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Well, another 24 Hour Comic Book Day has come and gone. It was only yesterday that I arrived at Mission: Comics and Art to set up and now the final results are here on-line.

CLICK HERE to see photos from the event.

The challenge for 24 Hour Comic Book Day is to completely draw a 24 page comic in 24 hour. The comic can be in any style, size, or media. The challenge is a personal one with you competing against yourself to push your boundary, learn and grow. The challenge lets you see what you are capable of doing in a limited amount of time. The only rule is that you are to create (write, draw, plan) the comic during the event. The challenge is great since even if you don’t finish you still win by learning a lot about how you create.

This year, my meta-challenge was to do a holiday themed comic, possible based on the classic story of the Nutcracker. Besides reading a synopsis of the original story, I did nothing to influence the creation of the comic. I also new that I wanted to add some sci-fi/fantasy elements that were not in the original story. When the even started I started by doing some quick character drawings of Clara, the Nut Cracker, Uncle Drosselmeyer and the Rat King. To start with this was all ready getting to grand, but I still moved forward, excited for the challenge. I started penciling the pages with a light blue Color-Erase pencil on my templates (24HCBD_2010_template ) figuring out the Beginning and Ending. I quickly began to fill in the gaps, but with the story not working too well and the scale being bigger then 24 page it swelled to 30 pages. I knew that I wanted to start inking the story by 1/3 into the event and at that time I still had story gaps, but decided to ink/render the parts I knew were keepers hoping that inspiration and a better idea of how much time left would be my inspiration.

I started with a pass of inking the panel boarders and then cam back and tackled select panels that would help me get a fell of what the comic might be. Soon I was inking full pages with some relief after another one was completed. I also made an effort to jump around to render pages at the end of the comic too so the last thing someone sees would not be my worst work. The process worked and soon blank pages and holes were being filled. By sometime after midnight I knew that the comic would lack dialog since I had given myself so much art to do, but that is OK since I felt that the work would still be well worth the while. I was sure glad to have things pre-penciled since there is nothing like trying to figure out story when you are lacking sleep.

The final comic is far from perfect, but there are places where I really felt I was in ‘the Zone’ and that I was getting a lot of the process. At the bottom of this post are a few Do’s and Don’t that I got from the experience.

HERE IT IS! READ MY COMIC ON-LINE

(Click on the image below to read the comic, or follow this LINK) Feel free to comment below or on Facebook/Twitter and let me know what you think.

NEW Thought and Do’s and Don’ts for 2010:

- K.I.S.S
- Have and beginning and ending early on.
- Penciling first gives you structure to fall back on when you are tired. Keep it simple, but make sure you can understand what your trying to show/say
- I found that I did not use all the reference I loaded up on my iPod and with the stores Wi-Fi to find specific things it was not needed. I could see having 1 page of reference as part of Meta-Challenge though.
- Limit your art supplies. In the end I only used a Light Blue Color-Erase pencil, White-Out pen, Pentel Brush pen, PITT brush pen, small tip brush pen, a Sharpie Pen and that was it. I also had some black ink and brushes to do some washes if there was more time. I would not bring every tool you have, but have back-ups for when the ink runs out.
- Set a Meta-Challenge to help you get started and focused. This year there was: a Holiday story, a comic based on O Henry, a comic drawn with mostly Bic pens, and a 3D comic with photo material taken before hand. As long as the comic is written and drawn during the event, your OK.
- Bring a cushion to sit on cause folding chairs hurt your butt after 24 hours.
- Take breaks, stretch, eat, and drink water too.
- Go in with a positive attitude that you will get something out of the experience and don’t give-up.
- Have fun.

Continue reading »]]> Here is a repeat, some good random idea generators that might be a help for a project, like 24 Hour Comic Book Day. Great for practice exercises.

Lee’s Useless Random Superhero Generator: http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/herogen/
Log-Line generator: http://www.lifeformz.com/cgi-bin/idea/idea.fcgi
Seventh Sanctum: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/
(Anime/Manga, Character,Humor, Names, Superheroes/Sentai, Writing, etc.)
50 Random Superhero Names: http://www.hoboes.com/RPG/BrandX/Gallery/names/
Random Writing Prompts: http://www.gkbledsoe.com/articles/process/writing_prompt_generator.html
Ultimate Random Generator: http://translunarwagontrain.com/

Continue reading »]]> Finally, here is my 24 Hour Comic Book Day comic from last year, 2009. The story of a sidekick, misunderstandings, and a beautiful goddess. It was almost done in the 24 hours and I am really proud at how good it turned out considering the challenge. I did end up adding a bit of art after-the-fact, but I did also miss about 3 hours of the event last year to teach the drop in class at the Cartoon Art Museum as well as doing too many pages (32), so I don’t feel so bad about it.

There are notes in the back of the book on what worked and what didn’t. You can also read my recent posts for this years 24HCBD HERE.

click to image to read the comic at ISSUE.com

Don’t forget I will drawing a 24 hour comic this Saturday 11am to Sunday 11 am at Mission: Comics and Art in San Francisco this weekend.

Continue reading »]]> NOTE: The event has now come and gone, view this post to see if my thoughts below match the reality. LINK

EDITED 9-27-10

On October 2-3 is 24 Hour Comic Book Day 2010. This will be my fourth year participating. You can see of my previous posts on the subject  HERE. I will be drawing, unless something changes, at Mission: Comics and Art in San Francisco.

The challenge is to create a 24 Page Comic Book in 24 hours. The event pushes you to simplify, to manage your time, and to take risks that a working professional needs to work on. It’s also a chance to draw genre and styles that maybe you normally would not. All in all the experience in previous years has been pretty great for me, with each year being better then the last.

Since I have blogged before about the event, I thought this post would mostly be just my thoughts on getting ready and what to DO or DON’T. This is solely based on my own experiences and ideas and should by taken at face value. Also, I have done it a few times so my goals and expectations might be different then the person doing it for the first time.

DO plan on the materials you will be using ahead of time. The event is a week from tomorrow (October 2-3) so get cracking.

DO draw actual size, DON’T draw big since it will take longer to do.

- DO not create stories that take you coloring the whole panels black with sharpies. Lots of work, lots of smell.

- DO draw on black or gray paper, it looks cool. Example HERE.

DO make a template, either a stencil to trace around or print out ones in light blue from your printer. I made my own in Adobe InDesign and is available for download at the bottom of this post.

Here is a sample of the template I used the last two years and will use again this year. A PDF of the template is linked at the bottom of this post. I have marks for standard panels all ready marked and it makes it easy to do.

DO print extra templates so you are ready to make mistakes.

DO test out your tools ahead of time so there are no surprises. Below is a sample I did to try out different pens using my template design.

DO spend at least the first 5-10 min doing an outline of a simple storyline and doodle a design or two of the characters. I have tried to do full page thumbnails on previous years and it did not work for me beyond getting a place to start.

-DO keep the number of cast members to a minimum.

DO design the characters with clear shapes that can be distinctive and quick. Blocking out the book before your inks are easier with distinctive shaped characters.

DO plan a bit, so you know how the story starts and more importantly how the story ends. My first 24 Hour Comic had “to be continued” and that was not very satisfying. Better to create a comic with a complete story.

I did a test comic for the event at the Cartoonist Conspiracy comic jam last night, 2 pages in 2 hours. Here were my 5 min character sketches. Notice the distinctive shapes of each character.

DO spend at least the first hour or so to block out the pages in a nice light blue pencil. These are not detailed pencils, unless you need to make sure some detail is extra clear. Make sure to get at least the start and finish down clearly, even if you don’t get the middle right away. Moving fast is like the story playing in ‘real time’.

- IDEA for your comic: A homage to a favorite person or artist, illustrate lyrics to a random song on your iPod, an experience from your childhood, etc.

DO plan to use a couple of 2 page spreads. That is exciting and 2 pages for the ‘price’ of one.

DO at least take a mental note what pages will take more work then the others. It’s OK to work out of order, especially getting the first and last pages looking good before lack of sleep clouds your work.

DO the comic in passes with the most important elements first like inking the characters. I do the backgrounds usually last unless they are key to the story.

DO use ink washes in the last steps to add some more interest to the backgrounds. It’s fast and quick and can lots of impressionistic detail.

DO bring a nice medium brush to add in some shading.

DO remember that sharpies smell bad and will most likely make you and the people around you feel ill after 24 hours of using them.

DON’T forget a white-out pen.

- DO use silhouettes and other tricks to make the strip more dramatic.

- DO use 22 Panels that Work by Wally Wood for inspiration. Download it HERE.

Here are two pages  from the other nights jam, using the template all inked up.

DO bring an iPod with music to work too and to block out distractions. Remember part of working together will be some chatting and noise, otherwise we would work on our own.

DO load your iPod with images that you can shuffle and view randomly vs. bringing reference books.

DO ask for advice from your cohorts if you need too. Once again, it’s part of working together.

DO set a secondary goal, especially if this is not your first time. It might be something simple like “I want to draw all sexy babes” or it might be “I want to do something better this year then last year”.

DON’T plan in advance the story or characters, but DO have an idea of a Genre or Theme to make coming up with a story easier. If you all ready know that your drawing cowboys then it’s easier to come up with a story.

DO use random on-line generators: LOG LINE, RANDOM SUPERHERO NAMES, LOTS OF THEM at SEVENTH SANCTUM.

Samples: “A trio of racketeers thinks about starting a business in the jungle.” and “Father Ebony Ghost (aka) Frank Kelley” and “Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra) with space stations” and “Chaos Children Of The Heavenly Murderer” and “This brave goddess of blacksmiths takes the form of an adult woman with the traits of a bee. She has an athletic build. Her outfit is that of a sorcerer, and it is mostly blue in color. She carries a cutlass. She can turn into metal.” See good stuff.

DO use cut out sticky notes for word balloons if your spelling and grammar are not so hot. I did this last year and it worked really well.

DO K.I.S.S

DON’T worry about it being perfect, no time for that.

DO post your final work on-line.

DO print it as a mini comic and get feedback and Comic Jams and Conventions.

Here is a one page I drew in about 20 min, first with blocked out shapes of the alien skull robot (notice the clear design) and then inking it with a Sharpe Pen.

DO have fun

and…DON’T GIVE UP!

Here are links to my previous attempts:

In 2005 I created ‘The Synthetic Owl” – read on-line

In 2008 I created “Team Sonic X” – read on-line

In 2009 I created “Love and Resurrection” – not on-line yet. Soon I hope.

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE for a MINI COMIC HERE (PDF 1.6MB)

Continue reading »]]> As I bring my website back to life I will be re-posting some older work from the early days of blogging. Today is one of my favorite ones.

In October 2005 I did my first 24 Hour Comic Book Day challenge. That is to create a 24 page comic in 24 hours. I have since done it twice more with each one getting better and better (2008, 2009) and I would recommended all artist do the challenge at least once in their career.

The challenge was a great experience for me, not only because I could see what I was capable of doing, but also I met Doc Pop, Mike and Meredith and soon joined them as part of the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco. The challenge allowed me to expand my world as an artist and to make some new friends, leading to more friends and artistic challenges.

I am not going to go into a lot of details about the process of 24 Hour Comic Book Day since I have done that with the other times I have taken the challenge. (note: 2009 is offline due to hacking and I am hoping to recreate it somehow.)

I will say I am happy to see how things have changed over time: my art style, my skill at telling a complete story, and lots of other important stuff.

So, let’s get reading. Click on the images to see them bigger on Flickr.

The second have, part 2 will appear in the next day or two. If you can’t wait, visit the Flickr set to see them all.

Continue reading »]]> I will be participating in 24 Hour Comic Book Day this year from October 3rd at 11am to October 4th at 11am at Comic Outpost in San Francisco, CA.

What is 24HCBD?

The 24 hour comic challenge is for a cartoonist to completely create a 24 page comics story in 24 straight hours. A “24 hour comic” is any comics story you make while facing the challenge, even if you take more than 24 consecutively-awake hours to make the comic or if you end after 24 hours with a story that’s shorter than 24 pages. For more details on the challenge, click here.

My first time I participated was in 2005 where I met members of the San Francisco cell of Cartoonist Conspiracy and soon joined their ranks. That comic is The Synthetic Owl which you can read HERE.

The second time was last year (2008) at Comic Outpost, which was really fantastic and I made some new friends. See Photos HERE and read the final comic TEAM SONIC X HERE.

So now we have less then a month till the 2009 challenge and I am eager to try it again (while I can stay awake that long) and I plan to use the event as an excuse to bone up on my skills which I will post samples of on-line.

Stay tooned to see what happens.

Continue reading »]]> Here it is everyone, the last page of my 24 Hour Comic Book Day comic. Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed my comic.

BONUS! Next Thursday January 29th see concept art from the comic!

Can’t wait to see how the story ends, you can purchases a copy of Brian Kolm’s Team Sonic X on Etsy:

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Next update is Dec 16, 2008

Can’t wait to see how the story ends, you can purchases a copy of Brian Kolm’s Team Sonic X on Etsy:

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