Operation FunnyBone

If an idea and the ability to draw I'd love to do a page or two.

The winners of the 2005 OzComic 24 hour Comic Challenge

Congratulations to all the particpants and in particular the winners, there was some great work this year from all.

Special thanks to Graeme and Maggie for all their hard work, this has been the best challenge yet and its ALL because of them.
Thanks to Mopy and Simon for helping spread the word.

Big thanks to all the kind people who donated prizes.

Lastly thanks to everyone who entered it was a joy to read so many awesomely cool entries.

The winners are-

8 page category

1st prize
A gift voucher, valued at $100, from Impact Comics
goes to
Jase Harper - Space Flight at The OK Corral - Brisbane

2nd prize
A sketch drawn by Nicola Scott (Star Wars, The Watch)
goes to
Matthew William Huynh - Cul De Sac Scarecrow - Sydney

3rd prize
A subscription to FilmInk and DVDs, courtesy of FilmInk
goes to
Komala Singh - Mourning Tea - Sydney


16 Page
1st prize
A selection of graphic novels from Pulp Fiction Comics, worth $250
goes to
Doug Holgate - Checkmate Wordsworth - Melbourne

2nd Prize
An original page of Comic Art by Gary Chaloner (Jackeroo, John Law) and a limited edition copy of John Law signed by Will Eisner
goes to
Tee Hamilton - Django NOTaGOTH - Melbourne

3rd prize
Courtesy of Phosphorescent Comics, a voucher worth $70 to be spent at www.phosphoresecnt.com.au and a subscription to Azerath
goes to
Alvin Chan - Escape Velocity - Adelaide


24 Page

Grand prize
A table in Artists Alley for Supanova (Brisbane or Sydney), courtesy of Supanova
goes to
Michael Li - The First Time I Fetched Water - Brisbane

1st Runner Up
The opportunity to illustrate the back cover of Small Gods #12, courtesy of Jason Rands (Small Gods, Helios)
goes to
Patrick Alexander - CUNT! - Sydney

2nd runner up prize
An original page from The Watch and a signed set of comic by Stewart McKenny (The Watch and Captain America)
goes to
Edward Grug III- Gasp - Perth

Again congratulations to everyone involved, there were some real close calls in the 24 and 8 page categories.

131 people registered
90 people started
80 people did at least 8 pages
1350 pages of comics was created in 3 days, that's about 60 standard comic books or about as many comics as Marvel publishes a month.
159 people have joined the Pulp Faction boards since registrations for challenge opened
500,000 web page hits were recieved by the forum during the 3 weeks of the challenge
While its hard to say how many individuals visited the forums it can be guessed at between 3000 and 5000 people.

I hope you join us next year for an even better event.

Final Door prize list

Having gone thru the registery listing and those who did at least 8 pages, THE FINAL DOOR PRIZE WINNERS ARE;

The lucky 24th entrant was Lee Hislop who wins a Brisbane Comic pack fetauring Sporadic 1-5, Jase Harper's 24 hour comic from last year, a selection of comics by Tonia Walden and Crab Allan by L. Frank Weber.

The 50th registrant was Matthew Sutton receieves some autographed photos care of Carissa from hub Productions

The 69th person, (69 being how many finished comics we had last year) is James Keller, he wins a subscription to Phosphorescent Comics' Azerath.

Lasy year we had 80 registrations in total, so the 81st is Jason Kwan who wins a selection of Australian Comics I've picked up in the last couple of years.

The last person to register and complete an entry was Tom Beisley, who wins a 4 issue Azerath subscription. Nathaniel Jannert, was the 72nd entrant (3 x 24 pages)also wins the Azerath subscription from Phosphorescent comics.

Michael Connolly, was the 96th entrant (4 x 24) and he wins Knight Edge comics 1-3 from Gary Lau.
Tang lee was the 100th entrant and he winds a subscription from FilmInk.

And Caanan Crall, wins OzComic Magazine issues 1-6.

Congratulations
If these people can email me, mark_selan@hotmail.com i'll organise getting your prizes to you.
Thanks to the people who donated prizes.

The voting - top 5s

With voting closing early Tuesday, here is how it stands

8 Page

• Jase Harper - Space Flight at The OK Corral - Brisbane


• Matthew William Huynh - Cul De Sac Scarecrow - Sydney


• Komala Singh - Mourning Tea - Sydney
  


• Benjamin Baker - Hayfever - Sydney
  


• Gary Lau - SK8 OR DIE! - Melbourne

16 Page

• Doug Holgate - Checkmate Wordsworth - Melbourne
  


• Tee Hamilton - Django NOTaGOTH - Melbourne


• Alvin Chan - Escape Velocity - Adelaide


• Troy Kealley - Roadkill - Perth


• Daniel Lawson and Ryan Wilton - 5 smoking whales - Newcastle

24 Page

• Michael Li - The First Time I Fetched Water - Brisbane


• Patrick Alexander - CUNT! - Sydney


• Edward Grug III- Gasp - Perth


• Ben Hutchings - Gnome Valley '86 - Canberra


• Owen Heitmann - Title Goes Here - Adelaide

Casey and the case of the duelling Dougs

Whilst wandering in Borders i spied Casey Donovan's new biography and remembered that Doug Holgate was to do some illustrations for the project.

I had to spend a couple of minutes waiting for the cool kids to leave the new books shelf, i slinked on over and had a peek.

Flicking through the art looked like Doug's but reading the credits, its appears that Doug Halford did the art.
I say this Doug Halford is a scamp and a rogue of the highest order, stealing the cutesy wootesy stylings of Douglas Firmingfast Holgate as his own.

The nerve!

Voting Begins

Voting for the OzComic 24 Hour Comic Challenge finally begins for the following categories

24 Page

16 Page

8 Page

Voting closes next monday.

All Pulp Faction members are eligible to vote. Don't forget to read all the entries before voting.

From the vault

Voting was going to start today but the well, its not ready, so I'm going to have to distract you.
Here are my 24 hour comics from 2004 (Totally POV Comics) and 2003 (Sketchy Comics).

Whilst "please enjoy" may be aiming a bit high, I'll try "please tolerate" instead.

The Challenge entries

I haven't been updating because of being to busy with the challenge.
However;
The entries have been compiled. Voting will start Monday.

Any problems with the entries post a comment.

Around the traps

I'm still slowly going through all the entries from the 24 hr challenge. I'm up to Jase's. There have been some real solid comics this year, what's best is so many are from people who from what i can tell haven't done much before hand.

Hopefully voting will start next weekend.

---

Otherwise, I was watching OC last night and for some reason i started contemplating the idea of Comic Book Week.

---

Internationally,

Ben Templesmith is working with Warren Ellis on Fell


Andie Tong and Darren Close get featured in an article on Digital Webbing presents at Newsarama

And Trudy Cooper had a pin up in fellow Aussie Jason Rand's crime series Small Gods

---

back to the entries

Australian newspaper

There should be an article about the challenge in Tuesday's Australian so make sure you read it at the newsagency and then buy it if it doesn't contain the terms, pow, bam or zap.

The entries

This years effort - Brown and Sticky

The rest can be seen www.ausssiecomics.com/24hr/entries.php
There's some really good stuff but don't just click on the familiar names, be a bit adventurous.

For the next 10 days i'll be thanking the sponsors and everyone who helped out, so get used to it, they deserve the recognition for their generosity and hard work.

Now back to the reading

12 hours to go - whoop

As of 5:30 this afternoon we had 99 people participants registered. now i know about 10 people have pulled out, but still i'm an excited ball of stick figure drawing comic energy.

Also if there are any sydeny siders that don't mind speaking to the Australian on sunday afternoon, after they've finished their comic, let me know.
There may be a photographer involved but i'm not sure.

Door Prizes for the challenge

Based on the order people registered to the challenge, i've got a number of door prizes. To recieve the door prize the winners will have to do at least 8 pages over the weekend.

Somehow the first person to register , even before me, was Dominic Giacomantonio so he wins the full run of OzComics Magazine 1-6.

The lucky 24th entrant was Lee Hislop who wins a Brisbane Comic pack fetauring Sporadic 1-5, Jase Harper's 24 hour comic from last year, a selection of comics by Tonia Walden and Crab Allan by L. Frank Weber.

The 50th registrant was Matthew Sutton receieves some autographed photos care of Carissa from hub Productions

The 69th person, (69 being how many finished comics we had last year) is James Keller, he wins a subscription to Phosphorescent Comics' Azerath.

Lasy year we had 80 registrations in total, so the 81st is Jason Kwan who wins a selection of Australian Comics I've picked up in the last couple of years.

We are just short of 100 people, and i'll be announcing a couple more door prizes on saturday.

Congratulations on everyone for entering and good luck.

Graeme McDonald - Media Assassin

Spent the afternoon talking to JJJ, Loren Morris and i will be in the Arts Show on sunday night talking about comics and the challenge. i'm the drony one.

Of course there was the Age article, which has been posted around a bit. i always thought holgate was more of an Aquaman fan.

I was really surprised to hear that Ben Hutchings was on National ABC, i have no idea what he spoke about, but I'm sure he was good. i wasn't sure this was going ahead, the producer seemed keen, then i didn't hear from her. So rock on ABC.

And finally, melbourne ABC 744 will have me and Holgate live on air, 11:25am on sunday morning. Its actually Holgate's gig, but since he'll have been up for 24 hours plus, i'll be in the background just in case he starts talking about how his kitty inked the last three pages.

All this would not have been possible without Graeme McDonald who has probably worked harder than me on this event, dragging the media coverage to play with his teeth.

rock on and thanks

Who's registered?

Aaron Adriatico
Adam Briggs
Adrian Ceroni
Anna Bailey
Anthony Pini
Arran McKenna
Atosha McCaw
Avi Bernshaw
Ben Hutchings
beta ngadiman
Caanan Grall
Chris Lassig
Christopher McLernon
Daniel Gibbs
Daniel Harris
Daniel John Bai
Darren Close
David G Williams
David Thomsen
Dominic Giacomantonio
Doug Holgate
Emma-Jean
Erin McGregor
Gareth Edwards
Gary Lau
Gary Wong
Gavin Thomson
glenn smith
Grant Buist
Grant Hunter
Grant T Heino
Henry PoPienia
Holly Shorland
Jacen David Carpenter
James Keller
Jason Kwan
Jeremy Conrad
Jo Kerkham
Komala Singh
Kristie Davis
Lee Hislop
Liam Jose-Baker
Loren Morris
Lucas House
Maarten Bouw
Madonna Spelta
Maggie McFee
Maria Pena
mark selan
Marty Wells
Matt McKenzie
Matthew Sutton
Merlin Missingham
Michael
Michael Li
Mike Hell-Delight
Miki Fang
Nathan Soehardi
Nathanael Jeanneret
Nicholas J French
Owen Heitmann
Patrick Alexander
Robert Forrest
ross tesoriero
Stephen Dann
Stephen James Bai
Steve Martinez
Tim Dawson
Tina Fazzalari
Tonia Walden
Tony Samson
Troy Kealley
Victoria Pennington
Wen Huang

By Location
VIC - 24%
NSW - 17%
SA - 13%
QLD - 12%
WA - 9%
ACT - 8%
NZ - 4%
USA - 3%

10 years, babe

Down on the farm in 1996

In wine country in 1999

In the club in 2002

Living it up in 2005

getting closer all the time

Moi
m

Phase Two Sale

For people who have registered for the OzComics 24 Hour Comic Challenge, Phase Two Comics are offering a 10% discount off purchases (excluding postage).

For a good primer in Australian Comics check out the work of the
Sporadic guys,
Tonia Walden's anthologies
and Oztaku


Five more recommendations
You stink and I don't TPB
Dirty Little Creep
Flange
Fat Ankle
The Crumpleton Experiments No.5

The sale will end on June 18th.

Thanks Gavin and Emma for supporting the Challenge.

Happy Birthday Doug

Three decades back Douglas Hasslehoff Holgate was born.

His father was a Hollywood stuntman who specialised in standing in for driving dogs, Lewis' and Martin's Hollywood or Bust being his most famous role. But wearing the dog costume got tiresome so he travelled to Australia looking for gold. Missing the gold rush by 150 years or so, he met up with the woman who was to be Douglas' mother. She worked in a school for merchant sailors teaching them to spit and sing sea shanties.

Douglas' love of big hats was not diagnosed for 3 years, until then he continually was putting his head in a bucket.
This was remedied though, at the age of 4 he got his first top hat. It was a joyous day, with a lot of joy. Until he lost his hat. Douglas was always chasing little sparrows and in his excitement he'd always lose his top hat. Oh how the tears would fall, and fall, and fall. So for the next 15 years, his hat was tied down with the hankerchiefs he would recieve from his gandmothers every christmas. With his tied down hat, Douglas could again frollick with the little sparrows.

Disaster was met though, when Douglas fell down a mineshaft, and broke both his legs.

He spent 6 months in bed. The little birdies would have to wait. By chance, Douglas found some paper and pencils left behind by a patient named Dorothy, who had quite sadly died of testicular cancer. With the drawing implements, Douglas found he could draw. And draw he did. However once he recovered he put away the pencils, put away the paper, tied on his top hat and started chasing little birdies again.

Years past. Flew past. He attended high school and became quite the star, with his ability to skull a top hat full of beer - little did his peers know that Douglas would mix ginger ale with the beer, in attempt to lessen the effects of the alcohol. Little did Douglas know, though, that he was allegic to ginger beer and would pass out.

A fresh-from-high-school Douglas, wanted to follow his dream of becoming an engineer so he enrolled in a course he thought would be perfect. However, on the first day of his Plant Illustration course he was notably disappointed. Stuck in Newcastle, in winter, there were no sparrows to chase. His top hat was mocked by others so Douglas returned to drawing. His peers were in awe of his skills.

Slowly he met with much acclaim. Relationships grew, partnerships were made, little ships in bottles were attempted but discarded; not for lack of talent - no kind reader - because he was too busy getting it done.

Douglas Hasslehoff Holgate, we salute you! Happy Birthday!

using your blog to add pages for the 24hr challenge

Page 15

Credits- The 24 Hour Challenge Website

A special thanks to all the people who have worked on the challenge

• Darren Close - Original site design - Ozone Studios


• Matt Bayliss - Site development - Space Patrol


• Mark Selan - Content and Admin - Saveded


• Graeme McDonald - Public Relations


• Jase Harper - Poster Design - Jaseharper.com

And thanks to Matt Huynh for the logo design, Avi Bernshaw for his sponsorship help and Mopy in New Zealand for his help.

Sponsors

Supanova – Australia’s most recognized pop culture convention, it attracts over 7000 people twice a year with events held in Brisbane and Sydney. Bringing many celebrities from overseas from many cult favourite shows and movies, this event gets bigger every year. www.supanova.com.

Jason Rand - As Sydney-sider who decided to give comic scripting a try in 2001, Jason did not see publication until 2004. However his first comic, SMALL GODS, came out through Image and was received extremely well by both readers and critics. The first trade was released in Februaryof 2005. While continuing with SMALL GODS, he's also writing the independent comic HELIOS and has a number of new projects on the horizon.
www.smallgodscomic.com

Pulp Fiction Comics – Adelaide’s newest Comic shop, it has an emphasis on the more sophisticated graphic literature reader, with a huge range of Graphic Novels from around the world, a comfy couch and coffees to go.
www.pulpfictioncomics.com.au

Gary Chaloner - Gary's latest work is as the artist and writer of WILL EISNER"S JOHN LAW from IDW. A prolific creator, he was one of the first creators in Australia to embrace online comics in the 90s. The publisher of the former local favourite Cyclone Quarterly, he is now
the organiser behind the Ledger Comic Awards. His latest comic Jackeroo is now available from Comixpress.
www.garychaloner.com

Phosphorescent Comics – Australian largest mainstream comics publisher for over 3 years, recently it has attracted a lot of international attention through its series The Watch. they have also recieved a lot of local attention with their Creatorline titles, AZERATH and ELRITCH KID .
www.phosphorescent.com.au

Impact Comics - From the remnants of Canberra’s Impact Records, the nation's capital’s vibrant comic book scene now has Impact comics. A progressive and innovative comic store, Impact embraces local books and provides an open and inviting space for comic fans.
www.impactcomics.com.au

Stewart McKenny - Stewart is one of Australia’s rising stars in the international scene. He has worked for major publishers both within Australia and overseas. His recent overseas credits include CAPTAIN AMERICA, which he worked on with Eddie Campbell, and STAR WARS TALES. Locally, Stewart’s work for major Australian publishers includes THE
WATCH, ZERO ASSASSIN, TANGO QUATRO, POP CULTURE & TWO MINUTE NOODLES
and REX HELLWIG.

Phase Two Comics - Australia’s leading online retailer, Phasetwo, was established 18 months ago and now offers over 100 different comic titles to the public. Specialising in Australian produced comics, they offer a wide range of titles and genres. PhaseTwo is well known for their fast service and great treatment of creators, it truly is a valuable distrubution and retail tool for fans and creators alike.
www.phasetwocomics.com

FilmInk - FilmInk Magazine was launched in July, 1997. It is an independent consumer movie magazine distributing 30,000 copies throughout Australia's newsagents, cinemas, video stores, record stores, and film related outlets. FilmInk Magazine is Australia's longest running movie magazine - dedicated to turning film knowing into film going.
www.filmink.com.au

Nicola Scott - Nicola worked as a freelance commercial artist but found herself scribbling in the margins. Her comic debut was in 2001 with work for Australian publisher, Phosphorescent Comics. Moving to New York City she received work from Dark Horse (STAR WARS: EMPIRE), Top Cow (PROXIMITY EFFECT), Powerful Press (NOCTURNAL ESSENCE), ATP (HALLOWEEN MAN) and a number of smaller, independent companies. Shortly she will have work published by Avatar, Ariel Press and Image.

Pulp Faction – Is Australia’s largest comics related message board catering to Australian comics and their creators. Run by the very enagmatic Maggie McFee, it features links to various resources and interviews with some of Australia's most talented creators.
www.pulpfaction.net.

Aussie comics - Aussiecomics.com is a site designed to help comic creators the world over (but primarily in Australia) in their personal comic-making quests. Initially, this will be a small collection of resources (tutorials, links etc), growing to include easy (really easy) portfolio hosting and much more.
www.aussiecomics.com