Muserology Cafe

A New Adventure Every Day (with Hat) (February 2012)

by Ryan B., age 17, MA

I never thought I'd be an artist. Sure, I doodled across my homework as much as the next kid, and maybe just a little more, but I had no aspirations of becoming a painter or sculptor or illustrator. Which is why I was entirely surprised to find myself staying up late trying to make the deadline for my webcomic, Ball with Hat.

Ball with Hat started in a pretty unremarkable way. When I first doodled a round ball with two tall eyes and a top hat, I never imagined that I would be drawing this character day after day for all the world to see. It was on the corner of a whiteboard, see, and whiteboards are infamous for being only the temporary holding pens for wild ideas. Any sketch made on a whiteboard will be quickly erased and forgotten. 

But this circle in a top hat wasn't forgotten. There was something about him that I liked, and I found that the first drawing had to be followed by another, and another. Ball liked to explore, to discover new places, to set out on grand journeys. And to wear hats, of course. For every drawing of Ball, I drew another hat related to the locale Ball found himself in. And I made every drawing on a whiteboard, only to be replaced a few days later by another adventure and another hat.

It was my father who first appreciated these drawings, and my brother who suggested that I expand my doodles into a webcomic. At first I laughed at the idea. After all, branching out and releasing Ball to the public had hardly been my original intent. But slowly he won me over, and I decided that I would try this webcomic thing. Under one condition, that is: I wanted Ball with Hat to stand out, and for that I would need more than just a quirky concept. I decided to make it a daily webcomic. 

If you've never seen a webcomic before, they're similar to the comics you might find in a newspaper. They're updated regularly and can have one quick punch line or, in some cases, a longer overarching plot. Thousands of webcomics exist, and their artists and readers make up whole online communities. I hoped to make Ball with Hat stand out through its frequency. Most webcomics are updated a few times a week, at most. Going daily meant a bigger responsibility, but a greater reward. 

Thus the late nights spent drawing.

I quickly found out that drawing a daily webcomic isn't as easy as it may seem. Every comic has to start with a new idea. A funny-sounding word, an exciting location, or a historical figure's birthday: any of these could be the seed for a new Ball with Hat. At times I even open up the dictionary, stick my finger on a random word, and use that as the basis for a new comic. Hey, whatever works.

Once I have my idea, it's time to do some research. For M. C. Escher's birthday, for example, I decided to dedicate a whole week to his unique art and visual illusions. To show a cross-section of his entire output, I researched his life and changing art styles. I also surveyed all of his works. Once my research was complete, I made quick drawings, or thumbnail sketches, to see which layouts would work. After that, I began work on the finished product. I penciled, inked, and colored the comic on paper, then scanned in all the elements to combine and retouch on the computer. The new comics were ready to be uploaded for the full week.

The audience for Ball with Hat started small, with my close friends and relatives. From there, word of my comic spread to people I knew from online forums, friends of friends, and friends of relatives. I can look at statistics about the visitors to my website, which provide some interesting insights: I've had readers as far away as Melbourne, Australia, and Hamburg, Germany!

Seeing visitors from such widespread places gives me hope that all the work I've put into Ball with Hat, all the creativity and research and dedication, will bring some entertainment to people I've never met and I'll probably never meet in the future. I'm still trying to understand what Ball with Hat means to me, but I know one thing for certain: However Ball with Hat continues, however the course of the comic may turn, I've learned that sometimes the simplest idea can blossom into a life-changing experience.

If you're interested in checking out Ball with Hat, you can find it at www.BallwithHat.com. You may even find Kokopelli in a certain petroglyph-themed comic.