Yesterday (April 24) and the day before (April 23) contained, between them, the two halves of 2005's 24 Hour Comic Day. (It started on noon on the 23rd and ended on noon on the 24th.) The idea is that interested comic book artists stay up for, at most, 24 hours, and attempt to draw and write 24 pages worth of a graphic story in that time. As far as I can tell, the concept was started by Scott McCloud, and he has a long list of links to its history. Like most such things, I first found out about by reading Neil Gaiman's blog (scan to the end)--it seems the Gaiman Variant, a legitimate way to fail, is simply wrapping up whatever you come up with by the end of the 24 hours. (The original example of that "Being An Account of the Life And Death of The Emperor Helioabolus.") If Neil Gaiman had trouble finishing in 24 hours, I think it's a pretty good bet that most people have trouble finishing in 24 hours. Over 700 people stayed up drawing comics this weekend.
With this preamble, you might think the insanity was my participating in said event. It was not. I had a very normal, productive Saturday evening. I knew that Robin Sloan of Snarkmarket was participating in 24 Hour Comic Day, but it wasn't until late in the evening that I caught a Snarkpost I had somehow missed, and decided it might be nice to stop in Downtown Berkeley before lunch on Sunday. Click here for the results. (Preview below.)
BTW:Here are all the Comic-Relief-centric 24-Hour Comics Blogposts (the last one drafted by Stephen Gresch while I was loitering), and here's the placeholder for Comic Relief's future website. If you haven't been to their new shop on Shattuck , check it out--and drop by The Other Change of Hobbit while you're there. And wow, am I glad I did not read Matt's Snarkpost on Moovl until I was done. Luckily it's just too late to click right now! Update: Wow, I forwarded Scott McCloud this blogpost with some tongue-in-cheek reproach for overstimulating my brain. Since I don't actually draw, I just wanted to let him know he must be really inspiring to get this much art out of me. The man blogged it! Further proof that he's ridiculously nice. (Not a permalink, so hit it while it's hot, folks. )
