Chapter 101 - Not Just Yet & CONTEST TIME!
I thought Mandy, Parry, Sam and Fenton were gone? Well…Not Just Yet. This is strip 101 in what will be a long run of comics that you and I can hopefully enjoy. You picked a good day to come back, faithful readers, as for the first time in my comic career I am offering a chance for one of you to be a part of it. Got your attention yet?
Starting today, I will be running an open entry CONTEST for a NEW IMAGINED FRIEND CHARACTER. This first, new character will be an imagined friend of SAMMY. That’s right…Mandy did not directly create this character…Sammy created an imagined friend for himself. Got it?
I want YOU to create, or draw, or sketch, or explain and name this character and I will pick the top 3, draw them up in full, post them and then we will put it to a MASS VOTE with the creators unnamed until the Contest is over.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW HOW TO DRAW…I will take yours, your wives, your husbands, kids, siblings, anyones design or concept or simply thoughts and draw it. Anything goes, so use your imagination to your fullest. This will be a returning character and just so you know…each will eventually have one. So there will be at least 3 contests.
This is your chance to make it into my strip…I’m giving you creative control and I will even speak with you regarding design approval. When the character appears you will have a sense of WOW, I helped create that. NICE! The winner(s) will also get one heck of a prize to be named later.
I believe readers are smart and funny and creative. This is your chance to prove me right. And as for all my other cartoonist and writer friends, Brock (closer to being an enemy), Lucas, Witmer, Tierney, MJ, me!, Metzger, Nickel, Worth, Justin, Brian’s, Shawn, Sieber, Tom, Bulmash, Laurinda, Pine Tree and all the rest, even Tyler…I don’t want to hear I am too busy. I want ideas, thoughts, and even experiences you may have had as a child…you don’t need to draw it with perfection, or at all. And as for the readers who have never commented, this is for you also. Send me an email…send me an entry.
Send all ideas to my email address jarrettosborne@gmail.com or publically post them if you have the courage?
I’ll let you know when the contest closes, once I get some response to this idea. I look forward to your comments and emails…
It’s time to do things differently here on the web…this is one of those things.
PS - Parry tied with Clovis for favorite imagined friend in last weeks poll…die, bear, die. New Poll Now Up!
December 5th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Very cool Mandy, like the change in her eyes instaed of black, also cool difference in the hair. Nice job of incorporating new with the old style. Awesome strip work Jarrett. Now lets see if I can come up with an imaginary character.
December 5th, 2008 at 6:42 am
When I was a kid, for years I had nightmares about a Sesame Street monster, named Buster, who lived in the floor and he wanted nothing more than to bite my legs off. At some point I was told that you control your dreams, and if you can stand up to your nightmare monster and order it to go away… it will.
I did and it did. A few months later, it came back. But instead of being blue and furry and wanting to cause me harm, he looked like me, basically my twin. We had a great time spreading mischief around Japan in a dream.
So my idea for an imaginary character would be a former monster from Sammy’s nightmares that he’s learned to control (to varying degrees) and who appears as Sammy’s twin.
December 5th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Heck yes it’s contest time - love it! I’ll see what I can work on. I’m with MJ, the blending and update of art style is very cool. Creating quite the vast universe on the web for sure. Mandy’s world is a little more cotton candy and it works so well.
December 5th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Glad to see ‘Mandy back. Everything is starting to become right with the world!
December 5th, 2008 at 7:33 am
I agree with MJ, I like the slight tweaks. I’m still trying to get used to the color coded tail-less word bubbles. My simple brain has trouble wrapping around the concept I guess. The “pink” panel is nice…you should turn that into a banner or an ad or something
December 5th, 2008 at 9:18 am
@ MJ (aka Insane Drunken Monkey) - glad you like the changes, I tend to think they are for the better. This look matches the feelof the strip I am trying to convey…you’ll notice that whenever Mandy is talking to her I.F.’s…things are colored quite differently from the real world. Yep, contest time…get on it.
@ Greg - WOW, right out of the gate a cool idea. That’s wht I like to see, some spunk. The part that intrigued me the most was the JAPAN part…
@ Shawn - Yes, I am reverting back to my original plan on taking over the internet AND bringing back the Commadore 64. Cotton Candy…you nailed it brother…
@ Kevin - LOL…you always say things that you know I whole heartedly believe…it was you that called me an egomaniac, wasn’t it? Or was that me!??
Wit - Ah yes, the tailless word bubbles…well everything in my strip has their color code…When Mandy is speaking, it’s purple, Sam is pink, Parry is light green, and Fenton…my dear little Fenton…light Blue. You are colorblind though…so…well…good luck.
December 5th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Yeah, I’m colorblind to. But besides that the tailless bubbles just flat out do not work for me. Sorry!
Really digging the art on this (besides the white line thing we keep going back and forth on). Mandy is expressively drawn and written and the pacing is good up until the last couple of panels where you lose me. I think taking Sam’s first balloon from the next-to-last panel and putting it in the one before it would have helped. Because Cream Soda? Not pink. So it took me a couple reads to understand what seemed a non sequitir at first.
Totally called the song choice. But…what the crud does the “Dustland Fairytale” line even mean in the context of this strip? Sorry man, don’t mean to harp on things, but there’s just these things in there blocking my understanding of this strip.
December 5th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
@ Brock - The Tailess Bubbles are perfect just the way they are. The only reason they were invented in the first place was because it was the only way to distinguish who is talking. With my strip being color coded the way it is, tails only use up space I cannot afford to give. I understand how it may look new to you, but like all things new, they will grow on you if just let it. I think it fits the strip perfectly.
I thought the cream soda panel tied in Sam’s addicted rant quite nicely.
As for the Dustland Fairytale…it was a cool term that I had never heard before and thought it would fit perfect in a boiling rant from Sam…I mean…he called her, toots. Music is what gives me much of my passion and I have alwys tied it into my illustration work. It’s only recently that I allowed music and art to meet in my comics, and I think it has been successful. People dig it.
The question I have over and over for you is WHY? Why does the song have to have a literal context to the strip…why can’t it be a feeling I get from the song? Some songs actually have a line that is exactly like the situation I am drawing.
You gotta just take it in, brother. This cannot be put into a well defined box like a comic strip traditionally is. I won’t let it.
December 5th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Didn’t get to read this the first time around (I’ll check the archives as soon as I can), but I’ll bookmark and read through it this run. (BTW: what’s the update schedule?)
December 5th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
reynard61 - Good to have you here, love the avatar. Right now it’s fridays and my other comic http://www.somedayhero.com is wednesdays.
So Wed and Fri are all about me!
December 6th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Jarrett, it’s not that I’m afraid of new and different things. If something works then it works. The problem I have the the tailless bubbles is that they don’t work as well as they should. Too often I have to stop reading and figure out who is talking–that’s time I’m taking away from the flow and pacing of the strip. Not much trouble in this particular strip, but it can and has been in others. Just my two cents. It’s not a make or break issue.
However…I’m gonna take issue with the “dustland fairytale” line. I have no problem with having a song as nice extra for your weekly comic. That’s cool. My problem is…what does “dustland fairytale” mean? I get what it is in the song–that’s what the song is about. But you’ve dropped that term into your strip and I can’t for the life of me figure out what it’s supposed to mean there. Sam says this “isn’t a dustland fairytale.” What about this scene potentially being a dustland fairytale would make his cream soda crisis less serious? What are you trying to say a “dustland fairytale” is? Do you get at all what I’m saying? I just can’t make it make sense.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
@Jarrett: I’m partially colorblind too. I took the cue of who was speaking from the context rather than the colors. I didn’t even think of associating colors with characters. But I can see Brock’s point. I could see where it would get confusing unless you go to even more distinct/contrasting primary colors.
There are times I can’t tell gray from pink, and vice versa. My wife painted some vines on the walls in my son’s room in a shade of green that complemented the shade already on his walls. I literally could not see the vines, the walls looked to be a solid color, unless I put on the red-tinted safety goggles that came with my laser level.
If you’re going to color code, you need to be really careful, especially as you bring in bit characters. And remember, a tail doesn’t have to be a big V of color off of a dialogue box. It can be a crazy straw, a string for the baloon, a slogan on a t-shirt.
I totally see the problem you’re trying to solve, and I’m feelin’ for ya, brother, because it’s one every graphic designer faces… Organizing text and art in ways so that they both help the message and add to its conveyance.
As for the “dustland fairytale” line, I figured it was just an idiosyncracy of the character. Not everything has to be explained or obvious. Think of some of the catchphrases Wit comes up with
December 9th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
My mom had an imaginary friend when she was a child. I know nothing of the “friend” except that it’s name is “The Pomp” and there is always a gift to my mom at Christmas that is addressed “From: The Pomp.”
December 9th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
The Pomp. That is brilliant.
December 9th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
You need to give me more than that though..get me some details…
December 9th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
And the Pomp has an imaginary friend called Circumstance.
December 9th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I’m afraid to ask for details in case it is something I don’t want to hear. Maybe it wasn’t realy a imaginary friend but it realy is some dirty inside joke between my mom and dad (yuk). If you want details you’ll have to ask her yourself.
December 19th, 2008 at 8:46 am
One more imaginary friend character… a tiger named after a dead philosopher! Totally original!
Actually, you might like this piece of clip art from my FunDraw site.
http://www.fundraw.com/clipart/clip-art/00004824/Taking-Your-Monster-for-a-Walk/
Perhaps it might inspire you.