[Discussion] Interest: Team Comics Competition

I thought it would be interesting to combine the talents of all three main CC section: art, writing, and graphic design. The best way to do that, I figured, was comics.

The way I imagine it would work is that each team would have an artist, a writer, and a graphic designer. The writer would write the story and dialogue, and perhaps create a storyboard; the artist would, well, create the art; and the graphic designer would create the panel layout, the dialogue boxes, and put in the sound effect text and other decoration. Then a panel of judges would rate each comic on the three aspects, and the one with the highest score would win!

To ensure fairness while allowing creative freedom, each contest would include certain key words, which would have to be incorporated into the comic's story. Other than that, each team is free to do as they please, whether they want to make a comedy, a drama, a fantasy, or whatever!

Who would be interested? And since we'll need all three types of artist, be sure to state what kind you are.

I'd be interested in this, and to be honest I could do any of the three, though I'm probably most skilled with artwork. However I dunno how this would cross over to a comic, so I dunno.

But yeah, I'm definitely interested in this

I can do all three of those, though writing I'm a little more nervous about, honestly. But I'll hook up with peeps if they wanna work with me. HOLLER.

We [the CC mods] actually discussed something like this before.

Instead of making this a contest, why not make this a collaborative series, similar to what the Art forum did one time? There'd be a different team for each page, and one overarching story across the pages.

I think a competition would give more creative freedom—no one would be limited to a certain story. But if people are more interested in a series...

This sounds really interesting! Tonch's interactive comic was a lot of fun ~ I still have hopes that it will continue one day.


I would be less likely to participate if it's a competition, to be honest. But that's not to say that I would prefer a series. I'm not that experienced with writing or comic-making, but it's been an interest of mine and I'm learning how to do it now. So that's a rather wishy-washy answer, I guess.

I can't promise I'll participate if it's a competition, but I still have a lot of interest.

Originally Posted by Vulpes

Artists! Would you like to work with a writer and graphic designer? If so, you should take a look at the ZU Comics Competition! Not only will it be fun, it could be great experience for art careers!

Count me in! Doesn't matter if I'm ending up as artist or writer. I've written comics before so I can handle that (the only problem seems to be that only swedes appreciate my humour).

Would you all prefer to choose your own teams, or be assigned them?

I'd prefer to work with someone I know for this first time.

While I'd prefer to work with someone I know, I'm kind of 8| at the idea of this turning into a popularity contest and people being left out, so I dunno really. I AM INDECISIVE.

I would prefer to make arrangements privately with potential partners than be "assigned" to a team. Having said that, I was always the last kid to get picked for phys ed teams in junior high ~ so having team assignments might actually work out better for me.

^^;;

I'm in! I could write some good stuff depending on what kind of story that's gonna be, I'm better at artwork and inking though, so I'd be an artist. Don't know for the team, I'm not very familiar with everybody here.

I've decided that this will be a competition for at least this first time. A series would require more commitment than I think we can count on at this time, but once (if) this gets popular, we can probably start up a series.

Now, there are a few more things that need addressing:

For one, I think we should let people form the teams themselves for this one. So if you have someone you'd like to work with (they don't need to have posted in this thread), I advise you to PM or VM them and ask them if they'd like to team up with you. Once you have your whole team together, have one of the team members post your whole team here.

There's also the question of how long the contests will run, and how long the submitted comics must be. I don't want it to last longer than two weeks, and one week would even better (I don't know if that's reasonable, though). As for the length of the comics themselves, I think they should at absolute least be two pages of a few panels each (the end result, that is—I'm sure that some artists would want to use a whole page to create each panel). Three might be a good standard to aim for, and four or five at the outside. How long would it take a team to do that?

Well, on second thought, assigned teams would work better until we get settled in. So once enough people say they're willing, I'll start the official signup thread. But there's still the issue of comic and competition length.

Are you asking people to sign-up as a group member type?

Probably. Of course, if a person signs up as being able to do a number of roles, I'll assign them in the way that allows the formation of the most teams.

Originally Posted by Vulpes

Well, on second thought, assigned teams would work better until we get settled in. So once enough people say they're willing, I'll start the official signup thread. But there's still the issue of comic and competition length.

Originally Posted by Vulpes

Probably. Of course, if a person signs up as being able to do a number of roles, I'll assign them in the way that allows the formation of the most teams.

Regarding comic length, it depends on what you're looking to do. 4-panel comics are one standard type in manga, where it's more of a gag or joke. The fewer panels, the harder it is to tell a story. So I think that you should choose the length of the comic based on the type of comic, if that makes sense.

Furthermore, the length of the competition... we can expect to have delays between the three people that are working, and it seems to me that the work would basically be in series instead of in parallel. One week would really be pushing it, I think, for a team of 3, unless they're really motivated.

I want at least enough for three teams, so if anyone else is interested, don't hesitate to say so! Also, if there's some that should be in this thing but isn't, go ahead and bug them!

I'd be interested in joining, would prefere to do art, but I guess I could also try writing. But it also depends on how long the comics are supposed to be, I don't really have the time to do a long comic atm.

It would be great if you added to the rules how many squares the comic is supposed to have.

And a question: is the comics supposed to tell a story about something specific? Say like Zelda? Or is it free to choose?