24 Hour Comics Day 2005

For those of you who didn't know this, Probeersel.com organised a small 24 Hour Comics event on February 29th this year. We received nearly immediate competition from Nat Gertler who started announcing that there was also an 'official' 24 Hour Comic Day coming up. After defending our right to have our own event ", damnit", and by the way reasonably successfully doing so, I did follow the official Day and all announcements surrounding it with great interest. At least three books have been published in direct relationship with this day, and loads upon loads of comics were made.

What is a 24 Hour Comic, you ask ? What is 24 Hour Comic Day ? What the hell is René going on about now ??
Well, the below press release (thanks to ComicBookResources.com) pretty much answers all your questions, and already announces the 24HCD for 2005. Since they're this early with announcing it, it's likely going to be BIG.
Doing a 24 Hour Comic is often dubbed 'the Mount Everest for comic artists' and I can speak from first-hand experience that it's quite an ordeal. But a fun one, and one that can have a whole wide range of effects on yourself and your work. So if anyone wants to do one, next year is your big chance - a 24 Hour Comic is easier to commit to if you know other people are trying as well at the same time, trust me.
So here it is, hot off the press:

Nat Gertler, publisher of About Comics and founder of 24 Hour Comics Day, has announced the date for the next event: April 23rd, 2005. On this day, cartoonists around the world will take the 24 hour comics challenge, each trying to write and draw a 24 page comics story in 24 straight hours.

"The event really needs to be on a Saturday, so that people can spend their 24 hours and still have time to recover before work or school on Monday," explains Gertler. "Because of that, we couldn’t keep the April 24th date we used for this year’s inaugural event. But by having the 24 hours starting on the twenty-third, it actually ends on the 24th."

Once again, comic book stores, comic clubs, and educational institutions will be hosting 24 Hour Comics Day events where cartoonists will work side by side in a spirit of camaraderie. “The early indications are that most but not all of the locations that hosted events this year will do it again next time, and there’s a fair number of additional retailers showing interest. Between that and the on-going enthusiasm from both amateur and professional cartoonists, it looks like 2005 will be even bigger than 2004,” says Gertler. Announcement of the initial list of event locations is still months away.