Movie Mermaids 4 – Pirates of the Caribbean

Okay, we haven't seen it yet and we know this is old news for many of you ... but there's been a lot going on in our personal lives recently. Without being flippant in the least, Jozef's father's died two weeks ago and Jozef's looking after his mum on weekends and teaching during the week, and I'm farm-sitting so can't get away to the movies. But the poster and the trailer say it all ... Pirates of the Caribbean is chock full of mermaids. Aussie model, Gemma Ward, plays one of them. In some ways I'm too scared to see the movie because I don't like the idea of capturing or hurting or sacrificing a mermaid, but my understanding is that they give as good as they get so that's some consolation. And they have sharp man-eating teeth! Anyway, can't wait ... we hope the story isn't as messy as the other two sequels. No matter what, we're seeing it.

Mermaid Ring Holder

BMP friend and compatriot Cat Kouns Born sent us this pic of a mermaid ring holder, which featured on the cover of the March Female Creations catalogue. It's pewter, made in Canada, and sells for USD$18.00. You can buy it on the Female Creations website. Just search on the word "mermaid" to find it, as well as the cute mermaid umbrella and mirror.

GRAPHIC 2011 at the Sydney Opera House

GRAPHIC is happening once again at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 August 2011. The year's line up includes Robert Crumb, Scott McCloud, Jim Woodring, Peter Kuper, Reg Mombassa and a host of other fabulous overseas and Australian comics and animation talent. The program includes talks, workshops, screenings, performances, a games festival and, of course, the annual comics animation competition where you can win $20,000. I've bought my tickets and Jozef's in the process of buying his – "Understanding Comics with Scott McCloud" is at the top of his list. I'll be going to the the "OzComics Show and Tell" panel, "Altered States" panel, "Scott McCloud" masterclass, "Wordless Storytelling", "Silent Comics: Original Live Scores" and "In Conversation with Robert Crumb". This happens two days after I return from the World Mermaid Awards at Las Vegas so I'll be knackered but in my comics and graphic novels element. For the full program, go to the Sydney Opera House GRAPHIC website. To read our blog report on last year's event CLICK HERE. This is a highly recommended event.

ELF~FIN Facebook Page

Please "LIKE" our official Elf~Fin Facebook page, and if you're in the old FB group, please migrate across as well as soon be deleting it. The more the merrier to keep this conversation going.

MCA Zine Fair Post Mortem

Black Mermaid Productions exhibited last weekend at its first event in years. Our first venture out as exhibitors was at the annual MCA (which stands for the Museum of Contemporary Art) Zine Fair in Sydney, which is part of the Sydney Writers' Festival. The Federation Hall served as the convention space – it was a lovely open room with pillars, harbour views and lots of light streaming in. The event attracted around 4000 people and at times was quite squeezy.

The Fair was partly social as well – Marcelo Baez and Tom Bonin were exhibiting, and we met fellow comics professionals Chewie Chan, Jordan Verzar, Tim McEwen and clan, and other friends who popped in to visit and to have a look around. The event was excellently organised and we have Melinda Garcia from the MCA to thank for that.

This was also the first time we marketed the Elf~Fin: Hyfus & Tilaweed Preview to the general public. We're happy to say 60 percent of the 250 limited edition print run has been bought now. We were happy to talk to new readers, and we enjoyed seeing kids pat the plastic turtle and octopus on our table display. They were cute moments. If you're wondering what that is in the photo in front of the table, we had three large canvases of the Elf~Fin covers on display. There was no wall space to hang them on but they did get some admiring glances from passersby. Great day in all!