Comic Creator Challenge

Fysh · 19-12-2005 3:04am #1

I know there are a few people who post on here with varying regularity who make their own comics (I'm one of them) and I reckon it'd be cool to get more active input from them. So, what better than a comic-making challenge?

So here's the deal. As of this post, anyone interested has until New Year's Day to post and state that they want to enter. Once we get to New Year's Day, we get one of the mods to lock this thread, preventing any further entry. From that point, you have two weeks to get your comic written, drawn, inked and scanned (or just drawn if you work directly with a graphics tablet). After the two weeks, we'll either start a new thread where the entrants post up their creations or reopen this one - depending what the mods prefer to keep things from getting too cluttered. We'll decide the best comic by vote : keeping the vote restricted to entrants would prevent any silliness with duplicate accounts etc, but ideally it'd be nice to have it open to everyone. If there's enough interest we can see about posting on the Photoshoppage forum to see if any of the resident artists there want to try their hands at colouring the winning strip or something.

And now, the rules:

All entries to be between 1-4 pages. Anything longer than this, and we'll have to extend the deadlines. If this idea takes off for a regular challenge, we can maybe increase the page count, but for now it seems prudent to keep the page count low so that we don't get bogged down with pages and pages of entries.
Comics can be made by more than one person - if one person writes it and another draws it, that's fine. Obviously it'll still count as one entry. If we restrict the voting to entrants-only, the submitting team will only have one vote.
All comics to be black and white. Again, this is to keep things simple, we can change it if people are interested enough.
This is open to everyone, whether or not they post regularly in comics. The idea is to encourage more people to get interested in making comics, not make comics seem more cliquey than they already do.
There will be a theme to each challenge. The winner of a given challenge gets to choose the theme for the next one (within certain constraints).
I don't want to impose an all-ages limit on people, but equally if this is to be open to everyone and co-ordinated from here, we can't have explicit entries. Aim for an age range of between All-ages and 12/15. If you have to use something that may be offensive, please mention it before linking to your comic. Depending on the exact content, the mods may decide to remove it. You have been warned, etc.

So that's the idea. As the thread starter, I'm obviously in. To start things off, the first theme will be "Flight", whatever way you choose to interpret this. (And yes, I am stealing this idea from the Image "Flight" anthologies). Anyone interested, post a reply here. If you need somewhere to host your comic, you can sign up for boards space and put them there or just attach your comic to a post in the Entries thread.

Also if anyone has any suggestions for changes or improvements to the rules or how this is run, do post up. The more input we have the more fun it'll be.

Uncle Spunk · 19-12-2005 1:47pm

Hey, Sounds deadly! Really interested in this. I'll submit something and put
the rules etc up on my site

Drastic · 19-12-2005 4:07pm

Oh its on.

On like Donkey Kong.

I'm in.

Fysh · 21-12-2005 7:07pm

Update : I've been talking to Adam from Drastic Comics about this, and we reckon we should expand the scope of this challenge and see how far we can take it.

So, here's the new deal. The challenge will continue as previously detailed; however, once all the comics have been submitted and the vote on the best comic completed, we will compile some or all of the comics (depending on the number of entries) into an anthology that we will get into print and distribute for sale, with any profits going to charity.

Now, because of the change in scope of this and the proposed anthology structure of the end product, I'm going to be contacting everyone I know of that's involved in the Irish comic scene (be it writing or drawing, webcomics or print comics) because it would be nice to put something together that could be considered as in some way representative of the irish comics scene as a whole.

Obviously this isn't going to be a particularly easy task, and I'm not going to act or pretend otherwise. Therefore, if anyone has any advice or particular knowledge that would be useful in this context it would be much appreciated and remember - it's for charity

chrisfw · 21-12-2005 7:16pm

this is excellent, I'll definately contribute something regardless of how crap it is (my work i mean) and looking forward to the spectrum of stuff put in.
if it's cool i'll pass the word and the rules on to a few artists as well!

i think since you don't have to pay for colour online we should take advantage of that and allow colour contributions. personally i suck doing colour anyway so either way is fine, but seeing as printing pages in colour is always a costly bitch we can run free nest pas?

(regardless how this goes, people intrested in doing this regularly? someone's gonna have webspace to collect it all in one place.)

adios
chrisfw

Uncle Spunk · 21-12-2005 8:51pm

Hey, the modest poster chrisfw (word up cfw!) is the dude behind 'this way up' and I do MBLEH! and The Shiznit so we are the hardened veterans of the self publsihed comics scene. I'd definitely steer it more towards web comics. You have no idea of the grief involved in making/financing/distributing comics in this kip of a country.

Fysh · 22-12-2005 1:16am

If there's interest in making the challenge a regular thing I'd definitely be up for it, and it wouldn't be particularly expensive to set up a site for it and hosting for each round's entries etc. I agree about colour in the context of webcomics since there's no price difference, but for the first round I'd like to see if we can try and get something moving for the anthology, even if it stops there.

I have some idea of the horrors involved in getting a comic printed and distributed over here through talking & emailing a few people who've done it and I'm under no illusions as to how hard it'd be - but if we can get something together with work from a spectrum of Irish comic makers it'd be worth it, and doubly so if we can raise some money for charity.

(Oh, and as for spreading the word - please do! The more people get involved the better it'll be all round - the main reason I wanted to start this was to see what people would come up with

)

Janto · 22-12-2005 10:43am

Sounds good, might be able to get a two page flight themed thingy going... At the very least, this might be a great chance to see other people's work.

Bowie_closed · 22-12-2005 11:54am

fair play to you Fysh for organising...this is definitely the way to go! and great if we can put together a printed anthology but i definitely think it's worthwhile getting the web thing going as well - on a permanent basis - cos this means everyone around the country can have equal access - fans and artists, AND people in other countries can have a goo too..(i'm loosin the run a meself here!)...

anyway i've been lurking in the shadows of these comic threads for the last few months while i've been putting together my first....drumroll...graphic novel (a posh word for a looooong comic)...so, em, anyway, will post it within the next few days, if i can get the website bit working. would of course be very much appreciative of all constructive - gently worded, if you don't mind - criticism.

and am so on for this comic challenge - thks a gain fysh!

toodlepips chaps!

Borish · 23-12-2005 7:26pm

Well i'm well up for it, Ive nothing else to do with my time...i can get 4 pages done no problemo....:v:

CriminallyInsane · 27-12-2005 3:42am

Whoa! I haven't been on boards.ie for some time it seems! This sounds so cool - count me in! BTW I think you're great for organising this Kyle and thanks for emailling me about it.

You're right, it's definatly time to get a public forum going for people to see and participate in Irish comics. I may be a bit on the artistically lacking side, but I'd love to pitch in a hand!

Oh, right, none of you know who the hell I am.... well my name's Kevin and I'm responsible for the (now hiatused) travesty of a webcomic Dublin Zoo: http://dublinzoo.keenspace.com .

Can't wait to see the other entries!

gothical · 29-12-2005 9:40pm

Hi Im from dublin.
Ill go for it but Id like to know if it has to have a theme?

*edit SRY didnt read end of rule's

Fysh · 30-12-2005 4:23pm

Just a quick update : There´s been a lot of positive feedback and interest so far, with the only issue being that people haven´t had much time to sign up. As such, I´ll keep the thread open for another two weeks (ie until the 15th of January) to give people more time to sign up (also conveniently giving Adam and I more time to get the site sorted out). Given that quite a few people have emailed me to let me know they´re taking part, I´ll post up a full list of participants once we´re into the two-week creation period.

argmyface · 30-12-2005 11:38pm

Hello!
count me in... this is a great idea and even before finishing reading the rules i was mentally writing the story i'd use... but then i read that the theme was flight and i jumped in my seat! ive just finished drawing a 3page comic about flight!
when does that happen!
tis fate i tell thee

DoctorEdgeWild · 31-12-2005 10:30am

Great idea - Thanks for doing it! Count me in - Flight eh? Hmmm.:v:

august · 31-12-2005 3:21pm

Hey dudes, stoked about this idea. Count me in. Bodacious. But seriously... looking forward starting my pages.

Fhiacha · 31-12-2005 3:40pm

I like it alot. I'm in

http://fhiacha.deviantart.com/

Briony Noh · 04-01-2006 11:36am

I've been getting so much goddam spam this last month or two, don't know what the Hell I signed up for to bring that on, seriously.

Annyhoo, I'd love to be involved and build up my portfolio a little, if you think someone who says 'annyhoo' won't be too uncool for ya.

Just to clarify and hide my ignorance, we're all waiting for the starting pistol, right? There'll be somewhere to send this stuff when it's ready, yes? It isn't all over and I missed the opportunity of a LIFETIME!! - no?

Centurion Angel · 10-01-2006 9:55pm

it sounds like a great idea id love to do but i got some setbacks but will try and over come it anyways im in

Fysh · 11-01-2006 12:12am

Briony Noh wrote:

Just to clarify and hide my ignorance, we're all waiting for the starting pistol, right? There'll be somewhere to send this stuff when it's ready, yes? It isn't all over and I missed the opportunity of a LIFETIME!! - no?

Just to clarify : closing date to sign up is 15th of January.

At that point I'll lock the thread and everyone has until the end of January to produce and digitise their comics. I'll add to this later with the size and format that entries should be submitted in, once I've figured out what the best way for everyone to enter would be.

Slothman · 14-01-2006 6:28am

Deadly count me in.

Fysh · 16-01-2006 1:30am

Ok, this thread is now locked, so no more entries for the first round. If you're interested in taking part in future, please PM me rather than starting a new thread - this one will be re-opened when we've had all the entries submitted after the deadline (31st of January).

Everyone who's entered has until the next round (we haven't settled on a date yet). I'll add the page size details tomorrow. If I haven't already got an email address or details for you, please PM me with your details so I can put up information on who's taking part.

Fysh · 30-01-2006 6:09pm

Gah. Sorry for the lack of communications recently about this - my home connection has effectively died so I've been offline for the last two weeks. Quick update since we're nearly at the deadline:

1)Page size - I'm not too fussed about page size for the time being, although in the interests of keeping things reasonable image resolution should be 72-80dpi (though obviously it would be a good idea to keep your source files or at least a higher res copy of the image if you want to reuse it later).

2)Colour - late in the day I know, but if you want to have colour in your comic, go for it.

3)Where to submit entries? For the time being, email them to me and I'll get them online over the next couple of days. Email address is fyshbolwcomics@gmail.com.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. Once all the entries are online I'll reopen this thread for comments, etc.

Fysh · 01-02-2006 11:00am

Ok, the thread is now unlocked for further comments. So far I've received 3 entries not including my own. Anyone who's finished a contribution for the comic, please email me a copy to fyshbowlcomics@gmail.com, or if you're having problems sending it on, let me know by PM. I'll be sending out a mass mail later today to remind everyone what to do and let you know what we'll do next.

Fysh · 08-02-2006 11:42am

GAH.

Sorry for the lack of progress here folks; it's my fault. I've received several entries and have been trying to get a page set up for them; the problem being that my home broadband connection has been effectively dead for weeks and so I can't get stuff uploaded. Things should be online by the weekend and we'll sort out what happens next once the comics are up for all to see.

bombidol · 08-02-2006 11:50am

If you want, i can host em on www.mahbrain.net

Ham Ahoy! · 16-02-2006 11:16pm

i am getting a scanner on saturday.
yes, i'm in.

Fysh · 17-02-2006 12:28pm

Hi everyone, sorry again for the delays here. A page with the first round entries should be online by this evening; I'll post another update when I've confirmed it's up and running.

In the meantime, round 2. I'm thinking it should kick off within a month's time. So, deadline for entering will be the 19th of March. After that, 3 weeks to create your comic. I want to open this up a bit more so let's try a different format this time round. How about:

Page Length : 2-6 pages
Colour/BW

I like the idea of having a theme for each round to serve as a common thread between strips; what's the feeling amongst everyone else? (Note : for purposes of not going mad trying to find a compromise that keeps everyone happy, preference will be given to the opinions of those who actually submitted entries for this round)

Fysh · 17-02-2006 7:46pm

Gah. Site is done for now and uploaded, except I can't log into the comicgenesis site manager to trigger the update. So it won't be visible for a while yet. I will tinker further with it when I get home and post again once the site's visible.

Edit:

The site is now up.

Post up your thoughts and start thinking about what the next round's theme should be, if any.

CriminallyInsane · 20-02-2006 12:13pm

Whoa - these are cool! I especially like "Lilith", but they're all really good! I'm completely aghast at the amount of variation and imagination present! And considering this is only round one, it's really shaping up well!

My fave moments:

* The cleavage joke in Sorcha Bowie's comic.
* The last panel of Bob Byrnes one (fúcking hillarious)!
* "Sorry, are you Patrick?" "No."
* "You won't rob me of my dignity!" (also fúcking hillarious!)
* Running on clouds - yeah we've all thought how great it'd be!

tba · 05-03-2006 8:24pm

I quite like these...

Is there a poll to vote on the entries?

Plus A suggestion for the next one....Shadow

Briony Noh · 10-03-2006 2:02pm

I missed the first round due to uncharacteristic pressure of work but would love to be a part of this whole thing and tba's Shadow idea is something I for one think I might be able to sink my teeth into - hope I'm not giving too much away, there, hurr-hurr.

Fysh · 10-03-2006 4:01pm

I'm digging "Shadow" as a theme and in the absence of other suggestions, it's looking good. I'll leave it open to suggestions until the entry deadline (end of Paddy's Day weekend) - I'll be sending out emails to remind/invite people to take part again, tweaking the site, and putting up a poll to vote on the entries over the weekend to try and get some momentum behind things again.

Briony Noh · 20-03-2006 10:41am

Hi, Fysh,

I sent you some pages yesterday (in my secret identity) hopefully in suitable format and hopeful that it's still going ahead. There seemed to be a lot more activity for the first month.

Anyway, the piece was Hellhunter pages 1-4. If there's any problem with them or you'd like them submitted in a different format, please let me know here or at my e-mail address.

Ta.

Fysh · 20-03-2006 3:11pm

Argh, the last 10 days have raced past me. Invitations to take part again will be out tonight; however, for anyone reading this:

1) Round 2 has now started. Theme is "Shadow"; format 2-6 pages black & white or full colour. If you want to experiment with page design, layout, or size, feel free.

2) If you want to take part, please post in this thread by the 31st of March or email me at fyshbowlcomics@gmail.com to let me know.

3) Entries are to be submitted by the 17th of April, via email, to fyshbowlcomics@gmail.com. If you want you can include your website address and a brief profile to go with your entry.

Bowie_closed · 21-03-2006 5:26pm

yeh count me in.

Fysh · 22-03-2006 2:47pm

Just a quick note - I've tweaked the site so the problems some people had with images not loading should be resolved, and the News page has been updated. If anyone spots any other glitches, please let me know.

Fysh · 18-04-2006 10:00am

Right, the deadline is now gone and I've had 4 entries in total. However, given it was Easter etc, if anyone else has a contribution ready but hasn't sent it on to me yet, either PM me to let me know or email me at fyshbowlcomics@gmail.com as soon as you can. I want to have the second round of entries online by the end of the week, so Friday is the last day for sending your entry in.

Fysh · 25-04-2006 1:10pm

OK, 4 entries it is then. The second round will be online in the next day or two and I'll post up a second poll. In the meantime, 3rd round suggestions for theme can start now.

I think shorter comics might encourage more entries, so I'm thinking the third round should be 1 page - no constraints on size either width-wise or length-wise, but one continuous page in terms of design and layout (not unlike Chris Fite-Wassilak's entry for round 1).

Any thoughts/suggestions?

chrisfw · 30-04-2006 4:15pm

cmon lads n ladies we're meant to have MORE contributions each round!
ideas for a theme for round 3
- (in the) gutter
- water

also we could do formal restrictions as a 'theme'/challenge instead of just narrative themes- ie a certain colour palette (red brown black), or a certain amount of frames to tell the story...? could be fun!
keep rockin

Uncle Spunk · 02-05-2006 8:24am

Sorry boys, have to sit this one out.

Briony Noh · 02-05-2006 12:09pm

I'm in. Gutter or Water, sound good, either in isolation or as a mix'n'match. How about adding Stars and see how many people rework Wilde, lol. Maybe more people will be involved if there is a choice of topics like this each round, or does that defeat the purpose somewhat?

The first round seemed to click with a lot of people. In at least one case it looks like the submission may have come from the contributor's back-catalogue, perhaps others also had some stuff to hand which is why the challenge opened so promisingly. Although ideally, at least from my humble perspective, there should be something new each time, and themes focus the creativity considerably, perhaps by broadening the theme(s), either in the way chrisfw suggests or in other ways, or mixtures of all possible ways, it will give some people an opportunity to submit from their oeuvres so far, thereby raising the bar, the standard, the fun, the enthusiasm and the enthusiasm. I said enthusiasm twice. Hmmm.

I approached round two as a personal challenge, primarily because I knew it couldn't harm the portfolio (I really need some gainful work) and secondarily because I seem to need deadlines to get my ass moving. Mobile deadlines tend p!?s me off, as I'm sure they do others.

On the other hand, maybe all these bank holidays are taking their toll.

Anyway, I'm in for round 3. Please God let there be someone else with me!

TTFN.

Oh, before I forget (like it hasn't been on my mind all weekend), how long before the site gets updated? (no pressure)

Fysh · 02-05-2006 12:53pm

The site update should be up tonight (he says) although if my home connection decides to act up it may have to wait until tomorrow.

I'm liking the suggestions for expanding the themes : what about having a selection of narrative and format themes for people to choose from?

As an example

Narrative :
a) Gutter
b) Water
c) all of the above
Format :
a) restrict colour use to yellow, orange, red, & brown
b) no page divisions
c) all of the above

I like the idea of being able to mix and match your theme to better suit the story you want to tell, but i'm wary of making it open-ended - the original purpose of the theme was to have some sense of a link between all the submissions, which can easily vanish with a wide range of themes to choose from.

Still, I'm game for some variant of the above if everyone else is.

Fysh · 03-05-2006 2:18pm

Site has been updated; seems to work fine from my test machine, but please let me know if there's any problems with viewing images or links. (Note: the entries seem to be rather larger this time so they may take longer to load...)

Edit :

Forgot to link to the entries, cos I'm daft like that. D'oh.

Borish · 04-05-2006 5:16pm

Boooya! the art work in round 2 Kicks alot of ass:D :cool:

fair play to the entries...

looking forward to seeing what comes up for next round,

ta
sgraffito,

Briony Noh · 10-05-2006 10:40am

I agree with Borish (Lilith kicks bottom again), but I was seriously hoping someone who hasn't contributed might have said something by now. It just goes to show how hard it is to get a comic off the ground, if people interested in comics can't even get into 'view the newbies' mode on a free website. Is it that people are only really interested in what they know or what they've heard good things about? Who am I kidding, of course that's what it is. That's why Hollywood looks for names before talent in the big roles. I'm sure Stan The Man is just as guilty of that these days.

Comics: no longer the break-through industry it once was. Discuss.

Despondent of Donnabate

Ham Ahoy! · 12-05-2006 9:56pm

which round is this and what theme is it and are entries still being accepted?

Fysh · 13-05-2006 12:08pm

At the moment we're between rounds - round 2 has just finished and we're discussing the format and theme(s) for round 3. Any suggestions are welcome and we'll decide by the 1st of June, at which point there'll be 2-4 weeks for people to create and submit their entries. (Anyone can enter, btw).

Ham Ahoy! · 13-05-2006 12:36pm

um, thanks. is the nature of the strips themselves supposed to be humorous, poetical, dramatic, all of the above?
and i think the most comic-expert people on the board, i.e. perhaps the mods of the comics forum, should decide the topic/theme for the next round.

Fysh · 13-05-2006 2:54pm

The nature of the strip can be anything you want - the original idea of having a set theme was to create an underlying link between all the entries while still letting people write and draw their own interpretation of the theme. It might be an idea to set the "theme" for a round as a particular type of strip (comic, melodrama, horror, etc) - I've avoided this so far because I didnt want to force people to work in a genre they weren't interested in, but it's certainly an idea to consider.

chrisfw · 14-05-2006 10:30am

i think the more rounds we do the better, but it is also important that people on the list and contributors pass round the word- i think foremost to find new contributors but also to create some input back into it of viewers sharing their opinions of the work. i'd love to have a plethora (a plethora, el hefe? yes, a plethora) of submissions that would actually require some sort of control over them, or say that all the submissions for a round get voted on like they do here, and then the best x amount go towards that idea of a publication, or something like that. the point is, if we want people other than just us creating them to read them then make sure to spread the word! and all you folks interesting in contributing, just do it!

regarding themes etc, i dont think having an open ended selection of a few elements will help as everyone will pick a different set of combinations. we all have different approaches as it is, and i think choice of genre is a personal thing...but then maybe it'd do me good. i think though each round should have one overriding requirement of each submission, whether that's theme, genre, palette, or form, and not mix and match too much. just my opinion on that. bring on round 3

Comic Creator Challenge

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