24 Hour Comic Day

www.24hourcomics.com

... So 24-hour comic day is over and for the second year in a row, I'm a bad comic-geek. Not so much for not participating, but for forgetting. Now admittedly, I have not purchased a new comic in ages and so cannot be expected to be completely current on the comings and goings of full-fledged geek-dom; however, I do trumpet the cause and should have made it a point to know. To the comic-gods: please forgive this transgression!

If you don't know what this "24-Hour Comic Book Day" is, here's the skinny: a number of years ago two comic book creator friends were chatting and one, an artist, was trying to defend his seeming inability to get his pages in under deadline. The other guy (this, by the way is strictly from memory; if you want the whole story including names and titles, click on the link above) then challenges the first and bets him that he can finish a complete comic book, start to finish, words, pictures, ink, soup to nuts in twenty four hours flat. The first guy accepts and the two of them sit down to create.

Now to put this in perspective, keep in mind, a regular issue of a monthly comic is gnerally no more than 30 pages. If you're talking about a run of the mill standard format comic from one of the major producers, that page count can be cut down to 22 pages of actual content given that most comics contain advertisements. Now in the comics world, most creators work assembly-line style. each person does something different in the process: i.e. one guy writes (think of this as scripting-this guy or gal gives direction on everything else), one pencils (or does the actual drawing), one inks over the pencils, one handles the colors, one does all the lettering, and so on. Keeping all this in mind, the average comic book progresses at a rate of about one finished page per day.

Try the again: one finished page per day.

Now try to think about doing a complete comic book, start to finish in one day. 24 hours.

I'm not sure who finished and who didn't in that first challenge, but the story passed around the industry (probably pretty quickly since the world of commercial comics is pretty insular) and people picked up on the idea. Two years ago, comics fans, distributors, advocates, companies and creators came up with the first, organized, world-wide 24-Hour Comics Day. The rules were as follows: In the span of 24 consecutive hours, you had to submit a complete 24-page comic book. You were not allowed to bring preconceived story ideas or designs, pre-drawn pages, pre-written scripts, etc. Materials, page size, definition of "finished", subject matter were all up to the creator.

I participated in this, thinking that, "hey I can figure out how to make this easy." Yeah right. I was not prepared, to say the least. My writing skills were rusty to say the least, my artistic skills, such as they were, were not up to snuff and I was sitting alongside independent and commercial creators and art-school students and ametuers that had been doing this, been published and been recognized. These people were serious.

I steeled myself, sat down, closed my eyes and envisioned a falling elevator. "Good enough," I thought. I grabbed onto that and ran. The twenty four subsequent hours were a gruelling trial of sleep deprivation, cramped quarters in a small comic book shop, dwindling supplies, arthritic-like hands and back aches,bad music, worse pizza, incessant in-jokes amongst those who knew each other, chain smoking, self-doubt, self destuctive impulses and desperation. Thow into that mix cameraderie, admiration, support, improvisation, frequent visits from my girlfriend (now wife), bursts of intense creativity and pure, unadulterated stubborness.

Of 30 people who started at Casablanca Comics in Portland, ME, I was one of nine that finished. One of maybe a hundred that finished in the world. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't flashy, it probably wasn't even that good...but it was done.

I told a reporter for the Phoenix that I would be able to call myself a comic creator after having finished. In a way I can. But I've realized over the intervening two years that you can't identify yourself as somthing if you don't do it. One completed comic book, does not make me a creator; it makes me a fan and a dilletante. And that's part of the motivation behind this project...

This year, I'm told, Portland had 40 entrants, more than any site in the country, possibly the world. The event was so big, that they couldn't hold it at the shop but instead enlisted the aid of Maine College of Art (MECA) and ran it from 10:00am Saturday, October 7 to 10:00am Sunday, October 8. I don't know how many finished, but I do know that there will be a lot of sore hands today. If you get the chance, check out the website, swing by your local comics store and ask about it, support your local artists. In Portland, if you check out Casablance Comics on Middle Street, they've dedicated an entire shelf to local creators of all abilities. The folks who do these comics do them out of love of the industry, dedication and its some of the best work out there. And if they make it big, you can say "i was reading this guy or gal before they blew up!" And impress all your friends...

Till next time, true believers....