Idea Debt is an interesting term to explain a vital concept that all creatives need to know and understand, and here we go…

Idea Debt is “When you spend too much time picturing what a project is going to be like… …And way too little time actually making the thing.” - Jessica Abel. (Click here to read her full post on the subject.)

The term, was coined by graphic novelist and living legend, Kazu Kibuishi, and later expounded upon by indie comics queen and even more legendary, Jessica Abel. It is essentially a way to describe a fallacy of sunk costs inherent in creative work. Time and creative energy is spent on a concept of a work that the creator is unable to execute right away. The more time passes without the concept being executed, the larger the concept grows in scope and the larger it’s psychological significance looms in the would-be artists mind.

Both Lady Abel and Master Kibuishi recommend that the idea debt be recognized for what it is, a sunk cost, and abandoned immediately. That amazing epic a creator came up with in their adolescence would take years if not decades to execute, but now that the creator has grown into someone with better skills and know how to tackle it, the concept has aged poorly. That self-same creator has grown in maturity as well as skills, and most likely has new stories to tell. Better stories. But The Debt looms large and if it is not cast aside, if the creator does not forgive themself, the debt will eat them. Years at a time.

Great advice.

Essential.

I highly recommend it.

I didn't do that.

The Citytown Crisis is Idea Debt that I, not only held on to, but that I paid down.

In 2013 I came upon the brilliant(ly naive) idea to quit my webcomic shenanigans and begin writing and drawing full graphic novels. One a year. I wrote and completed the whole script to my first full length Original Graphic Novel, “Purgatory Pub,” by the middle of that spring. At the time of this writing, that was 8 years ago. To date, I have only been able to execute 3/4 of the story. (I split the story into 4 separate books. The final book is due about 18 months from now.)

The long days and weeks of working on this one story has lead to the accumulation of back catalog of new story ideas stuck in my head and various notes around my computer. "The Citytown Crisis” was one of them.

In essence, it was my love letter to The Powerpuff Girls and all the Cartoon Network cartoons of that day that helped to shape me. Also, my daughter was almost school aged at that time, and we watched a lot of these cartoons together. I wanted to make a cool book that she would like and want to show off to her friends. I wanted to be cool dad.

I wrote out the outline and put it somewhere and that was that.

It sat there for 6 years.

Several other stories sat in the same place, but I heeded the exhortation to forgive those creative debts and abandon them there. However, that one story with the giant monster and the jokes? Can’t throw THAT one away.

In November 2019, I completed and kickstarted Purgatory Pub #3. It is the best drawn bit of comics that I have ever made, but it came a mighty cost. I was burnt out REAL hard on that book and those characters. All of its files were finalized and sent to the printer. It wasn’t due to be in my possession for shipping to backers until sometime in February, giving me a free vacation of 4 months. Ivy was in 4th grade, so time was short, but not impossible. My brilliant(ly naive) idea was to knock the book out in three months and have one left over for safety. I would finally make this fun book and present it to her and her classmates and be the coolest dad ever!!!

Two things stood in my way.

1) It took 6 months. Not 3. (WHEN WILL I LEARN?!)

2) Covid 19

All the kids went home and have not yet gone back to school in person yet. (Not mine, anyway.) At the time of this writing, my child is finishing elementary school from a distance. I have missed my window to be cool dad with cool books. Which is fine. It’s kind of a silly goal in the first place, to show off in front of a child’s classmates. Besides, SHE has my book and seems to like it okay.

Final takeaways from this long diatribe?

1) Idea Debt is bad. Forgive yourself and move on.

2) Don’t make things in order to show off. Make them to make them.

All my best,
-Gabe D.