Target 144 is part of International Literature Conspiracy Week.
You've heard of it, right?
No?
Good.
What you must do:
Monday 9 February, 2009, 12 midday: start making a comic.
Tuesday 10 - Friday 13 (ooooh!): keep making the comic.
Saturday 14 February 2009, 12 midday: finish making the comic.
Simple, eh? There's more, but the above is pretty much it: if you've been looking for an excuse to dive in to comic making for 6 days, whether you're a first-timer, a battle-scarred veteran or somewheres in between, this is the 144 hours (6 x 24 = 144) you've been looking for.
What's 'more':
1. Your comic needs to be about what is happening during those six days, either what's going on in your head or in the world outside or the space in between (where, after all, so much happens).
2. You need to tear out and include the date from some 'official' print source (newspaper, tram ticket etc) to effectively 'carbon-date' your work.
3. You are most welcome to kick off the 144 hours by spending the first 6 with me, other comickers and some zinesters down the rabbit hole at Sticky (in the Degraves Street Subway under Flinders Street). We'll be there from 12 midday to 6pm on Monday 9 February and I'll be buying top notch coffee, tea and donuts for any comicker there until my 'organiser funds' have run out.
4. You are most welcome to celebrate the end of 'Target 144' by coming down to the aforesaid Sticky on Saturday 14 February (yes, by all means, bring your Valentine) with copies of the comic you have made (which you have photocopied at the photocopier of your choice) and you can --- well, sell 'em, swap 'em, give 'em away for a kiss if you're that way inclined. The zinesters will be there too, and all of us 'Target 144' folk will be holding hands and singing old 'zine and comic' folk ballads from the 16th century. Or something like that.
5. Finally, get good copies of your pages to me the following week (Feb 16 - Feb 20). I have been entrusted with the sacred task of compiling the 'Target 144' publication, collecting all the pieces, zine and comic, produced that week and packing them up into a natty little photocopied A5 book. Already I think this will be a beaut publication, so make that comic. Set those evenings aside. Take one of the days off from work/school/sleep and really hit the target.
Target 144.
6 days of sheer comic (or zine if that's your scene) making pleasure.
Carpe carpem, as Thomas Pynchon says.
Seize the carp.
Contact me bernard@cardigancomics.com if 1) you have any questions, and 2) if you're going to be part of it (and good on you if you are!) so I can book you a place in the 'Target 144' book.
International Literature Conspiracy Week and Target 144 has been whispered about in shuttered rooms by: Sticky, Polyester Books, The City of Melbourne and Cardigan Comics.