A new online collection, Folio, uncovers the hidden history of Australia's contemporary comics culture for the first time, bringing together oral histories, essays and archival material that have shaped the medium over the past four decades.
The project is the public-facing outcome of the Australian Research Council–funded project, Contemporary Australian Comics 1980–2020: A New History.
The project explores comics as a powerful yet often underestimated storytelling form. Moving beyond superheroes and newspaper strips, it reveals a rich Australian history that uses image and text to convey complex narratives that extend beyond language.
The cover of Wild North Issue 1
Lead researcher, Associate Professor Elizabeth MacFarlane, said the project highlighted the depth of commitment and expertise within Australia's comics community.
"We spoke to artists, librarians, retailers, printers, publishers and festival organisers," Associate Professor MacFarlane, from the Faculty of Arts, said.
"Australia is creating some of the most beautiful stories I've ever read in the form of comics, yet this work has not been matched by industry support or public awareness."
Matt Huynh, brush and ink comic artist, demonstrating one of his comics.
While mainstream superhero comics were widely read in Australia in the early 1980s through newspaper strips and popular characters such as The Phantom, a parallel and largely underground comics culture was also taking shape.
Independent Australian comics flourished in pubs, cafés, record stores and art schools, where work was self-published, shared at zine fairs, distributed by mail or passed hand-to-hand. Artists used comics to build communities outside institutions, experiment with form, and tell stories that did not fit conventional literary models.
Folio documents how lesser known Australian comic publications, such as Fox Comics and Cyclone!, gained international attention during the 1980s, even as local creators struggled for visibility in a market dominated by imported superhero comics.
Poster for Cyclone anthology, art by Gary Chaloner
Through the the decades, Australian comic creators further reimagined the superhero trope to tell distinctively local histories and stories. Wild North Comics editor Jonathon Saunders told researchers: "Australia's got some really out-there and violent history that is ripe for genre fiction. You look at the Maralinga nuclear tests, and I figured that sounds like something you could use for a superhero story."
Beyond documenting history, the research examines why Australian comics have often remained invisible within mainstream cultural narratives. It points to longstanding cultural bias, with comics frequently dismissed as children's entertainment, alongside declining visual literacy, despite the increasingly visual nature of contemporary media.
Australian librarians interviewed as part of the research noted graphic novels are among the most heavily borrowed items in library collections, yet they are often excluded from formal literacy discussions and reading programs.
Two action sequences from The Bushranger, Jonathon Saunders, 2021
Director of Writing Australia Wenona Byrne said Folio offers an innovative way to engage with Australian literary culture.
"Folio is a powerful new way to discover the depth, diversity and creative ambition of Australian comics, recognising the form as a vital part of Australia's writing culture," she said.
While preservation is part of the project's aim, its deeper purpose is recognition, making visible a significant body of Australian storytelling that has long existed beyond mainstream view.
Folio was developed in partnership with RMIT University, the University of Technology Sydney, Creative Australia and the National Library of Australia and can be accessed online here.
