Pokrok Zapadu, The Greatest Warrior Who Ever Lived: A 24 Hour Comic
Created as part of 24 Hour Comic Book Day, Oct 2-3, 2009. Of the Doomkopf gang, I was the only one who was able to participate this year. Check out our creations from 24HCBD 2008. Notes and spoilers on this comic after the jump.
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SPOILERS AHEAD: Please read the comic first if you haven’t already!
• My story was partially a tribute to my friends who couldn’t be there, yet have been there for every other 24HCBD that I’ve been a part of. It includes characters from 24HCBD past, including Tedron the Lion-Hearted (as Pokrok Zapadu) from “Portals of Doom” by Fin Fang Foom (2008), a triceratops (as Tyrone) from “Space Dinosaurs from the Future” by Doom DeLuise (2008) and the beer-drinking robot (as Jakko) from Doom DeLuise’s long-lost 2006 24HCBD story. I also flipped through some old notebooks for inspiration, where I found a doodle for a flame-engulfed rabbit called “Resurrection Bunny” (known here as R.B.) and the documentation of my real-life encounter with a man named Gonzo, a self-proclaimed archangel of the Lord.
• This year’s story changed dramatically much more than last year’s. Last year, I kept some things pretty open-ended and made a few shifts, but for the most part, I knew where I was going and just had to decide how to get there. This year’s story changed so much, I was actually starting to think in terms of “How can I possibly explain the origin of this story once I post it?”
Originally, I was going to have some kind of alphabet battle tournament, in which the main character would fight a different alphabetical character with one per page. That led to the idea of including 24HCBD guest stars, which then led to the idea of them being imprisoned together. I won’t go into all the steps that led to where it ended up.
At one point, I’d planned for Jakko to be a creation of Pokrok, hence his comment that he feels like this is why he exists. That was going to be some literal foreshadowing. I ended up utilizing his problems with alcohol instead.
• Our dog, Winston, has made some sort of cameo in every comic challenge I’ve done since we got him, including last year’s 24HCBD and a 12 Hour Comic I did earlier this year. I keep forgetting to upload that. But he appears here as the inspiration for Bill Bubbles; we recently just started calling him Bill for some reason. His middle name, given to him by the granddaughter of the farmer who raised him, is Bubba; we often substitute Bubbles for our own amusement. It provided a nice level of extra meaning, given that Jakko later refers to alcohol as “bubbles,” and he writes Bill Bubbles as the arch-nemesis of Pokrok, his literary stand-in for himself.
• Tyrone’s horror at being cast as a girl was originally a set-up for a substitution. I was going to try to use more humor in the failures of the production, but ran out of energy or ended up deciding these things weren’t funny. But the gang was going to use an iron maiden to play the female roles. I went so far as to sketch one out so I was ready to drop it in. Never happened. I liked the other option of having Tyrone drop his pride and take one for the team, realizing his acting skills could be better utilized grooming Corey into the perfect Pokrok.
• Jakko’s decision to write Pokrok’s death as a “stabbing through the heart” metaphorically represents the fact that he never got his wife and son back, but it is also the way Tedron dies in “Portals of Doom.” I wanted to honor the source material for the fans of the original, though Corey had to fake-stab himself in the chest. It would’ve been too difficult to fake-stab oneself in the back.
• I killed about a half dozen black markers. I was going really heavy on the black. It becomes pretty obvious when I ran out.
• We had some amazing music to listen to. We started out on Big R Radio‘s ’80s channel but switched to the ’90s channel by evening. It was mind-blowingly fantastic. Highly recommended. I was very tempted to work a lot of the songs into the story, though I forced myself to redo a panel that too awkwardly forced lyrics from “Return of the Mack” by Mark Morrison.
• I finished my last page at 10:56 a.m. “Finally” by CeCe Peniston was playing. GET IT?
• During the 24 hour period, I consumed two McChickens, one McDouble, one McDonald’s hamburger, one Burger King bacon double cheeseburger, one Burger King Spicy Chicken Crisp sandwich, an order of BK onion rings, an order of McDonald’s fries, a Ho-Ho and three Twinkies.
• The good people of Krypton were great hosts once again. Thanks!
• If you’ve never done a 24 Hour Comics day challenge, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot, even if you don’t consider yourself a writer or an artist. It’s a fun thing to put yourself through, and it’s extra fun when you’re part of a group. I only knew one person there this year, and I still had a really good time.
I think that page 18 is my favorite as far as the quality of art goes, even though it’s also probably the simplest and most straight-forward. Really pops at ya, though.
Fantastic work, Jim. Wish I could’ve been there to join in this year. Sounds like you had a pretty great time.
That last sentence I wrote in my comment was inferred from when you said, at the very end, “I still had a really good time.” I’m so insightful!
You’re quickly establishing yourself as the master of 24HCBD. One day, these need to be collected.
Also, Return of the Mack is a great song. How can you not be inspired, listening to that?
I was totally inspired — it just wasn’t the right place in the story for it. So I had to consciously undo my inspiration.
By the way, I don’t think there’s a cooler name for a character than Jakko. I loves it. Although, Pokrok Zapadu is a pretty badass name. How’d you come up with that?
It was the name of a Czech newspaper in Omaha in the late 19th / early 20th century. It means “Progress of the West.”
Another great entry — I can’t believe you did all this in 24 hours! Do you think you’ll go back and “reink” the pages done after you ran out of markers?
On one hand, I’d like to, because I really did have a vision I wasn’t able to execute with my dying markers. But on the other hand, I would still feel like that’s cheating. If I’m going to do any additional work outside the 24 hours, why stop there, you know? I love the challenge for what it is, so I think I’m inclined to keep it pure, even if the finished product has some flaws.
This is Gary Peterson checking in, one of your fellow 24-hour comic book colleagues (the square in the sweatervest).
Your work is outstanding and humbling to behold. You were so silent and dedicated to your task, off unto yourself at your own table, breathing in amazing amounts of marker fumes and consuming mass quantities of McD’s. But you prevailed and were the only one of the seven us to complete your 24-page book.
I look at your pages again and marvel that they were completed in that short span of time. (You should mention how you finished even after losing about 45 minutes after your contact lenses dried up on you and you had to head home.)
I appreciated the history of Pokrok Zapadu. My under-caffeinated mind assumed it was some conglomeration of Pop Rocks, Pokemon, Frank Zappa and Husker du. (I think the music references came into my mind after you shared with us some of your encyclopedic knowledge of 1980’s and 90’s music with us.)
I hope your friends can come join us in 2010. I myself am neither a comic writer nor an artist, but I had a lot fun cobbling something together (I made 19 pages) and I especially enjoyed the company and camaraderie of fellow fans like yourself. — Gary
Hi Gary! Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words. Will you be posting your comic online anywhere? I think the other Doomkopfers pretty unanimously wish they could’ve been there again this year, so I’d expect better representation next time around.
[…] A big thanks to professional cartoonist Neal Obermeyer for the next three weeks of guest strips! Please stop by his site and visit and leave a comment here to say hi! You can also check out his 24 Hour Comic Day creation here. […]