So you think you want to draw comics?
If you even have a vague itch to draw some comics, I say you should do it! Here’s the thing, though, it’s not like other kinds of drawing in an ineffable way. Every artist who draws comics says this. The page just feels different once you start dividing it up into panels. It’s an exciting feeling, like you’re doing something really different but familiar all at once, but it won’t be as easy as you might think.
The Beat strikes again: Dave Sim and women
Today, though, Heidi MacDonald, a.k.a., “The Beat” of Publishers Weekly, took on the issue of Dave Sim’s views on women and came to roughly the same nuanced conclusion that I have: Dave Sim is both great and he has a noxious (misogynistic) worldview (I don’t know that Heidi actually accused him of misogyny, but I am happy to — he is a misogynist). Dave Sim finished his epic masterpiece, CEREBUS, in 2004, and now he’s promote two new books.
How did those 100 pages go?
I didn’t write 100 pages in three days on Presidents’ Day Weekend. I think I wrote about 20. I wrote a lot of those on Monday, too. Still, it turned out to be one of the most consistent times of focused writing that I’ve made for myself in a while. 20 pages are 20 pages, though I’m not 100% sure that these 20 pages are even close to ready to be called even the beginnings of a book.
Earn-it-yourself
Tonight, I read the Manifesto over at Earn-It-Yourself.com. It has a powerful message and one that should challenge any of in the arts who are sort of praying for a benefactor (yes, I mean me). It’s by a young woman who founded a band that started getting there in Wisconsin and now is trying to make something of herself on stage in California, even as she rises up backstage. As her earlier projects became better known, people around her said she was selling out (because her band was touring with bigger bands and getting radio support, etc.
Radical Boy: The heart misleads
This is different. This is different. How many times have you heard someone use those words to justify their self-destruction. This is different. You don’t understand. You can’t know what he’s like. Those are some good ones. Here are some other ones I like: It can work this time. It’s a both-and. If everyone just pitches in a little. As we know, there are a finite number of stories in the world.
Character Sketch: Power Pig
Last night at the gym I ran across an archetype of our modern age, The Power Pig. I like to keep track of walking clichés like this guy, because they might be useful in my future creative works. That said, more likely than not, I’ll never do anything with this, so maybe they will be useful in your future creative works. The easiest way to spot the Power Pig is by the way he holds his arms.
The puppet is the devil
Mum Puppettheatre, here in Philadelphia, is doing a theatrical production of Master and Margerita, a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, right now. It’s a love story, the story of Jesus’s crucifixion and a visit to St. Petersburg by the devil — all in one. And they are going to do it with puppets. Wow. I have a feeling I’m going to miss this one, which is too bad because it sounds awesome.
It's almost on
This weekend will be a test. It will be a serious, serious test to see if I’ve got the chops to write all weekend, without some national event or deadline bearing down on me. I’ve done this before. I’ve done it lots of times before, but it’s always been as a part of the Three Day Novel Contest. I’ll make a little confession here. Once, during my first year in Wisconsin, we had a three day weekend and I decided to try to turn that into a three day novel writing time of my own.
Movies trump comics, what can I say?
I’m glad that Persepolis has been made into a movie. For those of you who don’t know, Persepolis is a coming of age graphic novel set in revolutionary Iran. If you know me, you know that I don’t fall for identity stuff. That the exotic nature of the story is not going to sell me. That it’s about the Middle East. That it’s indirectly about US Imperialism. None of this is good enough.
Write 100 pages in three days
Do you think you can do it? Do you think you can write 100 pages in three days? The sick and twisted thing is that insane bursts of activity like that are my favorite way to work. There’s nothing I like better than getting totally consumed by a project and going at it, balls-to-the-wall. That’s why I like 24 Hour Comics Day. That’s why I like the 3 Day Novel Contest.