many of you wanted more information on this 24 hour comic book thing. ok. the idea is to make a 24 page comic book in 24 consecutive hours. the idea “24 hour comic book” was invented as a challenge by comics pontif scott mccloud, to act as a constrained set of rules for making a comic book. for more on constraints in art, see wiki entries on constrained writing and oulipo.

ok, so anyway this happened saturday into sunday, 3pm to 3pm, at the worcester art museum. present were myself, jamie buckmaster, mike leslie, andy fish, veronica hebard, jim welu (the president of the museum), allison cowell (not to be confused with allison towel), sara with whom i’ve had tacos a few times (this is a literal expression, not a coded message), and a bunch of other people i didn’t know. oh yeah, the edward gorey rip-off dude was there but he doesn’t count because he only did the three hour version, and not only were his three pages both not a story and not original, but even given the format “edward gorey rip-off”, he only ever does like three different panel rips. steady chumpin’. anyway, i got there early and as a result got in the t&g article. they wanted us to pose in mid-draw, but it was only 2:30 and the things started at 3, and none of us wanted to be called cheater, so we all just doodled some warm-ups. i drew something i had no intention of developing into a story– a bunch of flayed horses, cribbed out of sara’s big book of horse anatomy. and because i was having my picture taken, i had to write FUCK FACE huge across the bottom of the page. i gave the page to pars as a regular everyday present, the sort its nice to give. pars, in fifteen years, when you’re trying to refinance a house, or buy your robotic child a new leg, i give you permission to sell this picture for $40,000.

once the bell rung (NB: no actual bell) i seated up next to ML and jambuck and quickly built a nest of snack food detritus, noise cassettes, and failed starts. it was getting dark before i finally committed to a theme, having discarded a few methods already for various reasons (like: “it is too hard to draw a horse”, “now is not the time for me to start redrawing old scrooge mc ducks (although this day will come)”, and “i don’t want to just draw a funny little dude walking around in a weird world“). i tried not to think too hard about what i wanted to do beforehand, because i wanted to exercise my open hand technique. ok, truth be told, purtle was right next to me doing “space”, which proved to be too enticing for me to resist. so i also did “space”. i know enough about myself to know that once a problem is solved i lose 85% of my interest in it, so i was careful not to think too far ahead in the scripting stage, and this worked out to my advantage, posing fresh problems up until the last hour. i was running behind most of the time on account of starting late, but finished with 20 minutes to spare. anyway, you can see my jamb (“a letter to sweety”) hanging up in the museum until thursday, at which point it gets reprinted somewhere, and also i’m going to do a nice reprint with my new print connectch and fixing some things that bug me (like misspelling “sweetie” in the title). my pen, a fresh one with no other lines drawn with it, ran out in hour #20, which was pretty satisfying.

i enjoy a marathon situation, but this especially was very rewarding. i’m happy with what i did, and it’s valuable to know that while i can’t “just turn it on”, i can, given a little bit of wiggle room, figure out a way to turn it on. hanging out with jamie and mike for 24 consecutive hours was also really fun, especially given the individual struggle with group support and no competition aspect. there was good food and like we told john guida, the $5 entry fee is a bargain just to get 24 hours of free coffee, plus pizza for dinner and nice pastries for breakfast (NB: the bean counter cinnamon buns are the best ever). more than anything, i was really psyched that mike was there, in part because hanging out with mike is super fun (especially late at night / early in the morning), but mostly because it was great to see him do something he’d never done before, and to work really hard at an art project, even through times of trial. mike’s comic, about DPW guys in space (the SDPW), totally rules, and it’s really awesome to see all his symbols move and interact. of course it’s all in his classic full-color linework style. worcester folks near the library are advised to stop in this week to check it out. also good are veronica and sara’s flawless entries, seriously leaps and bounds over everyone else. plus jamie buckmaster of course, who i think is going to revisit his story in a larger thing, and the first kid to finish, elbert, 13, with an awesome pencil and red ink palate and a totally sweet horror theme. oh yeah, and i didn’t get sick or fall asleep, and today i feel a little out of it but not too too bad.

full text of the t&g article after the jump. allison towel- you can see that my roots need doing so return my phone calls! remember: i don’t get texts.

Bam! Wham! Draw! Keep it going!

Comic book marathon at WAM

By Sandy Meindersma CORRESPONDENT

Participants in the Worcester Art Museum comics anthology — from left, Brian McKeon, Jacob Berendes, Sara Taylor and Chris O’Brien — begin a 24-hour marathon of cartoon drawing Saturday afternoon in the art museum’s upstairs studio. (RICH DUGAS)
Enlarge photo

WORCESTER— While the development of a comic book usually takes several months, 35 would-be cartoonists from all walks of life gathered at the Worcester Art Museum to try their hands at creating one in a single day.

Starting Saturday afternoon and ending yesterday at 3 pm, the artists spread out through the education wing of the museum to participate in the fifth annual 24-Hour Comic Challenge.

For those not up for the 24-hour challenge, there were options of a three-hour and an eight-hour challenge.

The event, which is sponsored by ComicsPRO, challenged cartoonists from every level of skill and experience at more than 100 sites worldwide to produce a full-length comic book in 24 hours.

All works will be photocopied and sent to ComicsPRO for inclusion in its annual anthology, which highlights works that are representative of the broad range of artists who participated in the challenge.

“They’re supposed to start blank,” Allison C. Berkeley, marketing manager for Worcester Art Museum said. “They can come in with a list of ideas, though.”

Brian McKeon, an electrician, said he brainstormed a lot to get ready for the creative marathon.

Jacob Berendes fortified himself physically in hopes his brain would not fail him. “I slept OK, I ate well. I’m going into it open-handed,” he said.

Raymond Toe-Pleh Nigba, who only learned about the event on Friday, said he planned to draw a comic book about the civil war in his home country of Liberia. After less than an hour, his first page was nearly complete.

“It’s an idea I’ve been wanting to write for some time,” he said. “I have a studio at my house, where I use cartoons to teach immigrants.”

James A. Welu, director of the museum, was creating a collage that juxtaposed pop culture icons with pictures from the museum’s collection. “I have no idea where I’m going with this — but that’s what creativity is all about,” he said.

The marathon also attracted art museum students Robert Garrido, 16, and Elbert Caraballo, 13, who both planned to stay for the full 24 hours. They said they learned about the marathon from their teacher Andy Fish, who was also participating in the event.

“When I’m not taking classes (here), I go to school and practice my drawing,” Elbert said. He added he wanted to be an artist.

The artists’ works are on display this week in the Higgins Education Wing of the museum.