Two Scientists Pursue the Unthinkinable to Defeat the Ivory Triune, in “Don’t Think of an Elephant.”

Written by Jason Block, Illustrated by Mark F. Domowicz. As featured in Upsetting Magazine #77 - Download the complete PDF here!

Maybe I’m Crazy

After all my drama and complaining as I struggled to finish my first comic, somehow I decided it would be a good idea to participate in the 24-hour Comic Book Day challenge. As the name suggests, this is a once-a-year event where comic fans and creators attempt to complete a full 24-page comic in just 24 hours. And it just so happened that in 2023 it occurred on the first weekend of October, very shortly after I had finished my first comic (on September 27th).

Why’d I do it?

You might think that after the struggle to make the first comic, I’d at least wait a good long while before having a second go. But there were a lot of small reasons that made me want to try anyway. One was that, after taking 80 days to draw the first comic with traditional media, I wondered how fast I could go if I worked digitally. Another was that I had a script already in hand that I loved (written by a good friend of mine), and in fact I’d had that script and an itch to draw it since 2017. Another was a new confidence that I was skilled enough to reasonably illustrate the script in the first place, something I did not believe to be true in 2017. It was a confidence I only really had as a result of finishing the first comic. And still another reason for trying was that I was putting together an anthology magazine, which only had two stories in it, and I felt it would be much nicer if I could add a third.

But most importantly, I decided to take the challenge because I was willing to treat it as nothing more than an experiment, one for which I’d give my self permission to fail, and for which there was just one constraint: have fun. I told my self that if it was becoming a drag, I could just stop. And I allowed myself to adjust the rules to keep it stress free (e.g., I split the 24 hours into two 12 hour sessions). And in the end, if I didn’t finish the comic, that would be ok! I still would have gained something.

The Results

Well the experiment failed, in that I didn’t finish the comic in the 24 hours I had. But in all other ways, I regard it as a complete success. I proved to myself that I could indeed work very fast if I needed to, moving at a rate of 6 pages per day (compare to 1 to 1.5 pages per day for the first comic). And, I found my story-telling confidence to be well placed. The panel-to-panel designs and ideas came to me readily, and for the first time, it seemed I was thinking about the script like a real comic book creator.

After the first 24 hours, I decided to take advantage of the momentum, and keep going. I didn’t stick to the 6 pages per day rate, but I was still moving quite fast, and put the very last touches on it, including shading and lettering passes, early on the 9th day. Start to finish, the entire 22 page comic took 60 hours to complete.

And in the end, I have another comic under my belt, another story to add to my magazine, and best of all, I’ve proven I can tell comic stories pretty darn quickly, opening up very real possibilities of making comics even when I’m limited to only nights and weekends. The very thought inspires me to write the next script.