Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Saturday 24 April
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Comics are jumping in to tackle the big issues of politics, social culture and literature. From re-working Shakespeare, to serving up a weekly slice of satire, to imagining the life of a refugee or a soldier, comics are working harder than ever. But can they create social change? Should they? What can they do to the minds of their readers?
This session is one of five Saturday events. Single session tickets can be booked via the link on the right or book a day pass for all five.
Featuring
Bruce Mutard
Bruce Mutard has been producing graphic novels and comics for 15 years.
He was the co-founder of Comics Quarterly, the journal for Australian comics and has created, produced and administered comic books production and drawing for comics courses at Melbourne’s CAE. He published Street Smell in the 1990s and produced cartoons, illustrations and advertising through Bad Art Studios for a variety of clients, including 3RRR, Hitz FM, Independent Monthly, Bizarre Times and InPRESS. His first graphic novel, The Bunker, was published in the US by Image. The Sacrifice, Book I in the Robert Wells trilogy was published by Allen& Unwin in 2008.
Shaun Tan
Shaun Tan grew up in Perth and works as an artist, writer and film-maker in Melbourne, best known for illustrated books that deal with social, political and historical subjects through dream-like imagery. The Rabbits, The Red Tree, Tales from Outer Suburbia and the graphic novel The Arrival have been widely translated throughout the world and enjoyed by readers of all ages.
Shaun has also worked as a theatre designer, a concept artist for Pixar and won an Academy Award for the short animated film The Lost Thing. In 2011 he received the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in Sweden, in recognition of his services to literature for young people. His recent titles include Cicada, Rules of Summer and The Singing Bones. Tales from the Inner City will be published in September 2018.
Andrew Weldon
Andrew Weldon draws political and gag cartoons, and has written and illustrated childrens’ books.
His wide-ranging, news-based cartoon, The Strip appears weekly in The Sunday Age, and his political cartoons have appeared often in The Age. His work also appears regularly in The Big Issue Australia, on The Chaser’s website and their books, and on The Ink Group greeting cards. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Spectator, Private Eye, and Tango. He has published two collections of his gag cartoons I’m Sorry Little Man I Thought You Were A Hand-Puppet and If You Weren’t A Hedgehog… If I Weren’t A Haemophiliac… (Allen & Unwin), both of which have been subsequently published in the US. He lives in Melbourne and he smells funny.
Nicki Greenberg
Nicki Greenberg is a writer and illustrator based in Melbourne, Australia. Her first books, The Digits series, were published when she was fifteen years old. They sold more than 380,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand.
In 2008 Nicki’s innovative graphic adaptation of The Great Gatsby was selected as a White Raven at the Bologna Book Fair. She then went on to tackle Hamlet in a lavish 425-page “staging on the page”. Hamlet was joint winner of the 2011 Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year award.
Nicki’s recent picture books for young children include The Naughtiest Reindeer, Monkey Red, Monkey Blue and BOM! Went the Bear. She has also written and illustrated non-fiction for children.
Nicki is currently working on several picture books for children, including a sequel to The Naughtiest Reindeer.