QUICK! DRAW! It's the 2011 Comics Issue!

It's just like usual - you draw comics of a certain size and we print our favorites - except this time we're asking for $5 per entry so we can give cash prizes to the ones that make the paper, including $100 for the one we like best.

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QUICK! DRAW! It's the 2011 Comics Issue!

POSTED: Thursday, October 6, 2011, 1:08 PM

Filed Under: Win

It's just like usual — you draw comics of a certain size and we print our favorites — except this time we're asking for $5 per entry so we can give cash prizes to the ones that make the paper, including $100 for the one we like best. (All the money we receive will go to the winners. How much cash that is depends on how many submissions we get.)

UPDATE: Local comics hero Art Baxter will judge!!!

The details:

$5 per submission.
All submissions are due by Nov. 15 21! EXTENDED!
There are three sizes to choose from (see below).
Send hi-rez tiffs or jpegs to comicsissue@citypaper.net.
Or send physical submissions to:
CITY PAPER COMICS ISSUE c/o Patrick Rapa
123 Chestnut St., 3F
Philadelphia PA 19106
Send money to that address or to City Paper's PayPal account: paypal@citypaper.net.
Put your name on your submission somewhere.

And these are the sizes (in inches):
4.1W x 4.5H * 8.7W x 2.8H * 8.7W x 4.5H

Here's last year's Comics Issue, for guidance and encouragement. Grundies!

Posted by Patrick Rapa @ 1:08 PM Permalink | 10 comments

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Comments (10)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:22 PM, 10/06/2011

The conversation among local cartoonists about the new fees is becoming a bit heated. Yes, we understand that the money will become prize money but it still doesn't sit well with a lot of people to have to pay to submit content to the newspaper.

Here is I would've upped the quality of the comics issue without alienating the artists:

1) Hire a guest editor. A local guy, someone who could bring credibility to the project *cough cough* (me, Brett Hopkins & Dre, who run the Comix Jam or Robert LeFevre, Manager of Brave New Worlds would be good choices). They'd have to pay the editor or else they'd be too easy to bribe.

2) Profile all the winners. A few sentences about them and their work on and around the comic in the newspaper (with longer profiles on the website)

3) Give context to the medium: Why have a comics issue with local talent right now? Why are comics important? Currently, the comics issue is apropos of nothing.

4) Advertise TO THE COMICS READING AUDIENCE and make it a big deal. There are plenty of really awesome comics news outlets who'd love to talk about an all comics issue in an Alt. Weekly!! It would also help draw talent to the issue.

5) Finally: PUT COMICS IN YOUR NEWSPAPER ALWAYS!! Seven Days (alt. weekly out of Burlington, VT) has TWO FULL PAGES of comics in EVERY SINGLE ISSUE. I'd be extremely surprised if a large percentage of their readership turns DIRECTLY to the comics section as soon as they open the paper.

— boxbrown2

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:35 PM, 10/06/2011

eh hem:"I'd be extremely surprised if a large percentage of their readership DIDN'T turn DIRECTLY to the comics section as soon as they open the paper.

— boxbrown2

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:30 AM, 10/07/2011

Thanks For The Update :p Will Check This On Out :)
http://www.aoneessays.com/

— aoneessay

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:30 PM, 10/07/2011

As an artist who's been rejected, published, and then made indifferent to the Comics issue, i completely agree with Brown's assessment. Philadelphia has an intense independent comics-scene (complete with our own freaking convention--http://phillyaltcon.blogspot.com/), and never has any of it been given adequate storyspace in CP. Which I’ve never truly understood, considering comic artists and journalists have kind of an “print’s-death-knell-is-causing-us-to-have-to-rethink-how-we-relase-content” solidarity. The past Comics Issues just seemed so sparse—even the Fiction Issues devote at least a paragraph to the author’s backstory. With all the factors Box mentioned above (the seemingly arbitrary selection, size issues, the lack of any other contex) adding a fee to the submission process just makes it less attractive to even bother giving you our work. And I use the word "work" purposely.

TL;DR: Stop Netflix-ing us and give Philly a REAL Comics Issue

— CynDerBlock

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:51 AM, 10/10/2011

So any reason my previous comment never made it but a SPAM comment did?

— brettzo

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:52 AM, 10/10/2011

This article pretty much sums up everything WRONG with the state of comics & cartoons.
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/04/06/village-voice-wonders-why-cartoonists-dont-make-more-money-while-not-paying-cartoonists/
Blatantly asking comickers & cartoonists to PAY for submitting their FREE content.

Does anyone at the City Paper know anything about that?
(Oh wait, they actually use one of the syndicated comics mentioned in the article.)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the City Paper and it's parent company and affiliates still make money off of in-print & on-line advertising? Do you ask advertisers OR journalists to pay an entrance fee for their content? These aren't ads and shouldn't be treated as such.
I echo Box's sentiments above and would like to add that comics aren't a free ride. Selecting them shouldn't be left up to someone not versed in their culture. I'm sure the editors who compile the reviews of theater, movies and music are or choose writers who actually know the subject they are writing about. Otherwise what good would their opinion be?
Writing an article about comics would be great and provide context. Please note not every article about comics has to include out-dated references to the onomatopoeias used in a campy show from the 1960's, that was satirizing comics from the 1950's. It also doesn't need to have the trite line "These comics aren't your dad's comics" or "These comics don't feature spandex and capes". The underground comix scene has been around for at least 40 years. Don't underestimate the art form, it's as valid as any other modern expression such as books, radio, films or television. No one questioned the legitimacy of them 100 years (yes, ONE CENTURY) into their existence.

— brettzo

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:54 AM, 10/10/2011

It seems like a dart is thrown at the comics submitted and what ever is hit is printed. The self-defeating and self-deprecating attitude will only take you so far. Art Baxter, Chairman Emeritus of the Philly Comix Jam and Comix Legend in his own right used to bring in Comics issues from other cities like Baltimore. All the members were blown away by the quality of the comics AND the quality of the articles written about the Comics scene there.
There have been at least 6 FREE newspaper publications put out in the Philadelphia area in the past 2 years and only a small amount of coverage. I understand print is on it way out but there are efforts to revive it here and in other cities. There is actually a new comics publishing company right here in Philadelphia, Retro Fit. Use the print version of the City Paper Comics issue as a launch pad to bring readers to longer on-line articles and features on the comics contained with-in.
These and more ideas to improve the issue are currently being discussed by the content providing local talented comickers & cartoonists. A formal response is currently being drafted.

Thank you for your support,

Brett J. Hopkins
The Philly Comix Jam,
Host and Co-Organizer.
phillycomixjam.com

— brettzo

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:55 AM, 10/10/2011

So essentially they don't mention the imposed length of comments. Cyn you got it almost right, TL;DP

— brettzo

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:00 PM, 10/10/2011

Well, Netflix did back down on their recent split.

— brettzo

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:44 AM, 10/14/2011

@boxbrown...

As to hiring an editor... perhaps you're not familiar with the finances in the print industry right now... A lot of people are bitching about $5 and you want CP to shell out a few hundred.

As to all the rest of the points... CP IS giving a platform for unknown cartoonists and their comics with this ANNUAL issue. They could drop it, then there'd be ...

It seems to me a lot of this is petty bitterness at some people who are fighting the good fight, with dwindling resources, trying to keep your community a part of it, but you all still spit on them because they're not trying hard enough.

Sorry bettzo, but money's tight, if they get 10 submissions, they're still shelling out $50, which could be the budget for another art review. But they're not budgeting that, they're trying to budget something for your community. That it is not enough for you makes you sound like a spoiled child. And of course they ask advertisers for money to put their content in. It's how advertising works.

If anyone of you would like to sponsor a comics page in the paper every week feel free to do so...

(for full disclosure I'm a former CP employee)

— Marc Steel

What we're trying to do this weekend
Behind the scenes of local film A Man Full of Trouble
CONCERT REVIEW: The Postal Service @ The Mann 6/17
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Sunny, Tony and the return of Do No Harm
NOW SEE THIS: Salinger film trailer
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Indian fare rules, Dunder Mifflin lives on, Tom Jones is a god
REVIEW: Archer Live! @ the TLA 1/11
CITY PAPER WRITING CONTEST 2013: Send stories! Send poetry!
CONCERT PHOTOS: The National/Dirty Projectors @ The Mann Center 6/7
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Pink. Diner en Blanc 2. Breaking Glass and Milkboy at the movies. And so on.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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