Dandelion Chambers (they/them) is a comics creator & illustrator from Perth, Western Australia. They love the escapist nature of comics and how they can be used to explore queerness, self-identity, personhood and robots.
My time at PCAF
I attended the first PCAF in 2018 when I was invited by Stuart, who had been patiently convincing me to make more comics throughout my bachelor’s degree at ECU. I wasn’t more involved with PCAF until 2022, when I was attending the first Academy Day and saw Harri manning the front desk trying to keep several plates spinning at once. Harri and I used to work together at a cursed retail job – a bonding experience like no other – so I was compelled to help them out over the weekend where I could. At that year’s PCAF after-party I was strongly encouraged to keep helping, so in 2023 I joined the committee to assist Bruce Mutard with grant writing.
I’m still writing grants for PCAF so we can keep the festival free every year! But the thing about community organising is that there’s always something new to do. I do a lot of background work like maintaining the website, making graphics, updating spreadsheets and setting up ticketing. I also started the post-festival attendee surveys, so if you see someone walking around bothering people with a QR code after the festival, that’s probably me.
I’ve always loved comics, but making art for me tends to be really weird and isolating and imaginary – doing work with PCAF brings it into the real world, and for that I’ll always be grateful.
About Me
I spent a lot of time with my grandparents growing up and they had a day-by-day calendar of The Far Side that I was absolutely obsessed with. I didn’t understand all the jokes, but I could still tell they were jokes and I was desperate to understand how they worked. As I grew up I was influenced a lot by webcomics of the 2010s, many of which have since disappeared from the internet.
I’ve been making comics for a really long time, but I’ve only been sharing them with other people in the past few years. I make diary comics pretty regularly and find them a useful way to organise my thoughts, and they’re also an excellent tool for getting a joke out of your system to make someone laugh.
Some Comics I’ve Made:
- Made For You (2024)
- Beholden (Current Project)
Some of My Favourite Comics:
- Octopus Pie – Meredith Gran
- Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou – Hitoshi Ashinano
- Runaway to the Stars – Jay Eaton
- Witchy – Ariel Slamet Ries
- A Guest in the House – Emily Carroll
- Ducks – Kate Beaton