I thought a lot about last year: what had worked well?  What had slowed me down?  What were my biggest mistakes and how could I avoid them this time around?

For the past several months, I've been immersed in another personal comics project of mine: I regularly draw single-page, four-panel comics for family, friends and associates and give them the originals (the ones I've done so far are posted here).  Nothing fancy, I draw them on letter-sized typing paper.  I have a four-panel template I print out before doing the stories inside the boxes.  People (for the most part) have enjoyed getting these little art pieces from me, despite the fact that most of the recipients are not comics fans.  The strips are small and quick and sometimes a little clever.  I enjoy them.  At this writing, I've done quite a few of them.

The trouble is, some people have even gone so far as to frame them and hang them in prominent places in their homes and offices.  It's way better treatment than I ever expected, so I recently decided to start doing them on nicer paper.  While picking up letter-sized card stock at Office Max, it struck me: how about using these for my 24HC?

By switching from 9" x 12" Bristol to 8-1/2" x 11" card stock, I'd only be saving myself a few square inches per page, but... those inches add up to minutes and possibly even hours over the course of 24 pages.

And, hell, if I'm doing these on letter-sized paper, they'd be small enough to fit in my printer.  I estimate I spent 25% or more of my time last year on lettering and ruling out my panel borders.  What if I were to cut that time down to 15%?  Or less?  What if I did all my panel borders and lettering on the computer, printed them out on the card stock, then did my art on top of the printouts?

Last year was a mix of brushwork (most of which was done with a fairly cheap liner brush), markers and ultra fine point Sharpies.  The story needed the brush feel, but this year's tale felt as if it called for art that was more spare and clinical, so I decided that I'd do almost exclusively ultra-fine point Sharpies for everything.  I knew my hand would pay the price, but the pens were good for speed and this years premise was complex enough that I knew in advance I'd need a lot of panels.

Also, since my brainstorm to keep an audio journal after each page was such a hit last year, I decided to do it again, upping the ante a little this time: video.  Same rules as last year: one entry per page, recorded at the completion of each page.  It would require a little more administration than audio, but screw it.  If nothing else, I was a little curious to see what I would look like as I deteriorated.

Carey redesigned my office earlier this year and it's a truly beautiful place to work, much better than the dungeon in which I produced Jump.  Clean.  Organized.  Pretty.

Food?  Check.  Materials?  Paper, pencils, pens, markers, brushes and ink (just in case), opaque white, pencil sharpener, computer with Adobe Illustrator open, printer.... check, check, and check.

October 7, 2006.  Showtime at 8:00 AM.