Comics creative draws in award

A LOCAL comics illustrator and writer has been recognised among Australia’s best in the industry with a spot on the Comic Arts Awards of Australia’s Ledger of Honour.

Though he wasn’t present to receive the award during a ceremony at Canberra’s Old Parliament House in November, Dillon Naylor said he was surprised to be given the accolade.

“I haven’t really been awarded that many things in the years I’ve been active,” he said.

“I didn’t know this was coming until the last minute and there was talk I should get to Canberra, but there wasn’t time.

“But to receive that kind of recognition, not for any one thing but for 30-plus years of toil in that field, it’s nice to be acknowledged.”

Established in 2005 and revived in 2014 after a five-year hiatus, the Ledger Awards are named after Australian artist Peter Ledger and are aimed at spotlighting creatives’ contributions to the national comics scene.

Naylor got his start in the industry submitting short stories to Melbourne-based anthology magazine Fox Comics in the mid-1980s.

From there, he spent about a decade creating two comics a year to go into showbags, which were delivered throughout the country, and through which he developed a small following.

Many of the characters from Naylor’s showbag comics reappeared in children’s magazine K-Zone, where he introduced arguably his best-known creation, Batrisha the Vampire Girl.

“I already had some characters that were male and they asked did I have anything for a female audience,” Naylor said.

“So I created Batrisha the Vampire Girl which had mostly a female cast. They loved it that much they dumped the comic before that and just wanted Batrisha.

“That was a big thing right through the 2000s. K-Zone itself was a huge phenomenon then so it was a great platform to reach a mass audience at that time.”

Naylor was also recognised in last year’s Comic Arts Awards of Australia’s Ledger of Honour for his hardcover book, Batrisha and the Creepy Caretaker.

He was one of two Ledger awardees this year alongside deceased cartoonist James Bancks, creator of Ginger Meggs.

Naylor said it is humbling to be placed in the same company as many of his influences.

“It was a great honour to be awarded even for something in parallel with [James Bancks] because I was a big fan of Ginger Meggs growing up,” he said.

“Some of the previous winners of this award are people I’ve worked alongside with and learnt from.”