Robyn E. Kenealy
Encyclopedia
Robyn E. Kenealy is a creator and organiser in the New Zealand
art and comics communities. She is based
in Wellington
, and is most notable for her role in establishing the 91 Aro St Gallery, organising the New Zealand Comics Weekend and the recent Eric Awards. Kenealy's early works (the Influenza mini-comics) were dominantly autobiographical comics
. Her recent work Roddy's Film Companion (a biography
of the film actor Roddy McDowall
) marks a distinct shift from this style. Although Roddy's Film Companion is biographical, it is also fictional and frequently acknowledges the limitations of 'truth' and 'fact' in historical research.
. She also, "...plays guitar
and banjo
, makes conceptual art, dabbles in painting and haiku
and has written the odd short story
."
, whose most well-known role was playing Cornelius in Planet of the Apes (1968 film)
. Richard Burton
, Elizabeth Taylor
, Joseph Mankiewicz and Darryl Zanuck also feature in the comics. However, Roddy's Film Companion is not so much concerned with presenting an accurate portrait of Roddy McDowall's life, but rather with interrogating the limits of 'truth' and 'reality' in biographies through fictionalization. As Kenealy writes on her website, "Roddy's Film Companion is a one half semi-fictional
biography
comic of child star
cum character actor Roddy McDowall (whom you might remember from such films as How Green Was My Valley (film)
and Planet of the Apes) and one half a musing on the phenomenon of celebrity itself, as applied to both author and subject." The first issue, released in 2006, is set while Roddy was filming the Darryl Zanuck production of Cleopatra (1963 film)
. In late 2008 she started uploading Roddy's Film Companion to the internet. Issue 1 is now available on-line.
as the MC. In 2010 Kenealy organized the 5th New Zealand Comics Weekend at The Basement Gallery in Wellington, New Zealand (with the help of DRAW, Claire Harris and Tim Bollinger).
Kenealy won the award for the best cartoon in the 2009 A.S.P.A. awards (Aotearoa Student Press Association) with The Darkroom weekly serial (a backstory to "Roddy's Film Companion") which has been appearing in Salient Magazine for the last year. Dylan Horrocks, one of the judges, wrote that Kenealy's comics have "all kinds of smarts going on just below the surface." Tim Bollinger, in a recent review, wrote that The Darkroom has "smart conversational language and pen-and-ink-wash visual narrative."
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
art and comics communities. She is based
in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, and is most notable for her role in establishing the 91 Aro St Gallery, organising the New Zealand Comics Weekend and the recent Eric Awards. Kenealy's early works (the Influenza mini-comics) were dominantly autobiographical comics
Autobiographical comics
Autobiographical comics are autobiography in the form of comic books or comic strips. The form first became popular in the underground comics movement and has since become more widespread...
. Her recent work Roddy's Film Companion (a biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of the film actor Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
) marks a distinct shift from this style. Although Roddy's Film Companion is biographical, it is also fictional and frequently acknowledges the limitations of 'truth' and 'fact' in historical research.
Biography
Kenealy is a Wellington based comic book artistComic Book Artist
Comic Book Artist was an American magazine founded by Jon B. Cooke devoted to anecdotal histories of American comic books, with emphasis on comics published since the 1960s...
. She also, "...plays guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, makes conceptual art, dabbles in painting and haiku
Haiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
and has written the odd short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
."
Roddy's Film Companion
For the last three years Kenealy has been working on Roddy's Film Companion, a semi-fictional/biographical comic about the life of the actor Roddy McDowallRoddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
, whose most well-known role was playing Cornelius in Planet of the Apes (1968 film)
Planet of the Apes (1968 film)
Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison...
. Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
, Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
, Joseph Mankiewicz and Darryl Zanuck also feature in the comics. However, Roddy's Film Companion is not so much concerned with presenting an accurate portrait of Roddy McDowall's life, but rather with interrogating the limits of 'truth' and 'reality' in biographies through fictionalization. As Kenealy writes on her website, "Roddy's Film Companion is a one half semi-fictional
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
comic of child star
Child star
Child star can refer to:* a child actor* a child singer*"Child Star," a song by The Unicorns from their 2003 album Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?...
cum character actor Roddy McDowall (whom you might remember from such films as How Green Was My Valley (film)
How Green Was My Valley (film)
How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 drama film directed by John Ford. The film, based on the 1939 Richard Llewellyn novel, was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and written by Philip Dunne. The film stars Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall...
and Planet of the Apes) and one half a musing on the phenomenon of celebrity itself, as applied to both author and subject." The first issue, released in 2006, is set while Roddy was filming the Darryl Zanuck production of Cleopatra (1963 film)
Cleopatra (1963 film)
Cleopatra is a 1963 British-American-Swiss epic drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The screenplay was adapted by Sidney Buchman, Ben Hecht, Ranald MacDougall, and Mankiewicz from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. The film starred Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy...
. In late 2008 she started uploading Roddy's Film Companion to the internet. Issue 1 is now available on-line.
Wellington Indie Arts Scene
Over the last decade Kenealy and her husband Richard (Dick) Whyte have curating the ongoing art collection The Wayfarer Gallery based in Wellington's Wayfarer Library, archiving Wellington experimental art. It currently own more than 200 works from artists such as Rick Jensen, GCR, Brent Willis, Tao Welles, Mark Whyte, Smiley, Sam Stephens (and many others). In 2004 they collaborated with others to open the 91 Aro St Gallery, another Wellington outlet for independent arts. 91 Aro St sold and exhibited comics, tapes, CDs, books, films, paintings, photographs, pictures, glass work from experimental artists in and around Wellington, New Zealand. It was open for twelve months while they held the lease on the premises and had more than 20 exhibitions. Kenealy also appeared in Elric Kane and Alexander Greenhough's 2004 independent feature film Murmurs, set in a bohemian Wellington subculture.On the National Scene
It was during 2005 that 91 Aro St was the venue for the first New Zealand Comics Weekend, a weekend devoted to the exhibition and celebration of New Zealand comics. Since then Kenealy has been the major organiser of this event in 2006 and contributed to the 2007 event, organised by cartoonists DRAW and Tim Bollinger. The 2006 event also included the Eric Awards, an independently judged New Zealand comic awards. Robyn and Dick hosted the event, which also featured stand-up comedian Darren SchroederDarren Schroeder
Darren Phillip Schroeder is a Small Press editor, critic, stand up comedian, and comics creator. He is best known for founding the , editing the Small press section of the Comics Bulletin website and as long-standing editor of the Funtime Comics anthology Funtime Comics Presents...
as the MC. In 2010 Kenealy organized the 5th New Zealand Comics Weekend at The Basement Gallery in Wellington, New Zealand (with the help of DRAW, Claire Harris and Tim Bollinger).
Comics
- Influenza In Wellington issues 1-4
- Love Ain't Easy parts one and two
- Roddy's Film Companion, about child and adult star Roddy McDowall
Exhibitions
- Rubbernek 2, group exhibition at Enjoy Gallery 2001
- Wayfarer Presents, group exhibition at Enjoy Gallery, 2002
- Spring, installation piece at 91 Aro Street, 23 Aug - 6 Sept 2005
- Wellington Comics Exhibition at Mezzo Gallery, 15–29 April 2005
- Bottled (s)Words/W.Art, DAF 106 Gallery, 2008
- I like sex and I’m a girl, DAF 106 Gallery, 2008
- EGO, DAF 106 Gallery, 2009
Acknowledgements
Robyn featured in the 2004 Toby Donald and Dick Whyte documentary, Boys Suck: Throw Rocks at Them first screened at the New Zealand Comics Weekend at 91 Aro St Gallery, later to be released on DVD. The documentary followed Robyn and fellow comic artist G.C.R. to the Eric Awards in 2004. This film is considered part of the Aro Valley film movement. She was also interviewed by Shirley Horrocks in her documentary The Comics Show, screened at the New Zealand Film Festival in 2007.Kenealy won the award for the best cartoon in the 2009 A.S.P.A. awards (Aotearoa Student Press Association) with The Darkroom weekly serial (a backstory to "Roddy's Film Companion") which has been appearing in Salient Magazine for the last year. Dylan Horrocks, one of the judges, wrote that Kenealy's comics have "all kinds of smarts going on just below the surface." Tim Bollinger, in a recent review, wrote that The Darkroom has "smart conversational language and pen-and-ink-wash visual narrative."