Ghosts, punk rock and an 8-Dimensional being: Meet Canberra’s breakout graphic novel
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A small mountain town plagued by the supernatural. Two teens who hunt ghosts. And an 8-Dimensional being that tends to respond in Magic 8-Ball sayings.
Written by local Americo Alvarenga and hand-drawn and lettered by artist Madison Lee, DirtBags is described as “Stranger Things meets South Park with a grunge and punk rock aesthetic” – and if it wasn’t for the Canberra community, it wouldn’t exist.
DirtBags was created by the long-time friends (who originally met at a Gamma Expo in Canberra – born from the supernatural legends of Lithgow and inspired by the anthemic punk songs of the 2000s. It started as a simple concept that bloomed into so much more: a 100 per cent hand-drawn and painted graphic novel that goes beyond what’s on the page.
The idea for DirtBags existed in the back of Madison’s mind for years, originating from her own childhood in Lithgow, a valley just west of the Blue Mountains.
“There’s a lot of urban legends in Lithgow and – like any small town – really colourful people. Creating a world for DirtBags out of Lithgow was very easy,” she explains.
“Some of the characters have appeared in my work since when I was at uni…Crossing paths with Americo and working with him to bring it to life has been a really wonderful process – not only researching Lithgow and talking about some of my experiences growing up there, but also just the experience of being a teenager and our shared love of the paranormal and punk culture.”
Taking inspiration from real locations, DirtBags follows June (a self-taught medium and empath) and King (who is cursed with the inability to die); two teenagers who have decided to offer their services to the town to “bust some ghosts”.
Add in an 8-Dimensional being called 8-Ball, King’s bubbly sister, Caitlyn, and their red-haired, home-schooled friend, Quinn, and you have the basis for a story that promises to entertain.
But as the teens take on the paranormal elements of their town, they quickly learn that it is far more nefarious than they could have imagined.
“The whole thing’s hand-drawn to link in with the handmade nature of punk, along with punk music,” explains Madison.
“A lot of the ghost encounters are actually based on not only the history of these things in Lithgow, but also songs.”
Drawing inspiration from punk songs from the 2000s, the duo say that they wanted DirtBags to expand on the idea that there is beautiful anarchy in the strange and unusual, the uncanny and the unknown.
But they also wanted the novel to cross genres and mediums by working with an Australian band to develop a theme song for DirtBags called Social Strangers.
“DirtBags is uniquely positioned to show that it can be a comic book and a work of art at the same time…I think it is a statement on human creativity, and we’re celebrating that with the completely hand-drawn nature of it, and the connection to punk, which has always been a subculture of handmade, upcycled, raw, gritty and grungy,” explains Madison.
“We want it to be across the board something that could be an artwork, and observed as one from multiple lenses.”
Taking just a year from their initial conversation to create DirtBags – and get it ready for print – Madison and Americo originally set a fundraising goal in April of $2,000, calling on the local community to support them.
Just 24 hours later they had met their goal. But then word spread – including to the United States where Americo is from – and they suddenly had 46 backers and over $5,000 to help bring their supernatural world to life just a month later.
“I was just flabbergasted by the whole experience,” says Americo.
“It was just incredible to see that support, and so many people are reaching out, saying ‘This looks amazing. This doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen before. We cannot wait to see it’…it was humbling.”
“It doesn’t feel real, even though we know that we’re going to printers really, really soon.”
DirtBags has been a passion project for the duo. Americo, the President of the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, and Madison, whose resume includes illustrating a number of books and projects (including oracle cards and novelty product design), have never created anything like it before.
The result is a labour of love and a celebration of creativity.
“Taking characters that Maddie has had forever and then bringing my story along and adding to it…I feel that the people that have seen the comic felt that as well. They felt and they understand that we have put our heart and souls into this,” says Americo.
“Even though we’ve both been writing and making art respectively for years prior this was our first foray into graphic novels. We realised midway through that it’s probably not a typical foray into graphic novels, in that it’s fully hand-drawn, self-contained, and a full novel on its own,” adds Madison.
“We did an awful lot, but I feel like with everyone’s support, and the outcry of people going, ‘Wow, this is something new and something I’m interested in’, it’s really spurred us on.”
Will it be a success? As 8-Ball would say, “Without a doubt.”
With a Canberra book launch planned in the future to celebrate with those who helped them bring DirtBags to life, keep an eye out to see what Americo and Madison do next.
For more information, visit comix.one/projects/dirtbags, and with books available to pre-order soon, keep an eye on maddogink.bigcartel.com to order your copy.
