Supanova Wrap Up

Jozef and I had a fabulous time up at Brisbane Supanova. I attended in my official capacity as the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Comics/Graphic Novels Portfolio Holder, and Jozef flew himself up as a freelancer but also doubled-up on his portfolio holder role (the ASA usually sponsors one of us per event and he had been flown to Melbourne the weekend before). The ASA's "Legal Self Defence for Comics Creators" panel session went well. Dr Jeremy Fisher, the ASA Executive Director, took all the cos-play in his stride with great humour (you must remember he usually attends literary festivals not popular culture expos!) and did a great Q & A with the Supanova MC David Quinn – they covered creative commons licences, non-disclosure agreements, copyright and lots of other issues. 

We were also thrilled to meet the soft-spoken and exceptionally talented Jhonen Vasquez, creator of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, who did a portfolio review for Jozef and spoke to us for a good 15 minutes before being whisked away by a minder. A masterclass with Australians Colin Wilson and Tom Taylor who recently published The Example through Gestalt Publishing was also on the agenda. They're working on a Star Wars title as well which should be out in July. Onya, guys!

Then on the Saturday afternoon we got to meet Todd McFarlane (see pics 1 & 2) who gave Jozef some thumbs-up feedback on Elf~Fin, some excellent advice on the art of lettering and did a portfolio review for Jozef. He was a fun guy and extremely generous with his time towards us and many other smitten fans (emerging and professional comics creators included). 

Jozef also sat in on an Amber Benson (Tara from Buffy series – see pic 3) session and even asked her a question wrapped up in the lyrics and a musical serenade from the "Once More With Feeling" musical episode the cast did in the sixth season. Tara was both delighted and delightful.

Later on the Saturday evening we had dinner at the Ghengis Khan (a mongolian buffet) with a whole bunch of Aussie comics creators and their partners, which was great fun. We all FaceBooked each other madly after the event. 

I left on Sunday at lunchtime to catch my plane back to Sydney but Jozef lingered in Brisbane for a few more days. We're now armed with lots of reading material some of which we've read – Christopher Sequeira, Dave Elsey and Phil Cornell's original Sherlock Holmes story The Claws of the Chimera is one of the stand outs!