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24 Hour Comics All-Stars
Well-known comics creators take comicdom's greatest challenge: to completely write and draw a full 24 page comics story in 24 straight hours. A combination of energetic improvisational effort and a marathon effort, the 24 hour comics challenge is a rite of passage in the comics field. Stories include: The very first 24 hour comic, created by Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics), comicdom's leading theoretician and inventor of the challenge. Instead of doing one 24 page story, former X-Men artist Paul Smith (Leave It to Chance) created six shorter stories totaling 24 pages, including the true tale of his father's capture and rescue during World War II. "Counter" by Mary Jane writer Sean McKeever is a tale of awakening in a slightly different dimension. Dave Sim provides "Bigger, Blacker Kiss," a story created in the midst of his work on the recently completed 300 issue opus Cerebus the Aardvark. Tone Rodriguez, the artist of The Adventures of Snake Plissken, provides an original science fiction action adventure. And more!
240 pages, Paperback
Published April 19, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 19, 2018
Reading in preparation for this year's 24-Hour Comic Challenge.
Scott McCloud created the challenge about almost 30 years ago, and since then Nat Gerler has been helping popularize the idea in an annual organized event and even curates a "Best Of" Series since then, on a sporadic basis.
Since then thousands have people have attempted this feat many of them comic notables.
The main benefit of this anthology to me is seeing these "best ofs" and "successes" immensely lowers my own anxieties about the attempt. While I'll never know how I'll fare until the pencil hits the paper and the clock starts, it's clear my writing is not crucial. (But I'm not a good artist either!)
Scott McCloud created the challenge about almost 30 years ago, and since then Nat Gerler has been helping popularize the idea in an annual organized event and even curates a "Best Of" Series since then, on a sporadic basis.
Since then thousands have people have attempted this feat many of them comic notables.
The main benefit of this anthology to me is seeing these "best ofs" and "successes" immensely lowers my own anxieties about the attempt. While I'll never know how I'll fare until the pencil hits the paper and the clock starts, it's clear my writing is not crucial. (But I'm not a good artist either!)
August 30, 2025
This was much less interesting. The pieces were mostly duds and the novelty of the idea, without a quality product, had worn off for me.
January 2, 2010
The Tom Hart section would be worth a five-star rating on its own. As an ad-hoc anthology, the quality of the work in this book is pretty uneven, with some good sections, some stellar ones, some mediocre and some awful. Dave Sim finishes the book off with a one-note character study making full use of his trademarked Hackneyed Dave Sim Misogyny to narrate the inner life of a Horrible No Good Woman. Ugh.
But thank god for the Tom Hart. How does he do it? With scribbly drafting he is constantly able to create sublimely evocative relationships and characters. People who are simultaneously child-like and extremely old, whose every proclamation seems loaded with meaning, whimsy, and loss. I gotta find out where he teaches, take out a massive loan, and take some of his courses.
Tone Rodriguez had beautiful rip-off Jack Kirby drawing and a strikingly stupid story to tell. Not awful, but just sort of unengaging if you're not a twelve-year old boy whose inner world is raging with power fantasies.
David Chelsea: I can't believe he drew some of those panels in less than a day! Great little batch of stories with incredible drawing. Paul Smith's stuff was really funny with a particularly good anecdote about his corn-eating cat. Chris Eliopoulos did the most amazing Calvin & Hobbes homage I've ever seen. John Peters' thing was amusing, though not terribly memorable. Sean McKeever's thing didn't connect with me at all. Scott McCloud's piece was fun and experimental, but a little bloodless. It didn't reflect lived experience or something from an inner universe as much as it suggested someone playing around with the conventions of a medium (which doesn't always lead to a compelling story).
The most important thing is this book inspired me to try to participate in the 24 hour comics day whenever it next rolls around. Force myself to create something, even if it sucks.
But thank god for the Tom Hart. How does he do it? With scribbly drafting he is constantly able to create sublimely evocative relationships and characters. People who are simultaneously child-like and extremely old, whose every proclamation seems loaded with meaning, whimsy, and loss. I gotta find out where he teaches, take out a massive loan, and take some of his courses.
Tone Rodriguez had beautiful rip-off Jack Kirby drawing and a strikingly stupid story to tell. Not awful, but just sort of unengaging if you're not a twelve-year old boy whose inner world is raging with power fantasies.
David Chelsea: I can't believe he drew some of those panels in less than a day! Great little batch of stories with incredible drawing. Paul Smith's stuff was really funny with a particularly good anecdote about his corn-eating cat. Chris Eliopoulos did the most amazing Calvin & Hobbes homage I've ever seen. John Peters' thing was amusing, though not terribly memorable. Sean McKeever's thing didn't connect with me at all. Scott McCloud's piece was fun and experimental, but a little bloodless. It didn't reflect lived experience or something from an inner universe as much as it suggested someone playing around with the conventions of a medium (which doesn't always lead to a compelling story).
The most important thing is this book inspired me to try to participate in the 24 hour comics day whenever it next rolls around. Force myself to create something, even if it sucks.
March 27, 2011
As with the other books in the "24 Hour Comics" series, this is kind of a mixed bag. Still, some amazing work done in such a short amount of time.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews