Small Press Idol Submissions

[escapegoat]

Hey everyone!

I just made it through the first round of this year's Small Press Idol (Small Press Idol) with my creation "Boulder Colorado". So what exactly is Boulder Colorado, you might ask? Here's the pitch that got me through (For anyone afraid of searching through the website - it can be a bit convoluted at times...):

[IMG][/IMG]

Boulder Colorado has always wanted to see the ocean.

The city itself has overheard great things about the ocean from its citizens, but location makes it very hard to understand what it is that makes the ocean so special.

So one day, Boulder Colorado decides to go see the ocean. To accomplish this, Boulder contacts local sculptor Steve Pope to carve it a body for the journey ahead. Steve, at first unwilling to listen to voice in his dreams, eventually complies after a huge boulder appears in his living room one morning. It doesn’t take long for the neighbors to check in on the commotion and get involved.

With a new body in tow, what more can happen to a city following a simple dream? Plenty more than you might think …

Boulder Colorado: A tale of a city on the move … literally.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Here are some additional details about the story that I provided in the forums after the pitch made it through on a 2 yes /1 no vote (since getting wordy in the pitch can be a detriment to the project):

This is a quirky project. And yes, I'm a fan of Doom Patrol too (#57 is an all-time favorite comic for me), so it was cool to see that get noticed by Sam and Tomm (Although strangely enough, Danny the Street had no influence on this idea whatsoever. Though I did think about him afterwards when trying to figure the best way to throw together my pitch).

This is definitely a road trip type of story, and the whole population of Boulder, Colorado are not gonna be following Boulder Colorado to see the ocean (Note the lack of comma in his name). This is my attempt at doing a modern fairy tale, but without all the magic and fairies...you're not gonna see that kinda stuff in this story. It's kinda of the same way how Gaiman approached StarDust by telling a fantasy story, but without all of the typical trappings found in today's fantasy novels, as influenced by Tolken (not that Gaiman's the only author to do so - his is just the most recognizable example I can think of).

The cover itself reflects a dream sequence that occurs on the first three pages for the main character, Steve. I wanted a design that reflected a more "alternative" nature, and I've actually gotta thank the poster Contributer for going that route after seeing the cover for his aborted "72 Virgins" project. I tried doing this cover from a slightly overhead angle to make it more dynamic in nature. My wife and I initially felt that it was the better of the two in terms of layout, but it lost some important elements in the cover that felt I needed to convey...mainly the full sense of Boulder himself (he got cut off in it, making it hard to distinguish his features)

I have a bunch of backburner ideas that I could have used for SPI, but I felt this one had the strongest hook of the bunch. My goal is to publish this as a graphic novel, but I have no problem releasing it as a monthly mini-series first . At first, I thought four issues would probably tell the whole story, but after thinking it through over the last month, it looks like it may be a bit longer than that...I'll haveta see as I go along. Either way, I fully intend on going forward with this project, whether I win SPI or not.


Round 2 is opened up to the public for voting on April 20th for about 10 days. In this round I'll be submitting characer designs and a rough of the logo. I'll be sure to come back here around that time to let everyone know when that all starts. Any support from you guys and gals around here will much appreciated.

In the meantime, I'll be diving into the world of self-promoting for this project (Looks like I'll finally be getting that Facebook account that I've been purposely avoiding forever... )

I'd also like to congratulation fellow poster and CBRunway competitor M the Mordant for making it through to the next round with his project "The Associate" Check it out too(...heck, check them all out!)


Wish me lucks peoples!

-Tyler (Escapegoat/ESCgoat) Ragan

[Jaye]

Congrats, it looks like its going to be great!
Please keep us posted.

-Jaye

[Pro]

Good luck!

[TheLastBard]

Hi all, if you didn't already know Round 2 of Small Press Idol 2009 starts up on April 1st. 27 contestants from Round 1 made it through to Round 2, including mine. In this round, the fans help to get projects through to the next round as well as the judges. The judges will help temper this from becoming purely a popularity contest, so please join up in the fun, check out the projects and vote vote vote! Registered users at the web site can vote once per day during rounds 1 and 2.... details below...

To sign up - http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/signup.php
To vote - http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/...87.html#Round2
Process for signing up - http://www.geocities.com/thelastbard...JoinForums.doc

Thanks for checking everything out!
Erik Hendrix - Faction in SPI 2009
http://thelastbardsblog.blogspot.com
http://lastbard.deviantart.com

[TheLastBard]

If you'd like to see all of the participants in round 2, please check out the link below.

http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/...87.html#Round2

Also, the pitches, rough covers, etc, are available in a preview download from the DimeStore site. It's free, but you need to sign up for the site (also allows you to vote).

http://www.dimestoredistro.com/sneakpeek2dl-p-1157.html

[Kid Icarus]

wow Escape...
that first guy really hated on your whole concept, but I still find myself staring at the cover. I really enjoy the idea and I will be sure to vote come April 1st.

[escapegoat]

wow Escape...
that first guy really hated on your whole concept, but I still find myself staring at the cover. I really enjoy the idea and I will be sure to vote come April 1st.

Thanks Icarus!

Unfrotunately, my second round submission won't be ready right away on April 1st. I was under the impression the the public voting didn't start until April 20th when all the submissions were due, but it actually starts right after you get your submission in!

So I've got a lot of work ahead of me over these next few days!

I'm aiming for Friday/Saturday...so that'll only put me a little bit behind on potentail votes.

[Kid Icarus]

Thanks Icarus!

Unfrotunately, my second round submission won't be ready right away on April 1st. I was under the impression the the public voting didn't start until April 20th when all the submissions were due, but it actually starts right after you get your submission in!

So I've got a lot of work ahead of me over these next few days!

I'm aiming for Friday/Saturday...so that'll only put me a little bit behind on potentail votes.

good luck!
that is a dumb system of doing the votes....

[mercenary for hire]

Please come by http://projectmercurycomic.com and read the webcomic!!

then come by http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/forum-t34294.html
and vote for it in the SPI!! The contestant that wins gets a four issue publishing deal.

After you register, go to the Project:Mercury forum and reply with a "Yes". Please support the other projects you feel deserve a vote also. thanks.

[mthemordant]

Hey, gang!
We're hard at work on some new HvB strips right now!
We've got about 4 more pages to wrap up the first half of Season 2, which will conclude the Lex Luthor Saga.
After that we've got some cool, funny stuff planned!

In the meantime, we need your assistance!
We've entered our comic concept THE ASSOCIATE - a paranormal superspy book - into this years SMALL PRESS IDOL. We're into Round 2 now which relies on public voting! So we need your help and your votes to continue in the competition!

It's really easy to vote:
1) Register at the DimeStoreProductions.com site: http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/content312.html
Click on the register button near the top left.

2) Fill out the simple form like you would when registering for any message board. (Don't worry they won't spam you!)
You will receive a confirmation email with a link to click that confirms you are you and not a robot.

3) Now you're ready to vote! Simply go to our page and reply to the board with a "YES"! It's that easy!

Winners will get a cash prize and a 4-issue publishing contract, so every vote is important! You can vote once per day, per project, until April 30th when the winner will be announced. Check out the other books too and who them some love if you dig them. You won't hurt our feelings if you vote for someone else!
http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/forum-t34281-0.html

Have at it!
Enjoy the variety of cool comic proposals and let us know what you think about our work.

Vote Yes! Vote Early! Vote Often!

Here are some examples of ROUND 2 - The character round!




Thanks!!

M&J
50 Foot Robot Studios

[mthemordant]

Did you vote yet?
Yeah, well VOTE HARDER!
We've only got until the 30th to collect as many votes as we all can!!

Thanks!

[Adam Lucas]

reminds me of concrete

which cant be all that bad :)

[escapegoat]

reminds me of concrete

which cant be all that bad :)

It's obviously not the worse comparison to have out there (I love Concrete, although he was in no way an influence on the concept/design of Boulder)

....at least he's not being compared to BADROCK

That said...my Round 2 submission has made it in, been judged, and deemed acceptable with a 2 YES/1 NO vote (it's obviously not Roger's cup o' tea since that's the second time he's no'ed me).

I would love for anyone here at CBR to go over to Dimestore's website, sign up to their forums (pretty straightforward to do if you've ever signed uup for a forum before...I mean, you've signed up to the CBR forums and that was pretty easy, right? ) and to start voting for me this round. Here's the link to the thread that covers my character designs for Boulder Colorado, as well functioning as the thread to vote in. All you need to do is type a simple "Yes" as a response and you're vote is counted. There's lots of new tidbits of information in the submission, and even more in my reply to the judges comments afterwards that you should check out:

Boulder Colorado

All Round 2 submissions from the contest's participants are in. Voters may vote once a day on the projects they like. That means not only can they vote for my project, but they can vote on any of the other projects there as well. So go ahead and browse through them all and see what you like. Fellow CBR'er MtheMordant is there and doing great as well with his submission "The Associate". Voting goes on until April 30th, at which time there's a break until Round 3 starts around the middle of May.

Thanks to all those who sign up!
-Tyler (escapegoat/ESCgoat) Ragan

[escapegoat]

Three days left in the competition and I'm making a last ditch call-out for you CBR'ers to come and vote for my project. I've got an updated image of Boulder that I'll probably be using in place of the initial design that I created for Round 2.



I'm literally fighting for the last spot in this competition in order to make it into the next round. One vote can actually make the difference here. Any support from you guys will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
-Ty

[escapegoat]

Hey y’all!



Alrighty...the results are in. I've officially moved on to Round 3 by securing the #20 position right above the cutoff line. Thanks so much for those of you who voted for me over the last 10 days.



The next round starts on May 18th…hopefully I’ll have my 3 pages of sequential comic art ready by that point and submitted right away. I’ll throw out a reminder of when that round starts, along with a preview of the pages from Boulder Colorado.



And good news…the next round should be incorporating a poll system that should make it easier for you to vote and easier for them to count (so that the forums don’t go down for 5 hours at a time while they do the daily vote count).



-Ty