Louie Joyce, comic illustrator, special guest at Comic Gong 2016: video, photos

Louie Joyce, 28, is one of many professional artists tucked away in the northern Illawarra.

The Austinmer local is one of the special guests at this year’s Comic Gong convention on May 14, and has had a love for comics for as long as he can remember.

“All you need is a pen and paper which is really cool. There’s no limits on technology or budget or other stuff which comes with other storytelling mediums. It just boils down to you, a pencil, a piece of paper and your imagination – which I think is really interesting, powerful and inspiring,” he said.

Joyce was one of those kids in school always doodling, often getting in trouble when perhaps he should have been focusing on something else other than drawing.

However, drawing is now his success and Joyce believes it is an important outlet for children and should be encouraged.

“I think it’s the best way to work your brain. You use creativity in every facet of your life, so it’s good to learn to be creative.”

His mother loved to draw, as did his grandmother. He and his sister love finding old illustrations that they’ve kept tucked away.

“My mum and her mum’s styles were quite similar. Minimal, really quite simple line work but very expressive. All about feeling,” he said.

“Whenever we’d go to visit [my grandma], she had a draw she’d put stuff in. I was really excited to go and check out the draw as she’s always would have little drawings in there with little messages.”

His father, a creative writer and director, also liked to doodle from time to time.

“He’s worked in theatre and performance … so [mum and dad are] both pretty creative but more on the writing side of things. So I think I rebelled a bit against that,” laughed Joyce.

His passion for comics came from his dad who was a huge collector, from underground exclusives released in the 1980s to popular superheroes and arty black and white issues.

“Each time I visit him I sneakily steal some of his comics,” admits Joyce.

“I feel I take better care of the comics than he does. I see it as liberating or rescuing the comics from his collection, I’m bringing them to sit with mine, just to take care of them.”

Like keeping vinyl records, collectors can go all out and file them in plastic sleeves and alphabetical order, though Joyce just keeps them neatly in a book shelf - hundreds of them.

“I used to have a filing cabinet which was a great way to house single issues. That was arranged by titles or writers or artists or whatever, but I just don’t have as much time to organise them these days.”

Joyce has all sorts including his major idol Akira, the Japanese manga series, to Marvel, DC and many signed issues by various artists and writers.

He said he never thought about his collection cultivating wealth, but rather it’s just “something he likes to read”.

Growing up he loved Marvel’s X-men character Wolverine, but it was a DC superhero he had the most love for that still gets him some flack from his buddies today, Aquaman.

“My dad surfed and we always spent a lot of time at the beach, but I was a bit scared of the ocean I think. I always wanted to got to the pool instead,” he said.

“I saw Aquaman in the comics and was like ‘ooh this guy is the ocean, he commands the ocean. That’s awesome, I want to be him’. 

“I like to draw Aquaman whenever I can.”

After high school Joyce chose to study animation at Sydney’s JMC Academy but found it uninspiring.

“I love 3D animation movies, like I love all that, but doing it myself like the modelling, building characters and map painting was all not really what I wanted to do. It’s all about pixels and maths, it’s the opposite of just drawing so I didn’t find it as expressive,” he said.

From there he began working as a graphic design artist before going on to study illustration at Enmore Design Centre.

“It was during those two years my work really improved,” he said.

“I was doing lots of life drawing which is the most important thing you can do especially as a comic book artist because it teaches you to observe and draw from life. It’s the best skill to have.”

He said the biggest tip for anyone wanting to improve their art - regardless of their style - was to do life drawing classes.

“It’s all about basics and how to construct the form and observe and draw from that.”

His other big tip is to not get depressed about the standard of your work.

“If you do bad drawings, don’t worry about it, just keep doing another drawing. Often if you think your drawing is bad it’s because you’re noticing areas that you can improve ... it means that you’re learning,” he said.

“I hate my drawing, I hate it all the time. I don’t ever want to get completely happy with it because it means i’ll become a bit stagnant.”

Joyce has been producing his own comics and zines, such as Mish Mash and Hodge Podge, for years. 

“I used to go to zine fairs and do little photocopied comics that I would trade and sell,” he said.

“I’m kicking into high gear on comics at the moment. I’ve just had a four issue mini-series for the States released called Past The Last Mountain. It’s about a dragon,a fawn and a troll on run from the US government.”

Meantime he’s also been working in the corporate world creating storyboards for advertising campaigns and concept development for print ads.

“It can be [a difficult industry] to get in to. It’s very competitive now because with the internet people can outsource easily,” he said.

“The key thing is to find your own voice with illustration and find something that’s unique to you and your take.”

The corporate world helps pay the bills, while allowing Joyce to pursue his labour of love on the side.

“Comics don’t pay a lot of dollars when compared to professional illustration jobs. It’s so little money for so much work.”

The manpower going into the intricate art inside the average 22 page comic is extraordinary and takes Joyce just over a month to complete if no other work was in the way.

His comics and zines are all self-produced and available via his website www.louiejoyce.com or when he visits conventions such as Comic Gong.

Joyce is a big fan of these, especially the Wollongong event, as he says it’s maintained a smaller community feel rather than turning it into a major money-making commercial expo.

“You just feel enthused because the fans for comics are so passionate, they’re really into what they’re doing. They come and have a look at your stuff, and kids have a look at your stuff, and they get to see that anyone can do it,” he said.

“They just want to talk to you about it and [their enthusiasm] kinda rubs off on me. I’m exhausted after those events, but I’m super, super excited and inspired to create more work.”

His inspiration comes from real life and observing, as well as ideas sparked from reading other comics.

“I watch a lot of documentaries of nature and stuff like that, I just try to find it wherever I can. It always comes from a different place each time for a really good character where you might not expect it."

Louie Joyce has written his own graphic novels as well as collaborated with other writers, and has previously won the prestigious 2013 Ace Comics & Games Best Australian Short Comic and shortlisted for the 2014 Ledger Awards.