#22 Art & Comics

Asexual Reproduction

Comic. ‘Asexual Reproduction’ by Tara Black. This one page digitally illustrated comic is rendered in black and white. The text is in all capital lettering, and both text and illustrations have a free-drawn quality. There are four rows, each with four panels. In the first panel, the faces of five dragon-like mythical creatures are crowded into the frame with a dialogue bubble emerging from the mouth of one creature. Top text reads: ‘Asexual Reproduction.’ Dialogue bubble reads: ‘Or, what to do with a clone.’ In the second panel, two dragon-like creatures are side by side. Their faces are completely obscured by two identical books with the title ‘Pip Adam: Nothing to See,’ which they are reading. Bottom text reads: ‘Only consume fiction with clones.’ In the third panel, one creature is singing into the other’s ear. The singing creature smiles gently, while the listening creature has is contemplative. A dialogue bubble, with musical notes, emerges from the singing creature’s mouth. Top text reads: ‘Find out what your singing voice really sounds like.’ In the fourth panel, the two creatures are stand back to back. Their wings are behind their firm haunches and torsos. They turn their heads back to look at each other, smiling. From both heads emerge thought bubbles, with an identical image of a smiling creature’s face within. Bottom text reads: ‘Discover you’re actually cute when divorced from self-hatred.’ In the fifth panel, the two creatures place a slim, rectangular mirror into a garbage can. One lowers the mirror, while the other holds the lid of the garbage can. The face of one creature is shown reflected in the mirror’s glass, but its scales and other facial details are absent. Top text reads: ‘Ditch all mirrors.’ In the sixth panel, the two creatures stand in front of easel with paintbrushes in hand, One easel is facing away from the frame; on the other, the creature paints their own face. Bottom text reads: ‘Pretend to draw self portraits.’ In the seventh panel, the creatures stand in the middle ground, facing each other, holding hands. Through the background behind them stream a series of heart shapes, and beneath them are a series of flower stems with heart-shaped blooms on top. Top text reads: ‘Fall in love.’ In the eighth panel, the creatures stand beside each other. One grimaces, while the other’s face is hidden by their wings. Bottom text reads: ‘Worry that it’s incest.’ In the ninth panel, the two creatures stand in the bottom two corners, looking at each other warily. From the creature on the left emerges a thought bubble, picturing a hen and a freshly-laid egg. From the creature on the right emerges a thought bubble with a pair of wedding rings pictured. Top text reads: ‘Break up because you’re too different.’ In the tenth panel, the two creatures each stir a mixing bowl. They look at each other with tense, unhappy expressions. Around them are littered fourteen cupcakes. Bottom text reads: ‘Take stress baking to a whole new level.’ In the eleventh panel, only one creature is shown. They are surrounded by five Stormtroopers behind a dark sky. They hold a Stormtrooper hemet and gaze down at it apprehensively. Top text reads: ‘Get a second job.’ In the twelfth panel, the frame shows a flow-chart style questionnaire. Bottom text reads: ‘Suffer secondary tax.’ In the thirteenth panel, a segment of a production-line machine is shown. There is a pipe at the top with individual capsules spaced along its length. In the central capsule is a small dragon-like creature not dissimilar to our two protagonists. Text on this capsule reads ‘CLONE-A-MATIC.’ Bottom text reads: ‘Consider making more clones.’ In the fourteenth panel, the two creatures’ faces appear, looking towards each other with energised expressions of consternation. Their arms are thrown up beside their faces. From the creature on the left emerges a thought bubble with an image of many dragon-like creatures inside it. From the creature on the right emerges a thought bubble with the earth, surrounded by layers of vapours, within. Bottom text reads: ‘Decide the environmental implications are too problematic.’ In the fifteenth panel, the two creatures stand very closely together on the right, with two bird-like creatures opposite them on the left of the frame. Above the bird-like creatures is a dialogue bubble, with a symbol signifying ‘twins’ and a question mark within. Above the dragon-like creatures emerges a dialogue bubble with this same ‘twin’ symbol appearing with a strike through it. Text at bottom of the panel reads: ‘Explain to strangers that you don’t identify as twins.’ In the sixteenth panel, the two creatures are in close-up framing, leaning over a thick slice of cake. Their forks are poised above it, and they smile softly to themselves. Bottom text reads: ‘You just are.’

A collection of union illustrations ‘Labour Slogans: Held in Common’ by Sam Wallman for The Suburban Review #22: Organise & Mobilise

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Labour Slogans: Held in Common

Page two On the comic’s second page are three rows. There are two drawings on each row. The first drawing says: ‘TOUCH ONE TOUCH ALL’. Above the text is a balding person with sweat drops poking a person with a ‘UNION’ cap on. The finger is going through a portal-like hole in the person’s chest. Below the text is a range of different people with different hair and outfits. Each of these people has a finger touching them from above and bothering them. The drawing next to this on the right depicts a tangle of ribbons with flags and signs and a column rising out of it with the word ‘UNITY’ perched on top of it. The word ‘BEFORE’ runs down the column and ‘AGREEMENT’ is marked on this tangle of ribbon. All together it reads ‘UNITY BEFORE AGREEMENT’. A moon and a sun hang in the corners of this drawing. Underneath this is the words ‘DAVE KERIN’. The first image on the second row is a circle divided into four parts by a big cross with the words ‘MINIMUM EFFORT MINIMUM WAGE?’. In the first left-hand quarter is a person on break eating a cheeseboard. In the top quarter is a clerk in their underwear checking groceries out with a sickle and hammer on the checkout screen. The quarter on the left side shows a person placing dominos down across a surface with people watching in the background. In the bottom quarter is a person scrolling their phone with a mug of tea on the toilet. To the right is handwritten text that says: ‘MEASURE TWICE TWICE CUT ONCE’. It’s 3D text that curves down the panel with ‘ONCE’ split in two by ‘CUT’. The text casts a long shadow in the shape of a guillotine. The first image on the third row is energetic text that reads: ‘DOUBLE THE DOLE’. The font is made up lots of doubled up lettering with graphic lines and wriggles around it. The last image on this page shows a suited hand with a watch beckoning in the centre of a circle. A chain surrounds the circle with doorknobs poking through chain segments dividing it into four. At the top and bottom of the circle on two plaques says: ‘NO REPRESENTATION’ and ‘NO MEETING’. Small comic panels line the circle showing people in suits pointing at workers in several different situations. The workers all have worried and anxious expressions on their faces. In the centre in handwritten script is the text: ‘Don’t go into a meeting without a support person. It’s your legal right.’ Underneath this is text curved along the drawing that says: ‘TAKE A DELEGATE, SHOP STEWARD, ORGANISER OR FRIEND, AND A PEN AND PAPERT.’

A collection of union illustrations ‘Labour Slogans: Held in Common’ by Sam Wallman for The Suburban Review #22: Organise & Mobilise

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Kapwa

This illustration is in portrait orientation, and is digitally drawn. It is rendered entirely as black line-work on a very pale background of a warm green tone. Rectangular shapes cover the background of the picture, suggesting a brick wall. In front of this, in a small clear space at the centre of the frame, stand three minimally rendered figures. They each have a circle for a head, atop an irregular rectilinear shape signifying a horse, and their arms are each linked at the elbow, to form a chain. Below these figures, in a cartoon-like bubble font, is written the word ‘KAPWA’ in all capital letters. This is a Filipino word signifying the concept of togetherness, community, or more literally the meaning ‘both.’

An artwork ‘Kapwa’ by Aida Azin for The Suburban Review #22: Organise & Mobilise

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