So are you up for a challenge? I thought I was. I’m not talking about a geocaching challenge or a challenge cache… what I’m talking about is a comic artists version of a marathon. See in ancient times, in the city of Marathon, the Greeks were battling the Persians… to chronicle the battle they brought in a comic book artist and gave him 24 hours to tell the story of the battle in 24 pages. Upon completing the comic he died and the finished work was handed to a runner who took it to Athens to let the people know the battle had gone well- after running for 26.2 miles he handed off the comic and then he died. That little historical detail about the comic book had been lost and the focus has been on the effort of the runner until Scott McCloud resurrected the challenge. Now annually comic artists around the world try to complete a single 24 page comic in 24 hours… all I can say is “ouch” my hand still hurts.

This year I decided I would take on the challenge.  Downtown Comics, one of our local comic shops, hosted the event and on Saturday at around 5:00 PM I showed up (a little late).  I brought  the supplies I thought I would need (blank comic pages, pens, non-photo blue pencils, & snacks) I forgot drinks at home in the rush to get there, but did not forget my fez.

The basic rules of the challenge are that you can’t come in with anything done.  Start from an idea in your head, that’s it.  I had talked with some of the folks at the Indy Webcomics Group who had participated in the past and had some technical suggestions.  One of those was to have a smaller page to start from…  forcing me into drawing smaller.  Smaller drawings equal less time… now for an idea.

Nothing on paper just ideas… I promised myself I would not do a comic book about the “joys” of being a teacher- too easy and it could get ugly fast.  I had promised myself that I wanted to have a comic book about geocaching for GeoWoodstock in May, so this was a perfect opportunity.  I had thought about some formating to make it doable. I started out sitting down and plotting out 11 sections (two pages per topic)  and then a starting page and ending page. Non-traditional, but still 24 pages in 24 hours, without a pre written script or plot… Time to open the cookies.

Everyone had a great time “rage quitting” every couple hours, learning new words like “Interwebnets”, “wenis” (the skin covering your elbow), and an interesting pronunciation of vehemently (“vee-hem-men-et-lee”).  That is one of the great things about this event was just spending time with other artists… all silliness aside.  I remember I used to take art classes because it would force me to draw, now this challenge definitely pushed me physically.  I tweeted about every hour as a break and at about hour 20 my hand started to seize up.

So twenty-two hours later I had a finished comic… and a hand that could not move.  I had hoped I could hang out until the end, but sadly life got in the way… I am looking forward to seeing everyone’s comic.  I’m rethinking the order of the pages and if I need to tweak or add anything.  Fortunately, I do have some time before May and the event- I might even have a special “24 Hour Comic day” version… or maybe even a “trackable” version.

This year I proved I could physically complete the challenge, next year I’ll be back, ready to try again and stretch myself in a different way- who knows? Steampunk, superhero, classic Science Fiction, fantasy, a bio-comic… but first push through the pain & get today’s comic strip done.