A while ago I thought I would make comics. I’ve been hell bent on telling a story since college. I’ve had a number of false starts and innumerable bad ideas. One of which was to start making art for a comic I had done barely any writing on. I was just picking moments I thought were cool and going to town. That was so much wasted time. In the end, the story didn’t hold up (or I lost interest) and the art scrapped.
After that I swore to myself I’d never do that again.
Since then, I’ve been working on a short piece of fiction about death. My intentions are to pair this story with a series of illustrations and I’ve been very careful about not jumping the gun again. Until December of 2018. I had been languishing on this story, convincing myself I was “stuck” and was not finding enough reason to change that. When I was asked to contribute art to Every Day Original, I found myself trying to come up with something to paint. With the story on my mind, I decided to make something for the series accompanying the story. Uh Oh.
The painting served to re-ignite a fire where there were only embers. I didn’t expect that. Sometimes it helps to glimpse what things might look like finished. I don’t know what I expected. But since completing the painting I’ve wanted to do nothing but write. In part because I want to make more art and in part because I really want to see the whole thing together. That compelled me to make a little cover mock up for my story (from a cell phone shot and some quick type in photoshop).
The painting served to re-ignite a fire where there were only embers. I didn’t expect that.
..and sometimes it helps to glimpse what things might look like finished.
This little bit of potential was enough to make me attack the story with vigor again. Comics are different in that the art does a lot to tell the story, so the story has to be solid. Fiction, is maybe a little different, I dunno. I’ll report back when I’m done.
Thanks for indulging me.
-Eli