2009
$3.00 us
This comic was created from October 3, 2009 at 11am to October 4, 2009 at 11am as part of 24 Hour Comic Book Day. The event was sponsored by the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco and Comic Outpost/Mission: Comics. This book was created at Comic Outpost. A big thanks goes out to CCSF organizer Doc Popular and the staff of Comic Outpost (Ron, Gary, Russel and everyone else). I hope you enjoy my story.
Find out more about the event on my blog at: www.atomicbearpress.com Find out about the Cartoonist Conspiracy at: www.cartoonistconspiracy.com Our host was Comic Outpost: www.comicoutpost.net
In the back I have written up a list of the things that worked and did not work when I did the 24 Hour Comic Book Day Challenge.
all rights reserved Š2009 Brian Kolm - find out more at atomicbearpress.com
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Concept Art and Notes (left) Custom templates were printed in non-photo blue ahead of time and were marked with the basic units most comics use. The art ratio is designed for a mini comic when published.
MINI COMIC TEMPLATE
(right) By duplicating the same panel, subtile changes could be shown and time (hopefully) would be saved in the 24hcbd challenge.
(below) A printed perspective grid with a hold in the middle helped to quickly create this background.
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What did and didn’t work for me on 24HCBD - Most of our group seemed to plan a bit in advance with at least one artist that had an actual script. All of us still had lots of hurdles on how to make a story work, so it was still a challenge. - Use pre-printed templates to format your work. - I think penciling the pages with rough mannequins/figures in the first 1/3 of the event worked well since when the time gets later/ earlier and crazier you have something to fall back on. - Using the method of coping a panel multiple times works, but with a bit more planning and not waiting to fix them till the end. - Using the stickey-notes for word balloons mostly worked well, especially if the outlines were thick and trimmed to that edge tightly. Otherwise they leave a faint shadow on the final scans. - I had black paper with white pens to use like I did last year, but I did not use it. - Don’t spend a lot of time with lots of reference. I spent lots of time putting images on my ipod touch and found I used very little of them in the end. - A small super possible action figure does help with the drawings as does a live internet feed. - It’s OK to pick a genré ahead of time and have some reference for that, but it’s better to practice a bit ahead of time (aka take notes) instead. - Avoid doing more then 24 pages if you can, unless you have lots of tricks up your sleeve to finish. - Try to take breaks and get some fresh air, especially if you are using stinky sharpies. - Bring some extra supplies in case you fellow artist have an emergency. It’s just a nice thing to do. - Bring a personal light to make sure you don’t have eye strain. - Eat some healthy snacks and take your vitamins. - In much the same way it’s good to pencil the ending as soon as you can, the same could go for inking too. My last pages are my weakest since I felt quite rushed and anxious at the end of the event. - Figure out how you will create the pages ahead of time and don’t pack anything you really won’t need. A few extras are fine, but you want to be clear headed when you work and avoid the added clutter. - Do a few warm up sketches of the characters so can quickly get a handle on how to draw them. - Have fun.
Š2009 Brian Kolm
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