I’m not entirely happy with it, to be honest. I feel like the punchline could have been written much stronger. Oh well.

So, I started the comic. And here it is, with all the strips that I actually finished:

And… that was all I wrote. Want to know how the rest of the comic would have gone?

Well, the main character was indeed going to be Narrator, a strange grey floating character. Question Mark gave Narrator someone to talk to, as well as answering Narrator’s questions about how the world that he lives in works. Narrator learns that his job is to tell the story of a particular man’s life. He likes his job, until he finds out that it is the man’s last day on earth before he dies. Narrator is understandably horrified that the man is going to die, but as the unseen narrator, he can’t do anything directly to stop it. However, he learns that there are other beings (besides Question Mark) that he CAN talk to, and he begins a race against time to save the man before the comic strip ends at 11:59 PM that evening.

Why didn’t I finish the comic? Well, I couldn’t figure out good details of the storyline, for starters. How is the man supposed to die? What does the man do on his last day on earth? I also realized that, even if I did figure out a good story, I wouldn’t really have the time to pull it off.

Still, if someone else out there wants to try making a comic that goes through the consecutive minutes of a day, I’d love to see it. (And, if you would, credit me for helping give you the idea. )

I don’t get to play with Middle Eastern and Indian instruments very frequently, and this seemed like the perfect place to give that a shot.

Random sketch of the day.

I can only assume that, after a rousing rendition of “C is for Cookie, That’s Good Enough for Me”, he promptly devoured his lute, with pieces flying everywhere.

The creators of the site asked that I create a simple, catchy tune, so I did. Beware, though… if you listen to it too much, it will get stuck in your head for days.

1. _ _ XI _ _ – Country south of the United States
2. _ XI _ – Leave
3. _ XI _ – Planet’s center of rotation
4. _ _ _ _ XI – Mississippi city
5. _ _ XI _ _ _ – Nervous, experiencing worry
6. _ _ _ _ XI _ _ – Hydrogen ____, hair bleaching liquid
7. _ _ XI – Cab
8. _ _ XI _ – Poisonous
9. _ _ XI _ _ _ – Upper limit
10. _ _ _ _ _ XI _ _ _ – Die from lack of oxygen

Answers:

1. MEXICO
2. EXIT
3. AXIS
4. BILOXI
5. ANXIOUS
6. PEROXIDE
7. TAXI
8. TOXIC
9. MAXIMUM
10. ASPHYXIATE

Yep, I finally got around to coloring it. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me that it should be a Jellyfish in Armour toon!

Last year, I attended a concert in which an orchestra was about to perform Beethoven’s Symphony #5. Now, I’d already been composing music commercially for a few years, and I was feeling pretty confident about my own skills as a composer, thinking that I was a pretty awesome composer, if I said so myself.

However, any pride in my own abilities was pretty much crushed as soon as the orchestra started, though. The entire symphony was absolutely beautiful, and I sat in my seat amazed by the skill in what I’d heard. “Beethoven was able to come up with something this beautiful? 200 years ago? Without computers? WHILE DEAF?!?”

Clearly, I still have a lot to learn.

You do too. Beethoven¹, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Bach… we will likely never get the point where we’re considered a master like they were. In some ways, that’s kinda depressing.

But on the other hand, we also have advantages that they could never have dreamed about. We have access to instruments that weren’t even invented when they were alive. Every major song created in the last 200 years can be instantly available to us to learn from. Musicians are paid more than they ever have been in history.² And, most importantly, we have tools at our disposal capable of almost perfectly recreating the sound of an entire orchestra… by ourselves!

There has never been a better time to be a composer. I hope that the articles I’ve written so far have helped to inspire you, and I imagine I’ll be writing more in the future. If there’s a song you want to share, put it online³ and post about it in the comments! I’d love to hear what you’ve made.

Previous: Chapter 13: How to Get Noticed

Footnotes: