National Comic Writing Month, November!NatCoWriMo.
When: November
What: One comic page a day for 30 days, Or a 30 page comic in 30 days.
How: Blood, sweat and tears
Why: Because you’ve been “meaning to start that comic forever” but you’ve been pussy footing around on it, well its game time. Sharpen your fucking pencils.
NaNoWriMo is a 50,000 word challenge. For the comic challenge to be equal, but achievable, we must set some guidelines.
1. You Must Be Starting a New Story
This challenge is to get something new going. If you have an on going comic that you already update on a schedule, You are amazing, but this isn’t for that project. This challenge is to help you to practice finishing what you start, so you cant just marathon 30 pages in the middle of a story.
You May:
-Create a Vignette within a universe that is already created
-Create the starting point of a longer series, so long as the chapter has some sort of beginning, middle and end within itself
-Redo a comic that you have previously started, but remains incomplete (You cannot use the old pages to count towards your goal)
2. You must write one Narrative for the 30 pages
Meaning, you cant write a bunch of “strips” or 3 page short stores that are unrelated and have them count. This rule can be interpreted in different if you wish to do a longer but unconventional or non-linear comic, but the point it to keep you focused on one project, and not to at the end of the month just mush unrelated work together.
3. You may do 30 complete pages, either layout or finished
What “complete” means in terms of polish is up to you, but if you do 30 it should be a legible, readable comic. If you’d like to plan out a longer endeavor you may lay out pages instead. You must sketch a page AND write the script/description to accompany it. The lay out must be in a state you could actually work from.
4. The Deadline is midnight, Nov 30th.
NO EXCUSES. AIM TO WIN.
You can win the wonderful, heartwarming satisfaction that you completed a comic! HORRAY FOR SATISFACTION! DELICIOUS, SCRUMPTIOUS SATISFACTION!
I am running a tumblr for NatCo, and you can submit over there as well. Please PM me your email for an invite to contribute to the blog.
http://natcowrimo.tumblr.com/
THE FINISHED COMIC TRACK
So last year I realized that to champion this November, I really needed to take charge of my pre-production. I wanted to make a new comic with characters that I haven't been sitting on for years. I'm starting fresh, maybe you should too! This is my finished comic track, give it a shot with me!
AugScripting Write your script, re-write your script, concept your characters, and get everything prepared for:
Sketchtember Layout phase, Get your pages drafted and your script adapted to panels, you want everything in place for:
Inktober Follow along with real inktober and ink the shit out of those pages:
NATCOWRIMO GET ALL YOUR SHIT DONE, 30 PAGES 30 DAYS
We can do it, my AC comrades! LET US CHAMPION NOVEMBER.
Posts
I actually have a script written, but its still a little rough around the edges. I will be spending august finding the style and creating the characters, which will hopefully help me round out my script. I'm not going to post up scripts here, but if Nano participators want to review scripts outside of the public view, mine is in a google doc, and I'd be happy to make a little collaborative group in the google drive.
So far, I have the main character, Carter:
My Comic is called "But, In Reality" and I am trying to keep it as short, simple and focused as possible. Carter is a college graduate dealing with his life not being exactly where he imagined. I'm hoping to hit close to home for the situation a bunch of my fellow private school graduates are in.
I will be posting sketches over the month of august, probably drawing as we move to austin when its not my turn to drive.
@Mynt and @m3nance Totally expect to see some stuff coming this way before November, because you know whats up. Anybody else who wants to jump in, consider getting in now!
My comic is set in an alternate reality cold war era, where the soviets have already established several lunar facilities, but they keep up the illusion of being in the space race to the Americans even though they have won it a long time ago. The comic is about two soviet scientists who go on a mission to uncover what has happened on a soviet moon base on the "dark side" of the moon (actually it should just be the far side, it's not that dark at all).
Old concepts are included in the spoiler:
And I've also done a 3d mock up of the space ship that transports them from earth orbit to orbit with the moon. I'm trying to keep it fairly hard sci fi (hence gravity rings and pv arrays) but also still a bit pulp-sci-fi'ish (the rocket in the docking module for example.)
The purpose of this is to get you pumped and committed! The pressure, for me personally is still high, I'm setting a deadline, which is no small challenge for someone whos started a lot of comics but never really finished one. I think that finishing is the hardest thing for new comic creators, and that is what natco is combating, above all.
I will probably have my comic "penciled" by november 1, I don't really ink. I'm prepping to have it painted by the end.
Now, to start an autobiographical comic, or do something completely different….
My Artist Corner Thread • Everywhere I Post
I would commit to an idea by September, at the very least. If you are doing something autobiographical, you wont really have to concept too much, which is helpful. Sitting down and figuring out if you have some sort of point, or story in particular you want to tell helps with doing autobiographical stuff.
Comics
BUT I'm going to take an active support role and hold all of you accountable for your own work! So who's making the commitment?
M3nace
Iruka
Wahay
McD???
Are any of your projects comics? You could adapt one for nano, rather than start anew.
Some are, but I don't know if a 30-pager is really right for them. We'll see how these next few months pan out, if things take shape and I have the time great, otherwise I don't want to say I'm committing only to drop out if something comes up.
Carter outfits, leaning to the left one, but I kinda like the hobo one. The middle one is probably a little too cool.
Also, I can't tell what the left one's wearing on the neck area. Is that a turtleneck or some scarf like the others?
I need to concept out two other major characters before I can start really pushing the other pre-production things, so I will probably get on that.
Hey @m3nace, My script is really rough, but do you want to trade what we have so far for feedback?
INSTAGRAM
Character #2 is coming along, Felicia, who is Carters friend. The only other character that plays a major role is Carter's dad, so if I get that done next week I should be on track for mostly focusing on layout type stuff next month!
So September I'm going to try and get a little bit of the setting sketched out before I start diving into layouts. Hopefully by the end of the month I will feel ready to really layout the 30 pages in October. I don't need to ink, and I'm going to keep it in this fairly monochromatic scheme.
Carter's childhood house
The Scoundrel & The Bastard
My Comics Thread
Its still coming together, and I want to finish this guy, but in the next few days I'm going to start smushing together my layouts.
Anyone else? Huh?
Where you @wahay ? @mynty @sampangolin @McD ?
:C
<:CCCC
My Artist Corner Thread • Everywhere I Post
THE DAY IS TODAY, what are you waiting for, whats stopping you? A page layout might take you an hour, tops. Just dive in!
Look, I failed this project last year. By the time I got to the end I was scribbling incoherent pages that barely meant anything, but the learning experience was awesome. I FORCED myself to do something, even if it wasn't to my expectations, I achieved both understanding how hard it was, and understanding how, with a little more forward planning on my part, how much easier it could be. Let go of your reservations, Natco is not about churning out the best project ever, its about breaking down the god awful habit of not seeing something untill its done, or letting something sit in your mind because its too daunting to start.
You can make a comic. You have to start somewhere! JUST START! DO IT! I CANNOT BE ANYMORE PUSHY ABOUT IT!
Comics
@McD what better way to tackle personal turmoil with the raw accomplishment of getting something done! Forward progress!
@Wahay, YOU TOO!!!
@transatlanticalien, comooooon!
EVERYBODY.
Until I COMBINE THEM.
…I just thought of that now. Hmm.
My Artist Corner Thread • Everywhere I Post
and that is really awesome stuff Iruka!
I can already tell there's gonna be feels involved.
EnterVOID
Get on this shit, though. Its tough, but I'd really like for some other folks to stick it out with me!