My grandad, Ken, could have been the original Mad Max.

BACK WHEN EVERY OUTBACK ROAD WENT UNSEALED, PATROLLED BY RUTHLESS, BANDIT BIKERS, KEN AND MY NAN BEV DROVE THOSE RED WASTELANDS IN A '47 DODGE, LOADED WINCHESTER PROPPED IN THE DRIVER'S SIDE DOOR FRAME.
But that's a tale for another issue. By way of scene setting: Home Brew Vampire Bullets was born out of a story from out of this very offering: a grand, Ozploitation inspired rock and roll road story eventually known as BABALN SHKK. I'd pitched a pretty gonzo idea thread to Gentleman Dreamweaver Christian Read, who, of course, laid on his inimitable lysergic stylings and hit me with a thoroughly bonkers plot. Our overlapping sensibilities worked their diabolical voodoo and pretty soon we had an epic serialised tale of hapless cover bands, rocket science and the spirit of heavy metal on our hands. But what in the actual fuck to do with it? Christian tells some weird tale of lm festivals, late night phone calls and high conspiracy, but I'm pretty sure I've got an email saved wherein we discuss an anthology and I take the lunatic's baton and run. With, frankly, a stupidly talented array of people in the circle, it should have been evident sooner. The rst step was to convene at the pub to gure the thing out. Obviously. Inevitably, shared interests, cultural touchstones and xations intersected uidly: video shop bottom shelves, adventure almanacks, music taped off the radio, dog earred Metal Hurlants, The Late Show, STOP/ PLAY RECORD/ STOP mixtapes, pinko politics, schoolyard urban myth, dubious second hand magick, small town malaise, big skies, 'the' counter culture and yes, whisper it, even sport coalesced into some hazy manifesto: Snotty, middle nger aloft, glue hufng, spleen venting provocation and larrikinism: weird sensibilities embraced, oor the damn thing and see where we end up when the tank hits 'EMPTY'. Loosely swinging the endeavour from the framework of Ozploitation cinema and its attitude, that unique, 'fuck it, let's just go mental and see what happens', devil maycare DIY ethic that endangered taste, lives, morals, careers and dignity over the two penultimate, bar one, decades of the twentieth century, we hit the ground staggering. (Add a love of the raw, balls out, last night on earth bonhomie of Oz rawk and roll, pre-smoking laws and entrenched in cheap gack, sticky everything and fumbles in the bogs (see above) to the brew for that toxic, nasal drip head rush fugue of inspiration slash madness at the heart of our being.) ZERO is a heady grab bag of just some of the cracking, breakneck story-smithing, polemic-spitting, woozy journalism and graphic swashbuckling you can expect to be slung your way: the roster is, in equal measure, humbling, gratifying and terrifying, and in the months to come there's a starry roll call of nutters lined up to keep us on edge as we gure out the weird shape of this groggy, freshly birthed beast. The book you hold in your (virtual) hands is an irreverent tribute to, celebration and continuation of our myths, landscape, attitude; it's also something pretty fucking unique to our parched cultural landscape right now, we'd wager. Fuelled in equal measure by vitriole, mirth, outrage, pisstaking and outlaw swagger, HBVB is a mongrel undertaking, a scrappy, pub rock cranking, 100 proof dose of piss and vinegar satire, rollicking serialised narrative, trenchant social observation and muscular pulp prose with a spot of off kilter journalism thrown in for good measure. So charge yer glasses/ punch a cone/ cut a line/ tap the keg/ pass the amyl/ whatever takes your fancy*, and most importantly, strap yourself the fuck in. There're bandits out there.

GARTH JONES
WRANGLER | BRAINSTRUST September 21, 2013

Welcome to Home Brew Vampire Bullets

Dedicated to Ken, Bev and The Home For Wayward Children (all of you).

* DI CHAPB SCLAIMER: PO OOK A RTIONS RE TO MEL SPECIFICALL OF THIS YD T YOUR CROTCH ESIGNED .

On tap.
SEPTEMBER 2013

02 04 2013 AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH TEST FOR FOREIGNERS 11 12 GUSTY 16 SMYTHE Mark Nate 18 Selan Soehardi 22 MARALINGA PREVIEW 24 26 BOLT! PREVIEW 38 41 BABALN SHKK! 44 Christian Garth 46 Read Jones 56 58
WELCOME
NICK LEWIS
written by ART by

RS-HELL!
Christian Read
CHRISTIANREAD.COM
written by

Aly

ART by

THE TACHYON TRIBULATIONS OF DR RADIUM...

NEIL BLANCH

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS PREVIEW

JUSTIN HAMILTON & ARRAN MCKENNA

@NATESOEHARDI

HOT HOT WOMEN IN COOL COOL PRISON PREVIEW

MARK SELAN & STEVE MARTINEZ

JEN BREACH & DOUGLAS HOLGATE

OF SPACE & TIME S LT O H D L O R THE MANY HA

Ryan K Lindsay
HEAVY ANGEL PREVIEW
SIMON SHERRY

written by

Louie Joyce

ART by

SCOTT FRASER & KATE MOON

CEO PREVIEW

MATTHEW DUNN

written by

ART by

@PLATINUMDEPOT

THE CREW COMING SOON!

Ads p.11 & 26 courtesy of the Turd Circus, written & designed by Mr. Nick Lewis (turdcircus.com.au). Inside back cover key art by Mr. Simon Sherry. Special thanks to our Advance Guard, home brew pimp and generous steward, Mr Emmet O'Cuana (@EmmetOC_). All Home Brew Vampire Bullets design, art direction, additional ads & copywriting by Mr. Garth Jones unless otherwise noted.
All content, illustration design, and layouts are copyright 2013 their respective creators, all rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specic written permission is prohibited.

/HOMEBREWVAMPIREBULLETS

/HBVB_ANTHOLOGY | HOMEBREWVAMPIREBULLETS.COM

THE TACHYON TRIBULATIONS OF DR RADIUM: AN ELECTION AUTOPSY

ITS BEEN HARD TIMES IN THE RADIUM HOUSEHOLD. THE MYSTERIOUS CONFLAGRATION THAT DESTROYED MY PREVIOUS LODGINGS (I, LIKE HEISENBERG, AM UNCERTAIN OF THE CAUSE), RESULTING IN THE UNFORTUNATE DEATH OF MY SIMIAN ASSISTANT NURSE BOBO1, HAS FORCED ME TO RESIDE IN *SHUDDER* PUBLIC HOUSING. FROM THESE MALODOROUS HEIGHTS I WATCHED THE UNFOLDING ELECTION RESULTS FIRST WITH TREPIDATION, THEN UNEASE AND FINALLY WITH A GROWING SENSE OF HORROR. WITH SUCH AN UNDENIABLE ROUT OF THE INCUMBENT LABOR GOVERNMENT IN FAVOR OF THE MUCH LOATHED TORIES, I WONDERED WHAT POSSIBLE FUTURE LAY IN STORE FOR MY BELOVED NATION?

I resolved to find out.

EVEN FOR A MAN OF MY SCIENTIFIC AND SUPERNATURAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS, TIME TRAVEL IS NO EASY MATTER. Sure, like any fellow with the necessary knowledge & access to the right equipment I had dabbled in tachyon vacations when the mood struck; cruising the timelines in a heavily modied Honda Jazz with Oscar Wideboy Wilde, Farinelli in the backseat happily warbling along to old Bee Gees tunes, just for the chance to lob empty KFC buckets at that depresssive bitch Sylvia Plath, or a weekend of indulgence on cousin Caligula's pleasure barge (Little Boot always the most generous of hosts), perhaps a quick jaunt to Vienna to gift young Mozart with a iPod lled with nothing but Katy Perry albums, but this is juvenile stuff, mere amusement, not the hardy task of divining the future course of the nation. To foresee the awful consequences of the election I had to take serious preparations: Smearing my testicles with the last of the telapathine I scored from William Lee mixed with Vicks Vaporub was unpleasant enough, and I found no joy in using ex-Soviet military vacuum tubes from Tatanya class nukes as suppositories. Eating a Trichobezoar formed exclusively from Uri Gellars back hair was no gourmet feast either, but for my beloved homeland I was prepared to suffer these indignities. Fully prepared I meditated for the prescribed 17 hours on images from Geisels Oh, The Places Youll Go, and with the mufed bampf of inrushing air, a tingle of leptons and a mild bout of tardive dyskinesia I was there; Sydney circa 2023. Ive seen some horrible and unnerving things in my time (I once saw Joe Hockey naked he looked like an Ewok with a hard-on), but nothing had quite prepared me for the changes to my much adored Sydney. Astride the Heads, a towering colossus of iron in the form of Pig Iron Bob Menzies, arms outstretched to symbolically turn back the boats. The runoff from the lead paint leaves a trail of dying & malformed sh that drifts for several perilous bounty alone. Later perusal of tourist information revealed that only 374 workers press ganged from various homes for unwed mothers had died in its construction. Everywhere there was the brimstone stench of coal smoke, it being the only form of fuel available, much of it used to power the hobbled machineries of the internet, a system not so much of integrated high speed networks as vast steam Babbage engines capable of processing 2-3 bytes at a time, the engines connected by long swaying ropes of copper wiring covered in

Neil Blanch

nest gutta percha and augmented by emaciated eight year olds uent in semaphore and the depredations of rickets. A game of Candy Crush Saga on a coal-powered mobile phone the size of a caravan can apparently take decades. And you can forget running Crysis. The Opera House was gone, repurposed as digs for Indonesian high-rollers for the new Packer casino recently installed in Kirribilli House. Down George St, the hooting cries of drunken teens high on bath-tub meth, state subsidized Vodka Cruisers and king-hit sprees competes with yet another Beiber track blaring from the Monsanto owned robotic convenience stores that line the strip. What little I can see of the western suburbs burns. I try scanning the airwaves for a TV signal, and nd only an avalanche of Murdoch. Theres no news, just the febrile rantings of Kochie and Andrew Bolt through their respirators, exposes on the wickedness of anyone Brown or *gasp!* Green. I do manage to learn that the prisons are overowing, great news now that Gina Rinehart has managed to privatize the work release program so that she can further undercut the miners

pay (currently pegged at $2 an hour after successfully revising pay and conditions in 2014). Oh Gina! Even your own kids cant stand you but the share market loves that doughy face of yours! I also learn that the required text for NAPLAN English will once again be Atlas Shrugged4. For the 6th year in a row. In entertainment news Australias Got Talent is still running; I catch a glimpse of Sophie Mirabella, clad only in a layer of spunk and the ayed skin of the last Australian Muslim, twerking & tea-bagging orgasmically over what appears to be the mutilated corpse of Bill Shorten. Kyle is enthusiastic about her chance of winning. During the 40 minute ad break I learn that Tanya Plibersek and Annabel Crabb have started up a phone sex business - listlessly they implore me to call them. Call them now. All major organs are accepted as payment. You do not want to know what they are serving on Masterchef. After a while it all became too much, and I cravenly hid in a corner hoping the tricks I had learnt from Lenny Stiglitz back in 99 would obscure me from the vision of the omnipresent cameras that be-tumoured virtually every surface as I waited for the telapathine & Vicks to wear off so I could return to the present.

Back in my modest home, a relaxing Largactil frappe in hand, I pondered how such a thing could come to pass. How had the voters managed to elect one of the most unappealing public gures since Dolly Dunns abortive run at the senate in 78? Labor will offer you a plethora of excuses; The Greens stole our votes!, Big business is against us!, Ruperts picking on me!5 and any other load of codswallop they can dream up rather than up rather than face facts; Labor lost the election through its own incompetence a far different scenario than the Libs actually winning it. The public soap opera of the leadership battle, where the usual factional jockeying and internal discourse of the party devolved into a perpetual et tu Brutus machine certainly played a part, as did the partys inability to sell its economic credentials. The jump to Right on Asylum Seeker policy, best described as the sort of approach Phillip Ruddock only had in his more moist dreams, was a blatantly transparent attempt to woo the votes of the xenophobic in the burbs. Rather than shore up votes it left the traditional leftist Labor vote no choice but to vote Green or Independent6. They couldnt even demolish the more idiotic policies (when they bothered at all to release any) of the Libs! And in NSW at least we had the inexcusable stench of the Obeid-MacDonald affair, the whiff of which looks to continue

clogging the collective nostrils of NSW voters for years to come. To survive the assault upon the nation by Abbott and co will take cunning and patience dear readers. Carry upon you at all times a mirror to avoid the baleful gorgon glare of Julie Bishop. Mock the polyester slacks7 of the front bench (and dont forget, should the need arise that polyester is most ammable) at every opportunity please hipsters restrain yourself from wearing such garments ironically. Whenever you feel the need to complain of lifes vagaries, do so in the sexless nasal drone of Christopher Pyne. Gift your local MP with Sarin scented aftershave. And if worst comes to worst, head to Bunnings, stock up on razor wire, and establish a perimeter an Abbott-proof fence if you will. I plan to festoon mine with images of hardcore fetish pornography, Jack Kirby spreads & tinsel for that festive touch. And nally, despair not dear readers, the ne folk at Home Brew Vampire Bullets, free of the dead editorial hand of Murdoch, will continue to entertain, edify and improve the lives of ordinary Australians everywhere. Look for Issue One November in your better book depositories, online vendors and peddlers of smut everywhere!

1. Sifting the smouldering remnants of my pied a Terre I managed to nd my poor assistants charred remains. I had them appropriately preserved and mounted, a fuglin statuette to adorn my new living room. Unfortunately her blackened corpse bore an uncanny resemblance to Scott Morrison covered in boot-black (sans glasses) and the sight was too unnerving. In the end I had to have her composted. 2. Strangely enough, despite ever draconian legislation up to and including shooting by drone would be asylum seekers in their country of origin to prevent them getting on boats in the rst place, there was still a virulent people smuggling industry in place smuggling people out of Australia. New Zealand PM Mr. Romeny Marsh has been engaged in urgent talks to stem the tide to little avail. There is talk of a Norfolk Island Solution 3. Obligatory gaming nerd reference as required under the various Acts 4. I have read this book once. It has all the morality of a cage of starving, rabid marmosets, and the literary appeal of that bit in The Shawshank Redemption where Tim Robbins crawls through half a mile of in use prison sewage pipe. Its perfect for the kiddies! 5. Apparently he also stole their playlunch. 6. Also known as the Fuck you both vote. And what ainteresting bunch of folk they are as a result. Cant wait to see the Motor Vehicle Enthusiasts Partys proposal to base our entire defense force around hurling roo poo. 7. Slacks being the most appropriately named garment in existence.

S I L I V E D E TH S L I A T E D E IN TH

CES SO WHEN LA P F O ST TE IE U Q E EVIL LURKS IN TH NLY ONE WAY O IS E ER TH E ID A EL HOW A DEVIL VISITS AD LEM, NO MATTER B O R P E TH H IT W TO DEAL PLAN. GROTESQUE THE

n.com.au to il m a h n ti s ju A N N E K c M & N O T L HAMI happydance.com.au

16 | ISSUE ONE PREVIEW

I HAVE READ COMICS ALL MY LIFE AND THE REASON I HAVE NEVER PUT THEM ASIDE IS BECAUSE A COMIC BOOK STORY CAN BE ANY STORY IT WANTS TO BE. IT CAN BE ACTION PACKED, ROMANTIC, FULL OF INTRIGUE AND FUNNY. THE BEST SUPERHEROES ARE MALLEABLE WITH AN ABILITY TO BE INTERPRETED IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS WITHOUT LOSING WHO THEY ARE.
My favourite versions of Batman in order are: Christian Bale Batman. Dick Grayson Batman. Adam West Batman. How beautiful is it to see a character reinterpreted in many ways but you would never for one instance say that none of them are Batman. As I have grown older my tastes in comics have changed from the pop art heroes to the grim and gritty anti-heroes to the deconstructed heroes. Lately I have been discovering my love of these characters has begun to drift as the success of the movies have brought in (what I believe) a conservatism in the comic book industry. Where we once believed a man who had amazing abilities would just slip into a tight tting costume to ght crime, we now have to make it an armour or it just doesnt make sense in the real world. As you slowly impose one new set of rules upon another you begin to limit the types of stories you can tell. With this happening across the board at the big companies I am reading less and less. I spoke about this with my friend Garth and he told me about his ridiculous plan to put together an Australian anthology of short stories told by some of the best artists and storytellers in the country. With superheroes still dominating the shelves a book of stories that delved into Ozploitation style tales seemed like the type of idea I would once hear about from men who were convinced that if they held on to their Golden Key issues they would one day become millionaires. Luckily Garth is too well groomed and handsome* to be one of these men and with the energy he was expending in telling me his idea I was hooked. He asked me if I would like to write a short story for his anthology dubbed Home Brew Vampire Bullets that I could set anywhere I wanted and it could also be any style. Later that night I wrote down the idea for a tale set in my home town of Adelaide that would feed off the dark energy that sometime pervades that city. I thought back to the visceral thrill I received when reading Jamie Delanos Hellblazer run and wanted to tap into those old memories to write a story that would feel comfortable in that milieu. I was also very lucky to be teamed with the excellent Arran McKenna who has delivered the accompanying preliminary artwork that I hope my little story will live up to. Already I can see the dread in those characters coming to life (or death) and cannot wait to see the nished piece. After all these years I am nally writing a comic and while it is only a short story I hope it is not the last. From the top one can you work out where in Adelaide my story takes place? It is very exciting seeing a story come to life. It is also exciting to be a small part of a collaborative work, something that is quite different from my usual job. As for the story? There are no superheroes. Just a kid who has fucked up and a man who does his job. And a demon. Ive already had ideas for more stories. Who knows where this could all end?

A word from Hammo.

*Editor's Note: no gratuities or enticements were extended to contributors in exchange for attery.)

N I N E M O W T O H T O H N O S I R P L O COOL CO
ER N LIKE ANY OTH A M O W A IS N O ANNIE N SS MARRIAGE. LE EX S ER H Y B ER ER DRIVEN TO MURD , SHE MUST USE H IL JA IN ED P P A L, OR WAS SHE? TR SURVIVE THE CEL TO Y D O B G N U O ON! WITS AND HER Y OF LES SAFF PRIS S ER W O H S D N A YARDS

Z E N I T R A M & SELAN

ctu a c e c ti c ra p @ r/ te o o c s @markona

VERSION ONE MARK'S PITCH

VERSION TWO

22 | ISSUE ONE PREVIEW

THE FOLLOWING IS AN UNEDITED EXCHANGE BETWEEN 'HOT HOT WOMEN' SCRIBE MARK SELAN AND ARTIST STEVE MARTINEZ. THE DETAILS HEREIN ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART AND PROVIDE INTIMATE INSIGHTS INTO THE MINDS OF TWO PERFECTIONISTS WRINGING BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS OUT OF THEIR VERY SOULS FOR ART.
MARK Page 3 - Panel 3, something seems off with the perspective, like she's sitting up STEVE Page 3. I tried to make it look like it was from above, so the panel focuses on her hand slipping down, but I can lean the camera over to her side more, or I thought about cropping out her face, which would probly make it seem more ambiguous as to weather its Annie or Mia doing it, but it would make panels 1, 2, and 3, zoom in, which are the kind of subtle little page things I like to add. STEVE So I guess you didnt get the email of my questions about the x ups then? MARK Page 3. I like the top down view - it ows nicely but it looked like she was sitting up. If we had more room I'd say an explicit shot of just a hand down the underpants and then a close up of annie's o-face. Could you split panel 3 into two panels (in the same layout) with a hand/pantie/muff panel and a o-face panel? or the other option is just show the oor in panel 3? i think what make her look like she's sitting up in how the blanket is bunched up at the buttom of the panel, it looks like she has a her knees bent. So your options are 1)Spilt the panel 2)add oor 3)redo the bottom of the panel, how the blanket is sitting 4)ignore my dumb nitpicking STEVE No worries man, thanks for the response. I quickly and roughly reworked the Page 3 thumbnail taking on what you said and still being a stubborn artist and deciding what works best visually. I think these work a little better. Three options; I think the 3rd one is my fav but Ill leave it to you to see what reads best. MARK I like 1st option (maybe swapped with the o-face on the bottom) and 3rd version, 3rd version slightly more. The rst version has a nice zoom feel, that isn't there in the 3rd version however the 4th panel in the 3rd version is pretty sexy, can you make the 3rd panel of the 3rd version somehow be part of a zoom/ow between the great/cute 2nd panel and the sexy 4th panel. I dunno or maybe just leave it. I'm ustered because I'm not smart enough to say what i want. IF THIS IS RUSTY FUCK ME YOU BEING SHINY IS DANGEROUS STEVE I think I get what you mean. You want the third thumbnails 2nd and 3rd panels amalgamated, so her hand is trailing down already as she speaks, thus making the top row 3 panels again? I get the feeling you just dont like that third panel which is ne cause it looks the worst and least interesting, but I dont mind the breaking up and slowing down it causes. Plus having 4 squashes them up a bit and makes it ow, making it more obvious its still Annie doin the diddling. I just need to nail her likeness throughout. And thanks, but these are completely digital which is quick and easy but messy as hell. If I was better with a stylus Id do this comic all in Photoshop. Might print them out and light-box them to speed up the pencilling. MARK Not so much amalgamated, the 3rd panel is just weak compared to the rest - you ever read the Marvel Way of making comics by lee and Buscema? they talk about panels that capture mid-actions as being sucky - that 3rd panel seems like its in mid action and the perspective whilst 'right' doesn't ow with the 2nd and 4th panel. Maybe the 3rd panel is handing in panties close up. Again i dunno STEVE I do love that book, and while I totally agree about the most dynamic and interesting pose, I dont think prison masturbation is what the Marvel way of drawing comics had in mind. I do think there needs to be something in there so the second panel and hand in panties panel isnt so jarring. I see panels like animation; If it jumps or skips things too much it moves too fast. Anyway, attached is one with a close up there as panel 3, see what you think. I think were being too pedantic on it. We could ask Garth what he thinks. MARK I like that page but get Garth's input, that's why he's getting paid the big bucks. STEVE Yknow what, lets go with that last version. I think it looks good and works and has nothing to do with the fact that Garth liked that one better too.

A few words on the depiction of prison masturbation

A G N I L A R MA

E T A G L O H & H C BREA

o .c ry e g g u d ll u k s / m o .c h jenbreac

m.au

A" CH'S "MARALING EA R B N JE D N A DOUG HOLGATE FROM THE 1953 Y R TO IS H E V TI A A. SPINS AN ALTERN IN THE WOOMER TS S TE R A LE C U N BRITISH AN IRRADIATED, R TE LA S R EA Y EW THREE HUNDRED STRALIA HAS A N U A C TI P LY A C O P POST-A D A NEW HERO. N A S ER G N A D EVOLUTION, NEW

24 | ISSUE ONE PREVIEW

1956: The British nuclear tests at Maralinga go horribly wrong. Larger, more frequent and more reckless than the Australian government is led to believe, the resulting fallout is picked up by strong southerly desert winds and pushed devastatingly across the eastern seaboard. As far north as Brisbane, and as far south as Melbourne, save for a few pockets of clean air, the country becomes irradiated and uninhabitable. Civilians that survive are pushed into cities unable to cope with the sudden increase in population. Shanty towns and slums become widespread as governments struggle to maintain control. In response to these tests, the United States, at the height of it's cold war paranoia and desperate to maintain its position as the dominant super power, dusts off 'Plan Red'. A high level top secret operation devised in the 1930s as a post WWI contingency plan against the empire of Great Britain reasserting itself in the world. Within the week key targets in the Atlantic are hit by the US Navy, Canada a key trade route is blockaded and military targets across the Commonwealth are destroyed. Knowing that Australia is a key launching point for defence of the Pacic, military and civilian targets in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Darwin are relentlessly bombed. The already crippled country puts up minimal defence. In a panic, the British government abandons the now almost uninhabitable Australian mainland as the US navy closes in. Australia is effectively excised from the globe. Nobody gets out, nobody gets in. Those left behind are left to fend for themselves. 300 years later only small disparate communities remain, eking out a day to day existence in areas unaffected by the fallout. Constrained by the ever present threat of a failed harvest, illness, raiding parties, or the environment itself, it's a constant struggle for survival. For one girl though, the last of her generation from a dying village in Melbourne's south, all that is about to change.

I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO WRITE ABOUT HAROLD HOLT. ONLY IN AUSTRALIA COULD WE LOSE OUR GOVERNING LEADER IN THE SURF...AND THEN POSTHUMOUSLY NAME A SWIMMING POOL AFTER HIM. HE'S A CHARACTER WHO APPEARS IN NUMEROUS NOTEBOOKS OF MINE IN A VARIETY OF GUISES. IT JUST TOOK A CHAT OVER SOME KENDRICKS WITH TRISTAN JONES TO MAKE IT FINALLY HAPPEN. THANK YOU, MATE.
Getting the invite to HBVB was an honour. It was also a relief because I nally had the perfect venue to house an untold tale of my Harold Holt. This tale purged out of my mind nearly fully formed and I emailed a plot beat breakdown to the wonderful and handsome Garth Jones. He said he dug it, and then asked if I knew any Aussie artists who might want to jump in on this kind of political intrigue and gonzo pulp jam. I sent my next email within seconds. Louie Joyce is an art phenom. We were just ring up the pistons on another short project (stay tuned) and only days before he'd sent me some character designs, when I asked if he'd want to drop everything and run into this sunset instead rst? I told him the idea, he said he was in. I can't express what it means to have someone like Louie trust you and just man up and go to war with the ink and the gutters. This tale wouldn't be what it is without Louie. These pages are exquisite and his colour science is second to none. I smashed the rst draft of this one out in a night. All that Harold Holt pent up in me for so long, boom, it was cathartic. I got to play with all the toys, drop space/time insanity, and end it on a sour as lemon note. I shot it to Garth/Louie and they dug it and I rened as Louie broke the pages down. The result is a story I couldn't be more proud of. This is the best short I've ever produced and I have Louie to thank for dropping bombs with these layouts and colours. I'm also grateful to have Nic J Shaw (a bloke who fronted at a con with an ashcan of his lettering chops and won my heart - protip, do this) on letters. He asked if he could go crazy and I gave him the white card. He did not disappoint. To bring it full circle, I told Tristan Jones about this story and he told me I couldn't do all this in 8 pages, it was too epic. He was right, this is too epic. Enjoy.

A note from Ryan K. Lindsay

| 27

S T L O H D L O R A H Y N A THE M E M I T & E OF SPAC

OVER 40 YEARS G IN S IS M T EN W G HAROLD HOLT NS HE'S BRINGIN R U ET R E H EN H SPACE/TIME AGO AND W ED R TU C A FR F O A TALE HELL WITH HIM. AT'LL LEAVE YOU TH S C TI LI O P N A LI AND AUSTRA HAPPENED ON Y LL EA R T A H W WONDERING GO. LL THOSE TIDES A A H C EA B T IO EV CH
PAGE 4. Man, this page is a killer for so many reasons. Louie Joyce is indeed the spirit animal behind all the Harold Holts lurking out there in the wilderness. This page opens on a character I named 'Jetpack Holt' and described in spartan detail he is what became of Harold Holt after being picked up by a Red Sub and taken back to the motherland. I gave Louie the basics the ight goggles, the ngerless gloves, and the jetpack like some kind of Russian Rocketeer and like a lump of clay it was a very little something and then Louie breathed life into it and really made it something, y'know? As far as character reveals go, this is one of the nest.

E C Y O J & Y A S LIND

m o .c e c y jo ie u lo / m o .c y a ryanklinds

HOLT CONCEPTS

36 | ISSUE ONE PREVIEW

RYAN The motion of Jetpack Holt in this panel, and the simple and yet iconic design, not to mention the well placed sun glinting from behind him all make me want to write a Jetpack Holt one-shot comic that would convert you to Communism quick sticks. I also really really love the balloon Nic J Shaw went with for Jetpack Holt's one line which I did Google Translate and do know what it says. That balloon is the work of a letterer on his game and invested in the collaboration. It's only once you move to the second panel that I notice what a gorgeous sky Louie drops on us. The blues are like nothing you'd nd except in the warped memories of nostalgia. It really juxtaposes against the scene of these two salty political dogs ghting it out above the waters of the Bass Strait. I like how casually offensive Atlantean Holt is to his space/time fractured counterpart. This is the sort of dialogue I could only ever write in this sort of tale. This page is all about conict and Louie brings it for real in the nal panel as the composition and colours scream FIGHT! I dig Louie's choice to drop a smeared red background like this is the headline banner for a title card ght plastered all over town. The gristle from each man is palpable. As far as a preamble to man-on-man battle, this page is sublime. I scripted three simple panels and Louie brought the world down on this scene. This is the power of collaboration.

This is what happens when Harold Holts war.

BOLT!

N O O M & R E S A FR

on.tum sdfraser.com/ kateemo

blr.com

TY , DOWN-AND-DIR ED R R A -B S LD O -H O A NO T TWO DESPERAD U O B A P M O R N ACTIO N, ALL CHAINED U R E TH N O TS IC AN! FEMALE CONV TICK IT TO THE M S TO Y D EA R D N UP A

SCOTT'S PITCH
INTRODUCTORY NOTES This idea was originally inspired after watching the Filipino exploitation BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA*. I thought itd make a great modern Australian remake with two kick-arse female anti-hero leads in a more crime/action centred plot set against some dramatic Australian landscapes (initially thinking north Queensland/Northern Territory). Less of the woman-in-chains, sex-ploitation, bra-less panty shots of BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA. THE ROUGH PREMISE While on a remote and desolate stretch of the Australian outback a truck driving at night swerves to miss a mob of emus and crashes into a prison transport bus. While the rescuers clear up the debris it is revealed that two of the woman prisoners are missing: our protagonists! The women are now on the run, thrust into the wilderness and still chained together at the wrist! Despite their initial mutual loathing and conicting agendas, they are forced to cooperate as they negotiate all the obstacles that the Australian landscape throws at them: harsh terrain, unpredictable weather, dangerous native animals & even more dangerous locals while staying one step ahead of the police and the mob! *BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA is in-turn a remake of the 1958 black & white THE DEFIANT ONES (starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier). Cool title.

38 | ISSUE ONE PREVIEW

SIMONSHERRY.TUMBLR.COM

CEO

N N U D W E H T T A M

matthewdunnart.com

US. SACRIFICE C FO . LS A O G R U . CEO. DEFINE YO 'S A COLD WORLD IT . S U C FO . ED D IS NEE WIN. FOCUS. BE COLD.

44 | ISSUE ONE PREVIEW

CEO IS A STORY THAT POPPED INTO MY HEAD A FEW YEARS AGO. I KNEW IT WOULD WORK BEST AS A SHORT STORY, BUT AT THE TIME I WASN'T SURE WHAT TO DO WITH IT ONCE IT WAS DONE, SO I DIDN'T EVEN START ON IT. INSTEAD THE IDEA WAS FILED AWAY INTO THAT CLUTTERED PART OF MY BRAIN ALONGSIDE THE MANY OTHER IDEAS THAT ARE CONSTANTLY SCREAMING FOR MY ATTENTION.
When I was asked to join the HBVB team CEO screamed the loudest in response and I knew it had nally found a home. The following pages include 3 character studies and a 3 page sequence that shows the process of putting a page together. My approach tends to vary from page to page.Sometimes I'll produce detailed pencils before inking, other times I'll just lay down a few establishing pencil lines and build the majority of the art up at the inking stage. For this page from CEO you can see that the pencils are quite bare-boned, establishing the structure and perspective of the buildings to act as a loose guide to lay down more actual detail later on. The inking stage is where shit gets a bit messy (the wall behind my drawing desk is covered in ink splatter). I started with some pen work to lock in the structure of the buildings and give it some weight, then built things up from there with a combination of black and white ink. After that it was time to hit the colours.For this page it's a combination of inkwash and acrylics which were then scanned, poked, and prodded in Photoshop to help bring it all together. Drawing explosions is fun, Ithink I need to do more of them!

Boom.

There are places in the world where you can peer into hell.
WARZONES, EMPTY ROOMS WERE CHILDREN HAVE WEPT IN FURY AND HELPLESSNESS. PLACES WHERE THE BUTCHER'S HOOKS SWING IN AN UNFELT BREEZE AND CLANG TOGETHER LIKE CHIMES. BUT THOSE PLACES ARE RARE TO PEOPLE LIKE US. YOU CAN SEE HELL IN PLACES RATHER MORE FAMILIAR. HELL IS MORE THAN SAVAGERY, AFTER ALL. STAND CLOSE TO A CERTAIN BREED OF WILFUL IGNORANCE, BLANK, HOWLING INCURIOSITY AND YOU'LL BE ABLE TO GLIMPSE THE DEVIL AS HE CAPERS, AS HE STARES BACK.
It is unfair to paint with too wide a brush but, we're all friends here, let's not mix words. There are towns, isolated, afraid, locked away in Australia, united in their benightedness. You'll never have to face up to a person whose skin is different, or whose love unnerves you, or whose thinking enrages you. Where work is scarce and what exists is break backing and menial. Where you can demonise anything you can't see and won't experience. Which is everything. Even geography conspires to create a black gravity, locking you down and unteaching you bad lessons. Fear. Suspicion. The easy certainty of the st. Constant, directionless anger. Virtues of hell. Of course, there are ways to escape these grim fates. Art. More specically for our needs, music. For us, it was metal. There is an insistency to metal. An authority. It is a form of popular music that requires discipline. Ironically, it extensively uses the tritone - once outlawed by medieval musicologists who saw everthing in symbolic terms, as the diabolicus in musica. A displeasing sound turned like saturnine, the lth transformed by alchemy, into something spiritual. Metal is the realm of the virtuoso. Authority that is demonstrated, not demanded. And it is mythological. Its lyricists write of worlds that you can peer in to, again, transforming the hells of incuriosity into sulphuric, endlessly dramatic landscapes. The girls in your school who only fancy the boofheads and seem doomed to unhappy marriages are transformed into the wild vixens, six inch heeled, of L.A. The boring glue you sniff becomes the purest cocaine. Metal is not escapism. It is a demonstration of where skill can take you. It is a roadmap into a life of wider, more interesting appetites and it goes fast and stabs your heart and in those glimpses of hell, anything that feels holy must be holy. Speed becomes a sacrament. And in the local bands who might come to your town, role models, people just like you, born again in glorious costume and savage manes. A way past all this boring repression. A place we hope you have joined us in. For us, it was in metal that we rst saw glimpses of a wider world. Gustav Dore's Lucifer promised art. The quoting of Dante and Milton hinted at literature. Hail Satan! our rst brush with theology. Go wider. Lemmy ate with Tito? Who is he? And even politics is unravelled. BABALN SHKK is our attempt to articulate that. It is our hate of towns that close with sundown. Our love of the heroes metal has assembled for us, and for the secret mythology of the 20th century, incarnate in villainous Ron and the too-perfect to have lived, rocket scientist warlock, Jack.

We hope you enjoy it. CHRISTIAN READ & GARTH JONES

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THE CREW
Jen collaborates with a variety of absurdly talented cartoonists to create comics about ordinary children in extraordinary circumstances. At any given time shell be working on three-to-seven of these hyper-awesome projects.Highly motivated, moderately followed and slightly awarded, Jen is all about adventure, danger and gender equality both in comics and in life. Im Micca.When I was 4 I watched An American Werewolf in London. It fucked me up but I loved it. When I was 12 I read It. It fucked me up even more but the love was cemented. I want to direct a lm or write something one day that blows some other kids mind out there and gets them into the same crazy, fantastical fucked-up shit that we all love.

YOUR HOSTS.

Matt is a Brunswick-based artist who shares his home/studio with his very tolerant wife and their 2 cats. In recent years hes been focusing more heavily on exhibiting his art and is currently the artist in residence for UK bands Crippled Black Phoenix and Se Delan. Hes also a prolic t-shirt designer, coffee drinker, and prefers to work in his pyjamas. A multi-disciplined creative skilled in the magical arts of graphic design and illustration. Working in, on and around DVD design and packaging, lm posters, book covers, animated TV shows, multi-media projects, storyboards, advertising campaigns, character design, magazine and book illustration, childrens graphic novels and more! Powered by jazz, puppies and unicorn magic. Justin Hamilton has carved out an incredibly successful career as a stand up comedian and writer while maintaining his unique voice within the Australian Comedy scene. A regular guest on television and radio has seen Justin expand his popularity and following. Whether it is as co-host of Triple Ms weekend breakfast team Toast or movie reviewer for Perths number one rated Mix FM, he has brandished a unique voice in the radio landscape. Douglas is an award winning illustrator and comic book artist working out of Melbourne, Australia. Predominantly illustrating young adult ction, his work has been published by Harper Collins, Scholastic and Penguin, as well as comics for Image, Capstone and Mococo in France. Hes currently working on various graphic novel projects including Clem Hetherington and The Ironwood Race with writer Jen Breach, and has just this week formed The Alliance Of Associated Gentlemen with Tristan Jones. Designer for the moving pictures business by day: occasional illustrator, writer and editor of kooky trash ephemera at all hours.Former occupations and obsessions run the gamut of comics work for David Lee Roth through all sorts of fashion and interactive endeavours, not to mention video clip direction and a pile of business Ive elected to forget. Potentially over accessorise on occasion. Louie is an illustrator based in Sydney, Australia. After spending his childhood dreaming of becoming an astronaut, superhero, futuristic bikie punk, enchanted mermaid or something cool like that, Louie realised hed dreamt a little too long and most that stuff was impossible anyway. Luckily he can draw pretty good and is able to experience all those things and more by putting pencil to paper. Louie CAN be an enchanted mermaid. Yknow, if he wanted to.

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Forged from the loins of an accountant and a tuck shop lady the sky was always going to be the limit for Dr Nick Lewis AKA The Ringmaster AKA The Methodical Sausage AKA The Smirkin Merkin. He cant really draw, he cant really paint but Jesus K-Holing Christ he can Photoshop. Add that to a total disregard for taste and societal norms and you get the gurehead for culture dening paradigms like the infamous Turd Circus. A man of many worlds, Ryan K Lindsay writes comics, about comics, and other prose. His credits include GHOST TOWN from Action Lab Entertainment, the FATHERHOOD one-shot from Challenger Comics, and a MY LITTLE PONY one-shot from IDW. Hes had short stories published by Image/Shadowline, ComixTribe, Martian Lit, and Crime Factory. Hes also had essays published in CRIMINAL, GODZILLA, HORROR FACTORY. Currently residing on the Gold Coast Steve creates things uninterrupted by distractions like friends, money, or love. On the rare occasion he draws comics.

Illustrator, sometimes animator and long time internet addict. Curiously enamoured by the perverse and icky. Creates things that are a mixture of Awwww and Ewwww. Gets too much enjoyment out of making people uncomfortable through art. Currently chilling in the nations capital where he was lucky to nd one of the rare creative jobs available. Always working on something, always distracted, always guilty he isnt doing enough. Illustrator. Animator. Character designer.Worked as a 3D artist for several years before nally accepting that drawing is my one true love. Still trying to gure out what to do next. Crowning artistic achievement: drawing 144 zombies in 144 days. Lets see if we cant improve on that then?

Christian Read writes video games, comics and novels for hot coins pegged at him by bastards. You can read his book Black City and his graphic novels Unmasked, Eldritch Kid: Hate and Whiskey and more if you like. Because he needs more hot coins to spend. He lives and works in Sydney, sadly and hes seen Razorback about fteen times.

Mark Selan is probably judging you, but still likes you - especially if you like comics. He likes comics. If you try and high ve him he will judge you - so high ve him in your mind. He hopes you enjoyed his comics, but if you didnt - dont judge him.

Simon Sherry is an Australia-based illustrator and graphic designer who has worked for clients including Oxford University Press, Pearson Education and Cengage Education Australia. He lives in the Outer South-Eastern suburbs of Melbourne with his lovely wife and constantly amazing children. I work as a visual merchandiser, although my tax returns have to be lled out as window dresser. I used to draw a comic called the SuburbanKnights, thats one word - partly why I stopped drawing it - and Ive done some journal comics from time to time. Im participating in this anthology because somewhere between 2004 - 2006 Mark Selan said I drew cute things really well.

S! R E V E I L E B E U R T S T N PA R E G N A D R U O Y E. U N L O G G N PUT I F F I N S D E T R TA S T S U J S C I M O C F O S THE BIG KID

One.
CEO

BREACH & HOLGATE

MARALINGA
MATTHEW DUNN

THE MANY HAROLD HOLTS OF SPACE & TIME THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
SELAN & MARTINEZ FRASER & MOON SIMON SHERRY HAMILTON & McKENNA

LINDSAY & JOYCE

SHADOWRUMBLE BABALN SHKK GUSTY SMYTHE THE DINGOES THE DEVIL IN AUSTRALIA
LET'S FACE IT: WE'RE ALL DOOMED
The Liberal Party will hunt us for sport. The sun is burning us to death. Werewolsm is up 15% each year and some fashionbastard is planning to bring back bell-bottoms. Soon, we will eat our own dead for dessert and avoid gangs of horny mutant leg-dolphins, who look upon us as sugar. But there's hope! Because you can turn to your blasted, three-eyed grandchildren and say "I read Home Brew Vampire Bullets Number One...". Your tribe of vemouthed plasma-dwarves and bandana-wearing anarchist-beasts will gasp at you and make you their shaman. On that day, you will remember this message and think of us. Then you can go back to running from dino-pigs and guys who went to private school who are legally allowed to glass you in the face under pitiless black stars and a boiling, hateful red sun.

FRASER

HOT HOT WOMEN IN COOL COOL PRISON BOLT!

READ& JONES

SELAN & SOEHARDI

HEAVY ANGEL MONSTROSITIES

+ FUCKLOADS MORE!
TRISTAN JONES

MICCA DELANEY

CHRISTIAN READ

3 1 0 2 R E B M E V NO
ART BY @SIMONSHERRY

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