24 Hour Comic Day — 24 hours later (Also 5 years later), a reflection

Making a 24-hour comic is not easy.

After 5 years doing them, I can tell you, it is definitely not easy at all.

So, here is some stuff about these comics:

  • 2008 – NONSENSE: This one’s entirely in Spanish. I came to the 24 Hour Comics official location provided by the 656 comics guys. That year was lots of fun, I finished 3+ hours before the deadline and I worked with full unstructured creativity. I only had the two main characters, and I threw them around until stuff happened. That’s why it makes no sense whatsoever, hence the title. I swear I’m never doing this kind of thing again.
  • 2009 – Carrington Institute Science Club: Again the 656 guys organized the event and it was a blast. This year I had like a bajillion ideas running in my head, so I took the one that seemed to have more potential and run with it. Considering that it was also entirely improvised, I think this one is far more solid than 2008’s. All these characters have backstories, and are located in the same “universe” as 2008’s, which means that they could all cross paths. The difference is that 2008’s comic takes place in a more “surreal” place than 2009’s, hence why it gets all loopy. I still want to bring some of these characters back, particularly because I’ve been playing around with some interesting ideas.
  • 2010 – Untitled (Also known as “More Nonsense”): Hey look it’s those guys again! This year the 656 guys provided an even more exotic work place, and I did a more exotic version of the challenge: 100 panels in a Flash file! Great idea, ain’t it? WELL, NO, IT IS NOT. As it turns out, this event is one of the things that eventually led me to leave Flash behind and do comic pages the usual style. It’s not that Flash is bad, mind you, it’s just that it’s not good, either. Doing this comic was WAY too much work for something that was supposed to be “simpler” in some fashion. My inspirations for “the game” mentioned at the end? Mornington Crescent, and The Oldest Game. By that time I was already getting weird from the lack of sleep, so it came to me naturally. Like in 2008, there was no planning involved, but the end result was so nonsensical I found it to be too bland for what I wanted to do.
  • 2011 – SNOW: The usual gang of local 24 hour comic makers was MIA, so I decided to do it on my own. On the day of my nephew’s birthday party. I took this as a challenge: Can I attend the party and finish a 24 page comic in 24 hours? The answer is NO. I finished in 27 hours. Luckily, there was no crazy improv in this one: I had a vague idea of who these guys were, and what their motivations were. Here’s some trivia: Yes, the weird girl actually liked the guy enough to have sex with him. No, they did not actually have sex, but they spent a lot of time doing other things (Not pictured).
  • 2012 – Untitled (Also known as “The Boy who Fell in Love with a Girl who was Born a Boy but is Not One Anymore”): After all the “dark” stuff in last year’s, this time I went for something serious but lighthearted. Yes, like in SNOW, I came to this day with the basics of the idea: A guy and a girl in love, but the girl was not a natural born girl and at first things it’s gonna be an impediment so she gets all fuzzy about it until the boy reassures her that he doesn’t actually care. That was almost all I had before started the challenge, an idea in my head. But, wait, why did I say “almost”? Because, as it turns out, I also had some ideas about the girl’s guardian, her uncle, and who and why he came to look after her. It was my backup plan: If these guys couldn’t fill 24 pages, I would dedicate a couple to how and why the Uncle is so dedicated to his job and why he rejects his family’s business. The chance is gone, Michelle and Roman filled up those 24 pages rather nicely (More lightheartedly than expected, to boot), and now we’re done.

That’s the whole story so far.

Feel free to ask questions, they may jostle my memory and unearth something amazing about these comics.

Now, GO!

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