Learning How I Play

While on a morning walk a silly comic idea about a knight and a dragon popped into my head. It's a funny little story with a surprising ending. I took out my phone and dictated the story into my voice recorder so I wouldn't forget it. Then I mentally set it aside. I had other things that needed to take priority, namely to get started writing the next chapter of The After Death-my ongoing comic epic about ghosts in New Orleans-and to keep working on my pitch packet for a comic I'm hoping to get an agent with. Both of these things I have been working on for a while now and--although I remain an unsigned, self-employed, self-published comic creator that does not technically have any deadlines, or a boss, I can still be pretty demanding of my time and tend to let myself down on a regular basis--I needed to focus on them.

I mean...I should be focusing on them. I mean...what will my fans think? I can't just start making a completely different comic out of nowhere. They came for The After Death, I need to give them The After Death.

...said my self-talk. But when I sat down at my desk to draw, the only thing I wanted to create was this knight versus dragon comic. So, I let myself draw the first page...a-and the second. Okay, I got it out of my system. Now to work on The After Death... So I sat down and drew the third page instead. I'm on page 9 at the moment, guess how much of The After Death I've written? Three pages. Just three pages so far. So what gives? What's going on?

I accidentedly stumbled upon the answer when I was talking with my wife. We really weren't talking about comics or art at all really, I think she was just talking about creative expression and doing things for the fun of it. That's when I realized exactly what this dragon comic really is all about: the fun of it.

I'm playing.

It's a thing that I'm forgetting how to do. Playing-y'know? Doing something for fun. Gee, isn't that a concept!? Of course I don't hate making The After Death or working on Eerie, but even my little autobio comics have started to lose their luster (I mean, just how interesting is my life really? Okaywait...don't answer that-MOVING ON).

There's a few lessons I need to learn here. And simply because the internet exists plus the fact I too exist I thought I'd share them below in hopes they might help you exist better.

• I might be my own boss, but I don't have to be such a slavedriver y'know? Cheese'n Rice dial it back a little.

• Fans are forgiving. And if they're any fans at all they might even like the dragon comic. Especially if it means A) it gives me more time to really flesh out The After Death and make the writing matter and make that comic even better and B) it allows me to take a break. I think about all the creators I'm a fan of and how mad I don't get when they take the time they need for themselves-or for other projects.

• Play is kind. Play is smart. Play is important. Ask anyone and they'll tell you it's a valuable part of the process to make time to play around. The problem I was having specifically is I didn't know what my play looked like. A lot of artists will just doodle stuff in a sketchbook-that's their playtime. But I'm not a sketchbook type. For me, a sketchbook is for problem solving, not for relaxing or playtime. For the longest time I was asking myself, what does my play look like? And I think I've finally figured it out. It's still making comics, but making comics for the fun of it.

That's all I got for you today, so go make something cool-even if it is just for fun.