David Blumenstein
Menu
  • About David
  • Comics
  • Squishface Studio
  • Experience Illustration
  • Contact
Menu

Comics

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!


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.


Why Los Angeles is Scientology’s perfect city – an illustrated guide (2020)

Panel from a long comic about L. Ron Hubbard, David Miscavige, Scientology and its connection to the city of Los Angeles, from The Guardian

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 front cover

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

#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!

Read it at The Nib.


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)

Inside Scott Morrison

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.

Read it here.


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”.

Read it at The Guardian.


‘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 local state library. Shoo.

Tags:
Category:

Get emails from me

By subscribing you agree to receive promotional emails about stuff I'm doing and agree with my Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check your inbox or spam folder now to confirm your subscription.

Recent posts

  • Octane Render open for preorder now!
  • Octane Render: artists talk about A.I. art
  • I got on Mastodon
  • The Australian Cartoonists Association’s Stanleys Conference
  • Spitting Footballers trading cards: an AI series
  • Drawing Work: opportunities for cartoonists, illustrators & comics-makers
  • When Cartoonists Near Their Sleep: some Leunigy fun
  • Up your nose: Visual communication and COVID-19
  • COVID-19 visual explainer, March 26 2020
  • Are you “design”?

David Blumenstein

I’m a service designer, cartoonist and co-founder of Squishface Studio. I’ve done comics for The Guardian, Crikey and Australian MAD. Currently also deputy president of the Australian Cartoonists Association.

I usually write about things that shit me off, from bad bosses (The Bret Braddock Adventures) to pick-up artists (#takedown) to white supremacist trolls (The Internet’s Most Trolled Cartoonist) to predatory cults (Why Los Angeles is Scientology’s perfect city) and nasty tech bros (Octane Render: Cartoonists talk about A.I. art).

I’m working on graphic novels called Sciensatics (about cultists) and Free Money, Please (about wealth and passive income).

Sarah Howell

I regularly collaborate with my wife, Sarah Howell.

Tweets by nakedfella
©2023 David Blumenstein