My Imagination Is Power

I can't believe it's been a whole year. This coming Saturday is this year's 24 hour comic day. I'd like to take part in it again, though maybe not in exactly the same manner I did previously. It'd be really cool if other people could come up with some form of art they'd like to do during the day (and for as many hours as possible.) It made it more fun to have people around, doing some form of creative work while I was hunched over the drawing board. I know I had a blast last year, even though I didn't actually ever finish the comic.

Maybe this year, huh? Who wants to join me?

And in case you don't know, or weren't around, we've decided to bend the rules to make it any form of art that could take up to 24 hours (or 18, depending on your stamina). As long as we've decided on the format for whatever you're doing beforehand, it's cool. The main idea (for me at least) is to do something you always said you wanted to do, but never schedule the time to do it. You know you want to!!

I've finally uploaded all the pages I sketched out in the first two hours of the 24 Hour comic.

You can browse through them here.

The last two pages were deleted (as you can tell from the blue X through them.) And then I expanded some of the two or three previous pages to fill in. You can sort of see the outlines indicating which panels I separated.

I'll be posting my finished pages later, but here's a decent wrap-up of the day with the photos I took. There may be more floating around, but this is what was on my camera.

	Ahh, a fresh day. I can't imagine all that we can accomplish in 24 hours! Here's our bank of computers set up for Chri...er...(ok I'm done) Chase and Jed.
	Everyone left me. So much for my idea of everyone sitting around working on projects together. Guess that's the nature of the medium though.
	Ah, they're back. But wait, they're both entranced on their computers, busy editing. Or busy putting their fist through their computers. Not sure which it was at this point.
	Karen decided to hide in the closet for most of this. She eventually came out of the closet and kept asking me if I could take photographs of/for her. I think I ended up gagging more than anything else.
	Here's my nice little workstation, and what ultimately did me in. And even though I was sitting in front of the TV, absolutely zero TV watching was done. Not because I have anything against the TV, but I didn't want to waste 2 minutes zoning out. And there was that chance.
	Ahh, getting a bit darker. Everyone's still at work. Waaay over there. At least people are getting something done.
	On the left is the second page of my layout sketches. I was having trouble remembering what the doodles meant once I got to it though. On the right is one of the finished pages. I got fairly used to the blue line pencil, but I felt I couldn't be really detailed with it.
	I went through enough of it. I think it lost another centimeter before the one on the right was done. I suppose there's some obligatory comment to be made about pencil length, but I can't think of one at the moment (other than the fact that Jed has a small penis.)
	Only two pages left to draw at this point! Yay! I didn't have a real good plan for the ending, so I scrapped the last two pages and expanded some others to fill in.
	Jed. Still plugging away. With his small penis.
	Ah! Who are they!?! What are they doing invading our cave!?!? Oh wait, those are friends. . . . Coming to mock us. Oh, and heap praise at our accomplishments. . . . Then they went drinking.
	My view at about 5 am. 6 pages inked, and I couldn't really sit up anymore. Now I just need to get back into it (this weekend?) and try to finish up the rest. I can't wait to use the inks when I'm not straining to hold onto the pen.

Since Jed is still plugging away (he claims he's almost done), I decided to put on of my favorite panels up as a preview. Unforunately, this was one of the later ones I inked, so I don't think I quite did it justice. Part of the reason I called it a night.

Anyways, I'm fairly satisfied with my effort, considering my experience and practice at all of this.

I hope everyone else is too (satisfied with their own efforts, that is). Even Chri...er...Chase.

Worked until 5 am. 17 hours. Thats a heck of a lot. My neck/back/hands are cramping and occasionally burning a bit, so against my desire, I've decided to quit for the good of my body.

I completed inking 6 pages. 1/4 completely done isn't too bad. And I do have the pencils all done for the whole thing, so I think that counts for something. Pencils/Inks count as 2 separate comics right?

Chri...er...Chase went to bed about an hour ago, and Karen just did too. I'm not sure I'm going to stay up much longer, since there isn't much of a drive to...since I definitely feel I can't work anymore.

Oh, and Jed is still plugging away. Crazy bastard.

Next time I'm definitely picking a better work environment. That would probably have been the difference between not finishing and finishing.

I also don't want to do a sloppy jobs with the inks over these pencils. I'll wait and finish them very soon.

Photos/scans will be posted eventually. When we've recovered.

Ok, I just finished inking my second page. I have 9 hours left, and 22 pages. That means I have to ink 3 pages an hour until noon tomorrow. Do-able? Doubtable.

Jed is still plugging away. Karen seems done with hers. She claims she doesn't want to work it to death. Chri...er...Chase is going around killing peeps in many amusing ways. I'm not sure if its for a second video, or if he's just bored. He does keep threatening to go to bed. I'm pretty sure that'll happen soon. I don't blame him too much though, he does have work on Monday.

Only 9 more house. Er...hours. Hmm, I may be tired.

I'm sore as hell too. My whole body was fairly frozen up when I got up from that second page of inking. Need to stretch after each page.

I just got asked, "When do we get to see everybodies?"

Uhhh...noon.

Wow, 24 pages, all penciled. It only took 10.5 hours to pencil them all. Pretty darn good. Well, not if you look at them.

And considering it took that long for me to pencil them, I don't think I'll make the inking deadline. I may keep working though.

Jed is off doing his night-shoot. He dressed in his porn outfit, out at 1 am. How much you wanna bet he's going to be hit on by a few guys tonight?

Chri...er...Chase wasn't happy with his program on his Mac. I heard him just say, "I guess I'll stick with Premiere [on my PC], until I get more ram for that puppy [my mac]." So I guess we all know who wins that round. He showed off what he was able to do on his Mac. Pretty good stuff, actually...considering the trouble he had. The out-takes were classic.

Karen is arguing now that her title page counts as a page in her novelita. First of all, we had to write 24 pages/12 minutes of video. How hard can 12 pages (its only 24 double spaced) be?

Anyways, I think I need to photograph all my pages now, so I have a record of them, before I dump ink all over them. Lets Roll!

We like to party! We like, we like to Partay!

Just finished my 17th page of pencils. Instead of coming up with the last few pages (which I didn't have boarded yet) I decided to just expand the panels of the pages I already have. This also saves time. Unforunately, it also messes with the pacing that I had planned out, but its not like I'm an expert at that or anything.

Chri...er...Chase, Jed, Karen and I are all in the living room diligently working. Well, Jed, Karen and I are working, Chri...er...Chase is swearing at his computer and eating icecream.

Karen had me take some questionable photos for her little writing project. I still have no clue what she's doing, but it made me gag.

14 hours to go. Will we make it? Will anyone be awake to see? Will Alex tire of making fun of those who decided to do something productive instead of going out drinking?

Tune in next time!

There, half of the pages are penciled. I have no idea how long it will take for the rest. Chri...er...Chase and Jed are busy at work on their computers. Chri...er...Chase might have all his footage, but Jed is waiting for darkness. Karen's still typing away.

Chinese food is being ordered shortly. My back and fingers aren't quite dead yet...but I can feel them dying.

And we're not even close do being done.

8 3/4 pages complete. Jed has taken over the living room with his monkey, so I'm taking a break. Chri...er...Chase is still nowhere to be found. I hope he didn't get arrested. I think the style of the comic will get simpler as I progress. The characters are getting more cartoony, thats for sure. I really hope I can get inking done, but I'll be happy if it is all drawn. What a way to burst my comic art cherry.

boobies

edit:
I shouldn't have left MT open, cause some fools decided to post for me. Oh well.

I was here alone for about half an hour while Chri...er...Chase left to goof off for a while (or as he puts it "I went to get a couch"). At this point, I have 5 pages penciled. Pretty decent progress. It'll be interesting to get to the end of the penciling, and then have to ink it all, which I've never really done, let alone done while sleep deprived. It'll be interesting.

Jed is still gone, and Karen went to the store to get some props for her paper. Props for a paper? Huh? I don't get it.

Hmm, 3:58. Wasted 3 minutes posting this...gotta get back to work now.

Well, almost an hour and a half into it, and everyone seems to have finished their planning. Jed's got his list going, Chri...er...Chase has been typing, and is seemingly content with what he has. Karen is already through with 2 pages of whatever she is writing. I've got all 24 pages storyboarded out, and pretty well planned. 24 pages is a whole hell of a lot. I'm thinking I may not do the inking, but I'd love to get it all done. Spirits are still a bit high. We'll see how it is after I've got a few pages in the bag.

Have I mentioned I've never drawn a full comic before? I haven't even drawn more than a page since highschool, when I did 3 pages in a night. Sheesh.

"Comics leading theoretician Scott McCloud came up with the 24 hour comics challenge about a decade back. Simply put, a cartoonist tries to write and draw an entire 24 page comics story in 24 consecutive hours."

This years Challenge is April 24th, this Saturday. If anyone else is up for it, I would love to participate this year. I have no clue what I'd be doing, which I guess is part of the challenge. I'd say that any sort of 24 hour art endeavour would be acceptable. Maybe telling a story through photographs, even film? (For all of those who are artistically challenged with a pencil.) Someone could even concoct some online story. (Tell a story with a css switcher changing background images/styles? hmm.)

I really would love to do this Saturday. It seems like a good way to kick-start some of our creative juices. And if there's 3-4 of us doing it, all the more motivation to get something done.

What else would everyone be doing Saturday? Watching TV? Ha!

This may all go up in flames (like my apartment) but check back here in a few days and see if I/we accomplished anything.