World Premiere of Australian Graphic Novels Documentary

The world premiere of feature documentary Graphic Novels! Melbourne! by filmmaker Daniel Hayward and comic book maker Bernard Caleo is happening in Melbourne later this month.

The film took a year to shoot and edit. It examines the amazing Melbourne comic book culture, and features Nicki Greenberg, Pat Grant and Mandy Ord. The film also features interviews with international comic book luminaries Scott McCloud, Paul Gravett, Dylan Horrocks and Shaun Tan. The soundtrack is by Martin Martini and the poster is by the incomparable Pat Grant. 

The film premieres on: 

Date: Thursday 22 November 2012

Time: 8.30pm for 8.45pm speeches and a 9pm film start

Place: Tyne Street laneway next to Readings bookshop 309 Lygon Street Carlton

(if it's a wet night, then the movie will move to Cinema Nova).

Price: FREE.

Bookings: Book through Readings on (03) 9347 6633 or events@readings.com.au

Mermaids in Comics 5 – Lucia and the Golden Mermaid

 "Lucia and the Golden Mermaid" was a comics serial that ran in the weekly Princess comic book published in the UK in March and April 1961. Our resident Princess comic book collector and expert – Terence – forwarded these to us. We're hooked. We've got to find out what happened in the story.

Mermaids in Comics 4 – More Milly the Merry Mermaid [UPDATED 08/1/12]

One of our blog followers – Terence – contacted us to let us know he had read a previous post on the "Milly the Merry Mermaid" comics that appeared in various UK girls' Annuals published during the 1960s and 70s. He kindly filled in some of the gaps in our knowledge and sent us several more pieces to share with you.

Apparently, "Milly the Merry Mermaid" ran in the weekly Princess Tina comic book. The first image is from 02/03/68. The sea horse image is from an issue dated 04/05/68. The third piece is from the very last issue released in 06/12/69. The strip reduced in size, and two weeks later Princess Tina absorbed the Penelope comic so Milly was phased out. She made a reappearance again in comic books in the 70s, as well as an in several Annuals and summer specials. Terence pretty much has the entire collection, and he mentions that the last one in his possession is 1980.

Thank you, Terence, we appreciate you opening the door to more Milly.

Elf~Fin Leaks and Peeks 31

What's caught the Waverin attention? Sorry... we can't tell you at this point of time until the story is officially released but we can tell you who's who. That's Fillayne, Lyban and Hyfus in the top pic, and Hyfus and Razbi in the bottom one. 

Just wanted to let you know that Jozef is on the home run in painting pages from Elf~Fin: Hyfus & Tilaweed #1, and these two panel art snapshots are amongst the last to be released here before we head to print. The remaining pages have too many plot spoilers so the pickings will be sparse and we'll be choosing very carefully from now on.  

Can't wait to bring you the work in totality!

Mermaid Treasures 24

I should have posted this a few days ago prior to Halloween come to think of it... This little Mer-Witch hanging ornament is an absolute delight. She has a sparkly black tail and an even more sparkly pumpkin handbag. This was a gift to me from one of our long-time readers – Jaysun – from Alaska. He sent a merman companion gift to Jozef as well, which we'll feature here soon. At the moment this ornament is hanging from the bookshelf in my office but once my mermaid room has had a makeover, I'll relocate her. Thanks, Jaysun, for your thoughtfulness. She's gorgeous.

Orphan Works Revisited

In 2008 we covered the proposed Orphan Works Bill in two blog posts: "Orphan Works Bill" which covered what it is and how it will affect writers and artists, and "Orphan Works Bill Update", which presents a speculative case study on how it could affect a visual artist. The Bill was temporarily abandoned by Congress in 2008 to the relief of many authors and artists but has just reared its ugly head again. The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has also been on the case and has just reported a summary of its findings to Australian literary creators. Here's some of what the ASA has had to say:

Wednesday evening, US District Court Judge Harold Baer ruled that the mass book digitisation program conducted by five major US universities in conjunction with Google is a fair use under US copyright law. Under that program, Google has converted millions of copyright-protected library books into machine-readable files, duplicating and distributing the digitised books to university libraries. The universities pooled the digitised books into an online database organised by the University of Michigan known as HathiTrust. We disagree with nearly every aspect of the court's ruling...

To read more about it – especially the section about books that were classified as "orphan works" when the author is still very much alive in Australia, check out The ASA Bulletin – October 2012. Seems like the entire idea is rather flawed and extremely suspect.

Mermaids Trending

For those amongst you who inhabit the "mer" community or subculture, what we're about to say is not new. But for the landlubbers who haven't tweaked to the fact that mermaids are trending... please read on.

Mermaids started to come out of the water – so to speak – last year. Firstly, the Mer Network mades its appearance—this is a community that discusses issues such as tail-making, monofins, pods, mer fashion, tail swimming, mer gatherings, mer photography and videography, marine biology and oceanography, modeling and performing, and going professional. Then several Facebook groups and pages popped up such as "Mermaids of Facebook", Mermaids are the Best", and "Mermaid's Lair". There are also mermaids galore with their personality-based pages who operate under both their human name and their mermaid name. Indeed, one of the most famous mermaids in the world is Australian born and who now resides in the USA. She is little known in her homeland but is hugely popular in North and South America. Her name is Hannah Fraser AKA Hannah Mermaid. 

We also saw the beginnings of mermaid blogging: two favs are "I Am a Mermaid" and "Cynthia Mermaid's Blog". The first mermaid event – MerCon and the inaugural World Mermaid Awards – were held in Las Vegas in August 2011 and attracted participants from around the USA and even some Aussies. Weeki Wachee held a mermaid camp last year at its Florida base, and Mid Atlantic Mermaids are hosting a Retreat in Virginia in 2013. And we mustn't forget Mer-Palooza, (you can see pretty pics here) which was held in August 2013 in Orlando, Florida, and which attracted all manner of mermaids from around the world.

We've also seen the launch of the strikingly sumptuous Mermaids and Mythology Magazine from the UK, and Tail Flip from the USA, and we have seen the rise of the mermaid entrepreneur—check out Shimmerbaby Mermaids and Mermaids Dreaming in Australia, and the mermaid art gallery The Mermaid Studio in the USA. There is also a new network starting soon called Mermaid Wishes (the website will be up in 2013) that helps charitable foundations provide mermaid experiences to children who may not be in the best of health. I have it on good authority that Mermaid Wishes already has a database of 30+ mermaids from around the world who will help in any way they can.

Mermaids have also featured prominently in media recently, Firstly, the Huffington Post, which is famous for trend-spotting, recently published a series of mermaid-themed articles. Brenda Peterson reported on Mer Palooza in "How to Become a Real Mermaid", and very clearly spells it out for us: 

"Mermaids are an alluring mythic tradition that calls its siren song to many women then—and especially now. In the last few years, mermaids are surfacing as a hot, new trend, rivaling vampires."

Huffington Post also covered, "Real Life Mermaids in Florida Aquarium (VIDEO)", and is also boldly asking "Mermaid Body Suits The Hottest Trend of the Season?"  It also published "Real Mermaid Facts"and we vaguely remember somewhere some time, asked whether Ariel (as in The Little Mermaid Ariel) had ever received plastic surgery.

The rise in the interest in mermaids is also paralleled with a rise in mermaid hoaxes such as the badly photoshopped mermaid skeleton that was supposedly dug up in Bulgaria of all places. You can see all the photographic evidence on this Dateline News article But most famous of them all was an Animal Planet documentary / mockumentary depending on who you speak to... also, you guess it, covered by the Huffington Post ("'Mermaids: The Body Found' on Animal Planet Argues Mythical Sea Creatures are Aquatic Apes" and the denial "Mermaids Don't Exist: NOAA Confirms 'No Evidence of Aquatic Humanoids Has Ever Been Found'. NOAA stands for National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, in case you're wondering.  The jury is still out on that one... For many mers out there, it's fact not fiction. You can find more on the Animal Planet speculative television show here.