Tag Archives: Alice Springs

A more pizzazzy title

25 Nov

Someone recently said to me that she thought I should change the name of the Long Weekend in Alice Springs to something a little more pizzazzy.

We could work-shop some suggestions such as

  • The Jungian Psychologist and the Infinite Sadness
  • The Complex Case (Get it??!!!)
  • How to write an academic article that’s not bloody boring
  • The Dark Night Returns
  • Watch Men and Women
  • Craig San Roque vs the World

She also recommended that I stick some scantily clad woman with large breasts on the front cover … which would sell in the hundreds of thousands … by the time the teenage boys got home and took the plastic off and opened it they would be incredibly disappointed , but with the law of retail returns in action – most of them couldn’t be bothered returning to the shop to get their money back and I WOULD HAVE MADE A KILLING.

There is a bit of nudity at one part … the Inanna part … perhaps i should just maximise that section … there is also a bit of male nudity at a similar part … I could market it both to those attracted to busty women and to those who’re attracted to fit lean young men (Adonis) … I think that might have covered a large proportion of the market … What do you think?

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Old people

16 Nov

Here’s a couple of sketches I did whilst researching what I wanted to do with the Long Weekend. The old bloke was from a photo in an old anthropology book … I actually didn’t record which one, so I’ve forgotten, possibly a photo of Spencer’s … or Herbert’s … not sure now. The second one was a contemporary photo that was in the Age newspaper after the intervention occurred, again I didn’t record the photo’s information. I really liked trying to draw the shadows on the faces of dark skinned peoples in the starkly contrasting light of the desert, quite a challenge that I’d never tried before. I was concerned at the time that the challenge would be to still retain the humanity of the characters despite there eyes not being visible … I didn’t want them to seem like cartoony zombies just because there eyes were obscured, I still find that a challenge even though I’ve had a lot more practice now.

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Pages 28-32 – Dog & Inanna

15 Nov

Previous pages
1-4, 5-7, 8-9, 10-13, 14-17, 18-22, 23-27

Next pages – 33-37

SO MANY QUESTIONS!!
Who the f*&% was that crazy maze-face guy???
Why’d the Long Weekend suddenly slip back a few millenium?
Where the HELL is this going?????

What the hell is Inanna doing in a place like HELL?
The answers to all that and more – in the NEXT PAGES (just wait a couple of weeks while I put some ink on them … be patient PLEASE!!)

Can someone tell Nick from Alice that that’s his car I’ve drawn in there – Emily! (changed the roof rack a little), my little homage to all the adventures that Emily and I had together … before Nick bought her off me.

If people are interested in Inanna (she’s the god of war and sex … so I think that just about covers everyone) and want to check her history out a bit more I suggest you look up Diane Wolkstein. Inanna is also referred to as Ishtar, and is somewhat of an analogue of other gods from different cultures such as Diana/Artemis, Demeter, Venus/ Aphrodite, perhaps Shiva from Hindu mythology etc.

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Some pics of Alice … for inspiration’s sake

12 Nov

Well, here’s a couple of photos that I took of Alice in one of my many trips back there … the other one, the first one, is a photo of me in front of that impressive painting in Melbourne – at the NGV … it’s one of my favourite paintings of all time – it’s called Anewrlarr anganenty (big yam dreaming) and it’s by Emily Kam Kngwarray whose language group is Anmatyerr. I like standing in front of that huge canvas when I get the opportunity.

At the bottom is a sketch I did in Alice, based on a photo I took whilst walking around town collecting images for The Long Weekend.

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Pages 23-27

7 Nov

Previous pages
1-4
5-7
8-9
10-13
14-17
18-22 

more pages in a week or so

Next pages – 28-32

These pages were amongst the first that I did, hence they have a slightly different look about them, but I’m fond of this section because it plays out like a slightly surreal joke (as will be evidenced by the next pages that I stick up which will complete this section). In the essay this part was called “Dog“.

Unfortunately for the format of this blog the impact of the ‘reveal’ (comic-term) is a little nullified. In printed book format the turning of the page from the two cluttered 9-panel pages over to the page of Gilgamesh and Enkidu (the King of Iraq and his slightly animalistic super-dude mate who reminds me no-end of Hanuman) should be a major turning point in the history of surrealism … but alas I think it is a little lost here. Oh well, we’ll see when we get around to printing a copy or two.

More comics from the mongrel-town will be forthcoming in a few weeks … ooo can’t wait.

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Pages 18-22

1 Nov

Previous pages
Pages 1-4
Pages 5-7
Pages 8-9
Pages 10-13
Pages 14-17






Next pages – Pages 23-27

Phew, finished all those pages. Must say that long-term comic-making is completely time consuming for those who don’t know what they’re in for (I’m one of them … but now I’ve gone too far to stop … have probably completed about 50 pages in the last 5 months, another 60-70 to go depending on what I end up doing with the ending (which is still a little amorphous … the only part that remains unclear). I may go on to do a process blog next for those interested in the idea of adapting an essay (prose) into comics … particularly one that was contained in an academic collection, I’m not sure how many other comics are out there like this one … I suspect that there might be more than just me.

Bernard Caleo forwarded me something by Kate Fielding with artists Elizabeth Fielding and the wonderful comicer Mandy Ord – called “Their hook find hold deep in our flesh” … it is an interesting combo of historical research, comics, images and collage which gives a beautiful mood to the piece. It was contained in Meanjin and made up a thesis involving a couple more people as well in the larger piece (which I have not seen).

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Pages 14-17

19 Oct

Previous pages

Pages 1-4
Pages 5-7
Pages 8-9
Pages 10-13



I have taken away page 17 for the time being – there are some matters that need to be dealt with a bit better and in a more culturally sensitive manner with this particular page. Apologies to anyone who has felt offended who has read it so far. I will endeavour to address the issues.

Pages 18-22

So I’m a little partial to maps … did you pick that up? We have a massive collection at home … bordering on a little obssessive … though I’ve chilled out after moving to Tasmania. I had a LOT of maps of Central Australia because for work I used to drive all over … not a bad job if you can get it. Tiring though.

The little cars driving in towards Alice was a little suggestion from Jen Breach, who’s a comic-writer that I showed this to earlier in the year when I was in Melbourne, Thanks Jen! Jen’s doing a 60 page comic with Andrew Fulton … who is THE BEST comic-maker in the country, hands down … slap-arse! full STOP! … *plop* (he does great fight scenes). And I’m a little excited to see what they’re cooking, but we must be patient.

The 3rd panel of the maps page with Craig holding the pointer at the Dead Centre of Alice Springs is a reference to this bunch of educational comics that Craig had from 1958 which had all these amazing historical accounts of explorers crossing the country. There was one that detailed the construction of the overland telegraph. Here it is  – isn’t it a corker!!

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Synopsis of The Long Weekend

30 Aug

Brief Synopsis of the graphic novel – rough notes

The Long Weekend is a conceptual piece set in Alice Springs. It explores how cultures interact with each other, unknowingly doing terrible things to one another.  It is a psychological and poetic analysis of what is at the heart of Australian cultures and the Aussie psyche and while it has a narrative but tends to read like a series of thoughts.

Friday

Craig is struggling to write an essay on the Jungian idea of the Cultural Complexes. He comes to the realisation that to explore the concept he can watch what happens in and around Alice Springs over the long weekend when many people from the many cultures ofCentral Australiacome to town for the footy. He relates some of the stories that he observes and uses them as a form of meditation to digest the concept.

Friday concludes with a telling of the myth of Inanna’s descent into the Underworld (ancient Sumerian story).

Saturday

Craig wakes up early, before daybreak, realises that he should be analysing his own culture and the overlap with others, not try to understand Indigenous culture. He continues his meditation, this time with some objects on his desk to focus his mind – some stone tools, a map of the Middle-East and a book detailing colonial conquest in theCongo. By examining the map he thinks about how places are linked to stories and these myths then form us. Through the book he thinks about colonisation and its destruction of these links by the use of guns, a tool of domination and destruction. By looking at the stones he thinks about how tools and actions form our brains. The lonely exercise is interrupted by a trip to the Alice Springs Hospital to visit a teenage Aboriginal girl who is experiencing a drug-induced psychosis.

In the evening of Saturday Craig speaks with a man in the police watch-house who has killed his mother-in-law and confronts us all with the terrible questions that such events bring up.

Sunday

The lightest of the three days: Craig goes with a Jewish friend of his, Amos, and some Aboriginal friends hunting and returns home. On the trip he and Amos discuss matters about what is happening with many cultures, colonised peoples such as the Aboriginal cultures. The Long Weekend concludes with Amos suggesting that we use our imagination to save ourselves.

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