It is rare that publishers of any type accept unsolicited character and story ideas, but Platinum Studios has announced the 2007 Comic Book Challenge is now under way. This is a yearly contest sponsored by the company targeted specifically at aspiring comic book writers and artists.
The top 50 entrants will be invited to pitch their concepts live to a celebrity panel of industry and Hollywood insiders at the San Diego Comic-Con, with the winner getting a publishing deal for print, online, mobile, and licensing of merchandise. The company also claims it will help with the development of the property for film and television.
Lat year’s wnner was DJ Coffman and his Hero By Night, which is actually a pretty good read if you have flipped through it at your local shop.
If you are interested, please read the rules carefully and submit your great concepts by May 31, 2007.
13 Comments
Fix your link! :)
Fixed!
Now go enter!
BAH! I need a creative team. All I do is write. Unless I can get away with a stick figure theater kind of thing…
I was a semi-finalist in last year’s competition. Pitched to the judges in front of cameras at San Diego and everything. It was a great experience, but I don’t think I’d do it again. Platinum pretty much wants your baby as their own and a part of me was grateful I’d lost for that reason.
Since then I created a webcomic called the SuperFogeys (not what I submitted for the Challenge) and I got picked up by a small press publisher just a few weeks ago. Hit my website link to check it out.
Brock
Thanks for giving insight, sounds like it is pretty much like I expected – they get everything – hence my caution to READ EVERYTHING BEFORE ENTERING. While being starry eyed and excited to have your creation in front of a larger audience, signing away your life in the process isn’t such a great thing. I know from experience…
And SuperFogeys looks to be pretty funny.
Cheers
Stephen Schleicher
Actually the contract I won is really great, while I can’t go into specific details contractually– even though Platinum Studios own the intellectual rights and have final say over a final product, anything they ever do in any medium I get a nice piece of as well as creator credit and my name attached. Beyond that they pay you to produce the work, which is very nice. They really feel like a partner of sorts, and bend over backward to make sure my vision of how I want things done is accomplished, even times when I don’t ask for it!
Ideas are a dime a dozen. I don’t suggest selling away your “baby”, but if you’re looking for a career in comics, this could REALLY kickstart things for you in a big way. I have no plans on working for anyone else since Platinum has been so great to work with, but I know there are other places interested in me writing for them now because of the great exposure Hero By Night has gotten. I wouldt have been able to get it out there like Platinum has done and I feel it’s in great hands.
Thanks for chiming in DJ with your unique perspective as the winner.
And I will say this again for anyone who hasn’t heard me say it before – I LOVE HERO BY NIGHT! I would really like to see Platinum sell this as a TV series.
So there you go everyone – enter away and you could be sitting pretty like DJ!
Cheers
Stephen Schleicher
Stephen,
You’re very right in warning people to READ EVERYTHING before you enter. This contest is not for everyone and it’s not for every idea. We understand and respect that. And I understand the concept of certain projects being your “baby”, too, believe me. Even DJ has never discussed Yirmumah with us and we totally respect that. I will say this, though, I firmly believe that NOBODY has only one good idea in them and anybody who believes that is selling themselves short.
Thanks for the comments Dan! Should help to get more people to enter the contest. I hope your next winner is as talented as DJ. Heck, maybe I’ll even pitch my Zombie Kung-Fu Western!
Zombie Kung-Fu Western???!
SOLD!!!!
:)
Thanks for your kind words about the SuperFogeys, Stephen.
I would take to the bank what DJ and Dan are saying. In my brief experience, Platinum could have have been nicer to me, Dan in particular. I’m glad to know that DJ is having such a great time there and that his role as creator is being respected. My only concerns were having to do with the ownership and they’re both right–a good creator is going to have a ton of ideas. Selling one idea for both some money and some exposure is a good trade-off.
In retrospect, I don’t think my paritcular idea was fit to be sold in such a way because, unlike other ideas I’ve had, it was and remains a very personal story to me. Stephen is absolutely right–you have to read everything and decide if it’s a move that’s best for you and that you can live with.
My best to everyone who enters this year.
A CORRECTION!!! I so completely messed up and I hope I haven’t caused too much damage.
There’s a sentence in my previous post that reads, in part, “In my brief experience, Platinum could have have been nicer to me, Dan in particular.” This is wrong, wrong, wrong.
It should have read, “In my brief experience, Platinum COULDN’T have have been nicer to me, Dan in particular.”
I’m so, so sorry for this. Hopefully, by the time my comment was made, this topic got so far down the chute that no one cared or saw it. My post should make more sense now. Certainly the sentence just precending the corrected one should make a TON more sense.
Thanks, Brock. You were making a guy paranoid over here. :-)