The Thousands

Considering the recent buzz around Melburnian comic artists – the Inherent Vice show, the opening of Squishface Studios, Mandy Ord being made queen of the city etc. – it seems a perfect time to have a festival celebrating their worth, which is precisely what Home Cooked Comics Festival bills itself as.

Not only will this ‘comic conference’ simply be a good opportunity to actually buy comics, there’ll also be events happening. Some will simply be bands in performance mode (Animaux and Squid Squad, to be precise), but some will seem a bit more peculiar, like the Japanese ‘paper drama’ display and the “fight choreography” (possibly just two sci-fi fanatics arguing over whether Babylon 5 was a big pile of shit or not).

Not only that, the programme also includes comic workshops, comic talks, a podcast recording by The Comic Spot and, in case you’re worried this event doesn’t look quite nerdy enough, a comics quiz devised by Allen & Unwin and a comics-based dressing up competition. Will this result in a parade of kids decked out as Spiderman and Lisa Simpson, or a marching army of caped grown men who believe themselves to be suburban superheroes? Only time will tell.