The Section Comics

An experiment in comics

Category: 1-Introduction

  • What is a Graphic Novel?

    The concept of a graphic novel goes back quite a while, but there first person to use the phrase in its current form, I believe, was Will Eisner in relation to his book “A Contract with God.”

    The rough idea is that it’s a long form comic book containing a single narrative. It might contain multiple stories from different points of view, but they all connect to tell one single cohesive narrative.

    It is not an anthology

    A 48 hour graphic novel is very different from an anthology, which is a collection of possibly unrelated stories, which all fit a single theme. Those are very easy to do in a short term project like the one we’re discussing in this website, because everyone has complete control and can work independently and never talk to anyone else and just make their thing.

    A single narrative with everyone working together, on the other hand, requires the communication and community that this type of project was meant to bring about.

    A little jam, A little exquisite corpse

    Though they are not directly what we’re doing here, the concepts of a comic jam or an exquisite corpse are also worth understanding, because there’s a bit of that to a 48 hour graphic novel. Those are story telling forms where one creator begins, and another takes what they have written, and creates the next section (in a comic jam, it’s usually page by page). It’s a more linear story telling process, where everyone just builds off of the person who came before.

    This isn’t really the idea of a 48 hour graphic novel, but it’s more in-spirit with the idea than an anthology is, because it has that component of trying to tell one story together. The difference is, of course that on a practical level in a 48 hour graphic novel, you don’t have time to wait for the each individual before you to finish their part before it’s your turn.

  • Feedback Welcome!

    I don’t believe there’s one right way to do anything — but I do generally believe that there are things we can do that will make it easier to achieve a 48 hour graphic novel for the majority of people. I’m just not certain I know them all. In fact, I’m fairly certain that I don’t. So, I’d like to hear from you.

    Everything in this webpage is based on what I’ve seen, what I’ve understood, theories I have, and what others have suggested. I want to hear any experience that you’ve had, or ideas and suggestions for solving the many difficulties associated with a project of this sort. So, if you start your own 48 hour graphic novel or participate in one, and notice something, let me know.

    I hope it’s pretty clear from the text that I will write about different points of view in the process. I might have my own point of view in there, as well, but in fairness it is my website. And I’ll make it clear when it’s my commentary so people can ignore that part.

    So feel free to email me at 48hourgraphicnovel at gmail dot com.

  • Stretching the concept

    The whole idea of a 48 hour graphic novel was just a crazy idea I had. I do not own the patent on crazy ideas. 

    What I want to see in the future is people stretching this idea and trying new things with it. I hope to one day see someone make a full color project in 48 hours. However, knowing what is involved there in getting something colored, and printing, etc. I don’t know that I would want to be involved with the process, myself. Just happy to see the end result. 

    I also believe that 8 creators could manage a book – 4 writer artists, 4 dedicated artists with experience in digital publishing software. I’d really like to give this a try – creating a small digital, punk version of this project, where everyone maybe meets up at a house and brings their own food or joins online. 

    And maybe someone else out there has another brilliant idea – the recommendations in this blog are more about what seems to be necessary, and what worked and didn’t in the events that have already happened. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and if you’re going to fail, fail big!

    Remember that the final product isn’t as important as the experience. It takes 2 days out of your life – that’s like 0.007% of your life. If you don’t get what you want out of the first try, you can try it again with another 48 hours. 

  • Introduction to the 48 Hour Graphic Novel

    Hi, I’m Dave, the co-creator, and idea man behind Graphic Novel Weekend or the 48 hour graphic novel. Admittedly, other people may have come up with this before, but I haven’t found any record of it – if you know of anyone, please let me know. 

    In this website, I’m going to bring together as much information as I can related to the concept, the goal, attempts that have been made both successful and otherwise. 

    If you want to contact me directly, I’m available at 48hourgraphicnovel at gmail dot com.

    What is Graphic Novel Weekend?

    Simply put, Graphic Novel Weekend, or a 48 hour graphic novel, is a single story graphic novel created by a combination of writers and artists over the course of a 48 hour period. 

    This is a serious challenge, because multiple voices and styles have to come together in a limited time and still manage to create a single coherent story. Communication has to be managed, corners have to be cut, and coffee has to be made. 

    How is this different from 24 hour comic day?

    The idea for the 48 hour graphic novel came from 24 hour comic day, and trying to find a way to make it a more collaborative process. The main differences are resources, time, and sleep. In 24 hour comic day, 1 person has to write and draw 24 pages in 24 hours. 

    With 48 hour graphic novel, groups are put together with one dedicated writer and several artists – and over the course of the weekend people may move from one group to another. 

    In addition, there is additional time – we have 2 or 3 separate days to work on the project (it depends on how the event is planned), and time to sleep is planned in. Sleep helps keep the mind sharp, and coherent, but also gives the ability to sleep on ideas and come up with new ways of doing things. 

    In a 48 hour graphic novel, some creators will create many pages, and some will work slower but with more focus – with this we balance the end project, but still finish it in one time, in one place, over a 48 hour period. 

    Why Create a 48 hour graphic novel?

    There are three reasons to create a 48 hour graphic novel. 

    First, the least important of these reasons is to have a finished graphic novel. If you’re joining into this project, you should really like comics, and that being the case, having more comics in the world is a great thing. And having a well made final product is great. However, the final product is the least important goal of this project – and it’s important not to lose sight of that fact.

    Second, of higher importance is what that graphic novel represents – this is a calling card for the creators involved. Credit is essential – and it must be 100% clear what was done by who. The creators will have something published that they can use to show off their capabilities. Sometimes it’s hard to create an entire project by yourself, but in a group, you can, and in the end to show this off it must be possible to see who did what in the book. 

    Third, and most important, is learning, networking, and connecting with others. The art world, and the world of an independent comic creator anywhere (or a European comic creator, in general) can be one of solitary creation. This is a situation where newer creators can learn from seasoned pros, and vice versa. Everyone has something to bring to the table, and something to learn as well as to teach. Really, the event should feel like a collaborative party in some regards. A time to learn and experience. 

    My own history

    Truthfully, I came up with this idea because of two separate events. First, I did a 24 hour comic day, by myself, shortly after moving to a new country. It was depressing and lonely. I craved a sense of community, but I thought about the process itself and realized that while I could go do a 24 hour comic day with a bunch of other people, I lived in a country where (at the time) I didn’t speak the language. I would have been alone in a crowd, and I wanted to be with people.

    Second, I realized that I’d had a half finished graphic novel sitting in my computer for years. Finding the time and energy to work on that was just not happening. I wanted to find a way to force the creation process. Not necessarily with that project, but with a project. And setting a time limit seemed like one way to do that. But an aggressive time limit had some requirements and we’ll discuss those and lessons learned in this website.