But on this day, the challenge was too enticing to sleep late.
Armed with a pen, blank drawing board, and an unhealthy amount of caffeine, a half dozen adults and teenagers gathered at the back of Missoula's Muse Comic store early Saturday to try to do what some say is utterly impossible: write and illustrate a 24-page comic book in 24 hours.
Twenty-four Hour Comics Day is an international holiday of comic book creation, celebrated by 1,200 cartoonists in 18 different countries. Last year, cartoonists created 15,000 pages of comic book art.
This is Muse Comic's first time participating in the increasingly-popular holiday, which first began four years ago by award-winning cartoonist and theorist Scott McCloud.
Anything that breeds passion for comic book creation is something Muse supports, said manager Jeff McElroy. The store's staff consists of three employees, all of whom worked eight-hour shifts around the clock to pull off the event.
Some cartoonists may try to publish their work. Muse may post a few to the store's Web site, McElroy said. The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library is collecting comics completed during the 24-hour holiday. Otherwise, the challenge is for personal growth and enjoyment.
Ethan Uhl's parents dropped their son off promptly at 10 a.m., when the contest began. The cartoonists have until 10 a.m. Sunday to complete a 24-page comic.
The store provided muffins in the morning, Italian food for dinner, pizza late at night, bagels on Sunday and caffeine as needed.
By 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Uhl, a 15-year-old Frenchtown student, had already completed four pages and downed a Mountain Dew.
“I hope I don't get done too quickly,” said Uhl, whose pages contained “a billion times more detail” than normal.
Uhl doesn't read a lot of comics, but he's into drawing. What started out as stick figures several years ago turned into “wiggly and sketchy” characters, he said, inspired by the likes of cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez's morbid comic “I feel sick.”
Uhl's shaggy brown hair hung low over his eyes and his baggy brown sweatshirt rolled off one shoulder as the teenager hunched over his paper, trying to figure out how his two main characters would rid the world of the snake-like villain, Evil Oats Demon.
Pacing is everything in the 24-hour challenge.
Unlike Uhl, it took two hours for Brian Thomas, 28, to complete a page and a half. His drawings are intricate and detailed. He describes his style as a mix of “surrealism and cartoon.”
Thomas leaves himself little room for mistakes, etching in pen rather than pencil. Every time his ink runs dry - which is often- the voice of his former art teacher comes echoing back: “Too dark, too fast.”
Thomas' black comedy comic is slightly based on the Wizard of Oz, with four characters - one being Pac Man - all of whom have a grievance with God “regarding things from a ham sandwich to ... well, all I've gotten so far is a ham sandwich,” he said.
And with that, Thomas stepped outside for a smoke.
Nearby, Trujillo, a University of Montana student from Thompson Falls, kept referring back to her blue, hardbound inch-thick sketch book. It was a birthday gift a year ago, but now nearly every page is full of sketched human-animal hybrid characters.
The lead character in Trujillo's comic, The Crow Sprite, is a person with crow-like features, who must use diplomatic means to retrieve a key from a little girl. The key unlocks the armor strapped to his body, which protects him from vampires.
“It's a bit convoluted, but I hope it comes out good in story form,” said Trujillo, who was so psyched about 24-hour Comic Day, she neglected studying for her Japanese midterm Monday. “This is a good opportunity to push myself and focus. Comics are an amazing way to see inside an artist's head.”
None of the cartoonists Saturday are professionals, though there are some paid comic writers and illustrators who live in the Missoula area.
Rather, these individuals commit their entire weekend to the art of comic creation because it's something they are passionate about. Just sitting in a store surrounded by comics, it's hard not to pick one up, Trujillo said. Their interest in comics is no different from anyone else's passion.
Runners run marathons because they love it, Thomas said.
“I can't fathom wanting to run yourself into the back of an ambulance,” he said, “but it's like that, but for people who like to sit down.”
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
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