Comic Creator Challenge

Fysh

Yeah, Alan's page was a joy to behold. As I was reading it my first thought was "Heh, cute, he's given the robot an arse", followed by "Oh...that's not an arse..." followed by "that's gotta hurt! OUCH!". The little moustache was a genius idea too

As for the getting involved in the next one, the more the merrier! I'll post up on here again and send out emails to find out who wants to get involved, just reply to me or PM me then. Always good to get some new blood

ztoical

Lol Alan and babies - I fear this will be an on going theme for him for awhile. All the pages actually work pretty well together for the most part.

thebaddy

Yeah Alan's page looks gorgeous. Nice to see it in colour as opposed to his black and white Sancho stuff.

Hey hoovers - great work as ever, you crazy mofo! Plus Jolien's entry has to take the biscuit for biggest curve-ball/change of pace!

alnolan

Thanks for the kind words guys. I loved Robbie Bonham's Oink-like brilliance as well as Jolien's acid-drop. I have a copy of Robojo that I treasure.

Fysh

Right, it's getting close to the starting point for the next one so anyone who's interested in taking part, send me a PM with your email address or mail me directly at fyshbowlcomics(a)gmail.com.

I'll be sending out a mass mail in the next day or two to sort out everyone who's taking part, and I'll put together a script-of-sorts and assign each person their page next week.

I'm thinking 2-4 weeks for the whole thing to run, since everyone's going to be able to work on their pages at the same time....if anyone's going to be put out by this, let me know.

Fysh

Like a disorganised fool, I forgot to update this when the last round actually kicked off. A record 14 people are in this time around, with each person being assigned a different page prompt with a general background setting of the end of the world:

01 An explorer creates a clone of himself in a small diner. (Mathieu Brethes)
02 A toxicologist and six critical store managers find themselves trapped in a hospital while sharing an umbrella with a melodramatic monk. (Andy Grzess)
03 Two nuns are murdered on the way to lunch. (Adam Murray)
04 A transvestite meets, loses, and reunites with his true love at the race track. (Alan Nolan)
05 The housemate of a farmhand goes on a shopping spree. (Bob Byrne)
06 A mummy spreads a dire warning about the end of the world. (Eoin Marron)
07 A stripper is fused with a machine in a freak accident while visiting relatives. (Jolien Hampson)
08 A mutant prophet, a tiny celloist, and a skeptical masseuse are found bound and gagged in a shopping mall. (Eavan O'Sullivan)
09 A war-hero loses his faith while sleeping. (Ronan Kennedy)
10 Angry werewolves form a cult in a graveyard. (Kyle Rogers)
11 A poacher learns the world is going to end. (Paddy Lynch)
12 A trio of barbers witnesses a murder in a military outpost. (Kevin Thompson)
13 A desperate father has a horrific vision of the future in a nuclear submarine. (Robbie Bonham)
14 An army sergeant saves a child on a military base. (Leo Boyd)

Originally the end date was to be the end of May but it seems that most people, myself included, could use an extra few days so there's an extra 2 weeks to it. All going well we should see a bunch of new comics around the 15th of June.

Fysh

Right, the deadline is tomorrow night/Monday morning and about half of the entries have come through. I've contacted those whose entries I haven't received yet and hopefully should be able to upload them all in the next couple of days.

In the meantime, what sort of things do you want for the next round? While the collaborative stuff has been fun, I'd like to go back to each person doing their own thing, but that's just me. I'm not sure what to use as the next theme either, for that matter. Any suggestions? (Speaking of themes, I get the feeling that the prompts for this round were a bit restrictive. Ah well, we live and learn)

Fysh

It looks like I've received as many pages as are going to come in for this round, so they should be online by Friday if not before. (I forgot that I'd planned to do an introduction page for the whole thing, which I'll be drawing tonight, hence the slight delay).

Meanwhile, let's talk about the next round's theme. The collaborative stuff has been fun, but I'd like to go back to the original format of each person putting together their own thing with a basic overall theme. I reckon "school stories" should be a good subject, but I could be biased as I have a long-standing love for the sort of nonsense you get on Playground Law and figure that if you haven't got any interesting/funny stories from your school days you can just nick one from there.

What do ye think?

Hoovers

Yeah go for it- I had an engineering teacher I have been waiting to get even with for years, so yeah, the school theme works for me.

Saruwatari

Sorry Fysh, I know I've passed the deadline and all, but I'll have it finished and scanned in tomorrow, izzat okay with you? :pac:

Fysh

Right, Round 11 is up. Click here to see them.

livingtargets

I`d love to get involved with the next one if it`s okee-doke with yourself...

Luke F ( http://lukefcomics.blogspot.com/ )

Fysh

Great stuff luke, I'll let you know when it's started. It should kick off by the end of July if not sooner, I'm just trying to think of a way of doing them that we haven't done yet...I reckon schoolyard stories are a good theme for the next one, but if anyone else has any suggestions post 'em up.

alnolan

Round 11 is cool -- I love Bob's, Paddy's, Robbie's as usual, and Eoin's is feckin brilliant! Well done all.

Schoolyard stories it is, Kylo.

Hoovers

Ha ha,

Well done all, some funny **** in there as usual! Roll on round 12!!

RobbieBonham

I loved the zombie one...

RobbieBonham

... and the one about the same-sauce couple...

Lone Stone

Loved the mummy one and the the tomato tomatoe was very well done
nice work all around.

RobbieBonham

RobbieBonham wrote: »

I loved the zombie one...

Sorry, yeah... I meant 'mummy'...

Saruwatari

Cheers Lone Stone and Robbie! And yes, tis' indeed a mummy.
Loved your inking Rob, and even better ending; Nolan's page was everything you expected and more out of two ketchup bottles; Byrne yet again put us to shame with that page done in 16 mins (!); and in the words of Ronan back there, "Well done all".
Can't wait to have another crack at it. Schoolyard theme sounds good t'me.

RobbieBonham

Ah cheers! I only really draw cartoony stuff. But the brief necessitated it had to be realistic, I think ! Plus it's drawn actual size, on A4. Kinda tight! lol

Never got the hang of drawing A3. Must give it a try one of these days.

Lookin' forward to the next one!

Fysh

I can't believe you drew that A4 Robbie, that's mad! Looks far too detailed to have been drawn at actual size. You should give drawing on A3 a go, it's amazing how much easier it makes things.

erok

What's the deadline for the next challenge?

Erok
okerok.blogspot.com

Fysh

I thought I'd updated this yesterday, so thanks for the reminder

Round 12 will start effectively now, and it's a simple one this time - you've got one page to tell a story from your school days. If you haven't got a suitable story, I suggest going to look at www.playgroundlaw.com and picking your favourite from there. The deadline is the 31st of August.

film_gonzo

Hey,

I'd be interested in joining in on this month's round. Could someone let me know what I have to do about submissions ... who to send it to and in what format etc ...

Also can it be a collaborative thing ie: can I draw and write with someone else or does it have to be all me?

Fysh

Hi film_gonzo, submissions should preferably be saved as web-friendly formats although realistically anything I can open in Photoshop is probably OK. 72dpi is ok, although if possible I'd prefer a 300dpi image that I can resize manually. Send your entry to fyshbowlcomics@gmail.com.

As for the co-working approach - I don't think we've ever had one before, but i don't see why not. Please make sure you mention both your names when you email me your entry though, so I can credit you correctly.

Lone Stone

I think il do a page for this one :P
ive drawn one out il mail it when ive renderd it.
its only a quick thing tho 6 cells i mite submit it i dont know il see if i like it after i color it

Hoovers

Yo Fysh

count me in for this one too!:pac:

Lone Stone

yawn so whats going on with the next one i want to seeeeeeeeeeee them

Fysh

Round 12 is under way and will be complete by the end of August. I've had a couple of pages through already, which is promising, so hopefully we'll have a good range of material for everyone to read

Fysh

I have the feeling the Comic Challenge has slipped from people's minds to an extent, so I'm going to extend the deadline for Round 12 to the 14th of September. I won't be able to sort out publishing the updates before then anyway so I'd rather give people more of a chance to take part. As ever, email your entries to fyshbowlcomics(a)gmail.com.

Lone Stone

Dam so how meny people have submitted ?
do you think its due to it being on the new sub forum ?

Fysh

I've had several entries for this round, which will be updated over the weekend.

While we wait for that, what theme are we interested in next? Ztoical mentioned the idea of being inspired by songs, which is a very good idea - I'd chiefly avoided it having seen the kerfuffle caused when the guy who does Sluggy Freelance incorporated the lyrics to a Pink Floyd song in his strip and then had to remove them. (The issue being that the lyrics to a song are considered the intellectual property of the band/song author, and thus should not be reproduced or used without permission, although some bands care more about this than others).

I thought of two possible versions of this - either a round of comics inspired by well-known songs (where the song name can be mentioned but the lyrics cannot be used) or a round of comics based on songs by unsigned bands (where the song name and lyrics can be used, though preferably with the permission of the band involved). I like the second option simply because each comic could be accompanied by a link to the unsigned band in question and thus expose people to new music that they might not otherwise hear about. But it's nowhere near as easy as the first version, plus comics inspired by better-known songs are probably easier to make...

So that's one option that will be used at some point. What other options are there? The recent announcement of the upcoming Marvel Noir series got me thinking, and the idea of reinventing well-known characters could be a possibility - an albeit risky one, since legally it can only be done if:
a) the character/s are public domain, or
b) the reinvention falls under the fair use/parody clause (and even then I don't think that flies very well outside the US, so that might be out).

Another possibility would be something like "What happened at point x?", based on films - essentially a comic-strip "deleted scene" for a film of your choice. Again, potentially awkward but also interesting.

We can also use very specific things - Cliodhna's GOAL anthology shows that with a good choice of title, you can get a lot of interpretations out of a single starting point. Suggestions for titles are always welcome

I'm wary of themes that are overly restrictive, and one thing that I think has become apparent over time is that the formal restrictions I'd initially wanted to play with don't really work as I'd hoped. I'd hoped that thematic restrictions like having a round of silent comics or requiring people to use a particular colour would encourage creativity, but it seems not to be the case.

ztoical

Looking forward to seeing this rounds comics - have to admit I couldn't come up with anything for the theme and a project I'm working on at the moment a very similar theme has come up and I'm like ahhhh.

I was going to suggest for one challenge, maybe not this next one but down the road, to do something like the project rooftop and get people to do a redesign of a comic book character. I know the point of the comic creator challenge is to get people doing actually comic stories but it might be something different and a nice intro for people who maybe don't have time to do a full story but could have time to do a pin up character redesign.

On the base it on a song idea, I think its more interesting and a challenge to get people to do a comic on a song where they can't use any of the lyrics so they really have to think about it rather then being super literal with the lyrics.

Some other ideas maybe for future challenges - Food, everyone do a comic about making your fav dish or a questions challenge where everyone who is taking part asks a question for one of the other artists to draw a comic for their answer.

Fysh

Right, the latest round is online now. I'm thinking the next round will start in October, but given that there's quite a bit on in October (Free Irish Comic Day, 24 Hour Comic Day, etc) I'll leave Round 13 run until the end of November. No theme set yet, so post up suggestions and we'll pick one in the next few days...

Saruwatari

Good stuff this round, thought TBH I'm not suprised only 4 people entered. It's a very specific theme, and perhaps people don't have any interesting memories related to school or such. I'm still only in secondary (6th year), but so far school-life for me has been pretty bland...
I'll definetely enter the next round though!

Lone Stone

Fysh wrote: »

Right, the latest round is online now. I'm thinking the next round will start in October, but given that there's quite a bit on in October (Free Irish Comic Day, 24 Hour Comic Day, etc) I'll leave Round 13 run until the end of November. No theme set yet, so post up suggestions and we'll pick one in the next few days...

hay eh why is there a link to a home page under my comic that isnt mine cause i dont have a clue who or what longstonecomics are nothing to do with me.

Anyway suprised only 4 entered bit of a let down i was looking forward to seeing a lot of entries in it this time it seemed like a topic everyone could get into and fairly open ended.

Love your robot one for the metal work class there all well done nice work guys/gal's .

Fysh

Lone Stone wrote: »

hay eh why is there a link to a home page under my comic that isnt mine cause i dont have a clue who or what longstonecomics are nothing to do with me.

Argh, that would be my mistake Sorry, I must have mis-remembered your username while sorting out the updates and assumed that you were connected to them. I've removed the link now.

Lone Stone wrote: »

Anyway suprised only 4 entered bit of a let down i was looking forward to seeing a lot of entries in it this time it seemed like a topic everyone could get into and fairly open ended.

Love your robot one for the metal work class there all well done nice work guys/gal's .

I was a bit disappointed too, but a few people did email me to say that unfortunately they'd been unexpectedly busy with other work and wouldn't have time to put something together for this round. With any luck it'll just be a seasonal thing

I second your comments on Ronan's entry, it is brilliant as always.

ztoical

Fysh wrote: »

I was a bit disappointed too, but a few people did email me to say that unfortunately they'd been unexpectedly busy with other work and wouldn't have time to put something together for this round. With any luck it'll just be a seasonal thing

I think its just that time of year - end of august/start of september tends to be busy for alot of people. I have to say the theme just did nothing for me this time round. Sometimes you find the themes you think offer so much room turn out to be the ones people find the most restrictive.

Hoovers

Firstly, thanks for the kind words- glad you liked my effort (true story of course)
Secondly, yeah, busy time for all concerned this time of year, and perhaps not the most inspiring theme, but we are only talking about 1 page!
Regarding suggestions for next round, I reckon keep it simple- how about using the title of your favourite song by your favourite band as the title of your comic, and so that no copyright is infringed, no lyrics allowed!! This could yield very interesting results altogether.
Thirdly, if anyone wants to build the Robot in my story, the blue-prints are available HERE

Looking forward to all the comic madness coming up over the next few months!:D:D

Fysh

Howdy gang, as I mentioned to one or two people at 24 Hour Comics Day, the next round of the challenge runs from the start of November to the end of December. It's a bit longer than usual but that's because the theme, by popular demand, is a song of your choice. The only rule? You can't use the lyrics in the piece. Let us know what song you've chosen and who it's by, but don't use the lyrics in the actual comic. Beyond that, make it as long or as short as you like.

On a separate note, I'd appreciate it if all future submissions were sent at 300dpi or higher. JPEG is still fine, although if you specifically want to use another image format knock yourself out.

Saruwatari

So... say if I choose "The End" by The Doors, I'd have to base what's in my comic on the theme of "The End", and not what the song is about?

Fysh

Saruwatari wrote: »

So... say if I choose "The End" by The Doors, I'd have to base what's in my comic on the theme of "The End", and not what the song is about?

The comic should be inspired by the song, be that specifically the lyrics or just a general feeling you get from the song. The ban on using the lyrics (ie no dialogue lifted directly from the lyrics or caption boxes with the lyrics) is down to the dubious legality of doing so - I know of at least one webcomic artist who was contacted about his use of a high-profile band's lyrics in his comic and he ended up having to remove the lyrics from the relevant pages, so I'd rather avoid that issue.

Fysh

Alright gang, Round 13 has started. Pick a song - any song you like, doesn't have to be recent or famous - and make a comic based on or inspired by that song. Outside of the band name and/or song title, you can't use any text from the song lyrics. Beyond that, everything is fair game.

Please send all submissions to fyshbowlcomics(a)gmail.com, preferably as 300dpi JPEGs, by 31st December.

Hoovers

I'm in for this one Fysh. My title is 'The Mollusk' by ween. I'll have it to you by the time Santa drops by your house!

Fysh

Excellent stuff Ronan Also, Mindpuss issue 1 eh? Brilliant stuff - I look forward to it already!

Hoovers

Yeah, I think it's about time! 24 pages- 3 stories. Oooh.

Fysh

I'll be sending out an email about this shortly, but a few people have mentioned that they'd find more time useful for this round, so I'm going to extend the deadline to midnight on January 18th.

Fysh

Round 13's entries are now online!

Seven entries this time around, although not really since two of them were single-page "joke" entries of mine. That said, Alan Nolan and Philip Barrett both sent in comics as well as a newcomer by the name of James Newell, so all in all there's a lot to like this time around.

I'll start a thread in the next day or two for discussing the entries and giving feedback/constructive criticism. I'll also post up a CBR file containing all the comics for those who want to read them all in one go.

Hoovers

Ha ha - some great stuff as usual- nice to see Phil with an entry this time round: awesome as ever!:)