Melbourne comic artist and writer Ben Hutchings has a string of mini-comics that he self publishes on a regular basis. This is one comic-obsessed and creative dude!

I really admire that Ben puts his writing and drawing skills wholeheartedly into so many different applications and styles. Here’s just a few of his current and recent projects…

He writes and illustrates the hilarious full pager Lesson Master for a men’s magazine. His weekly comic strip Tales from the Pub also features in a men’s magazine – you can read the archives of this one here.

Comic of Smallness (see photo above) is a TINY comic series that Ben produces just for his own fun and amusement. They are so cute!

Ben has just launched (in Melbourne just last night!) a newspaper sized, giant, standalone comic Walking to Japan. With a large, oversized comic, comes large, detailed drawings and storyline over a whole 20 pages! He feels that this might just be his best work yet!

Walking to Japan is now available through Milk Shadow Books.

Ben also writes a song of the day, that he refers to as juvenile music. He writes the mini songs, has a computerized voice sing them and you can even buy whole albums of songs. Yes it’s random! But yes it’s also funny! Check it out –  Tootleg Boy Song of the Day.

And for more comic goodness and all of his latest projects – check out Ben’s blog.

How have you got to where you are today? I loved drawing, and British comics turned me on to how great comics can be. Later, I came across a book called The International World of Comics by Denis Gifford. It was full of thumbnail photos of old comic book covers, laid out side by side. You can’t read it and not get infected with comic lust. So I began collecting every one I could find, and of course drawing nothing but comics.

In a few words, describe yourself… Funny, comic obsessed, insane knack for writing random songs!

What are you spending your time on at the moment? The main thing I’m doing is a draft revision of a children’s graphic novel Mini Mel and Timid Tom, which I’m meeting with a publisher about. It’s this 100 page epic about a miniature girl and her cat running around the place with an egg.

Aside from that I’m compiling issue 4 of Comics of Smallness. That is this really tiny comic that I make for fun to sort of relax. It is drawn and written in just a few hours usually, and the stories are really silly.

I’ve also just launched a newspaper sized comic called Walking to Japan. This is the opposite kind of comic, where every frame is drawn huge and in meticulous detail, and the design and flow of the story is laboured over.

I am also drawing pages for You Stink & I Don’t #10 which is due next month and looks to be about 50 pages. That is sort of my main ongoing comic, which is an anthology of shorter, funny strips about poo, usually. I also have to draw and colour a Tales episode each week, so I’ll do that tomorrow maybe.

Do you have a ritual for getting into the creative mindset? Or a creative process? I’m in it all the time! I ease into it, by wasting time on facebook and that kind of thing. Then I sit on the floor, put on Columbo and go for it.

What or who inspires you? Nothing special inspires me. The trick is how you twist ordinary thoughts and make them into stories.

What are you most proud of? Walking to Japan is my best art. I think Lesson Master is the funniest.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? I’ve known I wanted to be a comic artist since I was ten. Before that I remember wanting to be a park ranger for some reason.

I still want to be a policeman or a detective but I can’t drive and hate shaving. Also I’m really slow on the uptake. Like, the other day this man at a bar swooped in and shook my hand first, then started telling my girl friends he had a great day because he just closed a big business deal. They started asking him all these questions, and he soon got up and left. I only realised the next day that he didn’t really close a big business deal, but the girls knew it from the moment he sat down.

So I’d need a team of four women to follow me about and they could be my intuition, and I’d just do paperwork but wear a big coat so it was like I was the main one.