George Hall (cartoonist)
Encyclopedia
George Hall, born , is a 1980s Australian comic book writer/artist
. He drew two separate strips for the mid-eighties anthology comic Reverie, alongside creators Paul Harris, Peter Hughes, Robert Shaw, Fil Barlow, Michael Dutkiewicz and Ian C. Thomas
.
Hall was born in Bairnsdale, Victoria
. He was with Reverie for its entire seven-issue run, and created Sandy Star: Rebel Force (Reverie 1–3), a sci-fi strip, and Bloodgard (Reverie 4–7), a dark superhero concept.
The comic was available through newsagents between 1983 and 1986, lasting seven issues.
During the course of its run, other artists came on board, some of whom went on to work in the mainstream American comics. Most notable is Michal Dutkiewicz
, who went on to work for DC Comics
. Fil Barlow, creator of Zooniverse, also was a contributor to Reverie.
Reverie filled an important role at the time, giving new creators a chance to develop their skills and giving established artists a new platform for their talents.
Hall joined Reverie in the months before its first issue, proposing a strip he'd first devised during his last year of high school. His first episode was co-plotted by his then-wife, Zora Marko. His second Sandy Star episode also featured background art by Dellar. In the latter part of the Reverie run, he concentrated more on writing, allowing a talented teen-aged artist an opportunity.
The Australian fan press reaction to his work was more favorable to Bloodgard than to Sandy Star: Rebel Force.
In Reverie 3, he introduced an early version of Bloodgard as a secondary character, to assist the plot, then switched entirely over to Bloodgard in Reverie 4, with Sandy Star's last appearance being to introduce Bloodgard's origin and ensure a smooth transition to the new strip.
Bloodgard was a chilling concept. The first two episodes started off as typical superhero fare, only to twist by the end of the second episode, where Bloodgard destroyed the two major global superpowers of his timeline and took over his world. Episodes three and four dealt with the first story arc, where he drew four non-powered versions of himself from other timelines in a bid to destroy them. Had Reverie continued publishing past issue 7, the arc would have ended with one of the four alternate timeline duplicates donning a different set of Bloodgard armour to become the new Bloodgard and take the series further.
The strip anticipated trends in comics that would crop up in the mainstream American ones a few years afterward.
The second episode of Bloodgard featured the art of fourteen-year-old Mark Ryan, who stayed on the strip through to Reverie 7. George continued as writer.
The novel is a non-superhero work, a satire on American movies of the nineties, and has been described as a cult thriller with a weird love triangle.
He continued working on the Bloodgard concept over the years, renaming it to Terrorgard and has recently started writing a prose version, updating it from its original 1980's millieu. At this point of time, three chapters have been written.
He has also delved into film-script writing and script-editing, though only at development stages. The next few years will tell how successful he is in this field.
Comics in Australia
Australian comics have been published since 1921 and Australian comics creators have gone to produce influential work in the global comics industry ,-1900s:...
. He drew two separate strips for the mid-eighties anthology comic Reverie, alongside creators Paul Harris, Peter Hughes, Robert Shaw, Fil Barlow, Michael Dutkiewicz and Ian C. Thomas
Ian C. Thomas
Ian C. Thomas , aka Ian T., is a long-term Australian comics artist and cartoonist. He created Australia's first minicomic , produced Maelstrom and contributed to the early Australian anthology Reverie, as well as a comic strip in Melbourne newspaper City Extra.Ian T's recent work has appeared...
.
Hall was born in Bairnsdale, Victoria
Bairnsdale, Victoria
Bairnsdale is a small city in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. With a population at the 2006 census of 11,282, it is a major regional centre of eastern Victoria along with Traralgon and Sale....
. He was with Reverie for its entire seven-issue run, and created Sandy Star: Rebel Force (Reverie 1–3), a sci-fi strip, and Bloodgard (Reverie 4–7), a dark superhero concept.
The Reverie Years
Reverie was the brainchild of Gary Dellar, who envisaged an anthology title similar to British weekly comics, although with a semi-regular schedule. Dellar also had the help of Paul Harris, whose experience in advertising contributed to production values.The comic was available through newsagents between 1983 and 1986, lasting seven issues.
During the course of its run, other artists came on board, some of whom went on to work in the mainstream American comics. Most notable is Michal Dutkiewicz
Michal Dutkiewicz
Michael Dutkiewicz is a professional illustrator and comic book artist based in Adelaide, South Australia. The son of artist Wladyslaw Dutkiewicz, Dutkiewicz has worked on a variety of comic book titles, including Lost in Space , Wolverine:Doombringer, Batman Forever and Superman, as well as an...
, who went on to work for DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. Fil Barlow, creator of Zooniverse, also was a contributor to Reverie.
Reverie filled an important role at the time, giving new creators a chance to develop their skills and giving established artists a new platform for their talents.
Hall joined Reverie in the months before its first issue, proposing a strip he'd first devised during his last year of high school. His first episode was co-plotted by his then-wife, Zora Marko. His second Sandy Star episode also featured background art by Dellar. In the latter part of the Reverie run, he concentrated more on writing, allowing a talented teen-aged artist an opportunity.
From Sandy Star to Bloodgard
George was self-taught, but worked to master the learning curve of published work. He experimented with various techniques during his first three episodes, such as having a background artist in Sandy Star's second episode, while tackling duotones in the third. He even welcomed a different artistic interpretation of Bloodgard after its initial episode. On the writing side of things, his Bloodgard episodes utilized different characters' perspectives for each chapter (Bloodgard third and fourth episodes). Generally, Bloodgard is the better written of his two strips.The Australian fan press reaction to his work was more favorable to Bloodgard than to Sandy Star: Rebel Force.
In Reverie 3, he introduced an early version of Bloodgard as a secondary character, to assist the plot, then switched entirely over to Bloodgard in Reverie 4, with Sandy Star's last appearance being to introduce Bloodgard's origin and ensure a smooth transition to the new strip.
Bloodgard was a chilling concept. The first two episodes started off as typical superhero fare, only to twist by the end of the second episode, where Bloodgard destroyed the two major global superpowers of his timeline and took over his world. Episodes three and four dealt with the first story arc, where he drew four non-powered versions of himself from other timelines in a bid to destroy them. Had Reverie continued publishing past issue 7, the arc would have ended with one of the four alternate timeline duplicates donning a different set of Bloodgard armour to become the new Bloodgard and take the series further.
The strip anticipated trends in comics that would crop up in the mainstream American ones a few years afterward.
The second episode of Bloodgard featured the art of fourteen-year-old Mark Ryan, who stayed on the strip through to Reverie 7. George continued as writer.
Recent Creative Endeavours
In recent times, Hall has written a novel called A Question of Theories and explored publishing it via print-on-demand publishing. He has also written a screenplay of the same name. It is not known if there will be a comic book version of this story.The novel is a non-superhero work, a satire on American movies of the nineties, and has been described as a cult thriller with a weird love triangle.
He continued working on the Bloodgard concept over the years, renaming it to Terrorgard and has recently started writing a prose version, updating it from its original 1980's millieu. At this point of time, three chapters have been written.
He has also delved into film-script writing and script-editing, though only at development stages. The next few years will tell how successful he is in this field.