Fin

Eventually finished up Friday morning and sent it to the person who requested it. I'm only getting it posted now because I have spent a good portion of the weekend playing Lego Star Wars as reward for finishing up.

Cool.

www.amacomics.blogspot.com

Double splash page

So this right here is the middle of a story I've been working on entitled dance dance. I have inked 4 pages of it so far I think, and I have one page left to pencil, and three left to ink. I'm digging drawing it.

The double splash page was something I had never done before, hell, I'd never even done a single splash page. It was cool to try and make it interesting and yet still flow.

I actually took this photo at the Takapuna library, which was my "studio" for the day. I was waiting on my car to get fixed, so while stranded on Auckland's North Shore City, thought I might as well do, what I had been planning on doing which was get some more art done. I took the second page in as well in case I was super keen, but it turns out I only had time for one page. Which I then eventually re-inked anyway, because the ink I grabbed off my desk that morning was just crap.

Stick with what works I guess.

Marc

Custom Stickers

My friend PodgyPanda and I are planning on going out on a stickering mission together. He gave me the idea to make some custom stickers on some label paper. As that is how he makes all of his stickers.

This ones I just drew directly onto the paper. Then inked, and finally coloured with some markers.

Enjoy!
Marc

www.amacomics.blogspot.com

Store!

Hello all,

I finally got around to doing an Etsy store. Now, if you've found my sticker somewhere, or someone passed this website along to you. Or even by some dumb luck you managed to stumble across it and you'd like to know more.

Well now I have a place to sell all my ActionMan Adam goodies to anyone, anywhere. If you'd like to purchase anything, you can visit the store link by clicking here.

I added the link to the side bar on the page too. Easy as that. Right now there are just comics and stickers, but I hope to increase that with screen printed tee shirts, posters and whatever else I might be able to think up. Also you can hit me up there for a commission too.

If you wanna side track the store, you can always email me direct.

Cheers
Marc

Life in March

Above is an excerpt from the latest page I inked. I hope this shows that I moving on with the book.

2008 is just moving man!

It's all been pretty good so far though. I'm finally getting a good roll on with the comic stuff again. The last month or so has been insane. I've been taking a night class here in town for screen printing. Which has been great. I had a rough idea on the whole process. As I did do it about 10 years ago, but mainly the course has taught me about all the subtleties involved. It's been really good. Hopefully this experience will allow me to get some good results, and some new art work which I'll be able to sell on at shows or whatever.

Speaking of shows. Armageddon Wellington and Christchurch are both coming up really fast. Unfortunately this year I won't be making either like I was intending to. The reason is good though. I'm getting married to my lovely partner. I'll be thinking of you all though, and make sure if you are in one of those two cities, that you go down. Enjoy the show. Maybe throw a little love the way of the other NZ comic creators who will be there.

I'll be looking at the Auckland show for my next appearance. I'm aiming to have the comic done by then, and I think I am on track to get it done too.



Henry Rollins is coming. This guy is funny, smart and entertaining. I am so looking forward to seeing another talk by Mr Rollins. He is a good speaker, his delivery is so enthusiastic and his knowledge about music is amazing. I saw him a couple of years ago when he was at the Big Day Out festival, but it wasn't nearly enough, by the time his set was up, you'd really only just begun to settle into the proceedings. A proper headline show is long overdue. Excited about that.

I have a few more things on the go too, but I'll blog about them down the track.

Hope the year is treating you well too.

Marc
www.amacomics.blogspot.com

Walking around taking in the sights

Did some walking around the inner city today. I like walking. You get to take in so much more than you would in a car, bus or train. You get to people watch. You get to check out gig posters, or art on the streets. You get exercise. What's not to like?

Today I walked from Newton into the inner city. Lots of sirens today. The police, fire and ambulance divisions were all active in the two or so hours of my walking around.

I noticed one of my older stickers, someone had given Adam a moko. I thought that was pretty funny. I would have left it, but Adam being Canadian and all that, it doesn't feel right. I thought about it for a bit, and revisited the spot later in the day to slap another sticker over the top. The artist isn't completely out of luck though. I preserved the original with a crappy phone pic. Which is here:



Quickly it was slapped with a new sticker:



And what is up with Auckland city and its love affair for shitty apartment buildings. Seriously...? Why do we keep putting up these type of buildings. Where the residents get boxes, and a view of their neighbour who lives in the same apartment mirrored. I'm down with apartment dwelling, and its cool for Auckland to have apartments. It's just depressing seeing more and more of these buildings ugly up our city because we're cheap.



Ugh! Maybe this is one of the reasons people are leaving to live in Australia or the UK?

Marc
www.amacomics.blogspot.com

New ActionMan Adam Sticker

Hello Hello.

What is up? It's Sunday afternoon. Beautiful day outside. Tragically I am not outside. Things to do as per usual. I'm OK with it though. Don't feel sorry for me.

Some new ActionMan Adam stickers are in. I have some smaller ones of the same design due soon. As always, hit me up with an email if you'd like a couple and I'll send for free.

Isn't summer great?

Awesome.
Marc

It's been too long

2007 is quickly rolling to an end. I haven't posted in a while. Lazy bugger? No not quite. I've had the same productivity as always. In fact I had a couple of deadlines to meet which prevented me to getting around to posting here. I have a few more art ideas up my sleeve that I want to bust out. Time is always my enemy. I'm loving experimentation though. Trying different things to create new results (for me) has been exciting.

Below is a commission piece I did for www.mrvintage.co.nz . They wanted something to stick up around the place, to help push through their awareness before Christmas was upon us. I started out with a fairly basic brief. Thinking black and white might be the way to roll to make the flyer cheaper, but they wanted colour to give it pop. Colouring is still something I play with, as opposed to confidently do. I enjoy it, but I guess I'm not technically accurate in terms of colouring with consideration to light source and all that. When I throw colour down, I just want it to look fun and bright, and hopefully work not only as a drawing, but as an advertisement.

Black n white

Colours



Finally. This is a stencil piece I was playing with to show a friend of mine. I'll send him the result after Christmas. We're looking at collaborating together. This was not a perfect result. It gives you the general idea of where I was going though. Unfortunately the photo does not do it justice. I shot it at night time in poor lighting. The colours are bright neon. If you can imagine.

Hope everything is sweet where ever you are. If I don't get a post in before hand. Have an awesome holiday season.

Marc
www.amacomics.blogspot.com

Feeling the Love

I spotted one of my own stickers on a traffic light in Ponsonby. It surprised me because I had nothing to do with putting it up (for a change).

It was very cool to see, and it made my day. Thanks to whomever was responsible! I took a pic when I came across it during my lunch break.

Cheers
Marc

November Already?

Above: AMA Sticker with an Obey Giant Sticker above that


What happened? This year went by so fast. It's not funny at all. I wonder if I'll be looking back come December and thinking..."damn Marc, you didn't get much accomplished this year". One thing I am disappointed about is not getting the full sized comic out on time. I've decided to not put a time on it now. I have drawn roughly 20 or so sequential pages since I began the ActionMan Adam project in February 06. Most of them are inked. That's not much in the space of almost two years. Although I have been doing stickers, stencils, screen prints and having a life in between.

I'm aiming for maybe 30 something pages for the full comic. I have plenty more stories to tell, but I should wrap up the first comic and then move on from there if I have enough material to do another one. It's been a learning experience for sure. Everything. Drawing a comic is cool. I can do that OK. Before setting out on ActionMan Adam though, I had never really messed with lettering my own work. I had only explored with ink wash on a minimal scale. Setting everything up to print, and getting the imposition right was more time consuming than I had originally thought. It's all been an interesting learning experience. Kind of an experiment that is continually on going. I find new things that get me excited about what I can try with it next.

Right now I'm getting into a double page spread. I haven't drawn any splash pages for this comic yet. In my mind it has to be a "serve the story" scenario. This double page spread I think will. It's going to be a lot of fun to draw. Mind you, if it wasn't, why would I bother right?


Other things worth mentioning. Cross Street Studios are having an exhibition "Molloy Ahoy!". The show is content produced by the Molloy brothers. Of them, I only know of Tim. Whose comics I really like. Flyer's are appearing all over town. So keep an eye out. In fact I will post the flyer image here. For more information, check out: http://crossstreetstudios.com/events.html

Finally, a quick sketch image from myself. This is unfinished. An image I will be assembling for a screen print, or a sticker, or both?

Hope your week went well. All for now.
Marc!

Makeshift Issue 3 Launch

Last weekend I took my girlfriend out. We hit up Coherent on K Rd for the 3rd issue launch of Makeshift Magazine. If you don't know about it, Makeshift is a magazine for writers, artists, creative people, whatever to put out their stuff. It's really cool stuff.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, as anyone in the Auckland area would have no doubt noticed. The evening however, was miserable. As it tends to do in this city, it started raining, and just wouldn't relent. Still, a quick cab ride solved all the issues there.

The launch was great. Makeshift organised free Vodka Jelly shots (when I say free, I guess I meant it was included with the door charge) ***EDIT Steven from Makeshift gave me the inside word here, he said "The shots were actually free as MoonJoos pitched them in for us! The cover charge was split between paying for the magazine (or trying to) and giving the bands loving as well". So there you go, the inside word on the cover. Of course, heh. ***

There were cupcakes there for anyone who wanted one. I did, and they were delicious. There was a karaoke room, a crazy lush forest room, with masks made by my friend PodgyPanda, there was a drawing board for anyone who wanted to bust out their art skills. Which I crudely attempted to do, failing to conjure up anything to do me justice.

Finally, and most importantly, there was booze and bands. So everyone could get their swerve on and listen to some rocking sounds.

I had a great time. So go check them out. www.makeshift.co.nz

If you wanna submit something, you can email them and get something in for issue four I guess. If I find some spare time, I'll look at doing it myself.

rock on.

Marc

Smile

Just something quick I threw together. This could end up being used some different ways. I'm not sure yet. Alright. See you at Armageddon hopefully.

Otherwise...enjoy your Labour weekend!

Marc!

This Weekend

Hey all.

Armageddon Pulp Culture Expo is on this Labour Weekend. Saturday through to Monday, in Auckland. The event is being held at the Aotea Centre. Just a reminder. I will be there. Selling some wares. I don't have much, but what I do have will be quality.

I'm looking forward to the show. Looking forward to seeing anyone and everyone. Billy West would be cool to meet, so hopefully I can find some time to hit him up and say "hello".

Other than that. I'll be up to the usual amount of stuff. Which is standing behind a table and saying hello to anyone who might just accidentally happen to glance in my direction.

Oh. New print too. I made a super limited run of this stencil print. As you'll see above. There are only 5 of these suckers. I have not yet decided on the cost, but they're original art.

I hope you like. If you want one. I'll be at the show. Hopefully I will see you there!

Peace
Marc

Belated Birthday and Sunny Weather!

First of all. Yesterday my friend Nick turned 28. So I'm gonna shout out birthday wishes to him. He probably never looks at this blog. Still, nice to say so. Nick is actually away for a little while to spend some time in the states. Lucky bugger.

It's been some interesting weather patterns here in Auckland of late. This week has been almost an exact copy of the week before. Started out with a thunder storm on Monday. Followed by rain Tues, Wed. Fining up a bit Thurs, and finally quite nice Fri, Sat.

Not that I'm complaining mind you. I definitely prefer the crap weather out of the way during the working week, so I can enjoy the weekend free of ugliness. Making the most of the good weather over the last two days I thought it would be a good idea to head out for a walk. Get some exercise, and take in some sights and sounds.

What is up with telemarketers? I know they have a job to do. Man, I have had a few of late. This dude just called me from Melbourne trying to offer me some sort of holiday package. Heh. Interrupted the train of thought and everything.

Check out the picture above. I found that stencil on Symonds Street in Auckland City. It's Iron Man! Nice. That's a classy stencil for sure. Huge props to the person that put that out there.

All for now

Marc
ActionMan Adam
www.amacomics.blogspot.com

Putting it all together

Once I have my story worked out, I then piece together the shots I want on the page, and put the background details in using the aforementioned visual reference photos I took.

This is a new panel I have still yet to ink up. From the latest story. I took a lot of photos around Victoria Street in Christchurch, as I knew where I wanted this scene to take place.

Oh yeah. Comics kick ass.

Marc
ActionMan Adam
www.amacomics.blogspot.com

Visual Reference

Since my comic is based in Christchurch City, and I no longer live there. I make sure every time I visit, I take loads of photos for reference of the city. Just to make sure my drawing can be as accurate as possible. If people believe that the story is actually in Christchurch, that helps me out a whole lot.

This is something I do pretty much every place I go. Whether it is for specific reference, or just for reference on buildings, trees, cars or whatever.

So accompanying this post, are some photos I took, to get a vibe for the next story I am drawing. If you haven't visited Christchurch before. Please, do go. It's a great little city. I'd recommend summer over winter, unless you're into the snow sports. To me though, the city feels more alive when there are leaves on the trees and everything is green.

Marc
ActionMan Adam
www.amacomics.blogspot.com

Armageddon is coming (apocalypse now?)

Labour weekend is next month. Which means it is time again for the Armageddon Pulp Culture Expo in Auckland.

I'm going to be attending same as usual, up in the NZ Comics section. Shamefully I'll be selling the same book, although I do have some new merchandise apart from that. Anyone who is sticking around Auckland, or travelling to Auckland, please, come say hi. The show is generally a lot of fun, and who wouldn't want to see Adam West (TV's original Batman, with Shark repellent in the utility belt!)?

Anyway, swing by, I'll be there.
Peace

Marc!

Hey all!

Damn! It's been a while huh? I don't really have any decent excuses. You probably wouldn't want to read about my excuses anyway. You've probably all read enough of those. Instead, I'll just type about what has been happening since I last typed.

Well, I had to move house again. This time the landlord on the last place I was in wanted the property back into his possession. Seemingly my life is meant to be continuous house hunting? After the amount of times I have done it since moving to Auckland, you think I'd be hardened up about it. Noooooo. Not me. I hate moving on. Such a huge pain in the ass. You have to organise so many things. Then spend the time doing the actual move, and of course pay for it all.

Still. When the situation is out of your hands, you just have to roll with the punches I guess.

Lately I've been checking out a lot of other artists, and investing in their works. I like to have stuff that inspires me on the walls. Who doesn't though? It's cool to look up above my desk and see something, that someone else put their heart into. Cool to try and work out the process of how a particular piece was made, or figure out how certain things were pulled off.

Working on the seventh and last page of the Krypto-mite story. This one really dragged out. Since I started it, I have lived at three different addresses, and nearly a year has passed. I wonder where all the time went. How did I waste nearly a whole year and only get seven pages out in that time? Idiot.

With so many other stories I want to get around to telling. That really spurred me on to trying to wrap this one up, so I can get to drawing these other stories I want to tell. Usually I have a particular visual, or gag that I can't wait to draw, and a story will grow out of it.

For the next show I am making three new sticker designs. The top of this post will have one of the new designs in there. Check it out. If you want to get hooked up with one of these new stickers, they should be done before Labour weekend (the next Armageddon Pulp Culture Expo). So make sure you cruise past the NZ comic creators section and pick some merch up.

Hope everything is cool in your respective world.
Peace
Marc!

Flight of the Concords rule. A great comedy folk band from New Zealand. These guys are worth checking out!

Anyway, they have managed to get their own TV series in the states on HBO. It'll be a while before we see it down here, but anyone in North America can see it when it premieres in a months time. Meanwhile, go check out the first episode now hosted on myspace. Its great!

http://www.myspace.com/hboflight

Enjoy!

My friend Richie and I partaking in a drinking session at the Dux de Lux.
New Regent Street has some awesome eateries in and around the area.
Alice wanted to have her pic taken with a Storm Trooper at the show. Fair enough.
Myself on High Street.
AMA Submit Sticker on a Chch Street. How'd that get there?


So it was my last day in Christchurch today. I want to say thanks. I always have a great time in the city. Seeing family and friends. Always reminded of fond memories. I love the place. If I met you. Keep in touch, drop me a line anytime.

Next up. Wellington!!! Awesome. Have not been to Wellington in three years. Really looking forward to seeing what is new in the capital.

See you there Wellingtonians. Marc!