SPACE Table

Tom Cherry's wares on display at SPACE.

Sketchy Heroes

When I did my first 24 Hour Comic, Bad Eggs, I used an online random superhero name generator to come up with these characters, then quickly sketched what I thought they would look like.  Some of them show up in Bad Eggs, The Vow, and other places.

Close the Window, Calm the Light

When I wasn't paying attention 24 Hour Comics Day got moved to the fall, and through poking around on the interwebs home on a half-day from work when I should be doing something contructive I learned that it starts Saturday. I have survived this Nerd Extreme Sports challenge twice, once on my 35th birthday and once at Readers Copies Comics in Anderson, Indiana, with my brother, my pal Tom, and some other more talented people. I am going to see if I can get it rockin' this weekend, but if I don't, you can see THE LIBERATOR, my poorly-rendered take on the public-domain Nedor heroes starting here, and my first sketchy 24 Hour Comic, BAD EGGS, starting here.

In other geekly news, several of the old gang are trying to get together and try out this newfangled D&D 4E in the next few weeks. Though my brother wants to reboot a few of his old characters I think I shall retire the dwarven bard Farrah Brokefoot and start a new character; I'm contemplating a sardonic human rogue called Broken-Necked Jack, which came to me in a dream. Naturally, updates will be provided here.

Though I've only a third through it, I highly recommend HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON by Naomi Novik to my blog pals. Until later, catch me at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

The Liberator: PostScript

This was the last page of the original photocopy of my 24 Hour Comic "The Liberator."

My arm is still numb from fingertip to elbow, but here is my account of 24 Hour Comics Day, with apologies to the late Hunter S. Thompson....

We were somewhere around Daleville, Indiana when the Vanilla Pepsi kicked in. In the passenger seat was my brother, wild-haired and red-eyed on five hours' sleep. Some band called Mah-Jongg spat 70s funk smashed with electronica out of the speakers. In the backseat we had a dozen felt-tipped pens, a fat blue Sharpee, two mechanical pencils, three shades of drawing paper, a half-dried jar of white-out, a bottle of Tylenol, and a thick copy of last year's "24 Hour Comics Day Highlights." It was almost 9 a.m., and we had a dozen miles to go. I knew they would be tough miles. And many more miles to go before we slept. It was 24 Hour Comics Day.

I had started 24 Hour Comic Day at 4 p.m. the day before, doing preliminary research on the internet into Nedor heroes and getting some random idea prompts from the official site (this includes the title of this comic, “The Superhero Diagnosis,” as well as “Feral Robots” and “A Punch to the Jaw” (seen several times within these pages). Then I went to dinner with my brother and family to celebrate his birthday, and stayed out too late talking about philosophy and life and so on. I learned the happy news that he would join me the next morning and draw his own 24 Hour Comic, a story in a fantasy setting. He would start at midnight. Meanwhile, the whole time my own clock was ticking. I drew about two pages and made the bold decision that I would do better after a few hours of sleep. I crashed out around 11:30 and got up at 5 a.m. I did four quick pages, with my favorite muse albums by ELO and The Fifth Dimension chugging in the background, before I had to leave and pick up my brother a half-hour away, then head to Reader Copies in Anderson, Indiana, an official site for the event. Another hour gone.

Reader Copies in Anderson welcomed us with open arms, and plyed us with food and drink all day. I met Robert, a professor at Ball State University with actual artistic talent, trying to tell the history of creation through his story. Mine was about a giant robot invasion.At around 11 a.m. Tom joined us, another actual artist with one "noble failure" under his belt. Fresh blood gave the rest of us a shot in the arm, but a few hours later and we were all at low ebb together, the waves crashing on our splintered rafts. I genuinely didn't think I would finish, but so much interest from patrons of the store helped egg me on the last mile. I did 18 pages in seven hours, ending at 3:45. So I got a little frisky and drew the cover as well. I am so not kidding that my hand hurt like hell, more than the last time I did a 24 Hour Comic. I should have trained. My brother ran out of steam, as did Robert, but I later learned that Tom and his fish-headed friend crossed the finish line. We had left to go see "Sin City" and have BBQ to celebrate. But I was slowly slipping away, and fell asleep with Nedor heroes dancing in my head at about 10 p.m.

The Liberator: Final Pages

I don't know if anyone was really waiting to read these or not, but here are the final pages of "The Liberator," my 24 Hour Comic done for the 24 Hour Comics Challenge in 2005, shown on this blog for the first time. Here, The Liberator (from the public domain Nedor Comics line) meets up finally with the Over-Think. I might have been overthinking this part. I was tired.

The Liberator has his "2001" moment.

I know I can't draw. It took me forever to figure out how to draw The Liberator lying on the ground. So I am proud of that panel.

Dick Martin was the original Pyroman. And The Cavalier was a real Nedor character, though some doubted it at the time. The Black Terror is more famous, but I felt like drawing my own Cavalier. I made the Woman in Red look pretty foxy there, didn't I?

The Liberator: Last Page!

Sniff! And that's my take on Nedor comics. Man, did my hand hurt! If you liked it, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com. Yes, I know that says page 23! I drew the "roll call" page last, and since I had numbered the pages, that became page 0.

The Liberator Pg. 16

Another few pages of THE LIBERATOR, my "24 Hour Comic" featuring the public-domain Nedor comic book heroes. On the mothership, the new Liberator witnesses American Crusader and the gang putting the beat-down on an alien invasion.

The Liberator Pg. 17

Fighting Yank gets a comeuppance.

The Liberator Pg. 18

Ms. Masque saves the day. More from THE LIBERATOR later.

The Liberator, Pg. 11

The Liberator makes First Contact, in the latest batch of pages from my 24 Hour Comic "The Liberator," based on public-domain Nedor heroes.

The Liberator, Pg. 12

I think I probably was hitting my stride, or whatever stride I had, at this point. I like this sequence the best in this comic.

The Liberator, Pg. 13

With great power comes great responsibility, etc.

The Liberator, Pg. 14

This is the Liberator getting transported up to the mothership. I probably could have drawn this better.

The Liberator, Pg. 15

The mothership could have been better. But man, was my hand getting tired.

The Liberator, Pg. 7

A new batch of pages from my 24 Hour Comic "The Liberator." Ms. Masque tries every tried and true origin to scope out the new Liberator.

The Liberator, Pg. 8

The secret origin of the new Liberator. I think this is the first page I drew at the 24 Hour Comics Event at Readers' Copies comic book store in Anderson, Indiana. To see more from this event, including photos, go here.

The Liberator, Pg. 9

Here is my version of The Woman in Red. Historically, this had just been a chick dressed up in red clothes; no powers, nothing. One of the original female superhero characters, methinks. Alan Moore did a bit of an update to her. I decided to do a more mystical version, as the team seemed to lack that figure.