Everybody Gets it Wrong! and Other Stories: David Chelsea's 24-Hour Comics Volume 1 (David Chelsea’s 24-hour Comics, 1) by David Chelsea

Everybody Gets it Wrong! and Other Stories: David Chelsea's 24-Hour Comics Volume 1 (David Chelsea’s 24-hour Comics, 1) Reviews

• 
  Artguy

  I am not a cartoonist, but people enjoy my cartoons. I have several friends who are cartoonists, though, a couple of whom are fairly well known (as far as non-syndicated cartoonists go). They LOVE the challenge of a 24-hour comic and did it once. They talk about it all the time. It is a bit like going to summer camp. Time is compressed and everything is heightened to a fever pitch. And yes, people are surprised at how productive they can be.
  
  Chelsea embraces this, of course. Considering the limited amount of time, his drawings are astounding. Polished without the time to be polished. Well thought out (usually) with creative perspectives. His storylines usually start strong but fade, which would be expected, although I am not quite sure he is aware. Neverthless, it is fun to see this played out.
• 
  Villain E

  David Chelsea is a natural when it comes to 24-hour comics. While the rest of us are being intimidated by the clock (like I'm the only one who's been beaten up by time), Mr. Chelsea doesn't seem to notice the difference between the first hour and the seventeenth. No sign of stress, not even a touch of determination, he just chats away about obscure old TV shows while finishing his twenty-four pages in eighteen hours or less.
  
  It seemed only a matter of time before all of those works were collected. And here are the first six of them, collected in the order of creation. Like the original intention of the challenge, there is no prepared script. Mr. Chelsea starts with a rough idea, then uses a supply of magazine clippings, from which he pulls random samplings for inspiration. As such, the stories are stream-of-consciousness combined with Mr. Chelsea's quirky sense of humor. The artwork isn't polished, of course. One story is drawn on poor paper, and the ink bled, so the line quality is horrible. But a lot of the work is impressive given the time constraints.
  
  David Chelsea's humor doesn't appeal to everybody, a statement illustrated by the fact that David Chelsea In Love and Welcome To The Zone are out of print. (Go find used copies. Or, better yet, petition Dark Horse obtain the rights and put them back in print.) The stories are silly, obscure, liberal-minded, and don't take themselves too seriously.
  
  Oh, and guest appearances by Mug, co-star of David Chelsea's Perspective books.
  
  I'm looking forward to the next one.
  
• 
  D.M.

  My interest in David Chelsea's work is only slightly more than passing: I own his first graphic novel, David Chelsea in Love, in its original issues and Welcome to the Interzone, and am usually curious to see what he's up to (especially since both those works are at least 20 years old). So, naturally, when I saw this book in our local library's latest comics selection I was pleasantly surprised.
  The concept is simple: Chelsea follows Scott McCloud's '24-hour Comics' formula (complete an original comics work of 24 pages in as many hours or less) and rules, either alone or with other creating company. The results, for better or worse, begin to be collected here. If this is any sign of what else his sessions produced, I won't be along for volume two.
  Since Chelsea is an accomplished draughtsman of comics, none of the work presented herein is absolutely bad. Most of it is merely competent, usually attractive and often amusing. It may just be the nature of the project that nothing meatier appears here (unless we include the title story's clumsy attempt at teaching us a little something about narrative point-of-view, probably the best-drawn piece). Whatever the cause, it might have been in Chelsea's (and Dark Horse's) best interests to produce this series as a larger single volume. As it is, it really just looks like a bit of a vanity project for a creator that only the most ardent fan is this interested in.
• 
  Mark Schlatter

  A fun read of David Chelsea's 24 hour comics (one of which I've seen before in
  24 x 2). Don't expect a lot of depth, but it's fun to see Chelsea riff visually on some of his favorites topics (including a nice piece on perspective).