All the Wet Dudes

Posted: Tuesday, September 7, 2004
By: Steve Saville

Cover of All the Wet Dudes Creator(s): Darren Schroeder and Brent Willis
Publishers: Self published
From: New Zealand
Price: ¢25 (NZD)

Those of you who are in any way familiar with New Zealand popular culture will be aware of something called the Dunedin sound. This is a term generally used to describe a style of slightly esoteric, punk influenced garage music typified by a brooding singing style and jangly guitars. It is delightful and unmistakably Kiwi.

The New Zealand comic fraternity has its own version of the Dunedin sound• the Christchurch Crew, AKA the Funtime Collective. Features of this group are the fact that they have been around for a good decade, a stylistic simplicity, a strong sense of gender awareness and, most importantly, their ability to produce comics that delight in the normal, that glorify the mundane, that find real meaning and purpose in activities such and cycling to work, feeding the cat, moving house and in this particular case, attending a David Bowie concert in Wellington.

So what we have here are two brief, mini sized comics that both give a personal account of attending the Bowie concert. In reality they are a visual diary of a day in the life. Reading them is similar to having a chat to a close friend or reading a letter from a friend. In other words they are relaxed in story and style, chatty and friendly.

No one would say this comic reaches any artistic high points but that is not the point. The point is that life is a wonderful experience and even getting rained on at a rock concert is an experience to revel in.

Despite the miniature size and short length these two tales are jam packed full with fascinating cameo characters and amusing little events. This is an unpretentious publication that merely wants to capture the moment and this is exactly what it does.

In a Word: Celebratory..



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