Grant Buist
Grant Buist (born 1973) is a cartoonist, animator, and playwright from Wellington, New Zealand. He is notable for his comic strips "Jitterati" and "Brunswick", whose characters have been reproduced in many forms of cultural activities including newspapers, murals, short films, and theatre productions. Biography. Grant Buist was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1973. He is a graduate of Victoria University of Wellington's Theatre and Film Department; he also studied graphic design at Massey University. He is currently living on the Kapiti Coast. Jitterati. Buist writes the comic strip "Jitterati" (a satire on latte-sipping cafe values  along with contemporary political and social developments in Wellington and beyond) which was published in the weekly Wellington City newspaper "The Capital Times" until it closed in April 2013. "Jitterati" hit the 500th episode in May 2012. A compilation book of "Jitterati" strips was published in 2009. From July 2013 the cartoon series began appearing in the monthly Wellington magazine "FishHead," which closed in 2016. "Jitterati" was then published online, by "Scoop" until April 2017, and subsequently on Buist's Twitter account. Brunswick. Buist also produced the cult New Zealand alt-comic strip "Brunswick" from 1993 to 2003. By the  time that it ended, "Brunswick" was appearing in almost all New Zealand student newspapers, including "Salient" and "Craccum", giving the strip the widest national distribution that a New Zealand underground comix had ever received. In celebration of "Brunswick", Victoria University of Wellington erected a Brunswick Mural, and the walls of one of the library lifts was covered in a Brunswick collage. In 2006, "Brunswick" was turned into a series of short films for the Wellington information kiosks. In 2007 BATS Theatre staged "Brunswick"-based musical "Fitz Bunny: Lust for Glory (FB:L4G)", which set a box office record for the  2007 "Young & Hungry" festival, BATS Theatre's celebration of young talent. An updated and refocused version of the satirical play was produced in Auckland in 2010, which was considered one of the top five plays of the year by national newspaper The New Zealand Herald. Herald critic Paul Simei-Barton said about the 2010 production ""Fitz Bunny: Lust for Glory" is in a league of its own and invents a new genre that might be called camp cartoon cabaret. Playwright and cartoonist Grant Buist presents a fully fledged musical complete with live band, great songs and wild dance routines." Buist  has written a version of the show for schools, which was performed at Tokomairiro High School in July 2018. Other activities. In 2007 he was the graphic designer for "Salient". He has also animated music videos for cult New Zealand bands "The Shirleys" and "OdESSA". In the short time, between 2008 and 2010, Grant established an account on Pixton where he created a three-panel comic entitled "Desert Funnies". The comic series, about two friendly cacti in the desert, relied on visual gags and humor that ranged from light to almost metaphorical and poetic standards. The series reached 211 issues . Buist has also participated in several art exhibitions.