Many consider Melbourne Australia’s most vibrant comics city, and this is due to homegrown entrepreneurs since the 1980s, as well as the fact that many of Australia’s best cartoonists migrate to Melbourne (sometimes just temporarily)! As a result, Melbourne birthed Australia’s comics awards, and both the University of Melbourne and Swinburne University of Technology offer unique graphic narrative courses.

The world’s oldest cartooning organisation, the Australian Cartoonists Association, was formed in 1923, and the Melbourne chapter holds regular meet-ups at the Retreat Hotel in Abbotsford. Those interested in contemporary genre and action comics can attend a monthly get-together at The Clyde Hotel. Artists meet weekly at naarm ngarggu Library for the Melbourne Comics Art Jam, and South Melbourne’s Squishface Comic Studio holds regular workshops and events, including a monthly drawing night. 

Squishface, Silent Army Reading Room and Tree Paper Gallery are physical hubs for local comics artists, and all stage group exhibitions, residencies and release collaborative anthologies. For small-press and zine fans, a trip to Melbourne isn’t complete without a visit to Sticky Institute, previously underneath Flinders St Station and in the Nicholas Building, but  now opposite the Queen Victoria Market.

There have been several Victorian festivals devoted to local comic artists, including Homecooked Comics Festival, Indie Comic Con and Australia’s first Indigenous comics festival, IndigiCon. Currently the only one running is Emerald Hill Comics Festival in the City of Port Phillip, though there are several small press festivals friendly to comics, including Sticky’s Festival of the Photocopier and Hallozeen, and local libraries keen for some children’s and YA graphic novel action have launched their own mini festivals, including Dandenong’s Dandy-Con, Kingston’s King-Con and Yarra Plenty’s Lib-Con.

The local comics community also holds frequent launches at indie-loving retailers like Readings Books, and Melbourne comics makers can often be found in the Artists’ Alleys of pop-culture conventions such as Metro Comic Con, Oz Comic Con and Supanova.

Melbourne has been the birthplace of many small comics publishers; the most prominent ones operating are Twelve Panels Press and Glom Press. Melbourne-based prose publishers such as Allen & Unwin, Affirm Press and Scribe Publications are also increasingly publishing adult graphic novels, many of which are being nominated for, and winning major Australian book awards.

If you’re looking to pick up international books, make sure you check out Minotaur, Comics ‘R’ Us and All Star Comics, which in 2014 was crowned World’s Best Comics Retailer at the Eisner Awards. And if your wallet’s getting skinny, Melbourne’s libraries are great places to find some graphic reading material, particularly the City and Docklands Library and the Kathleen Syme Library in Carlton. 

If you want a quick reference to where Australian Comics are set, Perth writer Campbell Whyte has created this awesome map.

Many consider Melbourne Australia’s most vibrant comics city, and this is due to homegrown entrepreneurs since the 1980s, as well as the fact that many of Australia’s best cartoonists migrate to Melbourne (sometimes just temporarily)! As a result, Melbourne is home to Australia’s comics awards, and both the University of Melbourne and Swinburne University of Technology offer unique graphic narrative courses.

The world’s oldest cartooning organisation, the Australian Cartoonists Association, was formed in 1923, and the Melbourne chapter holds regular meet-ups at the Retreat Hotel in Abbotsford. Those more interested in contemporary genre and action comics can attend a monthly get-together at The Clyde, and for comics fans of all stripes Brunswick’s Squishface Comic Studio holds workshops and events, including a monthly drawing night for adults. 

Squishface is open to the public most days of the week, and is a permanent hub for local artists, as is the Silent Army studio in North Melbourne, which often stages group exhibitions, residencies and releases collaborative anthologies. The Homecooked Comics Festival in the City of Darebin is Victoria’s only festival devoted to local comic artists, including local publishers Pikitia Press and Milk Shadow Books. The local comics community also holds frequent launches. For small-press and zine fans, a trip to Melbourne isn’t complete without a visit to the Sticky Institute, which was previously in the Nicholas Building, but is now at Second Location.

If you’re looking to pick up international books, make sure you check out Minotaur, Comics ‘R’ Us, Classic Comics and All Star Comics, which in 2014 was crowned World’s Best Comics Retailer at the Eisner Awards. And if your wallet’s getting skinny, Melbourne’s libraries are great places to find some graphic reading material, particularly the City and Docklands Library and the new Kathleen Syme Library in Carlton. 

If you want a quick reference to where Australian Comics are set, Perth writer Campbell Whyte has created this awesome map.