Folio website launched

A new website, Folio, has been launched showcasing stories from the Australian comics community, using oral histories and ephemera from the period 1980 to 2020, aimed at creators, readers and researchers.

In explaining Folio, project organisers said, “Imagine a comic artist carrying a folio of their work – their shiny completed projects, their drafts, their messy mistakes, their notes to themselves, their attempts and failures, a record of their relentless, exhausting labour, a testament to their love of this artform. They spread their folio out on a table. A hidden history is revealed.”

The website displays images along with an oral story or essay. “We want you to be able to shuffle through the folio and make connections between stories, images and ideas,” said project organisers. “Folio aims to present Australia’s contemporary comics scene in the most accessible way, making these rare stories, and the often ephemeral works that accompany them, available for generations of readers and scholars.”

“In February 2026, we published about half of the material we’ve been gathering since the start of the project. This folio will keep growing this year and beyond with new oral histories, essays, and different ways of telling stories of Australian comics.”

The Folio project was produced through an Australia Research Council (ARC)-funded partnership between the University of Melbourne, UTS, RMIT, National Library of Australia and Creative Australia, with web design support from Supermarket Design and PUBLIC digital design studio.

The research team includes Elizabeth MacFarlane, Ronnie Scott, Gabriel Clark, Patrick Grant, Meg O’Shea, Claudia Chinyere Akole, Ada Connor, Bernard Caleo, Leonie Brialey, Daniel John Pilkington, and Sarah Richardson.

More information is available on the website.

Category: Local news