ABOUT BMP
		This page provides biographical information about the creative team, as well as contact details.

Black Mermaid Productions™

Black Mermaid Productions™ (BMP) also known as Black Mermaid™, is an Australian creative team made up of Jozef Szekeres (artist) and Julie Ditrich (writer), which specialises in comics and graphic novels. The BMP (Classic) team, which included co-writer Bruce Love began on the Australian produced independent comic Oblagon published by Kaleidoscope in 1992. BMP got its American break a year later with the original ElfQuest: WaveDancers series for Warp Graphics, and also published the Dart miniseries for Erik Larsen and Image in 1996. Bruce Love left at the end of 2003, and BMP (New Wave) comprising Julie and Jozef is now concentrating on work-for-hire, as well as several creator-owned projects. These include Eternal Spheres™: Elf~Fin™ – Hyfus and Tilaweed (an underwater fantasy romance-adventure), The Gathering of the House of Phorcys (a contemporary action-adventure story for adults interwoven with Greek mythology), Mermist Seas™ (an epic fantasy mermaid graphic novel series) and The Mer Files (a children's underwater crime-stopping adventure comic book series).

BMP does not accept unsolicited work applications or creative submissions, as we are a production team and not a publisher. Unsolicited manuscripts will be returned unread.

Contact Details

Alternatively, you can contact Julie and Jozef individually at the following email addresses:

Julie Ditrich : julie@blackmermaid.com
Jozef Szekeres : jozef@blackmermaid.com

Biographies - BMP (New Wave)

Julie Ditrich

Julie has a background in therapy and publishing. After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Professional Writing (University of Canberra, 1986) where she majored in freelance writing, script writing and theatre/media, she worked in bookselling and publishing, and coordinated a children's literary program for several years. She was also employed as the publications manager at the Australian Society of Authors where she commissioned, wrote and edited books on authorship. Concurrently, Julie worked as a writer on various comics including the Australian independent Oblagon, as well as the US original ElfQuest: WaveDancers series and the Dart miniseries. She also ran a clinical hypnotherapy and PSH therapy practice in the Sydney CBD for over eleven years, and during that time had several articles published in various professional journals. Julie has worked fulltime as a freelance writer, editor and publishing consultant since 2004. During that time she ghosted five biographies, wrote an Australian history coffee table book, and edited several mind body spirit books in the Australian mainstream fiction and non-fiction publishing arena. She is currently focussing specifically on writing comics, graphic novels and books. The genres she loves are visionary fiction, fantasy, fairy tales and folk tales, myths and legends, metaphysical and supernatural, romance, action-adventure, and mind body spirit. Julie's full resumé and list of publishing credits can be found on Julie's Personal Projects page.

Jozef Szekeres

Sydney born, Jozef, joined Walt Disney Animation Australia as an animator in 1989. He was a senior animator on several video features: Aladdin: King of Thieves, Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, Peter Pan II: Return to Neverland, and Jungle Book II. Jozef also sculpted maquettes of the lead Disney characters for the studio. After Disney, Jozef worked as a freelance animator and director for many of the major Australian commercial production companies including Film Graphics. As a comic book artist his work has been published in Australian independent comics including Oblagon, Greener Pastures and Platinum Grit. His American published comic work includes the ElfQuest: WaveDancers six-issue series for Warp Graphics in 1993, the Dart three-issue miniseries for Image Comics in 1996, and Safety-Belt Man and a story in Dawn: Return of the Goddess (Issue #3) for Sirius Entertainment in 2000. In 1998 Jozef was appointed as a mascot design consultant and the maquette sculptor for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Jozef was also a conceptual designer on the feature films, Dark City and Cut, and has worked occasionally over the past 15 years with MEG (Make-up Effects Group) on their commercials and feature films as a conceptualist and sculptor. As part of his exploration of sculpture, Jozef has recently launched his first 16" fashion doll Elizabet Bizelle, which can be viewed on Jozef's Personal Projects page or at the Jozef Szekeres Dolls website. From 2001-06 Jozef worked at Aristocrat Technologies as a senior illustrator (both traditional and digital) creating gaming art. His most recent artworks have appeared in Blue magazine, as well as the 2007 Sydney Mardi Gras event poster. Jozef's artwork can be viewed on the BMP Art Gallery page and on the Deviant Art website.

Further Information

• Biographies – BMP (Classic) Archive

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