Local Act Comics - Past, Present & Future - Part 3: The Beginning
Wed, Oct 22 2008

How it all began…

I was asked recently in an interview “Why on Earth would you start an Australian comic publishing company?”

After months of work with the initial plan of approaching an existing comic publisher with a finished first issue of the series Ma.B, I looked into the option of printing the comics myself through a contact that I had from my 9-5 job. From there it went from 1 comic to 2 and onwards…

I quickly realised that the freedom that would come with self-publishing was a plus. We would be able to do it just the way we wanted and wouldn’t be governed by any restrictions that may have otherwise been placed on us.

I started LAC with the intention of promoting both myself and other comic creators who may not have the time, access or the knowledge to promote themselves.

From the very beginning I offered my printing/publishing services to Graeme McDonald for his other projects. From there the idea evolved into what it is today with the main emphasis being on promoting local comic creators who may not have the time / skill / finances / knowledge / connections to do it themselves. It seemed to me to be waste of potential to have work never see the light of day just because the creator may not have been able to make the necessary preparations and actions to see their material printed.

I’ve had a number of creators approach me since about publishing their material and I have also offered publishing deals to creators whose material I thought deserved to be published. With the merging of LAC and RadioTAK (which we’ll get into later on) a whole heap of creators came to join the LAC ranks and we’ve been growing in number ever since.

I guess its not so much a matter of choosing to start a publishing company, but rather hanging on for dear life while it evolved all around us.

Until next time...

Dave C.