Liz Argall

Warehouse Circus

Last night I handed the office keys to our new manager Colin Grant. I am officially no longer the manager, just a mentor, odd jobs gal, brain download gal for the next week or so. It feels very strange, liberating, sad, exciting, scary… the next chapter is opening and will be managing my own business, employing myself full time in a few short days. It will be wonderful to be able to have that in full focus, rather than stealing seconds from here and there. It’s wonderful to honour my ambitions and after laying lots of ground work and fall back positions just go for it.
I’m excited about Warehouse Circus’ new manager, I think he’s got the nitty gritty capacity and the big dreams, soul food stuff. He’s not afraid of big ideas, hard work, asking questions or talking to people.

It is such an exciting time for Warehouse, lots of stuff coming to fruition after many years of hard work. It’s going to be wonderful. New manager, new accommodation so very soon, a new life opening up for us.

ACT Writers and Readers Festival

I’m looking forward to the festival this weekend, volunteering and participating. Nothing like volunteering to do stuff to feel at home and get comfortable. I nearly signed up to volunteer for San Diego International Comics Convention, but decided I had to stay focused given I’ll be traveling half way across the world.

USA countdown

Speaking of Comiccon, it’s less than a month before I go America for Comic Con and World Con. It’s exciting, it’s scary, it’s wonderful. Part 3 of my Ozcomics articles on Comiccon series will be going up just before I leave. Wish me luck! There is so much to do, so much to complete (professional work as well as going overseas for a month stuff) and I’d like to go down to Shoalhaven and help Dad campaign for the mayoral seat before I go as well. It’s all coming together nicely, but I am a worry wart sometimes.

Lots of love to all

L

Emerging Writers Festival

I’ve just got back from the Emerging Writers Festival in Melbourne. It was fantastic and more than worth the price of admission, flights and buying new clothes as I discovered I’d left all my luggage at home! I don’t buy new clothes that often, so it was probably a good thing… or at least not as bad as it sounds. It was wonderful to spend time sharing ideas with such a diverse range of creators, poets, novelists, playwrites, even comic writers! If you’re interested in the craft of writing I’d say get yourself to the next one, regardless of how ’emerged’ you are, it’s such a delight to spend time talking about the business, process, craft, communities and inspirations of writing.

My only regret… I didn’t bring my camera and capture the event.

Warehouse Circus

After spending quite a while looking at how we structure ourselves as an organisation we’ve advertised for a new manager. Please drop us a line if you’re interested, you’ll get to play a pivotal role in the shaping of an exciting new Key Arts Organisation in Canberra. Warehouse Circus

Mayor of Shoalhaven?

My Dad might be running for Mayor of Shoalhaven (NSW) this year. I’m pretty darn proud of him and I’m delighted by the wonderful friends and community he has around him as well. He’s started up a blog Shoalhaven 2020 that articulates some excellent principles regardless of what electorate you belong to.

The lovely folks at Canberra ArtSound FM have interviewed me twice! Initially in my role as manager of Warehouse Circus and then I was invited back into the studio to chat about comics and my ArtsACT grant to go to Comic-Con in San Diego.

Interview 1 will be broadcast at around 11am on Saturday April 19 and interview 2 the following week. Around ten minutes a piece… a gotta tell you pre-records are a little odd, I hope I don’t sound too terrible (I spoke a lot more eloquently about the circus when the tape wasn’t rolling). I got to choose a song and you’ll get to hear the gorgeous Liz Frencham and Rebecca Wright from Liz’s latest album You and Me.

I had a lovely interview with Tea Fougner from Comicspace in late May, Strange Dreams has been selected as a featured comic for the relaunched Comicspace once the merger with Webcomics Nation is all sorted. Very exciting news indeed. Tea really knows how to set a gal at ease and we had a fantastic time chatting geek girl to geek girl. It’ll be a while before Strange Dreams gets its day in the sun (the techo details of relaunching the comicspace/webcomicsnation website are not small) but on the basis of her interview technique I’d say if Tea offers to interview you, go for it. She is a lovely gal indeed and you won’t regret spending a while yarning with her.

Warehouse Circus has been featured in the media quite a bit lately, through the ACT Youth Co-alition’s launch of Youth Week and work that we’re doing with High School students with disabilities. What can I say, the circus is wonderful and it’s a real privilege to be its manager. My staff (eee I get to call them mine ) are awesome, our students are awesome and some of our parents are absolute gems, no if ands or buts.

While I love the circus I can’t wait until we advertise for a general manager and I can charge into the great unknown. When I return from San Diego Comicon and Denvention Worldcon I’ll be embarking on full time freelance work. I think I have the skills and the will to make it work, although it will certainly provide many challenges and require a lot of discipline and poverty from me. It’s exciting to be at this point, wish me luck!… and drop me a line if you’ve got some work to send my way.

What the? Where did March come from?

Life at the Circus has been rewarding and exhausting. Warehouse Circus really is an important part of Canberra and it’s wonderful to be part of it. I’ve just come back from the Australian Circus and Physical Theatre Conference, a really valuable conference… words cannot describe, it was fantastic.

Freelance work for Inception Strategies continues, going from the relaunch of beloved comic Condoman to a new project with a quick turn around time.

In the background my own creative work gurgles along, you will be able to see some of it on display at the next millarworld writing challenge. Check it out and vote on what script you like the most. Writing Doomocalypse was wicked fun and a great excuse to do lots of research, play with a lot of textures and write dialogue for characters with really specific language styles and accents (ahh the trickyness of going from TV to comics and the satisfaction when a friend starts giggling in their chair and says ‘that’s exactly what he’d say’).

By day I am now manager of Warehouse Circus, a wonderful youth circus. It’s intense, it’s rewarding… and a little bit damaging to work/life balance. www.warehousecircus.org.au/

Strange Dreams webcomic is half a year old now and has just finished a story arch, check it out http://www.localactcomics.com.au/sdwebcomic . It’s been wonderful to have an ongoing story to develop and love, thanks Dave.

In very exciting news Arts ACT has accepted my grant application for funding to go to San Diego International Comics Convention, so a very big thank you to the ACT Government for supporting comics and artistic development all round. As part of the project I’ll be writing articles for OzComics on how to make the most of the experience drawing on wisdom generously donated by fellow Aussie comics creators. A big thankyou to OzComics and Sureshot Presents for writing letters of reference and to the very lovely folks who have agreed to be interviewed (with possibly a few more pending).

Well I’ve had my first Conflux and it was delightful to meet so many people of talent and passion.

I feel in a bit of a daze, full of so many things and not sure which to tackle first. I feel very privileged to have been invited to run a workshop, be in the Great Debate (which was a complete hoot, many thanks to our worthy opponents for feeding us such great material), on a panel and letting me squeeze into the book signing.

The look and feel of this website may change over the next few months as I experiment with ways of making it prettier.

The year is running away with speed. The Girls’ Guide to Guy Stuff has received lovely reviews, I’m so happy to be part of it (and so thankful for Komala’s wonderful art). More lovely web comics going up over at Local Act Comics. A quick list of links for Ozcomics and things bubbling away in the background as always.

I will be running a workshop on how to write comics at Conflux 29/09 at 1pm in Canberra. Free to attendees.

In other news my dad keeps doing wonderful stuff supporting communities in Africa. The family website is moving so that aplaceof.info can be more directly about community development and other such worthy things.

Black dogs, an article on comic creators and depression has been published at OzComics. Check it out http://www.ozcomics.com/Making-Comics/blackdogs.html

I have a shiny new webcomic thanks to artist, publisher, way too busy guy Dave Cunning. The first two strips are up, check them out http://www.localactcomics.com.au/sdwebcomic. Strange Dreams, the younger years.

Welcome to the shiny new news section of Liz Space.

Upcoming excitements include a one page comic in The Friends of Lulu Girls’ Guide to Guy Stuff

And Strange Dreams will be coming out from Local Act Comics There will be webcomics, some previews in the next Local Act Anthology and the the actual mini-series (although it might be bound in the one book) towards the end of the year. The webcomic is a lot of fun, less serious than the actual comic and lets me explore the characters in their early years.

I’ll be running a comics writing workshop at Conflux this year as well. I’ve been meaning to hang out with the CSFG for some time now and they seem to be a pretty funky bunch.

I’m also delighted to be judging the Aussie 24 hour comics challenge again. It was a lot of work, but some great stuff was produced. They’ve settled on a name now Comikaze 24 hour challenge – check it out, some great prizes to be won.