sentinels of blood island

2424

bloodsentinels ofblood island

$3.5024 hour

comics

presents

MatureReaders

2

I LOVE the 24 Hour Comic Challenge. I look forward to it every year. It took me five attempts before I actually started finishing the challenge. I’ve tried it on my own, at comic shops, and most recently at Free Lunch Studios.

With Free Lunch Studios registering as an official site for the challenge, it has made it much easier for me to work harder with people sharing the same motivation.

Every year I try to have a strategy for finishing the challenge. Going in, I figured using the first three hours for blocking out the story and try to finish each of the pages in forty minutes or less. When you’re in panic mode or really tired, that can be pretty hard to keep track of...but this year I had Facebook! So you say, “Facebook? Who cares?!”. Let me tell you, Facebook helped me a lot! I was getting great fan support throughout the challenge (except in the wee hours of the evening) and I would update my status whenever I completed a page...and it was keeping my times for me!

Every year I try something different to challenge myself. Every year I feel like I improve. The one you hold in your hands is my best yet...maybe the next one will be even better!

http://www.24hourcomicsday.com/

Matt RyanPresident of Free Lunch Comics

Want to see what Matt’s working on? Check out his blog and everything Free Lunch at www.freelunchcomics.com

the goal of the 24 hour comic challenge is to finish 24 pages in 24 hours. my theory is to try to commit 40 minutes per page (if your goal is to complete the challenge).

follow meif you wantto live!

3

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i dedicate the first few hours purely to planning out the book. i come up with a plot and start lining out the pages. with an event kickoff at noon, i was working on this page until 4 pm.

4

pm

4:41

my buddy and fellow challenge participant, carlos, was sitting next to me through the event. it was around 4 pm when i asked him to make a guest appearance in my book. he’s the gushing fan.

5

workin’, workin’, workin’...

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6

pm

7:26 almost done with 5th page as i said earlier, my goal is to spend a certain amount of time per page which would allow me to stay on task and on schedule. i told some friends that i would facebook my progress through the night on occasion. that quickly turned into a page completion process when i realized that it was telling me when i completed my last page...

7

pm8:29

six done. using tricks to get caught up.

8

?

still using tricks to get caught up. copied part of page 1 (the cover) to save time on an establishing shot.

9

pm8:56

eight. this is my first journal page and it takes me a half hour to complete. i’m 2 pages behind goal...not freaking out.

10

pm

9:37

...a hair under 40 minutes to complete! stay at this pace...

11

pm10:26

this was not a quick turnaround. maybe i ate or something. side note: used a couple celebs as inspiration and loose reference for the couple.

12

pm

11:11

back to the appx 40 minute turnaround. these journal pages are saving my bacon. (which was part of the plan)

13

am11:49

finish this page 10 minutes before the halfway point. at this point, i feel good because i can look down at my notes and i can see a few time beaters.

14

am

12:36

40 minutes or one page behind. feel good. one person has dropped out of the challenge. candy is my primary food source.

15

am1:16

thurteen. journal page saves me...but there are dark times ahead...

16

am

2:05

it’s a little after 2 in the morning. i’m not getting as much encouraging feedback from face book anymore (people are going to bed) and i’m starting to worry that these “cheat” pages are the only thing keeping me in the game.

17

am2:33

my original plan was to draw page roughs in ball point pen and light box over them. i abandoned that process waaay back on page 4 (i think) when i started inking the roughs. after that, it went: blue lines then brush and ink with some tech pen.

(

18

am

3:11

i’ve finished page 16. i am on schedule but tired... i’ve competed in 5 of these events and only finished these last two. once the sun comes up, it gets easier. we take a walk around the plaza to try to wake up.

19

am4:01

page 17 is done at 4, but this is not a happy hour for me...3 of my fellow challengers will give up in this hour.

20

am

4:26

welcome to the weird times. unnamed characters are introduced...with weird names.

21

5:39

daylight is just around the corner. we are down to only a handful of challengers now.

am

22

am

5:42?

the internet is acting crazy so i can’t post...i realize 2 things: i’m the only one in a position to finish, I HAVE TO FINISH.

23

am6:11

welcome the daylight as i finish this page.

24

am

6:46

my online cheering section starts to return and so does my energy. i’m at page 22 of the story (but i’ve already drawn 23 including the cover) and i’m mentally charged to go over the 24 count!

25

am7:40

twenty three! jaws is on and i am in the zone! this is when the research and plotting that i did in the first few hours starts to pay off...i introduce the dragon sharks! found on you tube and expanded upon...my villains start to reveal themselves.

26

?

uh oh!

27

am10:09

it’s 10 am and i am done with the challenge with 2 extra pages and 2 hours to spare. i contemplate drawing filler pages...but i can’t...i am spent, i am happy, i am certainly doing this again...but next time must be different.

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ONLY IN WHISPERS #3COMING SOON FROM FREE LUNCH COMICS!

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President: Matt Ryan Creative Director: Rachael Meyer Publisher: Steve KanarasMatt Ryan’s 24 Hour Comic Presents: “Sentinels Of Blood Island” Published by Free Lunch Comics, P.O. Box 598, Granby, CT 06035 is © 2011 Matt C Ryan. All Rights Reserved. All Characters featured in this issue, the distinctive likeness thereof and related elements are property of Matt Ryan. The stories, characters,and incidents mentioned in this magazine are entirely fictional. Any similarity to persons (living or dead) is purely coincidental. None of the contents of this publication can be reprinted without the written consent of Free Lunch Comics except of partial content for review purposes only. Printed with pride in the U.S.A.