KID PHANTOM #1 - Interview Podcast, and Comic panel sneak peek. IN NEWSAGENTS & COMIC STORES APRIL 27TH, 2017!

Above: The 1 hour KID PHANTOM Q&A podcast with my writer/collaborator Andrew Constant, and I, outlining a bit of our background, our love of the character, and outlining our intent with this upcoming, ongoing All-Ages series.

Below: Chronicle Chamber was also kind enough to get some recent details from the publisher surrounding the release date and some sneak preview images of what to expect from the first book.

Andrew and I had a great time chatting to Dan and Jermayn, and I hope some people's minds have been put at ease regarding where the Frew series intends to go. And if we can't win you over by issue 2 or 3, then we tried.

At any rate, under the pump, gotta keep motoring.

UPDATE: Brief mention of KID PHANTOM (and Cover) in the Latest "Inkspot" Magazine from the Australian Cartoonist Association.): http://www.chroniclechamber.com/single-post/2017/04/17/Inkspot-focuses-on-The-Phantom?utm_campaign=buffer&utm_content=buffer4b3e5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com

Oh, not *that* Jerk again...Paul Mason on 'The Late Nite Show' Episode 1, Season 5 (2014)- Part 4.

Yep. Sorry.

Seriously though, thanks again to host Scott Black, companions Amanda Bacchi & the Flashman, the welcoming crew of Kris, Vin, Richard and the rest of 31 Digital for inviting me back for the first episode for 2014. Chatting 'Soldier' etc. like it's an actual *think* that people dig. Makes me feel a little warm and fuzzy. Though that could just be the humidity.
Cheers, Soldiers. Marching on.

Geek Speak ManCave series- Interviews with Paul Mason included :D

Back in February, I was invited down to 'The Man Cave', on location at Ace Comics in Annerley, Brisbane, by the boys from 'Geek Speak', to record an interview for their 'ManCave' series, about my comic series etc. etc. Also interviewed were Brad Scott of the super popular 'Naked Zombie Radio', and the 'Space Pyrates' comic series creators Matthew Hoddy and Caitlin Major.

To summaries, Todd and I chat a little about the Soldier Legacy comic series's origins of sorts, Jack Kirby and other comic artist I dig, why I'm anti-bully, a little martial arts and childhood, the comics that got me into this whole mess of a career-ish choice, San Diego comic con trips, DC Comics Burbank, Soldier Legacy/Dr Nikola one-shot with Chris Sequeira and Black House Comics (the newly released 'Soldier Legacy's Strange tales') OZ Comic-Con, and upcoming guest appearances at Melbourne and Gold Coast Supanova...and some other stuff. I dunno, I can't remember. Have fun, you'll figure it all out ;P We covered a lot of ground, and I'm very thankful for the invite and opportunity to chat and have a laugh. Thanks again for the support, Geek Speak :D (and apologies for the one or two F-Bomb, kids. Stay in School ;D)

Below, are part 1 and two of the series: Brad Scott, and Matt and Caitlin for your convenience.




Here's something that sparked a few thoughts that maybe are self-indulgent, maybe has bothered me far more than it should of, but overall, I've managed to program into my head as a positive. Since this is a "blog" of sorts, here's a chunk of my brain, folks; bear with me, and apologies :)

I saw pretty early on, the interview video I did, had gotten a 'dislike'. Sure it was one, but man, hard NOT to take that personally considering it's just ME talking... but it's a re-affirmation that no matter how hard I try, or just focus on promoting the comic books and work, learn and do my best with my endeavours etc., someone's always going to have an issue, and "you just can't please everybody". *shrug. When I was in primary school, and came home upset one day from some particularly nasty "let's pick on the freckled, buck tooth, fat kid" session, my Mum and Dad said to me "Don't let mugs upset you". I still live by this, and aim to keep on keeping on. I encourage kids to do the same. Let's just touch on a couple of things in the next few weeks, (let alone the things I'm happy to have landed, and am working towards) to illustrate my point: Next week, I head interstate to test for my 3rd Degree Black belt, something I'm 6 years overdue for, but am looking forward to attempting. The week after, I'm a comic book guest at Melbourne Supanova convention, followed by the Gold Coast with some good friends of mine in the biz. The weekend after that, I'm squad training for the lead up to my events as part of the Australian Taekwon-do team for the 2013 World Championships....Kids, if you buckle to every jealous quip, every put down, negative comment, lukewarm attitude, or even the silence when you do chalk a win up on the board, you will not grow, learn or achieve much. Forget haters, and forget the "entitled" attitude that many people have when they assume they should have what you have, when you're working hard to get it. I'm not being cocky about this, or attempting to boast. Really, I'm merely pointing out my itinerary. If you have a problem with it, then you're probably who I'm walking past to live the life I want to live ;)

That's all I can pass on as a "life lesson" from this, for anyone who cares to read and listen. ;D Keep punching on, kids.

That's my two cents.

Cheers, Diggers. See you all soon.

Turns out you don't have to be online to get pimped sometimes ;P

Hey Soldiers!
Sometimes it's fantastic to know that I'm not just on a desert island, lobbing bottle after bottle into the ocean, wondering if anyone really gives a *** about the comic books I cram into that little glass "vessel". Thankfully, apart from you more vocal readers who touch base with me, or the lovely folk who appear at the conventions around the country, there are some great folks in the national pop culture scene who give you faith that perhaps I'm not marooned after all.

Over the weekend, the awesome crew from 'Gifts for the Geek' in Geelong, posted the banner for the upcoming appearance with good buddy Paul Abstruse for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. Should be loads of fun, and I'm very much looking forward to visiting Geelong again. Last time I was there, was for the 2007 World TKD Championship Australian team selections (I can't remember the year, but poor Peter Brock had passed away that day, and that sticks in my mind).  It was also freezing. I'm sure that time of year, it will be a little warmer ;D

I'm a 'Cover Girl' :P
Thanks to the nice guys of 'Geek Speak' who surprised me with this pic on their Facebook cover page, taken at a recently recorded interview. That should drop in a few weeks I believe. Thank you again, gents. It's a hard slog, and I appreciate the support and kindness.

Then again, I haven't listened to this yet, that I was recently tagged in...I'm sure it's good, because they know I'll find them ;P

Speaking of Geek Speak, the brains behind Kaboom Comics in Toowoomba also posted this promo pic of all their Aussie titles. Have a read here :D

Anyways, Troops; it's time I get back to it. Please support your local comic stores- Ace Comics and Games recently stocked some Soldier Legacy titles, so you have no excuse either, Brisbane ;P

As always, Thank you again :)

We soldier on.

UPDATE: Oh yeah, there was of course, this...

 Worse. Cameo. Ever!

(Thanks Mr Black and co. ;P)
Filmed during the more recent appearance on the Late Nite Show.

"Whatcha" talkin about, Willis? ;P Whatcha podcast interview and review of Soldier Legacy #5

http://whatchapodcast.podomatic.com/entry/2012-11-17T23_55_36-08_00

The kind folks at 'Whatcha podcast' tracked me down via twitter just before Brisbane Supanova last weekend. Their roaming reporter Mandy stopped by the table and put up with my stuttering and jibberish about 'The Soldier Legacy', and then Nath and the gents surprised me by chatting about the latest issue and giving it a review. Very kind of them indeed, and I appreciate the feedback and support.

A great overall podcast, thanks again for making me part of this episode. Listen to all the show folks, you'll hear the beginning of 'The Soldier Legacy' chat around the 55 min 30 sec mark.

WQ Magazine Interview by Jason Nahrung. Profile: Paul Mason

(WARNING: This post is a little self-indulgent, I admit ;). But I am very pleased to be interviewed, and I believe it's the first time that I'm featured in a magazine or newspaper NOT for being in a tournament or kicking someone (I'm sure I still have cringe-worthy clips on VHS somewhere :P), but actually for the work I'm trying to put in to get somewhere positive with my comic work. So I hope you get something out of my thought in pumping out comic books :D)

I got a great email during the week from Jason Narhung, editor of 'WQ Magazine'- it was the latest magazine for April (ISSN 1444-2922), featuring a Profile that Jason wrote on me of all people (I know, right? ;D), based on a phone conversation we had earlier this year.
http://www.qwc.asn.au/connect/wq-magazine/

From the magazine:
"WQ is the monthly publication of the Queensland Writers Centre(QWC). QWC is the leading provider of specialised services to the writing community of Queensland. Through its annual programs, it promotes skills development and professional practice and works to advance the recognition of Queensland writers and writing, locally, nationally and internationally."

I am very grateful for the interview, and appreciate the support. As the magazine goes out via the Queensland Writer's Centre, I thought many of the Soldier fans might not get the chance to see it, but Jason has kindly allowed me to post his article in its entirity here. There were also some great artilces about writing and comics by some of the guys from the Brisbane-based 'Ashcan' comics. If you're keen to find out more about the Queensland Writer's centre, I urge you to go here: http://www.qwc.asn.au/

So here it is, guys, and thanks again:

Article pp4 WQ Magazine #217 April 2012. Edited by Jason Nahrung and published by the Queensland Writer's Centre.

Profile: Paul Mason
By Jason Nahrung.

Paul Mason’s comic series The Soldier: Legacy is on the
march. The title began its life as a self-published university
project, then was picked up by Australian publisher Black
House Comics and gained further exposure through an
insurance company television ad.

It’s been an affirming couple of years for Mason, who traces his
interest in creating comics to his childhood.

‘When I was 13, I got for my birthday a book called How to
Draw Comics the Marvel Way (by Stan Lee and John Buscema).
I’d always loved drawing, but I hated the idea of tracing or just
copying an image, or: step 1, draw a circle; step 2, add a line
to it … This book was about the principles and methodologies
of Marvel artists that you could adapt to your own work; not
necessarily shoehorning you into a particular style, but giving
you the tools to be able to structure a character or a scene,
composition, perspective, foreshortening ... that kind of thing.’

The Brisbane-based storyteller studied a Bachelor of Animation
at Queensland College of Art, operated through Griffith
University, completed an honours year in 2009 and is now
pursuing a Doctorate of Visual Arts.

‘You still do quite a hefty thesis component but there’s quite a
big studio component as well. If I want to get into the comics
industry here and overseas, I need that studio component.
The companies don’t want to read a thesis – they want to see
the work produced. I’m pretty much focused on different
methodologies of comic artists. There’s no real rules about how
you write or how you draw a comic book page, but there are
fundamentals.’

The first issue of The Soldier: Legacy was a project for his
honours, self-published in April 2010 and acquired by Black
House in mid 2011. Two trade paperbacks and three issues are
due this year.

The comic stars both a masked Australian soldier’s feats during
World War II and a descendant fighting crime in modern
Brisbane.

‘It’s a concept of trying to tell an Australian story or an
Australian sentiment in an art form that’s inherently American.
‘We can do an action or superhero type thing and it doesn’t
have to be set in New York. It doesn’t always have to have
American characters in it. You can tell a story you don’t cringe
at when you read it – there’s still a cringe factor when you see
certain Australian films. I try to steer clear of that. If a kid or
a teen reads (Soldier) and decides to google something about
what we did in World War II for instance – that’s something we
don’t see in American stories.’

The Australian industry, producing a diverse range of material
outside the superhero genre, is still at a cottage stage, he says,
with only a few professional publishers operating.

‘Anyone could come up with a decent concept, put together
a book and head to a con and start selling and be a part of the
industry.

‘A lot of the time the comics are coming together from the love
of writing and the love of drawing. You have to find the right
combination of people. That’s why you get a lot of anthologies
– it’s a bit less commitment to having to write a 22-pager every
month or two months.

‘If you’re a writer, you can be a lot more productive than a
penciller, for instance, because you can be in a lot more books.

‘You can write a short story and you don’t have to know how to
draw. If you are able to structure something out and describe
it visually to someone and have an idea of how many pages
you want, you can have an artist put together that sort of thing
and come back later; you can have several artists juggling at
the same time and really, that’s what Stan Lee was doing in the
’60s – he had a handful of guys who he trusted. He’d dictate the
stories to them.’

Lee, the legend behind Marvel comics, is one of Mason’s idols,
along with Lee’s collaborator Jack Kirby. Lee is a guest at this
year’s Melbourne Oz Comic-Con, the first year the US-founded
event has been held in Australia (an Adelaide event has just
run).

‘I’m a big Jack Kirby fan; he was the work horse of the two,
pumping out the artwork and the characters, and I did my
thesis on that.’

While digital printing has helped reduce printing costs and the
internet has facilitated networking and collaboration, the form
still holds its own challenges.

‘The hardest part … for a comic book artist is you have to
construct the world yourself. It’s choosing what you need
to show in terms of being able to tell the story with clarity
– clarity’s the number one thing – but also telling it in an
entertaining and visual way,’ Mason says.

‘You want to make sure the words and the art are working
together as one entity. That’s the part that takes all day. I’ll sit
there and I’ll have a particular scene I want to get down, and by
the end of the day I’ll have four or five bits of paper with little
scribbles on it, and “is that all I did”? That was the agonising
over how the pieces were going to fit together to tell the story.’

Further information
Paul Mason’s website, www.pm-comic.blogspot.com.au
Black House Comics, www.blackhousecomics.com
Oz Comic-Con, Melbourne, 30 June–1 July, ozcomiccon.com"

Thank you again Jason, a pleasure talking to you. And I did notice too, some kind words later in the publication, such as from Mitch Knox's article "Writing for Comics: The Big Picture":

"Black House has delivered some fantastic local titles such as
Paul Mason’s The Soldier: Legacy (see page 4) and Christopher
Sequeira and Phil Cornell’s Sherlock Holmes: Dark Detective.
The publisher is taking submissions for their bimonthly zombie
anthology After the World and their new superheroics-themed
collection ParaHuman."

Updates to come re: Soldier Legacy #4 as I battle to finish up and send to print. Good news is too, the Dr Nikola vs. Soldier Legacy part two for Dark Detective #8 is virtually in the can :D