With encroaching dotage and my grandchildren growing fast into young adults it is now time for me to pull the digit out and make a new comic. This post marks the commencement or more accurately the recommencement of my third Pictorial Chronicle Catch him by his name. No turning back now.
Previous Red Heart Productions were made for different reasons: the first, Red Heart No 1, published in 1979 was made by a younger me, written more in frustration and anger, titled A pictorial history of the Northern Territory. It is a personal view of my experiences in central Australia in the early 1970s, when working as an architect for the Aboriginal Housing Panel.
Red Heart No 2 followed three years later. It was a comic about mining companies and how they get to mine on Aboriginal Land in Australia. The comic was based on Ritchie Howitt’s doctorate thesis with a little bit of Red Heart productions thrown in. The publishers were the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and the Uniting Church of Australia. That one got me and the publishers into trouble.
A rough draft structure is currently undergoing the “sleep on it for a day or two” test.
Updates will be posted unless currawongs and finches demand my immediate attendance.
Current status:
- Timelines created;
- Main characters listed with timeline;
- Rough draft structure completed;
- Diaries airing in the sun;
- Sorting existing pictorial resources;
- Commenced sketch writing of each chapter;
- Started identifying what’s missing;
- Mulling over character, voice and tone;
- Toes crossed, drawing hand exercising.
Catch him by his name (working title)
Note: The banner image Aunt Eveyln and Jay was drawn by my father in a 1949 letter to his mother describing our visit to a relative in London.