Darren Schroeder
Encyclopedia
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, New Zealand) is a Small Press
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
editor, critic, stand up comedian, and comics creator. He is best known for founding the Register of New Zealand Comics, editing the Small press
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
section of the Comics Bulletin
Comics Bulletin
Comics Bulletin is a website with an emphasis on the American comic book industry, updated daily with news, reviews, interviews, and editorial content. Coverage ranges from mainstream to independent/small press comic book and graphic novel publishers.-History:...
website and as long-standing editor of the Funtime Comics
Funtime Comics
Funtime Comics is a Christchurch, New Zealand based collective of comic artists and writers whose aim is to provide a forum for the promotion and discussion of the comic medium, promote New Zealand comics and encourage local writers and artists through the publishing of their own comics...
anthology Funtime Comics Presents. He also creates his own popular semi-autobiographical mini comic Mopy
Biography
Darren Schroeder is a pākehāPakeha
Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
from Christchurch, New Zealand who now living in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He learnt to read through exposure to Donald Duck comics, and later on the work of Keith Giffen
Keith Giffen
Keith Ian Giffen is an American comic book illustrator and writer.-Biography:Giffen was born in Queens, New York City....
on Justice League International
Justice League International
Justice League International is a DC Comics superhero team written by Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis, with art by Kevin Maguire, created in 1987.-Publication history:...
inspired him to return to his comic reading habit.
His interest turned to locally produced comics, and even though they were done on a small scale he thought they were just as good, if not better, than most of the imported stuff he encountered.
Editorship at Funtime Comics
He became involved in the New Zealand comic collective Funtime ComicsFuntime Comics
Funtime Comics is a Christchurch, New Zealand based collective of comic artists and writers whose aim is to provide a forum for the promotion and discussion of the comic medium, promote New Zealand comics and encourage local writers and artists through the publishing of their own comics...
at its inception in 1991, but did not take up editorship of the Funtime Comics Presents anthology until 1993 with the publication of Issue #5. He was known for a very inclusive editorial policy, "Everyone's got a story to tell, and everyone can draw comics." His long-standing editorship finished with his move to England in February 2007, and Issue #22 and #23 have been published under new editor Isaac Freeman.
Small Press reviewing
Darren Schroeder took up editorship of the Small PressSmall press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
section of the international Comics Bulletin
Comics Bulletin
Comics Bulletin is a website with an emphasis on the American comic book industry, updated daily with news, reviews, interviews, and editorial content. Coverage ranges from mainstream to independent/small press comic book and graphic novel publishers.-History:...
website when the site launched in 2000. He is also a critic/writer for the international publications Comic Edge, Comic Quarterly, and various websites such as Comics Australia (the former seminal site for Australian comics ).
His own Comic Mopy
Comics reviewer Tim Bollinger wrote that Darren's mini-comic, Mopy: "...veers wildly from heartfelt autobiographical narratives to bad throwaway puns, with naïve, scratchy but immediate drawings that shout sincerity into the gaping abyss of popular cultural indifference".Acknowledgements
He was interviewed about his contribution to the New Zealand comics scene by Shirley Horrocks in her documentary The Comics Show. He was also interviewed on New Zealand's National Radio.In 2006 the Kiwi Comics site (featuring the Register of New Zealand Comics) that Darren Schroeder created and maintains was acknowledged in two independent New Zealand comics awards.
- 2006 Gibson Award winner Favourite Web Related Material
- 2006 Black River Digital Eric Award winner Best Comics Related Website
He was also acknowledged by the tongue-in-cheek First Annual Funtime Comics Award 2002 as the joint winner of The Funtimes Extreme Award for best contribution to community singing.
Other activities
In addition to his comics interests, until recently Darren Schroeder was an active committee member of the Canterbury Film Society. His involvement in visual culture extends to television, and he also maintains a web site about New Zealand television history.External links
- Darren Schroeder's Profile on the Register of New Zealand Comics
- The Small Press site that Darren edits
- The website of Funtime Comics that produces the anthology Funtime Comics Presents
- Home of Darren Schroeder's semi-autobiographical mini comic Mopy
- Darren Schroeder's ComicSpace