Comics in Australia

It featured strips including The Two Rogues, by L. de Konigh; Fish & Chips by Norman McMurray and The Strange Adventures of Percy the Pom by Wynne Davies.

The Kookaburra featured characters such as Bloodthirsty Ben and Callous Claude; The Mulga Merrymakers, Perky Pete the Prospector; and Lucy Lubra the Artful Abo!

In the late 1930s the market began to be saturated by the release of reprints of US strips popularised by the women's magazines, The New Idea (Buck Rogers, Boy's Adventure World, Felix the Cat, Hurricane Hawk) and The Woman's Mirror (The Phantom).

Following the war, Australia incurred a huge national debt: local publishers found they had a captive market as import restrictions continued to be enforced, at the same time the modern American style comic book (mostly sans color) was adopted.

In its Golden Age Australian talent produced exciting creations such as Yarmak, Captain Atom, Tim Valour, Crimson Comet, The Panther, The Raven, The Lone Wolf, The Phantom Ranger and many others.

Sales of reprints such as The Phantom and the Walt Disney titles continued to strengthen, with readers beginning to focus on new American imports, particularly the burgeoning Marvel Comics line.

Phantastique from Sydney in 1986 lasted only four issues, as it was in the style of Underground comix but with mainstream distribution – it generated national publicity from opponents Fred Nile and John Laws.

Popular Australian comic books of the era include Dillon Naylor's Da 'n Dill (1993), Hairbutt the Hippo (1989), Platinum Grit (1993) and Dee Vee (1997).

Many artists who began by self-publishing photocopied black-and-white comics at this time have continued on to become popular illustrators and graphic novelists, including Mandy Ord, Ben Hutchings, Anton Emdin and Jules Faber.

Australian artists/writers also began to regularly produce work for overseas comics companies, a development made easier by the internet, as a tool for both scouting talent and sending deliverables quickly (which was previously only possible by use of fax machines).

These include Wayne Nichols, Nicola Scott, Ben Templesmith, Tom Taylor, Michal Dutkiewicz, Jozef Szekeres, Marcus Moore, Julie Ditrich, and Doug Holgate.

Other artists with regular work in these markets included Patrick Alexander, Jase Harper, Rich Warwick, Dean Rankine, Damien Woods and Ian C. Thomas.

Since 2002 international publishers have increasingly begun to publish graphic novels by Australian comic creators, beginning with The Five Mile Press (Dillon Naylor) and Slave Labor Graphics (J. Marc Schmidt, Jason Franks) and, more recently, Allen & Unwin (Nicki Greenberg, Mandy Ord, Bruce Mutard), Scholastic (Shaun Tan), TokyoPop (Queenie Chan, Madeleine Rosca), Seven Seas Entertainment (Sarah Ellerton), and Finlay Lloyd (Mandy Ord).

The Australian Comic-Book Convention was held on 16–18 January 1986 at the Sydney Opera House, featuring international guests for the first time, including Jim Steranko and Will Eisner, who allowed the Spirit to be depicted as a koala while Spider-Man was a kangaroo.

It features, in addition to comic books, a mix of current TV pop cultures, from science fiction and fantasy to anime and manga.