AIPman1 said

Posts from this topic have been moved by members. 2 posts have been transferred to topicview.

I can't access that?

Barri Lang said

AIPman1 said

Posts from this topic have been moved by members. 2 posts have been transferred to topicview.

I can't access that?

I can't either.

hmmmm….i'll investigate and fix!

I didn't have any trouble and neither did Erik…perhaps a permissions thing on their accounts? rassafrassa new guys!

Cary said

I didn't have any trouble and neither did Erik…perhaps a permissions thing on their accounts? rassafrassa new guys!

This is what I get (and I assume what Barri also gets):

"glennarseneau" does not have a sufficient access level for this category.

I have identified the issue and will be fixing it right now.

i guess my next question is more an inquiry into opinions rather than rules or facts...

i currently produce a couple of webcomics that can be read on comicspace and are 'tooncasted' on one other website (that i know of) and are archived on one other website. Of these, 'Wren' is my favorite and was my immediate choice for my entry into SPI2010. i am way curious as to how 'Wren' would fare in open submission competition, critiques and teardowns, general audience appeal and voter support, as well as marketability. As i navigate the swirling cyberwaters of Contest Guidelines and the (half-broken links) history of previous SPI's, it occurs to me that 'Wren' might not be the best choice for submission because that strip is well underway, storywise.

Whenever i see an '#0' comic, i always think ORIGIN - it's always a backstory/historylesson/actiontuneup for an established comic. This impression seems to be fortified in the guidelines for this year. The thing with 'Wren' is, an origins story would have to drop back YEARS, to when the characters hadn't even met yet, were children/teens and their everyday lives so far removed from the actual themes of the current comic that it would be a ludicrous endeavor to try and bend a hook out of it. Not impossible, but certainly a herculean task with a high probability for failure. With this in mind, i began to play with the idea of a #0 for 'Wren' being something other than an origins story. 'Wren' is actually written way ahead of where the current comic is, plot and story wise. The comic is always in production, trying to catch up with the writing i've already done. As i rolled the SPI requirement for a #0 around in my mind, i had an idea that, instead of going backwards to Square #0, that the #0 for 'Wren' that i would submit for SPI would be a Square 1000. Rather than dredge up some imagined genetic sequence for a living comicorganism, i thought it would be blast-level fun to do a #0 for a specific story arc that is already written within the Wrenverse that will take me years to reach at my current strip-a-week update schedule. Right now, the posted comic is pretty much in 'origin-mode', describing the characters as they develop, and it occured to me that seeing something happen in the semi-distant future of the comic might have more hook-potential. As well, the characters will see dramatic changes in the coming months and years that could be successfully teased in an SPI #0..

i guess that's where i am - i wonder if it would be preferrable to do the above and slip 'Wren: The Bible of Blood' into this year's competition and take the strip to places it's headed for but hasn't reached yet, in the required 12 page submitted story *OR* should i dive back into the archives of my written stuff, find something i have high hopes for and try to crank out something that's written but doesn't have a single pixel or polygon to it's name yet?

Thanks

sparkyjones said

i guess my next question is more an inquiry into opinions rather than rules or facts...

i currently produce a couple of webcomics that can be read on comicspace and are 'tooncasted' on one other website (that i know of) and are archived on one other website. Of these, 'Wren' is my favorite and was my immediate choice for my entry into SPI2010. i am way curious as to how 'Wren' would fare in open submission competition, critiques and teardowns, general audience appeal and voter support, as well as marketability. As i navigate the swirling cyberwaters of Contest Guidelines and the (half-broken links) history of previous SPI's, it occurs to me that 'Wren' might not be the best choice for submission because that strip is well underway, storywise.

Whenever i see an '#0' comic, i always think ORIGIN - it's always a backstory/historylesson/actiontuneup for an established comic. This impression seems to be fortified in the guidelines for this year. The thing with 'Wren' is, an origins story would have to drop back YEARS, to when the characters hadn't even met yet, were children/teens and their everyday lives so far removed from the actual themes of the current comic that it would be a ludicrous endeavor to try and bend a hook out of it. Not impossible, but certainly a herculean task with a high probability for failure. With this in mind, i began to play with the idea of a #0 for 'Wren' being something other than an origins story. 'Wren' is actually written way ahead of where the current comic is, plot and story wise. The comic is always in production, trying to catch up with the writing i've already done. As i rolled the SPI requirement for a #0 around in my mind, i had an idea that, instead of going backwards to Square #0, that the #0 for 'Wren' that i would submit for SPI would be a Square 1000. Rather than dredge up some imagined genetic sequence for a living comicorganism, i thought it would be blast-level fun to do a #0 for a specific story arc that is already written within the Wrenverse that will take me years to reach at my current strip-a-week update schedule. Right now, the posted comic is pretty much in 'origin-mode', describing the characters as they develop, and it occured to me that seeing something happen in the semi-distant future of the comic might have more hook-potential. As well, the characters will see dramatic changes in the coming months and years that could be successfully teased in an SPI #0..

i guess that's where i am - i wonder if it would be preferrable to do the above and slip 'Wren: The Bible of Blood' into this year's competition and take the strip to places it's headed for but hasn't reached yet, in the required 12 page submitted story *OR* should i dive back into the archives of my written stuff, find something i have high hopes for and try to crank out something that's written but doesn't have a single pixel or polygon to it's name yet?

Thanks

Now I can't speak directly as far as the rules and regs go, but I will say that what you're planning could work… Now, what I did last year for Faction was my zero issue covered a moment in time forward with a lot of implied history there. The main character, Acker, has a life before the events in the book which I may touch back upon. In my opinion it's safe to assume that people can figure things out for themselves as you move forward. They may not know who everyone is from page on, but as long as you grab people with what's happening, I don't think it's a bad thing.

Hmm…. How about this… You know how in most comic book series they have "jump on" points at the beginning of a new and important arc? Just do that… Explain as you go so you don't alienate new readers by assuming that no one has seen your web comic.

Does that help?

Yes, it certainly does..

(btw, i thought the artwork in 'Faction' was awesome!! Loved it)

sparkyjones said

Yes, it certainly does..

(btw, i thought the artwork in 'Faction' was awesome!! Loved it)

Flattery will get you everywhere…. you win! ha ha… Thanks.  Arnie did a bang-up job on the zero issue… Working on more, just going a little slower. Have other projects keeping me occupied, though, or I'd be nuts by now.

Honestly, I would always recommend people start from scratch with new projects regardless of being able to use web comics. I just think it gives people the opportunity to go through that initial creative process again and they will be more agreeable to making changes based on judges and fan recommendations. With an ongoing web comic, if the majority says change x,y, and z, suddenly you may have something (or someone) completely different than where you started.

I'll quote the great Stephan King here, or at least paraphrase him, saying "Come in as late as you possibly can in any given scene or story, and get out as quickly as possible."

That sounds kinda scary, but if you approach your story from that angle, you shouldn't have an issue bringing in an established character and telling a story with existing mythos in place and yet not having us lost and wondering what's up. With any character or set of characters if you give us enough to move forward, we're going to be interested and want to know more.

For my own personal stuff I far prefer to have characters with a history, either in reality or implied as I tell a story. It gives me the opportunity to use flashbacks, have mysterious villains from the past pop up, all sorts of fun stuff that you don't get from starting with "He was bitten by a radioactive spider…"

Here's my official word on the subject: The contest requires the story to be a NEW story, not seen before. This does not mean the characters cannot have been seen before, or that you have to present the origin of them…though that certainly has been the majority of the case over the years (and I apologize all of the past year materials are not online yet - this site is new, and I have not converted all of the pages, I am getting them in as fast as possible, going from most recent year, backward.)

It is in the spirit of the contest that the story/premise you present here be completely stand-alone, as in, it does not reference back or over to a current ongoing work. It can reference past events as needed, but not WHERE, as in, HEY COME CHECK OUT THE WEBCOMIC where we're already doing everything we're presenting here. We want the eye on your presentation to be looking forward, to further printed efforts. Otherwise, we are just advertising your webcomic…and that is not the intention of the contest. We're looking to prep your property for further media development…so as long as you are working with that in heart, you'll be fine.

Please discuss in private with me any specific sensitive plans you might have question on, so I can help keep you from miss-stepping into a corner we can't get you out of.

Thanks for all the ideas, perspectives and information. Y'all have really helped me make the hard decisions that needed to be made before i could confidently submit a proper entry into the SPI competition. i was pretty excited about entering, thinking it might be possible to introduce 'Wren' on a professional level, until The Grand Poobah set the record straight. While i'm bummed that the strip would be disqualified, i am glad that i didn't jump on the project and start creating something that would ultimately waste everyone's time. If spanking new stuff is the only thing that will garner an impartial critique, i will just have to wait for next year and hopefully have time between now and then to work on something exclusively for SPI consideration.

Oh well - being just a rabble voter isn't so bad... if this year's contest is anything close to last year's, even the view from the sidelines will be instructional, inspiring and bad-ass wickedcool with some fantastic art and storytelling reaching for the prize, with the readers being the real winners.

Thank you all very much :)

Um, perhaps you misunderstood: I was not disqualifying it.

I am trying to say that - the 12 pages you produce for the contest can be a re-telling, or it can even fit directly into an ongoing continuity, as long as the presentation of things in the contest is complete unto itself, and that nothing online duplicates any of the materials/parts that are produced in the rounds (character sheets, etc). Any old ones would have to be taken down, and completely new versions produced for the contest.

but it does not mean that you can't do it.

Okay, so do we have to wait till the 8th to send in for round 1?

Also if we have other sketches for cover design we have done, after judging can we post those?

Thanks

MartinBrandt said

Okay, so do we have to wait till the 8th to send in for round 1?

Also if we have other sketches for cover design we have done, after judging can we post those?

Thanks

As soon as the images have been officially posted on the site, you can post them elsewhere. No problem with that. Ian will start posting projects on Monday for voting, so just make sure you're up before you stick the images anywhere else online.

If you're ready now, though, send the files to Ian so he has them for the first day.

MartinBrandt said

Also if we have other sketches for cover design we have done, after judging can we post those?

Oh, and for other cover design sketches, wait until the judges have voted and the forum is unlocked for public comments…

Recommendation - spread out those posts.

Thanks Erik.

Sent my stuff in, now we wait.

gulp.

muhahaha!

-ha! (I had to do it, sorry! :p )