ILLUSTRATIVE TEXT

Issue: #3
Creator: Tolley and Bernard
Publisher: Imaginate
Date: July 2002
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 32 pages

Artist: Tolley
Story: Last Rites
Script: Bernard Caleo, Tolley
Pencil: Tolley, Bernard Caleo
Ink: Bernard Caleo, Tolley
Letters: Tolley

In episode three, our time travellers witness the destruction of the Kelly Gang and the madness inside the hostage filled Jones Inn as police spray the property with bullets. The black and white imagery is stark, effective, and right in your face!

Issue: #667
Creator: Bob Kane, Bill Finger
Publisher: DC Comics
Date: August 2007
Format: Comic Book
Series: The Black Glove
Extent: 32 pages

Artist: J.H. Williams III
Story: The Island of Mister Mayhew
Script: Grant Morrison
Editor: Mike Marts, Peter Tomasi
Pencil: J.H. Williams III
Ink: J.H. Williams III
Colour: Dave Stewart
Letters: Ken Lopez

After news of Batman’s crime fighting spread worldwide, vigilantes took up arms in their respective nations. The Dark Knight invited them to meet in The Batman of All Nations from Detective Comics #215 [January 1955]. One of the original members was The Ranger and his sidekick The Scout from Australia. Moving forward, the franchise renamed itself the International Club of Heroes and later became Dome, realigning their activities to resemble the Justice Society of America. After 1955, the group became inconspicuous until The Island of Mister Mayhew [#667 – 669] where an updated Ranger, wearing ‘Ned Kelly style protective headgear‘, was murdered by fellow member Wingman. Eventually his sidekick Scout, an Indigenous Australian by the name of Johnny Riley, was elevated to Dark Ranger in a ceremony conducted by Batman. His primary adversary was the Swagman, who wore protective armour more akin to Ned Kelly’s than even the Dark Ranger’s equipment.

Creator: Rhonda M. Tallnash
Publisher: Hental Industries
ISBN: 9780977559435
First Published: 2007
Format: Story Book
Extent: 28 pages

Artist: Vasja Koman
Script: Rhonda M. Tallnash

Ned is a bushranger whose career gets off to a rocky start due to problems created by his unique suit.

Information: catalogue.NLA.gov.au

Issue: #669
Creator: Bob Kane, Bill Finger
Publisher: DC Comics
Executive Editor: Dan DiDio
Date: October 2007
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 32 pages

Story: The Dark Knight Must Die!
Writer: Grant Morrison
Cover: J.H. Williams III
Inker: J.H. Williams III
Colourist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editors: Mike Marts, Jeanine Schaefer

Concluding a 3-part story by Grant Morrison and J.H. Williams III! Batman’s reunion with the Club of Heroes becomes a deathtrap as Robin and the Squire are kidnapped by the Black Glove! And can good triumph with the Club of Villains lurking in the shadows?

Outside, Batman is piecing the clues together. The man standing next to them in Dark Ranger’s armor isn’t actually Dark Ranger but rather Wingman in disguise. The real Dark Ranger was the person whose charred remains they found inside Wingman’s outfit. Realizing the jig is up, Wingman shoots Gaucho and takes of with Dark Ranger’s rocket jet-pack. Batman uses his grappling hook to yank the rocket off of Wingman’s back, sending him plummeting back to Earth.

DC.Fandom

Read: The Dark Knight Must Die!

Issue: #676
Creator: Bob Kane, Bill Finger
Publisher: DC Comics
Date: June 2008
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 32 pages

Story: Batman R.I.P.
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artists: Tony S. Daniel, Sandu Florea
Cover: Alex Ross
Colourists: Guy Major, Sandu Florea
Letterer: Randy Gentile

Are you ready for Batman R.I.P.? Beginning the epic story that will change the legend of the Dark Knight forever! Everything in Grant Morrison’s groundbreaking run on Batman has been leading to this story, and nothing will ever be the same again. Who will live? Who will die? Who will be Batman? The answers will surely shock you in Batman R.I.P., featuring artwork by Tony Daniel and Sandu Florea and covers by Alex Ross.

If someone claimed that Grant Morrison spoiled the ending of ‘Batman R.I.P.’ two issues in advance through song, even diehard Morrison fans might be somewhat skeptical. Yet the writer did exactly that in ‘Batman’ #679. While Robin was hiding from the Swagman, the villain gleefully sang ‘Waltzing Matilda,’ a bush ballad from his native Australia about an itinerant worker (or ‘swagman’) who drowned himself in a watering hole to avoid being captured for stealing a sheep. The worker’s death mirrored Batman apparently dying when he forced Doctor Hurt’s helicopter to crash-land in the Gotham River. Unlike his counterpart in ‘Waltzing Matilda,’ however, Batman actually survived.

CBR

Issue 676 featured the first appearance of the Swagman, primarily an enemy of Batman and the Dark Ranger. Taking inspiration from Australian bushranger Ned Kelly, the Swagman protects himself by wearing heavy crude body armour and carrying various weaponry, such as grenade launchers and swords.

Information: Wikipedia.org/wiki/Swagman
View: Swagman [images]

Issue: #176
Creator: Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson
Publisher: DC Comics
Date: August 2008
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 32 pages

Artist: Guy Major
Script: Fabian Nicieza, Chuck Dixon
Pencil: Joe Bennett
Inker: Jack Jadson
Colour: Freddie E Williams II, Guy Major

In this issue, Swagman and Pierror Lunaire are sent out to kill Robin. Swagman shoots a rocket launcher at Robin and Spoiler who then take cover behind a trash container. As the fire spreads, Robin comes out and fights Swagman, beating him and then questioning him about Batman’s location.

View: Swagman [images]

Issue: #676 – 681
Creator: Bob Kane, Bill Finger
Publisher: DC Comics
Date: February 2009
Format: Graphic Novel
Extent: 208 pages

Artist: Alex Ross
Script: Grant Morrison
Pencil: Lee Garbett, Alex Ross
Ink: Trevor Scott, Alex Ross, Sandu Florea, Robert Washington

Batman R.I.P. features the antagonist Swagman who began his criminal career by taking a cue from the legendary Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, wearing crude but highly effective metal body armour and carrying various weaponry including grenade launchers and swords. Swagman was recruited by the Black Glove and became a member of the Club of Villains, under the leadership of Doctor Hurt. During the final conflict, members of the Batman Family and the Club of Heroes defeat the Club of Villains and Swagman is rendered unconscious by the Dark Ranger.

View: Swagman [images]

Issue: #1 – 7
Creator: Gardner Fox
Publisher: DC Comics
Date: June 2010
Format: Graphic Novel
Extent: 232 pages

Artist: Mauro Cascioli
Script: James Robinson

Swagman joins a cast of antagonists and super villains as they attempt to take down the new Justice League, which is still reeling from the deaths of JLA heroes Batman and Martian Manhunter.

View: Swagman [images]

Issue: #1
Editor: Mark Paniccia, Michael Horwitz
Publisher: Marvel
Date: June 2010
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 28 pages

Artist: Rafa Garres
Story: The Dead and the Quick [26 pages]
Script: Fred Van Lente
Pencil: Kano
Ink: Tom Palmer
Colour: Val Staples
Letterer: Simon Bowland

Iron Mask [Don Hertz] was long dead after the end of the Wild West and interred in Rango’s cemetery [Earth-483]. The villain was among a number of corpses that were revived as zombies from a plague infested meteorite which crashed into the cemetery. Don Hertz was the last zombie remaining due to his iron mask which kept him from being shot in the head. However, as he attacked Jackie Kane, Iron Mask was killed by Machine Man who used a circular saw to cut off Don’s head.

Marvel Database

MACHINE MAN IS BACK! Zombies of the multiverse, watch your rotting backs! To obtain a cure for the zombie virus for Morbius the Living Vampire, Aaron Stack, Agent of ARMOR, must traverse alternate realities hunting down the plague in all its myriad forms… with a most unusual (but somehow oddly appropriate) partner! First up: in the Alterniverse known as ‘The Territory’, the Old West never died. But when the greatest gunslingers of Marveldom – Kid Colt, Iron Mask, Two-Gun Kid, Phantom Rider and many others – rise from their graves in Boot Hill, the stage is set for a High Noon showdown with flesh-eating outlaws the likes of which you’ve never seen! Saddle up and ride into the tale we had to call THE DEAD AND THE QUICK!

Read: The Dead and the Quick

Issue: #1
Creator: Katherine Crowton
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 9781471088674
Date: February 2012
Format: Graphic Novel
Extent: 18 pages

Story: Such Is Life… [1 page]
Editor: Nathan Grice

Showdowns, Shootouts and Rivalries! features cool illustrations and amazing facts about some of the worlds greatest duels and confrontations. From David and Goliath to Blackbeard the Pirate to Ned Kelly, this title includes thirteen illustrations from new and established illustrators from all around the world.

Information: Amazon.com.au

‘The Man with the Iron Head’

Issue: #1
Creator: Corteggiani, ManKho, Bonaventure
Publisher: Grand West Editions
ISBN: 9791091468084
Date: November 2012
Format: Graphic Novel
Extent: 54 pages
Language: French

Artist: Dominique Cèbe [ManKho]
Script: François Corteggiani
Colours: Bonaventure

Sur les terres rouges gorgées de bauxite, battues par les vents, il paraît que l’on aperçoit encore quelques fois l’ombre de Ned Kelly ‘l’homme a la tête de fer,’ qui fut voleur de bétail dans son jeune âge et qui avec sa bande de hors-la-loi désespérés, sillonna en son temps l’Etat de Victoria en Australie.

Translation: On the red earth saturated with bauxite, battered by the winds, it seems that one still sees a few times the shadow of Ned Kelly, ‘the man with the iron head’, who was a cattle thief in his young age and who with his band of desperate outlaws, in his time crisscrossed the state of Victoria in Australia.

Creator: Janeen Brian
Publisher: Random House Australia
ISBN: 9781742757193
First Published: 2014
Format: Story Book
Extent: 36 pages

Artist: Matt Adams
Script: Janeen Brian

‘Ned Kelly was a notorious bushranger. He lived in Australia’s earliest days. He was daring and clever and bold. In a suit made of iron he battled police. And his story is still being told.’ This is the first book in a picture book series about the extraordinary men and women who have shaped Australia’s history.

View: Meet Ned Kelly [images]

Issue: #1
Creator: Monty Wedd
Publisher: ComicOZ
Date: April 2014
Format: Graphic Novel [Hardcover]
Extent: 160 pages

Artist: Monty Wedd
Script: Monty Wedd

In the 1970s, artist and historian Monty Wedd produced a weekly newspaper adventure strip that fully detailed Ned Kelly’s life. This volume collects each and every episode of Monty Wedd’s monumental three year undertaking. Wedd made Ned Kelly as authentic as possible, telling the story with an even handed approach and rendered in a style that resembled earlier engravings. The book won a Bronze For Excellence in Australian Comics and Publishing in the 2015 Ledger Awards.

It was an excellent example of how to use the comic medium to teach history.

John Ryan Panel by Panel

Information: Cartoonists.org.au

Creator: Mark Greenwood
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
ISBN: 9781922244598
First Published: August 2014
Format: Story Book
Extent: 40 pages

Artist: Frane Lessac
Script: Mark Greenwood

As a young boy, Ned Kelly saved a classmate from drowning in a flooded creek. He was rewarded with a green silk sash for his heroism. Yet, within a few years, he became an outlaw who was eventually hanged for murder. ‘Ned Kelly and the Green Sash’ is a window into the character of a poor boy, once honoured for his bravery, who grew up to become Australia’s most notorious bushranger.

View: Ned Kelly and the Green Sash [images]

Writer: K.A. White OAM
Illustrator: Richard Mason
Photographer: Laurie Smith
Publisher: Scholastic Australia
ISBN: 9780992576912
First Published: 2014
Format: Story Book
Extent: 60 pages

Andrew had a dream. The dream was to drive disadvantaged children around for an experience they’d never forget and bring a smile to their beautiful faces. To do this he imagined owning a Western Star truck, that he wanted to name Ned inspired by the one and only Ned Kelly. His vision is to create an artful masterpiece with Ned Kelly’s mural, where children would feel they are stepping into a story. Ned was built and completed in 2014 and is truly a vision. Andrew had warmed the hearts of many and made children’s dreams come true.

Creator: Dean Lahn
Publisher: Scholastic Australia
ISBN: 9781742991313
First Published: 2015
Format: Story Book
Extent: 32 pages

Ned has the same name as a famous bushranger. Some days he’s as BAD as can be. When he’s going to be especially bad he wears armour, and that’s when the REAL trouble starts.

Clearly aimed at the pre-teen market, Bad Ned is a humorous attempt to reference Ned Kelly through the eyes of a young farm boy’s antics and imagination. Written and illustrated by Dean Lahn, his use of heavy fonts, bold colours, and solid images will fire a young reader’s imagination.

I would highly recommend this book given that the unusual style and formatting of its comic action-adventure story has the potential to engage reluctant readers, especially boys, and interest them in topics of Australian history.

Debra Tidball Reading Time

Information: GoodReads.com

Issue: #1
Creator: Nat Karmichael
Publisher: ComicOZ
Format: Graphic Novel [Hardcover]
Extent: 92 pages

Story: Kelly’s Revenge [5 pages]
Script: Glen Lumsden
Pencil: Glen Lumsden

Glen Lumsden’s impressive contribution Kelly’s Revenge to the comic anthology Australia! won him the Comic Book Artist 2016 Stanley Award at the Australian Cartoonists Association’s annual ceremony.

View: Kelly’s Revenge [sample]

Author: Bruce Foot
Illustrator: Bruce Foot
Publisher: Planet Paz
ASIN: B01503LD98
First Published: 2016
Format: Story Book
Extent: 40 pages

Ned Smelly really wants to be a bushranger. So he gets Blind Patty the blacksmith to make him a suit of iron. But the armour gets stuck and Ned gets hot and stinky. Now he is famous, but for all the wrong reasons.

‘When you’re stuck in one hundred pounds of steel armour,’ says Ned, ‘it’s hard to avoid things like dumb bullocks running you over, lightning bolts and the law. And why is that dingo laughing at me?’

Delirious from heat exhaustion and his own smell, Ned stumbles from one disaster to the next. Fate places a sick old man on his path leaving Ned with a sticky decision: does he rob or does he help the old man?

‘In a time of tall ships and blacksmiths,
In the middle of the Australian scrub,
There once lurked a group of misfits,
Who lived by the law of the gun’.

Issue: #1
Creator: Martin Chuzz
Publisher: Convict Comics
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 24 pages

Artist: Adam Nichols
Script: Nick Macari
Pencil: Chris Batista
Ink: David Meikis, Roland Paris
Colour: John Rauch
Letters: Rachel Deering

Pursued by the boys in blue whilst liberating money from the bank at Euroa, Ned Kelly is rescued by a mysterious stranger. He is given some special goggles, the likes of which Ned has never seen before. When he puts them on, the awful truth is revealed – the nascent settlement of Victoria has been colonised not only by the Imperialist English, but also by a race of marauding aliens. And most of them seem to be masquerading as policemen.

Read: Episode One

Issue: #2
Creator: Martin Chuzz
Publisher: Convict Comics
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 28 pages

Artist: Chris Batista
Script: Nick Macari
Pencil: Chris Batista
Ink: David Meikis, Chris Oyo
Colour: John Rauch
Letters: Rachel Deering

Things turn from bad to worse for our true blue hero Ned Kelly. Not only has the colony of Victoria been invaded by hostile aliens who masquerade as Policemen, but Ned’s philandering past has also come back to bite him. A chance encounter with old flame Alice Sherritt at the resistance base leads to fisticuffs, betrayal, and more!

Read: Episode Two

Issue: #3
Creator: Martin Chuzz
Publisher: Convict Comics
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 27 pages

Artist: Adam Nichols
Script: Nick Macari
Pencil: Drew Moss
Ink: David Meikis, Chris Arieswendha
Colour: John Rauch
Letters: Rachel Deering

Ned has been recruited by genius inventor Henry Sutton to lead the resistance movement while Ned’s old flame Alice Sherritt has betrayed him to Baratha, the leader of the aliens, who masquerades as Judge Sir Redmond Barry. Baratha’s crew have in turn kidnapped Ned’s fiancee Ettie. With Ettie captured, Alice enraged, and Sutton’s teenage daughter Tabitha fast developing a crush on him, our favourite bushranger certainly has his hands full.

Read: Episode Three

Issue: #1
Creator: Hugh Dolan
Publisher: New South Publishing
Date: February 2016
Format: Graphic Novel
Extent: 80 pages

Artist: Hugh Dolan
Script: Hugh Dolan
Colour: Dana Vaida, Antim Marius
Ink: Adrian Barbu
Letters: Adrian Barbu

We all think we know the story of Ned Kelly, Australia’s most famous outlaw, but we’ve never seen him in full colour like this before … Edward ‘Ned’ Kelly was born in 1855 into a poor Irish immigrant family in rural Victoria. He grew up loyal to his family, angry at the injustice he saw in Australian society and desperate to better his situation by any means. Often in trouble with the police, with the so-called Kelly Gang he was involved in horse and cattle stealing, bank robbing, kidnapping and ultimately murder. But he was the only bushranger to write a famous and compelling letter explaining his behaviour. As every Australian knows, after a legendary shoot-out Ned was captured by police and later hanged at Melbourne Gaol. Folk hero or criminal, this is the story of Ned Kelly as you’ve never seen it before.

View: Ned Kelly: The Man Behind The Mask [images]

Issue: #1
Creator: Max Myint
Publisher: House of M
Date: November 2017
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 34 pages

Artist: Zachary Smith-Cameron
Script: Max Myint

‘I AM NED’ is set in the wake of World War 4, and what remains of the continents have been isolated from each other. Australia is now lost to an intelligent species of zombies. For ten years, the oppressive regime known as the ‘Zombie World Order’ has commanded loyalty from its citizens through power and propaganda. People are hunted and sent to ‘human farms’, where they are then portioned and delivered to the hungry masses like cattle. One man dares to stand against the plague. Building armour inspired by the legendary Ned Kelly, he is driven, and merciless in his desire to bring down this zombie empire.

View: I AM NED [images]

Issue: #1
Creator: Marie-Eve and Jean-Jacques de Grave
Publisher: Helium 
ISBN: 9782330086725
Date: October 2017
Format: Graphic Novel [Hardcover]
Extent: 88 pages
Language: French

Artist: Jean Jacques de Grave
Script: Marie-Eve de Grave

Je m’appelle Ned Kelly. J’ai vingt-cinq ans. Je suis né dans la nature, au cœur du bush. Aujourd’hui ma fin approche, mais je n’ai peur de rien. Je suis entré dans l’histoire. Un graphic novel tout en gravures sur Ned Kelly, le hors-la-loi australien symbole de la résistance à l’empire Britannique et mort à 25 ans. Devenu une icône de la pop culture, il a inspiré des films avec Mick Jagger puis Heath Ledger dans le rôle titre et une chanson par Johnny Cash.

Translation: My name is Ned Kelly. I’m twenty-five. I was born in nature, in the heart of the bush. Today my end is approaching, but I am not afraid of anything. I made history. A graphic novel all in engravings on Ned Kelly, the Australian outlaw who symbolises resistance to the British Empire and who died at 25 years old. Become an icon of pop culture, he inspired films with Mick Jagger and Heath Ledger in the title role and a song by Johnny Cash.

View: L’historire de Ned Kelly [images]

Issue: #1
Creator: Lucas Scheffel
Publisher: Angry Fred Comics
Date: July 2018
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 11 pages

Artist: Nikita Vasilchuk
Script: Lucas Scheffel

Set against the backdrop of pivotal moments in Australian history Outlaws of Oz: The Bushrangers Chronicles delves into a cheeky alternative universe. Welcome to a world where bushrangers and aliens collide against the harsh Australian outback.

In this version of ‘Ned Kelly and the Green Sash’ our protagonist comes up against both state troopers and not-so-little green men. Touted as a one of five, the story begins with a literal bang. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series as the publisher Angry Fred Comics appears to be an outfit that knows how to make quality content. Best of all, this comic can be downloaded for free from their website!

Ironoutlaw.com

View: Outlaws from OZ [images]

Creator: Tony Wilson
Illustrator: Heath McKenzie
Publisher: Lake Press
ISBN: 9781760458942
First Published: October 2018
Format: Story Book
Extent: 24 pages

You might know the tale of a Kelly named Ned
A bushranger type with a can on his head
He roamed the wild country and caused loads of strife
And went to his death with the words ‘such is life’.

A lesser known story is that of Jed Kelly
Who lived in the suburb of Indooroopilli,
A regular eight-year-old boy was young Jed
Except for wild hair that was red, red, red, RED!

This is my Ned Kelly story, set in Queensland suburbia, and starring a kid with a self acquired disastrous haircut who is walking around with a wastepaper bin on his head. The illustrations are by the superbly talented Heath McKenzie of ‘Don’t Open This Book’ fame. Funny, a bit silly, rhyming, with a message aimed towards being satisfied with who we are. You are who you are, that’s the truth, such is life!

Tony Wilson

Information: TonyWilson.com.au

Issue: #2
Creator: Max Myint
Publisher: House of M
Date: November 2019
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 40 pages

Artist: Zachary Smith-Cameron
Script: Max Myint
Edit: You Matsuyama

NED has been busy. REALLY busy. Taking out Human Farms. Leading a resistance. And after years of operating in the shadows, he has now decided to execute the next phase of his master plan, declaring WAR against the ZWO in the hopes that his provocation will reveal what forces he is truly up against. His antics are starting to show, forcing the MINISTER to have to deal with his presence and the rising concerns of a food shortage.

Information: OwnaIndi.com

A detective story

Issue: #1
Creator: Jim Kelly, Lawrence Sagar
Publisher: Squish Comics and Stuff
Date: 2020
Format: Digital Comic
Extent: 72 pages

Author: Jim Kelly, Lawrence Sagar
Artist: Jim Kelly, Lawrence Sagar

Two homicide detectives investigate an unusual set of circumstances at a scrap yard. In order to determine a motive, they will have to sort through the madness of the killer.

Read: Crux: Chapter One [Part 1]
View: CRUX [images]

 

Chapter: #37
Creator: Qizeaqfile
Publisher: WebToons.com
Editor: Mobclutch
Date: 2020
Format: Digital Comic Book
Extent: 20 panels

Qizeaqfile’s impressively written and rendered multi-chapter webtoon, Lady Maria and The Old Hunters, ran from 2020 to 2023 and spanned sixty-six chapters. The comic is based on the action role-playing video game Bloodborne, published by Sony Entertainment in 2015. The story takes place in and around the decrepit gothic, Victorian–era–inspired city of Yharnam, whose inhabitants are afflicted with a blood-borne disease. In this comic series, the anti-heroine, Lady Maria, is aided in her quest by a band of Hunters. One of their main antagonists is Valtr, Master of The League, whose distinctive One-Eyed Iron Helm marks him as a man not to be messed with.

I have dreamt of creating a Bloodborne comic in the style of a manga or graphic novel. Something, I believe, no one has ever done before. There are plenty of great stories in Bloodborne. This comic is a passion project but I’ll make the story as close to the lore as possible. I can’t promise to post a chapter each week, but I’ll aim to create one per month. If you’d like to support me, then I will be eternally grateful, and if not, then I appreciate the time you’ve taken to read this anyway.

Qizeaqfile

Read: Lady Maria and The Old Hunters: Confrontation
View: Bloodborne [images]

Creator: Aidan Phelan
Publisher: Australian Bushranging
ISBN: 9780645700145
First Published: November 2023
Format: Story Book
Extent: 48 pages

This is the story of how a poor, country kid grew up to be a legendary cop-fighting, bank-robbing, bullet-proof bushranger. Ned Kelly’s story is one that has captivated generations of Australians and has inspired many children and adults alike to take an interest in Australia’s colonial history. This book tells that story in a simple, fact-based account full of original illustrations that will educate and entertain junior readers.

Issue: #1
Creator: The 4th Monkey
Publisher: ComX Studio
Date: August 2024
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 28 pages
Contributors: Oscar Thornton, Stuart Thornton

The Towerson Research’s Experimental Mining Armour (T.R.E.M.A) has been stolen. The Government want it back. The underworld wants to turn it into a weapon. Caught in the middle is the armour’s test pilot, William Thorne, who now struggles to stay alive with both the country’s number one fight force and most wanted in a race to take the T.R.E.M.A. from him. Behind the scenes, though, there is even more at stake.

Outlaw is a story straight from the Bronze Age of comic storytelling. Action, intrigue and a hero that is is no hero. As the story unfolds the lines between good and evil are blurred and could finally disappear. Australian Superheroes. Created in Australia. Printed in Australia.

Stu Thornton

Buy: Comx.net.au
View: Outlaw [images]

Author: Coral Vass
Illustrator: Deb Hudson
Publisher: MidnightSun Publishing
ISBN: 9781922858375
Format: Story Book [Hardcover]
Extent: 32 pages

Young Ned Kelly and his mates get up to all sorts of mischief. But when Ned’s friend is found drowning in the creek, will Ned be able to save him? The Kelly Gang Kids is a story about friendship, fun and bravery.

Chasing each other down Avenel Way,
the Kelly Gang kids just wanted to play.

View: The Kelly Gang Kids [images]
Information: MidnightSunPublishing.com

Issue: #2
Creator: The 4th Monkey
Publisher: ComX Studio
Date: August 2024
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 32 pages
Contributors: Oscar Thornton, Stuart Thornton

The Towerson Research’s Experimental Mining Armour (T.R.E.M.A) has been stolen. The Government want it back. The underworld wants to turn it into a weapon. Caught in the middle is the armour’s test pilot, William Thorne, who now struggles to stay alive with both the country’s number one fight force and most wanted in a race to take the T.R.E.M.A. from him. Behind the scenes, though, there is even more at stake.

Buy: Comx.net.au
View: Outlaw [images]

Issue: Treasury Edition
Creators: Gerry Finley-Day and Geoff Campion
Publisher: Rebellion / 2000AD
Date: October 2024
Format: Graphic Novel [Hardcover]
Extent: 272 pages

Writer: Gerry Finley-Day
Artists: Cam Kennedy, John Cooper, Geoff Campion
Cover: Geoff Campion

In the aftermath of Action Ascendency, Action Force’s SAS team pursue Baron Ironblood across the South American continent but soon find that they themselves have become the quarry. Captain Buckingham, codename Eagle, and his squad must use all of their survival skills to stay one-step ahead of the hunt. Returning to print after more than 40 years, this limited edition deluxe hardcover volume collects the secret origins of Baron Ironblood and his legions of Red Shadows. Featuring the epic Operation Bloodhound by Gerry Finley-Day and Geoff Campion, as well as the talents of James Tomlinson, Cam Kennedy, Robert Turner, Jim Watson, Anthony Coleman, Jim Bleach, John Cooper and Vanyo.

Weighing over two kilograms, this special edition also includes a cover gallery, Action Force data files, and the top secret file on The Baron.

Issue: #1
Creator: Lucas Scheffel
Publisher: Angry Fred Comics
Writter: Lucas Scheffel
Illustrator: Vika Zuban
Colourist: Richard Rupcic
Letterer: Stephen Kok
Date: August 2025
Format: Graphic Novel
Extent: 64 pages

After escaping his execution, Ned Kelly (Australia’s most infamous outlaw) finds himself in a fractured dimension where relics of the past collide with alien technology. Drawn into a desperate quest to save a community, Ned teams up with legendary Australian Bushrangers Ben Hall, Captain Thunderbolt, and Dan ‘Mad Dog’ Morgan. Together, they must unlock the mysteries of five legendary revolvers that are keys to a portal that could rewrite history. Faced with the threat of the tyrannical Judge Bloodstone and a sinister Mechwarrior powered by a supernatural child, the bushrangers must forge a brotherhood, confront personal demons, and rediscover their sense of justice.

Ned Kelly: The 5 Revolvers mixes Australian Bushranger history with sci-fi imagination. It’s a story about second chances, friendship, and fighting to stay alive when the odds are stacked against you. Can these outlaws find their way to something better, or are they doomed to repeat the mistakes that branded them in the first place? Let’s saddle up with Ned Kelly and the gang as we ride through this wild frontier of THE 5 REVOLVERS universe!

Link: Kickstarter
View: Ned Kelly: The 5 Revolvers [images]

Issue: #3
Creator: The 4th Monkey
Publisher: ComX Studio
Date: TBA
Format: Comic Book
Extent: 32 pages
Contributors: Oscar Thornton, Stuart Thornton

The Towerson Research’s Experimental Mining Armour (T.R.E.M.A) has been stolen. The Government want it back. The underworld wants to turn it into a weapon. Caught in the middle is the armour’s test pilot, William Thorne, who now struggles to stay alive with both the country’s number one fight force and most wanted in a race to take the T.R.E.M.A. from him. Behind the scenes, though, there is even more at stake.

Buy: Comx.net.au
View: Outlaw [images]

Issue: #1
Creator: Greg and Grae
Publisher: ComicOZ
Date: TBA
Format: Graphic Novel
Extent: TBA

Author: Fysh Rutherford
Artist: Gregor McAlpine

With the strength and courage of a thousand Ned Kellys comes the complete collection of Greg and Grae’s masterpiece, ‘Iron Outlaw’.

Link: Kickstarter
View: The Complete Iron Outlaw [book cover]

Issue: #1
Creator: Nahum Ziersch
Publisher: TBA
Date: TBA
Format: Graphic Novel
Extent: TBA

Artist: Nahum Ziersch
Script: Nahum Ziersch

‘NED’S DEAD’ is a bounty hunter style graphic novel, laced with fantasy elements, set in the early 1890s Australian landscape. The story sees numerous convicts, soldiers, rich folk, along with fearsome genetically mutated, fantasy style beasts collide in this olden style action story. We see a fictitious story build around the notion that Ned didn’t meet his ‘maker’ and was never successfully hanged in the Old Melbourne Gaol. A huge price is put upon his head for his capture (dead or alive) as everything to everyone has their shot at wealth and glory! Bringing the successful hunter a huge reward of wealth and fame, which many folk would never experience in this era. As Australia struggles to find its identity in an English invaded land, a battle brews not only with the Indigenous people (the true custodians), the oppressive English colony and the common people. Their struggles and hardship from day to day create a tense and violent environment – this bounty is too good to refuse! The British government along with corrupt, but newly formed Police are secretly using Convicts and homeless people as their tortured test subjects in early science and military experiments to make a ‘Super Invader Horde’. The ramifications of this are high and dangerous, as experiments go horribly wrong, many convicts die, and dangerous strains of mutant convict DNA is poorly handled, and in most cases not destroyed at all. Some of these horrid experiments do work however, and ‘Slave Beasts’ (mutated convicts) are born – This brings a frightening fantasy element into the overall story. For Ned and his gang, sadly this is one of many obstacles they must face, and destroying these beastly experiments is only part of their quest for freedom.

Information: ArtStation.com
View: NED’S DEAD [images]