Rob ‘Spedsy’ Lisle
Transcription
Peter Wilson (00:10):
Hello, welcome all to the second ever episode of Sunday Spotlight. How’s that for alliteration? Today we’re talking to the ever prolific, hardworking, the hilarious spy you’ve probably seen on drink and Draw. You’ve probably seen on the many comics he’s managed to put out of which I’ve managed to get some work in. Very pleased with that collaboration with me, the fearless founder of com, Shane, aka The Sizzle, and off the top, quickly, happy birthday to Annette. I know you’re probably watching you love these things, and I know this will mean the world to you. Hope it’s been a great day. I’ll talk to you properly afterwards.
Rob Lisle (00:48):
I just wanted to say I did not Okay. The happy birthday message. And Annette, you’re taking up my time, so
Peter Wilson (00:58):
I respect you on the drink and draw.
Rob Lisle (01:02):
Yeah, I’m changing my nickname from Spy to Oversaturated. I am everywhere. <laugh>,
Peter Wilson (01:10):
That’s good. You can never have too much.
Rob Lisle (01:12):
Yeah.
Peter Wilson (01:12):
All right, so we’ve got some quick fire questions here to get us loose and limber. It’s favorite color
Rob Lisle (01:19):
Black
Peter Wilson (01:21):
Day or night. Favorite drink,
Rob Lisle (01:25):
Mineral water.
Peter Wilson (01:27):
What are you reading slash collecting at the moment?
Rob Lisle (01:30):
Independent Australian comics.
Peter Wilson (01:34):
What’s the last song you listen to?
Rob Lisle (01:37):
Just breathe by Pel Jam.
Peter Wilson (01:38):
Beautiful. Favorite and least favorite thing to draw.
Rob Lisle (01:44):
Favorite is Eyes Least Favorite is hands.
Peter Wilson (01:47):
Hands are a Bitch.
Rob Lisle (01:49):
Especially these ones
Sizzle (01:52):
<laugh>.
Peter Wilson (01:53):
Okay, so before we dive into the meat of it how about we show off some of Spy’s style so we’re all on the same visual page.
Rob Lisle (02:01):
Okay. There he iss that guy.
Peter Wilson (02:07):
Big fan of the coloring on that one. <laugh>.
Sizzle (02:11):
<laugh>.
Peter Wilson (02:13):
A classic
Sizzle (02:13):
Toilet.
Peter Wilson (02:15):
If you say you like Indian comics, but don’t have Devil’s Toilet, you’re a hypocrite.
Sizzle (02:19):
<laugh>
Peter Wilson (02:21):
No
Rob Lisle (02:22):
More
Peter Wilson (02:23):
The Moose.
Rob Lisle (02:24):
Vamoose.
Peter Wilson (02:26):
If you want, again,
Sizzle (02:27):
This one.
Peter Wilson (02:28):
If you’re a fan of any, you want a widespread
Sizzle (02:31):
Group?
Peter Wilson (02:34):
Oh, I don’t have that one. I guess I’m the hypocrite.
Rob Lisle (02:36):
Oh, come on, Pete.
Peter Wilson (02:38):
I’ve embarrassed myself and others.
Rob Lisle (02:40):
Well look as a special, like they do on the Leno show or whatever when they bring out a special jumper for the host. I’m going to send you a Lakin and just in the mail. Oh,
Peter Wilson (02:51):
That worked out brilliant.
Rob Lisle (02:52):
Nice. And Annette, if you’re listening, I’ve got one for you as well. Happy birthday.
Peter Wilson (02:56):
That will legit make her day.
Rob Lisle (02:57):
Now stop soaking up my spotlight.
Peter Wilson (03:00):
<laugh>, man. So back to the beginning. Okay. Have you always been a creative dude? Have you always been creating?
Rob Lisle (03:09):
Yes.
Peter Wilson (03:11):
Okay. What was Anti League Chalker?
Rob Lisle (03:17):
I was that was a joke because I was saying to someone how I feel like I’m an easy interview because you ask a question and then I talk for 12 minutes. So I was just sort of going <laugh>, seeing how it would go if I just, yes, a question. When has expected really awkward, and I’ve totally set us off on the wrong foot
Peter Wilson (03:39):
Now.
Rob Lisle (03:41):
For as long as I can recall, I have been creating I would write stories in my exercise books at school. So you would have a couple of pages of maths, flick the book upside down and go from the back page. And then we’d be a tale of a warrior who had a treehouse and would, that’s just a particular story that I remember. He was called the Skylander. Ooh. And he would fight off mutant monkeys and stuff from his treehouse.
Peter Wilson (04:16):
I used to rip out the middle four pages, the fo in the book. So by the end of it, my exercise books would be razor. Yeah. It would’ve been smarter to go from the back.
Rob Lisle (04:28):
Funny
Peter Wilson (04:28):
I awkward notes.
Rob Lisle (04:29):
Funny. Someone ripped out the middle of my Crimson and Rascal number one, because it’s only eight pages.
Peter Wilson (04:35):
Really? It could be like a spy destroyed variant.
Rob Lisle (04:39):
No, no. Joking was a, remember your first issue was a, that’s inside baseball joke. So inside you didn’t even get it. That’s
Peter Wilson (04:47):
One point. That’s bad.
Rob Lisle (04:52):
Yeah, no. And so I’ve always been drawing and writing and shout out to James Rolf who are in graphics. This is my earliest drawing memory. I had drawn something that I was particularly happy with and he stole it off me as a keepings off. And when I chased him, and when I finally got it back, it was all crinkled and I moaned to the teacher about it. And the teacher’s idea of rectifying it was to get James Rolf to redraw it and Oh no, I, I’ll draw it and <laugh> my earliest memory of <laugh>. I don’t even know where I was going with this story. James Rolfe was not intended to be talked about but shed out to Mr. Neon whose idea it was for James to redraw my assignment.
Peter Wilson (05:46):
So it’s the first almost time you wrote a script and collaborated with someone
Rob Lisle (05:50):
Against my will. Yeah.
Peter Wilson (05:53):
So can you recall the first time you went from just creating for fun to developing at your start a serious project where you really had to apply yourself?
Rob Lisle (06:02):
Yes. And I don’t know where or how this idea came to me, but it was within the music genre. I was a musician story. I was a songwriter and I got it in my head that I could be a famous musician I guess. And immediately I thought my band could make it. And so I applied my wares to music for 10 years. I don’t know where that came from because my dad was a musician but only played in sort of local, he wasn’t like a fame seeking whatever, and not so much that I was seeking fame, but I just wanted to play in front of large crowds, which I guess is a fame thing. And then it wasn’t until after that then when music kind of went away, I still thought I was meant to be using my creative side to pay the bills. And so I turned to comics and novels, both very lucrative genres. And that’s where I’ve, oh, screen screenwriting was in there somewhere too. Yeah. Just trying to make my brain pay the bills instead of Yeah, manual.
Peter Wilson (07:32):
Is there a big difference in how you approach a song versus a comic?
Rob Lisle (07:39):
Yes and no. Songs come from noodling and drawing comes from doodling. Thank you. Oh,
Peter Wilson (07:45):
We go
Rob Lisle (07:46):
<laugh>.
Peter Wilson (07:46):
Write that one down.
Rob Lisle (07:51):
So songs would normally come from J. Yeah, just strumming and humming. I am all kind of Roman
Peter Wilson (07:58):
<laugh>.
Rob Lisle (08:00):
And comics for me at least in the beginning would come from scribbling, just drawing shapes, pictures, mainly I would start with eyes and see what happened. And then if something sort of particularly grabbed me, then I would start thinking, well, what’s this person up to and why do they look like this? And what are they and where do they come from? And that’s where all my sort of original comic book ideas came from.
Peter Wilson (08:33):
Was there a moment when you realized, yeah, I want to stick with comics. I’ve got a knack for this.
Rob Lisle (08:43):
I have a tendency to spin too many plates or try to do too many things and therefore nothing gets my full attention. And so I was still drawing and putting out, I put out two comics during actually a Devil’s Toilet that I dare not speak about, but there is an early Devil’s Toilet, one that is problematic jokes that I thought were funny in my early twenties not so much. Now I quit my job to focus on music, but I was still trying other things at the same time. I was formulating ideas for screenplays and I was making comic books. And so I regret that time in a way because I feel like I should have dedicated, if I had quit my job to make music, I should have made it every moment I should have focused on it. And so having learned that lesson when I got a little bit of momentum a couple of years ago when Devil’s Toilet came out with Revere I’ve made a real concerned, noted effort to try and stay focused
Peter Wilson (10:07):
Cool.
Rob Lisle (10:07):
On that thing and take the opportunities while I can. Yeah,
Peter Wilson (10:12):
And you definitely do that. I remember when you jumped onto web tune.
Rob Lisle (10:17):
Yeah.
Peter Wilson (10:17):
And thinking, that’s something I’ve got to aspire to. Yeah. I was very, you just threw yourself into it.
Rob Lisle (10:24):
Yeah. So that was a
Peter Wilson (10:31):
Light
Rob Lisle (10:32):
Product of necessity, I guess. Writing for Tony, who specifically asked me to make his comic into a web tune his script into a web tune comic. And I’d never done a web tune. And so I literally in the space of a couple hours, just tried to do one and just, it just goes against so many things we’ve taught ourselves for so long about left to, and now we’re page trans transitions in a comic are no longer relevant now. It’s almost like panel transitions and panels go, they all go down the page and lots of learning process that I wouldn’t say I’ve nailed it yet, but I Chapter 10 versus chapter one. I think I’ve learned some tricks about how to make it work. Yeah,
Peter Wilson (11:25):
That’s definitely something I need to get jump into.
Rob Lisle (11:28):
You’d smash,
Peter Wilson (11:28):
It
Rob Lisle (11:30):
Would be a challenge for you though, because you like to fit about 300 panels worth of panels onto a page.
Peter Wilson (11:37):
Yeah. Tricky.
Rob Lisle (11:39):
Yeah, it’d be awesome to see your stuff. No, Pete one panel
Peter Wilson (11:43):
And
Rob Lisle (11:43):
Then scroll down one panel. Yeah, that’d be awesome. Quite extra.
Peter Wilson (11:47):
Yeah. Any formal training at all?
Rob Lisle (11:52):
I have gone to several screenwriting courses when I thought that was my Where to Apply my wears. So I learned a lot about screenwriting there obviously, as was the name of the course. Yeah. Which actually hindered me a little bit because then I went on to Tricky thing with writing a screenplay is that you have this thing that’s not really a product and it relies on getting someone to read it and not as in getting someone to read your comic for fun, getting the powers the be to read it. And I’ve always hated that part where you’ve got to chase down people to see your stuff, whatever.
(12:45):
So I went from screenwriting to novel writing, which I had dabbled in over the years, but I was like, I’m going to actually commit to hundreds of pages here and thousands and thousands of words. But I wrote it in the present tense. So it was happening. You would write a screenplay like Dave is talking to Steve. Not Right. Dave talked to Steve. And so I think it worked. But for that sort of community who’s very used to books being one way, it was sort of a bit of a, huh? What <laugh> books just happen. It’s like watching a movie, but in words, it’s just happening now. But it was a stumbling block for many which funnily enough now got another novel that the first draft is done and it’s like 140,000 words. And I was working on that just as Gary Della said he would publish Devil’s Toilet number one. Oh me Trying to be disciplined. And I’m like, all right, well I’ll put the book aside for someday down the road and I’m try going to try and focus on one thing. Yeah.
Peter Wilson (13:59):
That’s awesome. So if you had to, how would you define a creative person? Would you say there’s requirements?
Rob Lisle (14:09):
No. My sister-in-law is more creative than I could ever hope to be. I think it’s just a brain that thinks that can take flights of fancy is a creative person. I like to do a thing called reaming which is when you go to bed and I’m trying to get my kids to, I think it helps with anxiety and stuff is to, pred dream is you just take flights of fancy and imagine yourself doing, you basically have a dream that you think it while you’re awake. This might sound ridiculous, but I think an ability to just imagine is yeah, that’s alright.
Peter Wilson (14:55):
That’s good way to
Rob Lisle (14:56):
Put it like that. Yeah. Flights are fancy because I’ve noticed some people don’t have that. You can just be talking and sometimes your jokes will become hypothetical situations. And some people I’ve joked around with mates and them and I get a, how did you even think of that? And it’s just where my brain goes. And I think mean lots of us, obviously we all have that.
Peter Wilson (15:26):
That’s interesting. We put a name to something that I’ve done for years, so that’s actually interesting.
Rob Lisle (15:33):
Pred reaming.
Peter Wilson (15:34):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that’s something, if I can’t sleep, that’s something I’ll do to myself. That’s really interesting. I’m glad others do it. And it’s not just me.
Rob Lisle (15:41):
Well, I think it comes from just the old counting sheep, but when you’re a creative person, you start picturing sheep jumping over a fence, but then one of ’em trips over and yells at the other one and then <laugh> this suddenly this whole story of these sheep that some of ’em are scared to jump the fence. And you just are there and you’re holding a light saber and you’re get over the damn fence, you’re sheep. And before you know it, you’re pred reaming and you’ve forgotten your day’s worries. And
Peter Wilson (16:10):
That’s really cool. So when you are absentmindedly doodling or scribbling, you’re on the phone or you’re supposed to be working, what’s the one thing you tend to draw more than others?
Rob Lisle (16:21):
Thor’s hammer
Peter Wilson (16:23):
Really
Rob Lisle (16:24):
Always. I draw, I’d start with a I, I don’t know what the term is, but a cube but of rectangle cube <laugh>. So whatever that would be. 3d, rectangle,
Peter Wilson (16:35):
Rectangular prism.
Rob Lisle (16:37):
Sure. So I always do that and then I put a circle on top, then I put the handle on the bottom and then the rope don’t, the little thing that he puts around, I don’t know why. I’ve just always done that. My go-to. I can’t draw thought in my life. I can’t draw wings on a hat, but I’ll draw a thousand little hammers.
Peter Wilson (17:00):
So what are your non-com inspirations? I’m guessing you’d probably have a lot of musical ones.
Rob Lisle (17:07):
Yeah, I love listening to music. I can’t listen to music when I’m writing, which and which is one of the downsides because I love having a big drawing task in front of me and putting on my favorite records or my favorite podcast has come out. So writing wise, I have to listen to lo-Fi girl on YouTube. Something that’s just like some chill beats man
Peter Wilson (17:37):
That you can sort of ignore.
Rob Lisle (17:39):
Yeah, yeah. Just something to drown out. It’s sort of a product of necessity too. Having six year old twins, my house is not ginormous. So I find myself gone at the days where I need complete silence when I write and I need the sun to be in this parex of, it’s just like now I got to <laugh> draw when I can draw and write, when I can write. But inspirations outside of comics I’m a bit of a people watcher studier. So I kind of get inspiration from that. I just thought of an awkward moment just last week where there was a lady standing, we were in a restaurant, my wife and over near the counter ordering was a lady and I was looking at her for probably longer than I should have. And I even said to my wife, if that lady turned around, it’d be awkward. Cause I’ve been staring at her for the last few minutes. But I was studying I thinking about her as lines. I was just looking about like, oh yeah, that goes into, and then you go from there because you’re always looking for tricks to about how does a butt connect to a leg and a leg connect to an ankle,
Peter Wilson (19:00):
Especially as a cartoonist, how do you break it down? How do you get those shapes basic each time?
Rob Lisle (19:05):
Yeah, absolutely.
Peter Wilson (19:11):
I had something there. I completely lost it. So let’s just move on.
Rob Lisle (19:14):
<laugh> Lions on a person at a restaurant
Peter Wilson (19:17):
Before that
Rob Lisle (19:20):
Music podcast, SoFi Girl, sweet Beats man.
Peter Wilson (19:25):
No, there was something. Ah yes. What you’re saying about having a family nearby and needing to have some quiet, but not necessarily having that. I read Stephen King’s book, his biography on writing tips, and he said as he was getting more and more successful, the one thing he sort of treated himself to was a enormous, beautiful mahogany study desk. And he said today he hasn’t written a thing on it. Cause he sat down and thought it’s too quiet. So he still rides on a crappy little dinner tray in the lounge room surrounded by his kids. Yeah, well they were his kids.
Rob Lisle (20:01):
Yeah. Well, so I identify with that because, so I’m sitting in my office right now, which was my office, then Covid happened. My wife had to start working from home. So the room that was the office became my wife’s. And so I do all my desk is in the lounge room and we’ve since gone looking for houses to upgrade whatever. And with the idea that I would get my own office and I don’t want it <laugh> like we are looking at these places and they have these studios out the back. And my wife was like, oh, you could have all this space. And I was like, it’s that thing about have a writer needs the peace and quiet, whatever. Well now I’ve become accustomed to, I’m sitting there amongst it. My kids are playing video games right next to me. And so I get to do my alone stuff. It’s quite lonely being a creator, but my family are bustling around me and sometimes so they’re battling and bustling.
Peter Wilson (21:07):
Yeah, that’s quite sweet. Yeah, that’s a cool little progression.
Rob Lisle (21:12):
Yeah.
Peter Wilson (21:13):
So when you’re creating a comic, are you quite strict with your structure? Do you do full script first, then drawing? Or do you <laugh>, is there some loose scribbles and then you, is there a lot of give and take there? Or do you have a very strict kind of procedure?
Rob Lisle (21:28):
Depends on the project. Well, I don’t even know if it depends on the project. I think it depends on my brain at the time because it’s differed almost every single time. So how I used to do comics when I was a kid through to my late twenties when I wasn’t really kind of pursuing it so much as just having fun. I would tell the story. I would tell a story with almost no story. One of my favorite little mini comics that I have that I can’t really show the world, cause it’s probably a bit weird, but it’s called Head with a subtitle, blood Pool. And it’s about this guy who kills this rogue gang of cats who had been terrorizing the neighborhood, but that had no script, no story even. I just started drawing stuff. And as a result it was so much fun. And with Sluggish, which is my problematic most recent comic, was me getting back to that having, but because I couldn’t help myself, I had a loose sort of story in mind. Yeah, it’s a guy getting up in the morning and going to work and then his dealings with being at work. That was about the structure I had.
(22:59):
But then there’s things where I’ve written myself into a hole with other things so that you really need to so Devil’s Toilet One, I’d set some things in motion and I thought Devil’s Toilet Two was going to be my last comic ever. So I wanted to get a bunch of ideas in there just so that they were documented, but also tie up loose ends from the first one. And so that one ended up being quite heavily scripted. And because too, I thought I had to obey a 22 page rule, which I’ve since just gone. That was just to save a couple of bucks on printing <laugh>. Like why am I so stringently trying to stick to that rule when other comics I’ve of mine maybe could have done with another page or two to get Yeah,
Peter Wilson (23:51):
Sure.
Rob Lisle (23:53):
Get someone like Larry and Josh that we showed before. I’m very, very proud of that. Pete Fairfax absolutely killed it characters created by Gary Della and he gave me, it’s a time travel story and just over the course of it, I need you to do this and this and this. So that’s a very fun sort of writing prompt. But I felt the need to get that done in 22 pages. And I kind of sacrificed maybe a little bit of time spent with the characters. I’m proud of it because I just think it could be this much better had I pushed for 24 pages or something instead of 22 and let some moments sit for a sec so we weren’t crying and then running straight into something else. It’s like, let a moment breathe and yeah,
Peter Wilson (24:57):
I know what you mean. I encountered similar problems being stuck with eight pages on presents. I wish I could have had another one just for pages. Shane <laugh>, sometimes these things happen.
Rob Lisle (25:10):
Well yeah, it’s funny, we just ran into this with we’ve got a comic book coming out called Ring Around the Rosie with myself, Lee talker, Ben Sullivan and Ryan Vela, and that was an eight page story for noir. And so it’s like Panel one bang you hitting the ground running because we wanted to tell the bigger story we could in the smallest amount of time, but then we had so much fun. Let’s do it again and then, alright, let’s do it. Let’s make it doing three chapters and same sort of thing. I think it works. I think it’s a fun experiment. I think it, but it zooms along. When had we sat down to write the best ring around the rosy story, it probably would’ve been over three issues. Not so much three chapters in one book. But
Peter Wilson (26:06):
Yeah, it’s always good to know the reader’s going to savor it rather than zoom through it.
Rob Lisle (26:12):
But too, it’s sometimes the idea of then Dr. Drawing another couple of pages, it’s like that can be another 30 hours work you’re talking about.
Peter Wilson (26:21):
And it’s hard to disassociate sometimes you think because you put in say, a week’s extra worth of work because it doesn’t feel fresh to you. You sometimes worry well with the reader, will it translate? And sometimes it’s hard to get that dissonance.
Rob Lisle (26:35):
Yeah, yeah.
Peter Wilson (26:37):
Okay, so we’ve talked about your space. You got any must have tools you use when you’re creating, I know you’re a digital guy.
Rob Lisle (26:45):
Just this my brain just glove
Peter Wilson (26:48):
The greatest.
Rob Lisle (26:49):
No, I need my glove. If I don’t have my glove, I feel weird. I have a little glove to stop me from sliding around too much or the opposite, not sliding around enough. No, I need my stuff. It feels weird sometimes to draw elsewhere. I can’t draw on the couch as comfy as it, I’ve sat down on the couch to draw and I’m like, oh, this is, I’ve discovered the
(27:19):
<laugh>. Oh, I can’t do that. But no real tools. I’m a digital guy. Obviously digital is fairly new, so I obviously wasn’t, but for the longest time I couldn’t achieve what I saw in my mind. If I can draw on an iPad, I can obviously draw on paper, but I can’t get the end result that I can get on a, yeah. So I, my pencils are the same on a piece of paper or on an iPad. And there, and I should have known this, but there are pencils and there are iners and I’m just not in traditional way. I’m just not an inker. I just can’t get the lines that I want. Yeah,
Peter Wilson (28:04):
I’m right there.
Rob Lisle (28:07):
And so I had thrown it in many times with drawing because just everyone was just so much better than me. I just couldn’t achieve what I wanted. And then I need to go kiss a man on the lips at the Apple store who I was buying a new laptop and he said, what do you use it for? And I said, oh, I’ve got a little tablet that I use to color my drawings in. He goes, have you ever tried drawing on an iPad? And I was like, oh, that’s crazy talk. And I did two little strokes and I was like, holy moly. And I owe that guy everything.
Peter Wilson (28:47):
He’s
Rob Lisle (28:47):
Gone back. I’ve described the man and no one has any recollection of a person like that working there. So he may have been a ghost.
Peter Wilson (28:54):
Maybe you go back to the Apple store and it’ll just be a mysterious dusty breeze.
Rob Lisle (28:58):
Yeah,
Peter Wilson (28:58):
That could be cool. Oh, we’ve touched on a lot already, so I’ll just jump forward here on my little list.
Rob Lisle (29:08):
I’ll touch on you in a minute.
Peter Wilson (29:11):
Do you find when you get hindered, we all have a creative block on occasion, how do you overcome your dry spells? Man,
Rob Lisle (29:22):
I’ve got so many little tips and tricks that I will happily give anybody
Peter Wilson (29:30):
Please.
Rob Lisle (29:31):
So some awesome ones. This is sort of like for when you’ve got a blank page and you know what to do, but it’s just imagine two people, there’s a person in a room and then Steve is standing in a room, bill walks in and then just have the characters both say hello to each other and then go from there with the conversation. Just have, how are you? Good. And just keep going and don’t stop. They will start arguing and then you’ll find out what they’re arguing about and you’ll find out their relationship and it’ll all just start appearing. And before you know it, you accidentally got a story that you didn’t know was even there.
(30:21):
I think too sometimes we can sit and worry about an idea sitting and just going, I’m just trying to think of, I did the devil’s toilet. What’s my next character? I need a guy with an octopus for a head. And it’s like, it doesn’t need to be about some fancy plot, unique, whatever. At the end of the day, it’s all about characters. And the best plot in the world doesn’t mean anything if you don’t care about the character. Very true. So a trick would be just make up a form like that you can fill out. So say, name date of birth, place of of origin, job, fears, goals, and just fill it out. And then as you get to things like fears, first thing I wrote down was scared of cats. That was just the first thing that came to me. And then you start thinking, well, why is he scared of cats?
(31:23):
What happened? And then before it, you’ve just created a character. And I think for people like you and I who maybe draw first to find a character, it can be a good exercise in sort of have a fully fleshed character, not in a visual sense, but in a personality sense. And then not everything has to be a guy with an octopus for her head. It can just be a dude or it can just be a lady walking around, give her a fancy beanie, but that make her look different that way. Beanie’s always a good choice, a nice gray beanie with badges on it. Suddenly you’ve got yourself good looking rooster style one. Yeah.
(32:13):
Another cool trick for now, I think this could work for people like yourself and I, but if you are writing a comic for a artist, just ask the artist <laugh>. Just ask the thanks Gaz. Ask the artist what they want to draw. I was talking to an artist about something just recently and I said, well, what would you want to draw if we were to do something? And he was like, I love drawing horror stuff. I love jungle scapes. Don’t want to do buildings. I love monsters. And then so suddenly I’ve just, ideas are coming that I had no, that was enough of a writing prompt. Do you know what I mean? So I need a jungle setting Hoish vibes, there’s a weird looking monster character. And then ding, dinging ding. Suddenly all these bits start popping up. So how that could work for you and Pete, we’re doing our own stuff, is somehow try and separate yourself and say, well what would I want to draw for 22 pages? Well I like drawing. And then fill out the questionnaire yourself. And
Peter Wilson (33:33):
That’s definitely how I approach foes. Cause I don’t like drawing people, but I like drawing monsters. I mean, if I’m going to do multiple pages of the same two characters, it’s got to be fun to draw.
Rob Lisle (33:44):
Yeah, exactly. Right. Well, so my story with how I came up with Sluggish was that the Devil’s Toilet was a square with eyes. And then stupidly, I filled out the cast with people and people are a pain in the butt to draw, whereas the toilet’s really easy. And so I was trying to just find something and I came up with Herb, a slug dude, and then I was like, oh wow, he looks sad. And I was like that he’s a slug sluggish. It would be, it just starts very cool. I wasn’t sitting down to write about mental health. I just was like, I drew a dude that looked like this slug looking dude that was looking sad. And I was like, all right. And start typing. And
Peter Wilson (34:29):
That is a happy accident as Bob Ross also. Yeah.
Rob Lisle (34:32):
Awesome.
Peter Wilson (34:37):
So how do you describe your style to people?
Rob Lisle (34:41):
Nick May versus The Simpsons?
Peter Wilson (34:44):
<laugh>? Very cool.
Rob Lisle (34:47):
Yeah, I don’t know. Simpsons would be the, there’s always the hardest thing with, in music, they would always say, oh w how would you describe your sound? And it’s just like, it’s so weird. I would just say kind of the Foo Fighters rock and roll. I don’t know. So I would say I’m cartoony. Yeah, I would say there’s a definite Simpsons, Rick and Morty sort of a vibe. That’s when having to have to say the most popular version of what you do.
Peter Wilson (35:24):
Yeah, yeah.
Rob Lisle (35:25):
Otherwise, yeah, I would say, well, imagine Nick May, Peter Wilson and Alex Major all had this weird baby together. That’s what my stuff looks like
Peter Wilson (35:36):
Now. That’s a comic waiting to happen.
Rob Lisle (35:38):
Yeah, and absolutely. Sorry, I was just No,
Peter Wilson (35:44):
You go
Rob Lisle (35:45):
My writing style I didn’t realize. Yeah, Dave Dye said to me, he goes, you always need to say something with your books, don’t you? And I was like, well, I guess. But then I Boeing it on Dave and then I told him of all the things that he didn’t realize he was seeing in his books. So maybe that’s just a story thing. I dunno.
Peter Wilson (36:03):
That could be interesting observation though. So over the years, what’s the best criticism or encouragement you’ve ever gotten?
Rob Lisle (36:15):
Oh,
Rob Lisle (36:17):
I hate to say Dave Dye’s name again but he’s a stake in
Peter Wilson (36:24):
The industry.
Rob Lisle (36:27):
Yeah, I want to give you a more better, I mean Nick May kind of going from a mentor to an equal W was kind of the biggest compliment the universe could give me. Cool, cool. I had that in music to it. I had a friend who played in a band who was very obviously better than my band when we started. And then after a couple years we were playing shows together and we would headline or they would headline and whatever. And that’s quite a unique sort of feeling to look up to someone and then be able to look sideways to someone. Is that the word? You both on the same level sort of thing. But otherwise Dave Dye reached out about six months ago and said, Hey, are you up for a video chat? And I was like, yeah, or what’s this going to be about?
(37:32):
I don’t know why. I thought maybe I’ve said the wrong thing on Drink and Drawer and whatever. But no, he had read Lakin and he wanted to ask me questions about it and he was complimentary, but at the same time he was like, I don’t know why this and what about this? And I was just like, that was a perspective that was very I don’t even know how to describe it. Cut to, I said to him a week ago, Dave, are you up for a video chat? I’m going to send you ring around the rosy and I want you to ring around the rosy what you did to larrikin and cut to when someone’s in your circle. But what’s the, what’s that thing they call a Venn diagram or whatever? So me and Dave are hanging out in this bit, but then our circles are, there’s a lot more circle. And I’d like to have a reader, Dave, not trip up on things in my books. I mean, I’d like to theoretical, I’d no one to trip up on it, but it is in terms of, yeah, that sort of, Dave’s just got a good eye for things
Peter Wilson (38:46):
He does.
Rob Lisle (38:47):
So any criticism, good or bad from Dave is good.
Peter Wilson (38:51):
That’s a good approach. I always try to get my non-com reading friends to go over it because they’ll be the first to, especially things like bad lettering or panel placement. If it trips them up, then you’ve got to simplify, comeback even kudos
Rob Lisle (39:07):
On having friends that well, kudos for having friends, but kudos for having friends that care about your comics. Good.
Peter Wilson (39:13):
Well, they know I won’t speak to them.
Rob Lisle (39:17):
<laugh>, my friends sort of, sorry, what are you doing now? What do we have to buy? Came to all your shows 20 years ago, that was enough. It
Peter Wilson (39:28):
<laugh> what
Rob Lisle (39:28):
The books now, how much are they? It’s
Peter Wilson (39:32):
They should be grateful, grateful. Is there a comic or could be a song? Is there one particular one that you always go back to for a bit of a hit of motivation for a bit of inspiration?
Rob Lisle (39:49):
Yeah. Why The Last Man is probably how I want to write comics. I think the comics that I write and draw are quite different to the comics that I write and someone else draws. So in terms of the comics that I write and someone else draws Why The Last Man is the sort of tone that I’m feel like I’m playing in where it’s like it’s serious stakes, but it doesn’t take itself super seriously either. It’s easy, digestible not heavy. You try to write the books that you want to read. And I can’t write Alan Moore and I know, yeah, but I also know it definitely wasn’t popular when I was working in a comic shop. But I also don’t Alan Moore’s work doesn’t really speak to me. I understand that he’s awesome and never, everybody loves him and whatever, but it’s different strokes for different folks. Just that’s not my kind of comic book. And I think that that’s my fault. If everyone’s saying it’s good, I have a weird ADHD something or whatever, very heavy for me. Things like Watchman and Vifa Vendetta and whatever. So yeah, so I kind of like a Brian Wood, Brian K. Vaughn, all the Brian’s <laugh>, Brian, Michael Bendis those are my guys. Funnily enough, I was in a cover band with my dad called the Brians when I was about 19. So this might be a full circle weird thing.
Peter Wilson (41:46):
<laugh> it very well could be. Well, okay, I think that brings us towards the end of the show. Thanks so much.
Rob Lisle (41:54):
Yeah, sorry for not being, I should have been more talkative.
Peter Wilson (41:58):
No, you took us perfectly to the 40 minute mark. You’re fine.
Rob Lisle (42:01):
Oh, it’s a 40 minute show. Sweet. We nailed it.
Peter Wilson (42:03):
Yeah, you absolutely killed it.
Rob Lisle (42:05):
Okay.
Peter Wilson (42:06):
Thank you so much for watching everyone. Thank you for all your comments. Love ’em all. Thanks for your help. Srs Spy, what have you got to plug?
Rob Lisle (42:16):
Yeah, well I’m in a book called Sizzle and Doug right now that’s my latest comic book. That sounds like I’m doing sizzle a favor, but I am not because I myself am very proud of it. It’s a weird thing to be like you can easily go, all right, so I’ve done a bunch of comics now. Just having a handful of pages in this other thing is not a big deal. And then you realize, well, prior to this, even just the idea of getting a piece of fan art in a comic was massive. And so I’m stoked that I still have, I mean, talk to me in 10 years, but right now, even just having the slightest bit of something in someone’s book is very makes me very proud. And to be part of Sizzle and Doug to be the cover artist and the intro outro guy very proud to be a part of it. I think it’s a piece of Australian comic book history. So that’s available right now at the coms shop coms.shop. Otherwise, yeah, I do a bunch of books that can be found@psychojanitor.com and then a few others that can be found@rearypublications.com. So you can grab the stuff that I write and draw that’s wacky Good Times or Over at Revere is some more sort of my version of my Spy’s Alan Moore, Alan Less
Peter Wilson (43:45):
<laugh>. Okay, fantastic. And keep an eye out for the Foes collected edition Kickstarter. That should be coming relatively soon. Also in Sizzle and Doug. And you can check out a lot of my stuff mostly written. And I work with a great Robbie Don in the mooses one through to four when that’s coming out.
Rob Lisle (44:09):
And so call out to anybody in the Australian comic industry who can beat me and Pete have been in or will be in by February something 11. Comics together different and not in sequential order, just all over different anthologies and whatever. So come at me, Tim McEwen, Gary cer, who else has got it? An 11 comic partnership.
Peter Wilson (44:33):
There’s no beating
Rob Lisle (44:36):
<laugh>.
Peter Wilson (44:38):
I’d like to end on a quote. There’s something I’m trying to do in this show. So today’s quote, the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. And that’s from Berman Russell, I picked him because he’s the polar opposite of a comic maker. I think he’s a mathematician, but still Wise words.
Rob Lisle (44:54):
Yep. And then just a quick quote from Nick May what is this in my ear from Nick? May
Peter Wilson (45:02):
Profound. Thanks. We can all take someone from that.
Rob Lisle (45:08):
Awesome.
Sizzle (45:09):
So I guess my last words would be, don’t forget to like him to subscribe.
Peter Wilson (45:15):
Oh
Rob Lisle (45:15):
Yeah. Sub subscribe.
Sizzle (45:17):
Sub subscribe. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Subscribe twice. Thanks. I guess that’s that’s the show. Is it Pete?
Peter Wilson (45:30):
Yeah. I’m
Sizzle (45:31):
Happy with that. You very much, Rob. Thank you very thank
Rob Lisle (45:33):
Thanks guys
Sizzle (45:34):
And see you all next week. Thanks everyone. See you. See you next week.
Voice Over (45:47):
This show is sponsored by the Comics Shop.