Tag: daily comic journal

Daily Journal Week 1 – It’s Alive!

Posted on October 8, 2024 by Bruce

So after CXC I decided starting October 1 I would follow some advice from Brian Canini and begin keeping a daily cartoon journal. Understand that when I first proposed My Geek Odyssey to the Lilly Endowment as a Teacher Creativity Fellowship Project I was going to chronicle my journey in England during the 50th anniversary of the MINI Cooper as a webcomic. I realized at the time that my concept of a comic was stuck in the traditional three panels and a punchline strip. I couldn’t get beyond that (and still for the most part can’t). I added Cecil to the strip because my actual life wasn’t entertaining enough and I assumed adding an evil geocaching monkey and you get laughs galore.

So I decided to use the daily journal comic as a way to try out new drawing techniques and reflect on the day’s events. I went out a purchased a regular old cheap sketchbook at Meijer and cut an already used piece of Bristol into a square to make panels. So I draw out 4 panels which leaves me room at the bottom of the page to do the daily prompt. This does confine my prompt to a long narrow drawing, but that’s an added challenge. I’m one week in and have come up with a rhythm kind of on how to do this, my first trip away from home will see how it works out. I started by trying to do the comic before going to bed… not a good idea for me. I tend to want to go to sleep and it takes me a while to get into that zone, so delaying rest to finish a comic isn’t going to work. This was an issue when I did the comic for MINI Takes the States 2010. I then moved to doing it in the morning. Retirement has changed me from a person who had to get up and be ready for school by 7:30 AM to someone who might roll out of bed at 8:00 or once the cats decide that I am no longer a place to sleep. I then head to my studio and do two things. First I look at what today’s drawing prompt is from the Draw or Die Club. Since I started in “Promptober” I’ve stuck with those prompts and not the usual prompts emailed to me. Then I think about what happened the day before and how I want to express that as a series of drawings.

So on day one, Sue left for a conference and I had to work at the LEGO Store. It was a release day and the new Fortnite Sets had been released. I had the “job” of finishing the display of “Peely Bone” while greeting and chatting with guests. At home I sat down to watch politics in action and Sue called to catch up on her day. I watched about 10 more minutes and decided to just go to bed.
I had one job. One job. Go to ALDI and pick up the Halloween Cat Scratching houses for the boys. It seems that this is a thing and Aldi puts out new stuff on Wednesdays.
This is pretty typical when Sue goes on a trip. I do a quick clean up once she’s gone, and then let everything go to heck until the day she comes home. Then a flurry of activity and she usually doesn’t notice.
Sue came back with a cracked tooth, the dentist isn’t open normally on Fridays, she was able to get it taken care of, but spent the majority of the day recuperating until her boss called and then we had to run some errands. I wasn’t about to let her drive (although she was more than capable). Here I tried to just put journaling in with the comic- not having speech bubbles or narration boxes.
What does the future hold? We have a lot of things in flux right now. Unlike many people who like to overshare online, I try not to, so let’s just say the future is “fuzzy.” I decided that a Magic 8 Ball would give us clearer answers. So far… Outlook still is unclear.
For this comic I actually drew myself once and then used my lightbox to trace myself multiple times.
I was at the LEGO Store working and spent the day greeting people (aka Zone 1). We had a mix of people in but two stood out for me. One was a lady who had to tell me all about how her kid had over 700 LEGO sets (there’s an app for that) and she didn’t understand why the store hadn’t moved to a more upscale mall. I read this as wanting us to be in a place with a less diverse clientele. The other was the person asking if we price matched and showed me an Amazon listing of a set. 🙄 For the record… no.
Every other Monday Sue and I head to a somewhat local tap room and play trivia with some friends. Some other friends actually run the event so its a great opportunity to get together with people and being an introvert it is nice to actually see other people even if it isn’t stepping outside of my comfort zone too much.

So after a week I have had a few thoughts. mostly, how I need to work on being able to draw my characters (all of them from different angles. That said there have been a couple time this week when I’ve looked at what I drew and did a double take, trying to figure out who drew the stuff on the page. This usually happens when I actually like what I have drawn (which is rare). Being able to just draw and not worry about how pretty it is is hard for many people. You want your drawings to look good and no matter how many times I tell kids “If I can tell what you drew, then you accomplished your task and should be happy” I don’t always follow that same rule for myself.

One thing that Brian mentioned about a daily journal comic is that it gives you a chance to experiment with styles, inking techniques, character design. After doing My Geek Odyssey for over a decade now (even with the lengthy hiatuses) I know that characters evolve the more you draw them and at some point you will find that image for that character. I don’t see Cecil changing much in the future. As I have gotten older I’ve had to change my drawing of myself. This version, isn’t that bad. I am old, and it does show- but that’s OK. As I grow out my beard again I know how I will look. As my hairline recedes more I have ideas as to how to deal with that, now.

When I first started My Geek Odyssey I did my own lettering. My first time I went to New York Comic Con I attended Webcomics Boot Camp and my biggest takeaway was that my handwriting wasn’t up to par. “Lettering is an art.” So I should just use a font that looked like handwriting and have been doing so ever since, until now. I decided that since this is just my journal it doesn’t have to be perfect. After looking at other indy comics, many have decided that “lettering is personal” the art and perfection will come as they practice.

The question is- do I keep posting these only on Social Media? Do I post them on Insta? Facebook? Threads? I’m avoiding whatever Twitter has mutated into. Do I post them daily here? As I have said, I enjoy reading SubStack, but am concerned as to how it will fare in the future. What are your thoughts? Add them to the comments.