Episode 3 - On Early Drafts

We had THREE topics that were somewhat braided together:

1. A thought Jess had: Become more interested in DOING what you're doing than KNOWING what you're doing.

2. A quote I wrote down: "I often find myself writing long meandering first drafts, that drift around a bit before settling down into a state of baffling indecision." - George Saunders

The Terrible Anvil: Episode 2 - Lean into the worst. In the Comics FLOW + PUBLISH group we asked around: how do you lean in when the going gets weird? What parts are EXTRA UNFUN, and how do you navigate it?

We spoke on all these topics, as well as the role of ritual and community in answering these three questions. We cooked up ideas on how to make a home there in the ruins, being okay with badly-drawn hands, what to embrace when we're working.

Your Idea(s) Will Change Over Time

Nail down some thoughts on paper or a napkin. Everything counts. Gather everything together and look at it. What are the napkins telling you that you don't know? Sometimes we project a structure onto something early on that falls away later in service of the narrative. That is normal and good!

Jess Ruliffson and I are starting our live discussion series, The Terrible Anvil, tomorrow , Jan 11, 2024 in the Sequential Artists Workshop Flow Community and this post is an invite (you can sign up for a free 2 week trial here: https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/comics-flow-group )

Conversation is a part of life. Let's bring readers into the life of our comics. It comes up a lot where people think maybe they have too much dialogue, too many “talking heads". It can happen, but it doesn’t always happen.

The famous way out of this is Wally Wood’s “22 panels that always work when some dumb writer has a bunch of lame characters sitting around and talking for page after page…”

SAW's favorite novelist on drafts, failure, and limitation as gift.

As a maker-writer, you may have a story in mind, the beginning of a story, the end of a story in mind—but rather than emphasizing the narrative arc, she places importance on the process of a “continual thickening until right shape emerges…”

Sowing, reaping, and resting in our art. A post by Jess Ruliffson.

We read them instantly.

For Conversation:

Will Eisner, in his Comics and Sequential Art, makes the case that figures in a comic are like an alphabet that we "read."

Excerpted from
https://archive.org/details/Will_Eisner_Theory_of_Comics_and_Sequential_Art/page/n15/mode/2up

In this example below, he shows the example of a "worship symbol."

Do we create emotion symbols with our figures? What do you think? Share some examples or non examples in the comments!

Our next Pro-Call is with Jamila Rowser! Come join us in our most affordable, online ongoing-community SAW FLOW + PUBLISH MEMBERSHIP GROUP (comes with a two-week free trial) to join in on MONTHLY PRO-CALLS!

We bring in comic professionals from all walks of life to guest speak (virtually) at SAW. These guest speakers give SAW students/members some insight from their personal experiences throughout their comics career and welcome questions at the end of each session. Come join us!

I’ve been thinking about the ideas of Getting Seen and also Getting Good, and why we tend to worry about doing it in the “right” order. That is, we are so certain we have to be GOOD, BEFORE we are SEEN.

For anyone working on what feels like (or is) a "big idea" and not knowing how to start. OFTEN, a creator will make a small piece, not realizing it is about to become a bigger thing. This is great, and it's encouraged! Here are some examples:

At the end of Tommi Parrish's (@tommi_pg) Week-Long Visiting Artist Workshop in the SAW Studio space, please join us for a FREE (in-person) Artist Talk with Tommi on October 20th at 7:30PM. This event will take place at local, indie bookstore @thirdhousebooks! We hope to see you there!

We're so excited to have cartoonist, Shelly Bond, for our next PRO-CALL! Join us in our most affordable, online ongoing-community SAW FLOW + PUBLISH MEMBERSHIP GROUP (comes with a two-week free trial) to join in on MONTHLY PRO-CALLS!

Starting October 7th, our regular Draw Jam on the first Saturday of the month will instead be a two day event for 24 hour comics day!

Mid-October, we are thrilled to have award-winning cartoonist, Tommi Parrish (@tommi_pg) lead a week-long Visiting Artist Workshop in the SAW Studio; our usual monthly Drink and Draw on October 19th at Boxcar hosted by SAW alums, Amy @sunshineblossoms and Elli @s0ftpillow; and a free artist talk with Tommi Parish at Third House Books @thirdhousebooks starting at 7:30PM on October 20th…

If you missed our most recent *WE BELIEVE IN COMICS* Friday Night Workshop, catch the replay below! We had a great time with creator Nick Francis Potter who had us making comics without the bounds of reality.

Come check it out, and thanks for coming to the SAW Friday Night Workshops!

Upcoming IN-PERSON events for September 2023! Kicking off September, SAW alums host a FREE in-person Draw Jam on Sept. 2 in the SAW Studio (and on the first Saturday of every month)! Mid-September we have an in-person course with M.S. Harkness, a FREE Live Comics Reading, and a FREE Drink + Draw Jam @drinkndrawgnv. And starting at the end of September, teens can join us in the SAW Studio for 10 weeks of intensive comics-making for our Fall Open Studio with Carly Shooster @hunger_eating_munch!

Are you interested in finding out more about our 2023-2024 Comics Certificate Course? Join us on Zoom, Monday August 28 @ 2 PM EDT, for our SAW Certificate Course Live Q+A!

Don't miss our next *WE BELIEVE IN COMICS* SAW's Friday Night Workshop: Against the A.I. with Tom Hart @hutchowen this Friday August 25, 2023 @ 7PM EST. https://bit.ly/saw-tomhart

Taking the chance to celebrate SAW online Alum, Angeli Rafer! The middle grade book she drew, 'Ghosts Don’t Eat Potato Chips came out this week withScholastic! Woo! Don't forget to let us know about your comics wins in the big, bad world outside the network! We want to hear about it!

Come join us in our most affordable, online ongoing-community SAW FLOW + PUBLISH MEMBERSHIP GROUP (comes with a two-week free trial) to join in on MONTHLY PRO-CALLS! Our next Pro-Call is with Joan Reilly!