Cirrus@Austlit

'Graphic storytellers make complex ideas easy to understand. Their technical and interpretive skills help to illustrate abstract concepts and transcend language barriers. So, we’ve commissioned Graphic Storytellers at Work: Cross-industry opportunities for cartoonists, illustrators and comics-makers, a new report which explores how the skills of cartoonists, illustrators and comics-makers are being applied. This happens across a diverse range of industries such as health and education.

'Artists surveyed described using their skills to communicate important health information to culturally diverse communities, translate complex legal documents, or create tools and resources for psychologists and surgeons.

'The report provides a fascinating portrait of the professional lives of Australia’s cartoonists, illustrators and comic-makers and highlights the huge potential for the cross-industry application of their skills. It was led by comics-makers and comics researchers Dr. Pat Grant (Lecturer, School of Design, UTS) and Mr. Gabriel Clark (Lecturer, School of Design, UTS), along with Dr. Elizabeth MacFarlane (University of Melbourne) and Dr. Ronnie Scott (RMIT University). All four are active within the Australian graphic storytelling community and are based in either Melbourne or Sydney.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Penn and Lippy are here in Falter City. Things are grim. They're setting up their business but, somehow, something seems off. Penn is heading out to a chookfight. Lippy is putting a deposit down on the new shop. Someone is going to get swindled! Who's it gonna be?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

After an unnamed environmental disaster, everyone is heading to Felter City to make their fortune in the 'grot'.

After an unnamed environmental disaster, everyone is heading to Felter City to make their fortune in the 'grot'.

After an unnamed environmental disaster, everyone is heading to Felter City to make their fortune in the 'grot'.

'Blue is the debut graphic novel by Australian cartoonist Pat Grant. Part autobiography and part science fiction, the book follows three spotty teenagers who skip school to go surfing and end up investigating rumors of a dead body on the train line. Provincial values and the emotions aroused by immigration clash as the teenagers encounter strange, blue-skinned foreigners that have arrived in their little beach town. Things become even more confronting when the trail leads them to make first contact with a new wave of immigrants to their coastal town, who might be the harbingers of sweeping change.

'Blue is a delicate and affectionate portrayal of an iconic setting and way of life, told with an unerring ear and eye for the vernacular. But it's also a story about difference, fear and change, and the political implications of this for contemporary Australia.

'Pat Grant's approach to cartooning is largely an old-fashioned one, with each page of images painstakingly drawn on large pieces of illustration board with a sable brush and India ink. The images in Blue have been taken directly from drawings collected over many mornings on the beaches of NSW and Victoria; they are inspired by real life but don't lose their cartoonish charm. Combined with Grant's sparse writing the result is a cinematic story telling experience that lends itself particularly to an Australian experience of place and landscape.' (From the publisher's website.)