Cartoonist Patrick Allaby illustrates a true(ish) story about teenage relationships and growing up in Fredericton’s Skyline Acres neighbourhood where Allaby spent the first 18 years of his life.
“The story is set in Fredericton in 2008 and 2011 and I really wanted to tell a story that captured what it felt like for me to be a teenager in Fredericton, wasting hours on MSN, wanting to do something, but having no place to go, and being completely naïve,” said Allaby.
Martin Peters is a story about a young diabetic named Martin Peters and his relationship with his first girlfriend, Katherine Paul. The two meet at high school and bond over their common love for Pink Floyd becoming fast friends through regular chats on MSN and hangouts in the neighbourhood park. As their friendship develops, Allaby is able to convey all the drama, anxiety and complications that go along with teenage relationships.
“It’s an exercise in imagining the trajectory my life would have taken if I’d been diagnosed with diabetes at a younger age,” he said. “Originally, I’d wanted to do this as a rock opera, but I can’t play any instruments so I made it a comic instead.”
