spring update (Patreon)

hi commeroids

the book is coming along well, yesterday i finally finished the linework for the cover, just gotta add the blurb and endorsements n stuff. i got a bit carried away with the design, its a wraparound thing, with fold-out flaps that then bleed onto double page spreads on the inside covers front and back. this is how it looks as one giant image, but in the end it'll look a bit more carved up, and coloured:

the final files all have to be sent off to print at the end of this month, i can taste the freedom, less than a fortnight. lockdown is as awful as it is necessary, but yeah it cldn't have come at a better time for this project - especially if restrictions start to ease right when i send off the files omfg.

in the last email i sent out, i asked what u think shld be drawn next. a piece about Salvatore the seal, the 200 kilogram fur seal who has lived in the yarra river most of this year got the most votes. i started working on something about him, but the script blew out into something much chunkier, cos i included some bits from conversations i'd had with friends while we looked for him, my secret desire to see him eat a dog, some stuff about the campaign to make the yarra swimmable, how quick our attitudes to animals like seals and whales have changed over recent decades and what that might mean for being able to rapidly re-contextualise nature in the fight against climate change, blablah. i want to make it a longer format comic, as the next thing i work on after i get this book tied off. will keep u posted, but yeah just wanted to flag that im onto it, since it got the most votes, it just might take me a bit longer than planned! this is all as news came in that Salvatore hasn't been seen in a week, meaning he may well hav gone back out to the bay, gods peed!!!!!

above is a screenshot from a video that shows him having a good last look at a punter before he likely pushed off 😭 there's also this rly nice Radio National feature on him

I finally dropped off those blank tshirts to my screen printer last week, finally getting onto that now the weather is looking like getting warmer. there's gonna be one black shirt, with that 'no permanent victories no permanent defeats' design on it (based off your votes from way back), and a white shirt with the 'don't date people who are rude to service staff' on it. i haven't worked out details yet but they are made for patreon supporters sweaty hands somehow, will update u once ive picked them up

drew the above poster for the Maritime Union of Australia members at QUBE in Fremantle, whose strike is now almost into its eleventh week. the MUA is selling prints to raise money for the workers strike fund https://www.muashop.org.au/products/limited-edition-sam-wallman-scab-smashing-special-solidarity-poster
fun to draw scabs and to be able to go so hard with the depiction of them for something official! i love how feral the MUA is

drew the above for the CFMEU in SA. promise im gonna do less uniony art starting.........soon. promise to stop being this, lol:

the Unsettled exhibition at the australian museum in sydney reopened on Monday, where it will hopefully run uninterrupted until January. extremely honoured to have a drawing in there

shout out to Cam for this pic of his youngn at the exhibition:

i have a few prints of the above drawing, risographed in peach and blue by yr favourite worker-owned print collective Glom Press, if anyone wants one let me know. cannot wait for the day that drawing no longer makes sense.

i am getting through catching up on mailing people stuff. i was able to get an hour of access to my studio last week, so was able to grab some boxes of things n have been packing stuff up for ppl from home since then. im just over half way through posting stuff to new supporters and ppl who have bought things. if i havent got to you yet i will soon, thanx for your patience

im looking forward to this public forum coming up, hosted by CARF, "the hidden history of anti-fascist activism in melbourne" tuesday 26th of october at 6pm

the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism are selling some 'Pro Vax / Pro Union / Anti-fascist' posters made by fellow Workers Art Collective members https://store.carf.melbourne/ or if anyone wants the files to print larger numbers of the posters up yrself for your neighbourhood let me know

and the latest in the series "memes that said it better than when i tried to draw it":

vs:

<3