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# Opera House Follies
- URL: https://nakedfella.com/opera-house-follies/
- Published: 2010-08-09T23:23:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-16T00:00:57.000Z
- Author: David Blumenstein
- Tags: Uncategorized, Animation, Contest, Events, The Precinct, #Migrated-1792107978996, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-16 10:46

I spent the weekend in Sydney at the GRAPHIC comics/animation-related festival/event-series/thing! It was a very nice com/an-rel fest/ev-ser/thg which I certainly wouldn't have gone to/been able to afford if I hadn't been a finalist in their [animation competition](http://play.sydneyoperahouse.com/index.php/graphic/index.1.html?ref=nakedfella.com).

I did not win the animation competition! Dave Thomas, Canadian, won it. He's a very nice chap, so I refrained from bringing up [THIS more famous Canadian Dave Thomas](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0858686/?ref=nakedfella.com), who I'm sure he gets compared to all the damn time.

My favourite parts of the weekend:

- meeting Shaun Tan again. Less favourite part -- letting him get away before I had a chance to grill him about what he did while working at Pixar.
- talking with Dave about storyboards and him immediately recognising the ["beggar hand"](https://cdn.synaps.media/nakedfella/content/files/2026/10/beggar-hand-1.html?ref=nakedfella.com)! Obviously a force of evil worldwide.
- seeing favourite Sydney comics dudes such as Leigh Rigozzi, David Tang, Matt Huynh, Ross Tesoriero, etc etc.
- getting a chance to chat with comics dudes I hadn't had much chance to before, namely [Anton Emdin](http://www.antonemdin.com/?ref=nakedfella.com) and Andrew Weldon.
- showing up next to John Retallick every time he was trying to have a romantic interlude with his lovely girlfriend.
- Kevin Smith's hilarious intro to [the big Neil Gaiman reading](http://play.sydneyoperahouse.com/index.php/graphic/neil-gaiman-sydney-opera-house.html?ref=nakedfella.com), and, the following night, Neil's hilarious intro to the big Kevin Smith talk.
- Gary Groth slagging off Todd McFarlane. It's unnecessary at this point, but still enjoyable.
- Checking out the last [Little Big Shots](http://www.littlebigshots.com.au/?ref=nakedfella.com) screening. It's a kids film festival which has nothing to do with Graphic but is run by my friend Chloe and just happened to be at the Opera House also.
- my friend Lada NOT dying at the hands of a cab driver who fell asleep at the wheel and rolled into a gutter at speed.
- my free train ride to the airport thanks to Cityrail industrial action.
- Circular Quay being smug but nonetheless attractive.
- the Neil Gaiman after party, where Neil and Eddie Campbell performed the whole story again, this time using little hand puppets, accompanied by Kevin Smith on kazoo and hand-clicker.

That last one is a lie.

Thanks to the Opera House people, particularly Anthony Pollock, for the fun time and the free tix. Nice meeting you all! Now, back to work.