Sam Wallman is a writer, illustrator and a committed unionist. He's a member of Workers Art Collective and the Maritime Union of Australia, and the author of Our Members Be Unlimited: A Comic about Workers and their Unions and 12 Rules for Strife (produced in collaboration with Jeff Sparrow).

In this interview with Queer View Mirror co-host Andrew Sutherland and guest host Kirby Fary, Sam chats about his upcoming book All Out: Pink Bans and Blue Collars, about a pivotal chapter in Australian history where union activism and queer rights collided. He mentions Pat Fiske's documentary Rocking the Foundations as the beginning of his learning about the green bans, and his early research for All Out was conducted as part of a fellowship at the National Library of Australia.

Sam also tells Andrew and Kirby about Max du Barry, who he describes as “Melbourne's late, great drag queen wharfie”: "I'm obsessed with this guy... he lived a very feral, ferocious, kind of punk life in the '20s, '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s."

"He's my bestie, it just so happens that he died decades ago."

You can find out more about Sam Wallman's work at his website. Comic panels and paintings drawn from Sam's research into the pink and green bans are currently on display at the Victorian Archives Centre, and he'll be in conversation with Bailey Sharp about 'Why comics pack a punch for tricky truth-telling' at VAC at 6pm on Thursday 24th September.