The XYZs of Comics
Posted in Before Coffee, Design, My Work, Sequentials, Webcomics, inspiration on 14. Oct, 2009
Here’s a funny story for you. So as most of my friends and fans know I’ve been kind of busy doing OTHER things besides actual comic work. One day I saw some hub-bub about a new contest Amazon and Universal had created called “Comic Strip Superstar” - There was the usual clamoring of people saying it was a BAD idea. And quite frankly, it probably IS a bad idea, and I’m not even sure WHY I was tempted to enter it… I guess part of me wanted to see if I could pull it off under a pen name or just jam out that many strips in such a limited time like back in the day… 
As I began thinking about it, a FLOOD of about 100 strip /joke ideas flowed out of me onto paper or notebooks. I was jotting down scenarios and whatnot and…. god forbid… it was kind of fun!
Daily comic strips are no stranger to me… back in 1999 we self syndicated a strip called GRAVITY that we got into 50 papers… when we (McDeavitt and I) realized it was too much work for too little money at the time, we shit-canned the Gravity strip and moved on to do freelance comic book illustration stuff and TONS OF WEBCOMICS!
But something about producing a daily comic strip never leaves you. Your mind is always looking at the world in a certain way that I can’t quite describe. I’ve had this idea for a comic strip up on the shelve, The premise was very simple… it was Generation X parents all grown up, raising a new generation of kids. Something we know a good bit about here in the Coffman household—-
Here was my master plan. I’d enter under a pen name, which YIRMUMAH fans might recognize. I’d be silent and just see how far I could on the strip alone. Best case scenario, I’d be picked in the top ten, rip off my rubber mask and yell SURPRISE, IT’S ME AGAIN! when public voting time came. Pretty much ALL for shits and giggles and shenanigans like in the old days, because frankly, the pay wasn’t all that great. I could MAYBE get a foot in the door at syndicates and save their friggin hydes with my genius plans! I wasn’t even sure if I’d be willing to sign an actual contract this time. Maybe I’d just bow out gracefully if the deal sucked and kickstart the feature as webcomic on my own. I was basically figuring “what the hell.”
The strips came out pretty well for only having one week (from the time I decided) to get 10 daily comics done and 2 full color sunday strips. I am pretty proud of myself for accomplishing that workload especially with other “pay the bills” things going on at the time. It was sort of one of those moments in life where you step back and say… “I still got it!” I can still do this.
WORSE case scenario, it wouldn’t cut the mustard and I’d have something interesting to write about (failed attempt at shenanigans!) and a whole bunch of comics to post all at once for friends and fans. Who knows, maybe they totally suck? I know I enjoyed creating them and could totally produce a strip like that with my eyes closed thanks to the wealth of material I have in my real life.
What happened… I entered the contest and forgot that I had even entered. I was reminded a few weeks ago when I got an email saying I had progressed to the top 250 strips of 5000 submissions. Holy crap… it just might work! BUT ALAS… this week the new top 50 list was put out and XYZs wasn’t on it. For whatever reason , the editors at Universal passed on it.
Now I can show the strips to YOU. I don’t know if I’ll pursue this project further unless there was huge support for the concept or maybe a better offer sent my way. Maybe it’s complete garbage? I do know I had a lot of fun kicking the “daily” machine tires again though. It fueled the desire to possibly do SOMETHING daily again.
(You will need to click these thumbnails to open them up full size to read)
CLICK TO OPEN SAMPLE SHEET 2 BELOW
Click to enlarge strips below
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Nice work, sir.
FWIW, I thought that it’s a slightly more modern and amusing take on the usual family circus type strips that have been in syndication for the past 50 years, but whether or not said syndicate will find it worthy of publishing is another. Still, good luck and all that.
I like it, sir. I like it a lot. I hope you do more with it. Perhaps you should shop it around to other syndicate?
I wish I had half your talent.
I love the look of this strip. I, for one, would like to see more. If the syndicates won’t buy it, it would make a great webcomic. It would be nice to see more family friendly strips like this online. I think it fills a growing niche as more and more people transition to reading their comics online and as more and more of us “geeks” and “nerds” have families there will be a demand for this type of strip.
I like it. If I were you I’d definitely shop it around. Great jokes, it’s clean enough for a main stream newspaper, I can’t think of any reason the syndicates wouldn’t run it. It’s funnier than 90% of the comics that were in today’s paper.
Great stuff. I like the look, I like the humor. More, please!
That’s a great daily – I’d definitely read it. Why not pitch it to another syndicate?
Either way, keep that in your box of treasures. Who knows when it’ll be useful. Even as a promotional tool.
It’s nice mainstream idea. Artwork is nice as always. Personally I wouldn’t follow it because I’m too spoiled by edgier webcomics. Yirmumah for example. I mean if the comic doesn’t have one insane, gun-toting, beret wearing llama in it, what’s the point?
Thumbs up!
Pretty much everything Sir Gsekse said.
I would have been very happy for you if it worked out.
The artwork is better than just about everything in my local rag.
It’s just not my cup ‘o’ tea.
Very nice! It’s funny and I love your style. Not as over the top as alot of stuff I’ve seen on the net so a very nice change. Most folks seem to go more for shock value now.
These rule! As always, I’m loving your work! Keep it up!