Supanova Pop Culture Expo

Dave de Vries began his comicbook career over twenty five years ago, writing and drawing original Australian characters, which he self published in the anthology magazine Cyclone! The Southern Squadron – a team of larrikin Aussie superheroes created by Dave – proved so popular that within three years their section took over the magazine’s title. The newly named Southern Squadron Magazine became Australia’s most popular superhero comic, outselling, not only the other locally produced magazines, but the big name American imports.

As a result of this success, Dave was soon approached by a number of mainstream Australian magazines to create a selection of comic book insert features; the widest read examples being, Bodyguard for Australian Penthouse, Rip Snorter for Streetbike, Raw Tonnage for Interstater and Van Dieman for the Edge.

During this period, Dave also teamed up with America’s Marvel Comics and Australian toy giant Milton Bradley to produce G.I. Joe Australia, a four issue comic book series to tie in with the popular action figure. In addition, he became a regular contributor to Australian Mad Magazine, eventually being put on retainer as the magazine’s Creative Coordinator.

In 1988, Dave broke into America when he sold the Southern Squadron to Californian based Malibu Graphics. With the ensuring popularity of the series with the American market, Bodyguard, Rip Snorter, Raw Tonnage and a second Squadron series soon followed. Malibu also commissioned Dave to create the Puppet Master and Children Of The Puppet Master – two comic series to tie in with Hollywood producers Full Moon Productions’ movie series of the same name. The first of these, the first colour comic produced by Malibu, proved so successful that it was freely adapted by the Full Moon into their third Puppet Master movie.

Dave’s career then moved for strength to strength, with him working on a number of prominent titles for many of the bigger American comic book companies (a list follows at the end of this CV). Of these a number are notable;

* The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks for Marvel Comics – a prestige format mini-series in which Dave was commissioned to update America’s oldest costumed comic book hero for the 1990s. Within Australia, one of the Phantom’s most popular markets, this was greeted by a media blitz, with them appearing repeatedly on national television, radio, newspapers and magazines.

* Dave was given carte blanche with the characters of the Valiant Comics stable, to create a one off high profile special in whatever format and page count he wanted. The subsequent The Eternal Warrior Yearbook – Valiant’s first – redefined what was then one of Valiant’s most popular characters and was granted the prestigious Gem Of The Month status by the Diamond Distribution group.

* Batman: Legends Of The Dark Knight – a 3 part special for DC Comics, in which the character of Batman leaves Gotham to battle a Chinese Australian super villain, called the Taipan, on the streets of Sydney and Hong Kong.

In addition to his American projects Dave has continued working for companies at home, contributing to an array of Australian book, magazine and comic book publications including Mad Magazine, Picture, People, Ralph, Inside Sport, The Goodweekend, The Bulletin and The Australian Financial Review Magazine.

Within the book field Dave has created The Lion Of The East, a graphic novel for Random House and Round The Twist – a Tintin style graphic novel series based on the popular television series of the same name – for Penguin Books.