comet june book

7/31/2019 Comet June Book

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Contents

Letter from the Editor..3

(With Illustrations by Tom Brewser)

War is Hell (Poem).5

ILLUSTRATION BY AUSTEN MENGLER6

An Interview with the King of the Zombies: Perth Artist Austen Mengler.7

(With Illustrations by Austen Mengler)

Noir (Poem).13

Change (Poem)..14

This book has been lovingly crafted for you by members of the Murdoch Creative

Writing Collective (COMET- The Collective of Murdochs Extremely Talented being

the Online Magazine Crew of the aforementioned) and their Artistic Associates

Tom Brewser and Austen Mengler.

Cover Image by Austen Mengler

This edition edited by Simon Clark and published by Emily Paull

The MCWC/ COMET and friends, 2012


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Letter from the Editor- June, 2012

REVIVAL AND REBIRTH

Hello, hello welcome to the June edition of C.O.M.E.T. I hope youre all sitting

comfortably and enjoy this edition, which thanks to the wonders of technology for

the first time ever will be in a downloadable format (See the last post of this issue at

the end of this week). The theme for this month is revival and rebirth. My particular

inspiration for this was from reading Simon Reynolds excellent book Retromania; in

which he suggests that modern culture is fascinated with its own past.

Retro has become the in thing; just today I saw an advertisement for a retro market.

We have become obsessed with the past, not even in an historical way. Theres no

delving into the past for the purposes of discovery or fact finding. Instead we are

stealing fashion tips and song-writing secrets. There is the argument that nothing isnew anymore, simply a rehashing of old ideas; and the never ending deluge of

sequels, prequels and remakes making their way into our cinemas and onto our TV

screens do little to deter this argument.

Cultural revivals are hardly a new thing. The most famous of all cultural revivals, TheRenaissance, happened back in the 14

thto 17

thcenturies; a period when European


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thinkers rediscovered the teachings of the classical world. However, the academics,

thinkers and artists of the time did not simply just rediscover these classical works,

they expanded upon them, setting themselves of onto new journeys of discovery.

The same cannot necessarily be said of our current time; we are seemingly unable to

get past it. There is seemingly the mentality that it tried and tested, so theres no

need to look any further. There are movies and TV Shows that were majorly

successful, not even ten or twenty years ago that are being remade and repackaged

in an attempt to make them seem new.

The fact is that many of these new films, shows and ideas that are put to us as being

new and innovative, are ideas that have been revived from past generations. Take

hipsters for example, theyre hardly a new concept; hipsters were a post war

phenomenon. Hipster hating is hardly a new phenomenon either; conservative

Americans were back hating hipsters when Truman and Eisenhower were in the

White House.

This is of course only one idea of revival and rebirth, and as youll see from this

months issue, our writers have their own differing ideas and takes on the topics.

Thanks for sticking around, enjoy, and see you all next month for something new.

By Simon Clark


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War is Hell

'War is Hell' or so they say

And I believe them all becauseIt is a fact apocryphally

That no one goes to hell

War is cruel (as I've been told)

Hot red, cold and greyNo two wars ever the sameAnd no one goes to war

'Off to War' the General says and

So they go, to end their lives

No one stays to question ifThey've really gone at all

'Off to Hell', the Preachers sayFingers pointed, one each way

Each man damned by being savedFrom one another's hell

One time out of curiosityI dropped by War, just to see

The cannons sitting silently

The trenches full of space

Two men pass each other's way'Repent, and turn around' both sayOn they go, without a pause

Onward to their reward

By L.R. LeCras


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An Interview with the King of the Zombies; Perth Artist, Austen Mengler

By Emily Paull

Interviews. Weve read them all before. But when was the last time you read one that you

really cared about? So many interviews these days ask the same old questions. Sometimes,the interviewer even includes the anticipated answer in their phrasing- and thats just plain

dull.

What makes a great interview is a feeling of connection between the interviewer, the subject

and the reader. Reading it should be like eavesdropping on a juicy conversation. And the

things you learn from it should be somehow measurable.

Join me, Emily Paull, amateur interviewer but long time question asker, on my quest for that

illusive thing- the interesting interview.

When Simon set this months COMET theme- Rebirth- my mind immediately went tothe art of Austen Mengler. Just 21 years of age, Austen graduated from Curtin

University (for which we Murdochites will forgive him) in 2011. His artwork is a mix

of gore and comedy, and celebrates the living and undead human form. Working

freelance, Austen has worked on album covers, web comics and more, and keeps

extremely late hours. Perhaps for this Zombie lover, art really does imitate life


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COMET caught up with Austen to ask him a bit about life after graduation and

working freelance in the cultural black hole.

Emily: What age did you start drawing at?

Austen: Really young! Probably around 3 or 5. I cant really remember. When I was

really little I used to draw Disney characters like Goofy etc until I had them down,

then I moved on to Looney Tunes and drew them all the time. Taz was my favourite!

And then when I saw the crazy character designs in the film Small Soldiers I washooked on that for ages, I loved all the monsters and characters to bits. I'd draw

Insaniac and the rest of the Gorgonites until I didn't have to look at a picture anymore,

I'd do it over and over til I got it right. I went through a lot of phases haha, but after

that movie I started drawing scary muscley monsters non-stop and thats where my

current style started I guess.

Emily: You draw a lot of zombies, and seem pretty comfortable with them. If the

zombie apocalypse started tomorrow, do you think you'd know what to do?

Austen: Haha no way! Like everyone else, I would be terrified. You'd think I'd get

some brownie points for drawing them a lot but I think my brains would be just asappetizing to the living dead as the next guys. It does depend a lot on what variety of


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zombie youre talking about though, if were talking the traditional brain-dead variety

it would be a lot more fun than if it were the new rage virus zombies. The only plan I

have so far is to go to the garden shed, gear up with zombie weapons (axes, shovels

and spades), make some makeshift armour out of skate gear and such and go bash

some heads. If I'm going to go out, I'm taking as many as I can with me!

Emily: What other things are you scared of? Did you have any recurring

nightmares as a kid?

Austen: Umm I'm more scared of real life gore and day to day violence; things Iknow are real and that I haven't created myself with a pencil. There's a big difference

between fantasy horror and real life stuff! I think its interesting that I love gory

horror movies (and the more blood the merrier) but I couldn't watch much of that

dissection show on SBS when it was on - the fact it was an actual person's body was

too intense! Im not sure if I'm scared of it though, it just affects me more.

Hmmm I don't think I had any recurring nightmares as a kid.


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Emily: Thats probably a good thing. Your Deviantart profile

(http://lordnetsua.deviantart.com/) classifies a lot of your stuff as macabre and

horror. Do you think you have to be a bit of a tortured soul to create a lot of

your artwork, or is it better to have a secret dark side?
http://lordnetsua.deviantart.com/http://lordnetsua.deviantart.com/


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Austen: Hmm yes and no?I think art has always been a way for me to express my

deep dark sidesort of an outlet of sortswhen Im sad or angry Ill get my sketch

pad out and draw a horrible giant monster with seven heads. It makes me feel a lot

better and its almost like if I draw something twisted and tortured it gets it all out of

me. I dont know if its a secret though as looking through my gallery many friends

and relatives have given me worried looks as if to say Are you ok in there? Haha!

Emily: Okay, so moving on a bit, what role do you think technology plays in

your artistic process? Is it a help or a hindrance?

Austen: Its definitely a help but you cant rely on it completely! The computer is just

another tool to express your artistic ability through. I think Im very lucky in that I

practised in a lot of traditional mediums growing up and at high school and then later

went digital with Photoshop. This let me learn to draw first and then tackle the digital

side of things. I think many young artists today are trying to learn to draw while also

learning to use Photoshop or other digital painting tools and theyre missing the mark

a little and making things harder for themselves.

So yes technology definitely plays a big role in my process and is a big help if used

correctlybut for some people it can be a hindrance as they forego learning to drawwith learning to use Photoshops dodge, smudge and blur tools. The traditional skills

and techniques are still important!

Emily: And if you could invent any one new device to help you out, what would it

do and what would you call it?

Austen: Wow I dont know really, maybe a chip in my head that recorded my

drawing process from the ideation to creation? That was able to make a visualisation

of the image in my head and then compare it to the one that comes out on paper?

Haha, good question!

Emily: So we know what youre really good at but what are you terrible at?

Whats the one thing youve never been able to do?

Austen: Hmm, probably drawing things that are the opposite to what I draw

currently. The mains areas I need to work on are namely backgrounds, scenery,landscapes and cars/automobiles. I always find it so much more interesting working

on characters and creature design than the environment around them or things in the

real world. I also need way more practise in drawing people - girls and the female

form especially.

Emily: When something doesnt work out for you, what do you do? Does it

make you more determined?

Austen: Umm yes and no, many pieces Ive done havent come out the way I wanted

them. Sometimes I get determined and try to improve it but other times I get bored

and move onto the next thing. I try to learn from my mistakes though and keep whatwent wrong in mind for next time.


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Noir

High heeled shoes,

The stretch of nylon on a bare leg.

The scarlet colour of a red rose,

A subtle scent wafts through the air.

An open book still shrouded,

In sepia toned delight.

By Benedicte Parthenay


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CHANGE

Do you hear it?

Something is happening here:

Someone is changing:

Ben has joined a gym, and

Has just begun

Doing laps

Naomi has

begun to

blog, again

David is a month into a

Diet, and is

Leasing a new

Bright blue car

Sharron is beginning the

Plays of Oscar Wilde,

Just for pleasures sake,

One by one

Rin is learning to

Lead cheers, early in the

Morning

Martin is going to a jazz club

Kym is finishing a diploma

Lesley is graduating

Mikala is directing her first play

Kath has a new Facebook page

And me?

Oh,

Paris for me.

By David Moody


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WANT MORE COMET?

Head tohttp://cometwriting.blogspot.comfrom the 15th

of

each month for new writing from the Murdoch Creative

Writing Collective, and artwork by talented Western

Australians.
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