In all my life I've never wanted NOT to be part of a scene. My curriculum vitae is in part a lie. Of course I can work alone unsupervised; but it's in a group that I thrive. Put me on the team, coach!
We are social animals, most of us. Genesis 2:18 and all that. Music, theatre, tabletop gaming, scouts, bands, filmmaking. Working collaboratively increases my creativity, and so it was with me and the short-lived Dunedin Comics Collective, among whose number I counted myself from roughly 1994 to 1997, two or three anthologies, and a challenging but very fun one-day mass draw-in at a local café for... was it a charity thing? I don't remember.
Here's a picture of the majority of us - mostly male, not entirely all Pakeha, and with a range of experience and ages. I was probably somewhere in the lower middle age-wise, but older than the youngest I knew, a funny and surreal kid called Toki, to feel like I was something of a late starter. I was, of course. My comics life didn't really start until I was approaching my mid-twenties and towards the end of my first big music-making phase, and it was a pretty decent outlet, if not necessarily successful. I was among some very significant talents, and when the Dunedin crew linked arms with co-creatives from other university cities like Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland, it really felt - briefly - like we were part of a bigger thing. We found our name in local comics directories (a little pointlessly including mailing addresses - how many of us would stay in the one flat for more than a year)
But here we are, clutching our copies of Treacle, the local comic, proudly. In this one are my creations Libido and Mortido, probably in their last and most accomplished form. I've labelled this 1994, but I really don't know. Toki's in there, somewhere, and the wonderful Fin, behind me at left rear is a guy whose name eludes me now, but whose path I would cross later on as a rival in a student film competition, which he and his cohort would win. Centre front, my old chum Guanoland, with whom I would make the film and who may recall more than I now. Out of shot, and probably taking the photo, our group leader and host for the day Tony Renouf, stalwart of the Dunedin small press scene and a man of great energy, enthusiasm and drive. I owe him a lot for getting me on my start. The downhill run to ... well, not much farther is all my work. I probably needed to stay in the group, to be honest.
Here's to you, guys, wherever you've been drawn to.
