Ryan Vella

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Ryan Cartney Vella (born 1975 in Mackay, Queensland) is an Australian comic artist. He has drawn comics since a young age and is responsible for such titles as Sunburner, The Baby harp Seals Of Death, and many others. Ryan has also contributed to Mad Magazine, Simpson's Comics, The Picture and Sydney's Sick Puppy Comix.

[edit] Biography

Vella grew up with his family on a sugar cane farm at Walkerston near Mackay. He attended St Patrick's Christian Brothers College in Queensland before moving to the Gold Coast to study comic art. Vella returned to Mackay after three years.

He has exhibited with Silicon Pulp Animation Gallery in Sydney and in the 14 International Exhibition of Comics and Drawing in Croatia. Recently Vella has been working on US comic titles Ninja High School, Golddingger and Demi the Demoness as well as Mouthpiece, Mackay's youth magazine.

Vella met John Birmingham, author of He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, at Art Space Mackay for the opening of the Headspace exhibition; there, Birmingham approached him to do a graphic adaptation of his novel to celebrate its tenth anniversary. The comic was published September 2004 by Duffy & Snellgrove ( ISBN-1-876631-95-3).

Vella also contributed a short-lived comic series to his local newspaper "The Walkerston & Valley Advertiser" entitled Blackie the Pig based on a local family's actual real-life pet pig that Mackay City Council threatened to destroy.

Vella is playing bass guitar in the band AMERCE, the band was formed in 2006 to bring a new musical voice to Mackay.