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Tales Of One City

TRISTA+HOLT_FRONT COVER_VOL 1_IF Commix

Andrez Bergen writes,

What is it about Melbourne?

Strangely enough, the five novels I've published and two previous graphic novels have all been set at least partially in that city – and I'm talking up the far bigger metropolis on the south-east coast of Australia, not the younger, tinier town in Florida.

TRISTA + HOLT sample image 4 by Andrez Bergen

While timelines have blurred in these books – from the early days of John Batman scamming local indigenous tribes for land in the 1830s ('One Hundred Years of Vicissitude') right through to a near-future dystopia in which this is the last surviving city on earth ('Bullet Gal', 'Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat') and even a local online gaming platform ('Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?'), my hometown's been liberally sprinkled throughout all my fiction.

TRISTA + HOLT sample image 3 by Andrez Bergen

But I did throw in the comment "strangely enough" for good reason.

Strangely enough #1?

I haven't lived in Melbourne over the past 14 years. The anniversary was actually on July 26. That was the date in 2001 that I left. For the past decade and a half I've resided in Tokyo. And while Japan obviously also filters into my work as both writer and artist, I can't seem to let Melbourne go.

TRISTA + HOLT sample image 2 by Andrez Bergen

More strangely enough is the fact that my latest comic book series, 'Trista & Holt' (IF? Commix) is not set in Melbourne at all.

While the city here remains unnamed throughout the 15-issue run, to my mind it has to be an American one in the 1970s. The plethora of handguns is a giveaway.

TRISTA + HOLT sample image 1 by Andrez Bergen

And yet, while also tapping into and updating the age-old legend of Tristan and Isolde to unfold between two crime families in the days of disco, I also do still throw in the occasional Australian vernacular.

Can't help myself.

Old picture of Melbourne

And some city-scenes are definitely ones from my memory of Melbourne.

Finally, perhaps the strangest part: While I mostly haven't been able to launch my books in Melbourne, or even Australia, over the years due to tyranny of absolute distance, this time I'll actually be in town on August 29th to launch the first collected edition of 'Trista & Holt' (Volume 1) at Eisner Award winning store All Star Comics.

Comic Launch Aug 29_art by Thomas Tung

Yep — the yarn that isn't set in Melbourne at all.

Maybe.

 

 


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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