The Infamous Dogfight is a well loved member of the Australian graffiti, design, and street art scenes – being a pivotal member of KALIS’s RAW Crew, a founder of ‘Spilt Milk‘, and a highly regarded artist, collaborator and scene builder in his own right.

Dogfight’s latest project is ‘Toasted Posters’ – a brand focused on releasing high-end, limited edition fine art prints from graffiti writers from all over the world; with a special interest in the Australian scene.

(Photo below of the man behind ‘Toasted Posters’, The Infamous Dogfight)

‘Toasted Posters’ debut release is the Block Rockers alphabet screen print which was released earlier this month. The Block Rockers print is hand produced by the talented craftsmen at ‘Aisle 6ix’ in Sydney; and features 26 artists each contributing a letter of the alphabet.

The result is an eye popping and beautiful work that combines many seemingly disparate aesthetics, into a perfect whole – Voltron style.

With ‘Toasted Posters’ recently launched, and their debut print currently available, get to know all about the project by reading our interview with Dogfight below…

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Aaron Lewin aka Berzerkaroth is an Australian artist who first caught our attention thanks to the beautifully gross art he provided for the ‘Goredon’ soft-vinyl designer toy from American artist ‘Nate The Milkman’. After seeing that image as part of our daily social media toy-explore, we immediately jumped onto Aaron’s Instagram and had our eyes and brain melted. Here was art that mixed the 1990’s ‘gross’ aesthetic, with the vibe of the 1960’s underground comics scene, and body horror – we have never seen anything quite like it!

Interestingly, and with a touch of sadness, Aaron posits the tragic deaths of his mother and grandfather, and an associated mental breakdown as the catalysts that led to him deciding to go hard in the art game a few years ago. With Aaron elaborating,

“My Mum had died at the age of 49 when I was 33. My Grandad died a couple of months later.

That was the Catalyst for my whole Artistic Development. I quit my Job. Had a complete mental breakdown and my only escape was drawing. I had an Instagram account with some random shit on it and started putting my art up…

I slowly gained confidence and posted more and more art. Cultivating some great friendships, amazing opportunities and great followers along the way.“

(Some art by Aaron below)

With Aaron constantly pushing hard in the art game, having recently finished his tattoo apprenticeship, and with more collaborations with Nate the Milkman in the works – now is the perfect time to get to know the man and his art, by reading the Art Talk interview below…

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Nathan Onias Cole is an American born, Australian based artist, designer, teacher, comic-book maker and convention organiser. He runs ‘Crispy Cola Studio’, recently established the ‘Indie Comic Con’ – which will be happening on December 8th 2018, in Melbourne, Australia – and recently launched a Kickstarter for his indie comic project, ‘Commander Canine’.

Additionally, Nathan is also an Australian Lifetime Ambassador for Copic marker pens, as well as a featured sketch card artist with Upper Deck and their Marvel line.

Nathan is clearly a workhorse, a man of many talents, and proof of that old saying that the best thing to do, if you want something done, is to ask a busy person!

When asked about what most inspired him to become an artist, Nathan thanks his parents, wife and formal training at art school, stating:

“My mom and dad are both artists, though they wouldn’t say that if you asked.

Mom is great at drawing and I still admire these old paintings by my Dad that had a small stick figure man running through these enormous geometric landscapes.

My wife Nikki was an art major (and is an amazing 3D artist) and got me interested in it again after a dry spell.

Art school was great except they taught me everything except how to be a professional artist.“

(Logo for Nathan’s Crispy Cola Studio below)

With Indie Comic Con fast approaching, Crispy Cola Studios frothing away, and the Commander Canine Kickstarter live, now is the perfect time to get to know the man behind all three – the ever fantastic Nathan Onias Cole – by reading his Art Talk Interview, below…

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Ben Adams is an Australian artist, designer, screen printer and sculptor going by the name ‘Freak Street’. Ben creates unique work that  is imbued with a vibrant, frenetic DIY-punk-fury. It’s a style reminiscent of the 1960’s outre-comic scene, combined with the results of growing up in the 1990s – weird lines, hypercolour, drugged out dudes, surfing, monsters, pop culture references and lots of weirdos.

Ben freely admits that his style comes from a youth spent skateboarding, that one time he did hallucinogenic drugs, toys and the underground comics scene, stating:

“As a youngster, all of the World Industries and Blind skateboard graphics were hugely influential, I used to draw them all day in my books at school.

In later years, discovering counter-culture artists like Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton was very eye opening, they set my drawings on a forward trajectory.“

(Some art by Freak Street below)

Recently, Ben has been firing on all cylinders art wise: he set up his own screen printing studio and is taking orders; has been working on his masks and sculpts; and in epic news – has did the art for the new ‘Regurgitator‘ LP Head Roxx, and also provided the band some masks to wear onstage!

So get to know Ben and his art, by reading the Art Talk Interview, below…

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AKA – Discrimination at ‘Homecooked’ 2018 or How Local Creators were Banned from a Local Event Funded by a Local Council

On 2 March 2018 we received an email from Marian Blythe, the new director of the ‘Homecooked Comics Festival’ informing us that we were rejected from their event.

We wrote back expressing disappointment and let her know that we have been creating comics for over 25 years and are active members of the comics community. Of particular frustration was the fact that we had helped the ‘Homecooked Festival’ with their funding efforts yet we were blocked from this very event. We requested a reconsideration.

Marian Blythe was not interested in assisting and refused to reconsider.

(Screen shot below of Antoinette’s Facebook post concerning their rejection email from Marian Blythe)

On 18 March 2018 the ‘Australian Comics Journal’ published a news article promoting ‘Homecooked’ and focused on the director Marian Blythe.

Link: http://australiancomicsjournal.com/wp/home-cooked-comics-festival-meet-the-organisers/

I responded to that article and pointed out various inaccuracies, double standards and discrimination but Comments were closed off for fear my comments would spark “a flamewar on ACJ”. Instead, ‘ACJ’ promised that if I wrote an article about Homecooked they would publish it.

The ‘Homecooked Comics Festival’ was on Sunday 15 April 2018. It was held at the Northcote Town Hall and was funded by the City of Darebin. I wrote the article two days later on 17 April 2018. Although waiting patiently, the ‘ACJ’ has not published my article and the site now appears to have gone into semi-hiatus.

Although months have passed, the issues are not resolved and are likely to recur next year at the 2019 ‘Homecooked’. Discrimination in all its guises needs to be called out, so I’d like to thank Josh Griffiths at ‘Art Whore’ for publishing my article… Read it all, below:

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Will King is an Australian creative, who, under his ‘3310er’ moniker releases wild-lined semi-autobiographical comics, many of which deal with his early life as a teenage vandal.

As an adult, Will has also turned his adult talents to illustration, digital art and set design – with a major focus on the aforementioned comics and cartooning.

Growing up in the regional town of Goulburn in NSW, Will moved to Sydney proper as a young adult and has recently relocated once more – this time to a small-town in Northern NSW (location undisclosed).

When asked to explain his interest in all things art – Will thanks his mother, stating:

“My mum would be my biggest influence – She was a graphic designer before I was born and when I was a small child she was making and painting clothes before she got sick…

One things that definitely influenced me with comics was the birthday present I got just before going into year 7. Mum had asked what I wanted for my birthday, I had no fucking clue so I said “I dunno…comic books”. She got me this box of late 90s comics that were all these dark as shit experimental story arcs that just blew my mind.

She’d always buy me art supplies as presents, when I’d stay at her house i’d do tags in my room or in the laundry like a normal fuckwit kid and she never really tried to stop me bless her.“

(Some art below by Will depicting him and his mother hooning around on her mobility chair)

With Will constantly pushing his art, and an appearance in Australian indie comic anthology ‘Hash Brown Comix’ in the works, now is the perfect time to get to know both the man and his art, by reading the Art Talk Interview, below…

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Edwin aka Redwine is an Australian artist, vandal and all round mensch currently living in Britain. Edwin creates beautiful and thought provoking art in all mediums – graffiti, painting, sculpture, video, mixed media, collage and illustration.

We got hipped to Edwin’s work thanks to fellow Australian artist Elliot of ‘Loser Unit‘ – and boy are we thankful. As Edwin is a damn talented lad. He has the ability to paint like a Renaissance master, draw like a Cubist, sculpt like a toy-maker and vandal like a doped up 16 year old child prodigy.

(Graff by Edwin below)

With his graffiti Edwin is fighting back against the current intricate and beautiful mural trend – stating:

“The new wave of commercially successful painters that, without knowing, are playing a willing (or naively innocent) role in the devastation of the impact of public art.

Commercial muralism is so easily confused with corporate advertising and to have people complicit in the latter does not help.“

To this end Edwin refuses to make his public works beautiful – leaving this instead to his private works. Instead his graffiti is bold, simple, in your face, huge and impactful: letters and graphics placed eloquently in their urban surroundings. Commenting on gentrification, class and the street art scene with a wit that references the acidic humour of Quentin Crisp and a style that harks back to the French Situationists. It is amazing and wholly unique.

Get to know all about Edwin and his art by reading his Art Talk Interview below, you will be glad you did…

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RJ Williams aka ‘A Nameless Force’ (previously ‘The Massive’) is an Australian artist, designer and vandal well known in the Australian scene thanks to his eye catching graphics and ability to get his art up all over Sydney, Australia and even the Globe. Indeed, there is something magical about RJ’s work – all symbols and bright colours. As if all his art is just part of a never ending spell or sigil. To what end – only RJ knows.

(Photo below of RJ’s huge tag done by the famous Hollywood sign – check top left of photo)

Born in 1980 RJ grew up on hip hop, toys, body-boarding and surfing – activities that continue to influence his art today.

And currently? With RJ having recently re-branded to ‘A Nameless Force’ and pushing his art hard all round the globe – now is the perfect time to get to know the man and his art by reading the Art Talk Interview, below…

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Lewis Morley Jnr aka Lewis P Morley is an Australian artist, sculptor, toy maker, special effects craftsman, prop maker and all round creative wizard. We were introduced to Lewis thanks to our mutual acquaintance Mike McGann – as Mike, Lewis and fellow artist Marilyn Pride all lived together during the 1970’s in a self described sci-fi fan commune in Sydney, Australia.

Lewis was born in 1957 and is part of the first generation of children to grow up with television. He importantly also came of age in the 1960s, a time of sci fi, space exploration, pioneering work in stop motion / visual effects, comic books and toys – all inspirations that guide Lewis’ creative work to this very day. With Lewis himself stating:

“The wonder of childhood is still an important motivator for my work, on some level almost all the stuff I do is satisfying my inner child!“

Importantly, both of Lewis’ parents were also artists. His father being celebrated photographer Lewis Morley Snr, and his mother Patricia an accomplished illustrator. So it is safe to say that Lewis was destined by the gods themselves to lead a creative life! And indeed he has done just that.

(A photo of some of Lewis’ recent miniature art below)

Lewis has only just retired from his professional work, and is still making art of all types at a furious pace. So we decided to ask Lewis some questions about his many years in the Australian film industry, his father, Mike McGann, toys, comics, fandom, giant robots, and much much more.

Read it all, in the Art Talk Interview, below…

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Steve Carter and Antoinette Rydyr are the immensely talented duo behind ‘S.C.A.R’. As individuals, and collaborators Steve and Antoinette are Gods in the Australian underground art scene. Working as artists, publishers, musicians, script writers and editors for over 30 years now!

Their art is full of the vibes of greats such as Basil Wolverton, Ray Harryhausen and George A. Romero to name a few. Look wise it’s beautifully detailed, unique, surreal often tongue in cheek, occasionally soft, but often brutal. Very very brutal.

We love it and so does the international comic community!

… sadly, however, many of the Australian populace and the very Government itself have had, and continue to have, knee jerk reactions to the art of S.C.A.R; resulting in their work being banned, ostracized and also vilified by the press, members of the moral outrage brigade and general wowsers. Also for over 30 years now!

Indeed, S.C.A.R are makers of creations that can objectively be called polarizing – an attribute attributable to the most important artists since time immemorial.

(Some art by S.C.A.R below)

So get to know all about both the origins of the Australian outsider comics scene, and the works of S.C.A.R by reading their eye opening interview, below…

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