not falling down

1012 hrs: It begins.

1014 hrs: Whoops, forgot the silverware. Right back.

1015 hrs: Okay, now it begins.

1152 hrs: Almost an hour and a half of brainstorming and doodling. I’ve got some pretty goodideas, but they’re all pretty scattered and I don’t have anything like a plot that I’m satisfiedwith (always the hardest part). At 1215 I’m going to start drawing my first page no matter what,and we’ll just have to see where that leads.

1224 hrs: Eating ramen instead. But I think I have the idea I’m going to go with. Now:twists!

1304 hrs: Still eating. Damn, these are some good carrot sticks.

1521 hrs: Just finished the first page. Could very well be a bad sign, but hey, I’ve onlygot to do a page every 49 minutes or so. I will fortify my spirits with Swiss Cake Rolls.

1821 hrs: Just finished my second page. Um. Perhaps ravioli will help.

1950 hrs: Third page and my back hurts. For future reference, do not attempt to create alush visual environment when a) you’re on a deadline and b) you suck at creating visualanything and c) you only have a pencil to work with anyway.

Still running pretty far behind, but pages are getting shorter! Time-wise, I mean. If you takethese three lengths and the curve holds true, the last page should take less than one second!

2203 hrs: I’m not going to finish this in twenty-four hours. Not even close, it looks like.Just got the fourth page.

I need advice.

2249 hrs: That took MUCH too long. But.

I’m abandoning Nika (the thing I’ve been working on for twelve hours) and starting over. I’m goingto do 100 comic strips in twelve–no, eleven hours. May or may not ink ‘em. This may be thestupidest thing I have ever done.

The starting over, I mean, not the Solitary. Hoo wah. Back to the drawing board!

0147 hrs: Three pages of Blondie and Monument (or possibly Blandishment) done. In roughlyone fourth the time that amount of Nika took. That still may not be fast enough. More Cherry Coke!More bladder polyps!

0347 hrs: Still not gonna make it.

Meryl Streep. Marvin’s Room. Robert De Niro. The Score. Edward Norton. Fight Club. Bam!

2240 hrs: Well, I had another entry in here, but there was a power surge. Stupidpower.

I ended up with fourteen pages, plus the covers, which artificially inflate it to sixteen. Put thatwith the four (gorgeous) pages I did for Nika, and I wasn’t too far behind schedule; if you onlycount the pages I did in their own time span, I was actually ahead of schedule (fourteenpages in twelve hours).

So no, the comic doesn’t make much sense, but I think it’s funny and I think a couple other peopleout there will too. Altbrand-type people. I’m not completely happy, but I can live with what I’vegot.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a half-dozen new characters to play with and a whole world to develop thissummer. I think I got more out of Solitary than it got out of me.

I win.