Knuckle Down
Posted: Tuesday, September 30, 2003
By: Darren Schroeder
At the New Zealand Pop Culture expo a few weeks ago I had a chat to the writer of Knuckles the Malevolent Nun who reminded me that the collection No More Mrs Nice Nun is out this month. Featuring artwork by Roger Langridge, this is a classic of New Zealand small press that just might be in a shop near you. Check out Cornelius' profile:
CORNELIUS STONE, born 11th October, 1962 in Auckland, New Zealand. Grew up reading you-know-what. First funnybook ever read: a 12c CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST. Other cherished comic memories: the Schaffenberger Bizarro Superman stories - UNCLE SCROOGE - MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGHTER - MIGHTY SAMSON - DR SOLAR - TUROK, SON OF STONE - BUGS BUNNY - the Football Family Robinson from the British weekly, TIGER - Sid's Snake and Odd Ball from WHIZZER AND CHIPS and Gus Gorilla from COR! Favourite AVENGERS writers: A tie between Kurt Busiek and Steve Englehart, followed by Jim Shooter for the first half (non Korvac Saga) of his first tenure, followed by David Michelenie. All time favourite cartoonists: Charles Schulz, Robert Crumb and Walt Simonson. Favourite authors: George Orwell and William Burroughs. Favourite painters: Edward Munch, Colin McCahon and Phillip Clairmont. All-time favourite Marvel comic: why, THE AVENGERS.
My misdeeds and various narrow-neck escapes include: Co-authoring the curiousity-come-parlour game, Sooth - co-creating Knuckles the Malevolent Nun with artist Roger Langridge (now collected in the volume NO MORE MRS NICE NUN and distributed through Diamond, a bimonthly series to follow in 2004) - co-scripting and performing on the radio series KNUCKLES ON AIR - scripting and performing in KNUCKLES THE MALEVOLENT PLAY (Maidment Theatre) and VAMPIRE TALES I and II (Arcadia) - illustrating the Rationalists and Humanists magazine THE OPEN SOCIETY - self-publishing and editing the anthology comics magazine RAZOR (no relation to the t&a 90's comic of the same name) - selling two pages of comic art to the Auckland City Art Gallery after appearing in a cartoonist show where these same pieces were enlarged to ten feet tall and copied onto a wall (from the 17 page Kafka Day I wrote and drew, published in RAZOR #10) - devising the FAMILY OF SEX strip (5 collected volumes) - appearing as one of four Dr Whos in an ad for Kellogs KORN Flakes on British TV in the 90's (I was the Peter Davidson model) - appearing as Andy Warhol in an ad for toilet paper - appearing in the New Zealand film that made the James Bond director Lee Tamahori's name, ONCE WERE WARRIORS, in the moment before a principle character hangs herself from a tree - and executing spoken word performance poetry at the regular Poetry Live (at the Shakespeare, the Empire, Alleluya Cafe and Grand Central).
Other curiousities include being a vital link in the chain of discovery of a missing DR WHO episode (Episode 1, The Lion from the William Hartnell era-serial, THE CRUSADES) - getting poetry published in magazines that pay money - and writing and drawing the "gothic nursery" superhero mini-series THE DOLLHOUSE ROOM starring the team Eclectic for release by Antipodes in 2004. Short M.O. follows:
What I've come to call the "Costume Party with a Plot" method of drawing a strip: I gather a number of friends and aqaintances together, get them to costume themselves usually without much dogmatic detail from me, put them through a few paces, photograph them and then work from the results. I have an unnerving rep for turning women into trees...
More about the DR WHO find:
http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/tsv57/lion2.html
On-line poetry:
http://aucklandpoetry.com/index.php?selected=poems&poet=5
The Knuckles/Wile E. Coyote strip that appeared in A1 in 1991:
http://homepage.mac.com/hotelfred/knuckles/knucks_a1_doom.html
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