Category: Features

I’d like to introduce Brigitte Sutherland, the artist who I am working with on the Peacemaker comic. Thought it was time y’all got to know her.

MDP:Tell us about how your love for comic drawing emerged?

BS: It started when I was a kid. I had a crazy dream when I was very young and I just couldn’t describe it with words, so I got going with pictures! Something about the medium of comics has always appealed to me, the way time is controlled and the eye is directed using art and design is natural yet fascinating to explore. A good comic artist has to be skilled in so many disciplines beyond drawing, like layout, typography and design.
I worked as a 3D modeller, graphic designer and all-round artworker in Australia for a few years, but I couldn’t stop speech bubbles next to my drawings! I decided to move to London and focus on what I really loved; comics.

MDP: Who are your biggest influences in comic art? In art generally?

BS: My favourites aren’t the same as my influences. The stuff I grew up with probably influenced me the most, because it was a formative period, but I’m always trying to develop my style and make it stronger. As a kid I read what I could get and in small-town Oz that’s not much! Mad Magazine or Betty and Veronica from the newsagent and random issues from garage sales. I still have a Wonder Woman #0 with a stonking Brian Bolland cover from back then, I loved it so much the cover has gone soft as felt and fallen off the staples.
In comics, Bolland is a high favourite. I love different elements of different artists, David Mack’s storytelling, Katsuya Terada’s energy, Adam Hughes’ sexiness, Moebius’ extraordinary worlds, Frazetta’s unadulterated power, I could go on. Of course the fine art world is just as important. Mucha, Degas, Ilya Repin, Hiroshige, the late 19th and early 20th century is my favourite period.

MDP: How had moving to the Uk affected you career?

BS: It’s been fantastic! There is a thriving comic scene in Australia, but the connections with the rest of the world are on nigh impossible to forge. When I first came here I was able to meet with other creators I’d been posting with on Millarworld.tv. From there I went to cons (it’s a lot cheaper to get to San Diego from London than Sydney) and the circle grew. The opportunities not only to meet people in the field, but to get your work in front of editors are much greater over here.

MDP: Tell us about Homunculus your creator owned comic?

BS: Homunculus originally started because I had the word stuck in my head! When I found out what it was, a story just grew around him and this man-crow I’d been drawing in margins. I had a full script ready for a comic I’d written in Australia about music, but this was something I just had to get out of my system. It’s quite absurd, heavy with metaphor and occasionally dark, which is fairly representative of my last year in London! People have told me it’s like Sandman or a Miyazaki film and I take that as the highest compliment. Now that I’ve done that kind of book I want to tell a story that is more accessible and fun, more like Peacemaker.

MDP: What would you like to be doing in five years’ time?

BS: Making great comics, illustrating, making music. The same as now really, but with more freedom to travel and less thinking about money!

Bruce Moyle can be called many things, but in reality he is a puzzle stuck together with gaffer tape; a media junkie of the first order. Bruce is a graduate of the University of Tasmania, a web designer, podcaster, new media producer, sound engineer and on occasion cosplay herder. When he isn’t enriching his brain with a direct connection to the internet, you can find him in a cinema or with his face stuck in a book. Director of Joffre Street Productions, Bruce has created one of the longest running indy pop culture podcasts in Australia, (Cool) Shite on the Tube. He is also the technical director for the biggest pop culture event in Australia, Supanova. Between these fun gigs, he will be coding, advising and learning new and interesting things for his clients.

PS. He has a great love of wrangling 50 foot robots!

1. What was your initial aim was with the Cool Site on the Tube podcast, and
has it changed direction at all since it began?

There really wasn’t a plan when we first started except have fun and talk about the films and tv shows we love. Over the last 5 plus years we have always wanted to look at it as a way to make a living, but alas that hasn’t happened. Now it more about building relationships with the readers/listeners and companies to expand our network to benefit our day to day business, and still have fun.

2. Joffre St Productions is a new media company. What kind of projects are you involved in?

We have done lots of different things. The main bread and butter is still simple web development and consulting, but I have also lectured on new media and created podcast series for a varity of different clients, both live and studio. Our consulting has been to different businesses from small to government and even the big hollywood studios. The variety keeps our work interesting. We even did a book trailer for this little author called Marianne de Pierres and her Dark Space novel, back in the day.

3. What do you see for the future of New Media? What kind of hybrid entertainment will it spawn?

Lots of people are now calling it Trans-media now. It doesn’t matter what the name is, as much as what you are doing with it. The basic functions will always be eyes and ears, and more so with the advent of gaming, movement. Then it comes down to how you package the information and how people will consume it. So in regards to the advent of hybrid entertainment, we are already seeing it and have been for years. A story from a film being continued in a comic series or tie-in computer games. These things are not new, but with the digital lifestyles people now live, it is easier and cheaper for the consumer to be brought into these extended worlds. The coolest (and could also be the most annoying aspect) is that we can participate in the experience as it is happening, eg. A TV show can have a poll happening for the first half of the screening that changes the outcome at the end. Now that people are paying for there own technology, the expense of empowering the consumer is reduced on the creators end and therefore more time and money can be used to push the products out. It also means that the little man can get on the same playing field as the big companies, making the whole thing much more interesting and diverse.

4. Can you explain your involvement with the Supanova Pop Expos.

I am the technical director for the expo. in 2005, I emailed Daniel Zachariou out of the blue, asking for interviews with the guests. Being one of the first podcast outfits in Australia, Daniel took the strategic position to get us to record the whole expo. From there, the relationship has grown and with the help of David Quinn, Dion Brooks and Chris Rattray, we run ourselves ragged each Expo to help bring the best fan experience we can. This ranges from managing the website and other behind the scene bit and pieces, to MC-ing on the day, recording all the panels for podcasting, helping guests out with their technical requirements, and occasionally setting up video conferencing with famous directors, stars and creators from around the globe.

5. If you could interview any entertainer alive who would it be? And why?

I have three answers to this question.

Technical/Professional Interview:

For me personally it would be Ben Burt, the sound designer. The man has been at the forefront of sound design for film since the 1970’s.

Entertainer:

For an actual entertainer, I have always wanted to have a chat with Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead films, Burn Notice), while the man has never been an A list celebrity, his body of work ranges from Z grade films to A list blockbusters. Plus I grew up on Evil Dead films and still love them today.

Creator:

William Gibson would be a creator I would love to chat too. I have loved his books since I was a teenager. Neuromancer solidified my love of science-fiction and his latest Bigend trilogy of books have gotten my brain working on current day projects and ideas.
6. Which has been your favorite interview to date?

Tough one, umm, interviewing Neil Gaiman was our first big interview and one of our most exciting, being new to all this talking to stars thing. The biggest highlight personally was JJ Abrams at the world premiere of Star Trek. I was one of only two new media people to get to do a video one-on-one interview and I was really nervous. He was really great to chat to and thanked me at the end for asking intellegent questions and not going down the standard magazine route. As you can imagine I was over the moon and I think the interview came out ok too.