Bradley James Weber

Startling Stories for All Ages

Writing

Noble Failure #9 — An update

By

Climb Mount Fuji,
O snail,
but slowly, slowly.

Kobayashi Issa (1763 -1827)

nf9-teaser.jpg
Some teaser art for the forthcoming NOBLE FAILURE #9.

The pages for the September attempt at a 24-Hour Comic are progressing, but slowly, slowly.

The hang-up has to do with working on the computer. The vector graphic program/drawing tablet combo are getting easier to use, however, I find myself tinkering with individual lines for long, long minutes to get the angle of an arm or just the right bend in a word balloon’s tail. I keep telling myself, It’s a word balloon! Let it go! but the program’s 2000% zoom and the ability to infinitely monkey/un-monkey with lines only feeds my compulsive compulsion to obsessively-compulse over every detail until it’s right. Right? RIGHT?!?

Well, that’s my neurosis, not mine (or mine), and clearly defeats the point of a 24-Hour comic.

But I’m happy with the eight pages done so far. It’s not often I can say that about my own work, so that’s at least something.

The wife and kid are off to Minnesota for a long weekend, leaving me here to work on more comic art and to pound away at a middle grade sci-fi/adventure/comedy I’ve been wrestling with.

I wonder which I’ll finish first.

NOBLE FAILURE #8 (Another 24-Hour Comic)

By

NOBLE FAILURE #8 (August 2007)

igsp-headache.jpg

(Scroll to the bottom to view the art.)

(This probably should have been posted prior to my September attempt. Ran into some problems trying to layout the pages and get them converted to decent sized PDFs. Problems solved, thanks to the wife. See below.)

The August comic is — surprise, surprise! — another noble failure. I’m not even sure if they can be considered noble any more, just failures.

Don’t get me wrong: the stories are getting better and art is a little more serviceable, but I’m barely paying attention to the time requirements any more.

When I start these things, it’s with the full intent to do all 24 pages in 24 hours. But man, it’s getting rougher, even with all the household/baby wrangling support from the lovely and talented Stephanie. By hour 18, I’m pretty well fried.

I’m glad I’m doing this little project, and pleasantly surprised with most of the results. I’ll tell you what, though. I’m already looking forward to January.

The August issue started great: ten pages in eight hours. How awesome is that? Frickin’ awesome, if you ask me. Then things started to fall apart: Distractions, my perfection obsession — the usual.

I did get all 24 pages penciled in 24 hours, but then went back and did the inks.

Due to layout changes in the two stories, this issue is split into separate files.

Read. Enjoy. Comment.

Thanks.