The 30th anniversary of Zooniverse

I'm days away from completing the recoloring of issue one from the original 1986 series for Image Comics, due to be relaunched this year in Brandon Graham's Island Magazine. Each part will be released as I complete the six chapters. It's amazing timing because it marks the 30th anniversary of Zooniverse. We didn't plan it that way, but I had dreamed about having a collected edition published for the anniversary.

I'll let you know more information closer to release.

Zoonitoons App is Live!

For those of you who have an iPad, good news!
We have finished our Zoonitoons app and it's FREE!
Click this link to preview (even if you don't have an iPad this link will give you an idea),
or search "Zoonitoons" in the Entertainment section of iTunes.

Yes we hope to release it on other platforms like android, but we are starting with Apple. One step at a time. This is the result of six months working with two programmers, my brother Tom and his friend Paul Sagor who is an app veteran. Please support our venture, as this is where I will be releasing my NEW Zooniverse comic which I am feverishly working on.

My comics are formatted to the iPad screen because I'm not impressed with the whole pinching to enlarge a full comic page. I find zooming in and out disruptive to the immersion of reading a story. I've also noticed that readers tend to leave the page full size and don't zoom in, scanning the pages without taking time to enjoy the art. It seems like a waste of artwork to me, so I've prepared everything to fit the screen. I've done this more with the upcoming issue which is called "Kick Off".

Superficial Surgery is the free comic we are offering through our Zoonitoons app.

I will continue to release printed comics, but the app makes the work much more immediate and accessible to the whole world. Postage out of Australia is expensive and slow, printing in color is costly and printers are a bit of a hassle, so this is a preferred alternative.
I hope that you enjoy it.

Zooniverse Minicomic #2

It is official! Helen Maier and I now own a publishing house!  
We took the plunge through our new Australian company Zoonitoons, printing two comics:- Zooniverse mini #2 and a reprint of issue #1. Launching them at the Armageddon Comic Expo in Melbourne. Halfway through Saturday we recovered our printing costs.
We are sincerely grateful to everyone who supported us by buying copies! 

Introducing Zooniverse minicomic #2 . . . a little bit of Australian comic history
This issue collects some my pre-Zooniverse comics published in Melbourne around 1983-84 and nine illustrations I did for the UK at the same time. All of the artwork in this issue was rescued last June after 15 years mouldering in a Queensland garage. Back in our possession we were shocked to discover the poor condition of what remains. Luckily we found a few old bromide copies and although most of the out-of-print mint copies I had of Australian comics containing my work were nicked a decade ago by our light-fingered ex-employees, a couple of original comic magazines survived. It was important to get this work scanned and printed before the originals deteriorated further, becoming unusable. 

Please keep in mind that all the line art was done before computers, using brushes and metal nibs dipped in ink bottles!

The Cover of Zooniverse mini comic #2 Available at www.zoonitoons.com

The cover for Zoonimini #2 is a huge coup to finally have this art printed after waiting almost three decades. It was originally done, when I was 21 years old, as a wrap-around cover for Inkspots issue #5 back in 1984 (the year Helen and I met). Unfortunately the comic magazine was abandoned by it's publisher and the original art was either lost or stolen. All that was left to work with was a single twenty eight year old bromide. I was so happy to finally scan it and digitally colored it! Seeing as we were getting posters printed we have an A3 version that will be available for purchase on the Zoonitoons' website. The poster includes the 3 zoons that were cropped out so that the Kren Patrol could be featured on the above cover.

Here is how the Inkspots cover looked back in 1984...

Unprinted wrap-around cover for Inkspots #5

The stories inside Zoonimini #2 include "Sproat Fanbunder & Spleen Sphincter: the infamous repairmen" which was originally printed as a two parter in Reverie comic magazine issues #6 in 1983 and #7 in 1984 (I did the second installment while working on the original Zooniverse series). Below is the front page for the story, the original art was never returned from the printer, so I assume that puts it in the stolen category.

The front page for the "The infamous repairmen" in Zooniverse mini comic #2

Below is the cover for issue #7 as it was printed in 1984. I had to do the colors by hand separation, which meant a separate piece of art for each CMYK color, it was tricky to guess the right combination of values to make a subtle color. I no longer have this original art or my mint copies of Reverie, so I relied on the help of fellow veteran cartoonist Ian Thomas to send me a scan of the cover which I repaired as shown above. Without Ian's gracious help this art would have been lost forever.

The original Reverie #7 cover featuring "The infamous repairmen" from 1984

The story for the infamous repairmen on the surface seems to be a flippant and shameless plug I did back then for the upcoming Zooniverse comic, but it is actually deeply personal allegory for my childhood. With Spleen representing my father, Sproat my mother, Snok as me and the Clone-a-gram as my art (Zooniverse). My two younger brothers don't make an appearance but they were essentially treated the same as me, so Snok could easily represent them too. I'll leave you to figure out the rest should you get your hands on this story. 

The first appearance of a Clone-a-gram from "The infamous repairmen" 1983

The second story in Zoonimini #2 is "Sacred Stripture". For this one I set myself a ludicrous challenge. I wanted to combine old illustrations with my recent "History" animation so that the story looped between the comic and the animation. The animation shows the Sacred Text scrolling in the background and the comic is the Sacred Text! I had to turn the old illustrations from 1983 into a Holy Stripture, within less than a week due to the printing schedule!

Below is the introductory page. I had trouble incorporating it into the story until woke up one morning realizing that the artist portrayed in the image is the Notator:- the zoon who wrote the Stripture! I've always loved this image which at the time summed up my personal feelings about being an artist. It was a bold experiment before I found my "Zooniverse" style. I was choosing a direction here, the pig drawing was an old comfortable look that I'd used for my earlier "TimeTree" comic. The spooks were an entirely new style of mine that has never been published and the "Notator" character was halfway between my previous Asphyxiation work and the emerging Zooniverse technique. Again, the original art was never returned from the printer, and presumed stolen, so I scanned and restored the image from the printed cover.

The front page for the "Sacred Stripture" in Zooniverse mini comic #2

The image above was originally published in 1984 as the cover for Fox Comics issue #4 shown below, I'm pretty sure that I did the art in 1983. Obviously I've flipped it for story flow, but I've always liked that the original cover made little sense until the back cover revealed the artist character...

Original wrap-around cover for Fox comics issue #4

"Sacred Stripture" includes new art that I took from the "History" animated loop, I also made new panels with assets created in Flash (below left). The Rector and his innocent Supplelicant are recent artwork, the rest (below right) was originally done in 1983 when I was twenty years old for two publications in England. These random images were pre-Zooniverse and gave me a chance to experiment with inking styles while creating strange environments over which the publisher pasted badly photocopied code for the Spectrum (an early home computer that was released in the UK).

Old and new art combined in "Sacred Stripture" the second Zoonimini story.

Below is the second book of "Astounding Arcade Games" which was published exclusively in England in 1984. I had finished the art a year before for issue #1 and the publisher reused my art without my permission for the second book, this time cutting images up to make it look like new work. The cover below is a mash up of two pieces of art, and no I didn't color it. I once possessed a mint copy of the first book but it's long gone now so I can't verify it's exact name.

Cover for Astounding Arcade games for your Spectrum issue #2 printed in the UK

I now have the original illustrations in my care and used most of them for the Sacred Stripture. I scanned them shuffling them around until some semblance of a theme came into view. I now have a Zooniverse based Holy Scripture to form religions and philosophies off with Zoons misinterpreting and misquoting the texts. This is going to be fun!

Spak's back story

[Edit 2021 - The shockwave file is available HERE at my Patreon]

The Loop De Loop animation challenge for this month was "Mad", so I had to do something on Spak! 
[SPOILERS AHEAD...]

Due to commitments coloring Rex Vectar, another comic of mine, for Clubhouse Comics and the Australian government making me run around for a week so that bureaucratic boxes could be checked, I ended up with only four days to produce this entire loop, including writing the script and editing the audio with Helen Maier's wonderful musical score. Somehow I got it done and two days later it was screened at the Loop Bar. I was overjoyed!

Spak in happier times. Still from the animation.

This animation deals with a some of Spak's back story: how his lover died 2100 years ago.
In the early stages of the War Between the Sexes, the four races of the Motherhood Empire escaped their domineering male counterparts to live peacefully on their fem-constructed worldship, they called Girlaxia. Being a single sex meant that clonebirthing was the Foremothers only means of reproduction, but biologically many femzoons needed male companionship and sexplay, so they created the Plastoid race, a genetically obedient population of synthetic malezoons. Using their own DNA the Foremothers batched male duplicates of themselves in living plastic, the game was to find their copy. Girlaxia was so enormous that it dwarfed giant gas planets so often the copies never met, some found each other and formed deep friendships, but quite a few bonded.

Althra was clonedbirthed into flesh from her own ancient genes when Spak was over 900 years old. (Plastoids are non-biodegradable by the way). The two copies found each other and fell in deeply in love.

A moment of horror. A still from the animation.

Spak and Althra were both Scy-Borraine warriors, fighting side by side during the height of the War Between the Sexes. When Girlaxia fell they were still holding back hordes of fleshmales on the planet Asu-Assala. Plastoids don't eat or sleep, Althra simply couldn't keep up. Overwhelmed she was skewered and paraded around until Spak could reach and protect her shredded corpse.

Above is the original panel from issue #3 of the Zooniverse series from 1986 (Entox is in the foreground by the way). I traced a lot of this comic art for the animation, trying to keep it as acurate as possible. The image on the left is the original painted art that I've scanned and not adjusted in any way, yes the paints have survived for twenty six years. The image on the right I scanned from the comic so that you could see how it printed. For the animation I took my color cues from the printed version. The deeper red suggested a bloodbath without me having to stoop to showing gore.

Spak seethes. A still from the animation.

I love the above image, the moment when Spak cracks!
I made a last minute decision to include the image below in the animation. Meeting the deadline, meant that I had to work all night. The image was traced from my 1991 roughs for page 30 of the unpublished book Age Old Enemies. I'm glad that it has finally seen the light of day!

Spak takes his revenge. A still from the animation.

 Above is another panel from issue #3 of the original Zooniverse series. It shows Spak during his banishment on Asu-Assala by the Plastoid Society who decide to hide until the Foremothers return. Spak is worshiped as the Dead God Krantrak by the locals, who Spak ritually kills.... it's an even longer story. Again the original paints on the left, the printed version on the right.

Preparation for war

[Edit 2021 - The shockwave file is available HERE at my Patreon]

The latest animation has been posted on Loop De Loop for the theme "one".
For this loop I've returned to the Spirit Realm focusing on the behind the scenes preparations for the Talsark Wars. Soulbeings wishing to experience combat are congregating around the Gatherers. Two opposing sides have been created for the conflict, the older and more historic planets of the Inner Rimworlds verses the younger and wealthier Outer Rimworld planets. The twin Gatherers are ancient beings who rally souls for incarnation, they are neutral and care little for the outcome of the conflict ahead. The Gatherers only concern is to attract participants to the correct side before incarnation.

The Outer Rimworld Gatherer calls for Incarnates. Reworked from the animation assets.

Tensions and ill-content have been building up for the last few hundred years between the Inner and Outer Rimworld who are now about to erupt into multiplanetary conflict. These coarse emotions have been carefully fostered by the poisonous whirlpool of hatred fed by the Warweavers who mindlessly do the bidding of "The Empty". The Warweavers are transformers stepping down the will of The Empty knitting it into the fabric of the Zooniverse' Spirit Realm. These unintelligible beings originated from beyond the Zooniverse. Their whirlpool draws unwary soulbeings into their influence. These soulbeings incarnate bringing the poison to the Physical Realm, often lusting for power and fostering greed they become liars and misguiders seeking positions that hold the greatest influence over the masses.

The War Weavers do the bidding of "The Empty". Reworked from the animation assets.

War is nothing new to the Zooniverse, and many Soulbeings have killed and murdered for their various causes in past incarnations. These beings have become burdened with painful Karmabunkles and Lymphets which are molluscs native to the Spirit Realm that feed off negativity adhering to the bodyform of beings who have acted destructively towards other Zoons during incarnation. The burden of these feeding molluscs add up over life experiences to the point that multitudes of souls are weighed down, unable to move without pain.

Sketch of a Spiritbeing inflicted with Karmabunkles and Lymphets.

To remove their invertebrate burdens these souls need to balance each selfish destructive and hateful act with ones of sacrifice and love, which the molluscs dislike and detach. One way is to offer themselves as innocent victims in the upcoming wars, where the deed they did to another Zoon will be done to them. The Gatherer of Victims is the where they congregate to prepare for their life of sacrifice. 
 

The Gatherer of Victims. Reworked still from the 'One' animation.

The Mother Gatherer is not shown, but souls wishing to dedicate their incarnation to help build up the populations for all the participants in the wars will join her call. This path is viewed as one of the higher devotional sacrifices.

Observing the whole parade of souls choosing their roles for the conflict are Lokki and Alia. They are already incarnated at this point, but while their bodies sleep, they return to their true form to assess what is to come. Lokki is concerned that such a vast spectacle can be halted by his own actions. He is the only Zoon who is destined to stop the war.

Lokki and Alia ponder the future. Still from the 'One' animation.

These well respected souls have yet to meet in the Physical Realm, but they will fall in love as they have done before, marry and join the Pacifist Army as the Kren Patrol.

Pirateers

[Edit 2021 - Shockwave file available HERE on my Patreon]

It is illegal to scour mine living planets in the Zooniverse, but that doesn't stop Pirateers from hiding in dust clouds picking off newborn orbs spat out by the Birthbone in the Nursery Region. Sifting through rock for precious minerals and metals, the Pirateers work in clans often made up of mercenaries. The most popular clans have the best medical benefits, the largest clan also offers dental coverage. The fact that most Pirateers are terrified of Dentists doesn't seem to be a deterrent, they just seem to like the concept of a dental plan even though none of them take advantage of the offer. It turns out that clanzoon Dentists are more bloodthirsty than the meanest Pirateer.

A still taken from the Zooniverse animation on LoopDeLoop's Rock theme 2012

Below is the original sketch for the Pirateer from the animation he is loosely based off a Studio Head that I once had the misfortune to work for.

Original design of the Pirateer.

Another still from the Rock animation at LoopDeLoop. Showing a scour miner in action. It was quite a big moment to see this image moving after having it in my files for so long. These giant ships, almost the size of a planetoid, are so vast that entire clans can live inside them. These factory vehicles often carry armies of craftzoons who produce dazzlingly beautiful artifacts from the raw ores. A steady flow of shipments are freighted from the Scouring vessels to the black markets and illegal auction houses. Any unusable rock dust is vented into the void, further cloaking their operation.

The original images below were printed in issue #4 of my self published Zoonimedia Magazine in 1995, the magazine was renamed Artopia Quarterly for issue #5.

Original art created in 1991, but published in 1995 in Zoonimedia Magazine.

The Birthbone

[Edit 2021 - shockwave file now available HERE on my Patreon] 

The Birthbone is a tree like structure that runs the length of the Zooniverse and is the source of all planets and suns which grow like boils on it's surface as eggs. After hatching the protective membrane shell breaks off, or absorbed, and the infant planet bursts into life, or the proto-sun ignites for the first time. The Birthbone concept is a very old idea that I've always wanted to explain in more detail, my latest animation on LoopDeLoop serves as a basic introduction to it's workings.

The Birthbone. A still from the animated short 2012.

The first reference to the Birthbone in print was in issue six of the mini-series. I've reworked this panel to give you a taste of how I want to recolor the original series digitally and republish it as a collected book. No publishers are interested yet.

A panel from the Zooniverse comic series 1987

In the above panel you can clearly see baby planets forming on the surface of the Birthbone. The panel below was from the first page of the follow up book Age Old Enemies, that was unpublished. Here you can see a boil being formed on the lower right branch. I'm still coloring this page, but I'll show you what I have so far. French publisher Guy Delcourt was in possession of the original line art which I left with him in good faith as I hoped he would be publishing the book. Unfortunately I only have a photocopy to work from. I'm assuming the original art has been long discarded.

An unpublished panel from Age Old Enemies 1991

Liquid Information

Mere hours ago I completed the third Zooniverse animation. [Edit 2021 - Moved HERE to Patreon]. It explains a little more about Liquid Information, the way that data is transferred in the Zooniverse. I've incorporated images that I've had banging around in my folders for a while now that were prepared for Age old Enemies. It's really gratifying not only to see them in color but also to see them move.

Coasting along a tranquil sea of data at the Halls Of Record. Still from the animated short.

Here is the original art I worked from, I followed it as closely as possible. This page was one of a few that revisited the Halls Of Record, the artificial planet that was made by the mono-sex race of women called the Shadan. One of the original four mother races who created the Plastoids, synthetic male counterparts which include Spak and Entox from the Kren patrol. Three thousand years years later the Shadan have renounced the mere concept that they ever needed male counterparts.

Original unpublished art from Age Old Enemies. Ink, brush and nib.

Spak animated!

[Edit 2021 - Posted HERE on my Patreon because Loop De Loop removed their old content] 

See Spak animated!!  This month's theme was "Idiots" so he had plenty to say.

Spak introduces the Animoid Rimworlds in his own eloquent way.

 Helen Maier composed the music.
I'll tell you more about this piece after the screening when the votes are counted.

Lifeworks: Book Twelve

"Lifeworks" was intended to be the last of the twelve albums that I had planned. It was an origin story telling about how a scientist deconstructs his body into a cloud of living sub-matter and reforms it into the Zooniverse.

This highly symbolic cover was printed with a summary for part 2 of Lifeworks in 1994. Colored here for the 1st time (Click to Enlarge).

In 1993 fellow Australian cartoonist Gary Chaloner approached me to contribute to his publication Cyclone Comics Quarterly.  I had been trying to get a publisher interested in "Lifeworks" a few years earlier, so I jumped at the chance to have a deadline to work towards. A total of twenty pages were published in issues #3 and #4 in black and white, unfortunately Cyclone ran out of funds and I never had a chance to complete the story.

The Originie, the first child of the Zooniverse. Painted with gouache on board in 1994

Above is one of two covers that I prepared for Cyclone, unfortunately both were rejected, this image of the Originie has never been published. The Originie, the first Zoon, reappears in my first Zooniverse animation shown here on LoopDeLoop.

Story overview:
Lifeworks was tricky conceptually and I would write it differently today. It was intended as an analogy for my own creative relationship to the Zooniverse concept. The scientist in the future who turns his body into the living Zooniverse shares my name, and has successfully created a microscopic test Zoon from his own matter, called the Originie. Young, energetic the Originie is kept safe in a sphere hung around this future Fil Barlow's neck. The Originie has the ability to form his own playground inside the sphere from the same pre-matter that he is made from.

Based on a dream I once had, an assembly of virtual characters appear to witness the actual birth of the physical Zooniverse. The scientist Fil pulls his soul out of his body, which is able to form a face on a soul sensitive screen behind him to prove that he is still living (see top cover), his body is encased in a protective, computerized ball and stripped down to a sub atomic pre-matter, the soul re-enters this new etheric cloud to form it into what ever it desires.

The Originie safely inside his sphere, which is now inside the larger ball, realizes that a big change has happened to his father and gets so upset that the Zooniverse, being sensitive to extreme emotions, has no choice except to release him. Disaster strikes as the Originie is blinded by the piercing light of the proto-Zooniverse, and he runs screaming, his panic calcifies the pre-mater around him creating the Birthbone. The Zooniverse puts the Originie to sleep to save itself. Millions of paraspan pass before the Originie reawakens, horrified to find that he is blind, ancient and trapped by the calcified roots of the Birthbone.

A being called The Observant was created by the dreaming Originie to be his eyes upon awakening, but so many millennia have passed that there is no life left to observe in this ancient end of the Zooniverse. The Observant is now so old he can barely serve the Originie, but sets out to find some sentient being who can shed some light on the current state of the Zooniverse.

Zeroy marooned from page 14 of Lifeworks published in 1994

The Observant discovers Zeroy who has been marooned on an isolated planetoid. For the last eight paraspan Zeroy has been waiting for an event that opens up a wormhole allowing him to return to his own Nebulaxy.

... and here the published comic ends.

Zeroy bids farewell to the Kren Patrol this is the last time they are together and their last printed panel. Page 20 of Lifeworks published in 1994

Animated Zooniverse

That's right, Zooniverse is now animated. [Edit 2021- Moved to my Patreon as loop De Loop removed their older content] The monthly animation challenge was just right for me to begin the year with the new direction for Zooniverse. I hope you all like it.

The Originator the ancient being who, along with the Zooniverse, has co-created all things and beings. (Click to enlarge)

The whole piece was completed in two weeks along with music by Helen Maier, and I am currently reworking the animation for an HD version. The screening at the "Loop" venue went very well and I am very grateful to the LoopDeLoop team for this wonderfully creative event.

Age Old Enemies: Book One

After completing the six issues of the Zooniverse comic I had planned to follow the three members of the Kren Patrol in a series of twelve albums. Upon leaving the planet Crastalla Spak, Lokki, and Entox, are besieged by Void Pirates who capture and sell them into slavery. The twelve albums follow their individual struggle back to freedom.

The first book I had planned was "Age Old Enemies", where Althra, a Shadanese agent from the Halls Of Record is sent to find out what happened to Zeroy and Larote's secret expedition. She goes to their last known whereabouts, the planet Crastalla, where she finds Larote Quoke, who has gone native and is leader/god of a village of Insectoids. Althra learns that Zeroy and the Kren Patrol went missing eight paraspan ago. Her journey leads her to Spak who she frees from sex enslavement and madness.

Althra is nabbed by Arachnoids.  This art was originally done in 1991 and colored recently.
(Click to enlarge)

So here's what happened to the book....
The timing seemed perfect, it was 1987 I had completed the first season as character designer on the animated ALF series and had met French publisher Guy Delcourt while in LA. He invited me to stay a few days with him in Paris during my return trip to Australia. In Paris, Guy discussed interest in my next Zooniverse book should he approve the story. So upon my return home I commenced work but was interrupted by the second season of Alf, and another trip around the world (this time with Helen), and back to Paris and Guy, I showed him some of the pages I had finished and left the first page in his care (doh! I guess I'll never see that art again). Back in Australia I completed inking up to the 16th page, and decided to send the finished pages off for review. Upon seeing the pages, Guy suggested that I show him roughs of the remaining 30 pages rather than allowing me to commit to finished art that he may not publish.

So I roughed the remaining pages at the same size as a French album. I sent them off to Guy. His response was that it was too hard to read, so he requested that I write a script.

I began scripting the entire 46 page book from beginning to end with my brother Thomas, who could type and use a computer, skills that I had yet to learn in 1991. Together we finished the tome, a process that took so many months that I probably could have completed drawing and inking the book within the same time. So in the end I held the script in my hand, but I had no passion for the project, all of my energy had been invested into what I considered to be a novel, the story was complete and I was creatively dry. I decided not to send it to Guy because I had no interest in illustrating the script.

I realized an important fact about my technique, I like to improvise and work by blending images and words, too much planning kills the spontaneity that I thrive on.

At this point it was early 1992, I was broke and disillusioned, there was a recession happening and I got a call to travel up North to Queensland to work in their film industry. To date, my work for "Age Old Enemies" remains unpublished and unseen, except for the panels on this blog.

The Prologue

In 1984 while I was writing and preparing the Zooniverse series, the publishers at Reverie asked for my contribution to issue 7 of their magazine. They had already published my "Runner" piece, an experimental one pager. The timing was perfect, I had wanted to take my emerging Zooniverse style out for a spin. Also I figured it was the opportunity for some shameless self promotion. So I wrote and inked a brand new strip called.... take a deep breath.... "Sproat Fanbunder & Spleen Sphincter - The infamous repairmen!".

It was the prologue to the Zooniverse series and was only published in Australia.
I even got to do the cover and here it is, in color corrected for the first time...

The story involved two rival repairmen, their stores facing each across an empty frontier street in a desert isolated from civilization, who are visited by a Clone-a-gram. They cannot understand what the creature is saying so a botched attempt is made to find the truth. A vitamizer is used on the Clone-a-gram's head instead of a translator, leaving the message to be transfered via it's extracted spine.

The message?

"The Zooniverse is coming!". The comic ends with two rivals responses to the pronouncement. Dire warning or Joyous Proclamation?

The other announcement of the Zooniverse's imminent arrival was this one pager that appeared in Fox comics in 1984, originally published in black and white. I've colored it for your appreciation.

The Meeting

At the tender age of eighteen, I attended a meeting in a dank bookstore where the next issue of Inkspots, a large format comic magazine, was being discussed by it's publishers and contributors. The conversation turned deadly serious as Colin Paraskevas, one of the publishers, asked, "who wants to do the COVER?!" The room fell completely silent. No one said a word as nervous eyes darted around the room. I broke the uncomfortable pause with a tentative, "I'll do it!!" I had missed all of the interior page allocations, and this was my first introduction to everyone in the room.

The subject of the cover was deliberated upon and decided, a harlequin clown from the story by Steph Campbell and Daryl Lindquist. With that decided, the meeting was adjourned. I discovered that there were four other Philips involved in Inkspots, making a total of five Philips in one publication. I had been using the icon FIL to sign my artwork since I was fifteen because it made a nice graphic, so I decided to change my name officially to Fil by deed poll, which was achieved before the issue of Inkspots hit the stores. 

Cover of Inkspots issue 2 in 1981 by Fil Barlow

Inkspots barely came out once a year so I would submit comics to other periodicals to practice my craft. For a time I shared a 2nd story loft studio on Chapel St. in the busy Prahran shopping area with other artists. It was a very creative period where I painted and conceived a multitude of comic ideas. One of my favorite experiments was Cryptic (shown below) it was an experiment in using words to create the visuals while linking seemingly unrelated images together. I wish there had been more publications for me to unleash these experiments on, but sadly there wasn't a comic industry in Melbourne to support me.

Cryptic was published in Issue 4 of Inkspots in 1984.

In the beginning...

It was 1980, I was 17, alone at a tram stop, a crisp early morning, on my way to college with 30 minutes to kill until the next ride. Deep in thought I decided to make an appeal to the heavens. "I don't get this religion stuff, but I know you are there, I have studied nature enough to see that there is a deliberate design to it, I can see the intelligence behind it. I have nothing left to offer you except my art. Please teach me through my art so that I can understand you better".

The next few months were the most productive I'd had up to that point, so many concepts generated, so many new characters and styles. One of the concepts was about a man who turns himself into a living universe, I saw it as a dumbed down model of our vast Universe but in human terms, and common ground for me to learn from the Universal intelligence I had appealed to earlier. But my universe needed a name. As I often did, I turned to the Latin section of my dictionary and started hunting, I got to the end and found the word "zoon" but it was the definition that got me, ".... a zoon is any individual of a compound organism". A perfect fit! My compound organism was the living Zooniverse which had populated itself from it's own substance with trillions of lifeforms called "Zoons".

I was so happy with the definition that I photocopied the page and present it to you here. My project had a name, and the creatures in it shared that name! The Zooniverse was born!

Style shedding at the age of eighteen.

Zooniverse would have looked very different if an illustrator, six years my senior, hadn't photocopied my entire body of work up to that point. I was 18 and so painfully shy that I sat quietly all day as the professional artist, a person I deeply admired, stole my style one page at a time. I was too polite to protest, too shocked to speak, swallowing my silent panic as I watched him copy the equivalent of two phone books in thickness, of all of my Zooniverse designs and concepts up to that point. The next illustrations that appeared printed in a glossy magazine, stamped with his credit and signature, were in the style I had painstakingly fostered through my teenage years. If I were to use my own style again I would be seen as an imitator of him. Below is Lokki in the Zooniverse style that never happened ... 

As you can see, I was myself a derivative, heavily influenced by Vaughn Bode and Rene Goscinny (Asterix). The professional Illustrator had actually done me a favor. I shed my artistic skin and let him take the style as his with my sincere blessing. I'm happy to report we are old friends to this day, and I'm sure he is unaware of what he took from me and what I sacrificed.

I had to start again, and decided to throw my creative stone further out than I was comfortable so that no one could follow me, at least not in the 1980's. I learned to risk and to keep designing until I felt uneasy, as soon as a drawing went so far that I started hearing a voice say, "I can't do that!". I knew that I had arrived at the Zooniverse. Every character, and incidental in the comic series was an "I can't do that!" moment for me. Risk had become my standard. Below is a page of unused character designs, now aged 20, each night ended with me curled up in bed inventing pages of characters.

This page was drawn while I lived with other cartoonists at a studio called Ghaspp my bedroom wall was shared by Mandate, a gay disco in St.Kilda. Even with earplugs would go to sleep with the throbbing base permeating every fiber of my mattress. Someone was having a good time and it was never studious little me.