Tag Archives: comic jam

Jam Idea: Speedy Comic Jam

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Speed Comic Jam

History: First done at the Cartoon Art Museum Comic Jam on May 31, 2009

Idea: The idea of this jam is to work fast. Some of us artist have a habit of getting stuck on our comics projects and spending too much time. The jam produced interesting results and has some different variations. I could see this being a way to develop an idea with out getting stuck. You sort of just try to draw in ‘real time’.

How does it work: The idea of the jam is that each artist only takes a minuet or two to draw each panel We recommend that artist draw with pen since it forces us to not get too careful and work faster. We worked in a format based on Darwin Cookes’ “New Frontier” which features 3 CinemaScope panels per page. The wider panels requite some more details and storytelling sometimes, but also make the project go faster. We made copies of the template and then tapped them up on an easel.

We did the first jam in pencil with four artist, but that seemed to make it harder to follow, but it might be worth a try. See the variations below.

Materials:

– Printed comic templates. You can use any format you like or none at all, but we are not experience with it that way.
– Art materials, we recommended pens. Sharpies work well.
– Two artist at least
– Someone or Something to keep time. Watch, iPhone, Clock Watcher, etc.
– Easel or wall to put up the pages on. I think it’s better to stand and get lots of energy flowing.
– Way to get a random idea. We had printed slips of ideas generated from the website http://seventhsanctum.com/

Sample:

– Tape up 2, 4 or more of printed templates on the easel or the wall. Make sure you won’t damage the wall with your pens of choice.
– Pick one to a couple of random ideas, or just pick them from the audience or non-participating artist.
– Pick who goes first.
– The first artist draws for two minutes (one minutes is harder) the first panel.
– The second artist continues in the second panel.
– The first artist draws the third panel etc.
– Continue to the last panel on the last page. Can you have the story end on the last page?

Here is a sample of some of our jams by way of Flickr.

• This is my Mike Hales and Roberto who alternated panel by panel…

photo by Rick Lucy

• Variation: (below) Each artist drew their panels at the same time, but only on two pages per person. The theme was “Glam Rock Beach Party”…by Brian Kolm and Mike Hales.

photo by Rick Lucy

• Variation: Lots of people.

More then two people draw. One person per panel.

• Variation: Faster or slower. Use less time per panel or more time.

• Variation (not tried yet): Layered.

One person draws on the panel with a light pencil for one/two minutes. Then another artist goes over with ink for one/two minute. Then another artist adds the word balloons. Another adds the background. It really can be any variation mixed with the ideas above.

and You can have it so one artist starts with the first step and goes panel by panel at one/two minutes of time each and then the second person does not start till the first person moves to the next page.

— by Brian Kolm

P.S. please let us know if try this type of Jam and how your experience was.

CCSF Comic Book Jam at the Cartoon Art Museum May 31, 2009 report

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Well, today 26 people came to the Cartoon Art Museum to create comics and art. Members of the Cartoonist Conspiricy San Francisco joined with the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore for a Comic Jam.

Starting at 11 am artist begin to arrive at the Museum and were given a special custom lanyard while we finished setting up in the Museum’s lobby.

First off, artist were invited to help design the Bookstore’s online persona ‘Sparky Joe.’ Sparky Joe is a mash up of Olive Oyl, Wendy the good little witch, wolf girl from Lil’ Abner, and Disney’s version of Tinkerbell.

At noon we started the comic jams. One table did a series of illustrations that had an adventuring girl over the course of a day. The other table had two groups who worked on comics on Sticky Notes. The Sticky Notes allowed for us to create a collaborative story that can be rearranged and adjusted creating a more solid tale. The jams will be on-line in the next few weeks.

Later in the day we tried something new, Speed Comic Jams. We took pre-printed pages with three cinema scope panels and posted four of them on a tablet on a stand. The first time had each artist taking turns filling in the panels one by one with only one minutes per panel. We drew in pencil with a random theme with the words: Cinderella and Detective Tale. That produced loose rough drawings. The next version had two artist drawing two pages at the same time with two minutes per panel. The theme was Glam Rock Beach party. This time we drew with Sharpie pens which made the artist work simpler and cleaner. We did the challenges a few more times, finially returing to panel by panel at two minutes a time.

Around 4pm we had a few more artist finish some “Sparky Joe” drawings and then at 5pm we all voted along with shoppers in the Bookstore. Manager Heather had a hard time picking from all the designs so this made it easier. In the end there was  a three way tie, so we had another round of voting with the winner being artist Audry Soffa (of the web comic the Bunny System) who’s art will be uploaded soon to Facebook.

If you want to be a friend of the Cartroon Art Museum Bookstore, just search Facebook for Sparky Joe or you can follow on Twitter as well.

It seemed that everyone had a really good time and we were really productive. We hope to have some comics on-line soon and look forward to returning to the museum sometime soon.