Wanted for Questioning: Interviews with Australian Comic Artists

In this book Bramwell and Matthews have interviewed 31 Australian comic artists, looking at why they make us laugh and how they construct their work. The interviews look at the subjects' influences, sources for material and creative partnerships, and dissect the writing process. The comedy boom in Australia has been widely chronicled in the press but so far there has been little criticism and evaluation. This book uses the present popular form of the literary interview and applies it to writers and performers working in the area of comedy who are more used to a publicity interview. The authors have interviewed our comic commentators on Australian life - these are not clowns but writers of scripts, novels, columns and poems, performers and cartoonists - including Jan Kitson, Barry Dickins, Kaz Cooke, John Clarke, Michael Leunig, Max Gillies, Billy Birmingham, Jenny Coopes, Patrick Cook, Sue Ingleton, Marg Downey and many others. The book is illustrated with biographical photographs and cartoons of the subjects.