Something I've started over on the Oztaku forums. After the high from the comikraze 24 hour comic challenge last weekend, I've been listening to comiking podcasts like SEQALAB and going over old podcasts from Webcomics Weekly. One particular SEQALAB podcast brought up the professional production schedule differences between French and American comics. French work on poster size works, and usually paint one page a week. American comikers do a rate of one page a day. The French comiker does this for about 46 weeks which is then put into a BD, then knocks off for a month of holiday and starts all over again for the next year (publishers have the right idea for creatives there).

This got me thinking, that working on a page a week is really doable. It's easy. No matter what is going on in your life. I am working more frequently on pages for the List, than that schedule. 

Then it reminded me of something from a Webcomics podcast brought up. If you think of doing a 40 page book, your natural reaction is that it is impossible before you start. Sure. If you think about doing a page a week, suddenly that's not impossible. The point is, if you keep doing one page a week of comic, before you know it you have a GN.

That's the idea behind A Comic a Week. While the Australian comic scene is very creative, and there are some real good comics being produced, there's a whole lot of wasted potential. Good artists that could otherwise do a comic (look at the 24 hour comic challenge), just don't even start. Something I've learnt while doing GNs is that if you just concentrate on just the next page, you suddenly have a lot of pages under your belt. After a while I was counting by the GNs I've produced and not pages.

From now on, every Monday, I will post a new page of comic. I also have multiple projects, so I'll also alternate between them depending on immediate priority. This will most likely be concurrent to work on the List as well as commission work, but I think I can always find the time to do one page a week.

It's this focus I want to introduce people to. It's not a natural thing to adapt to, but I assure you, once you start, it will never feel like grinding. It feels like grinding when you look at the end, but if you look at just the next page, it feels like a stroll. Suddenly your at the end.

Henry

Last weekend was the comikraze 24 hour comics challenge. It's a annual event always held on the Queens Birthday weekend hosted on the Pulpfaction forums, and this year I did the event again but this time it was with a few other comiker friends. Essentially we started around 5pm, although I rocked up around 7:15pm and started around 7:30pm.

I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I think it was a bit of a pain working all night and all the way until 11:00am the next morning, but I think all in all I had fun and so did everyone else who did too. 

I did not finish my entry. I decided to change my approach this year. I put a lot of emphasis on experimenting as usual, but I concentrated on making it more polished. Ink nibs were indeed out and on show. Previous years I did 16 pages, then 12 pages, then last year it was an 8 page story. This year, in much the same trend, I increased the quality by boosting it to my finished polished work standard; however what was different is that I increased the story page count to a full 24 pager. I managed 8 finalised pages only.

I did not end up posting it online at Pulpfaction. I've decided to finish this comic and then print it. I based the story on one of my nightmares I've incurred from this upcoming Corporate Law exam (shudder). I thought I realised this quite well as a story, and I think it would be a waste to leave it as an unfinished 24 hour comic, particularly as I changed my approach this year precisely because of how I felt the story translates to a comic. I intend to print and sell this comic, as well as post it online for free on my deviantart. 

Aside from last weekend's 24 hour comiking shenanigans I have also been doing commission work based on a to-be-released Sci-Fi novel. I have some art which is near finished that I'll share. Essentially, it is a promo comic to be posted online, and I suspect might be gracing print as well. I won't be posting a lot of this online, but I thought I'd share the first page. It's in greyscale, so it sort of is a departure from my pure black and white inks, but those familiar with my CG style should be able to recognise some similarities between the two.

Henry