Hey all! I’m back from the dead! Well, sleep at least. For those unaware, 24 Hour Comic Day was this weekend, and I somewhat completed it. Here is how it all broke down…

Wasn’t able to sleep on Friday. I think I got somewhere between 4 to 5 hours. Absolutely horrible, especially since I wanted to be fresh for the day. When I arrived I was promptly told by Zander Cannon that I looked like hell….thanks Zander! At any rate, around 12 AM I started feeling awful. I totally hit a wall and was about a page behind the standard rate, which is one page per hour. I even went so far as to call my wife AJ to ask if she would come pick me up. Thankfully for me and her, she was at a movie and couldn’t be reached. I say thankfully, because I ended up picking up my second wind - or maybe it was more like a fourth or fifth wind. I cruised along at a great speed, catching back up to where I was supposed to be. Then somewhere between 6 and 7 AM, my hand cramped up and it absolutely killed to pick up a pencil or pen. I had to quit at 7:05 AM. AJ came and picked me up and I went home to sleep. Upon waking up, along with my hand feeling 100%, I wanted to, no, needed to finish. I was two and a half pages away with more than three hours remaining to complete this story in a non successional 24 Hour period. At 6:29 PM, October 19th, I finished.

Last year, I put together my first 24 Hour Comic, “The Origin of Man the Ladybug” in 22 and one half hours, exactly, with a cover thrown together at the last minute to account for the last page. This time, it took 23 hours and 29 minutes with a break in between and no crappy cover pages.

For next year, I will do a few things differently.

1) Try to get more sleep.

2) Work smaller - Zander and Kevin over at Big Time Attic stressed this so much, but I never paid much attention. Well, I am not foregoing that sage advice next time around.

3) Eat bananas. AJ told me on the car ride home that I should have had more potassium to keep from cramping up. My question is, why didn’t she tell me that before?

4) Finish 24 pages, without a poor looking cover page, within 24 hours.

At any rate, I think the comic turned out rather well. You can read Somewhere in Montana by clicking on the previous link, or the graphic at the beginning of this post.

Also, check out all of the 24 Hour Comics that have been posted so far, at the Minneapolis 24 Hour Comics Day website.

Hey everyone! Here is my 24 Hour Comic for this year! However, there is a bit of required reading. If you hadn’t read my comic from last year you may not get all of the jokes referenced. They are best read back-to-back. So, do that first! Click here to read “Somewhere in Montana.” Then click on the graphic below to read “Meanwhile in Wyoming.”

This year I did things a bit differently. I learned a lot last year from watching Zander Cannon, Kevin Cannon, and Danno Klonowski do their respective stories. Instead of working at 8.5″ x 11″ paper, as I did last year, I worked smaller at 5.5″ x 8.5″ pages. I was still able to do my average of six panels per page, but it looked a lot tighter. Also, I ditched the “pencil, ink, and write as you go approach” that had practiced since my first 24HCD and broke up the process into two parts. First, I wrote and penciled the entire story, which gave me the opportunity to have a pretty structured story. Then I finished each page up with inks….which was nice, because I could pretty much remain a zombie and not have to think, too much, for the rest of the night.

Once again I took the “Pictionary approach” to my story. Since I didn’t have any Pictionary cards when I started, I just picked out five words at random in the dictionary. My words were mop, rave, kung-fu, cumulus, and rookie. I did bend the McCloudian 24HCD rules and had somewhat of a plot figured out before hand. Basically, I knew that I was going to use the same characters as last year.

Eventually, I finished at 5 AM, quite impressive as I had to leave at about 7 AM last year after my hand cramped up and it hurt to draw. To alleviate that problem, I ate bananas, got a good nights sleep, and kept myself somewhat hydrated throughout the event…although in retrospect, I could have used more water.

Check out other Minneapolis 24 Hour Comic Day results at the Minneapolis 24-Hour Comic Day blog.

Stranger things have happened, I guess, but not to me. Michael Cavna mentioned and linked to my 24 Hour Comic, “Meanwhile in Wyoming” on his Comic Riffs blog at the Washington Post. I had never seen this blog before today, so it’s pretty cool to find it. It’s really neat being mentioned on the same website as Tom Tomorrow and Scott McCloud.

Next week is 24 Hour Comic Day. I will once again be participating at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts on October 2nd and 3rd from 10 AM until 10 AM. The event is being put on by the International Cartoonist Conspiracy and sponsored by other esteemed establishments. Check out all of the deets at the official Minneapolis 24 Hour Comic Day blog.

This year I will once again be following the same geographical theme and cast of characters as I have since 2008. I know that it is against the “McCloudian rules” of the 24 Hour Comic Challenge, but I do not really care. It’s so extremely hard to come in with a blank slate. I mean, you already know that you are going to be doing a comic, so what’s the big deal, right?

Anyway, I was so excited that I threw together a quick sketch and “advertisement” of Bret Blackberg’s next adventure, “Elsewhere in Utah.” Hopefully it is as well received as the last two installments Somewhere in Montana and Meanwhile in Wyoming.

See ya there!

Here it is! My 2010 offering for the 24 Hour Comic Day Gods! As it was last year, there is a bit of required reading before diving head first into this.. If you hadn’t read my comic from the last two years read these first “Somewhere in Montana.” “Meanwhile in Wyoming.”

Then click on the graphic below to read “Elsewhere in Utah.”

Over the course of the year, I had been challenged by Danno Klonowski to do fifty 24 Hour Comic adventures including Bret Blackberg and crew for every state in the union. That sounds like a great idea! An idea I may just tackle! But not yet, I’d like to finish a couple of other projects first!

This year I did only a couple of things a bit differently and learned from a mistake early on that I intend to correct next year. I worked at the scale I intend to print these at, which is 5″ x 7″ and is similar to what I did last year. I worked on 11″ x 17″ graph paper, just like last year, but instead of having two 5″ x 7″ pages per each 11″ x 17″ piece of paper, I tried to be more efficient and divided the paper into fourths.

I paginated the comic before starting on the story. I believe this is a good idea, since it will save you time should you decide to scan and print these later. Next, I wrote and pencilled the story. Basically I created detailed thumbnails, which I inked over later.

Before inking the book, I lettered and inked the panel borders. When I began inking, I looked over my pencils and searched for items that required more detail, such as buildings and inked those first. I did this, so when fatigue set in, I was able to work on less detailed panels without fearing that I was going to create really sloppy art on, what I hoped would be, nicer looking pages.

The lesson I learned is that I should have had each paginated section flipped so I could work at the bottom of each page rather than reach across the paper. What I mean by this is that I would have pages 24 and 1 facing the bottom of one half of the 11″ x 17″ paper, lengthwise, and pages 2 and 23 facing the bottom of the other side. This caused smudging, which although wasn’t a big hassle, it did require more erasing than should have occurred.

Once again I took the “Pictionary approach” to my story. Since I didn’t have any Pictionary cards when I started, I just picked out five words at random in the dictionary. My words were knick-knack, senile, protractor, cranny, and isotope. I didn’t really use these words in a particularly clever fashion, as I had already had a vauge idea of what my story was going to be about before hand. Basically, I knew that I was going to use the same characters as the last two years.

Eventually, I finished at 4 AM, but finished inking at 3 AM. I spent the extra hour erasing and correcting my pages. This is even more impressive than last year, since I left last year at 5 AM, without having erased and corrected my pages. As usual, I ate bananas, got a good night’s sleep, and kept myself hydrated throughout the event.

Check out other Minneapolis 24 Hour Comic Day results at the Minneapolis 24-Hour Comic Day blog.

Here it is! I finished my fourth 24 Hour Comic last night. Last year I was challenged by Danno Klonowski to continue the adventures of Bret Blackberg for each of the fifty states of the union. The day started out at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts with me ignoring most of my cartooning pals at the Open Studio (sorry everyone, but a job needed to be done!) Then, last night, with Danno and Britt Hammerberg hanging out with me until the wee hours of the morning, I finished up the latest chapter of the Bret Blackberg saga, “Subsequently in Idaho.” You can check out our stupid Tweets by checking out the hashtag #24×50.

Before reading the newest story, you may want to catch up on the previous three chapters:

Somewhere in Montana

Meanwhile in Wyoming

Elsewhere in Utah

Then click on the graphic below to read “Subsequently in Idaho.”

I finished my fifth 24 Hour Comic of the Bret Blackberg 50 State Tour on Sunday, April 17th around 2 AM. This whole comics stems from a challenge issued by Danno Klonowski. I started yestserday out at Diamonds Coffee Shoppe with fellow cartoonists Kevin Cannon , Britt Hammerberg, Ryan Dow, Lupi Miguniti, and the aforementioned Danno Klonowski. Also, Ted Anderson made an appearance, but I was too far into “the zone” to talk to him. Sorry buddy!

There was plenty of tweeting on the event, mostly by myself. If you’re curious you can search on Twitter for the hashtag #24×50.

It may be smart to catch up on the story, if you aren’t already familiar. Especially, since there are callbacks from the previous books. Here are the other four chapters:

Somewhere in Montana

Meanwhile in Wyoming

Elsewhere in Utah

Subsequently in Idaho

Then click on the graphic below to read Capriciously in Washington.

Below is the cover for the trade paperback Bret Blackberg and the Fifty State Tour: Volume One. This book will feature the first six adventures of Bret Blackberg and is accompanied by a flattering introduction by Danno Klonowski. After completing the first three books in this collection, Danno challenged me to take on the task of completing one 24 Hour Comic for each of the fifty states in the union. I took him up on it and have been cranking out one 24 Hour Comic every two months ever since.

Stay tuned on where and when you can get a copy of this collection.

Hey folks, I am going to be doing yet another 24 Hour Comic this weekend. It will be seventh installment of the Bret Blackberg and the Fifty State Tour saga. This time around our lackadaisical non-adventuring adventurer travels to Hawaii. In the spirit of the 24 Hour Comic, I’m not sure what is going to happen. Hopefully it will be funny, enjoyable, and most importantly coherent.

If you want to watch me suffer through this process, I will be starting the day at Diamond’s Coffee Shoppe in Nordeast Minneapolis around 10 AM and lasting until about 9 PM, after that I generally go home and weep while I draw alone. I will have copies of Bret Blackberg and the Fifty State Tour: Volume One for perusal and purchase - they are $12 each.

If you can’t make the event, or don’t want to, you can always check out progress and live tweeting on Twitter by following the #24×50 hashtag.