In 2021, we commissioned a series of personal essays by some Australian artists and scholars whose lives and work have intersected in important ways with contemporary Australian comics. We wanted to use their variety of responses as a springboard for thinking about and mapping the network of nodes that make up the Australian comics community.
Was there something or someone that opened up the world of Australian comics to you? What was the first Australian comic you read? What memories do you have of reading, seeking, buying or making comics in Australia? Who are the Australian artists that you return to again and again, and how do you connect with their comics? How do they make you feel? What do they make you think about? Do you think there is something special, weird, different or distinctive about Australian comics? What is 'Australia' in Australian comics? How does it look? How does it sound? What is the Australian comics ‘scene’? What places, people and atmospheres make this scene what it is? Do you have any anecdotes, photos or clear memories of interactions you had with the Australian comics scene? Tell us a story! Show us a picture! What about the not so great stuff? Has anything happened that’s made you reflect on negative, limiting or excluding aspects of the Aus comics world?
Enjoy these essay responses from Safdar Ahmed, Queenie Chan, Rachel Ang, Eleri Mai Harris and Golnar Nabizadeh, complemented by an introductory essay by Lead Investigator Elizabeth MacFarlane.
The concept of ‘Australian manga’ is one that few people are aware of, even if they are reasonably well-informed about the large, global subculture behind it. For many who live acclimatised to the hegemonic, Western (read: American) cultural landscape that dominates this country, it’s inevitable that they are slow to embrace Australian manga’s inclusion in the history of Australian comics.
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