The Nanna
Island’s graphic narrative project

Through an introductory webinar, commissioning opportunities and mentorships, Island aimed to encourage the development of, and publishing outcomes for, graphic narratives. Our guest curator for this project was Joshua Santospirito.

The Webinar

The project kicked of with a live webinar. This covered contemporary thinking and issues relating to the form, plus insights and advice from three industry experts.

The Presenters

Joshua Santospirito - Joshua is a writer and multimedia artist living in nipaluna on palawa land, lutruwita (Tasmania). His art practice includes painting, performance, music, sound and writing, and often focuses on identity and modern Australia. His writing, comics and illustrations have appeared in the Monthly, Island Magazine, Meanjin and The Suburban Review. Joshua is currently co-director (with Eleri Harris) of the Comic Art Workshop, an organisation dedicated to the literary workshopping of graphic novel projects.

Eleri Harris - Eleri is a cartoonist, journalist and Features Editor at The Nib. Her comics have been published in print in a bunch of places, including The Nib, Vox, McSweeney’s Illustoria, The ABC, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Education Union News Magazine, kuš!, Meanjin, Symbolia, Narrative.ly and Taddle Creek. Her Nib comic serial murder mystery, ‘Reported Missing,’ was shortlisted for the 2018 Center for Cartoon Studies & Slate Book Review Cartoonist Studio Prize and won Gold at the 2018 Ledger Awards. Eleri has edited hundreds of editorial and long-form nonfiction comics, many of which have gone on to win prestigious awards.

Safdar Ahmed - Safdar is an artist, writer and educator who lives and practises on the the traditional lands of the Guringai, Gadigal and Wangal peoples of what we call Sydney. He works across a range of media, including drawing, graphic narratives, painting, musical performance and installation. His art practice focuses on issues of representation and belonging, referencing personal history, graphic storytelling, cultural exegesis and Muslim tradition. Safdar recently won the NSW literary book of the year award, and the multicultural award for his graphic novel Still Alive (available from Twelve Panels Press).

Over 18 months, Island published an 8 page graphic narrative in issue 166 through 169. We also run a series of mentorships.

The Last Ever Comic to be Published in a Literary Magazine…Ever!! by Joshua Santospirito was published in Island 169 and online to mark the conclusion of the project.

Joshua said of the project ‘The Island graphic narratives project, referred to in-house as ‘The Nanna Project’, has been a joy to curate. Comics are rarely included in magazines like this. A year ago I rifled through my collection of Australian magazines to see if any had provided comics with as large a page number before: I can count them on three fingers. More so than prose, comics require space to tell a story. Eight pages is roomy, enough square meterage to draw someone swinging a cat, enough for a comic to try to say something for once.

The four pieces we commissioned have been diverse in form and content, starting with Eleri Harris’s wonderful story about her grandmother Mavis (Island 166); we’ve somehow come full circle in Island 169 with Niki Bañados’s aching piece about the world her child has been born into.

My gratitude to Jude Abell and Island for allowing us comic artists in, and in such a meaningful way. Now the project is done I sincerely hope that Island continues to be a consistent home for the written image.’

If you have any questions please email nannaproject@islandmag.com

This project was assisted through Arts Tasmania.