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

Posters and Posters

First, and most importantly, the original painting for the 24-Hour Comics Poster is up for raffle! Tickets are $3.00 and all proceeds are going to benefit the Williston Community Food Shelf. If you want a chance to win a big acrylic gouache painting of the poster, email Artists' Mediums. The poster is matted and professional framing is available for an additional cost. Shipping is extra.

I will also have a limited number of the color photocopied posters for sale for $2.00 each (the proceeds also going to benefit the Williston Community Food Shelf). These are un-matted and shipping is extra.

Just to remind you, here is the awesome thing (if I do say so myself. And I do)



Secondly, we're having our fourth annual Horror Movie Mini-fest. This year it's a werewolf theme. No CGI huskies fighting glowing emo-goths, here, folks! If you want to come, shoot me an email.



listening to while posting: the cool autumn rain outside. Man, I love autumn...

Summer 2010 Wrap-up

Some art, some photos, all good.

Even though I got "restructured" in July, this summer hasn't been bad. We've got a good amount of savings and the freelance jobs are trickling in (including one big potential job that will bring in at least a mortgage payment). Lots of resumes out, and a couple of bites, so we'll see...

Anyhow. The highlight of the summer, as always, was hanging out with the Step-Mother-in-Law's family at their camp on Brant Lake, NY. I've mentioned before that they are the coolest, friendliest and most accommodating folks I've ever met, so if you add that to a trip to a lake in the Adirondaks, you can see why it's the highlight.

There was lots of waterskiing (not by me, I'm awful at it) and the Step-Brother-in-Law (SBiL) bought a keg of Rock Art Brewery's Ridge Runner and much beer was had by all. I'd like to show you some of the skiing photos I took, but they're of folks who aren't me, so I want to keep them private, sorry.

The Step-Mom-in-Law (SMiL) took me out for a sailing lesson and man, was it ever-so-slightly scary. The winds were... variable. They'd come over the mountains around the lake and muck about for a bit blowing hard in one direction, then another and then they'd stop for a few minutes before going again. Veteran sailor that sh is, SMiL was laughing and calm the entire time. I was trying hard to figure things out. More than once I dumped the sail when it felt like we were going to go over. We weren't, of course, and because SMiL is a good (and former professional) teacher, she only laughed a little bit. Here's the little Dolphin in the morning waiting for the wind:



Another highlight was SBiL's dogs, Kermit (brother) and Thumper (sister). Being Lab/Border Collie mix dogs, they're full of energy, but Thumper never slowed down the entire time. She was like a six-year-old kid, either full speed or stop. Whether it was a frisbee or a tennis ball thrown in the lake or simply flipping panfulls of water into the air, she would always tire out the humans first.

OMG WATER!




TENNIS BALL!


Kermit was more sedate, trying to reconcile his Labrador Retriever instincts with the reality of ducks.


On the art front, I'm finishing up a new Obscure Tale. This tale is slightly different and features characters that may lead to their own title. I'll be posting a cover soon, but other than that it's a surprise!

I was sick most of this week. I get this cold/flu/allergy type thing whenever the seasons change from winter to spring and summer to fall. It's weird and annoying, but it goes away. I was not in the frame of mind to work on the new OT, so I did some sketches of my favorite (and most ill-used) Marvel character Rahne Sinclair/ Wolfsbane. I plan on taking one of these two sketches and fleshing it out into a fake cover. I've found m work has been a bit static lately (why didn't you tell me?) and thought I'd get more dynamic. So, I grabbed a Stikfas figure and my Burne Hogarth book and went to work. Thoughts? Sweet Enemy prefers #1 as a better use of the page, but I find that the pose in #2 looks more realistic and less balletic.

#1


#2



I also gave a "comic book basics" workshop/demo at my local art supply store which seemed to go well. I learned a lot while trying to figure out what to teach.

I think that's all for now. There were some other things, a trip to Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome with my dad, a fun visit with my niece, and a 'guys weekend' at Brant Lake, but I don't want to bore you.

pax.

Listening to while posting. Nothing, actually. I'll leave you with Brant Lake at 7 AM: