My work is scattered all over the web and hiding out in weird, unfindable anthologies, zines and self-published books.
Some of my comics are on my site. My little brother Tristian’s well-received columns are at Daily Review. My pieces for The Nib, like The Internet’s Most Trolled Cartoonist, are here.
Other comics are out of print, but you can read, download and torrent them at zco.mx!
And a few things you can still buy!
Squishbook: Make comics with Squishface Studio and friends! (2024)
Ten years in the making? Sort of!
Squishbook is a a “kids annual”-style collection of comics and activities, a how-to-make-comics book, and a why-you-should-make-comics book from the artists of Melbourne’s Squishface Comic Studio.
It features contributions from Ben Hutchings, Sarah Howell, Jo Waite, Scarlette Baccini, Briar Rolfe, Alex e Clark, Patrick Alexander, Jin Hien Lau, Ive Sorocuk, Alex Pavlotski, Nicholas J. Johnson and Warwick Holt… and was edited by me, David Blumenstein.
We spent a year writing, drawing, running workshops with the grade 2’s at Kensington Primary School and answering their questions. All our expertise, silliness and philosophy is rolled into a book for 8-12 year olds — the ones we’ve met over the years at Squishface Studio. The ones who love to draw all the time and their parents go, “What can I do with this child?“
Octane Render: Cartoonists talk about A.I. art (2023)
Octane Render is a comic about cartoonists’ responses to A.I. generative art, which smacked us all in the face around mid-2022. I interviewed some other artists and did a lot of thinking, and turned the result into a piece for Friends With Benefits, expertly edited by Emilie Friedlander.
A print book launched on Pozible got to over 200% of its target! It included extra material that isn’t in the original piece, and, because it met that 200% stretch goal, pre-orderers received an extra minicomic to go with it containing more material from the interviews. Here’s who made the book happen!
Read the original piece at Friends With Benefits, or get the print book here!
Why Los Angeles is Scientology’s perfect city – an illustrated guide (2020)
For The Guardian’s Cities section, an exploration of the Church of Scientology’s Ideal Org program (fundraising to renovate all their existing buildings into fancier, more “ideal” facilities).
“Ideal Orgs” as a concept was mutated from an old policy document by L. Ron Hubbard, but their style is dictated by “interior decorator-in-chief” David Miscavige. In this piece I consider them in relation to Scientology’s obsession with celebrity and the city of Los Angeles.
Read it at The Guardian.
Free Money, Please (2019)
This is a comic about bitcoin, wealth, passive income and an artist’s relationship with money (“it’s complicated”). I’m working on a graphic novel based on it.
Read Free Money, Please at Medium (long scrolling experience) or zco.mx (more like print, plus torrented ebook downloads).
What We Tell Them: A Storybook by Mr. Tony Abbott (2019)
What We Tell Them is the lovely children’s book Tony Abbott would write. A limited print version of this book was released and raised $2000 for The Life You Can Save.
You can read it over at zco.mx.
Tristian Oversees (2018)
Tristian Oversees is a book collection of my little brother Tristian’s finest works — a series of “letters from ’round the world” in Jan/Feb 2016. Tristian hit the campaign trail in the USA, witnessing the Nevada caucus and reporting from the Democrat and Republican camps, including a fabulous performance by President-to-be Donald Trubnsmp at a Vegas dressage arena.
You can read Tristian’s dispatches at Daily Review. Tristian Oversees is out of print.
“All right, so the drawings aren’t great, the writing adolescent – but the politics are right on.”
— Andrew Bolt
yes. is not just a word… it’s a lifetime! no. isn’t a word at all… it’s a sentence (2016)
A little minicomic I made as a limited edition for supporters of the Homecooked Comics Festival, which crowdfunded its talks program in 2015 (good year, too. Dylan Horrocks, Paul Peart-Smith…). It’s a preview of the kind of material going into my (belated) graphic novel, Sciensatics and stars my friend Jo Waite as a godlike character inducting some dummy into a horrific religious cult.
Thanks to Michael Fikaris, an excerpt of this book went into š! #37 ‘Down Down Under’, one of the many amazing collections put out by the kus comics collective in Latvia. It was nominated for an Eisner award.
I found some copies of this minicomic, so you can buy one if you like!
#takedown (2015)
#takedown is a comic book about when professional pickup artist Julien Blanc came to Australia (and was booted out real quickly). It was published by Pikitia Press.
You can read #takedown at zco.mx, and buy a paper copy online too.
Review at Saturday Paper. Review at Aus Comics Journal.
The Internet’s Most Trolled Cartoonist (2015)
The unfortunate story of a cartoonist who became part of the awful internet. Now we’re all part of the awful internet, and it’s a part of us. It was a timely piece!
Scare Campaign (2014)
This was a collection of comics about scary, bad people. A lot of them were politicians. It was launched at BrunswickArts’ HalloZeen event, where the author enthralled a darkened roomful of people with a frightening story about a toilet mishap. This is out of print.
You can read Scare Campaign at zco.mx.
Inside Scott Morrison (2014)
A team of planet-loving teens fly down the throat of border czar (and now Prime Minister) Scott Morrison, and attempt to save stateless refugees by appealing to his pink, fat heart. This comic was drawn in Microsoft Paint, I think, and there was a very limited edition print run which is long gone.
Australian election 2013: the graphic novel
Some fun for Guardian Australia, written by Paul Owen and chronicling the idiotic backstabbing and chicanery leading up to the 2013 election that gave us “Prime Minister Tony Abbott”.
‘Showman’: The Bret Braddock Adventures (2011, 2012)
Initially an anonymous webcomic, it eventually became the long-running story of Bret Braddock, Sally Quince and the most slapdash, poorly-run kids TV production in Australia!
It absolutely was not based on true experiences or real people, and I definitely was not threatened with litigation by the person Bret isn’t based on at a service station in Armadale.
Read volume 1 and volume 2 at zco.mx.
Before that
Nakedfella Comics #1-9 were self-published and came out in the 2000s. You don’t need to go looking for them. I’d recommend staying out of the zine collection of your state library.