Ready, Set... GO!

Are you ready? It's probably already November 1st in places, so I hope you're all already hard at work drawing. The rest of us are sweating out the last hours of October, waiting for the first to roll around so that we can rip into the first pages of our comics. Before we get started I just wanted to send out a big hello and WELCOME to everyone who's joining in this round, and wish you all the best of luck! Also, because I'm com!Mom in absenteeism this time around, here are some answers to those last minute questions that come up - please don't hesitate to ask me or your com!Dad, adifferentdrum, any other questions you may have!

1) It is NEVER too late to sign up. Today, tomorrow, next week, October 29th... just heard about Nanomango? Thought you weren't going to do it but hit by sudden inspiration mid month? Whatever, whenever - it's never too late to sign up and jump in and start drawing. Join in!

2) You can draw however and in whatever style you want. Pencil, paper, crayon, ink, chalk, ballpoint pen, MS Paint, Photoshop, Gimp, some online paint program*, on an iPad or an iPhone, entirely digital, scanned in paper, papers photographed with a camera or a celphone... Any way you want to do it, everything goes. Superhero comics, every flavor of manga, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, slice of life, horror, comedy, fancomics, original comics, full pages, four panel comic strips, single panel comic strips, whatever pairs up drawn art and storytelling in some fashion**. It's ALL GOOD.

3) You don't have to post. If you don't have the means or can't or just don't want to post every day, don't sweat it. The important thing is doing it. Tell a story and draw. If you want to bundle it all up and post once a week, that's great. If you don't post at all, that's fine too - we won't be able to cheer you on but it's entirely up to you. Posting is really just for sharing all of the pain and stress and fun of doing this with a community, not to force you all to be accountable to your page count. And really, the primary word in that last sentence is FUN. Do it and share it (or not) however makes it fun for you.

4) You CAN do this. It's not about being great. It's not about creating 30 individual masterpieces. You don't have to draw at any particular level. Stickfigures or professional comic artists, we're all in this together - the point is to challenge yourself to spend 30 days producing some sort of sequential art story. Whatever your skill level, whatever your story, you CAN do this. I believe in every one of you. ^__^

ARE YOU READY? LET'S DO THIS!


* Free online art programs: DeviantArt Muro, Tegaki (I've done comics on there, it's totally possible), Sumo Paint, Sketch & Paint, and QueekyPaint. Or if you want to do something REALLY crazy artsy, there's Blue Random, Flame Painter, and Sketchy. (I don't think you could actually do comics with those last three, but I'd love somebody to prove me wrong!)

** We do ask that adult subjects - sex, violence, etc - be warned for and the contents put behind a cut tag. Actually, we ask that everyone use a cut tag, as it keeps the comm from totally breaking everyone's friends pages, so please - <lj-cut> is your friend. Please use it.