24 Hour Comic Day

I occasionally like to work under the pretense that I have artistic talent. This is only remotely true, at least in my head. I took art lessons as a kid, and was fairly prodigious at the time, but anymore, I hate half the things I draw. But this is a digression.

Recently, I felt well enough about my meager talents to participate in the Lincoln Edition of 24 Hour Comic Book Day. For those not in the know, it was organized by Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics, one of the few true theory books about comics. This is the web site of the national day. As the Darestates:

To create a complete 24 page comic book in 24 continuous hours.

That means everything: Story, finished art, lettering, colors (if you want 'em), paste-up, everything! Once pen hits paper, the clock starts ticking. 24 hours later, the pen lifts off the paper, never to descend again. Even proofreading has to occur in the 24 hour period. [Computer-generated comics are fine of course, same principles apply]

No sketches, designs, plot summaries or any other kind of direct preparation can precede the 24 hour period. Indirect preparation such as assembling tools, reference materials, food, music etc. is fine.

Your pages can be any size, any material. Carve 'em in stone; print 'em with rubber stamps; draw 'em on your kitchen walls with a magic marker. Anything.

So a group of people gathered at the Hi Way Diner in Lincoln at 8 a.m., and got to drawing. As we went along, we invented a Classic Rock Radio game like: If Rush plays, draw a unicorn. If Van Halen plays, incorporate whatever lead singer is singing into your work. So David Lee Roth appears somewhere in mine.

We had fallen soldiers, AWOLers and five victorious ... victors who were done with the Dare with an hour-and-a-half to spare. One gentleman even posted about us on his blog. I'm the homely one in the black faux-Egyptian thrift store tee.

So thank you to Neal for organizing it. We all really appreciate it.

This post would be incomplete without cr0mics, of course. Here are the two scanned ones so far:

Mine

Justin's, author of the auspicious Revolt Puppy, a comic-in-progress that reminds me a lot of Love and Rockets

So far sight unseen are Neal's 18 completed pages of a Planarian Man prequel, as well as the completed works of Andrew, who drew a comic about an alcoholic John Henry who battles a robot; Aaron, who just wrote about not understanding "Star Trek"; and Marcus, who made a wonderfully nihilistic comic in the vein of "Tank Girl" artist Jamie Hewlett.

So enjoy my comic, and let me know what you think of "The Monsters are Due in Dundalk."