One of the best pieces of advice I received when I embarked on this wonderful GVN adventure was from our EIC regarding pursuing interviews. He advised me to put myself out there and ask for what I wanted. The worst response they can give is no, which does no harm to you. He was right. Clearly, it is a lesson that our guest learned early on. Australian creator Gary Chaloner has been at the forefront of making things happen since early in his career. From creator and self-publishing to helping found the Ledger Awards (now known as the Comic Arts Awards of Australia) in 2005, acknowledging excellence and achievement in Australian comic arts and publishing.
In 2002, he took the opportunity to reach out to Will Eisner’s publisher and agent Denis Kitchen and pitch creating a possible webcomic using some of Eisner’s characters. Once again, you never know unless you ask. In Gary’s case, his boldness was rewarded with Mr. Eisner giving him the green light. Thus, Gary was able to bring his vision of Eisner’s John Law out for a new audience to enjoy.
His work is now featured alongside Eisner’s under Titan Comics Hard Case Crime banner in “The Collected Will Eisner’s John Law.” We recently were honored to spend some time with Gary to discuss his career and how this book came about. So, let’s welcome talented creator Gary Chaloner to GVN’s Talking Comics.
Beginnings and Inspirations
GVN: Thank you for sharing a bit of your time, Gary. Since this is the first time we have had to chat, let’s talk a bit about your creative beginnings. When did you first take an interest in comics and whose work inspired you to pursue that medium?
GARY: Well, I was always a creative child, into drawing mostly, so comics got my attention from a very early age. As I got older, I was introduced to the good stuff by my older brother, who read Barry Smith’s Conan, Gulacy’s Master of Kung Fu and other 1970s classics. This was way before the direct market and the rise of the comics specialty store, so down here in Australia, we had to track down new comics at railway station newsstands and magazine racks, news agencies and even book exchanges for back issues. Condition was never an issue, as those babies were invariably battered and beaten – even as new releases – crammed as they were into the wire display racks to save space!
I loved English and Art at school – words and pictures – so I don’t think there was ever a time I wasn’t thinking about doing comics, the combination of both. By the end of the 1970s, I was keen to explore creating my own stories and getting them published, as daft as that sounded at the time, as there really wasn’t much of anything being released locally at the time. There was one artist, Peter Ledger, who kept on popping up on my radar. He even moved to the States to work for Marvel Comics alongside John Buscema and Rudy Nebres (Warriors of the Shadow Realm, 1979), so I knew it could be done!
By the early 1980s, and the advent of the growing direct market down here in Oz, I started to meet other creatives and comic fans and settled on publishing locally and getting my stuff sold on the racks next to the imported material. My early efforts had me forming Cyclone Comics with Dave de Vries, Glenn Lumsden, Tad Pietrzykowski and Alex Grancha. Cyclone went on to publish a stack of comics that included titles like The Jackaroo, The Southern Squadron, The Dark Nebula and G.I. Joe Australia.
Some of these titles were reprinted in the States, and with the help of American friends like Mike Grell, Kurt Busiek and Mike Baron, I started to get more work overseas as well.
Over the years, I’ve been lucky to also work with some amazing Aussie artists like Ashley Wood, Ben Templesmith, Glenn Lumsden, Ryan Vella, Jason Paulos and Dillon Naylor. Also, some of the best in the biz from North America: Busiek, Todd McFarlane, Karl Kesel, Wade Von Grawbadger, Steve Mattsson, Alex Ross and Gary Martin. I’m also lucky to now call some of them my good friends.
Bringing Attention to Australian Creators
GVN: You were raised in Australia and have done a wonderful job of promoting Australian projects and creators. None more so in founding the Ledger Awards in 2005 to recognize excellence and achievement in Australian comic arts and publishing. Why did you feel this was important and what are you most proud of since its inception?
GARY: Yes, the Ledger Awards (named after Peter Ledger but now known as the Comic Arts Awards of Australia) were organized to acknowledge excellence in Australian comic art and publishing. I felt that there was a growing need to direct a spotlight on local comics and creators. There are some fantastic projects being produced down here each year, but most readers don’t know about them, so I thought it was time to develop a yearly longlist database of locally produced material and from that list, have a judging panel of experts select gold, silver and bronze recipients that deserve attention for their particular projects. There’s also a ‘Hall of Fame’ award named the Ledger of Honour and a Platinum Award celebrating people or organizations that advocate for Australian comics above and beyond the call of duty.
The inaugural Awards were held twenty years ago, so the co-convenor Tim McEwen and I are very proud that they are still being held and continue to hold a valued place in the local industry. Tim and I retired from the CAAAs organizing committee a few years ago now, but the CAAAs are still going strong.
The Challenges of Creating and Publishing
GVN: You have worked on both the creative end (writing and drawing) as well as the publishing end. Which do you feel offers the most challenge or is it all part of the collective whole when it comes to creating comics?
GARY: Great question! It is indeed all part of the collective whole, particularly operating here in Australia where for the most part, if you want something done, you probably have to do it yourself. There ARE local publishers and collectives that offer publishing support for independent small press creators (DarkOz, Reverie, ComX) as well as publishers that go toe-to-toe with the larger mainstream outfits (Gestalt, Comicoz, IPI Comics, Frew), but there are also lots of creators that release titles under their own banner these days (Killeroo, Greener Pastures, Niteside), so they have to do all aspects of production and promotion themselves, including crowdfunding campaigns.
Working with Will Eisner
GVN: One of your great opportunities was to work with the iconic Will Eisner in 2002 in developing new stories featuring his creations John Law, Lady Luck and Mr. Mystic. How did this collaboration come about, and did you feel any apprehension in working with Mr. Eisner and his characters?
GARY: I had completed a 10-page story for Kitchen Sink’s The Spirit: The New Adventures. This story was planned for the unpublished ninth issue, the title being cancelled at number 8. By this stage, I had established a long-distance email and phone relationship with Eisner publisher and agent Denis Kitchen. I ran the idea past him about developing some of Will’s lesser-known characters – particularly John Law – as a webcomic to see if there was any reader interest. Denis said he’d run it past Will, who, not surprisingly, said yes.
I say ‘not surprisingly’ because Will was very curious about the internet and webcomics and how the format might be utilized to showcase and publish comic art. So, he gave me the green light for John Law, being a sounding board throughout the initial creative process – always there for advice and feedback. He was so enamored with the potential of webcomics that he asked me to contribute text and graphics on the subject for his three-volume textbooks on how to create ‘sequential art’.
Ironically, that initial 10-page Spirit story was eventually turned into a John Law story, much like Will’s original Law tales were turned into several classic Spirit stories with a few art changes.
Did I feel any apprehension? Hell, yes!
The Collected Will Eisner’s John Law
GVN: In conjunction with that, Titan Comics is bringing to readers on March 4th “The Collected Will Eisner’s John Law,” which will include your award-winning reboot as well as original stories and a previously unpublished story. How long has this been in the works and how proud are you for your efforts to be included?
GARY: I was initially going to publish a collected edition through my Cyclone Comics imprint to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the reboot back in 2022, so it has been on my mind since around that time. Health problems forced the project to slide a bit, so I had my eyes set on 2024 to time with the 20th anniversary of the first printed edition. Around that time, I became aware of Titan Books’ Hard Case Crime imprint. They were expanding their line from lovely prose editions into doing comic books and graphic novels, and I was loving what they were doing, so I dropped them a line about The Collected Will Eisner’s John Law and the rest, as they say, is history.
Of course, it’s been a career highlight to have my name credited on a book alongside the legendary Will Eisner. A real comic book dream come true. I’m no Will Eisner. I just hope my John Law stories honour Will, his unbounded creativity and his contributions to the art form we all love.
Connecting with Gary
GVN: Thank you once again for your kind attention, Gary. Before I let you go, I want to give you an opportunity to promote the exciting project and perhaps any other thing you would like to share with our readers.
GARY: The Collected Will Eisner’s John Law is out in early March from Titan/Hard Case Crime, to coincide with Will Eisner Week 2025. If your readers would like to find out more about me and my other projects, they can visit my website GaryChaloner.com, which also has links to my socials.
Thanks for the opportunity to chat!
For more on the Comic Arts Awards of Australia: https://comicartsaust.com.au
For more on the Australian Comics Database: https://australiancomicsdb.com.au
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 60 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove headfirst over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 21-year-old young man with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
What a great interview! I’ve been a fan of Gary’s art and comics for yonks, so It’s nice to see him and his work get some well deserved attention. Thank you, Martin.