Announcing Comic Konga!
So the other day, in the comments section of The Future of Human Transportation, Spyder challenged me (and others) to a 'comic-off' -- a comics festival of sorts. We'd each do five comics over five days. I accepted of course, but work -- o wonderfully banal, low paying work! -- reared its head and I couldn't jump right into it. I figure this is a blessing in disguise for us as well as you, dear reader(s).
Being the delusional brandsmith that I am, I figured an august venture such as this should have its own silly name and stupid logo, so I rechristened it Comic Konga!... um, that's the second name I though of (Comic Orgy is something I'm reserving for another time, hehe). Read on for more astounding details!
The Basics
Comic Konga! is a little event where you and me and everyone we know posts five short comics over the course of five days. Think of it like a film festival or a jam session, only with people showing off their comics on their blogs or other online spaces. We'll start on Monday, the 29th of October and so it will end on Friday, 02 November 2007.
There aren't many rules -- this isn't one of those ultrahardcore endurance races where you have to finish every comic in twenty-seven seconds with one hand tied behind you -- but I think a few guidelines should be stated here to keep things clear and running smoothly:
- There's no easy definition for comic strips (just like pornography, we know it when we see it), but single-panel, multi-panel and even multi-page entries are fine (and good luck to you strong sir/madam/robot if you attempt the last type.
- Comics can be presented in the medium of the artist's choice. This means everything from hand-drawn doodles to 3D models, photographs, origami, sculpture, collage etc. etc. can be used to create your comic.
- You may collaborate with others in the creation of your comics. Just make sure you do covers before somebody's wife breaks you two up, 'hear?
- Please don't use anyone else's copyrighted material unless you have permission or they're free to use. This means photos and artwork and characters and anything else. It's stupid and you can get into trouble. It's only a comic, man.
- The comics you present may be worked on or even be completed before the 29th. I only ask that you post them -- one per day -- between next Monday and Friday. So you have a little under a week's head start: get cracking!
- The comics should be self-contained. This means that if you're doing, say, five strips that lead into one another, I'd appreciate it if the story concluded in #5. It doesn't matter if you're using characters from your existing strip or whatever, I just want some closure. Ooh, closure...
- And yes, you can do five completely unrelated comics. I plan to.
- We don't have any fancy-schmancy registration forms, forums or mailing lists this time, so if you wish to participate in Comic Konga! please leave a comment in this post with your details, especially the address of the blog (or DeviantART or Flickr site or what have you) where you will be posting your work. I won't be hosting any comics on this site except my own, but if you don't have a blog it's very easy to set one up.
- You are responsible for your own content and any kooky repurcussions. Don't blame me if some kid sues you for telling people Santa isn't real in your comic... oops.
Fees & Prizes
There are NO FEES and NO PRIZES, except my undying gratitude and eternal love.
*mwah*
Misc. Stuff
Let me just say that I'd love to see people who don't or haven't ever made comics participate in Comic Konga! It doesn't matter if you don't know how to draw, go to YotoPhoto, get some royalty-free pictures and put word balloons on them. Or take pictures of yourself and miscellaneous friends and loved ones (I am not responsible for your friends and loved ones hating your guts as a result, mind you). Hey, it works for comics like A Softer World.
(btw, Wikipedia has an excellent list of public domain image resources)
Even if you want to doodle stuff on post-its or MSPaint, that's okay too.
I'd love to see people try out new stuff. If you've had a funky comic idea sitting in your brain for a while but haven't got around to it, do one for Comic Konga!. If you only use Photoshop or the GIMP but really like that clean vector look lately, try to make a comic in Inkscape -- it's FREE!
Entertain me. Entertain us.
Go on, then.
(If you have any more questions -- or just want someone weird to bombard you with prolix 2,000 word emails about crap when you send a simple "What's up?" message -- drop me a line at allvishal (at) gmail (dot) com. I can't wait til next monday!)
V
Vishal K Bharadwaj is a generalist; a writer, graphic designer, illustrator, photographer and all-round crazy person.
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Comments
Just when finally I get to take a holiday which will hopefully happen u decide to do this...... but sounds like a lot of fun............ will definitely check it out once i come back :)))))))))
Here you go:
1. Steamrollers (or road levelers or whatever they're called)
2. Cravings
3. The unexpected results of rediscovered caveman magick.
4. Strange vegetables or fruit
5. Robot Innkeepers
Well, those are 5 random things I thought up. If anyone else would like to chime in with a list of their own it would be cool; then Maija (and others) would have stuff to choose from if we get stuck.
(I have a good idea of who each comic will feature, but not what they're about. And no, I haven't started working on them yet. The weekend, weekend!)
As for nanowrimo, I think I maybe will attempt it this year, mostly because I won't have to do it on a soul-sucking CRT monitor (one of the reasons I could finish Script Frenzy was because I used a laptop). On the other hand, there are those as-yet-unfinished stories like Sundari and Fishbowl.... hmmm... I don't know. I think I'm automatically signed up for nano, but I won't think about it until Comic Konga ends on the 2nd (and I usually don't start getting into nano proper until the 5th or so anyway...)
V
Yay! Im excited for Komic Konga (we need a picture of Donkey Kong now...), and for working on comics with everyone!
And geez, I had completely forgotten about 'wrimo!
I won't be doing 'wrimo this year, Ive kind of given up much of teh writing for dead. Just too much to do, theres not way I could make it... though it might not be a bad idea to decide to work on a comic idea for the whole month...
hmmm...
I thought of the giant ape route for the graphics (Conga or Konga being the name of an ape movie, I think) but I figure it's more evocative of the silly line dance than giant simians with a disturbing fixation of little blone women.
However, If you have any cravings for giant apes or giants of any kind, please do indulge them!
(My comments on nanowrimo ran a bit long, so they're coming up in their own post...)
I'm planning to use nanowrimo to write a bunch of short stories. It seems rather exploitative, but hey.
(This is me: http://www.nanowrimo.org/user/207898
And I am SERIOUSLY considering Comic Konga now. :)
Hey, I happen to firmly belong to the Anything-Goes School of Free & Open Web Contestry. I think a short story collection is no less a task than a novel, and hope you do it.
(I also hope that once it's ready to your satisfaction you'll let me read it ^_^)
I hope you do SERIOUSLY consider Comic Konga. It's Saturday already, but you more or less still have the whole weekend!
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