Community in comic form

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A COMIC book anthology which aims to portray the culture and identity of a suburb in the heart of Melbourne’s Jewish community – Balaclava – is seeking crowdfunding to get off the ground.

Balaclava Junction, created by screenwriter Ted Janet and illustrator Edward Rocha, combines a graphic telling of local history with biographies of noted residents, including singer-songwriter Shelley Segal and author Raphael Aron.

Janet told The AJN that through the story, he intends to explore the notion that we are all expressions of our community, where the place we grew up informs who we become.

Janet himself is the subject of the first chapter, atheist Segal the second, while Aron, who is an expert on cults, provides an interesting topic for chapter three. Chapter four, the subject of which is as yet undisclosed, is in the works.

“It’s a holistic look at community,” said Janet of Balaclava Junction. “We wanted to show people who grew up in the same place but [came] to entirely disparate views about the world … Our lives share common themes despite our differences.”

Janet explained that Balaclava is a place with which he has a complicated relationship, and that was something he wanted to share.

“[It’s] a curious blend of the cosmopolitan and the kosher. It’s a place with a lot of history, a lot of culture, and I wanted to put that on display.

“Balaclava Junction asks us to re-imagine our familiar avenues, schoolyards and hangouts, as landmarks, brimming with story, mystery and philosophy,” he said.

The project has so far raised close to $2000, and Janet said the aim is to complete it by 2014. The producers are courting community support via social networking, and in the footsteps of other crowdfunded projects, they are offering donors the chance to appear as extras in the comic.

For more information or to donate to the project, go to http://igg.me/at/balaclava-junction.

PHOEBE ROTH