Three stories!
One ending!
The comic book series set in Australia for those who hate and fear comic books set in Australia!
A self-contained 12-part comic book story for those who hate and fear 'graphic novels'!
The tale that will provide the final word on the 'Does Australia actually exist?' debate.
MONGREL features the characters Salvation Jane, "The Creatives", and The Uncanny Expats.
Hey! There's the Uncanny Expats, below:
(Germaine, Clive, Barry and David from page 8 of MONGREL 1)
Okay, okay, enough palaver: I've been wanting for some time to get back into reading a regular comics series, you know one where you have a connection with the characters, and the author. I think that somehow, somewhere, I'm developing a theory that that rhythm of reading comics is part of the way in which comics produce meaning, and that the turn to more literary 'event' publishing which have given us the Era of the Graphic Novel, well, it's missing something essential. Oh, it's nice. But it's missing something.
Anyway, during the second half of 2011, I found myself on the road in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia, and before I knew it, that very comics series was being written and drawn by me. Folks, I didn't want to do it. But my hand was forced.
I have produced 6 of these pamphlets throughout 2012, and will make the other six in 2013. MONGREL introduces you to: The Uncanny Expats and their search for the hoax who has suddenly become real; the tense young inner-city family "The Creatives", on the road trip holiday which will surely send them over the edge, and Jane Patterson, or Salvation Jane, the girl who embodies the Great Australian Ambivalence: including but by no means limited to, fighting, smoking and driving trucks.
Subscriptions to MONGREL are now closed, but once the series is finished (all being well, by the end of 2013), I will package the whole thing (with the invaluable collaboration of Justin Caleo) into an ebook. Oh yes I will.
