Welcome to the Singapore 24 Hour Comics Day

The next 24 Hour Comics Day is coming up on Saturday, 1 Oct 2011, at the Goodman Arts Centre.

This time, it will be part of a larger event called Comics Xchange, which will feature a seminar, workshops, bazaar and cosplay.

Spectators are welcome

But please be quiet and try not to disturb the participants!

What is 24 Hour Comics Day?

24 Hour Comics Day is a fun and creative marathon event that has taken place in many countries every year since 2004. Thousands of creators all over the globe have challenged themselves to each create 24 pages of comics in 24 hours.

On Saturday, 1 October 2011, a group of writers and artists in Singapore will take on this creative challenge.

Why take on this challenge?

Tired by happy at the end of the very first 24 Hour Comics Day in Singapore, 3 October 2010. Beautiful photo by our good friend and lens-for-hire extraordinaire, Kit Mun.

Lots of people want to do their own comics, but they keep putting it off.

When people take on this challenge, they have to let go of something in order to do so many pages in so little time. What that something is, let's call it procrastination, or perfectionism, or analysis paralysis. Whatever we call it, it's the thing that's stopping us.

Behind that compulsion to create something perfect or else not at all, is the fear of looking bad, of being criticized by others. In fact, before anyone starts criticizing us, many of us will start criticizing ourselves first!

But if we don't confront whatever is stopping us, we will never get anything done.

So this is really an opportunity to practise letting go of that fear. It is more of a mental challenge than a skills challenge.

Brief history

The 24 Hour Comics anthology published by Nat Gertler, which led to the 24 Hour Comics Day.

The 24-hour comics challenge originated in 1990 when Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics) and Steve Bissette (Swamp Thing) challenged themselves to produce an entire comic book in a day. They fulfilled the challenge, each creating a 24-page comic book plus book cover.

Since then, many other creators have taken on the challenge, including Kevin Eastman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Neil Gaiman (Sandman).

Scott McCloud's website has a section about how it got started: www.scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/24hr/

In 2004, Nat Gertler published some of the best 24-hour comics as an anthology. As a way to promote the book, he initiated 24 Hour Comics Day, an event where comic stores and other venues hosted local artists to create their own 24-hour comics.

In 2008, Gertler handed over the organization of the event to ComicsPRO, the Comics Professional Retail Organization in the United States. ComicsPRO is currently the international organizer of 24 Hour Comics Day.

If you want to know more:
www.24hourcomicsday.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24-hour_comic

The start of 24 Hour Comics Day in Singapore

In 2010, JF Koh and Lim Cheng Tju noticed that the rest of the world seems to be having all the fun. Even Malaysia had a 24 Hour Comics Day in 2006. Singapore was getting left out! So we decided, heck, let's start organizing 24 Hour Comics Day in Singapore!

Our very first 24 Hour Comics Day in Singapore took place on Saturday 2 October 2010, and was a great success.

We are doing it again in 2011. Learn about the event details and how to register for this event.

Objectives

The Singapore 24 Hour Comics Day aims to achieve these objectives:

To promote comics as a viable creative medium for artists and writers.
To build a community of comics creators to help and support one another.
To help participants understand their own creative process and build confidence.
To increase the activity level of comics creation in Singapore.
To generate brand awareness for sponsors.

Acknowledgements

Singapore 24 Hour Comics Day 2011 is supported by: