2007 Programme | Venues
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COMICA 2007:
REVIEWS

Thomas Behe is the co-creator (with Phil Elliott) of Contraband, a graphic novel set in the near future exploring the social impact of mobile-phone technology. More details can be found at the Contraband blog. The following comments appeared on the blog on November 7, 2007.

What a top night out - the ICA's final night of Comica in London was one of the best eves I've had in months. Meeting the chaps who created the top webcomic (& now graphic novel collection) Shooting War - followed by a bit of Contraband promo chat over beers with some of the UK's coolest comic types - concluded with the premiere screening of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (this is one fantastic movie). Even got in a quick chat reflecting on the Toronto Comic Film Festival with Paul Gravett - who was one of the guys heading up this year's Comica event (his site www.paulgravett.com has plenty of info on this and other upcoming festivals).

Richy K. Chandler participated in the 24 Hour Comics event at Comica 2007 on 20/21 October 2007. The following comments appeared on his blog at www.myspace.com/tempolush.

Alrightee... so last weekend I went along to the ICA and tried my hand at writing and drawing a comic from scratch in 24 hours. As it turns out it's not humanly possible. Clearly all the other artists there who managed to churn out beautifully drawn, coherent and (most importantly) complete 24 page comics were aliens or, at the very least, on performance enhancing drugs. The first few minutes were seriously terrifying as I wracked the far corners of my brain to come up with a story and characters, but by the end of the first hour I was pretty well story set up story wise for what I had to do in the remaining 23 hours... or so I thought. Based on cruel harsh experience, here are my suggestions to anyone doing a 24 hour comic.

1. Don't write a complex plot with wild twists and inter dimensional travel.
2. Don't make it too dialogue heavy.
3. Don't fall asleep for four hours in the middle.
4. Don't try to develop a large cast of varied characters.
5. Don't assume that just because you've done pencils for every page in about 9 hours, that you'll be bale to do inks in the same time.
6. Don't draw on big paper - keep pages small.
7. Don't do drawings that depend on hours of blacking things in with lots of ink.
8. Don't include any normal comic creating elements unless they're absolutely necessary, like words and pictures for example.

I managed to pencil rough layouts for all 24 pages of the story, plus panel boarders and lettering in ink. Only managed to get 7 pages of complete inked artwork done though...

Jim Medway is an artist and comics educator. He participated in the 24 Hour Comics event at Comica 2007 on 20/21 October, 2007. The following comments appeared on his blog at Paw Quality Comics.

...other than half an hours doze at 4am, I managed to complete 24 comic pages in 24 hours, as part of worldwide 24 Hour Comic Day. Though we weren't locked in the room for the full stint (ICA venue having to close at 11pm) I battled on round at the formidable Alex Pott's house, as did he.

I wasn't entirely sure why I wanted to volunteer for such a torturous event, as staying up for 24 hours doing anything is pretty stupid. Maybe it was that I knew it would be wrong if I didn't have a go at it, as I'm supposed to be a comic artist. Regardless of motivation, it seems all participants felt a huge sense of achievement and satisfaction by the end. Like the rest of them, throughout the challenge I experienced alternating waves of enthusiasm and exhaustion, which are probably evident from the lulls in quality of drawing produced. Alex's strategy of inking pages out of order seemed to pay off, making any potential inconsistencies absorbed into the strip, rather than the story deteriorating or tailing off as it went along. This trick ensures that your characters look the same on the first and last pages, foiling any kind of chinese whispers effect that can easily happen. Alex and I also found listening to Dead Meadow, Earth and Bardo Pond in the early hours most productive.

Being part of the group and the camaraderie involved in this made it all the more tolerable. I now know something of the solidarity you see between motorcyclists on winter mornings. The 24hr challenge is not one I would have ever considered to tackle on my own - I just don't have the discipline, plus I'm way too easily distracted by my list of other jobs, projects and chores, whether boat painting, cat portraits or planning workshop stuff. This was a great opportunity to put all that to one side, knuckle down and get some pages done. In fact that might be the most important thing I've got out of the exercise - realising that time needs to be allocated and energy needs to be focused if comics are going to happen. I guess it's fairly obvious that comics are hard work - I always tell workshop groups how good comics are very quick to read but frustratingly slow to actually produce. I'm guessing that what I've managed in 24 hours would have probably taken my well over a month of faffing about and finding other things to do instead.

I've learnt that if I just sit down and get on with it then I can actually do it. I also feel a bit like I've earned a month off from drawing anything. Before entering the room at the ICA (photographs here), I'd decide to avoid making things difficult for myself. Eradicating speech, thought, sound effects and narration reallocated probably 5 hours into telling a story with just the artwork. Creating a silent comic was also a good opportunity to see if I can convey action and emotion in this way. Also on my mind was how I really didn't fancy 2 or more hours of measuring and drawing out margins and panels, so they were banished too. As long as the images have enough space and the sequence is clear, then who needs panels? Looking around the room I spotted plenty of people dividing their pages up into all these little boxes, and I felt a huge relief that I wasn't putting myself through that too. I guess some might say it's lazy of my having just one or two images on each page, and maybe it is, but then I do think making a good comic is about knowing what to include AND leave out.

I've also gained a new confidence in my tools. Those around me sniggered at my draughtsmans brush when I first produced it from my bag, but by the end of the event they were clamoring for something that would sweep away their eraser rubbings with elegant ease. I had also been looking forward to getting to know how to use my recent purchase, the Pentel Brush Pen. Having found it recommended in various blogs and online forums, I can now add my own seal of approval. What it can't really do (or more what I can't yet do with it) is small precise detail - I've found on certain faces I'd have been much better off switching to my usual drawing pen for eyes, mouths and whisker follicles. What it can do is produce a good solid but animated black line, fill large areas easily, and it is very fast - as in capable of keeping up with you as you dash around the page. As I was using a medium textured watercolour paper, I found I was also able to create greytones of an almost charcoal appearance, by tilting the brush and lightly sweeping the surface.

Perhaps my greatest Pentel revelation was that by the end of the 24 hours, I wasn't experiencing any pain in my hand or wrist. This is in stark contrast to how tightly clutching a Rotring or my usual technical drawing pens affect my hand after just an hour or so. Instead of forcing a needlepoint against the page, the brush allows a relaxed and spontaneous method of dabbing, placing and pulling lines and marks around. Four ink cartridges later, and I'm still not quite in charge of what it does, but certainly a lot quicker, bolder and expressive than before, and for me that's reward enough for taking part.

Comic creator Tom Humberstone participated in the Comica 2007 24 Hour Comic event on 20/21 October 2007. His own 24 Hour comic, Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Crohns Disease, can be read at his web site www.ventedspleen.com.

Just wanted to say - thank you for the invite to do the 24 hr comic. I enjoyed myself and managed to do a comic that I wasn't too embarrassed by. It was a real learning experience. I've posted my comic on my website now if you fancy taking a look (if you didn't read it on the sunday) and several comic websites are linking to it which is lovely. I've also had a deluge of emails and comments from people with crohns disease - explaining how much the comic meant to them and that it was a comfort. I don't think I've ever had a nicer thing said about my work and I'm now thinking of possibly publishing it if I can get some funding from somewhere (the colour production would be too expensive for me right now). I may look towards the crohns association actually... Jeffrey Brown, one of my favourite comic artists - a genuine inspiration to me - even emailed me to tell me how much he liked it and I'm still in shock. So yeah - thank you for the invite. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Sylvia Libedinsky (with Nick Wadley) has been making pictures and cartoons since the mid-1990s. Their DoubleTakeAway cartoons were published in the Daily Telegraph 1996-97, and in the Royal Academy Magazine 1997-98 and their weekly Lax Column cartoons ran in the Financial Times from 2000 to 2002. Sylvia attended the Comica Between The Panels: Graphic Literature Night featuring Rutu Mordan, Andrzej Klimowski and Rian Hughes on 15 June 2007 at the ICA.

Sorry I had to leave so early last Friday but the evening was, as usual (or perhaps more than usual) a success.  I was so impressed by all three of them. Klimowski was the only one I knew, but I can trust that however different the authors may be from each other you can spark a conversation between them... and with us.  Every time I go to these events I come back inspired to do more work. I was talking to Nick about this (just what is it about cartoonists that makes them so immediately likable?).