I got to about midnight and got bored so went out. Came back home at about 6am and went back to it.. sort of.
I'm in 2 minds about the whole thing. Actually before I start sounding too whiney, I should congratulate Mark Selan on a really top notch organising job. It ran smoothly, got some really good media attention and a really fun atmosphere was created.
Ok, so I think this type of event is good in that it creates a real sense of community and camaraderie on the day. People are posting their work online and getting immediate support and encouragement. It helps bolster confidence and keeps people going.
If you enjoy creating STUFF, then this is a really fun thing to do. Go straight thru the night creating STUFF. I've down plenty of all nighters getting work down and it's quite a rush to push through the barriers and keep on plowing through.
Personally taking part in this thing has got my comic-making juices flowing again. It's inspired me.
So thats all cool, yeah?
But the bad thing is it makes for really clumsy comics.
Comics DO take time to get done. The plotting, the scriptwriting, the thumbnail layouts, the penciling, the inking, the lettering, the colouring. It all takes time to get a good job done.
So to try and do a whole comic in such conditions is a detriment to the end product. Sure you can bash out any scribbly chain-of-thought piece, but the end result will usually be something not worth peoples time to read. Thats unless you hit gold on the day and get a real groove on. Then you can come up aces.(which happened in a few cases last weekend).
There ARE short cuts you can make in terms of the art, and I guess the script aswell. But the problem I see is that initital idea is the most important. You don't have the time to mull it over, chop it up and see how it plays out.
Its- BAM! GO!........... oh, well that was actually a pretty weak idea.
Speaking to an old veteran of these things, The Beard says he uses these events as a layout stage only. He doesn't try and get the whole finished comic done in the 24hrs. He spends the right time on his thumbnails, then does loose solid pencils, and gets as much done as he can. Then in the days after, he reflects and re-considers what works and what doesn't. And BANG, he gets a really solid comic out of the process. Something that EVERY year has gone on and down really good things for him.
Where as I see the majority of people bang out clumsy comics on the day and just leave it at that.
And me?
Well I got 12 pages down. Really messy pencil work thats all construction and no finesse. Some nice witty dialogue. (I'm in a bad habit of doing lazy draftmanship these days. That whole "Fix it in post" attitude. But dialogue comes easy.)
Some nice moments. Some good pacing. I worked on it for about 11 hrs with lots of interruptions. So I guess thats a normal working day. I could've kept with it thru the night and either added more rough pages, or cleaned up the pages I'd done. Instead I went out.
My real detriment was my initial idea. Like I said in a previous post I DO have 2 stories I want to get down, but they were projects I want to get right. So on the day I did an auto-bio story. About me on the day. So I was writing as I was going...
I haven't really done much auto-bio stuff before, but it was quite fun. Although if you write about your life, then you'd better have DONE something worth telling... so thats part of the reason why I went out at midnite and didn't get home till the early hours. I was out RESEARCHING!!
Anway CHECK OUT THE ENTRIES HERE!
And HERE for mine.
I add more pages and ink it up, but I want to get to these other comic projects first.
4 comments:
I just looked at all those entries. Thanks for the link Scott.
What I want to know is why the hell are there so many people over in Australia doing comics who can't draw!?
The point of the event is having fun, building community and getting a bit of attention. i kind of see it like Mardi Gras, its loud and showey and alot of fun but essentially empty. Sure there are some great peices of work and hopefully people will think - i did that in 24 hours what would happen if i spent 3 hours a week? what kind of kick ass book would i produce then?
24 hour comics are not the best work and for this reason i have been wary of printing winners
i find it a shame (but understandable) that talented people only create comics for 1 day a year, but i'd rather having something than nothing
I read the comics fully aware they were created in 24 hours, and see most of these as an exercise in what you can achieve on the fly (you can so tell if someone planned theirs) I find the process of each entrant went through enthralling and I guess thats where the entertainment is. Of course they're all not print worthy, just like not every movie shold make it to the big.screen.It's just a damn good time.
Anonymous: I guess the question about quality all comes down to what and why the creators are doing comics for.
If it's just for laughs, then thats all cool.
But I take your point. Being able to draw (or work photoshop- or whatever tool)is your biggest weapon in achieveing your military opjective. And that objective is to communicate!
Mark and Jase: Thanks for commenting and you guys both raised really good and valid points of view.
Since that was my first experiance in actually taking part, i've been contemplating the whole thing. Like I said, I'm in two minds about it all and was just thinking out loud.
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