The Long Weekend in Alice Springs
The Long Weekend in Alice Springs
NOTE ->>>>> CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT as of June 2023. Hopefully we’ll get a new printing of the book (the fifth!)
Hopefully the "this Australian graphic novel is the best thing I've been handed to read in ages"
- Neil Gaiman
"... one of the oddest and most rewarding Australian comics that has yet appeared"
- The Australian
152 page graphic novel, ships everywhere.
The Long Weekend is an award-winning, cult-favourite graphic novel, adapted from an essay that explores the Jungian concept of the cultural complex,; and idea about group behaviour that was left largely unexplored until very recently in the academic world.
Craig San Roque, the author the original essay, acts as narrator throughout a long series of poetic thoughts and places. Over the course of a long weekend in the central Australian desert town of Alice Springs he grapples with an analysis of his own culture and the pain which it intentionally and unintentionally inflicts upon other cultures.
Moving, challenging and dangerous, The Long Weekend is a haunting comic, both shockingly funny and supremely uncomfortable to read. It's images linger with you after you've placed it upon your bedside table, turned off the lamp and settled into a restless sleep.
More about The Long Weekend in Alice Springs
Joshua Santospirito read the essay A Long Weekend in Alice Springs whilst living and working as a psychiatric nurse in Central Australian Aboriginal communities. It was originally contained in a collection of essays in The Cultural Complex - contemporary Jungian Perspectives on Psyche and Society, edited by Tom Singer published in 2004 by Routledge.
At the time of reading, Josh found it very useful for reframing all of the seeming chaos around him. In 2007, as a form of cathartic meditation on the world, Josh began to draw parts of the essay into comic form which slowly became a much larger task and a labour of love.
As a companion to this comic-adaption of his essay, Craig San Roque responds with a new essay that is included in this book titled A Book of Sand which further expands the poem that is central not only to The Long Weekend, but all of Craig’s writings.
This book was supported by the Tasmanian Minister for the Arts through Arts Tasmania and by Nadine Kessler Design. Nadine designed the book into the beautiful object that it is.
WHAT SOME FINE FOLKS HAVE SAID ABOUT THE BOOK
"One of the most outstanding graphic novels ever produced in Australia. Speaks to our cultural identity in ways like no other book I’ve read."
- The Comic Spot
"An incredibly powerful and thought-provoking book. Highly recommend."
- Nicki Greenberg (Adaptor and artist for Hamlet and The Great Gatsby)
"... tackles serious psychological concepts with a mix of intellectual curiosity and emotional honesty. Moving, challenging, and thoroughly engaging, The Long Weekend is a unique and powerful portrait of the inner workings of colonisation"
- Jennifer Mills (Miles Franklin shortlisted author of Dyschronia)
"Santospirito's compelling graphic-book opens up San Roque's text on cultural complexes and their overlap. His frames swoop and gyrate with menacing grace. Their cinematic anxiety breathe an appropriate stark gravity"
- Rod Moss (Author of The Hard Light of Day)
"The compelling images in Josh Santospirito's graphic novel bring fresh vision and earthy vitality to Craig san Roque's brilliant Long Weekend. I am not absolutely sure, but I think I even saw the story's dead dog, Gilgamesh, get up and leap out of the back seat of the car where he had lain in state until Josh came along with his artist's eye"
- Tom Singer (editor of The Cultural Complex)
Awards
* 2014 Northern Territory Read Non-Fiction Book Award *
* ComicOz Award for Best Australian Original Comic Book for 2013 *
ISBN 978-0-9875008-0-9