
Are you going to mention the special feature there, Morgan? Or you want to leave to be found by accident?

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (48:25):
Yeah, if you look closely, some of the anatomical arrangements of the guns are a little bit suss in the middle there, but that was purely intentional

Leigh Chalker (48:34):
Anyway, don’t worry. Several people have wondered that question. Is Sarah an area of his body that doesn’t have a gun? And perhaps that’s one of the dark questions that get answered in one of the later issues of battle for Bustle. We’ll leave an error of

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (48:56):
Now, I will warn you, this was not intentional. I had no idea what Morgan was drawing.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (49:04):
Yeah, completely independent.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (49:07):
Completely independent. We’ve rocked up with pictures at the same

Leigh Chalker (49:10):
Time. You two are awesome, man. Look,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (49:16):
It’s easy for you. And I did something special for this one. I know that you are a huge fan of traditional, so I decided to not whip out the iPad and I went paper and pencil for this one for you.

Leigh Chalker (49:29):
Oh mate,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (49:31):
Look at that.

Leigh Chalker (49:32):
That’s great. Thank you.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (49:34):
That sounds really romantic, but really what it was was I couldn’t be bothered turning the iPad on and oh damn, I’ve ruined my own thing.

Leigh Chalker (49:45):
No, no, that’s beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. I’ll

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (49:48):
Be sending that to you in the next parcel.

Leigh Chalker (49:51):
Awesome, mate. I look forward to that one. Going in a frame in the granny flat. Awesome, thank you.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:02):
So I guess this is the part where we say thank you, Lee, thank you for tonight. It was great having you on. Thank you for your insight into your creative process and

Leigh Chalker (50:16):
All good, mate, thank you

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:18):
For having me. It’s a pleasure having you on. It’s a real pleasure getting to know you a little better than I already knew you.

Leigh Chalker (50:22):
Thank you more thanks to

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:23):
Learn a few new things tonight.

Leigh Chalker (50:25):
Well, full of secrets mate. Not really Buy the comic and you’ll find me out by the end of this year. Awesome. It’s been great, man. Thank you both of you. Awesome time. Appreciate it.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (50:46):
Pleasure, man.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (50:47):
Pleasure. Thanks man. So I guess that’s, see you, Lee, and we’re off to the next section. Have a good night, buddy.

Leigh Chalker (50:54):
See you,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:07):
Morgan. It’s that time night when we review the comic that we were meant to read today. And I did, I did this time.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (51:14):
You did?

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:15):
Well actually, I cheated. I read one that I’d read quite a while ago and I skimmed it today to try to remember the story if that counts.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (51:22):
Right. Well, you did one better than I did, but that’s right, because I’m changing mine right now in honour of the discussion we’ve just had with Lee. I’m going for a black and white one instead of the one that I was going to do.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:34):
Oh, mine. By total fluke. Mine’s black and white.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (51:40):
Are you going first or

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:41):
I’ll start? Yeah, I’ll go first. I’ll go first if you want. Okay. It is the crystal saga. I’ll boost my screen up.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (51:49):
Oh, that looks nice.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (51:53):
Crystal Skull saga. Sorry. And it is one, which is part one, which is flawless. Sorry, a bit of a glare there.

(52:02)
And it’s zoom out from me. Yeah, so it’s a cool little story by, it was written by Nate Ger, sorry if I pronounce that wrong, Nate. It’s O-D-G-E-R. I’m not sure how to pronounce that. I’m not used to that word. And the artist is Ricko. And as it so happens, Ricko came over to my house today and I’d only read this on PDF. So now I have an actual physical copy, which I skimmed through before the show. It’s a cool little story. It’s different. I don’t want to ruin it because it’s a bit gory in sections. Your typical throwing the guy to the lake or tied up and beaten up and stuff. Can you see it there? Hang on side.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (53:04):
Yeah,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (53:05):
So it’s got a bit of gore happening. It’s got, there’s a lot of detail in the pictures. There’s a bit of mix of media, but there’s a supernatural element to it. I think you probably get that from the cover with the weird tentacles. Well, that weird creature comes into it and there’s just a lot of death in mayhem,

(53:31)
But it sort of leaves you guessing, wondering what’s going on. So I am curious what happens next, but I haven’t read, there’s a lot of text as well, which I haven’t read. So I’m a bit slack. I’ve only read the comic itself, which probably gives a little bit more detail into what was going on. But yeah, there’s demons, supernatural. The story itself doesn’t have a hint of, well, unless I skimmed over pieces I shouldn’t have, but it’s all supernatural to me. But the picture looks like kind of reminds me of Hitler. I don’t know, maybe that’s just me. I don’t know. When I looked at the cover, I thought it had something to do with the Nazis, but yeah, it might just be the haircut. Sorry to people in the haircuts.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (54:19):
Yeah, not everyone with a little Tash. And the thing over there is Hitler, dude, come on. It’s 2021. Yeah,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:27):
No, I’m, I am stereotyping little bastard. But I will add,

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (54:34):
Is that Hitler? Oh, sorry,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:36):
Yeah, this will be going into Comex shop next week.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (54:41):
Oh, away. I was just going to ask, where do you get it from? There you go. Okay.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:45):
There is nowhere to get it from until next week, except for conventions and so forth. Ricko takes him to conventions and sells ’em off his table and fates and stuff like that and markets and things like that.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (54:59):
Cool.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (54:59):
Up until now, that was the only way to get it. I spoke to him today and we’re organising to put it into Comex shop as of next week.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (55:08):
Sweet. Nice. All right, so for mine, I’m going with, and I’m going to get the name, there’s probably, there’s a few ways you can say this now. Is it

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:22):
Maurice in the metal?

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (55:24):
Maurice or Maurice? Is it Morris or

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:27):
Maurice? I’ve always been saying Maurice. I could be saying it wrong though. I’m horrible. I’m shocking with names.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (55:33):
Maurice. Maurice in the metal. So it is black and white. So the story, it’s freaking

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (55:39):
Awesome. Sorry, I’ve read this one and I fricking love it.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (55:43):
The story is basically this dude, like 80 style story dude who puts on a Walkman and if he’s listening to heavy metal, he gets super strength and powers and kablam and all that sort of stuff. Really, really fun. Really, really cool. It’s quite a chunky, like a decent sized book as well, so it’s not a small issue. Sorry, I’m trying to turn at the same time. Oh, do

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (56:10):
You want me to boost you up? Sorry.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (56:12):
Oh, it’s all right. Can you see me leaning my head to try and get it? It’s working right. There’s also some really cool stuff in the back. Really cool artwork. Oh yeah, I just went to, oh

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (56:25):
Yeah, nice. Other way. That’s it.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (56:28):
Yeah. Really, really cool artwork all the way through. Really good concept. I love the idea, not just because I’m a music person, but I just like the idea of an object, a thing, a quirky thing that gives you power or strength or the ability to do something a bit different. And the Walkman, if you’re a kid of the eighties, who doesn’t love a Walkman? So that was my choice. Great fun read, really, really cool idea. And black and white. Like I said, I was going to do a colour one, but I instead went for this one in

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (57:04):
Honour of awesome choice. Awesome choice. And I’m just writing a note down now to talk to Aaron about getting that into my shop.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (57:13):
There you go. See, everything that I do is to help promote the shop. Whether I mean it or I don’t mean it, it’s all for the shop, for the kingdom. I just

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (57:23):
Realised I’ve been ignoring comments this whole time.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (57:28):
Oh, yes, yes. Love Morrison Metal. Yeah, really cool. Andy.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (57:34):
Oh, hey, Esk.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (57:38):
Hello. Hello. Hello.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (57:46):
Yeah. Yep, yep. See we’ve got fans. Everyone’s loving it. Aaron did a very good job of promoting that and getting it out there. A lot of people know about Morrison the Metal, so Yeah, meant hats off to him for that. I’d love to get some tips from him actually.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (58:02):
Yeah, I was going to say, I think I might do up a new ad for the shop now that we’re getting a lot more stuff in there. I’ll do up a bit of a longer ad maybe with some more stuff. The ad is like, what, five seconds or something? Five

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:18):
Seconds here it’s

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (58:19):
Go and get it. That’s it. So yeah, we might do a bit of a long, longer one with that one.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:24):
Oh no, it’s a whole 10 seconds. It is 10 seconds.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (58:28):
10 seconds. Your seconds. Okay, well that’s 10

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:30):
Best seconds.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (58:31):
That’s okay, I guess. But there’s no thematic music. There’s no kind of wave in the background. And then a ship comes to shore and then there’s a demon creature standing on there with a, it doesn’t have any of that. Just,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (58:44):
We’ll have to let the people decide

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (58:46):
All. I thought you were going to get people to vote or something.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:03):
No, no, no. I was just putting it up there.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (59:05):
Throw it out there. There it is. Go and get it people.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:09):
Well, while we’re talking about your ads and we’ve got a minute to go before we hit the hour, I’m going to throw out the other one. I love this one.

Voice Over (59:22):
Tired of reading the same old books again and

Voice Over (59:25):
Again

Voice Over (59:27):
Looking for something different. Why not? Head over to the comic shop now and pick yourself up some freshly inked

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (59:36):
Inspiration. I forgot I did that one. That’s what I

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (59:52):
Want. That was awesome. That one. I love that one. I had to

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (59:56):
Sneeze. That made me laugh so hard when I did it that I had to stop halfway. That was the funniest thing in the world to me. It’s a baby’s sneeze, but anyway. Oh,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:00:07):
Is it?

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:00:08):
Yeah. Yeah. It’s not that, dude. It’s a baby sneeze over that. That was hilarious. That’s the funniest thing ever. Anyway, that’s a good ad. There you go. Look at that.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:00:17):
That’s an awesome ad. So everyone com x shop, check out lots of indie artists. Indie creators I should say, because it’s not just artists, creators, creations are in there ready to sweep up and buy all at once. We, because we have a special deal that if you’re in Australia, it’s $9 postage for all the comics you want. So buy me out of stock. $9. Go for it a day.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:00:46):
Sweet. Gone fuzzy. Don’t go fuzzy.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:00:49):
Yeah, I was going to say, you’ve gone fuzzy. What’s that all about?

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:00:53):
By the power of focus, focus,

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:00:59):
Focus.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:01:00):
That’s alright. Doesn’t

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:01:01):
Know what to focus on. We’re at the end. It’s all good. You made it this far. Well, thank you everyone for watching. Thank you again to Lee, even though he is not here. That was a great interview. That was a great little section chatting with him. I had a great time. Learned a few extra things I didn’t know, so that was cool.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:01:17):
Yeah, and

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:01:19):
I learned that Morgan liked Dune as well. She was straight onto that question.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:01:23):
Yeah, man.

Shane ‘Sizzle’ Syddall (01:01:26):
Cool. Well, it was a great night. Thank you very much, Morgan. Thank you to everyone watching. I need to go to the right screen. I do this every fricking time. See you later, man.

Morgan ‘The’ Quaid (01:01:36):
See you dude. See guys.