P.O.W.! Challenge 28, 29, 30--The Funnies!

[Ilaekae]

Greetings, Kiddies! Welcome to Challenge 28.

...actually it's Challenges 28, 29, and 30. We're going to try something a bit different this time out, and it's definitely not a comic BOOK page.

We're doin' the FUNNIES!

Over the next six weeks, we will produce 15 newspaper comic strips, five each on a separate topic/genre, due in two week increments in order.

The newspaper strips have been going through many changes over the last 20 years, most of them to the bad, but the dedicated idiots that produce them just keep on embarrassing themselves anyway. Now it's time for you guys to get a taste of what they have to put up with.

There are different types of approaches in story telling, most of which you can identify from a quick scan through your local newspaper funnie pages...

1. The long story, which runs from one strip to the next, often without an actual "punchline" at the end of each individual day's strip. "Mary Worth," "Spiderman," and "For Better or Worse" are good examples.

2. The Continuous gag strip, which is set in one specific world but each individual day's strip is a stand-alone gag panel, like "Dilbert," Zits," "Peanuts," and "Get Fuzzy."

3. The single gag strip, which usually has each day's strip as a self-contained gag, often with no relation in time or space with the strips before or after. Often, there are no permanent characters from strip to strip, though many have recurring characters. "Non Sequitur," "Frank & Ernst," and the box-panel-strips "Bizzaro," "Real Life Adventures," and "Pluggers."

NOTE: You can use any of these approaches/formats above for any of the topics below.

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Topic A: Five Strips--Humor/Bizzare (basically anything from slapstick to the sublime to totally off the wall, as long as it's funny).

Deadline: Sunday, August 23, 2009

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Topic B: Five Strips--Adventure/Drama (western, cop, private eye, military, medical, etc. The characters and story-line should be recognizable and "expected" from day to day, and can be humorous if desired, though the genre is the important thing).

Deadline: Sunday, September 6, 2009

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Topic C: Science fiction/Horror (Must be "spacey" or contain various examples of the "undead" or "unknown." These can also be humorous if you wish.

Deadline: Sunday, September 27, 2009 (Extended one week)


Any entry in before it's no longer 11:59 pm anywhere in the world makes it.

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Mechanical Specifications:

BLACK & WHITE ART ONLY! (Can include some basic gray values, but it's best to keep it simple.) Art must be horizontal and at least partially boxed (have a physical rule around it of some sort).

Reproduction/AND POSTING SIZE: 5-1/2" x 2" (14cm x 5cm)

If you want to WORK at 150% (half up) in size: 8-1/4" x 3" (21cm x 7.5)

If you want to WORK at 200% (twice up) in size: 11" x 4" (28cm x 10cm)

These last two will obviously be reduced to the first size before posting.


Comic strips are very small, so simplicity in both art and approach are a necessary evil, as well as readable text. For this reason, it's not recommended for novices to work above 200% because art that's too fine or detailed will either disappear or turn to mud. Text must be readable, so be extra careful how blabby your characters or the narrator are.

The topics must be done in the order I have them above, and each set of five strips turned in by THAT deadline. Otherwise, it's wide open. The strip dimensions do NOT include any title you may wish--these are usually placed at the top of the strip at the left, and your name is at the upper right a bit smaller, both OUTSIDE the limiting box.

I'd suggest taking a look through your local funny page section of your newspaper to get a feel for how the "pros" do things. Good Luck. Any questions, post 'em here and I'll get back to you ASAP.

[guggemmaneuver]

bloody brilliant, kitty!!!

just what i needed: a new bag. :)

[arttorney]

I'll just provide real life stories of my far-off home world.
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[Liffey]

Yet another CA activity I have no choice but to take part it in... This will definitely be fun! And will give me an excuse to break out the Calvin & Hobbes yet again... :)

One question: How many strips for Topic C?

[arttorney]

Welcome aboard. Looks like it's also five, to me.
Over the next six weeks, we will produce 15 newspaper comic strips, five each on a separate topic/genre, due in two week increments in order.

After I finish framing the fine art piece I have to deliver to a show this weekend, I hope actually to place some "art" in the box I made so far. I thought up my second scenario and I have high hopes it will be a little less dry than the first one.

[kev ferrara]

Always wanted to try a realllllly deadpan strip and see if I can get non-expressions to read differently depending on what is said...

[arttorney]

Those are cool. I like the third one and the fifth one the best.
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Dammit! The GIMP lied to me about size. I'll fix this before deadline.

[Ifman1]

Some funnies, such as Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, the Far Side (which is the gospel of humor), Ziggy, and I believe even Bizarro, are more of a large square. A one panel type of thing. Your required dimensions don't take this into account. :wtf:

So, is this cool? Probably more for the first five strips than the other ones.

See attached example:

[Arish]

Great idea for a POW! I had no idea how hard it must be for comic strip creators to work in so small a space... no wonder Bill Watterson was fed up. But it's still fun to do!

Anyway, I figured I'd do the comics based on my friend's adventures working in a petshop. So here's the character design and comic #1...

Kev - I like your concept - it reminds me a bit of this website: http://penultimate-panel.blogspot.com/

[arttorney]

I'm talkin' road rage in little bitty clown cars. Look both ways when you cross the street.
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[Arish]

Comic #2 - final size and large version - plus a large version of comic #1. And by "large," I mean a size where you can actually see something.

[arttorney]

Damn! Arish gonna whoop some ass!

[kyurai]

hey all ,

i ve been alurker here for a long time :) but i thought i d give this one a try :)

since these are my first comics, please crit the hell out of them.
hope that after resize someone can still read the text :p

EDIT: i just came home from vacation and i m posting these now. i know i ve passed the deadline, so they won t matter for the polls.
anyway, i m mostly posting them for crits :)

@arish: thank you very much the critique. I ve tried to improve my lines in the last 3 but i m not sure it s any much better :)

[Ilaekae]

Ifman, I somehow missed your question. Sorry for that.

I was going to keep that panel style for a later challenge, but if it helps you out, go ahead and do it. Just make sure that all five entries are done that way. The other two entries of five each can be the same style or in the horizontal format if you wish. This goes for everyone else, too, though the horizontal format should be tried for at least once by anyone serious about comics--it's a hell of a lot harder to make sure it's readable.

[Arish]

Thanks Arttourney! :)

Kyurai - your comic is off to a promising start - you can tell who's who right away and what their personalities are like, which is one of the most important things in a comic. I guess my main suggestion would be to push it a bit farther to make it more polished - little things like straightening it out so it's horizontal and not crooked, printing the text more neatly and applying tones evenly (grey scribbles in the bg is distracting). Also - engagement rings are usually sparkly, so you might want to make it lighter than the surrounding area, not darker (unless it's teh Evil Ring of Doom, hehe). But yes, I can read your text even at the small size and I like what you've done so far - looking forward to seeing the rest :)

Comic #3 - small and large version.

[Ifman1]

I was going to keep that panel style for a later challenge, but if it helps you out, go ahead and do it. Just make sure that all five entries are done that way. The other two entries of five each can be the same style or in the horizontal format if you wish. This goes for everyone else, too, though the horizontal format should be tried for at least once by anyone serious about comics--it's a hell of a lot harder to make sure it's readable.

I don't want to ruin any future topics, so I'll suffer through the long strip. I usually don't finish anyway, so accomodating me should never be any kind of priority. Thanks for the response though.

[Kmadden2004]

Sorry, I've been gone so long, been a bit busy with work.

Anyways, Here's my first comic strip. It's a bit 'specific', really. Basicaly, it sums up how I've felt about the constant delays in the release date for Rock Band 2: Wii here in the UK...

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-17.jpg

And here's the second:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-18.jpg

And the third:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-19.jpg

Here's the fourth:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-20.jpg

And here's the final one:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-21.jpg

[VulgarDragon]

Been out of the comic stripping game for a long time so this competition is a good way for me to get back into it. So here's mine. I'm not 100% satisfied with the inking or wording, but good start for me. Anyway, this comic strip is about this little fella named Snorky...he's sort of an oddball creature that can swim, fly, and many other things.

Title and comic strip #1...more to follow!

[VeSeljak]

small,lazy contribution :)

[arttorney]

Xxxxx xxxx x xxxxx.
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[arttorney]

Xxxxx xxxxx xx xxxx.
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[VulgarDragon]

more Snorky...enjoy!

[arttorney]

I like those characters so far, Mad Cross. The pelican has a ton of potential. I know of another "Snorky" character from 70s TV, but then again I know of a punk band called "The Zimbo Chimps," so I got a lot of room to talk.

Ilaekae: Do we start putting our POW 29 dramas in this thread or will there be another thread?

[Ilaekae]

Nice job, everyone! The poll will be up late tonight because it will take me a while to gather and post.

As of now, we're onto Stage B of the Challenge (and Stage C if you're feeling ambitious), which will be deadlining on September 6. Just use this thread for your posting of all the remaining strips so they're all located together. Good luck.

[Ilaekae]

This is a reminder that we still have two parts of this Challenge to get involved in--the Genre Strip with on week or so to go, and Sci-Fi/Horror starting next Sunday.

AND a reminder to all you guys who NEVER read "Read this first" or have forgotten...

ALL of our Challenges DON'T have to have a beginning and end as such, just enough of a story to give us the flavor you're trying to convey. The strip competitions with five strips required DO have to be finished completely, but the page comics usually only have to have TWO pages done completely to go to poll.

[arttorney]

I figured out my five on Saturday. I was going to do "Das Boot in the Ass," a submarine adventure with some Ilaekae style German dialog, but I also put these comics on another forum where they are a little more uptight so I thought better of it.

You other folks better enter, or else you will get beat by default:mittenbop:

[VulgarDragon]

I'm working on mine as well. Going to be sort of a Dick Tracy spoof.

[kyurai]

here s my western :)
hope i got it right and this is what i was supposed to do, not stand alone strips.

[arttorney]

I had intended to finish, Ilaekae, but I find myself with a particularly bad one of my cluster headaches today so I can't make any guarantees.

[VulgarDragon]

That's too bad arttoney...was looking forward to your version of Ilaekae. Well, here is my submission, titled Malcolm McCray, who is an investigator at the Scotland Yard. Enjoy.

[Kmadden2004]

I may need an extra day or two to post the rest up (been a little busy this week).

But here's the first chapter of my five part epic: The Moribund Academy...

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-22.jpg

Part 2:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-23.jpg

Part 3:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-24.jpg

Part 4:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-25.jpg

And finally part 5:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-26.jpg

I'm probably going to post a full colour version up on my DeviantART page some time in the future.

[Ilaekae]

Everybody's looking good.

If it helps, I completely forgot it's labor day weekend in the US, so if it helps, you have to early Tuesday to finish anything you can. I got conned into spending all Monday with a bunch of Baptists by my wife (her remaining relatives), so I should be thoroughly pissed off by Monday night with a raving headache myself. :P

[arttorney]

Apologies all around.
@ Ilaekae: I was on track to finish in the morning but my boss came around and decided I should work.

@ MadCross: I abandoned the Ilaekae inspired butchery of the German language in part because of the self censorship movement and in part because it is hard.

@ the people who read my sketchbook: I know I promised to stop half-assing things, but this time around it was half-assed or no-assed.
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[Ilaekae]

Thank you all very much. The poll is being prepped right now.

I just realized something that i did that was stupid, so to correct it, we're all gonna get a bit of an extension on the final five strips. The Battle of the Sexes is ending at exactly the same time as our final set of strips, and there's no way I'd be able to handle that hassle. So...

The deadline for the final five strips (formerly Sept. 20) is now extended one week to September 27 to allow me some breathing room with the Sex thing...

[tobbA]

Ok. I'm done. :)

[Ilaekae]

Hoping to have one in, too...but it's iffy--my wife is home working because of the G20 and the computer is a bit botched right now with corporate girl cooties...

[Kmadden2004]

Here's part one (it's another Moribund Academy tale, sorry)

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-28.jpg

The remaining parts are on their way, I'm just posting this up so everybody knows that I am in on this one...

Part 2:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-29.jpg

Final three parts will go up tomorrow (part five may just brush in before the deadline... fingers crossed)

Part 3:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-30.jpg

Part 4:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-31.jpg

Part 5 will be up in the next hour...

...and here it is:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii302/Kmadden2004/Page_1-32.jpg

[arttorney]

Hopefully it is not too blasphemous to make a cartoon version of the Popol Vuh.
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