23 August, 2012

GP TV. Ep03.

And so we come to the first time the Greener Pastures' creators themselves were ever on television. The funny thing is, it wasn't on Australian TV! 

Michael and I thought we'd go to New Zealand, just for the heck of it, to visit their annual comic convention at the time: IcoNZ. It was July 1995 and this was their second of three IcoNZs. We weren't the only Aussies there either, Stuart Hale also made the trip representing Issue One Comics . 

One of my favourite sales techniques when interested punters asked if we were New Zealanders was to say "Yep! We're from the West Island!" which would usually take a moment, and a double-take, for the penny to drop. At one point I looked up to see Neil (Split Enz, Crowded House) Finn browsing through our work. He bought a copy of Greener Pastures and as he walked away I sheepishly said "You can write a song about it if you like…" I don't think he ever did. 

We had a great time and met some lovely people. 

I don't know exactly what television show this report appeared on, I assume it's the news or a magazine style show. Neither do I know exactly what night, but I assume it would be 1st or 2nd of July 1995, as that was the date of IcoNZ 2. After the inane chatter about trading cards, sporting memorabilia, and the fake Baywatch girl, they talk to some local NZ comic creators and Michael and me. 



Cartoonists interviewed: 
Craig Petersen 
Wade Shotter
Cornelius Stone
Tim McEwen
Stuart Hale
Michael Michalandos

Cartoonists work also shown: 
Matt Hatton
Ant Larcombe
Ant Sang
Sam Young
Paul Newell
Jason Paulos
There are also a few incidences where there is work that I'm not able to easily identify. My apologies. I am pretty sure there's a flash of Roger Langridge though.

Aired July 1995. 

3 comments:

  1. That was great! I loved it. The mid 90's don't feel like that long ago. Love the long hair! I might hit up the AKL conventions next.

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  2. Everyone had so much hair! And I had no idea trading cards could be such a destructive influence.

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  3. Sometimes I STILL have that much hair if I'm too lazy/scared/cold to cut it! ;)

    Trading cards, pogs, foil covers on comics – it was a weird time. Nearly killed the comics industry some say.

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