thee SANTORO CORRESPONDENCE COURSE and
thee Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency presents
the COMICS WORKBOOK COMPOSITION COMPETITION 2016
1st place - $500 cash prize to the winner
2nd place - $250 credit at Copacetic Comics
3rd place - $100 credit at Copacetic Comics
plus four $50 honorable mention prizes from Big Planet Comics
Create a 16 page signature comic book narrative to the specifications below
DEADLINE: August 30 2016 midnight new york city time
PAY ATTENTION!! THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT! Here and Here and Here are last three years if you haven’t heard of the contest. This isn’t a scam, silly.
Original art page size: 5.5 x 8.5 inch originals with a 5 x 7.5 inch live area. Three equal “landscape” oriented panels. No exceptions. Each panel will be 5 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall. The “Tezuka Grid”. MEANING: YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE PANEL SIZES. 14 pages with 3 panels per page means you only have 42 panels to tell your story. And two covers.
Work may be in color OR black and white - OR - a combination of both.
You may also cut paper to the standard panel size of 5 x 2.5 inches and arrange them on your 5.5 x 8.5 paper quarter inch margins east, north and west with a three quarter inch margin south.
These “specs” were derived from Osamu Tezuka’s proportions for his first manga, The Mysterious Underground Men. It is a classic 2:3 proportion which is the same as traditional North American comic books. See above photos–I determined the live area and then scale’d up to a standard North American size which is affordable to print. See my ideas about the two most used comic book proportions HERE.
International students must use the same specs. No complaining.
It is recommended that you use one 8.5 x 11 piece of paper to compose the “spread”. The point is to draw small. And to draw by hand. And to learn how to draw in a “1 to 1″ fashion, as this proportion is perfect for North American “mini-comics” and for makers worldwide to produce comics from office supplies. And can be reduced to make a traditional 100x150mm live area for manga. See thoughts on this subject HERE.
Thats 14 pages of story plus two covers. Meaning seven spreads and a front and back cover. A 16 page signature. Follow this example here.
THE STORY MUST BE COMPLETE. SERIAL INSTALLMENTS of a longer narrative ARE NOT ELIGIBLE. THE STORY MUST BE NEW. IF YOU REPURPOSE AN OLD STORY THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN PUBLISHED YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. Consider this an exercise in short story writing. I think the 16 page signature is ideal to contain a short story. Adaptations of existing works are not eligible. Like, you can’t copy a sequence from a movie.
Photograph or scan your pages and post them on your tumblr AS SPREADS. If you don’t have a tumblr - make one just for this contest. No exceptions! No complaining! Also post the front cover as the lead image and the back cover as the final image.
Email me - santoroschoolATgmailDOTcom - that you have posted your entry to your tumblr - complete with your name and title of the work in the text field and that it is for the composition competition 2016 - and I will reblog it on to the comicsworkbook site. I will be posting them - reblogging them - on comicsworkbook as they come in. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I will, however, only be posting stories that stick to the RULES. If you don’t follow the rules, I will not reblog the story and you won’t be eligible for the cash prize. Any questions about the competition - please email me.
The competition is open to all. You do not have to be a former student of mine. Former students of mine ARE eligible to compete.
Again, If you have any questions about the rules please ask. Better to ask and be safe than to be mad when I disqualify you over some missed detail. Seriously. Remember the page size: 5.5 x 8.5 inch originals with a 5 x 7.5 inch live area. Three equal “landscape” oriented panels. No exceptions. Each panel will be 5 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall. Work may be in color OR black and white - OR - a combination of both.
Remember! Email me - santoroschoolATgmailDOTcom - that you have posted your entry to your tumblr - I will reblog it.
You may enter as a writer/artist duo.
DEADLINE is August 30 2016 at 11:59 pm EST
Winners will be announced the following week.
please reblog this announcement
GOOD LUCK! signed Frank Santoro
COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Can I have gutters in between the panels and can I work digitally.
ANSWER: You can have gutters - and you can work digitally. However I still want you to draw it at 5.5 x 8.5 inch original page size with a 5 x 7.5 inch live area - don’t draw large and shrink it down - ideally you are drawing panels that are 5 x 2.5 inches. Thanks. FS
