Platinum Grit
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| Platinum Grit | |
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| Author(s) | Trudy Cooper, Danny Murphy and Doug Bayne |
| Website | http://www.platinumgrit.com/ |
| Launch date | 1993/1994 |
Platinum Grit is an Australian self-published comic book. The series is noted for sexy drawings of girls, surreal offbeat humor and some of the most skillfully and tightly-written scripts in all of comics, often compared to Monty Python, Spike Milligan and The Goon Show. The artwork is often compared to the early work of Phil Foglio, Jamie Hewlett's Tank Girl, and Elfquest by Wendy Pini. The series is the brainchild of writer/illustrator Trudy Cooper, created along with co-writer Danny Murphy. Doug Bayne inked and contributed to the script for the first few issues, but has since shifted to a consultant role.
Jeremy and Nils, the main characters of Platinum Grit, first appeared in a story called "Friendly Rivalry" in volume 1, Number 7 of Australia's Issue One Magazine in Winter 1993. The Platinum Grit comicbook was published from early 1994 through issue 10 (1998) by Dead Numbat Productions. These, and subsequent issues, are available online at www.platinumgrit.com as free shockwave webcomics. Platinum Grit is a work in progress and new issues are produced on a regular basis.
The creators of Platinum Grit were recipients of the 2005 Ledger Awards for Writer of the Year, Artist of the Year, and Webcomic of the Year. In 2006 Cooper won the Ledger for Writer of the Year. Platinum Grit has attracted a very loyal readership and critical acclaim from within the Australian comic industry. Its readership has grown and expanded internationally since the comic became available online.
[edit] Creators
Trudy Cooper: Cooper is a writer/illustrator who has been drawing the main characters in various forms since she was a young girl. Though she will seldom admit it, she also contributed storyboards to the film Dark City.
Danny Murphy: Murphy is a popular actor, writer and singer on the Australian stage circuit.
Doug Bayne: Bayne is an actor, writer and animator. His involvement in Platinum Grit finished with episode 12. He is best-known as co-creator of Double the Fist, a parody of extreme sports reality shows which won the AFI (Australian Film Industry Award) for best comedy.
[edit] Influences
Cooper's artistic influences include Phil Foglio, Edvard Munch and the "Snow Miser" segments from the 1974 Christmas special The Year Without a Santa Claus. She draws much of her inspiration from music, including the work of Kate Bush and Nina Hagen. The surreal quality of the series owes much to The Goodies, a popular British comedy from the 1970s.
[edit] Characters
Jeremy Lachlan MacConnor: A gifted physicist who has trouble talking to girls. Scottish. Owner of Castle MacConnor. Wears a French Foreign Legion Kepi. Raised by his Uncle Angus and Aunt Lotte.
Nilson Maria Theresa "Nils" Kerr: Jeremy's constant companion, who teases him mercilessly, and also sometimes endangers his life. Nils was visually inspired by Carla, the busty platinum blonde character from the Captain Kremmen cartoon parody. Captain Kremmen was a popular segment on the Kenny Everett Video Show, which also included the dance troupe Hot Gossip. The dancers often appeared in incongruously sexy outfits, such as tiny string bikinis and large heavy work-gloves, which Cooper cites as an influence on Nils often appearing in similar outfits. Creator Trudy Cooper sometimes appeared as a Carla-like character named Ventricle during her stint in a comedy ensemble in Brisbane.
Kate Provoczki: Level-headed ex-roommate of Nils. Or possibly ex-girlfriend. Short black hair, built like a rake, became a journalist because she likes collecting gossip on people. Chain smokes.
Angus MacConnor: Jeremy's uncle, also a scientist. He and Jeremy were kindred spirits. The character is visually based on Donald Sutherland's portrayal of Wilhelm Reich from the Cloudbusting video by Kate Bush.
Lotte MacConnor: Jeremy's aunt and grand matriarch of the family. Speaks in an accent so thick that it is at times difficult to read (which as some will tell you is how they talk in the Highlands). At times she seems to be no more than your typical senile old relative, yet she seems to retain a better grip on reality that most give her credit, even though it borders on the sinister at times. Cooper says that her bizarre dialogue is an attempt at a phonetic transcription of the Highland Scots accent.
Dougal MacWikkening: Jeremy's homicidal and immortal cousin. The character of Dougal, particularly his immortality, is influenced by the 1986 action/fantasy film Highlander. (His name, is a pun on Duncan, the protagonist of the Highlander television series and also the term "Quickening" which refers to the moment an Immortal slays another Immortal and gains his powers.)
Ziegfreid: Owner of the Platinum Grit Cafe, once described by Jeremy as "...more German than anyone has a right to be." Expert in coffee, weapons and relocating large buildings.
Raoul: A sentient, talking cabinet with a strong Jamaican accent. Never actually seen to be mobile in any way, but appears in numerous locations without explanation of how he got there, and was once heard (but not seen) talking on a telephone. Reportedly served in the merchant marines.
Terrence Morley: Agent and possible executor of the MacConnor Family Estate. Bitterly dislikes Angus and Jeremy. For a time operated the family's private sanitorium under the supervision of Lottie.
Doctor Cottington: MacConnor Family Physician. Due to his position, he is very knowledgeable of the more mystical part of the family history. Despite a detached and pompous manner, he takes his role as a doctor very seriously and readily comes to the aid of Jeremy.
[edit] Issues
[edit] Episode "Zero": Friendly Rivalry
Although officially declared non-canon by Trudy Cooper, this story features Jeremy, Nils, and Zeigfreid, more or less as they appear in the official Platinum Grit storyline (although Jeremy exhibits a notably different personality and relationship with Nils). The story concerns their interdimensional tourist service, D-Tours, and their efforts to eliminate their rivals, Dunsinane Day-Trippers. Hyperspace travel is carried out in a vehicle called "the Skip," which resembles a small RV with jet engines mounted to it. Early official issues of Platinum Grit make allusions to events and themes from this story, notably using the Skip for transportation several times (all off-panel), but no explicit references to any events in this story are ever made.
[edit] Episode One: Chapter Headings For Old Novels, Pt. I
On a dare, Aquarius decides to kill all those born under his sign, which includes both Jeremy and his Aunt Lottie. Anticipating her death, Lottie MacConnor summons her nephews Jeremy and Dougal to the castle to set the inheritance in order. Only after Jeremy (with Nilson in tow) arrives does he learn that sole ownership of the family fortune will pass to the winner of a duel to the death at dawn. Nilson, seeing that she could move in if Jeremy inherits, urges him to stay and fight, even helping him train for the duel, with groceries! Yet by the end of the day, Jeremy is not much closer to being ready for the coming swordfight. Before he goes to sleep, and while he tries to write a parting letter to her, Nilson comes in and consoles him, assuring Jeremy that he will be able to defy fate.
[edit] Episode Two: Chapter Headings For Old Novels, Pt. II
While awaiting a suicidal morning duel with his cousin Dougal, Jeremy is visited in the night by the succubus that visited him in his dreams when he was a young boy. She informs Jeremy that she has come to help prevent the death of the Aquarians the next day and the two embark on a surreal journey into the heavens. Meanwhile, Nilson is trying to come up with a way to keep Jeremy from being killed by Dougal in the fight, by any means necessary (there weren't a great many rules laid down). Before long, Jeremy has the Zodiac in chaos, preventing them from performing their appointed duties the next day. Now instead of all born under the sign of Aquarius dying, only Jeremy will die in the duel. As the appointed hour approaches, Jeremy and Nilson hit upon a plan to rig the hall where the fight will take place with a number of large, heavy objects suspended from the roof. Only after being run through with a broadsword does Jeremy's plan work and Nilson releases a grand piano on Dougal's head. Despite this, it is apparent that Jeremy will survive and Nilson will move in.
[edit] Episode Three: A Week In No Particular Order
In the wake of his victorious duel with Dougal, Jeremy and Nilson move into Castle MacConnor. Despite being run through with a broadsword, Jer insists on only using gaff-tape for his wounds. Nils sets a pumpkin atop Dougal's headless body (gaff-tape again) and places him at a bus stop, arousing the suspicions of a private investigator named Richard "Jack" Leaderboard. Jack proceeds to snoop about the castle as Nils and Jer move in, but narrarates in a hoaky, over-the-top style as he recounts the events at his typewriter. Nilson wears out Jeremy by forcing him to move furniture around which lays him up in bed under doctor's orders to have "no excitement". Nilson disregards these orders and dresses up as a naughty nurse. Jack meanwhile is fantasizing about Nils as some femme fatale from Dick Tracy as he tries to solve Dougal's "murder". Intercut are Jeremy's memories of Uncle Angus as a life-long bachelor scientist. The story climaxes as Nilson attempts to give Jeremy a sponge bath resulting in him passing out as his wounds reopen somewhat. Jack, thinking that some sort of evil spirits are behind Dougal's death and now an attempt on Jeremy, rushes to Jer's rescue and performs a voodoo ritual that leaves Jeremy covered in blackened pig fat. Of course Jer simply wakes up on his own as Nilson prepares the place for a housewarming party. . .
[edit] Episode Four: The Howling Void Sings Val Doonican, Pt. I
Jeremy and Nilson get liquored up waiting for their friends to come to a castlewarming party. Unbeknownst to them, some group of interplanetary space aliens have lifted Castle MacConnor into outer space, intent on arranging some sort of bizarre dinner-date between Jer and Nils. The aliens are puzzled at the even more bizarre relationship Nils and Jer have, in all its surreal humor, prompting the chief of them to take matters into his own hands.
[edit] Episode Five: The Howling Void Sings Val Doonican, Pt. II
The comic opens with a view inside Jeremy's mind, with his consciousness arguing with itself while Nilson, under the mind control of match making space aliens, rips off his trousers. The dinner-date is crashed by a platoon of space marines, with a troope of Las Vegas type showgirls in tow. As the aliens and the marines engage in a firefight, Jeremy confesses to Nilson that as a boy, he altered Uncle Angus's equipment to broadcast into the heavens a message requesting help meeting girls. With the firefight wiping out both the space marines and the match-making aliens, Nils and Jer crash-land in Greenland, castle and all.
[edit] Episode Six: Throw That Old Thing Away Grandma
While researching an article for her magazine, globetrotting journalist Kate Provoczki visits "scenic" Greenland. The issue is narrarated in the past tense, as Kate recounts the entire adventure for us, her lucky readers. It is here that she finds Jeremy next to the side of the road, naked in the snow. Her narrative betrays a strong neo-feminist attitude yet she is not heartless to the needs of a cold, naked human (even if he is a man). As we learn, Jer and Nilson had a squabble as they tried to make their way from the wreck of a castle. At the same time as we find this out, Kate is "sharing" her article with us, describing the signs that a relationship is unhealthy; the implication is unmistakable, Jer and Nils are locked in an abusive relationship, albeit with the gender roles reversed somewhat. In any case, Kate and Jeremy are now on a roadtrip around the world with stop including (but not limited to) Denmark, Tijuana, Alabama (or was it Arkansas?), and Amsterdam before finally back to Loch Snuff in Australia. The entire trip, which apparently lasts for months, Kate and Jeremey trade stories about their lives. Kate in particular is interested in Nilson, who she is, what she is doing with Jer, etc. Along the way, Jeremy gets sidetracked into the Mexican desert, Kate makes Jer play at being a model, Jeremy picks up a small pig Kate dubs "Arthur", and Kate tries to figure out just why Jeremy behaves the way he does. Only upon getting back home do we find out the bizarre truth, Nilson and Kate were once roommates. Jeremy of course is absolutely floored.
[edit] Episode Seven: Drowning With Conviction
Jeremy wakes up from a nightmare about his cousin Dougal in his bed next to Loch Snuff, out in the open. Zeigfried has gone to Greenland and begun mailing back the entire castle. Nilson and Kate, reunited after two and a half years, go out to enjoy the nightlife together again. Jer, left to his own devices, has fun reconstructing the castle, playing with Arthur and chatting with Raoul. Meanwhile a strange person is spying on Jeremy, videotaping him while adding a running commentary. Jeremy is convinced that it's Dougal prowling around, returned for vengeance. As Nilson and Kate tease one another about Jer and hang out at a club, Jeremy is firebombed by the stranger.
[edit] Episode Eight: Men Sent Him Jewelry
This flashback issue explains how Jeremy and Nilson first met. Two-and-a-half years ago, Nilson was at a party one night, bored stiff. While she was getting hit on by idiot men, Jeremy was in the apartment next door, working on some sort of project for school. In the middle of welding something, Jeremy's project explodes, sending him flying through the wall into the party and knocking out the electricity. Jeremy meakly apologizes and returns home, discovering with a start that Nilson has followed him over. She falls asleep on his couch with Jer while chatting but somehow sends a message to him while he is in class the next day, arranging to meet the next evening at the zoo to steal a seal. Later that day, Jeremy smuggles some equipment into the zoo and meets up with Nils near midnight. In the attempt to get away, Jeremy's cache of explosives (rigged to look like animals) accidentally goes off. Jeremy and Nilson escape in the chaos while the zookeeper tries in vain to save the animals. Jer awakes the next morning to find Nils splashing in the tub with the seal and her belongings sitting in the hall way. Nilson has moved in.
[edit] External links
- The Official Platinum Grit Website features free shockwave versions of all comics, a gallery, creator info, forum, FAQ and links to the PG webstore.
- Jeremy's Affections - The Scandalously Unauthorized Platinum Grit Homepage - Exclusive interviews with Trudy, Danny and Doug, plus an illustrated Grit bibliography, illustrated guide to characters and more.
- LuLu.com sells glossy trade paperbacks of issues 1-6, 7-11, and 12-16 and individual issues of 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.
- Phase Two Comics still has a few issues from the original run for sale.
