TEST GOT YOU DOWN?
Our JUNE TEST FLIGHT (the latest of our monthly amateur manga webcomic competition) was announced a little while ago and it’s engendered a few questions. While I wanted to answer these via a video – it proved to be harder to do than I thought plus I wanted to address what were some wildly disparate questions of the rules which struck me as needing a bit more room than a video (and the requisite HD space needed) would comfortably allow.
To that end–we’re going to do three things:
I. ANNOUNCE JUNE TEST RUN RULES
II. ANSWER THE RECEIVED QUESTIONS FOR JUNE’S TEST FLIGHT
III. ESTABLISH A FORUM ENTRY — FOR MORE QUESTIONS.
JUNE TEST RUN
REQUIREMENTS:
FIFTEEN PAGE SHORT STORY (not including cover)
ust have a beginning, middle and end
CANNOT be a prelude or side-story to your “series”
Must be an original work (no fan fiction)
ARTWORK MUST BE INKED/ LETTERED (MINIMUM)
ANY GENRE
NO EXPLICIT SEXUAL, VIOLENT OR DISCRIMINATORY (i.e. race, religion, sexual orientation, etc) IMAGES/ CONTEST
An AD 728 x 90 that “markets” your story in 10 words or less.
A one page document that explains:
PITCH
WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE FOR THIS?
CONCEPT DESCRIPTION (1 paragraph maximum)?
WHAT MYFUTPRINT LINE BEST SUPPORTS THIS STORY?
DO YOU INTEND THIS SHORT STORY TO BE A SERIES?
SUBMISSION END DATE: JUNE 19th, 2015 11:59pm EST
JUNE TEST FLIGHT QUESTIONS
Q: DO I HAVE TO DO A 4-KOMA?
A: YES, we are NOT JUDGING IT ON ITS’ QUALITY
Q: WHAT IS A 4-KOMA?
A: HERE.
Q: DO THE SEQUENTIAL ART PAGES (i.e. three pages minimum) HAVE TO BE THE SAME SCENE/ SETTING?
A: No. You can do different settings featuring your characters. In other words, these can be three different pages (and scenes) from your story idea.
Q: I WANT TO DO A FIGHT SCENE BUT IT WILL NEED MORE THAN 3 SEQUENTIAL PAGES– CAN I DO MORE?
A: Yes. You may go up to 5 pages.
Q: WHAT FORMAT MAY I SEND?
A: We must insist that you send them in PDF or JPG format only.
Q: I WANT TO TELL A LONGER STORY WILL YOU ACCEPT THAT?
A: No— we ONLY ACCEPT TEST FLIGHT (which is never a complete story) or TEST RUN (which is 15 pages maximum) submissions.
Q: IF I MESSED UP MY ENTRY (i.e. the file name, quality, rule following) WILL YOU STILL REVIEW IT?
A: No. This is already a volunteer effort on our end–we just don’t have the bandwidth.
Q: IF I ENTER WILL I WIN SOMETHING?
A: If you follow the rules ENOUGH that we can critique it then YES, FREE $5 SUBSCRIPTION follows.
Q: I WANT TO SUBMIT AN IDEA THAT I THINK FITS THE GENRE BUT NOT SURE…
A: SUBMIT IT ANYWAY! This is exactly why TEST FLIGHTS are set up NOT to present full comic books so that you are not creating a 60 pages epic that doesn’t fit what we want to review. That being said, if you ARE FOLLOWING THE RULES and feel strongly–submit it anyway. You should believe in your story and the work.
Q: I WAITED ON WORKING ON MY ENTRY BECAUSE OF RULE CONFUSION– WHAT SHOULD I DO?
A: DEADLINE EXTENDED NOW TO JUNE 4th, 2015 11:59pm
MORE QUESTIONS?
GO TO THE FORUM
Good Luck!
Frederick L. Jones
Publisher, Saturday AM
