Comics, Portland Style

Yet another comics event this weekend is the Comic Art Battle that Ezra Claytan Daniels has organized for this Sunday at Reading Frenzy starting at 7pm. This is how Ezra has decided to kick-off his Cross Country book tour for Spring 2004.

Ezra also happens to be the main designer for the Stumptown Comics Fest�now with website! (Nate Beatty designed and set-up the front page based on Ezra’s work)

As I’ve mentioned previously, the 1st annual Stumptown Comics Fest will take place on June 6th at the Old Church starting at 12pm. So far our special guests are Christopher Baldwin (Bruno), Jason Lutes (Jar of Fools, Berlin) Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man). Not a shabby start and there’s more to come�stay tuned.

Comics A Go-Go

24 Hour Comics Day coming up on April 24th, this Saturday! You knew that, right? You know what a 24 Hour Comic is, don’t you?

Many cartoonists are joining the fray, including a few of the Girlamatic artists–editor Lea Hernandez has set up a LiveJournal for the sole purpose of documenting the progress of any and all Girlamatic artists participating in this event.

Which won’t include me. Why? Cause I’ve done a 24 Hour Comic and once is enough. Pity I had to do three of the damn things before actually completing one within 24 hours.

But even more exciting for me is the 24 Hour Comic anthology that just came out, because it includes a story from Paul Winkler, who was part of that Old Comics Making gang of mine. Yay Paul!

I took part in two 24 Hour Comic jams with Paul, which I talk about a bit in a post here. And actually, Paul is going to be doing his fifth 24 Hour Comic this Saturday at Jim Hanley’s Universe, I believe.

Actualy, Paul was kind enough to post some advise to in order to successfully complete a 24 Hour Comic to the Zwol forums:

I figured that since I’ve done four 24-hour comics over the years, and got 2 of them done in under 24 hours (and went way over with the other two), I might give a few words of curmudgeonly advice to the first-timers:

Try a simpler style than you’re used to.
Being cartoony is not only fun, it can be a lot faster. Take liberties.

Beware of heavy dialogue.
Lettering is slow, especially if your lettering is as bad as mine. On the other hand, lettering may be faster than drawing something complicated. Do one or the other, rarely both.

Shading is for people who have time.
Gray is for wimps!

Do you really need that background?
Get in the habit of thinking about it again for every panel.

Use really fast tools.
No muss, no fuss. Inflexible markers are good. Brush markers are tricky when you’re exhausted, and they dry slow. Real ink is for people who have time. Big fat markers are your friend. They prevent you from getting finicky.

Is the drawing vaguely legible? Great! Move on!
You can come back to it later. If there is no later - oh well, good thing you stopped when you did.

Go twice as fast as you think is necessary.
You might think, “I do an average of 6 panels a page. I need to do a page an hour. Therefore I have 10 minutes per panel.” Nope! Something will slow you down. In fact, many somethings will slow you down. You can’t predict or prevent them all. If you are just barely keeping up with where you need to be, you will suddenly find yourself way behind and it will only get worse. I did that on two of my 24-hour comics. They both went way overtime. It hurts your morale too, makes it harder to get all the way to the end.
The solution is to get ahead and stay ahead. Think you need 10 minutes a panel? Make it five.

Let things happen.
You may find that in your rush, and your increasingly tired state, you start drawing differently, or thinking differently, or seeing differently. Don’t fight it. Be willing to go places you’ve never been, and don’t try to force the direction! You’re not making a magnum opus, you’re participating in an experimental artistic process. Something interesting will come, and it will probably not be much like what you envisioned when you started.

All good advice.

For the curious, here’s a link to the first 24 hour comic, Scott McCloud’s A Day’s Work.

And, what the heck, a couple more: Kip’s second 24 Hour Comics, The Star, and one done by Barry Deutsch, Filling the Hole.

And speaking of Barry we’ll be joining me on Girlamatic with his new narrative series, Hereville come May 6th! As he is another of the Old Gang, imagine my delight at that!

Happy Day of Fish

Okay, there’s something cool about having a hip burleque marching band - March Forth - accompanied by performers on stilts and saucy baton twirling goths invade your workplace’s lobby at the end on the day.

Their music vibrated the floor on the third story. My feet approved.