24 Hour Comic Success!!!

Thank you. Thank you. PAX.

For those of you who do not know, PAX is an annual convention of video games and board games. My roommate went to this year's PAX and I finally got my 72+ hours.

On April 5, 2012 at 8:30pm I started my first foray into the "24 Hour Comic medium." (for more info on 24 Hour Comic) I had 24 Bainbridge boards, pencils, photo pencils, a variety of sized ink pens, a T square ruler, a ruler, a protractor, well, you get the point.

I deliberately did not read anyone's 24 Hour Comic, so that I would not be influenced by their approach. I stumbled through the process with only McCloud's guidelines. And ultimately I learned much about myself in the process.

For instance I am a very preachy person. Since I rejected my natural instinct to begin constructing a story until 8:30pm, the story I wrote reflected that which goes through my mind. I constructed and illustrated my angst and frustration, which as it turns out required me to lecture the reader about "life and the injustices therein." I'm not actually super happy about that. While I believe in a healthy discourse of ideas, I frown on forced belief structures. I found, by the end of it, I had constructed events to place my protagonist as the hero, even though the events were meant to be gray areas.

After 24 hours of penciling and inking, my hand was killing me. The last few hours were torture. Which makes me wonder a number of things: Will I get carpal tunnel syndrome? Do I need to be exercising my hand and fingers more? Do I have an intensely bad habit of placing too much pressure on my hand while drawing/writing? While it is probable that most artists feel the same physical pressure from a 24 Hour Comic...I've never spoken to any artist about such experiences.

When completed, I did read Scott McCloud's first 24 Hour Comic (available to read on his website here). While his had significantly better art (no surprise there...I mean, he has been doing this longer than me, significantly), his story seemed to lack a deeper meaning (than say my didactic story). This makes me wonder if next time I should focus more on creating the art from the beginning and worry less about the story or story structure. Hhhmmm...haven't decided on that one.

My 24 Hour Comic, entitled "Bad Day At the Office," can be found here. If you wish to read this or other comics by me: www.eyeofinfinity.com