From Hicksville to comic heaven

By GILBERT WONG arts editor

Dylan Horrocks inhabits the fringe of a fringe art form, making him perhaps the ultimate artist outsider, beholden to no institution, school or profession.

The 34-year-old's chosen artform is the comicbook, and it is in this subset of pop culture that he has plugged away for more than 20 years.

We think of the comic as the domain of gaudy supermen and well-endowed women in tights, but Horrocks' chosen territory has been in alternative comics, published in black and white in small runs for a scant audience of devotees.

His work achieved recognition with the 1998 publication of his collected series Hicksville.

For New Zealanders, Hicksville is easily recognisable as a small town anywhere in the country, but a small town where everybody is obsessed with the comicbook. It's funny, wise and moving.

The book was shortlisted for the Harvey and Ignatz major comicbook awards. Horrocks had giants of the industry like Frank Miller and Kurt Busiek ringing him with praise.

The calls did not stop there. Late last month Horrocks' first work for comicbooks giant DC reached the shelves.

The same company that publishes the adventures of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman has hired Horrocks to reinvent the most powerful magical figure in their fictional universe, a character called Tim Hunter - in a limited series called The Names of Magic - for their Vertigo imprint for mature readers.

"It's my little secret," says Horrocks, who has long held a deep interest in fantasy, including that of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

For The Names of Magic Horrocks has taken on only the writing chores, which means he can retain his pen and inks for his next personal project, The Book of Maps.

"This is my perfect day job," he says. It shows, too, how the creative economy works. Distance means nothing, ideas and innovation sell anywhere.