I did a thing.

On 24 hour comic day I created a comic. It was 24 pages long, it made enough sense to be called a story and had characters in it and everything. I'm happy with the result. Above is a little preview of the comic.

I didn't ink the comic though I would like to, I'm saying this counts within the rules of cleaning up for printing. A comic in blue pencil won't print up too well. I'll put up a few more images once I've taken them.

Anyway, here's a thing:

How Britt Survived 24 Hour Comic Day Successfully

1. Bring lined (or squared paper) for planning, planning on plain paper which should be used for drawing the comic can lead to problems down the line, also squares make the layout stage simple.
2. Spend the first 2 hours on your plot, write notes, words, themes. 
3. Go out while it's still light, have healthy but filling food (I had sushi for lunch and noodles for dinner).
4. Spend another hour on your page by page breakdown and supporting thumbnails, this means that when you get to 2am and have a major motivation issue you don't have to think. 
5. Every 4 pages take a break.
6. Drink tea, lots of tea. Good tea. Green tea. Matt where did you get that tea?
7. Midnight snack, balance your sweet and savoury, sugar rushes will not serve you well.
8. Music. 
9. A sleeping bag for warmth... followed by a quick 2 hour nap at 4am - I'd finished.
10. Mess about for the last 2 hours with music and inks.

Note: this method is how I survived 24 Hour Comic Day, it's not the only method and it may not work for you. Sleeping before the end may lead to being unable to finish for some. 

The Big Draw at the Star and Shadow Cinema

As well as our 24 Hour Comic, other drawing events are happening this week at: The Big Draw at the Star and Shadow Cinema.

You can read all about it here: http://starandshadowbigdraw.blogspot.co.uk/. A number of members of the Star and Shadow and Paper Jam Comics Collective spent a few hours yesterday evening playing the Surrealist Exquisite Corpse game. Here we are at work:

Here are a couple of the results...

Newcastle Mini Comic 2012 Review

The 2012 Mini Comic event was an amazing success. Despite me making a mistake with the dates it was part of World Mini Comics day in May.

The day began with Paul Thompson's and Ingi Jensson's presentations about all things comicy and Icelandic. Both were brilliant, I learnt absolutely loads to use with my own work. Paul spoke eloquently about all aspects of comic storytelling and making visual jokes work. Ingi gave a powerful presentation about style and the ups and downs of his comic career. We also learnt alot about Iceland and Ingi's cool uncle.

The comics making event was great. We had a constant stream of people of all ages attending wihich totally nearly 70 overall. The pace was relentless and everyone had a great time. Loads of great comics were made.

It was great to speak to all of the various folk who attended and help them get started. Everyone was full of enthusiasm for comics and cartoons. It was particularly good to speak to Kris, a gifted cartoonist, who wants to get into comics after retiring. The Awesome Comic Machine award should go the Ruth aged 11, who spent the whole event relentlessly drawing amazing comics without moving, pausing or flagging.

There was great works byPaperjammers Matt Gan and Lydia Wysocki. Ingi did a great one too, but I'll have to pick up a copy next week so I don't know its name. Britt Coxon's were amazing too. It is now a tradition that Paul never finishes his work during the event.

It was amazing to see Nigel Auchterlounie and his mini comic The Adventures of Whinnie the Dog. There was also a great comic by Peter Coulthard titled the Scarecrow, there was loads of great comics made by unknown makers one titled A Trip to the Shops was a particular hit. The photo shows most of them that I picked up, but I know I didn't get them all.

As part of the workshop we will be sending samples of them over to Mike. He was able to attend the morning but hopped on a plane to Malta, so the comics will reach him in the next few days. He's doing a reciprocal zine which he's promising to send back to us.

I couldn't have managed the event without the help from a number or folks, especially Britt and Paul for doing the photocopier duties. Also, Sophie and Judith were both brilliant as well.

As usual the Newcastle City Library were great and the success of the event was due to the helpfulness of all the staff involved, particularly Pauline and Patrick.

Many of the attendees were keen to hear about future events, which got us thinking.  You'll have to wait and see for now.

Mini Comics Day

Today we participated in the first Mini-Comics day at the Star and Shadow cinema. It was an excellent event arranged by Mike D. Lots of Paperjam Comics Members turned up along with a loads of non-Paperjammers. It was great that lots of kids attended and also that the adults also joined in with the comic making fun. The were loads of excellent works created and printed, it was also fantastic to chat on with people about comics and creative pursuits in general.

We've got loads of the printed comics which well probably swap with other particpants around the World.

It was fantastic to see Ingi, Terry, Andy, Daniel and Lily, Paul and Britt. Some of these folks didn't quite finish of their comics but the works looked great and we're all looking forward to seeing the finished articles.

Also a big thanks to everyone who helped out and tidied up at the end, we couldn't have managed without you.

Cheaters Sometimes Prosper

So... It's been just over a week since I started my 24 hour comic. What did I learn in those 24 hours? I already knew I was batshit crazy, so that doesn't count. I think I learned that it doesn't matter if you don't reach the 24 pages but more that you get something out of it, I got 16 pages, the story finished on page 16 and I was happy with it. I also learned that while bringing fruit is healthy you also need savoury foods to survive a full 24 hours.

I also learned that all video footage of the event is for some reason... corrupted. I took a few clips and was going to put them together into a montage of comic greatness (or madness) but technology has failed me. :|
Not impressed.

In compensation for the lack of video please enjoy this photo of Daniel telling us what he's thinking.

And a preview of my comic from the event. I plan to clean up and shade this and make it available for mass insanity by Thought Bubble!

I blame the low level anti-technology forcefield and the possible corrupting influences of us for the lack of video in this post. It's a shame, there are about 10 files and all of them are just strange beeping noises.

Preparing for the Snackopalypse.

Britt is busy.