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Press Kit

Press Kit for Stuart McMillen

This Press Kit page is also downloadable as a PDF file PDF (876 kB)

Stuart McMillen is a comics artist based in Canberra, Australia. He specialises in creating longform social commentary comics based on real-life historical events.

Since becoming a full-time comics artist in 2011, over 1.5 million unique individuals have visited Stuartā€™s website and read at least one of his comics.

In 2023, Scribe Publications signed Stuart to create an expanded adaptation of his online comic about the last town in North America to receive TV reception. The Town Without Television is set to become Stuartā€™s debut book, published by Scribe in both Australia and in the United States/Canada in 2025. More information about this project.

A major touchstone of Stuartā€™s back-catalogue is his comic Rat Park (ratpark.com). Since it was first published in 2013, Rat Park has found an enduring success with audiences who see it as a touchstone for sympathetically explaining the topic of addiction. As of 2023, the comic has been viewed over 700,000 times (by over 560,000 unique visitors) via Stuart’s English language website, as well as over 160,000 times through translated versions on Stuart’s website. Rat Park is prescribed as required reading in multiple college curricula around the world, and has been featured in publications such as McGraw Hill Educationā€™s U.S. college English textbook Writing to Read, Reading to Write, 2nd Edition (2023) by Alison Kuehner.

All of Stuartā€™s comics are freely available to read through his website (stuartmcmillen.com/comics). Newcomers are suggested to start with Stuartā€™s Top 10 comics list, or by browsing his comics grouped by topic.

Stuart is a crowdfunded comics artist, with an ongoing Patreon campaign hosted at crowdfundstu.com. The combined donations from readers supporting this campaign helps him to continue operating as a self-employed independent comics artist. As of 2023, Stuart has raised a total of over A$125,000 from various crowdfunding drives held to support his comics. This total has come from the support of over 500 individual donors.

An enthusiastic international team of volunteers have translated Stuart’s comics into 11 languages. [More info here]. These languages are selectable by the drop-down menu in the top-right corner of the stuartmcmillen.com website.

Stuart McMillen was born in Bundaberg in 1985, but now lives in Canberra where he has been a studio resident of Gorman Arts Centre since 2018.

Journalists are welcome to contact Stuart for interview requests via his contact form. Preference is for interviews conducted via phone/video-chat, rather than written interviews.

To help your research: use the CV section to see the various ways that Stuart has ‘popped up’ over the years, including media appearances and republishing credits. Also, a fair amount of self-reflective commentary already exists in the FAQs, and in the ‘Comics Discussion’ blog posts.

Images:

Please credit photographer Andrew Sikorski when republishing the photographs.

You have express permission to republish Stuart’s artwork in publications / websites describing or reviewing Stuart’s comics. (Stuart McMillen retains copyright, and disallows use for all other purposes).

Note: each of the below RGB JPEG images range between 2 and 12MB in file size, averaging 4MB.

Email Stuart if you are chasing images other than what is supplied here.

Photos of Stuart

Stuart McMillen, photographed by Andrew Sikorski in 2022, black and white image Stuart McMillen, photographed by Andrew Sikorski in 2022, colour image

I Used to Be Racist artwork

Stuart McMillen cover for Scene from comic about schoolyard racism on Australian schoolyard from 1990s. Black and white cartoon of young high school boy with Billabong backpack standing on schoolgrounds, in front of high-set Queenslander style school building. Schoolboys laughing at intolerant and racist jokes, cartoon drawing of 1990s high school in Queensland. Cartoon of high school students joking on school verandah, laughing at homophobic jokes and racist jokes. Close view of rear of high school student's head, showing bigoted attitudes entering the boy's brain, as he laughs at racist jokes. Drawing of high school boys laughing at homophobic jokes: Cartoon high school boys laughing at racist jokes, and sexist jokes, in front of Australian high school bag racks in greyscale black and white. Male high school student on Australian school yard wearing uniform and backpack. Stark black and white illustration of Australian school students in uniform on schoolyard, wearing backpacks and uniforms in front of Queenslander school building. Cartoon scene of school students telling racist jokes on schoolyard. Black and white scene of Australian school student wearing uniform on schoolyard, growing up into adult version of himself. Drawing by cartoonist Stuart McMillen. Illustration of Billabong and Rip Curl backpacks of Australian school students on schoolyard table. Cartoon Australian school students walking around playground - black and white drawing.

Rat Park artwork

High-resolution Rat Park comic artwork - for republication - page 1. High-resolution Rat Park comic artwork - for republication - page 8. High-resolution Rat Park comic artwork - for republication - pages 11-12. High-resolution Rat Park comic artwork - for republication - page 16. High-resolution Rat Park comic artwork - for republication - page 17. High-resolution Rat Park comic artwork - for republication - page 19. High-resolution Rat Park comic artwork - for republication - page 37. High-resolution Rat Park comic artwork - for republication - pages 38-39.

War on Drugs artwork

High-resolution War on Drugs comic artwork - for republication - page 1. High-resolution War on Drugs comic artwork - for republication - page 3. High-resolution War on Drugs comic artwork - for republication - page 17. High-resolution War on Drugs comic artwork - for republication - pages 18-19. High-resolution War on Drugs comic artwork - for republication - page 20. High-resolution War on Drugs comic artwork - for republication - page 21.

Supernormal Stimuli artwork

High-resolution Supernormal Stimuli comic artwork - for republication - page 1. High-resolution Supernormal Stimuli comic artwork - for republication - page 11. High-resolution Supernormal Stimuli comic artwork - for republication - page 12.

St Matthew Island artwork

High-resolution St Matthew Island comic artwork - for republication - page 1. High-resolution St Matthew Island comic artwork - for republication - page 6.

Anteater images

Stuart McMillen anteater cartoon, with question mark. Stuart McMillen anteater cartoon. All things. Stuart McMillen anteater cartoon. All things. stuartmcmillen.com URL Stuart McMillen anteater cartoon. All things. with crowdfundstu.com and stuartmcmillen.com URLs
Stuart McMillen, photographed by Andrew Sikorski in 2022, colour image