An Active Mind:

The 24 hour comic is yet another of Scott McCloud's very clever conceptual inventions. It's a simple idea. Do a 24-page comic (or 100 panel on-line comic) in 24 consecutive hours. You can assemble materials before hand, but no direct work on the comic--no outlines, sketches, plot summaries, etc. Once the clock starts, you have 24 hours to do any drawing, lettering, coloring, storyline, proofing, etc. on the comic. You can do anything else you like during this period--naps are fine, but the clock doesn't stop ticking!

You also have to send a copy of the finished product to Scott. Inventor's perogative.

When I read about them on his site (at the prompting of Platypus), I resolved to do one at some point during the summer. Busy weeks passed and eventually I realized that only one weekend remained when I was alone at the dorm and without obligations. I went ahead and took it.

This is the first "real" comic I've ever done. My other work in the comics medium has been very limited and informal -- 5 or 6 pages of letters, 3 journal pages, the first page of a splashy comic about a dragon, and 6 strips about a girl and her chicken. I've drawn for eight years (since 1993, when I was eleven), but only had two incidences of formal art training -- a class on painting with acrylics, and a college class on pen and ink Point/Line drawing. I would love to some day have enough of the skill and craft of comics to bring a few of my ideas into reality -- the medium has enormous untapped potential.

This experience was great practice. Sometimes when I got stuck, I'd just grab Understanding Comics or my Point Line book and draw something based on the formal possibilities of comics or on pen and ink techniques. I did absolutely no plotting before hand. It's readily apparent... the admittedly self-involved "story" wanders aimlessly for 24 pages, and I would rate it the weakest part of the work. However, there is a lot of good here that I intend to use in future work.

Materials used: 11 sheets of Bristol board (darn, so close!) plus one of some handy sketching paper sitting around. Each page is a half sheet. India ink, #0 and #2 rapidograph mechanical drawing pens, a dip pen. The first three color page are colored pencils and watercolor pencils. The last color page is Pentel pens. Some sketching was done in #2 pencil and later inked over and erased. Three pages use charcoal.

Go to the COMIC - An Active Mind

24 hours - how the time fell out (with photos!)

I included this cover letter when I sent a copy to Mr. McCloud.