Link: http://www.24hourcomicsday.com/

On October 2nd and 3rd last week, I participated for the first time in the 24 Hour Comics Day Challenge at ACME Comics in Longwood, FL. It turned out to be one of the most awesome things I've done for myself in recent memory, and I met a bunch of super-talented and cool-to-talk-to artists that live in the area. Several of those attending such as Ron Salas and Derrick Fish are published artists with face-melting talent. At first I was extremely intimidated (you have no idea...), but these guys were all class and not once did anyone make me feel like I was out of my league. To my honest disbelief, I actually received several compliments and statements of encouragement.

Just to back up a minute, for those actually reading this that have no idea what the '24 hour comics day challenge' is, let me elaborate. The challenge originally started several years ago like many things do: Small. Artist Scott McCloud challenged his friend and fellow artist Steve Bissette to create a 24-page finished comic book in 24 hours. Both of them tried to do it, and thus the challenge was born on a dare. Since that small beginning, the challenge mutated into an international event, with thousands of artists participating at hundreds of locations across the globe.

I went into the challenge knowing that I was ill-prepared and not exactly skilled enough yet for something of this intensity. But it's in my nature to fling full-force at a thing even if I'm not prepared, or know it will burn me out or kick my butt. To add more difficulty to my own situation though, Cate had a death in the family last week that left me very nearly dropping my plans for the event so that I could be there for her. I underestimated my wife though, and she insisted that this was something that was too important to pass up. In hindsight, I totally agree with her.

I arrived at the event at around 11:45pm on Friday night, just as the rest of the guys were getting all the tables set up and ready. After this, everyone got their materials ready and Marc at ACME gave us the short 'good luck' pep speech as we began. I ended up choosing to do a comic that is basically an autobiography, with a focus on how my friends, family and past relationships are shaping my thoughts and feelings as I prepare to become a dad. It was apparent to me before I started that this was tremendously over-ambitious from a drawing standpoint, but I figured it would at least be something easy for me to write since it is already in me.

Throughout the event, the staff at ACME (mostly Marc, because he was with us most of the 24 hours) were fantastic and extremely supportive. They even went as far as to setup an art table in the main area of the store so that we could rotate over there where customers could see our work as we did it. Too cool! We were also catered for breakfast, lunch and dinner by both the store and local businesses that are friends of the store, which was super awesome as well.

By the time the event had formally ended at midnight on Saturday, nearly all of us that had started the event had also finished it. In the end, I only actually completed three full pages. But I (hopefully) ended up making a few great new friends and found new energy in all the fantastic art that was being created around me.

This was definitely the spark I needed to revive my efforts at becoming a successful sequential artist, and I have no doubt now that I can make it happen.

Next stop, biweekly drawing sessions at ACME and live model sketching on the Sundays at Crealde...