My 24 Hour Comic

I decided this year to give the 24-Hour Comic thing a try. For those of you blissfully unaware of the concept, it is when a creator such as myself writes and draws a complete 22 (or 24) page comic from initial conception to completed product in one 24 hour period. That doesn't sound like a hard thing to do on it's face until one understands that I take just over 2.5 hours now to just draw a page, and I work WAY faster than the average guy. This includes the many stages I go through from thumbnailing the page, doing a larger breakdown to play with the panel layouts and the pencil/lettering/inking that makes up the finished page of art. Almost 3 hours a page, and you have to do 22 of them in 24 hours. It is the comic creator's marathon.
I decided to 'document' the creation of this comic via my facebook page using the status update feature. It wound up being a look into the tedium and creation process so I decided to post the updates in their entirety here.
The comic can be seen here:
http://powcomics.com/comic/87/kevin039s-ghost-a-24-hour-comic
and here until Oct 26th (when it closes down)
http://www.geocities.com/rorshach_85/freecomics/index.html (click on the 24 hour comic link.)


Dallas is surprisingly bare on the 24 hour comic venues. I guess I'll have to do my own. It just seems like a rip off, robbing me of a prime networking and farting around with like-minded folk opportunity. Sometimes this city is TEH SUCK.
October 3 at 11:14am

OK...Doing my own take on the 24 hour comic. It'll be 22 pages, 4 stories, all intertwined. (When possible) Aiming for a Halloween feel, but not 100% sure yet. The writing commences at 2pm.
October 3 at 1:46pm ·

Started officially at 2:45pm. 3 pages completed so far. Story I started with has modified a bit, but it's still a ghost story.
October 3 at 4:38pm

At the 6:30 mark, 6 pages down. I'm averaging 30 min per page...from start to finish. This is by far the fastest (AND crudest) I have worked....ever! But the story is a good one.
October 3 at 6:27pm

Taking 5 to watch the Stars game. I guess I can spend the next few hours writing and doing thumbs.
October 3 at 7:10pm
(Note - Fucking Stars.....grumble grumble)

Done through page 9, all the pages are plotted and most are thumbed in my head. Not getting too far ahead of myself, but I like where this story is headed. Not gona post anything till I'm done. The shitty cell pic I took at the page 6 stage still hasn't appeared on the interwebs.
October 3 at 10:55pm

Up to 11 now. The big halfway point, and it's been just at 10 hours. Starting to get sleepy now and sluggish. This is a marathon tho, baby....and I'm in it to win it!
Sun at 12:37am

Page 15 is in the bag. Only 7 more pages to go. They are all thumbed out. As fatigue seeps in, I have to decide to pencil all and ink last or keep the pencil/letter/ink conveyor belt running. Got to admit though, the lack of clear focus is adversly affecting the art. This is good for a challenge, but ABSOLUTELY unacceptable for professional work.
Sun at 4:28am

Hitting the last 5 pages now! I can see the finish line!
Sun at 5:23am

Page 20! I see the yellow tape!!!!
Sun at 6:42am

Aside from the sleep deprivation, I would have to say the biggest challenge so far has been in the actual writing of the piece. The sheer speed necessary to draw the pages makes it a one-off deal with the dialogue. Editing has to be done on the fly... and the story will change. You just have to keep your ear open to hear where it's taking you and be prepared to take that drastic left turn when it presents itself.
Sun at 6:42am

Done. Now I'm goin to bed. I'll post it when I get up for the Cowboy's Game.
Sun at 7:36am

The 24 Hour Comic is done, posted and ready for you all to laugh your asses off at (even tho it's not a comedy piece) It's crude, even by MY standards, but I got it done well within the 24 hour mark, so WOO HOO!
Sun at 2:06pm