And the winners are...

[Troy Kealley]

Well it's been a tough week of deliberations but the verdict is finally in! Before we announce the winners, the thanks go out.

Firstly - to our sponsors, for their generous support of the contest and Australian comics in general:
Pulp Fiction Comics - http://www.pulpfictioncomics.com.au
Supanova - http://www.supanova.com.au/
Ben Templesmith - http://www.templesmith.com/faze2/
Manga Arts - http://www.mangaarts.com.au/
Phosphorescent comics - http://www.phosphorescent.com.au/
Queenie Chan - http://www.queeniechan.com/
Sureshot presents - http://saveded.blogspot.com/2006/03/sureshot-presents.html
Oztaku - http://www.oztaku.com/
PulpFaction (you're here right now!) - http://pulpfaction.net/
radioTAK - http://www.radiotak.com.au/
Siberian Productions - http://www.siberianproductions.com/
Phase Two Comics - http://www.phasetwocomics.com


Secondly to our Judges - for their much appreciated efforts in picking our winners. Not an easy thing to wade through the huge number of fantastic entries this your and pick a winner - well done guys and girls.

Thirdly to the organisers. Mark Selan for running the show, chasing up sponsors, and a lot of the setup work. Graeme McDonald for his tireless efforts to coax the media along to the show. Jacen for his efforts and the interview with New Zealand radio. Maggie especially for hosting and preparing the forums for the challenge, no small part of the cost of this comes out of Maggie's hip pocket. And I did some stuff too, like whipping the judges, and making Mark's lunch (I sent it express post - didn't you get it yet?)

And finally to all the entrants - you guys have turned out on force to make this an amazing contest this year and all deserve a round of applause.

But I hear you all saying 'shut up already and make with the prizes!' - so without further ado...

Drumroll please....

For the 2006 24 hours in Ozcomics Challenge, winners are:

Tom Bonin - 'Who Knows' - http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1824
Best 24 Page Mature Comic, Judges Choice
- Wins original artwork by Ben Templesmith - Lucky bugger!

Ricci - 'The Psych of Gemima Copper' - http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1884
Best 16 Page Mature Comic, Judges Choice
- Wins a selection of graphic novels from Pulp Fiction Comics. Happy reading!

Leon and Clare - 'Open all Night' - http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1905
Best 8 Page Mature Comic, Judges Choice
- Wins $100 from Oztaku. To replace all those pastels you guys used!!

Caanan Grall - 'The Gypsy and The Astronaut' http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1866
Best 24 Page General Comic
- Wins a fully paid table in Artist Alley for the next Supanova - better get printing!

Micheal Li - 'Starcatcher' - http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1842
Best 16 page General Comic
- Wins the 'Sureshot Presents' prize package, being incusion in the Sureshot Presents magazine plus 20 copies of that issue, AND a selection of graphic novels from Pulp Fiction comics. Look forward to seeing this in print.

Jessica McLeod - 'Tea with a Space Rabbit' http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1805
Best 8 Page General Comic, Judges Choice
- Wins original artwork by Queenie Chan - very nice!

In addition to the above prizes for each category, all winners will also receive a 2 year (8 issue) subscription to Phosphorescent Comics' fantasy-manga title AZERATH beginning at #1.

Peoples Choice Awards go to:

Steve Martinez - Mojo & Fuzz: Tall Tails http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1819
Favourite Overall Mature Comic
- Wins a Selection of graphic novels from Pulp Fiction, plus a selection of Australian comics from radioTAK, Ozcomics Magazine, Oztaku and Siberian Productions.
*Second Prize- Tom Bonin - 'Who Knows' http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1824
- Wins $20 of comics from Phase Two Comics
*Third Prize - Evil Dan - 'Timbsly the Stereotypical Demon' http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1835
- Wins $20 of comics from Phase Two Comics, and his mouth washed out!

Wredrat and Amei - 'Treasure Map' http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1893
Favourite Overall General Comic
- wins a selection of comics from Phosphorescent Comics
*Second Prize - Caanan Grall - 'The Gypsy and The Astronaut' http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1866
- Wins $20 of comics from Phase Two Comics
*Third Prize - Thomas Carter - 'The Librarian' http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1912
- Wins $20 of comics from Phase Two Comics.

Micheal Li - 'Starcatcher' http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1842
Favourite Manga Comic
- Wins the prize pack from Manga Arts including pens, brushes, ink, nibs, manga paper and screentones, plus the entry will be featured on their website. Nicely done - again!!
*Second Prize - Erin McGregor - 'To Make it Breathe' - http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1821
- Wins $20 of comics from Phase Two Comics.
*Third Prize - Alastair Sew Hoy - 'Fly me to the Moon' http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1816
- Wins $20 of comics from Phase Two Comics.

*The second and third prizes in the above categories are coutesy of Pulp Faction.

The Judges Honourable Mentions go to:
Matt Huynh - 'Blind Shots' - http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1863
Gary Lau - 'Trigger' - http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1902
Wredrat and Amei - 'Treasure Hunt' - http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1893
Elina Turenen - 'Borderline' - http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1850
Trev and Jen - 'Butcherin' a Classic' - http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1879
Steve Martinez - 'Mojo and Fuzz: Tall Tails' - http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=1819

I will be posting up our judges feedback for ALL entries tomorrow, but rest assured they have read every entry and were overwhelmed by the quality of this years entrants. From one of our judges:

"An extremely good turn out this year and one worth waiting for. It amazes me the variety and richness that come out of both the sense of community the challenge creates, as well as the sense of trial. I've sat up the full 24 hours, watching madness come across the creators, as surely as wolves at full moon. Excellent to see such a strong showing from women this year, dispelling the boy's club mentality some people ascribe to the funny books.

This year's winners were damnably hard to pick. Judging both story and art, not to mention style and commitment is tightrope walking. However, I think the winners this year all bought just that little bit of extra something to the game. I read every story from beginning to end, though and there was not a rough amongst the diamonds. Thanks to everyone who contributed and thanks to Troy, Maggie and to everyone who got this together (Mark, Graeme and Jacen). Wow."

Congratulations to the winners, we will be in contact soon to arrange your prizes etc. And well done to everyone who entered, and made this years challenge great as ever. It's an honour to be part of it![url][/url]

[rumpusroomie]

Congrats to all the winners! Congrats to everybody come to think of it. Phenomenal effort by all. Aussie comics are world class and that weekend proved it.

Huzzah!

[practicecactus]

Oh wow....I won People's choice Mature.
Thank you so much guys. Tis an Honour to have been selected from such a mighty fine field of awesome comics/creators.

I really didn't think I'd win from all the great Mature comics.

Thanks heaps guys, I really appeciate it

..wow..still can't believe it.

[Jessica McLeod]

...wuh?

I am very surprised amd happy! And confused! And happy!

Thank you!

[euronymus]

Congratulations to all the winners! And a big round of applause to the judges. Given this years assortment of entries, it must have been a damn hard task to pick favourites, let alone winners.
Congratulations all!

[maggie]

2nd and 3rd place in the people's choice categories will receive $20 credit at PhaseTwo courtesy of Pulp Faction. (I just couldn't help it. SO many amazing entries!)

Would each of you please e-mail me, admin at pulpfaction dot net, using whatever e-mail address you will use to place your order at Phase Two. In it please put your name, city and postcode.

I will get back to each of you with details on how to redeem the credit.

Thanks!
Maggie

[hannijules]

Congratulations to all the winners of the 24hr Challenge, though I must say I think the real winner here today is comicbook art (alright, somebody was gonna use the cliche and I thought I'd get in early).
Everybody really gave it 110% and I guess the winners here just wanted it more on the day. Erm, what else do they say in post-match interviews... ? They came on in the second half a different side and erm... drank Gatorade... erm...

Extra kudos though to Michael Li for managing to get gongs in two separate fields! Awesome and well earned indeed.

Well done everyone, anyways. I did a personal best and that's enough for me!

[Cybermotron]

Congrats to all folks! well done everyone!...especially those who won a prize!

[azahru]

Troy if these very lengthy comments should go somewhere else give me a hoy. I'll put my name to my comments

Thankyou to our organisers for all their hard work and thankyou to all entrants it really is great to see the diversity and quality of content and gives me warm glowy feelings about the potential, the creativity, the many voices and ongoing relevance of comics.

I've written comments on every entry (I can see now why that normally doesn't happen in competitions), because there are over 70 entries and there's this whole day job and other projects thing I need to do I haven't been able to be as consistent with comments as I would like. Some will get longer comments than others, I've tried to keep it brief and just touch on a few points for each comic. There really was an excellent line up this year and it's very exciting how the 24 hour comics challenge goes from strength to strength.

8 page general category items

Nick Bate - Journey to the Centre of the Galaxy
Playful, fun and educational. Illustration style worked well with the tone and content.

Thomas Carter - The Tale of Pantaloons Duffy
Very promising begining, some quirky visual stylings and ideas. Some fun characters and concepts, as identified did seem to run out of steam and needed a stronger story. Great work and start and the story about 3 really grabbed me as well.

Matt Huynh - Blind Shots - not elligable for prizes
Powerful storytelling, gutsy, articulate, important with a touch of magic

Alec M - Strange Things Are Going On
Fun story and storytelling, nice setup, plot twists and drawing back to the pot plant at the end gave a deeper sense of closure than than if you'd just had the Duke leaving - as well as the knowledge that this guy won't just go back to his normal life

Jessica McLeod- Tea WIth a Space Rabbit
Delightful. I loved the lettering, easy to read but quite different to a lot of modern lettering, worked well with the story. Delightful, cute, playful, sweet small story.

Lawson & Wilton - Titles are for the WEAK!
Fabulous cows, villains and time travel language and crisp expressive art, well done . The Astronaut referenceing was a bit weak although golly gee heroeic logic you just got away with it by a gnat's wing, I am mollified as the magma got to be there in person and botch was used so thoroughly.

Melody Powell - The Dream
Dreamlike, nice use of fragments and space to create that sensation of a dream space and uncertainty about what will happen next.An interesting fragment and some lovely use of slightly unnatural shapes.

Robert Racoon - Residue
A promising beginning, I'd certainly like to see where you take this, the avocado stealing the hat was probably my favourite bit, a nifty little twist. I wanted to see a bit more scotsman but you too get away with it by a gnat's wing thanks to haggis referencing. Might not be elligable as I cannot find the words Wield, Archetype or Botch - I also may be blind. Have posted the question so hopefully he can draw my attention to it.

Emma-JeanS - Procrastination
I'm a real fan of good silent comics, lovely phrasing and expresion and excellent incorporation of the elements. If you'd had more time it would have been great to have a few more pages in the middle fleshing out the dreamscape.

Zak Rowling - The Cult
I'm pretty stoked, I've just finished reading a silent comic and now I get to read a pome. Great angular artwork, excellent use of rhyme, good story.

Josh Salmon, Circus House
I especially enjoyed the colouring and expression on House's face when he's peering at breasts. Fabulous facial expressions all round and the watercolour style colouring really suited the circus and pencil style.

Michael Sandford- with a crack!'
Nice work on the facial expressions, it's great to see your work developing. Happy sleeping gherkins and superheroes falling flat on their faces please me. Wise choice on the font size change.

Connell Wood - "Beyond the Post-it"
Great art, your drawing syle is really enjoyable and the light use of grey tones works really well. I certainly will be looking forward to seeing the rest of the story when you're able to upload the rest. Dinosaurs with monocles, hideous human felines and a main character you can care for.

Mature 16 pages
Ricci - The Psych of Gemima Copper
Silent comics, poem comics and now collage comics. This judge is very very happy with the range of comics produces and the variety of styles exploring our wonderful medium. I'm finding it very exciting. I can really imagine Gemima and how such a friend can be wonderful (Norks!) and your use of collage worked really well. Playful is a word I feel I'm over using in my judgiong comments, but it fits so well and the playfullness is something I'm really enjoying (I have also been watching Iron Chef so I may become more verbose and talk about the sensations I'm getting in my throat)

Elina Turunen - The Borderline
Great use of sepia tones, lovely visual style, strong characters and dialogue. Extra points for playing the vampire penguin straight. It is a shame the story had to wrap up so suddenly after such a promising beginning, I look forward to the full version.

Michael Fitzhywel - Green Water - not elligable
Nice tight story. I enjoyed the colouring, tone and facial expressions, neat twists and a powerful last page. The waking up eyes and the blue lands of unconsciousness worked particularly well.


Mature 24 pages

Tom Bonin "Who Knows"
Wicked magical, excellent use of a scotsman and a wonderful pumpkin patch, I love good folklore style horror (and being a wimp a light horror I can enjoy without hiding scared under my bed). Great art, story, dialogue.

Jo B 1 - mondo nero
lovely expressive work. The section with orthodontics on the train was one of the most powerful bits for me, you evoked that feeling all too well. Excellent use of bunnies which is always a plus for me and I really enjoyed the way you composed a page.

EvilDan -- Timsbly the Stereotypical Demon
Good quality art work, loved the slip slop slap cthulu, definitly glad it was in a 'mature' section. Through my work in the community sector and other stuff I know a fair number of men and women who have been raped - the emphasis on sexual violence and the way it was done took a lot of the fun away for me. I think I'm pretty broad minded, but this is the only comic to make me feel physically ill. I certainly enjoyed the slip slop slap cthulu.

PracticeCactus - Mojo & Fuzz;Tall Tails
Fabulous expressive stuff, Mojo and Fuzz have got to be some of the coolest animals in comics. Great use and justification of aliens and I really enjoyed the fight scene plus wise cracking. Great stuff.

Jamtrousers - Who Turned Out the Lights - Adelaide
Congratulations on doing the full 24, a heartwarming tale of an runaway octopus.nice incorporation of photo references and extra points for listing at the end where all the random things are, indeed a full commendation.

See Penny Run(A Mindless Exploitation Comic)
A very cute, fun not quite so children's book. Jenny is such a delightfully happy looking character and the running avocados were great. Hurrah for joyful nudity, female astronauts and happy avocados.

Laura Seabrook - What Watt Space on First?
Nice indy style, I especially like how you blocked in the dark black backgrounds (such as in the mine), it worked really well and I imagine save you a chunk of time. starting with a simple story, adding a salty tale telling twist that the gets more twists applied and further mystery added, although I want to know who wrote the comic.

Mark Selan - Poometti - not elligable
heheheh, thanks for that deep insight into your psyche. This pisstake certainly made me giggle, my favourite line has got to be "Foreplay?"

Will Kelly - Young Mountain Agony

Ah the joys time travel, I hope you're going to write a sequel that helps explain how they're all alive if they were all dead, I'm sure there's some more will have been going to tomorrows left.I'm big fan of eyes in inky darkness and the reduction in panels towards the end really suited the increase in action and more dynamic panels.

8 Page mature

Ant - Bless this house

Creepy, child like kind of illustration and colouring eerily suitable, with nice little details like the flower bent over and framing fragments rather than full detail worked very well.

Daniel Bai - They Call Me The Gypsy

Great use of black and white with a touch of colour. Visually I liked it and writing accents is always hard, but I could hear the accents, so well done. The story did leave me a little unsatisfied, but a very promising beginning

Stephen J Bai - Cyborg Scotsman Vs Fat Frankenstein

kinda weird, kinda gross, there looks like there's a lot of detail that didn't come through with that quality scan Page 5 (http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/5590/page55ms.jpg ) seems to have better detail and smoother lines than the other images and does your artwork better justice - I had to squint a lot and I'm sure there are odd bits I just couldn't see. Certainly odd, reminded me of some of the more grotesque work from MAD with lots of weird tubey detail

Mo.C-Yobbo wankers
Page 1 is very hard to read, words nigh impossible, so I'm very glad that got fixed up in later pages. Well drawn characters and some great groan worthy giggles.

Dominik - Wheeled Avocado
Decidedly weird and enchanting. Love the wobbly panels, the death of television, banana sattelites and the avocadoes that come in peace.

Katherine FitzHywel - V for Vegan
A promising beginning, as the animals go out into the big bad world. I'm curious and a bit disturbed as to why the lamb would remove it's wool in order to go out into the big bad world.

Troy Kealley - Pulp Faction - not elligable for prizes
Tops stuff Troy, fan bloody tastic, I must get around to buying a hamster t-shirt.

Leon & Clare - Open All Nite
Lovely creepy pastels and atmosphere. I half expected the contortionist to be hanging by the belt.

Gary Lau - "Trigger"
Beautiful, stark, creepy, Mr Lau you're a mean mean man for not finishing this, I need to know what happens next or I'll be jumping at shadows.

Mark Lauthier- Momentum
Beautiful pencils, the cloven shoes won a special place in my heart.

Andrew Law - Dragons Lament
A dragon hunter after my own heart, nice stuff.

Michael - Tales of the Space Squid Defence Squad
I love the then and now structure, has me intrigued, lovely artwork too, hope you're planning on finishing it.

Paul McClintock - Imagine. Dream. Smile
Poignant, lovely story and great title.


Crap I'm starting to run out of words, there's a lot of comics to look at

Jason McPherson & Craig Vial - Untitled
Nice indy style and use of blacks.

Henry PoP - LOW
Gorgeous faces and expressive lines, sad poignant story.

Komala Singh/Sally Woellner - Stacks On
Oh wow, I don't often laugh out loud, but this one made me guffwah and get many a curious glance. I'm still chuckling on the inside.

Gavin Thomson, Moth, Canberra
The split panel juxtapositions worked really well and I liked the story and the art, nice lines faces and hands in particular.

Sean Tay - Bad date
Wow, beautiful lines, such a soulful sad and gentle comic!

24 Page - general

Dom Blackwell - Day in the life of Joseppe
Full marks for guiding this judge towards the random elements. I like portrait on page 7 in particular.

Jacen C - The Greatest Comic in the World
You had me at the second time I fetched water, very cool and I even feel scholarly in my greater understanding of Jung.

Thomas Carter - The Librarian
Great story, characters, development and an excellent last line. I believe there are some librarians at the national library chuckling over there tea right now.

Michael Connolly Lair Of The Dryad
Deliciously liquid detail, I love the way some of the waves crest, the mushrooms at the dryads feet, these little bits that really add to the whole.

Jules Faber - Entropy Island
Great inks pencil and story, loved the ending.

Caanan - Gypsy & the Astronaut
Oh wow, that was just gorgeous Caanan, lovely sparse use of words, great non-verbal communication and a lovely story.

Edward J Grug III - They Came From Space!
Great stuff, you manage delightful chicken soup for the soul stuff with sad poignant bits and savage twists that make bottom lips tremble. Well done.

Wen Huang - various goodbyes
I enjoyed seeing the various textures and styles, nice designs and work, I think I'll have to read it a few more times to fully grock it, but well done.

David Kerr - The Magic Oboe
Best Ferryman, I mean boatman, scene ever, a lot of fun, bravo. Very cool use of an oboe, great to see your stuff again.

Lucas - the astronaut in which bad things happen to
That banana touched a special part of my soul, some of the lines were real gems. A fun romp.

Erin McGregor - To Make it Breathe - Adelaide
Great title that follows up on its promise. As a gamer and a passionate story teller it brought a tear to my eye and a smile to my face.

Sarah Milne -- The Princess and the Gypsy
A really fun romp, under 30 entries to read now and I'm starting to run out of words for I enjoyed this comic, how it was drawn and how it worked but all of that is true, had a frock full of fun.

Loren Morris- Immaculate Contradiction
Gorgeous illustration style and panels. Strangely wonderful.

Wez Mountain - All the Cheese in England
Best use of a Duke, fabulously irritatingly dim and oblivious, the visual style worked well and beautiful dialogue.

Alastair Sew Hoy - Fly me to the Moon
Great piece of storytelling, it seemed very real and evocative.

Rebecca W. - Life - Vic [Finished]
the style is very cute, perhaps because I am no expert in reading manga I found it difficult to tell the difference between the characters on occasion even though they do have different hairstyles. Cute story and I enjoyed the black text balloons.

Trev and Jen - Butcherin' a classic
Heheheheh Best undead depiction of Romeo and Juliet ever. The supporting cast is what really makes this magical for me.

16 Page

Kenny - Play Grounds
A very nice beginning, not quite a story by itself, but certainly got me curious about what happens next and got me caring about the characters

Ina Claus - Intrepid Journey
Lovely clean style, reminds me of some cool indy day in the life and political cartoons. Great use of American flag.

Drew - The Runner
Great first effort at a comic, well done drew, 16 pages in 24 hours is certainly a way of throwing yourself into the deep end. Well done and congratulations.

Hayden Fryer & Guy Dernee - Plaza in Space!
I loved the extra informative text, was cute, page 1 was particularly good, with the feeling of extra volume in the drawings.

Owen Heitmann -The Greatest Story Ever Told
Great crisp artwork and beautiful aliens, the arguing alien couple is an oldie but a goldie

wredwrat & amei - Treasure Hunt
Gorgeous artwork, fabulous use of colour and a lovely story.

Sandra Gibson - The House from Hell
Wow, not too bad at all for a first comics attempt, some of it was a bit hard to follow, but the characters were distinct and it was very lively. A great beginning.

Elise Kendall - 'sif
Very odd indeed, I never would have thought of using pregnancy to deal with a plot issue.

Michael Li - Starcatcher
Lovely soft pencils, beautiful composition, engaging read, once again you've told a great story.

OzShadow - The decaffeinated zone
It's fantastic to see quite a few people trying out comic creation for the first time. I liked the simple but effective photo manipulation, worked very well, I especially liked the landscapes on page 14 and 15.

L. Rideout - Space Pirates Deluxe! 2
Funky crew and aliens and a cool story, nice visual style and extra points for how you used hydrangea.

Tony Samson - "Gone To Seed"
Awww that was quite beautiful, a lovely tale of friendship.

C. Schlatter: Blancmange a'la Rupert
For the uninitiated what are those weird head protuberances on Rupert? Cute and strange.

Amanda Siefman - Coliyander - not eligible
Wow, this would certainly be in my top picks if it was eligible, excellent story and art. impressive short story.

Sean Tay - The Mexican Produce Adventure
The protagonist is beautifully expressively unexpressive. The connection to her really carries you through the narrative. Nifty comic

Wanno - A Space Dilemma 2110
Beautiful textures and characters, I love your use of different coloured paper, although I must confess I wanted a little more from the ending *pout*

and that's a wrap.

[neilmac]

Congrats to all those people who won awards because of their great work... and congrats to all entrants for actually doing the challenge!

Thanks to the moderators, administrators, judges, etc. Good job!

And let's go Pulp Faction!

[Li'l Sketchy]

WOW!

I just got into work and checked (internet at home is out of order) and that is WOW!

When's Supanova? I need to get to work. I promise I will dig DEEP to come up with some work that I can sell at my table. Exclusive stuff, etc.... Depending when it is, of course. Ouch. Like I'm not busy enough... but I must do something!

Thanks judges. Thanks everyone. First AND second...

WOW!

I'm glad I won for this year. One: the competition's never been tougher, and Two: it was the best one out of my three years of participation. So... very happy. Congrats to all! I had a lot of favourites!!!

[Troy Kealley]

From David Bird...

"Hi folks

Musings of a 24 Hour Challenge judge for 2006 Part One

Decided I'd share some thoughts that've been rambling through my mind, on and off, for a couple of months; then brought into some focus these last 2 weeks.

Not sure if anyone on the boards has said it in so many words yet, (correct me, please, if someone has) but I think that the 24 Hours Comics Challenge is beginning to coalesce into an actual, genuine cultural event. I'm quite serious when I say that.

When discussion began on the Pulp Faction boards this year, concerning a name change, if any; Mark's reduced involvement for 2006, after several years dedicated service; any tweaking of the category definitions; in fact, what the Challenge actually meant or represented to the comic community in general, and the participants in particular, these were all signs that the Challenge has started to generate a life of its own. People wished to see it continue, to grow, to, in fact, prosper.

There was a genuine sense of collective anticipation (as in years past) within the local comics community at the approach of the Queen's Birthday weekend, but, it appeared to me, it was particularly noticeable this year. It may have been that I was aware of it more due to to my indirect involvement as a judge, though I'm sure I've read somewhere that the number of participants in the Challenge is incrementally increasing year by year, which suggests a bit of 'cultural critical mass' may be occuring.

And the Challenge has slightly shifted in and of itself. I recollect (and again, someone correct me if my memory is mistaken) Darren Close's original motivation in starting the Challenge on the old OzComics forums was to rouse people out of their creative lethargy, and actually get them to produce some comics instead of talking about it. To
put up or shut up. To get something happening. Now, in the short space of 4 or 5 years (not sure how long this thing's been running . . !) there are approximately a hundred people looking forward to trying their hand at the Challenge every year. And, even more importantly, their is also a considerable and growing proportion of first timers and hitherto unknowns amongst the Challengers now. That truly is a significant achievement.

About the nature of the Challenge itself.

Being a grumpy, middle-aged man, set in a lot of my ways, I've always believed that the act of producing comics, graphic stories . . . whatever you want to call them, is best done with, amongst many other things, reflection, planning and deliberation. I've never been a participant in the Challenge, apart from the fact that its an event which is set up to favour artists primarily, not writers, because of the haste that is required to accomplish the set task.

Despite all this I continue to be happily surprised, and in some cases, downright amazed at the diversity, ingenuity, originality and quality of many of the submissions. There certainly are a lot of participants who creatively thrive in the intense, hot-house environment created by the rules of the Challenge.

Without wanting to sound too 'high-faluting', I believe the event of the Challenge, as it unfolds, can be reasonably compared to that of a live venue where musicians come to improvise and solo, for a length of time of their own choosing, for a general audience, and for an audience of their peers, not dissimilar to a jazz club. One can 'drop in' at any time over the week-end and witness the exercise and display of talent and facility. Regardless of all the end results, for this reason alone is the Challenge a worthy and important event.

There will be a part two to these ramblings, after I've pulled my notes on contributors together, later today.

cheers
_________________
David Bird
Paper Tableaux"

[jacen_c]

Congrats to all the winners and a big thanks to everyone who competed..all of the entries were of such a high calibre (.45) this year! On the Friday before the Challenge I received my monthly shipment of comics (mostly Marvel stuff) and normally I'd spend a large part of the weekend reading the same. The Marvel stuff was left to one side as I started reading the wonderful entries starting with Laura's and continuing on over the weekend. (plus I spent a bit of time scribbling out my entry) It was one of the best long weekends ever and "Civil War" pales in comparison to the creativity on display.

I hope everyone who competed in the Challenge will stay on board the forum and contribute on a regular basis.

Finally, thanks to the organisers Mark, Maggie, Troy and Graeme: the A-Team of this forum (you can sort it out amongst yourselves as to who pities the fools). And many thanks to the judges for their time and effort to make this the BEST YEAR EVER (tm)!

[Troy Kealley]

I love it when a plan comes together

[rumpusroomie]

ohhh controvertial Troy. Dashing to get Hannibal Smith! I suppose it's better than being polite and waiting, you could end up being Face!