Productivity and Motivation: Jason Franks and Paul Mason

Part three of talking with self-publishing/small press cartoonists about productivity and motivation.

Jason Franks

Do you experience a drop in productivity upon completing a comic? Have you developed methods to deal with creative lulls? What do you consider the primary obstructions of your productivity?

Nope.

Because I am principally a writer, it usually takes months or years for any given piece that I write to see print--so I'm already well into the next project. In fact the converse is probably true: depending on the publisher, pushing a book through the lettering/production process might interrupt my writing schedule for a period, so my productivity usually goes up right after a book comes out when I can settle down and get back to creative work.
  

 Paul Mason

After spending maybe 4-6 months solid on a book writing, drawing, colouring, lettering, assembling/pre print etc, especially ruining my body clock in the process, I can’t help but blow off a few days doing very little creatively as I recover. Read a favourite book, stare at the idiot box, dust off the Playstation for my twice a year game session etc, and maybe sleep longer than 5 hours.

But no method is better to beat this than the next pending deadline/task on the list. I remind myself “Don’t be an amateur”- This applies not only to my comic tasks, but also my sports or work practices. A pro would tough out the pending tasks and get it done. I figure I can’t reach my goals screwing about, and not bringing out new stuff. Not much of a method, berating myself mentally, but it’s true. It’s the same when I have to find the time to train for a world championship or tournament while working, studying and comicing- I might have worked all day at the day job, sat through peak hour traffic, get home to more work, an empty kitchen that needs groceries, sort a meal out, prep for the next day etc. and think the last thing I want to do is exercise. “Would an amateur relax? What would a champion do?”. There’s my answer. That comic page needs to be done by the end of the evening. “Would a pro watch TV and play video games instead?”

The fact that I hate one of my day jobs, and I have a doctoral degree to complete soon is a motivation. Improvement should always be an answer to procrastination. Don’t just “exist” in life. Accomplish things.

The enemy- Social media. A necessary evil in terms of keeping in touch, promotion etc, but you can easily get caught up looking at nothing important at all, chatting to people etc. A great time-swallower. Really though, the enemy is me. The TV or internet doesn’t turn itself on. It’s a battle, since comics can be a solitary pursuit, and the social media contact can be an alluring time-waster. But my main drive? Reminding myself that I don’t have much time; every minute wasted is potential sleep time disappearing, and that book down the track might not get done on time.

Productivity and Motivation: David C Mahler and Darren Close

Part two of talking with self-publishing/small press cartoonists about productivity and motivation.

David C. Mahler is a young prolific Melbourne cartoonist, he seems to have a new mini comic out every few month, in a variety of formats, as well as featuring in recent anthologies Dailies and Victoria Drug Scene. David's tumblr.

Do you experience a drop in productivity upon completing a comic?

Not exactly. I'm a bit of a workhorse; at any one time I'll have 5 or so books in the works, which can range from 6 - 30 pages. As I work on a large number of projects at once, they do take quite some time to see completion, so maybe that's how I get around the dreaded productivity drop; I just take so long to complete any one thing. As well, I'm constantly noting down new concepts and dream projects…I'm starting to get worried I'll never have a holiday ever again. Generally if I finish a longer work I'll have a few days of rest where I'll work on more scratchy 1-2 pagers before starting the long uphill push once more. Oh, I will admit, I've actually caught myself taking mid-project breaks more and more. I'll wake up in the morning, sit at my desk with a stack of inked pages, a stack of panelled pages, and catch myself watching Bob's Burger's an hour later. And then it's lunchtime, and of course you have to eat lunch in front of youtube…I mean, that's just common sense…I never really acknowledged it before, but I guess my weakness is indeed the mid-project lazies!

Have you developed methods to deal with creative lulls?

Definitely just piling the projects on. If I know there's more to do I'll push myself harder to finish off the current comic, so I can go onto that next exciting project. I also make a point of discussing projects with, well, everyone. I'm worried it comes off a bit like boasting, but really it's a tactic I've found to commit myself to my work - I don't want to let anyone down! Every now and then a friend will ask something along the lines of "so did you give up on that 20 pager you mentioned last year?" and I'm basically always reassuring, "no no, it's sitting on my desk, the pencils are tight, any day now!!"
As far as the sneaky tv breaks, it generally gets to a point where I say "alright, I've finished one page in the last three days, yet I've finished two seasons of Lost. Time to get back to work! …After this episode…"

What do you consider the primary obstructions of your productivity?

Well, TV no doubt…I'm not the most social person - I've been shamefully known to cancel plans last minute because I'm just too deep in the zone. Really the only other obstacle I can recognise would be food, which makes me pretty darn tired. I realised a while ago that my most productive periods are the days I don't eat! What an awful double edged sword…don't worry, I don't starve myself for my art, but if I need to I can contentedly rock out a solid, meal-scarce 40 hours where I'll just whizz through 10-15 pages. I really do not recommend it.

Via his creation Killeroo, Darren Close has collaborated with a wide line up of Australian writers and cartoonists since it's initial appearance in the university magazine The Third Degree. Close has been active in fostering comics communities with his Ozcomics weekly draw-off and prior to that Ozcomics the magazine, co-edited with Mark Selan.
 
Do you experience a drop in productivity upon completing a comic?
 
Yeah, there's a period when you switch to "create mode" to "pimp mode" and everything else goes on the back-burner for a while - at least that's how it was with the GANGWAR one-shot last year. I moved heaven and earth to get it ready for Big Arse 2 - and then straight into online orders and gauging interest of stocking it at local comic shops. The next book didn't really get a look-in until most of the stock was sold.

Have you developed methods to deal with creative lulls?
 

Well for one I'll never rush a book to meet a deadline again. The GANGWARS ANTHOLOGY book has been a slow burn, generating and gauging retailer interest whilst it's still coming together, much better planning and NO rushed pages. Not soliciting the release date until it's READY is another handy tip.

What do you consider the primary obstructions of your productivity?
 

Probably facebook (and ozcomics). It's a great marketing tool but also a big drain on time and energy if you don't monitor it.