The 24 Hour Comics Challenge started as a dare between famed cartoonists Scott McCloud and Steve Bissette-- and it's turned into a world-wide event-- launching the 48 hour film fest and as well as the Novel in 30 days challege-- but the 24 hour comics challenge came first.
AND here's the thing; You don't have to be a cartoonist to participate or to benefit from it. I would strongly suggest ANY creative person (or even if you only want to be creative) give it a go. Its an opportunity to attempt to tell a visual/written narrative in any form you like which will be 24 pages long and produced in 24 consecutive hours.
And there is no reason why you should have to spend 24 hours on it either, if you are organized and disciplined you can finish in 10-14 hours which I plan to do.
The Benefits of the event are multi faceted but they include;
1. Development of your skill in making artistic choices. Because there is no time for do-overs there is only time for DO. You won't find yourself tweaking and re-tweaking.
2. Improvement of your Organic ability at creativity-- you have to think on the fly-- the rules of the event state that you cannot prepare any materials beforehand-- no thumbnails, no figure studies, no model sheets-- that means what you create comes right from the moment.
3. A chance to explore new and different styles. If you normally work big, trying working small-- and vice versa. If you only work in pens try using a brush for this experiment.
4. A sense of accomplishment. Of the thousands of people who attempt it-- only about 20% actually complete it-- join the ranks of those that have gotten it done.
My good buddy Jim Riel, a talented graphic novelist and the author illustrator of THE PIED PIPER attempted the challenge twice before completing it on his third go round-- and the work he did, which was a conversation between Barack Obama and the Ghost of President Lincoln was astounding.
Jim tells me his confidence level increased as did his ability to produce even better work as a direct result of the event.
JJ Buckmaster has done the event a good handful of times as had Christopher Whitehead and both are back for more.
So give it a shot-- take the time to improve yourself and attempt a challenge that you'll have something to show for it-- a completed 24 page story.
We're also doing 1,3 and 8 hour challenges on the day of the event if you aren't able to commit to a full challenge.
The event is Next Saturday starting at 9am and going until 9am Sunday at the Worcester Art Museum and in venues world wide.
