Wait.

Wait.

WAIT.

This blatantly says that the prize list is from 2007, and constantly refers to “this year's prizes”. What ARE this year's prizes? Are they finalized? Are they the same?

This is all a little strange, considering some of the things we've been hearing about Platinum's financial status.

anonymous poster child, did you even read the entry two posts before yours?

Platinum Dan
The prizes should be announced very soon. We actually intentionally hold off on the prize announcement until later. We want people who want to make comics, not folks who are in it to grab a free cintiq. I'm not saying YOU are that person, either, just trying to explain why we usually wait so long to announce the prize package.

I don't think APC even plans to enter. I think he's just being a stinker.

He does bring up a valid point though, even if it's on the negative side towards platinum.


But on a counter point it's free to enter…

Oh well I decided not to enter this year anyhow. Good luck to those who did :)

Okay, maybe I'm just dense but I'm not following the logic of the Art requirement section of the Contest rules so can someone enlighten me…

I've included the confusion inducing (and, to my mind, mutually exclusive) specifications in bold below:

Art Entry requirements:

1. (All pages will be uploaded when you submit your entry below.)
2. Files larger than 5MB will not be accepted. If you are using MS Windows you can verify your image's size by locating the file using Windows Explorer, right-clicking on the file using the mouse, and selecting properties from the menu which appears. (If your file is larger than 500KB, please save it again at a lower quality.)
3. Files must be in GIF, TIF, JPG or PNG format.
4. Make sure the artwork is in as complete and finished form as possible.

Does the file size of the ENTIRE submission (all three pages combined) need to be less than 5MB?
Is that limit (from line 2) supposed to be .5MB?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Gil
~edited for density~

nyartist1, I believe each page file must be no bigger than 5MB.
I hope that helps with resolving the confusion.

that's funny because to me it reads like each page shouldn't be more than 500kb, while the total submission (packaged in a zip file) should be less than 5mb. :D

Probably your best bed is to go with the smaller numbers, just in case…

Oops. thanks for pointing that out. It's a typo. Each page/file can be no bigger than 5mb. I'll get that changed immediately.

EDIT: It's fixed! Thanks again.

Thanks everyone!

All the best,
Gil

Does anyone know what APC is referring to regarding Platinums finincial status?

I haven't heard anything negative in that regard. Ive only heard the good things like comic movie deals.

Bradleyo
Does anyone know what APC is referring to regarding Platinums finincial status?

I haven't heard anything negative in that regard. Ive only heard the good things like comic movie deals.

What APC is referring to is in this thread.
Few of the posters make reference to these “financial troubles”, but it appears to deal more with financial decisions as to Platinums decisions to how they spend their budget in regards to DD.

Platinum in financial troubles? Oh hohoho my no…

In a completely unrelated matter, I can't read Hero by Night any more.

TheMidge28

Bradleyo
Does anyone know what APC is referring to regarding Platinums finincial status?

I haven't heard anything negative in that regard. Ive only heard the good things like comic movie deals.

What APC is referring to is in this thread.
Few of the posters make reference to these “financial troubles”, but it appears to deal more with financial decisions as to Platinums decisions to how they spend their budget in regards to DD.

Not hardly, people aren't getting paid the money they're owed. And hey, I can't read HBN anymore either.

Things like prizes are usually donations, things gotten at a discount, or write-offs anyway (as promotional materials). They probably have got them but don't want to announce them yet.

However the HBN thing is important. If I were entering the current Comic Book Challenge, I would be VERY worried that the CBC winner from 2006 has had to stop his comic because he's not getting paid. How could the current winner expect much in that case? Platinum seems to have made a big mistake in not paying the creator of their flagship titles, who also happens to have been their most vocal supporter. I am sure all the people at Plat are very nice and have good intentions, but DD seems to be in financially incapable hands. Platinum needs some tough-love money advice or something.

skoolmunkee
Things like prizes are usually donations, things gotten at a discount, or write-offs anyway (as promotional materials). They probably have got them but don't want to announce them yet.

However the HBN thing is important. If I were entering the current Comic Book Challenge, I would be VERY worried that the CBC winner from 2006 has had to stop his comic because he's not getting paid. How could the current winner expect much in that case? Platinum seems to have made a big mistake in not paying the creator of their flagship titles, who also happens to have been their most vocal supporter. I am sure all the people at Plat are very nice and have good intentions, but DD seems to be in financially incapable hands. Platinum needs some tough-love money advice or something.

so you are saywing HBN was not paid for their comic when they won 2006 CBC?
how about Gunplay in 2007?
so are you advising people should not enter the contest because these previous winners were never paid for winning?
I am asking for clarification.
Because that is really important to address for interested participants.
and please lets leave the sarcasm and bitterness from some posters out of this thread.

From what I have gathered by reading the author of HBN's blog is that the not paying thing has only been recent.

They used to get paid regularly. The 2007 winner probably got paid regularly… but just recently (maybe the last few months?) it seems they have not been getting paid.

This is one of the things that stemmed the other topic APC made and another reason many of us are worried about the future of DD in general.

But they will pay soon, right? As in, Platinum aren't just holding off all payments and are trying to do a tokyopop on us and sell the works without giving the creators a cent? If it's only temporary and they will pay eventually, I guess that'd be okay. I'm more in for the fame rather than the fortune personally.

I get it, there are a few issues going on and that's fine. Everyone has, at some point, had a debt lingering over their heads that they just couldn't get rid of. It all passes eventually. Sure Platinum may have a few troubles paying here and there, but a lack of money is a part of the business world.

You want to see your favourite comic artists being paid their dues? Go to your local comic shop, ask them to order in a few copies of whatever and then buy a few for yourself. Maybe even go to the Platinum Studios Store and get some stuff from them. Or, if you can't afford to do that, download off of wowio for free.

You are the consumer. And, to quote Captain Planet, the power is yours

Hey guys– I don't want anyone to panic here on this subject. A lot of Platinum haters have blown this way out of proportion. Without going too much into detail– YES, my Comic Book Challenge stuff was all paid in full– what I won was the 4 issue Mini-series— then they had such faith in the property, I made a NEW deal with them for the webcomic and ongoing series, and I've always been paid regularly. I would just say this is “late” pay– and in my current situation the way the economy is and all that, I had to put this on HOLD right now—

Honestly, Platinum has pumped a lot of money into our work. I can only speak for HBN though because that's all my privy too, and this isn't an endorsement of what you should expect with your property. You'd probably have to be as crazy passionate as I am about creating and running comics if you wanted to hammer out similar deals– the amount of content we've built just since October 2006, is NUTS. I can't even believe we've done it, but we did– and we did all of that because Platinum was backing us. I'm almost positive this will all be resolved— Hell, my only speculation looking at things coming out publicly and in their own public records is, that they're producing a BUNCH of movies right now, and thats a tricky thing– money gets LOCKED UP pretty quickly and you can't just go and pull out large sums you already put into other things that are on the move— that's all speculation there, but google Platinum to see all the stuff they have going on with Dreamworks, etc. – I know that kinda contradicts things in comparison, but there are many levels of complications to these things.

I think we've misread things a bit here, noone was claiming that DJ didn't get paid for the comic book challenge and even then it's not like any of us are worried if he did or didn't, that's coffman's issue to sort out just like it's his to sort out if he wasn't getting paid recently.
I don't think most people in the DD community even care about the amount of money they pump into their larger projects, unless we really need to be reminded what platinum is actually spending their money on and that doesn't seem to include coders for DD. I did look up what movies they happen to be producing and I'm expecting to see them go directly to the local DVD rental by 2010, god knows the world needs more witchblade on their TV screens.
In the end it's not about what happens with HBN or the comic book challenge, I can barely even see comic pages here when I try and catch up let alone worry about a comic I barely ever read, people just want to see DD working and at the moment it's barely doing that, if people here hate platinum (which I don't) it's because of what's happening to their webcomic community , I'm sure most people would rather keep their comics here than have to move on cos no one can see their pages half the time.
In the end the shoddy treatment of DD and the whole HBN thing doesn't really help platinum come out looking too good, at the moment we're more likely to see DD come to a grinding halt more than we're going to get a few minor bug fixes.
Doesn't look good to display the winner of your competition when half the viewers can't see the comic so here's hoping someones forced to fix up DD a bit.

It seems to me that APC bashing has become a forum meme for those who tend to be Pro-Platinum. In my mind, they're either not willing to deal with the truths he so sharply spouts or they're trying to draw attention away from them so people don't catch on to the real issue. Which would be Drunk Duck is broken and it's not getting fixed. He's frustrated and voicing that in the forums.

Saying “we're also frustrated, but we don't rant about it” doesn't work as a comeback against him either. You call it “being mature”… To me, it's burying your head in the sand. I've never heard of any positive change happening from ignoring a problem and hoping it goes away. That's my two cents, anyways.

Being mature is about not turning an innocent thread like this into a rant zone about something we have no control over…

The prizes/cost/etc Haven't even been announced yet. And from what I've seen the people entering this types of contests:
a) Already have a Free going webcomic
b) Amateur art/writing(i.e. would normally not be paid)
c) Entered on a whim

Go check out Tokyopop and it's wonderful idea of supporting amateur artists if you still think negative of his contest^^:
http://www.drunkduck.com/community/view_topic.php?tid=42878&cid=234

Skullbie
Being mature is about not turning an innocent thread like this into a rant zone about something we have no control over…

The prizes/cost/etc Haven't even been announced yet. And from what I've seen the people entering this types of contests:
a) Already have a Free going webcomic
b) Amateur art/writing(i.e. would normally not be paid)
c) Entered on a whim

Go check out Tokyopop and it's wonderful idea of supporting amateur artists if you still think negative of his contest^^:
http://www.drunkduck.com/community/view_topic.php?tid=42878&cid=234

Thank you, Skullbie. :)
and thank you DJ for clearing up the concerns about not being paid.

Hey man, Sorry if this thread turned into a rant zone. I was just asking a question.

I still think the comic book challenge is a great thing for unpublished creators, and I hope Platinum continues the contest
for many years to come. I don't think anyone here thinks negatively about the contest.
I've entered and have no plans of backing out.
If I can get paid for what I currently put out for free, then bonus.

Bradleyo
Hey man, Sorry if this thread turned into a rant zone. I was just asking a question.

I still think the comic book challenge is a great thing for unpublished creators, and I hope Platinum continues the contest
for many years to come. I don't think anyone here thinks negatively about the contest.
I've entered and have no plans of backing out.
If I can get paid for what I currently put out for free, then bonus.

Bradleyo… I think your question was very important. so no need to apologize. I was concerned after hearing about these “financial issues” others have brought up. But I think DJ Coffman addressed these concerns very well andout of anyone should know what is going on. And I totally agree with you. Its worth a shot! :)

Quick question about the 3 images you can submit;

Can one of those images be a cover page? Thanks in advance.

Sure, a cover page is fine as one of your images.

Sorry, folks, I was busy for a few days and missed the latest posts on this. Looks like all the questions that I can answer have been already addressed, though.

Sorry, I have a bit of a last minute question. I wrote 2 versions of the synopsis: a “spill the beans” one which pretty much covers the story start to end, and a more introductory one that only covers the setting, characters and the basic premise of the comic - no spoilers.

Is a spoiler-free synopsis what you're looking for, or do you want everything laid bare, no surprises, no secrets, beginning, middle and end?

Tough question, actually. I would say you should lean towards the no-spoilers version, as it will be posted online, but if the twists and turns are part of what makes it cool and interesting, it might help you to include them. Ultimately, it's your choice as to whether you think people will respond to your pitch if you leave the spoilers out. Sorry I can't be more definitive, but it's hard to answer in the abstract.

Thanks Dan! Actually, your open-ended answer puts my mind at ease now that I know I can pick the option I feel best suits the story, rather than try to figure out some sort of unspecified preference. Now to finish up and send out my submission : )

Can't help but notice that the prize list still hasn't been announced, but the submission period is over.