constrained 24-hour comics

never expected i'd succeed (or so i thought) with this challenge, and finish it about half the time. flipreads spearheaded the 24-hour komixathon event. from 1200 of the 19th of May to 1200 of the 20th. from the 24 constraints or themes, i chose seven and added my own regulation--all of which i shall explain in this post, risking being defensive. you may flee from my ramblings though, and opt to [view my 8-page comic], or visit the [komixathon homepage], to view other entries.

upon registration, i asked adam david whether photographs can be used as backgrounds and if initial planning, like having some sorta notes of possible output, without having actual drafts, would be okay. apparently, both are and, evidently, being the crammer that i have been the past few months, neither did i have initial plans nor photographs to fit the nonexistent plans. thank the gods for the constraints that i have read about 30 minutes before the official start. that was the only time when i have thought of something. (btw, the previous weekend, managed to cram away an entry for a komix antho that shall be released, this coming komikon. would post details soon. i have no new komix titles as of the moment, tho i have new zines. and, as usual, works that remain in-progress. anyway)

1500, i then listed the constraints i have chosen: (24) A character looks up at the sky and sees a star for the last time in the character's life; (22) Every page is set one year before or after the preceding one. For example, page one = 1982 / page two = 1983 / page three = 1984, etc etc; (21) A character looks at the mirror, and sees the reflection of a different person; (20) Every page uses the words "dust," "desire," and "dark;" (18) A character looks out the window, and sees the world has changed; (16) Every page introduces or eliminates a character in or from the story; (07) The entire book is made up of only six panels, repeated, reworded, and remixed in; and (xx) The text shall be a sestina.

now, the unsolicited, quite defensive, justification: how i dealt w rule (24) is pretty obvious as i have implied at the beginning of the narrative. same with (22), as each page flashes back into previous octobers. (20), (16) and (07) also needs no further explanation. the two remaining rules, perhaps need to be explained. how did i obey rule (21)? there is a loading-travelling-unloading panel, and in one of those panels, the character sees the world changing through the (bus) window, if not through that of his soul, i.e. his eyes. reading the text shall prove how i followed rule (16). now, let me share something about rule (xx):

a sestina is a structured poem that has the pattern ABCDEF | FAEBDC | CFDABE | ECBFAD | DEACFB | BDFECA | ECA or ACE -- where each set is a stanza, and each letter a particular word ending a particular line. let me translate lloyd schwartz poem "Six Words" to give you an idea. (madaya, e, ano, madali lang isalin iyon dahil isang salita lang kada linya and orihinal na ingles na tula, so, anim na salita lang kada stanza. pero mahirap maging tapat sa salin dahil sa, basta, kung nais, tignan ang orihinal, at tignan ito at tignan ang batas na hindi naman parating sinusunod. sana naman hindi ako nagkamali at madaling araw na at sabog.)

***

Anim na Salita
salin ni tilde acuña ng tula ni schwartz


oo
hindi
maaari
minsan
lagi
hinding-hindi

Hinding-hindi?
Oo.
Lagi?
Hindi.
Minsan?
Maaari—

maaaring 
hinding-hindi
minsan.
Oo—
hindi
lagi:

laging
maaari.
Hindi—
hinding-hinding
oo.
Minsan,

minsan
(laging)
oo.
Maaaring
hinding-hindi . . .
Hindi,

hindi—
minsan.
Hinding-hindi.
Lagi?
Maaari.
Oo—

oong hindi
maaaring minsan
laging hinding-hindi.

***

there. the first thing i finished for the 24-hour komixathon was the "script": the sestina. it was around 1600. did the images at about 2000 and did the layout at around 2359. then, as planned as the contest began afterlunch, i used each set [(e.g. ABCDEF) or six-line stanza with six recurring words] as the text of each six-panel page. i thought of attributing each image to a particular word, but i later think it might not work, so, i just push the images one step at a time in every page. thus, the images may coincide with the chosen words in the process:

(a) dark; (b) desire; (c) dust; (d) despair; (e) dignified; and (f) day x (1) star; (2) mirror; (3) backpacking; (4) loading; (5) travelling; and (6) unloading. these cross fertilization whatsoever resulted to a dark desire for death's dust. that is all. thank you for dropping by and enduring tl;dr. thank flipreads for the push to create.

p.s. a realized constraint: rule (8) The entire book is made up of only one giant image, cut and sequenced into a story. don't know if it counts, but the images used are cropped from one sheet of bond paper.

***

0700 wakeup update. here are the opened tabs as i work on the comics. dont know if they have something to do w this particular output, but they shall probably have something to do w future attempts. or not. maybe just a randomly clicked linked on some feed. [the most badass alphabet][incidental comics][manifesto in clear language][gertrude stein: the world is round][9 ridiculously useful spanish expressions][fuck yeah marxism-leninism][camila vallejo slams u.s. interference in cuba][30 harshest author-on-author insults in history][30 harshest filmmaker-on-filmmaker insults in history][alt lit gossip]. that's it. good morning. today, btw, is ka bel's 4th death anniv. yesterday, was ho chi minh's birthday. i shall go somewhere today that has something to do with some of the aforementioned things, and i hope to have the strength and will to do so.

p.s. GoT-s02e06 spoiler: held my breath for arya stark as she serves lord baelish and tywin lannister wine, trying to prevent little finger's field of vision. k. back to reality. shall watch il postino later. alas, found synchronized subtitles.  hope to have time sooner or later to read a song of fire and ice, among other readings.