Aussie Comics Culture in The Melbourne Weekly

Stephen A. Russell's recent article, 'Silver Screen Gold' (The Melbourne Weekly, 6 April 2011), was ostensibly about the box-office appeal of 'comic-book' movies, but it also provided mainstream readers with a timely round-up of Australian comics culture, by throwing the spotlight on various comics-related events, retailers and conventions.

Russell's piece profiled NonCanonical Comic Book Podcast, an online forum presented by Melbourne comics' impresarios, Larry Boxshall and Joe Morris; the Melbourne leg of the Supanova Pop Culture Expo may have ended last weekend, but the next event is scheduled for 17-19 June (Olympic park, Sydney); and Steve McCredie, longtime manager of Melbourne's Minotaur Entertainment, one of Australia's oldest specialty comic shops, was also interviewed for the story.

However, Boxshall made the valid - and somewhat depressing - point that, while millions of people may have shelled out money to see The Dark Knight movie, '[these] same people who watch that film have absolutely no intention of ever reading a Batman comic'. Perhaps it was more than just coincidental that the cover story for this same issue of The Melbourne Weekly considered the perilous future of Melbourne's independent bookstores, thrown into sharp relief by the recent widespread closure of Borders and Angus & Robertson bookstores throughout Australia.