"Never put yourself on the clock" is something Tom Sturges, a former music executive for Universal Music Publishing, said to me when we were working on a comic project together. Back in the 2000s there were so many wild things going on in the industry. So many thought every single comic had a shot at becoming a movie or tv show. It led to some interesting partnerships. This was one of them.
Many of those projects were never fully realized even in comic form. It is something I want to write about more in the future. That said, the book we created with Jiba Anderson (and many other talented people) did eventually come out but is now out of print! I never even got a comp copy lol
Tom is the son of Preston Sturges, renowned director and screenwriter. Preston won the first Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay back in 1940. Sullivan's Travels is a good place to start if you want to check out his work.
Preston died when Tom was only 3. He showed me his father's last journal. It was a leather bound notebook full of notes and sketches. I held it in my hands and flipped through it until I got halfway through and the pages became blank.
"That was the notebook he was using just before the day he died."
Never put yourself on the clock. Is it an idea that has merit? We have deadlines. We have commitments. We have bills. These are all on timelines. The one that matters most is how much time we have. That we don't exactly know.
What I take from the phrase is don't put on yourself a goal that impossible to reach in a certain amount of time. Which leads to a saying Kelci and I have: "One at a time." I don't want to put myself on the clock, but I want to write more about that concept in the future as well. It relates.
Tom never really knew his father but has worked throughout the years to preserve his legacy. I imagine it helps him understand and provides meaning.
He also said "Every idea is a good Idea" but that is a story for another time.
Kelci's awesome layouts and flats for this strip: