Gerald Carr is, in many respects, a pioneering figure in the history of Australian comics. His unique and diverse career has embodied many of the creative and commercial changes that the comic book medium has undergone in the last thirty years.
Born in Bendigo, Victoria, in 1944, Carr studied art at the Bendigo Institute of Technology, before moving into advertising and freelance work. His first foray into comics was as a letterer for Walter Granger Publications, which published local editions of Walt Disney comics, but were using Italian artwork which required English text.
Carr's early work as a comic book artist was far removed from the squeaky-clean world of Disney comics. He illustrated several installments of Devil Doone, a James Bond-styled action strip which was serialised in K. G. Murray's Man Junior magazine and was later reprinted in the spin-off Devil Doone comic book in the early 1970s.
Carr's then created a comic strip called Brigette for the teens' magazine Go Set, which appeared between October 1968-May 1969. With Brigette, Carr created a contemporary Australian heroine who was coming of age in a time of changing social and sexual attitudes.
Carr's agent, Sol Shifrin, sold Brigette as a newspaper strip to Perth's Sunday Independent and Brisbane's Sunday Mail, commencing in both papers on 5 July 1969. The strip's frank discussion of sexual freedoms and the occasional drug reference ran afoul of both readers and editors' conservative tastes, which led to both papers dropping Brigette by August-September 1969.
The strip resurfaced in the Melbourne Newsday paper in October 1969, running for five months before it was dropped as a cost-cutting measure. (In 2002, the Italian comics' publisher, Fumetto, published some Brigette strips in a collection titled Eroine Di China, or 'Heroines of the Newspaper Strip')
During this period, Carr also created the satirical science fiction strip Fabula for Broadside, a left-leaning literary magazine published by the owners of the Melbourne Age newspaper. Similar in style to the sexy French science fiction strip Barbarella, Fabula was a thinly veiled commentary on contemporary Australian politics set in a futuristic world - but it was the occasional glimpse of Fabula's nipples that led to visits from the Victorian Police's Vice Squad!
Carr took a bold step when he wrote, illustrated and published his first comic book, Wart's Epic (1 issue/1970), arguably making him the first local comic artist to publish his own work.
Born in Bendigo, Victoria, in 1944, Carr studied art at the Bendigo Institute of Technology, before moving into advertising and freelance work. His first foray into comics was as a letterer for Walter Granger Publications, which published local editions of Walt Disney comics, but were using Italian artwork which required English text.
Carr's early work as a comic book artist was far removed from the squeaky-clean world of Disney comics. He illustrated several installments of Devil Doone, a James Bond-styled action strip which was serialised in K. G. Murray's Man Junior magazine and was later reprinted in the spin-off Devil Doone comic book in the early 1970s.
Carr's then created a comic strip called Brigette for the teens' magazine Go Set, which appeared between October 1968-May 1969. With Brigette, Carr created a contemporary Australian heroine who was coming of age in a time of changing social and sexual attitudes.
Carr's agent, Sol Shifrin, sold Brigette as a newspaper strip to Perth's Sunday Independent and Brisbane's Sunday Mail, commencing in both papers on 5 July 1969. The strip's frank discussion of sexual freedoms and the occasional drug reference ran afoul of both readers and editors' conservative tastes, which led to both papers dropping Brigette by August-September 1969.
The strip resurfaced in the Melbourne Newsday paper in October 1969, running for five months before it was dropped as a cost-cutting measure. (In 2002, the Italian comics' publisher, Fumetto, published some Brigette strips in a collection titled Eroine Di China, or 'Heroines of the Newspaper Strip')
During this period, Carr also created the satirical science fiction strip Fabula for Broadside, a left-leaning literary magazine published by the owners of the Melbourne Age newspaper. Similar in style to the sexy French science fiction strip Barbarella, Fabula was a thinly veiled commentary on contemporary Australian politics set in a futuristic world - but it was the occasional glimpse of Fabula's nipples that led to visits from the Victorian Police's Vice Squad!
Carr took a bold step when he wrote, illustrated and published his first comic book, Wart's Epic (1 issue/1970), arguably making him the first local comic artist to publish his own work.
Wart's Epic contained enough violence, nudity and psychedelic-styled artwork to place it outside the realm of mainstream comics, yet it also stood apart from the more politically-minded Australian 'underground comix' of the early 1970s, such as High Times and Cobber Comix.
With its emphasis on 'adult' science fiction and fantasy, Wart's Epic predates the advent of comparable American comics, such as Star*Reach (1974-1979) and Heavy Metal (1977-1992), by several years. Ironically enough, Carr also published an Australian edition of the first issue of Star*Reach in 1976.
Carr's next major comic book venture was Vampire! (6 issues/1975-1979), a black & white horror comic which capitalised on the popularity of similar American adult horror titles, such as Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella.
The third issue of Vampire! introduced one of Carr's best creations, 'The Exile of Fire Fang', about a Chinese vampire exiled to Australia's gold fields in the 1800s. A sequel of sorts, 'The Brothers of Fire Fang', appeared in the fifth issue of Vampire!, before the character was given his own magazine in Fire Fang (1 issue/1982).
Another Vampire! stalwart, the swashbuckling anti-hero Captain Starr, appeared in an epic tale called 'Cruel Cuts' (Issue #6/1979), before popping up in a new adventure, 'Return of the Shark', which was published in Cartoon Cavalcade (1 issue/1991).
Carr's only other major comic for the 1980s was Shock Raider (1 issue/1984), a post-apocalyptic science fiction story that was published in full colour, making it arguably the first full-colour Australian comic in over a decade, since Fred 'Cul' Cullen's series, The Jolly Swagman, was sold through petrol stations in the mid-1970s.
Re-entering the comic book field in 1995, Carr launched several new titles under his Meteor Comics imprint. This included a short-lived second series of Vampire! (2 issues/1995), released for the American market, which reprinted the original Fire Fang stores from the 1970s, but did not include the 'Fire Fang's Circus' story from the 1982 Fire Fang solo comic.
This was followed by The Dirty Digger (1 issue/1996), a World War Two adventure series starring Aussie commando Major Lex Mainwaring, who previously appeared in Southern Aurora Comics' Australian War Stories (1 issue/1994).
Vixen (2 issues/1992-1995) completed the Meteor Comics line-up and reintroduced the superheroine Carr created for Wart's Epic over twenty years earlier.
Vixen originally worked in partnership with the enigmatic Brainmaster, as they fought vampires, aliens, spies and other menaces through a succession of comics, including Vampire! (Issue 1/1975), their one-off solo comic, Brainmaster & Vixen (1979) and the 1982 Fire Fang special, which revealed their origin story.
With the new Vixen comic, Carr shifted his heroine to the fictional American location of Pacific City. Vixen was also significant for featuring new stories by Carr starring Captain Atom (renamed 'Atomic Warrior') and The Panther, two Australian comic book heroes from the 1950s, which Carr produced under licence from their respective creators, Arthur Mather and Paul Wheelahan.
Ironically, Vixen nearly spelt the end of Meteor Comics, when Australian Consolidated Press launched legal proceedings against Carr in order to acquire the rights to the 'Vixen' trademark. Carr eventually defeated the court action, but only at considerable financial cost to himself.
While Carr has not released any new comic magazine titles since 1995, he continues to publish comic art in a variety of formats, including downloadable 'eBooks', and markets a range of merchandise featuring his comic book characters. (A selection of Carr's back issue comics can also be purchased online directly from the publisher.)
With its emphasis on 'adult' science fiction and fantasy, Wart's Epic predates the advent of comparable American comics, such as Star*Reach (1974-1979) and Heavy Metal (1977-1992), by several years. Ironically enough, Carr also published an Australian edition of the first issue of Star*Reach in 1976.
Carr's next major comic book venture was Vampire! (6 issues/1975-1979), a black & white horror comic which capitalised on the popularity of similar American adult horror titles, such as Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella.
The third issue of Vampire! introduced one of Carr's best creations, 'The Exile of Fire Fang', about a Chinese vampire exiled to Australia's gold fields in the 1800s. A sequel of sorts, 'The Brothers of Fire Fang', appeared in the fifth issue of Vampire!, before the character was given his own magazine in Fire Fang (1 issue/1982).
Another Vampire! stalwart, the swashbuckling anti-hero Captain Starr, appeared in an epic tale called 'Cruel Cuts' (Issue #6/1979), before popping up in a new adventure, 'Return of the Shark', which was published in Cartoon Cavalcade (1 issue/1991).
Carr's only other major comic for the 1980s was Shock Raider (1 issue/1984), a post-apocalyptic science fiction story that was published in full colour, making it arguably the first full-colour Australian comic in over a decade, since Fred 'Cul' Cullen's series, The Jolly Swagman, was sold through petrol stations in the mid-1970s.
Re-entering the comic book field in 1995, Carr launched several new titles under his Meteor Comics imprint. This included a short-lived second series of Vampire! (2 issues/1995), released for the American market, which reprinted the original Fire Fang stores from the 1970s, but did not include the 'Fire Fang's Circus' story from the 1982 Fire Fang solo comic.
This was followed by The Dirty Digger (1 issue/1996), a World War Two adventure series starring Aussie commando Major Lex Mainwaring, who previously appeared in Southern Aurora Comics' Australian War Stories (1 issue/1994).
Vixen (2 issues/1992-1995) completed the Meteor Comics line-up and reintroduced the superheroine Carr created for Wart's Epic over twenty years earlier.
Vixen originally worked in partnership with the enigmatic Brainmaster, as they fought vampires, aliens, spies and other menaces through a succession of comics, including Vampire! (Issue 1/1975), their one-off solo comic, Brainmaster & Vixen (1979) and the 1982 Fire Fang special, which revealed their origin story.
With the new Vixen comic, Carr shifted his heroine to the fictional American location of Pacific City. Vixen was also significant for featuring new stories by Carr starring Captain Atom (renamed 'Atomic Warrior') and The Panther, two Australian comic book heroes from the 1950s, which Carr produced under licence from their respective creators, Arthur Mather and Paul Wheelahan.
Ironically, Vixen nearly spelt the end of Meteor Comics, when Australian Consolidated Press launched legal proceedings against Carr in order to acquire the rights to the 'Vixen' trademark. Carr eventually defeated the court action, but only at considerable financial cost to himself.
While Carr has not released any new comic magazine titles since 1995, he continues to publish comic art in a variety of formats, including downloadable 'eBooks', and markets a range of merchandise featuring his comic book characters. (A selection of Carr's back issue comics can also be purchased online directly from the publisher.)
This is an expanded version of an article which originally appeared in the August 2002 edition of Collectormania magazine (Australia). Image courtesy of Tabula Rasa.
2 comments:
Thanks, Patrick, this really filled in the gaps on what I knew about Gerald Carr, one of the greatest Australian comics creators of all time!
Nice to see a mention of Cartoon Calvacade, another forgotten anthology title from a quiet period in Australian comics.
I didn't know about the ACP legal battle either - scary stuff!
Hi. I have just been going through my late father in laws comic collection, and have found a copy of Shock Raider No 1. My preferred genre is horror, so I don't find this one particularly interesting. However, I was wondering if it has any value to other collectors out there? Was No 1 the only issue of this comic ever published, or was it just the 1st. (Sorry, just not sure if you were being literal when you said the only other one. Hope you can answer my questions.
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