(Wow, that was so corny and geeky)
Three months are up, and judgment has been rained down upon the comic birthed by JoJo Seames, fellow Zuda reader Tanya Burr, and I.
Judgment was swift, and no more than 'your comic does not meet our editorial needs at this time'. I would of liked some feedback. But by now, I'm used to getting canned laughter in my responses. I don't recall if I got it with Samuel French or not.
I was going to do the January min-views. I'll post Napoleon versus the Intellisaurs instead:
I advise checking out both Tanya and JoJo's respective websites. JoJo has a comic, Dis, which is right now being printed by Bohemian Trash Studios. Webcomics are a strange business model. We still buy the trades when they come out, even though they are free on the net.
I need to buy dog food.
7 comments:
I'm sorry to say this, but I liked the earlier version of the comic better (you showed me an earlier version a long time ago). I'm sorry to hear you didn't get in.
On seeing the new crop of contestants how do you think your own strip measures up? Do you feel cheated or does it seem reasonable that yours didn't make the cut? Back in September you seemed to think you'd not only get in but had a good chance of winning. Not trying to rub salt in a wound or anything, Zuda's choices are inscrutable, but we don't have a synopsis, justification or any back-up material like you get in a competition. I'd love to know where you think it went wrong or even if it did! You are a critic so what do you think?
Mike,
That's very dangerous territory. It is no secret that I have become increasingly dissatisfied with Zuda''s entries, and I did think that Tanya, JoJo, and I were good enough to compete, and yes, have a good shot at winning. Then again, it's all up to the community and PR work. That is what makes it so tough, is that I did get no feeback. I don't know what they didn't like. I can only surmise that the paneling was not "traditional" or something, not to knock Tanya, she did an amazing job. They both did. Maybe it was too out there.
What bugs me about the Zuda Submission process is that you have to give them 8 finished pages with no guarantee of getting anything back. They probably could have made their decision from looking at a pitch with 3 or 4 pages and then reading the full script - that would be a lot less of a ball-buster IMO.
But since they do require all this work up front, it wouldn't hurt to at least give some notes. Someone looked at it, and whoever that is could have just written something point form. I don't think that's asking for much.
I've thought about it - and i'm not sure why exactly this didn't get in. Maybe it really didn't fit their needs - or they thought some other comics were a little better. Not sure. Good luck on your next submission!
-steve
I'd say the biggest area for improvement would be the writing. The concept is solid, and the dialogue is nice and fun, but the overall plot is too dense. In your eight pages, you should keep it simple. Introduce your main character, reveal their dilemma and resolve a conflict.
I know there's temptation to try and show more, because of all the work that's gone into the concept, but if you try and put too much into the script it will drown the story. It's only eight pages, so don't get fancy.
At the start you've got three pages of just the kids, so you're making them pretty important. You give all this info about tribes and whatnot, but it doesn't come into play later.
At the end of this strip, the kids seem like an afterthought, because all the action is with the dinos. If the kids are the main characters, we need to end the story with the kids - leave them a page or so to reclaim the narrative.
That's my take on it. I'm not a mind-reader, so I can't tell you what Zuda was thinking.
Steve,
Who says I'm going to try again? I could barely pay for art the first time.
That's $500 I'm out.
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