“DON’T DRINK CAFFEINE for a week beforehand. Don’t
drink beer,” advises local illustrator David Chelsea. “It’s best to be
open, not to bring too strong or defined of an idea… not to try to do
too much.” He’s talking about 24 Hour Comics Day (24HCD), an annual,
nationwide challenge to artists to create a 24-page comic book in 24
hours. And Chelsea should know—he’s the 24HCD world record
holder, having completed the challenge 11 times.
While Chelsea’s advice is simple, it’s based on his own mistakes and
the shortcomings he’s seen in others. “A lot of people’s style
deteriorates as the day goes on,” says Chelsea. “My style stays fairly
consistent throughout.” It’s true that Chelsea’s panels of black-lined
characters are a constant, though he admits that over-planning and plot
digressions have made themselves an Achilles’ heel in recent years.
Where Chelsea sees planning as a potential pitfall, Emily Block,
another local illustrator, finds a relationship between the late hours
of the challenge and a shift in artistic focus. Block says, “It’s kind
of fun to see how things deteriorate—or take a really ‘creative’
turn—as you start to nod off in the 19th or 20th hour.” Last year
she did the challenge for the first time, creating Marina (published on Top Shelf’s website at topshelfcomix.com), which she
summarizes as “a wordless comic about a little girl by the sea who puts
on her father’s sweater, discovers her ability to fly, and saves the
day.” On pg. 22 of Marina there’s a noticeable stylistic shift:
Block’s lines become wide-ruled and bold, her once-complex backgrounds
are reduced to hatch-slashes, and her characters are distilled to quick
sketches.
While there are varying perspectives on the late-pages phenomenon
(whether it’s over-planning or exhaustion), most illustrators agree
that there’s a certain creative rhythm and approach to detail that
carry a cartoonist into their 24th page at the 24th hour. Chelsea says
that illustrators should aim for a page an hour, and that perfection
must be abandoned.
Like Chelsea, Pete Soloway also sees perfection as a potential
barrier. Soloway’s perfectionism hardened to a mere six pages last year
(admittedly, the most visually pleasing six pages I’ve seen produced
under the challenge). Working digitally, Soloway employs erasures on
black fields to create positive space and depth. “The last time I tried
a 24-hour comic, I first asked a friend to write me a script so I
wouldn’t have to come up with a story on the fly,” says Soloway.
“Unfortunately, I liked his script too much to rush through drawing it;
by morning, I’d only drawn the first six pages.” So 24HCD success isn’t
necessarily about making something pretty—it’s about balancing
quality and length.
Illustrator Dan Wheeler seems to have found the happiest medium.
Combining the simplicity of stick figures with one-off, strip-format
comics, Wheeler eschews sequential plot and visual complexity in favor
of telling many self-contained stories. In one strip titled “Two
Hipsters at a Show” Wheeler takes the classic “Who’s on First?” format
and applies it to indie band names. In another, a pair of stick figures
wear “I’m with Stupid” shirts, while a third is sighing, wearing one
that reads, “I’m All Alone.” The simplicity of this format lends itself
to quick repetition—a strong approach to the 24HCD challenge that
might be a helpful model if you’re thinking about giving it a shot this
year.