Michael creating comics for about six years until he was about 15. He created a number of characters that appear in his comic stories and strips.  Michael did the drawing and his Dad did the scanning, digital colour (under instruction) and loading to the website.  The comics are online and available as both zines colour booklets. They have been available at Graphic (Cuba Street, Wellington) and at NZCC - New Zealand Comic Creator stalls (Armageddon and ZineFests) and are at the zine collections of both Wellington and Auckland libraries.

Creating comics enabled Michael to be involved in exhibitions with other comic artists and he has been invited to two Korean comic festivals (BICOF-ICCA, 2012 & 2013). This has provided opportunities to meet many other young artists together with professional in the fields of comics and animation. Michael work has featured in the NZ magazine Education Today (2012, 2013 2014, 2015, 2016) and the Auckland Libraries webpage - ComicsNZ (2014). 

Cornucopia (zines 1-4) and Cornered (zines 5-8), full-colour collections of Colonel Kernel comic strips are held in Wellington Library's children's collection. In 2015, Michael's Colonel Kernel strips were accessible on the GoComics-Sherpa website.

Michael's creations include:
Michael also did the drawing for:
To contact us please use the following email: spacecatAdventures@gmail.com

Or find us on Facebook - Spacecat Productions


2017

November
Education Today issue 4 contained Michael's interview with Kawabata Makoto, founder and lead guitarist of Acid Mothers Temple. The interview can be read at - Interview Avenue.

August
Education Today issue 3 is out and contains an article by Michael - an interview with Mike Duffy of Newtown Rocksteady  asking about his influences, experiences and mentors when he was a teenager. What choices and educational experiences he made to create the musician he is today. The article is the first in a series of planned interviews and can be read at - Interview Avenue.

Education Today is also making Michael's series of Science Posters available from the magazine. Schools and interested students can contact the magazines to request digital files suitable for printing as posters.

May
Education Today issue 2 is out - first time in a very long time that Michael doesn't have anything included.

March
Education Today issue 1 is out and contains the sixth BRICKS strip from last year. Strip 6 is part of the pull-out A3 poster which has all six BRICKS strips created for Education Today in 2016. The backdrop photo is Michael's primary school. The magazine also used two panels from the 2016 Politics poster on it's editorial page.

 

2016

November
Education Today didn't release a sixth issue. Will wait to see if BRICKS strip-6 and the poster make it into an issue in 2017.

October
Submitted a sixth BRICKS strip and a BRICKS poster (featuring all of this year's strips) to Education Today.

Though major effort this month went into the 48hr Film Festival. Michael was part of the Naenae Clubhouse film crew that submitted a film into the Wellington Region component of this short film festival.
Naenae Amplify - Chasing the Beat
The Naenae Clubhouse film won best original song in the Wellington Region finals.

September
Education Today issue 5 came out in the last week of school term 3, and contains:
BRICKS strip no.5
Science Poster - Why Does Spicy Food Taste Hot?
and a page highlighting the 2016 Teen Summit in Boston.
Michael attended Teen Summit as a representative of Naenae Clubhouse.

August
School Term 3 has begun and Issue-4 of Education Today is out (Aug5); contains a new BRICKS comic strip and a pull-out poster on Politics: Left & Right.

The second Colonel Kernel comic strip collection - Cornered and The Search for the Ancient Skull of the Ancients are both available to borrow from the Children's book collection of Wellington Library. 

July
Michael along with five other NZ students attended the 2016 Teen Summit in Boston with ClubhouseNZ (Jul26-31).

June
Education Today Issue-3 came out towards the end of school term-2. The magazine contains a new BRICKS comic strip and a pull-out poster on Time Travel.

May
Education Today issue-2 is out and contains a new BRICKS comic strip and a double-sided two-page pull-out poster all about the electric guitar.

Copies of the second Colonel Kernel comic strip collection - Cornered have been purchased by Wellington Library. They will be available in their children book collection.

Also this month. Worked completed on the next submissions to Education Today: another BRICKS strip and a new Science Poster.

April
Submitted a BRICKS strip and a new science/tech poster for the next issue of Education Today. Also found out that the issues of Epic Journey provided to Wellington Library towards the end of last year, have been quite popular with young readers.

March
EducationToday issue-1 is available this month. Michael has a new BRICKS comic strip, a two-page Science poster (A3 comic) and an advert promoting his comic books on Wheeler ePlatform. The science poster is titled - Superbugs.

Comics created for a University of Auckland - Philosophy class (Logical and Critical Thinking) are part of online resources for participants. They were created for Tim Dare and Patrick Girard and highlight common fallacies. 

February
Michael has submitted comics for three projects this month:
1. further BRICKS comic strips for Education Today
2. Science Posters also for Education Today
We will upload the comics when issue no.1 becomes available
3. Five comics submitted for the third project - more information on this once interactions finalised.

January
Colonel Kernel finished it's run on GoComics-Sherpa on Jan5 with a thank-you panel. 

2015

December
This year all Colonel Kernel comic strips (from Jul29-2011 to Jul14-2015) have been made available through the GoComics-Sherpa. Three strips highlighted this month and nine strips over the year in their weekly Editor's Picks.

Feb16 - Captured (zine no.1 - Food Fight)
May7 - What the Blue Cheese! (zine no.2 - For Corn and Country)
Jun15 - Another Corny Joke (zine no.3 - Children of the Corn)
Sep24 - Casting Call (zine no.5 - Boring) 
Oct22 - Lost (zine no.6 - Legend of the Corn Dog)
Oct30 - Flattery (zine no.6 - Legend of the Corn Dog)
Dec3 - Commando Tattoo (zine no.7 - Super Natural)
Dec10 - Musca domestica (zine no.7 - Super Natural)
Dec28 - Enter Like a Trojan (zine no.8 - Cornuted)

The strip - Enter Like a Trojan - available at Sherpa on Dec24 and in their Dec28 highlight list -- and it doesn't even have a Christmas theme!

November
A sixth BRICKS strip is published in Education Today this month (issue 6). Available as a A3 poster containing all six strips for 2015. Poster is available as a pull-out in the middle of the magazine.

October
Have provide an ePub version of Cornered to Wheelers eBook platform. Cornered collects the Colonel Kernel strips from zine 5, 6, 7 & 8.

Another Colonel Kernel comic strip on GoComics-Sherpa has been highlighted in their Editor's Pick (Oct22 strip - Lost). Fifth time a strip has been highlighted in this way. Very cool. 

And then, a sixth Colonel Kernel comic strip is listed in the GoComics-Sherpa Oct30 Editor's Picks. Wow, considering many of the others were Halloween themed.

September
BRICKS comic strip no.5 is available in September's issue of Education Today. This issue of the magazine also contains a science poster as a two-page pull-out - Everyday Physics. And a fourth Colonel Kernel strip has been highlighted in a GoComics Sherpa - Editor's Pick (Sept22 strip - Casting Call).

Wellington Library has ordered copies of Epic Journey Chapter 1-2-3 and The Search for the Sacred Skull of the Ancients for their children's collection. These are the US comic books that we create in full-colour through KaBlam Digital Publishing. They have asked for four copies of each.

August
Wellington Library has purchased three additional copies of Cornucopia - a Colonel Kernel comic strip collection. Their original copy has been very popular and the new copies will go out to their larger community branches.

Issue 4 of Education Today available this month (Aug22). It contains Michael's fourth BRICKS comic strip for 2015.

July
Cornuted - the eighth Colonel Kernel comic strip zine is completed just in time for the Wellington Winter ZineFest. The Zinefest was at Thistle Hall, Saturday July18 and part of the 2015 Armageddon/ComicCon.

June
Issue 3 of Education Today available this month (Jun25 - just before the end of term 2). It contains Michael's third BRICKS comic strip.

A third Colonel Kernel strip was highlighted in a GoComics Sherpa - Editor's Pick (Jun12 strip - about zombies).

May
Went to Wellington Library ComicFest-2015 (Wed-April29 to Sat-May2) to listen to the Thursday and Friday panel discussions. Second issue of Education Today out this month - it contains the second BRICKS comic strip. And the first Colonel Kernel strip for Cornuted (zine 8) completed and available online.

A second of Michael Colonel Kernel strips has been highlighted in the GoComics Sherpa - Editor's Picks. It is the one that broke-the fourth-wall.

April
Completed the comic strips for Colonel Kernel zine no.7 - Super Natural. This zine seemed to take a little longer than usual and had some rearranging of content. Now only one further zine to do and can complete - Cornered.
Michael had a chance to visit Chromacon-2015 in Auckland at the end of the school holidays and had a great time talking with all the artists and comic creators.

March
First issue of Education Today came out this month. Michael created a new school focused comic strip called BRICKS exclusively for the magazine. To find a copy visit your school and community library.

February
More big news for Colonel Kernel - Part Two:
Two Colonel Kernel comic books (Cornucopia, Epic Journey Chapters 1, 2 & 3) and the comic CAVES of DOOM (featuring Egbert the Egghead) are available in Wheelers Books eBook Platform. They can be accessed through schools and libraries.

GoComics Sherpa highlighted a Colonel Kernel strip on their editor's picks blog.

January
More big news for Colonel Kernel - Part One:
We have started loading Colonel Kernel comic strips to GoComics - Sherpa. This is a USA website that carries profession comic strips (as seen in newspapers) and those of budding strip creators (Sherpa). Michael has nearly 100 strips and we will up-load two a week over the next twelve months - starting from the very beginning (2011). This is an opportunity to show the strips and their progression (creation and development) to a new audience.
 

2014

December
Big news for Cornucopia
The full-colour booklet of Colonel Kernel comic strips (zines 1-4) is part of Wellington Library's children's collection. Copies are also available for purchase at Graphic (Cuba St, Wellington).

November
Michael had a stall at Wellington Zinefest, Saturday November 22. New zines - Hand-To-Hand Combat and Epic Journey part-2 were available. The full-colour collection of the first four Colonel Kernel zines was also available - Cornucopia

Education Today issue 6 has the sixth and concluding Colonel Kernel strip in the series - Escagot captured, escaped, recaptured and rescued.

October
Education Today issue 5 is out this month and includes a Colonel Kernel strip. It also has a two page pull-out of Michael's 
ICCA submission comic - Protection Against Infection.

We have sent copies of zines to NZCC in Auckland and they will be available at this months Armageddon event (October 24-27), including the new comic - Hand to Hand Combat.

August
Michael's comic created for the ICCA - 2014 theme, Guardians has been selected from the entries. His comic and video (see July below) will be both be on display during the festival. ICCA is part of the South Korean Bucheon International Comic Festival (BICOF).

Further Colonel Kernel comic strips are featured on the ComicNZ webpage (August 16) and issue-4 of Education Today.

July
Michael submitted a comic for the ICCA-2014 theme - Guardians. At the request of the organisers Michael also created a video outlining his experiences at the 2012 and 2013 ICCA events. We understand it will be made available to international children participating this year. ICCA - International Children's Comic Awards is part of the South Korean Bucheon International Comic Festival (BICOF).

Comic strips for the zine Super Natural are being loaded to the Colonel Kernel website.

Auckland Library is hosting a new blog site for New Zealand comics and comic artists - ComicsNZ. Michael's Colonel Kernel will be featured, with up to four strips from Legend of the Corn Dog are expected to be highlighted.
June
A Colonel Kernel comic strip is included in issue 3 of this years Education Today magazine.

Queen's Birthday long weekend (May31 to Jun2) is Wellington Armageddon. Michael helped on the NZCC (NZ Comic Creators) stand with Brent Willis (Sat & Sun morning). Fun event and good sales of the new Colonel Kernel zines. Michael met Bill Sienkiewicz, talked with NZ artists Richard Fairgray, Theo Macdonald, Tim Gibson, Cory Mathis and had a chance to interact with Vela Noble

May
Michael attended a workshop presented by Ant Sang on Friday May2. It was part of the two day ComicFest organised by Wellington Library and Graphic and coincided with Free Comics Day (May3). Great session.

Wellington Armageddon is at the end of this month. Michael will help out on the NZ Comic Creators stand during the weekend event. The new Colonel Kernel Zine (Legend of the Corn) and an Epic Journey zine will be available to view and purchase..

April
Education Today issue 2 is out and included a Colonel Kernel comic strip

The sixth Colonel Kernel zine is completed. It is titled Legend of the Corn Dog and will be available at the NZ Comic Creators stand at Wellington Armageddon. The Armageddon event is May31 to Jun2.

March
Colonel Kernel comic strips will again, this year, be featured in Education Today.  Each issue will feature a strip from the Colonel Kernel zine I Want You in the Corn Army. The first issue for 2014 is out this month.
Each of this year's Education Today issues contains work from a selection of secondary school student comic creators. These are presented in a special middle section of the magazine. Issue 1 features an additional full-page Colonel Kernel strip in it's middle section (also from I Want You in the Corn Army)
January
Comic strips are in production for Colonel Kernel issue 6: Legend of the Corn Dog and work has started on Epic Journey Chapter 3.

2013


December
Copies of Colonel Kernel issue 5: Boring (the most exciting issue yet) can be found at Graphic in Cuba Mall, Wellington. Comics and other arts works are also available this month through Makeshift in Lower Hutt.

November
Michael had a table at Wellington Zinefest (Saturday afternoon) November 23. Lots of fun meeting up with all the other zine creators. Colonel Kernel Issue5: Boring was released at the ZineFest.

Issue-6 of Education Today has a further Colonel Kernel comic strip.  Many thanks to Geoff and the Education Today magazine for publishing six Colonel Kernel comic strips this year. Michael is very grateful for this fantastic opportunity.

Artwork from Michael's comics are available in a Lower Hutt PopUp shop - Makeshift. The PopUp is focused on local artists of a range of interests and outputs.  For Michael it is an opportunity to provide the Egbert poster and pictures, Spacecat images together with cards.  You can find the zines too.

October
Michael attended a cartoon/drawing workshop at the National Library (SatOct12).  All the children had a great session with Cory Mathis who demonstrated ways to draw faces and develop characters. Cory creates the comic 'Saurian Era'.

Education Today issue-5 released this month has both a Colonel Kernel comic strip and an article about Michael's August trip to the ICCA - International Children's Comic Awards at the 2013 BICOF festival in South Korea.

Later in August
Back from BICOF and ICCA events in 2013.  The BICOF event was August 14 to 18.  Great trip and this time included a visit to Seoul and more opportunities to experience Korean culture.  The children's event was over two days, the Thursday and Friday with 40 children participating.  This year the the international children came from France, Australia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Mexico and New Zealand.  Michael was awarded one of the prizes for the comic he created at the event. 

The prize winning children's comics can be seen - here on the BICOF - ICCA site.
Photos from the week can be viewed at the Spacecat Productions Facebook page


Early August
Michael has been invited to attend the 2013 Bucheon International Comic Festival (BICOF) in South Korea.  We understand that this is due to winning one of awards at the Children Comics Artists event last year.  Very exciting getting to go back to this very large comic festival.  Michael will participate in the ICCA - International Children's Comic Artists event and look to experience as much of the festival as can be squeezed in to the trip.

                  Comic submitted for the online ICCA theme - Hush! It's a secret.

July
Michael attended the HighTech Youth Network meeting in Manukau, Auckland during the school holidays as part of the Naenae Computer Clubhouse crew.  Six clubhouses from around NZ gathered together to complete a series of projects. Michael was part of the animation team that created a short movie.  An article in the Manuka Courier - July 26: Modern twist on a classic Maui tale, included comments and a photo of Michael.

June
Fun Saturday June 1st spent helping out on the NZCC - Comic Creators stand at Wellington Armageddon.  Michael sold a number of his brand new Issue-4 Colonel Kernel comic and we caught up with a number of other Wellington/NZ comic and graphic folk.

March
Big news for Colonel Kernel.  A Colonel Kernel comic strip appears in this month's New Zealand magazine Education Today. There will be a Colonel Kernel strip in each of the magazines six issues this year.  Many thanks to Geoff at Education Today.  

Education Today is targeted at primary and secondary schools throughout New Zealand.  Michael picked six of his favourite Colonel Kernel strips and they are sequenced to present the developing world of corn vs broccoli.  The March issue carries the very first Colonel Kernel strip.  Copies of the magazine will be available in your local municipal and school libraries.
January
High comic creating activity now that have hit a new year.  Colonel Kernel, Spacecat and BatBat strips and stories are on the drawing board.  Looking forward to Wellington Armageddon and the rest of the year.


2012


Education Today (Issue 5, 2012) picked up images from many of the artists from the Comics Generation exhibit and used them in an article about comics in the classroom.  Colonel Kernel was used as the opening image for both the article and the cover of the issue.  Education Today is a New Zealand magazine targeted to primary and secondary school teachers.  A Spacecat image was also used in the opening Publishers Note of a earlier issue of the magazine (Issue4, 2012).

BICOF - 2012 15th Bucheon International Comic Festival in South Korea.  The four younger graphic artists from Comic Generations are off to South Korea August 15-19 (Sadie, Ester, Zora and Michael).  Lost of fun.  BICOF was five days of comics, animation, costumes and graphic artists.  Highlights included the two day workshop with Stuart Campbell and the two day camp with many, many comic crazy Korean children.  Michael won the Best Story prize at the camp.  It was also an opportunity to meet young comic artists from other country's around the world.  Photos from the trip can be found at the Spacecat Facebook page.

                  Comic submitted for the online ICCA theme - The Village where I live. (see bottom of page)

Comics Generation was a joint exhibition with five other young zine & comic artists held at Thistle Hall Wellington (March 27 - April 1). It was a very fun week.

Armageddon 2012 (Wellington and ChCh)
This year in Wellington had fun because we volunteered on the NZ Comic Creator stall on Saturday afternoon in Wellington.  It was a new experience being on the other side of a comic stall and fun talking to people about the comics available for sale.
  •  Wellington Armageddon April21-22
  •  ChCh Armageddon Jun30-Jul1
  •  Auckland Armageddon Oct19-22
Colonel Kernel features in a second and third comic strip collections 'For Corn and Country' and 'Children of the Corn'.

2011

This year we became brave and created a Spacecat comic.  Below are the cover images for each issue. 

Spacecat Adventures (Issues 1, 2 & 3) can be purchased from the Graphic comic shop in Wellington, New Zealand
.

    Graphic
    Visual Media Services Ltd.
    106 Cuba Mall
    Wellington
    Phone: (04) 384-2691

---------

We have also had the support of NZ Comic Creators.  The SpaceCat comics have been available at their booths at recent comic and comic-related conventions in New Zealand.
---------

Colonel Kernel, Egbert the Egghead, and BatBat made their first appearances.
  • Colonel Kernel - 'Food Fight' comic
  • Egbert the Egghead - online comic
  • BatBat - story-1 part of Spacecat Issue-3
---------

Spacecat comics can be found in the Wellington City Library Zine collection.

---------

Thanks and acknowledgements can be found here.


January 2011

Spacecat: Travelling in Galaxy 9     

Spacecat and the Seathings pt1

A Tale of Two Ants pt1




March 2011

Spacecat: Deep Space Rescue  

Spacecat and the Seathings pt2 

Tale of Two Ants pt2 




July 2011

Spacecat: Terror on Squizball pt1

BatBat pt1




 


in development 


in development  


in development  

If you enjoy Spacecat's Adventures you might also like

the creatures of the planets Exlot and Caloob:    http://planetexlot.yolasite.com/

or our other stories and mini-movies:                http://otherramblings.yolasite.com

     including:         
                        A Tale of Two Ants             
http://otherramblings.yolasite.com/a-tale-of-two-ants.php
                        - in Spacecat Adventures Issues 1 & 2

                        BatBat & Robin                   http://otherramblings.yolasite.com/batbat.php
                        -  in Spacecat Adventures Issue 3

                        The Tragic Existence of Egbert the Egghead
                         The CAVES of DOOM          http://otherramblings.yolasite.com/egberts-tragedy.php

                        Colonel Kernel                    http://otherramblings.yolasite.com/colonel-kernel.php
                        -  and his tales of vegetable wars

2010


Christmas

If you are keen to see our festive images try this link -  Merry Christmas

May 16th

Spacecat is my son’s character and story idea.  He is eight (as of May 2010).  After exposure to a number of sci-fi movies, television shows and books - Spacecat is a way to take his own and other people's themes and ideas to create stories with drama and fun.  We will try and reference the sources of ideas, whether as homages, straight references, or starting points.

Having created the web-page we have discovered that the title 'Spacecat' has been used in other - previous - incarnations.  None of which we knew about - or have an similarity with; other than cats in space!

  • Space Cat Simon – an animated adventure (6min video) 2007 Steve Gregson    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgb_16A1WW0
  • Adventures of Space Cat - Clemson University Digital Theater.  An animation produced by students at Clemson University. Spacecat originally created by Ed Siomacco. http://www.fx.clemson.edu/theater_spacecat.html
  • Binky the Space Cat (book) Ashley Spires - Author, Illustrator http://www.ashleyspires.com/
  • Space Cat (1952) – and subsequent series of stories by Ruthven Todd http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruthven_Todd
  • Space Cat – underground cartoon by Fish Griwkowsky (began in 1993) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Cat
  • Spacecats (1991) – TV series  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266191/
  • The Cat from Outer Space (1978) – movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077305/
  • FatCatAlley - The Adventures of SpaceCat http://fatcatalley.com/cgi-bin/fc.pl?m=spacecatm1
  • Bookstore – SpaceCat San Jose (San Francisco Bay Area) http://www.superspacecat.biz/servlet/StoreFront
  • Band - SpaceCAT  http://spacecatband.webs.com/
 
 

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