When does the shadow of a legend merely block out the sun?

Everyone remembers The Rest of Quiglet, that heartwarming sitcom starring Grace Mannix. For four years it told the story of a typical teenage girl, her widowed father, and their robot maid (played by the exotic ‘Biltong’). The legend was made complete by the chance casting of the show’s composer, Sherman Schiegel, in an onscreen role as Quiglet’s boyfriend. In perpetual syndication, the show still has many avid fans. Elyse Argawal, following its progress and absorbing its teachings, has made it the focus of her successful academic career, while teenage twins Tabby and Billy Tibbins have pursued their obsession with the show’s machinations in their fanzine, Silent Zone.

A crucial part of Quiglet mythology is its much discussed but long suppressed finale: the so-called ‘murder episode.’ But while doing research in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Elyse stumbles upon a copy of this jewel in the Quiglet crown. And when she and Billy fall in love, she faces the same dilemma the show’s cast has long faced: what is their identity without the myth that brought them fame and fortune? Extending over four decades and told from a range of perspectives and paradigms, this graphic novel explores ambition, desire, and the pursuit of perfection.

“David Nichols has a voice unique in comics, and Persiflage is a satirical, madcap look at pop culture, with power-mad writers, greedy executives, overnight media sensations, obsessive fans, and the convoluted meta-analysis of pop academia all focused under his wry, absurdist lens.”
—JOHN PORCELLINO​​​​​​​

Since 1968 David Nichols has created comic strips and books, and drawn, painted, and otherwise brought into being over thirty record covers and numerous band flyers and posters. He began writing about music in his fanzine, Distant Violins, in 1980, and has contributed to magazines ranging from Puncture, Meanjin, and Rolling Stone to Smash Hits Australia (where he where he was features editor from 1983 to 1991). His music-related books include The Go-Betweens, Pop Life (co-author), Dig: Australian Rock and Pop Music 1960–85, and Urban Australia and Post-Punk: Exploring Dogs in Space (co-editor). Parallel to his journalistic work, Nichols has pursued what someone once kindly described as a “unique musical vision” as the drummer for numerous bands, beginning with the Cannanes, of which he was a founder member in 1984 and left in 1996, through Crabstick, Blairmailer, Huon, Driving Past, and the Grey Tapes. Nichols teaches urban history at the University of Melbourne, and is co-author of Trendyville: The Battle for Australia’s Inner Cities and Community Green, and co-editor of Community: Building Modern Australia (2010) and Cultural Sustainability in Rural Comminities: Rethinking Australian Country Towns. His latest book is The Alert Grey Twinkling Eyes of C.J. DeGaris.