Posts Tagged ‘Christchurch’
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Hi everyone!
It’s been a busy week. The comic is a little later than normal. I spent a day in Christchurch over the weekend, which took away some of my drawing time. It was awesome to go down though. I was able to enjoy a blazing hot day, take in the sights of the city. Assess the earthquake damage with my own eyes. It’s surreal to see all these gaps where buildings used to be. I think the city has an amazing opportunity to now rebuild and do some unique things with design and architecture.
Also got time to check out the Ron Mueck Exhibition at the Christchurch Art Gallery. It was amazing! If you are going to be in Christchurch any time from now through to January I recommend you check it out. It’s well worth it. I’ll blog about it down the line a little bit.
Also worth mentioning that the “lil’ Adam” in the last panel was inspired by this piece by Celina Hernandez.
Hope your weekend was enjoyable as well!
Thanks for reading,
Marc
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Well, I finally got back to making comics. Apologies that this is not up to the usual full colour standard. I am still without my equipment. I went old school on this comic and took the lo-fi approach of drawing it by hand onto paper.
I kept it rough on purpose. It helped me speed it up, and get the page done faster. A lo-fi comic after all, is better than no comic at all, right? There is a light at the end of the tunnel though, and hopefully I should have some gear sorted soon. Which means getting back to my normal routines.
My thanks to Matt Wood, thisisrabbit and Jimmy Misanthrope for contributing some art and helping keep this website going while I have been unable to get anything up.
Thanks for reading,
Marc
Christchurch – the day the earth didn’t stand still
September 9th, 2010 |Posted In: Blog, Uncategorized
It was 3am local time in Melbourne. I had forgotten to turn my phone to silent so that any incoming texts or emails to it would not wake me. Instead, that familiar chime came through, waking me. I give myself 2 minutes to decide whether to roll over and go back to sleep – or to clumsily find my way to the phone and check it on the other side of the hotel room.
I’m glad I forgot to turn my silent function on.
A text from my friend Richard was informing me that a huge earthquake had just rocked Christchurch (where he lives). The rest of the morning was spent trying to gather as much information as possible while the city slowly came to terms with just how much damage had been caused. The best information source seemed to be a combination of the talkback radio broadcasting in New Zealand with residents recounting their experience, or Twitter.
An event like this is very surreal. Just hours earlier I had been on the phone to Richard. While we were taking in some late night activities in Melbourne, he was doing some late night gaming – everything was fairly normal.
Christchurch is my home away from home. I’m due to return in November and I’m guaranteed to not like what I find when I get down there. There are two sides to this story though. One is of survival. Miraculously, while there were some serious injuries, no one died. On the other side of the coin, the city will never be the same again.
ActionMan Adam is all based in Christchurch. It’s practically one of the characters in the story. I’m going to keep a close eye on the city as it rebuilds, so I can portray it as accurately as possible. The place won’t look the same, but life will get back to normality, with time.
In the meantime, my thoughts are with everyone who is down there. Let’s hope the city can get back to functioning as fast as it can!
If no one has done it yet, now is probably a good time to stock up on your survival kit!
If you’d like to donate for the people of Canterbury, you can do so by visiting the Red Cross NZ website – which allows you to do it online, or has further instructions for other ways to donate.
Thanks for reading
Marc
Way back in 1999 I hung out with three guys during my student days, in Christchurch. We were a tight unit and frequently went out on the town as young guys do. My good friend Matt had a place right in the city centre just 2 blocks away from all the popular bars, and one block away from the favourite watering hole, the Dux de Lux.
It was a great thing, and I have to give a lot of respect to Matt, whether he wanted it or not, he was always gracious and welcoming, for the partying that began at his apartment there in the city. Two years later, I’m trying to come up with an idea for a one page comic, and as a joke I suggest it would be cool to do a comic based on our mutual friend Adam. Over the course of the next hour, Matt and I are throwing ideas back and forth and we basically nail down the story for the first ActionMan Adam comic. Subsequently when it came time for the second story I went back to Matt and again, we were able to get another story done.
What’s cool now is, after being burnt out on his own artwork, Matt has finally returned to it. Art was something he was always adept at, so it’s good to see him getting back into it. Bringing it back full circle, Matt now has an art blog, and has decided to use ActionMan Adam as one of his practice pieces, as well as other pop culture and comic book characters.
Please go check his blog out, leave some comments, and follow his RSS, as he throws up some vector based drawings and gets back on track with his art agenda. Tell him I sent you!
Thanks for reading
Marc
Hello all,
Amazing. I was able to complete this page in time! It’s a special “double sized” update today. I had this story hit me, and I knew I had to draw it, but for me to communicate it effectively I needed the extra space. Even though I was very sleep deprived working on this page throughout the week, I really enjoyed it. Hopefully you do too!
This weekend I was in Christchurch. A winter break in a colder city is never something I aim to do. It was just a quick trip to catch up with my brother. We had a bad run for food on Saturday – but it was quickly made up for by an amazing breakfast at Drexel’s restaurant on Hereford Street in the city.
This colossal breakfast burrito took care of me until 4pm. It was totally worth it.
Hopefully you had an enjoyable weekend as well.
Thanks for reading!
Marc
It was a busy weekend for me. I was doing my best to get this page finished and a big head start on the next as this weekend I will be in Christchurch. Which will leave me no drawing time next weekend. Hopefully I’ll get a page up on time next week. It’s going to be a big ask. I’ll do my best!
The Football World Cup continues to surprise. Even my own team New Zealand getting a draw with Italy was unexpected for most. It’s awesome to see some of the lower ranked teams breaking through with draws or even wins. One last game before the next round begin. What will unfold next?
Hey – have you checked the blog lately? No? Go have a look at this post here. I have new stickers available, and if you’d like some, I’ll post it out to you for free! They look super nice. They’re full colour vinyl. So they’ll go up anywhere, and last forever!
Hope you had a good weekend!
Thanks for reading
Marc
Last week we took a break from Auckland and headed to the South Island. As always, Christchurch was the destination, so I could catch up with friends and on any changes the city might have to offer. Previous trips have usually been done on a budget, but we spent a little extra this time, hiring a rental car so we would have the freedom to get around past the city limit if we chose to do so. Unfortunately arriving on Thursday wasn’t the best idea as the weather offered up the worst it could with a lot of rain and some cold southerly winds. The car was a blessing in this instance as we were able to check into some places with minimal discomfort. We headed out to the port town Lyttleton. Which is a really cool historic part of the city where the original settlers first established after arrival. Before heading over the hill to start a city on the plains. Lyttleton was cool to walk around, but after being beaten down by the weather it soon became a good place to stop into a café and have a hot drink.
Friday we left town and headed for the Alpine Lakes in the middle of the island. The weather was still horrible for most of the journey, but thankfully cleared just as we arrived at our destination. It then got quite warm, and we didn’t see any more cold weather for the rest of the weekend. Those lakes are amazing. Totally worth the 4 hour drive just to see them.
Saturday and Sunday were spent catching up with friends and hanging around the city. Both days were hot, with Sunday fetching 30 degrees C! From one extreme to the other I guess. It was nice to be able to actually walk around the city and take some photos.
Funniest part of the holiday? Walking with my friend Richard up Hereford street we were passed by a policeman. He was a few steps ahead of us as we walked past a famous breakfast spot in the city. The smell of bacon wafted in the air. Richard turns and says “Hey do you guys smell…”
I cut him off right there, both of us realising just how inappropriate (appropriate?) that sentence was in that exact moment. It did give us a good laugh though!
Thanks for reading
Marc