Spaz Dog

Well, here I am already ensconced at Spazzdog Comics -- an entire hour early. I wanted to make sure I could find the place and I overcompensated.

They say that about a dozen folks will be participating here!! That's a lot more than I expected. At the moment I'm the only one here. Excepting of course the good folks who run the place.

Aside from forgetting to bring my camera, I also forgot to bring a book I bought about how to draw cartoon animals. I'll just have to get by... Good news is that they have electricity and wi-fi here, so I will be able to check in on the blog from time to time, and search for images on the internet when I need a model.

So... I guess I'll look around at the comics and help myself to a free Bawls energy drink (Bawls is the sponsor of 24 hour comics day).

Glenn Dale

Well, just about 14 hours until the start of the big challenge. I have arrived safely at my hotel in Glendale (actually, I think the hotel is just over the border in Phoenix, but the challenge will take place in Glendale).

I'm going to try to stay up kinda late tonight so I don't wake up too early tomorrow. Might go back out and scope out the area, figuring out where I'm going tomorrow, where the nearby 7-11s and Starbucks are, etc.

When rushing out the door, I forgot my camera, so I won't have any photos to post. Dang.

My good friend Steve (readers of my other blog might remember Steve) is one of a couple people I'm still in touch with who could remember my drawings from 30 years ago. He has taken a look at my practice page and allowed as how the style looks familiar but he has seen me do better.

Well... yeah... I'm a bit rusty. But anyway, the challenge isn't to create something good in 24 hours, just to create something 24 pages long in 24 hours. There's definitely some tension there. If I create 23 pages of the best work I've ever done in my life; I lose. If I create 24 pages of useless drivel, I win. Of course, I am hoping to create something good. Good things can happen fast. As I understand it, Grapes of Wrath was written in six weeks. It could almost have been a NaNoWriMo. So there you go.

Anyway, keep your expectations low enough, and I might just surpass them.

Unleashing My Inner Cartoonist

Well, less than 48 hours to the start of the Big Event. I've been practicing some more and I think I've got a good feel for what I can do at a 45-minute-per-page creation rate.

Two worries: Will my ideas hold out, and will my wrist hold out?

I'm resurrecting an art-and-humor style that I developed back in High School, along with my good friend Chris Peterson. We drew extremely odd cartoons that we called Foodles. We had about four or five hard core fans who could not wait to see our next creation. Pretty much everyone else who saw the Foodles just stared blankly and wondered if we might need counseling or rehab.

I've got a couple more practice pages in various states of doneness; doubtful that I'll post them before the Big Event. I'm leaving for Glendale tomorrow after running (i.e. sometime around 7pm); I'll see how much blogging I can do during the contest. Hopefully they'll let me set up my laptop and they'll have wi-fi so I can check in from time to time. If not, I'll at least check in from the hotel before and after.

One-Hour Comic

Wow, I finally found an uninterrupted hour! I used it to practice doing one page of a 24-hour comic. This may or may not end up being similar to a page that I'll actually use in the contest. I need to be careful not to get too far ahead of myself.

This page actually took me about 70 minutes from trying-to-think-of-what-to-draw to finished-with-the-inking, so I need to either simplify or figure out how to draw faster (or think up ideas faster).

Anyway, the page is here to give you an idea of what I can do:
http://www.babelsphere.com/7dayquest/comic/practice1.html

A Col-Erase Non-Photo Blue Pencil -- is that too much to ask?

I'm feeling pretty good about the 24 hour comic... I'm feeling good about being able to come up with stuff to say, and I'm feeling good about reawakening my drawing skills after years of dormancy.

I still want to start by making sure I can do a one-page comic -- conceived, laid out, penciled and inked -- in one hour (with plenty of time to spare -- I will need to take breaks after all!) I really need to get a handle on just how much detail I can go into. I don't want to get overambitious. I've looked at a few samples out there on the interwebs and mostly they don't try to get complex.

For the seven-day-roguelike, I knew I was right where I belonged -- I can hold my own against pretty much any programmer. For the triathlon, I knew I was way out of my league, I'm not a real athlete by any stretch. I'm interested to see what it is like being in a room full of comic artists. Do I count as a real artist, or just a real programmer pretending to be an artist?

Today I bought art supplies. I have plenty of paper, a battery-powered pencil sharpener, a couple magic rub erasers, 3 black Tombow N-15 acid-free pen/brushes...

But I searched 3 places -- Michael's, Office Max, and Aaron Brothers -- for Col-Erase Non-Photo Blue pencils... No luck! I ended up buying a few Prismacolor non-photo-blue pencils, but they just aren't quite right. I need my Col-Erase! I finally ordered 4 dozen of them online. Meanwhile, we'll see if I can get by using the prismacolor just for practice...sigh.

We artists are quite temperamental.

Quick Update

Okay, I'm going to do the 24-hour comic event in Glendale, AZ at SpazDog Comics
I've already emailed and heard back from them.
Caleb will be joining me, doing his own 24-hour comic!

And I've done some sketching just to make sure I remember how to do it. I am, in the spirit of the contest, trying not to think too much about what the story will be -- I'm supposed to make it up only after I arrive. However, I do want to at least come up with characters in advance so I know I can draw them consistently. So I'm working on that.

And, I am planning on doing a couple practice pages -- see how much detail I can put into a page and still get all the penciling done in a half-hour, which should leave me enough time for inking and occasional breaks.

24 Hour Comic Looms Anew!

Oh, look. A year has almost gone by since I skipped last year's 24-hour comic day. And here I have the opportunity to do it again. And, this year (unlike last) there is a venue rye cheer in Arizona where I could go draw -- a mere 140 miles away in Glendale.

Or, there is a location in Rancho Cucamonga. Farther away (by 400 or so miles), but right near my brother and my folks.

Or, I could just do the thing at home.

Anyway, maybe I'm going to do it this year. I'm not promising anything, but there's nothing particular standing in my way this time. Better nail down my plans -- the whole thing is just over 3 weeks away.

Let me see -- where did I put my pencil....