Last weekend I had the pleasure of volunteering at the Perth Comic Arts Festival (PCAF) held at the State Library of WA on Saturday and the WA Museum Boola Bardip on Sunday.

Though I already had high hopes going into the event, I was still absolutely blown away!

Saturday kicked off the festival in the State Library WA for the event’s aptly named Academy day. Various panel discussions were held, with topics ranging from the influence and role of culture in comics (sadly I missed this one!) to shotgun rounds covering Money, Friends and Family.

The speakers were all phenomenal, truly displaying their passion for and expertise in the comics industry. I had the pleasure of learning about the unseen goings on in the background of the comics industry from the likes of Eleri Mai Harris and Joshua Santospirito, and I had fun listening in on the saucy romantic side of comics from the likes of Ariel Ries and Soolagna Majumdar.

The day was then nearing a close, so what better time to have some of the present creators giving us a bit of a show of their own works!? The PCAF Stories part of the day was a wonderful highlight for me, leaving me with an intense hunger to dive deeper into the Australian world of comics!

The following day – Sunday, held at the WA Museum Boola Bardip – was sure to be a great follow on from the Academy Day, and again, I was blasted into another dimension!

The Market Day was indeed a feature of the weekend, with the Market Hall boasting a wonderful array of comics creators, all waiting to share their passion with you. If you love the typical market alleys you find at Comic Cons, this is your place to go!

A massive highlight here was the – wait for it – LONGEST COMIC IN AUSTRALIA! Put together by the Illo Club, this was a wonderful inclusion to the festival. The idea was for anyone and everyone to add their own panel to an ever-growing, single page comic. The aim was to reach 24 metres in length – a goal that I believe was rather easily smashed! If you love comics and want to add your talent to the pool, hopefully they’ll be back next year… let’s go for 25!

Alas, as I attended in the capacity of volunteer, I found myself rather glued to the workshop room. Don’t worry, glued is a good thing around here!

The three workshops I was in for were absolutely astounding, each with a massive turnout! The highlight for sure was the Comics Battle Royale. Paper was flying, pens were wielded, and the brilliant artists were at each others throats… good thing that everyone won!

Chris Wood, Eleri Mai Harris, Nina Dakin and Gavin Aung Than did not held back and really strutted their stuff. Though I make it sound like it was a war of the artists, it was truly a wonderful collection of artists (audience included!) that all shared the space to bring white paper to life!

By the end of the day, I was haggard (the birthday party I attended the night before certainly didn’t help for this) but I was filled with an intense want to create, to bring to life my own stories.

For this, I cannot thank the stellar PCAF committee enough for all the effort they put into running this festival each year. These comings together of creators and artists are truly what I live for and I was nothing short of elated following this weekend.

If you can make it next year, I highly recommend it!

(Sadly, I didn’t get any photos, but I will be sure to next time!)