User Blog:
Don't Get Lost Making A Graphic Novel

I've been making comics since childhood, since 1997, for other people to see. I practiced as a scriptwriter, drawing my own comics out of necessity. I've made around forty, and last year I made my first attempt at a graphic novel.

No one can tell you, as fact, what the right way to make a comic is. You do not have to purchase Bristol boards, you are not obligated to work with brush, or colour. (Heck, you can use a sandwich bag) You don't have to pay printers a grand. As a comic strip artist, instructions per conformity like anatomy reference books are a choice. Successful use does not necessarily demonstrate a link in narrative content with the medical discoveries of Vesalius or DaVinci. Comprehende?

"Just do it"

I chose to work without script or thumb-nails and used an A8 (shirt pocket) note-pad with (light) 60gsm paper. A4's wide open space is agony to me and the comfortable intimate pocket-book suited my wish to develop a sporadic style. "Don't Get Lost" was based largely on personal experience rather than research and so I could dive straight to work at any point in my day. Many professional comics artists draw page designs on A5 (half a sheet of paper, the standard for many small pressers) and photocopying them by twice the size to A3 (121%) for use with a light-box. This is then pencilled to the page to form layout structure. I've even heard a tale of one professional who takes directly his A5 thumbnail to finished computer art. With this, the energy and spectacle of flow is retained and a good reader can notice and feel the difference.

My pencil work developed quickly to look confident. In one 24 hour session I unconsciously worked up thirty good pages in twenty-four hours. This didn't happen creationist style, I've about twenty pages of shoddy, stumbling early work to prove it.

It's worth mentioning my prior intentional experience with the 24 hour comic challenge is one that I will be repeating, and would recommend to any artist embracing a challenge. If you've not seen my 2007 comic 'Gran', I suggest book-marking this download page for an idea of a great 24 hour comic.

The accompanying video filmed in August 2008 is a bit waffly but gives an interesting insight into the strip's content and that notable notebook.