Australian Comics?

[Greg Wright]

Art:

        I can quite safely say that there are no Disney comics being 
published in Australia at the moment. The only ones we get are the Gladstone 
editions, either from specialist comic stores a day or two behind the rest 
of the world, or from newsagents up to 3 or 4 months behind.
        There were comics published here a number of years ago by a company 
called W.G. Publications. Unfortunately they stopped in the mid 70's after a 
run of some 30 years. They were only reprints of stories appearing in the 
American comics though, as far as I'm aware they did not print original 
stories by local talent. These comics rarely had advertisements and even 
then it was only on the back page. I was quite shocked when I saw my first 
American edition and found it full of ad's! They were sold in a few 
countries in the south east asia region including New Zealand (where I grew 
up on them),Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei.
        One thing I'm pretty sure of is that they did not have a guide to 
follow when it come to colouring. While the characters themselves are 
usually okay the backgrounds are a little bit strange,to say the least. In 
one frame the ground might be blue, in the next pink or yellow. While they 
were being published we had no access to any others, so I never thought of 
it as being strange. It was just the way it was.
        If you would like to e-mail me your postal address I'm sure I could 
send you a copy for your collection. We may even be able to do a swap. I've 
read so much about the comics being produced in Europe but am yet to see one 
for myself.

Greg