24HCD 2011

Whew.

Another year, another 24-Hour Comics Day. A shout out to our sponsors firstly Sweet Clover Market for the BIG box of assorted snacks; Phoenix Books for the two urns of coffee and a dozen cookies; Rocky's Pizza in Williston for, what else? Pizza. And of course Artists' Mediums for the venue and hard work.

This one was harder than normal because I was not only participating in the 24HCD, not only helping organize it, but also participating in the Open Studio Weekend on Saturday from 6m - 8pm; right during 24HCD. So, I spent the week before getting stuff from sponsors for 24HCD and getting some artwork ready to hang at Phoenix Books.

The setup of both events went smoothly, the Open Studio the night before. I arrived at the event, set up the coffee and I fell into my normal 24HCD routine: I started writing the story first. I love coming in cold, it's part of the fun. All I had in my head since the drive in were the words "bi-plane" and "sphinx". So, with those words I carved out a rough story. Then, I started thumbnailing and writing at the same time. This is sort of a scaled down version of how some folks do 24HCD; they start at the beginning and just write until all pages are filled. It's the same way except there is some revising and I try to have at least an idea of the ending before I get too deep.

Writing and thumbnailing took two hours. It would have taken less except that I mis-numbered my thumbnails early on (I had two #3s) and had to add some pages.

Then, I started drawing. I used a Pentel brush pen (hacked with Higgins Black Magic replacing the awful stock ink) because I didn't want to get bogged down in the details as I would with a Pigma Micron. I did use Microns for the panel lines, lettering and for the eyes .

There were more interruptions this year with friends coming in to talk, great artist banter and heated discussions, so I didn't even get to page five before I had to go to the Open Studio bit. I wasn't sure what to do there as I'm usually on the other side of the art scene. However, two friends were there and they bought me some good beer and we had an impromptu tasting. What was nice is a local middle school librarian asked for my help in an upcoming project where kids will be either writing a play or a graphic novel.

Then back to Artists' Mediums to try to finish my comic. The beer-bringing friends showed up at 24HCD (sans beer) and chatted for a long time. I kept working until 5am then took a nap for an hour. I got to finishing the pencils and then inking the panel lines and letters of page 17 when I just had to stop. I helped clean up and we were out the door by 9am. I was good to go, tired-wise, until I was within a few hundred meters from our house, when I nodded off for an instant and drifted into the oncoming lane. I snapped awake before I went off the other side and, since it was a 30mph zone on a backroad in Vermont on a Sunday morning, there was nobody coming.

Sweet Enemy and I crashed for a bit; she on the couch with Fat Grey Cat and me on our bed. We didn't plan to sleep more than an hour but while I set the alarm I forgot to turn it on. I drifted awake three hours later and felt good to go.

Here's this year's story. There are some issues I have with it. Some are story elements I would have done differently if I'd had the time to revise the script; stupid ideas I'd purge; some are words I put in by mistake ("ridden" for "riddled"); and POVs that I wish I'd done differently.

It's got a lot of aviation in it but it's "television" aviation. That means there are some really stupid things involving planes and history here. I'm a former aviator, scale modeler, war history buff and usually a stickler, but I'm asking you as all of these things to please forgive the tv-style silliness...

But, here it is with all its flaws and incomplete-ness.

I'll probably finish it in the next week. I'll refrain from editing m thumbnails and try do each page as quickly as if it were at the event to try to maintain a continuity of style.

































So, what did you think? Should I continue? Should I refine it into a tighter story with tighter art or let it lie?

Listening to while posting: "24" by Jem. I bought Jem's "Finally Woken" for Sweet Enemy for her birthday and I like it more than she does now.

Mediocre art weekend

Working on a cover idea for Special Deliver my 24 Hour Comics Day comic from 2010.

I did a bunch of sketches and refinements and this inking seemed to work as a proof-of-concept. I did it with my Pentel brush pen (which works much better after my hack that allows me to replace the crappy stock ink with Higgins Black Magic). I'm finding I really enjoy using the pen, but I really need to practice with it a lot more. This POC is pretty good with a few elements I like. There's a fair amount that I now believe sucks. Regardless, with the original piece having a size of 6.5" x 10", it's the biggest face I've drawn in a while.



I'll hit the drawing again tomorrow and see if I can get something better.

Listening to while posting: "Typical American" by The Goats

24 Hour Comic Day 2010: The Aftermath Part 2

It's done and I must say, I'm rather proud of it. Sure, I would have liked to have finished it fully during the event, but oh, well. I'm proud that I wrote it and thumbnailed it so quickly. I'm happy that my initial paneling decisions seemed to work pretty well. They're not super-dynamic, but coherent. There are some nice moments in the art, considering, too. What I'm most happy with, though, is the fact that this story isn't super-depressing. My first year, I tried to be funny and only got six pages done. The next year my story was kind of dark. Year three's story was downright sad and I'm glad that I broke the cycle without, I think, being saccharin.

As you read the finished story, keep in mind that I worked in the same spirit as the event (just not so tired). That means that I didn't stray from the dialog and paneling that I worked out in the first hour (unless I couldn't read the dialog or understand what the stick figures were supposed to do. I also worked quickly, and decisively, not changing much once I started dark pencilling. That means that the last six pages will be as rough as the first eighteen. You'll also notice that had to fight the urge to grab a reference for the running dog since I didn't bring any such thing to the event.

Without further ado, here's "Special Delivery" in its entirety (to keep myself honest, I marked the pages that were finished after the event with a little triangle at the bottom):



















































What did you think? Good? Bad? Okay? I'll take critiques (but keep in mind the circumstances). Question: Should I re-do it with better art and better paneling, or let it stand as its own thing?

Listening to while posting: "Pushy" by Lemon Jelly

24 Hour Comic Day 2010: The Aftermath

In keeping with it's Appalachian Trail-like aura, I am beat and do not want to think of 24HCD again and cannot understand why I'd do such a thing. Of course, I said that last year, too.

The Event

This year was interesting. I took the lead on the poster, the marketing, the sponsor-gathering, the setting up, nearly everything and it worked out pretty well. The setup went smooth and worked well. Our sponsors came through magnificently. (more than we could have hoped, actually. Sweet Clover Market donated a HUGE box of chocolate-covered pretzels. Phoenix Books delivered two airports of coffee, some creamer, some cups and cookies. Rocky's Pizza came through with four cheese pizzas at 6:30pm.)

For my part, I didn't expect to finish and I didn't; only eighteen pages. The reasons for this were: 1) I was the MC, so I was answering random questions for a while, 2) and also as MC I had to check in latecomers 3) I bit off more than I could chew story-wise (more later) and 4) I decided early on that this wasn't going to be about getting work done. If I wanted that, I'd have stayed in the studio. So, I chatted with visitors, customers and other participants.

We started at 9AM on Sat and I petered out about 6AM on Sun. I couldn't draw anymore. So I walked outside to watch a rabbit eating in the grass near the store, went inside to start cleaning up a bit. We ended up leaving at 9AM and home by 9:30.

We learned a lot for next year (example: there's going to be an age restriction. Nobody under sixteen will be allowed to participate past 9PM without a parent present; 12 year old girls can get WAY too giggly after too much caffeine and candy at 2AM). But, I don't want to think of that now.

The Comic

This year, for myself and the other participants, I created 'inspiration cards'. I grabbed a bunch of images off of Google's Life photo archive , stuff of mine and photos and art I've collected over the years. I printed those out into a 'deck' of cards for the participants to go through for an idea. The one I chose was this:



I wish I knew who the artist was so I could give him/her credit. The image (and four others of the same artist) have been on my drives since 2002 and I've re-named them. I really like the stuff and wish I could see more.

I stared at this picture for five minutes then started writing words and connecting those words with arrows until I had a very bare storyline. I then hit the thumbnail trail and sketched out the entire story. As with most of my 24HCD works, this was like a Star Trek:TNG episode: 3/4 full of padding then a rushed resolution. What stymied me was the complexity that became inherent within the piece. I tried to mitigate this by doing lots of cinematic cuts of one talking head to another. Boring, but easier to draw. Another sticking point was that I scripted two fight scenes. I've never done a real fight scene before and never thought of doing one under this kind of pressure. The final bit was that my comic involved doing a kawai character and a dog. Neither of which I'd really drawn before and never as a recurring character in action poses!

I did decide early on that dark pencilling would be "done". Mostly because I liked how my pencils were looking and also because that would be the only way I'd come close to finishing. The art, of course, degraded over time, but there are some nice moments including some later on. So, here's the comic, one panel shy of eighteen pages, the last being nearly finished at 6AM Oct 3rd. It's called "Special Delivery" and I'd be curious to know if anyone would want to see it finished...





































Whew! Thanks for reading! If you've got an 24HCD event in your town next year and you make comics, DO IT! If you don't make comics, go see some tired artists!

listening to while posting: "Tokyo I'm on my way" by Puffy AmiYumi