Today is 24 Hour Comics Day!  It was only two years ago that I did my four attempts at the beast during my last quarter at OSU.

I’m hoping to tackle something very personal that’s been percolating in my head for awhile.  It’ll be good for me.

I’ll be arting from noon Saturday to noon Sunday, so wish me luck!

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October 3rd was 24 Hour Comics Day 2009!  Instead of doing a true 24 Hour Comic this year, I instead did a 24-hour-binge of Garanos; I made it my goal to complete a 2-week buffer of 6 pages.

I’ve been in and out of town for what seems like the last month or more, and with all the commotion and activity, what buffer I was maintaining before got all eaten up, and I was killing myself meeting my deadlines in the last week.  Then I saw a tweet by Scott Kurtz which said he was doing three weeks of comics for PvP on 24HCD, which got me thinking of doing the same.  The idea hadn’t occurred to me before!

Despite how nice it is having new work after a 24 Hour Comic, doing a buffer for Garanos really was a very responsible, practical idea, and I’m glad I went this route instead of drawing something else all day, and then having to turn around Sunday night and do a page of Garanos for Monday’s update anyway.

I started my timer at noon on Saturday, by drawing all the pages of Garanos I’d need.  I managed to stream this live on my Livestream channel, which was pretty cool because then Fes of the Webcomic Beacon rebroadcasted my feed for a few minutes during the 24 hour broadcast that the Beacon was doing that day.  The Beacon’s broadcast was my background listening all day, as well, which was pretty cool.  Almost like having other people there to cheer you on as you worked. ^_^

At about 4 PM, I had all the pages drawn, and I switched over to Photoshop to do the coloring, but unfortunately, Photoshop and the Procaster (Livestream’s in-house streaming application) weren’t playing nicely, and both programs running at the same time were eating up too much processor power for me to get anything done, so after getting frustrated and impatient, I was forced to color the pages offline.

Later on, during a lull in programming, I called into the Webcomic Beacon and chatted with them for a little while, which was pretty cool.  I thoroughly intend to set up a chili swap at Penguicon, so let the record show that the agreement stands!  Sometime in the wee hours, Fes started feeling unwell, so the Beacon went off the air. :(  In lieu of this, I popped in The Office and continued on my way.

One of the many things I learned last year was that I’d need ergonomic support all over, so I tried to sit up straight  for a majority of the time, got up to stretch from time to time, and I bought a wrist brace for my right hand.  I’m SO GLAD I got the brace, because at the end of the 24 hours, my hand didn’t even hurt that much!  It was mostly just tired.  BIG difference from the end of my 24HCs last year.

When all was said and done, I finished 5 out of 6 pages.  If I hadn’t lost 2-3 hours due to the Procaster/Photoshop complications, I bet I could’ve finished all 6.  I’m really happy that I got so much done, and that I have a buffer done!

Perhaps this winter I’ll hole up some weekend to do a real 24 Hour Comic to make up for not doing one this year. ^_^

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I had my setup on a granite platform on the second floor of Haskett, complete with my computer and a cot to sleep on.  For the first 12 hours or so, I was sitting directly on the granite slab, sometimes on a blanket, which believe it or not is not particularly comfortable.  The whole experience left my legs and back extremely sore.

(Photo credit: Amy Youngs)

I had a few false starts with this comic, initially intending to do an artist statement in comic form, summarizing my college experience.  After a couple pages of that, I got bored with it, so a few hours later I started a really stupid comic about unicorns being turned into jerky.  Which I recognized was a completely terrible idea.

Chris suggested I write these false starts into the overall comic, and do something more meta, so I ended up basically documenting the things that happened during my performance piece, such as an encounter I had with the vending machine on the first floor in the wee hours.  This was a much more successful approach, since after three 24 Hour Comics, I’m pretty dry on ideas for short form story comics.

So it’s basically the documentation of my performance in comic form, with some small embellishments.  This will probably be my last 24 Hour Comic until 24HC Day next year, so I have some time to generate more ideas.

Read It.

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Learn from those who have done before, my elders have always said.  I don’t think anyone else has documented their 24 Hour Comics to the extent that I have, much less written a guide like this, so I want to share my knowledge and experiences in the process of doing these comics.  This is not only a creative challenge, but a mental and physical one as well.

Before the Comic

In the days or weeks before your attempt, make sure you prepare!  I don’t just mean having your paper and pencils handy (though that’s also important) but make sure you’re mentally and physically prepared.

Set your date and time. I recommend a Saturday, from midnight to midnight, but any stretch of two days that you have off will do.  Midnight to midnight is especially helpful because you have nonstop daylight for a good chunk of time in the middle of the 24 hours, and it will help you trick your internal clock into forgetting that you’ve been awake for so long.  Having the following Sunday off is also very beneficial, since you’ll have as long as you like to sleep off the all-nighter and relax before you go back to school or work on Monday.

Eliminate things that will distract you. I, personally, can get easily distracted by menial housekeeping when I have something to do with a looming deadline.  I can’t number the times that I’ve had to finish a paper for school, and suddenly had all sorts of initiative to vacuum my carpet and clean my bathroom instead.  The week before I did my first attempt, I cleaned my entire apartment from top to bottom to eliminate any possible distractions that could take my focus away from the comic.  If you know you have habits like this when you’re working on a deadline, make sure you remove them before you begin your comic.

For the love of God, sleep. Rest is important, especially since you’ll be awake for such a long stretch, so if at all possible, make sure you get at least 8 hours of sleep for several nights before your attempt.  If you choose to go the midnight-to-midnight route, you may not get the full 8 hours of sleep beforehand, but in this case, even a long nap is better than no sleep at all.  I made the mistake of not sleeping before two of my attempts, and it utterly destroyed me both times.  Hours 6 through 18 will be awful if you don’t sleep beforehand, I guarantee it.

Gather your ammunition. Get your materials together.  That means anything you could possibly need during the course of your comic.  Reference materials, paper, media; hell, even a list of bookmarks in their own special folder in your browser.  If there’s something you will need, make sure it’s easily accessible.

Rations. Make sure your fridge is well-stocked with healthy food and snacks and your energy drink of choice.  That carb or caffeine boost will come in very handy in the later hours when you’re really dragging.

Don’t plan the story before the 24 hours begin. Not only is this against the rules, but it’s also more fun if you improvise when the challenge starts, not to mention it’s Scott’s recommended route.  I’ve had tons of ideas for what to do for 24 hour comics, but since you can’t write anything down beforehand, I’ve always forgotten them when the time came.  So just make it up!  There are tons of idea generators out there, so make use of them if you get stuck.

During the Comic

The day has come at last, and you’re ready to go!  As you make your comic, I reccommend the following:

Stay hydrated and fed. It’s important to keep yourself fueled during this challenge.  If you let yourself get thirsty, you’re already dehydrated, so keep a full glass of water or a water bottle with you at all times to sip on.  Make sure you don’t forget to eat at regular intervals, as well!  Since you’re not operating on an everyday schedule, you need to make sure you give yourself regular mealtimes every 5 or so hours, depending on how often you eat on a normal day.

Pace yourself and budget your time. It’s one hour per page, and if you’re planning on sleeping, then make sure you plan accordingly.  If you’re doing any post production like Photoshop editing or publishing on the web, make sure you budget time for that at the tail-end of the 24 hours.

Get a wingman. Having a wingman during your attempt is to your advantage.  They can be someone who is doing their own 24 hour comic along with you, or can be a friend or partner offering moral support.  They don’t necessarily have to be artistically inclined, either.  Chris stayed up with me every time I did a comic, doing things like cooking, waking me up after naps, and letting me bounce ideas off him whenever I got into a rut.  Even having someone standing by on IM to talk to can be good, as long as you don’t let yourself get distracted by them too much.

Polyphasic sleep. Take short breaks throughout the 24 hours.  I take a 30 minute nap every three hours, to rest my brain and my body.  Resting your body is very important as the hours go by; every time I laid down for a nap, I noticed my back muscles had always tensed up quite a bit, and letting that tension deflate for a little while helped me keep my stamina as the hours went by.  My hands also got quite sore from the drawing and writing, and it was always a relief when I could put down the pencil for half an hour.  Sometimes my naps would turn into 35-45 minute naps, depending on how groggy I was after 30 minutes, so go with the flow, and stay in bed for those few extra minutes if you think you need to.

Fool your internal clock. Like with any all-nighter, do everything you can to trick your internal clock.  When you first wake up, eat breakfast food, no matter the time of day.  If it’s nighttime, turn on all your lights and close the curtains or blinds so you can’t see what time of day it is outside.  Keep the curtains open during bright daylight, since natural light is awesome and will save electricity, but once it starts getting even slightly dark, lock it all down and use artificial light.  If you’re doing your comic in your home, take a shower around halfway through, or sometime when you’re starting to drag, and go through your usual morning routine to refresh your mind.

Document your progress. Since my 24 hour comics were part of an independent study for OSU, I documented the hell out of my attempts with video, blogging, and Twitter.  You don’t have to do all this, but documentation is good to have when it’s all said and done!  At the very least, make a blog entry the day before as you prepare, at the halfway point to talk about what you’re doing, and the day after, when you’ve gotten some sleep.  It’ll be easier to document your experience during the attempt than to try to remember all the details in the days after it.

After the Comic

The 24 hours is over!  What now?

If you’re not finished with all 24 pages… then you have two options.  You can either end it wherever you stopped (the Gaiman variation) or you can continue to work on it until it’s done (the Eastman variation).  Scott considers these the “noble failure” variants, and still true 24-hour comics in spirit.

If you do have 24 pages… then congratulations!  You’ve successfully completed the 24 Hour Comic challenge!  Keep in mind that with webcomics, the comic must also be online in some fashion within the 24 hours.

Now go sleep. When you wake up, you can brag to all your friends about how you made an awesome comic in a single day.

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Then Chris suggested I go with a meta-comic, about my performance of the comic.  So I did that, inserting some pages around the failed attempts to illustrate that I had the ideas and then gave up on them.  And I’ve since been drawing things that happen to me during this performance, such as my battle with the Coke machine downstairs.

I’m currently situated on top of a big slab-o-granite platform at the end of the hallway on the second floor, near the back entrance to the Sound Stage.  Sitting here, either cramped up with crossed legs or slightly stretched out, has made me very sore.  Sitting on a giant rock will do that.  But I borrowed a cot from my friend Susan, which I now have set up, and which is much more comfortable than a rock.  (Though I think the damage is done on my poor bum.) I’ve been consistently ahead of schedule since going with the metacomic, and I plan to save some pages for when the afternoon wears on and the show starts.

I’m writing this entry on my brand-new MSI Wind netbook, which I bought for myself with graduation gift money.  I literally picked it up from UPS yesterday morning before setup, so I’ve had this whole time to play with it, and I really really like it.  The wireless is wonderful, and the screen is an acceptable resolution for a laptop this size.  It has a webcam built-in, so I’m also streaming this adventure live on Ustream.  (Embedded below.)  Many people have been amazed at such a little laptop.  I’m glad i made the decision to go with a mini than a regular sized machine.

Not much to report, other than that.  It was very quiet between the hours of midnight and 8 or so, and now students are trickling in and out.  I’m sure it’ll pick up here very soon, since there are always lots of 11:30 classes.  Stay tuned as the day wears on.

Streaming Video by Ustream.TV

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I’ll be doing a live video stream with Ustream, so either visit my channel, or keep an eye here to check out what I’m doing!

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My third 24 Hour Comic is finished! This time, I tried to tackled the webcomic variation of the 24HC, which is mentioned on Scott’s website as 100 panels in 24 hours, since many webcomics don’t follow traditional full-page format or sizes. I didn’t achieve this, but got 24 total strips out of it, and my panel count was 61, so I at least got over halfway there!

Each strip illustrates a “life lesson” or thought I’ve had, many of the humorous, and at the end I decided to title it “Alex’s Guide to a Life Well Lived”.  Each comic was drawn directly in Sharpie and colored with Photoshop.  I learned that if I ever wanted to do a side comic, this would be a good style to use.  I really like the look of the marker drawings colored, and these comics remind me a great deal of my Jigworthy days.  Some of these comics are actually based on scripts I had tucked away in case we did ever start doing Jigworthy again!

I quite enjoyed doing this comic, and especially liked that I didn’t go with a plot so much as a premise.  My first two 24HCs had plots, and it was frustrating near the end of both of them when I had already drawn everything I had in mind for the stories, but I still needed to pad parts of it with pages to reach the 24 page goal.  That wasn’t an issue at all with this comic;  the worst was when I was up to 22 strips, and was trying to think of more ideas for the last two, but it’s an entirely different kind of frustration.

I finished this comic with only five minutes left, so I was literally working up right up to the buzzer with this one.

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The real story is that yesterday, I stayed late at work without realizing that Classroom Services closes at 5 on Fridays, so it was 5:05 when I was leaving the library and realized I had no camera for today.

Well, I thought to mysef, It’s payday and I’d been planning on getting a webcam eventually…  So I made a trip out to Microcenter and found the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000.  It was on sale for $74.99, instead of $99.99, so I took the chance, and it’s turned out to be a pretty decent webcam.  It’s quite easy to use, and can post videos directly to YouTube.

Anyways.  I tried sleeping before I started at midnight, but as my luck would have it, didn’t get sleepy until the last 90-ish minutes of my nap.  So I’ve been dragging a bit, especially up until the sun came up.  I’m feeling fine now since my internal clock has been successfully tricked into thinking it should be awake.

I decided to do the webcomic variation of the 24HC, which is only given a quick mention on Scott McCloud’s website, but the goal is 100 panels in 24 hours, instead of 24 pages, since most webcomics don’t follow the traditional full-page format.  Because of this, I’m going with more of a premise than an actual plot, and coming up with random “life lessons” to make into comic strips, like so:

My drawing materials for this comic are Sharpie markers.  And that’s it.  I have mad skillz with my Sharpies, so I’m just drawing these directly in marker without much planning other than the picture in my head.  I love this method of drawing because it’s fast and intensely permanent.  Whatever marks I make, I have to work with.  Luckily I haven’t made any major mistakes.

I’m also coloring this comic in Photoshop, since it really doesn’t take long with my new technique.  This is also an oppurtunity to practice the new style on a comic that isn’t as involved as Garanos, so hopefully when this is all done, I’ll be quite proficient.

At some point, I decided to amend my goal to 24 pages, and then work up to 100 panels once I hit the page count.  Since I’m so sleep-deprived, I want to have a reachable goal before I go for the proverbial gold. Back to work! Enjoy a video:

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I ended up doing a sequel to The Shepherd!  I’d never really intended to do one, since The Shepherd is a pretty standalone story, but since the goddess of Summer was the only goddess I didn’t portray in the original, I thought it would be fun to make a story just about her.

Summer’s Year adds to the concept that The Shepherd is the actual mythology of a fictional world.  When I thought about it, I imagined that the mother and little girl (who are in the frame story of the original) live in a subarctic environment that has very long winters and short summers.  The Shepherd explains, in that world’s mythology, that the winters are long because of the Shepherd’s love for the Winter goddess, and Summer’s Year answers the counterpart question of why the summers are pleasant, but short.  The Summer goddess is childlike and exuberant, and therefore runs out of energy quickly and cannot make the summer last very long.

I did Summer’s Year all in colored pencil, which took me back to the days when I used to color almost exclusively with colored pencils and markers, before I got into computer coloring.  I inked the comic a lot more than I thought I would, considering how much pain I was in after Pariah, possibly due to the fact that graphite and yellow colored pencil does not mix very nicely.

I took a nap on Friday evening to prepare for the marathon.  Around 4 to 6 AM, I was starting to regret that I hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep, since I was dragging quite a bit at that point, but once the sun came up I started feeling pretty normal.  Now that’s it over, I’m definitely glad I chose to do it midnight-to-midnight, since having the daylight for a good part of the marathon helped me deceive my internal clock.

There were several points where I was scared I wouldn’t make it in time, but I actually managed to finish the comic completely and got it online at 11 PM, a whole hour early.  I did all the dialogue and word bubbles in Photoshop this time around, which definitely helped speed up the process.  (And saved my hands from some wear and tear.  I’m quite heavyhanded when I write.)  Unfortunately, I need to fiddle with my scanner’s settings because the first scans I got (the ones online now) are not very good quality.  It’s picking up oranges and reds very badly.  So keep that in mind when reading; the originals look MUCH better.

Summer’s Year

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