The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge
by Phil McAndrew
The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge is a competition between online comic artists to see who can maintain the longest Monday to Friday update schedule. Each artist will be putting $20 USD on the line. The last man left standing takes the entire pot. The contest will begin on Monday, February 28th.
I thought I’d give everyone a heads up on this because Edward J. Grug III (of Modern Tales), Jason Turner (Serializer), and I (also Serializer) will all be participating in this, along with other webcomic giants such as Brian Fukushima, Dean Trippe, Jamie Dee Galey, Jeff Bent, Robin Bougie, and a ton of others.
Daily comics from all these fellows!?!?! Exciting!!! February 28th will be a grand day for web comics.
February 23rd, 2005 at 9:48 pm
Sounds cool. What if the contest lasts until one of the artists in competition completes the last episode of his or her graphic novel? Is there a booby prize for finishing?
February 23rd, 2005 at 10:12 pm
I would assume that they start something up right away, or they’re still out. This is more of an exercise to combat laziness than anything else, i would say.
February 23rd, 2005 at 11:01 pm
They start another. The plan is to keep drawing until you’re the last one left.
February 23rd, 2005 at 11:04 pm
The goal is to keep drawing until only one remains. If you finish your current storyline and there are still people left, start another.
February 23rd, 2005 at 11:40 pm
I’m not doing a “story line.” I’m doing a graphic novel. And the suggest to ’start another’ makes it sound like you’re eating potato chips. My next project will be a different title, a different set of characters, probably a different update schedule.
Bummer. Guess this competition isn’t for me.
February 24th, 2005 at 1:16 am
I think Ed meant that if you finish one project (such as a graphic novel), you just begin work on something else (another graphic novel if you want even) once you’ve finished it. You don’t have to stick to the same story or set of characters. You can do whatever you want, as long as you post at least a few panels of something each day.
February 24th, 2005 at 2:12 pm
I just entered today. Joe, the way I understand it, as long as you have something there mon-fri, which is more than just a sketch or doodle, and actual comic– you just go until you are the last man standing. You can switch stories… there are no breaks in an Iron Man challenge.
I think this will be great fun, and a good motivator to stay ahead and on track. It will be GREAT for webcomics fans too! So many good things to read every day!
February 24th, 2005 at 8:33 pm
I’m going to have, like 10 different comics going at once, including my trusty journal comic which is currecntly under-updated.
I just think it’s gonna be fun.
February 24th, 2005 at 10:52 pm
Well, I think it’s a good competition for artists working on continuous series, like gag-a-day and soap opera comics; but it’s not a good fit for graphic novelists. When you reach the end of presenting a graphic novel, it’s not so much the artist who needs to take a break, it’s the reader. There should be a sense of finality and climax when you finish a graphic novel, and a sense of anticipation at the beginning of a new one. If you just go and finish one graphic novel on Friday and start the next one on Monday, it’s like you’re dishing out hamburgers or something.
Also, there’s a lot of prep work in starting up a new graphic novel. Designing characters, PR stuff, scripting. Not to mention that you want to try to make a break from the past and reinvent your entire cartooning style, to keep it fresh and exciting for you and the reader.
February 25th, 2005 at 2:07 am
I’m in it, and I’m not 100% sure what I’ll end up doing. But I suspect there will be some lag time, and journals or filler or something between major stories.
Also it is coming just as True Loves book one is coming to an end, so it might be nice to just cut loose a little and do whatever comes to mind.
February 25th, 2005 at 9:25 pm
Sorry, I didn’t mean to throw cold water on this. I’m just peaved that something this cool comes along, and I can’t take part in it for stylistic reasons. Oh well. I looked at the website, and it’s a really nice design! And best of all, there are some really intriguing looking artists who’ve joined up. Best of luck to the combatants. I hope you’re all really stubborn and the contest is still going on by the time a Democrat is in the White House again!