Awesome! Already entered myself! This looks like fun! And good luck to any and all who enter as well!

I can write, but can't draw to save my life.

I wonder how many people will read the "fine print"?

By participating in this contest, contestants grant Themis Group, Inc. the right to print, publish, broadcast and use worldwide in any media now known or hereafter developed, including, without limitation, the World Wide Web, at any time or times, the contestant's name, as news or for public information and education without additional consideration or compensation. Any entry becomes the property of Themis Group, Inc. and will not be returned. Entrants surrender copyright and all interests therein of their submissions to Themis Group, Inc. with the understanding that the materials may be used for promotional purposes.

A little restrictive - but I suppose it is a way to get something on the resume if you're not going to publish something you want to own the rights to.

Spinwhiz:

Onyx Oblivion:
I can write, but can't draw to save my life.

We have a great community here and there may even be people who can draw and can't write. You never know until you ask. :)

I'll check around.

Spinwhiz:

SmugFrog:
I wonder how many people will read the "fine print"?

By participating in this contest, contestants grant Themis Group, Inc. the right to print, publish, broadcast and use worldwide in any media now known or hereafter developed, including, without limitation, the World Wide Web, at any time or times, the contestant's name, as news or for public information and education without additional consideration or compensation. Any entry becomes the property of Themis Group, Inc. and will not be returned. Entrants surrender copyright and all interests therein of their submissions to Themis Group, Inc. with the understanding that the materials may be used for promotional purposes.

A little restrictive - but I suppose it is a way to get something on the resume if you're not going to publish something you want to own the rights to.

We actually only keep the rights to what you give us. So, that does not mean you can't use your characters or ideas somewhere else if you don't end up being the winner. It only means you can re-publish what you submitted elsewhere. So, it's actually not that restricting at all and we've purposely created these rules to protect us and much as to protect creators and their ideas.

Plus, we aren't looking for ideas, we are looking for people who want to create ideas and then we pay them.

The thing is, every single time you guys do any sort of contest like this that could lead to a creative contract with the company, people still nitpick and seem to think that you guys are trying to scam us. If indeed you were trying to steal people's works and ideas and intellectual properties, surely people like Jon Etheridge, Yahtzee, the LRR team and so on, wouldn't have anything to do with the site? Given that as a company you need to protect your own rights, which is fair enough, I actually get pretty annoyed when I keep seeing people complaining about the 'fine print' in these things.

Anyway, on to the topic at hand. I can't draw, but I happen to be pretty damn good at writing and I do have some decent writing ideas that would work well as a webcomic. Is there anyone out there who may be bad at writing but good at drawing who wants to collaborate with me on this? Let me know by PM or quote if anybody is interested in working with me :D

EDIT: For anyone considering collaborating with me on this, just to inform you, my written idea is a dramatic webcomic, not a comedic one, and is based on a group of characters and their ongoing lives. The story has already been developed by me, so I'll want to work with an artist who can put that dramatic feel across in their art, rather than anyone who works specifically with comedy writing. Thank you :).

It's right fine and civil of Themis Group to not force us to pull a Matt Groening move where we have to make thinly-veiled substitutes for our own creations in a work-for-hire situation, so that's a load off of my mind.
What I do want to know, however, has to do with the No Nudity Clause. Does that count pixelated parts or blurred out bits like the ones Shamus used in his guide strip or the full-'backal' kind that one sees frequently on network TV shows like The Simpsons? I just want to cover my bases here!

Spinwhiz:
Webcomic Contest Now Live!

In the terms of the competition, it says we have to submit four images. Does that mean four comic strips?

Onyx Oblivion:
I can write, but can't draw to save my life.

Pretty much same here.

Be cool to see what talent can come from this however, always enjoy a good comic!

Damn I would enter but:

1: I lack a scanner and proper software.

2: I can draw but I cant write.

Still, good luck to all the participants.

Onyx Oblivion:
I can write, but can't draw to save my life.

The Escapist is full of art monkeys, contract one.

Souplex:

Onyx Oblivion:
I can write, but can't draw to save my life.

The Escapist is full of art monkeys, contract one.

hmm...Who needs a writer?

It doesn't say anything about this in the contest rules, but from the comments I gather that a comic created by more than one person is okay? I'm asking because it seems it would have to be submitted by only one of the creators.

Onyx Oblivion:

Souplex:

Onyx Oblivion:
I can write, but can't draw to save my life.

The Escapist is full of art monkeys, contract one.

hmm...Who needs a writer?

No idea, I'm after an artist myself. I have a full idea and an ongoing plotline already, that's been in development for over a year and a half. I was originally going to write it as a novel but decided it would be better in a visual format. Anyway, I really need an artist now who can draw decent drama and not simply comedy...

Sorry, but I barely update my drunk duck account, much less make a professional comic.

Onyx Oblivion:
I can write, but can't draw to save my life.

I have the opposite problem...

Onyx Oblivion:
I can write, but can't draw to save my life.

Same here...

Does it have to be funny? I'm working on a webcomic I would love to submit but it's more of an action-adventure-super-novel-plot kind of thing. I suppose it will have the occasional humor though. It doesn't relate to video games but I guarantee it's enjoyable.

I only have a few pages of it but they are on my DeviantArt. Would that effect the "cannot have appeared anywhere" rule? Only a few friends of mine look at them and I can delete them if necessary.

The other problem is the copyright thing. My submissions will be a few of the early pages that cannot be removed from the comic. The odds are I won't get in so unless I do, sometime down the road I plan on starting this thing on my own. If I do, I WILL use the pages I will have submitted here. I find it very restrictive to say I can't. I worked very hard on them and I believe they are worth reading. Why would I waste them on something like this if I wasn't sure I would win?

em, can I submit the comics through photos?

Is so, what format would that be?

This is probably a stupid question, I do realise that.

(Born in the 80s technophobe)

Spinwhiz:
Please keep in mind that you don't necessarily need to be able to draw. XKCD is very popular and is made up of mostly stick figures.

I agree, XKCD is my favorite webcomic, but I feel that if I drew a bunch of stick figures and had some humorous dialog, I would either A) Be accused of copying XKCD, or B)Forever be ashamed because I tried to copy XKCD. But maybe a slight modification of the XKCD art, so that you don't look at the comic and think "That's XKCD, wait, no it isn't."

Anyway,
I will definitely look into this, I am not a great artist, but I might try it. Hopefully something will pop out of my head and hands. I hope.

Zepren:
Does anyone know any good drawing software that would be good for this? something not too complicated of course :D

If failing this, i'm jumping on the "Who needs a writer?" band-wagon. I have two ideas jotted down so far :P

Yes, there is this really cool thing that can write and draw the best things ever and just about anything else you can imagine.
It is called a pencil.
:P
Seriously though, if you insist on doing it on a computer, find a good drawing program, GIMP if you want something free and similar to Photoshop, and then you have Inkscape for vector images.
You also could always do a machninima, like Shamus does, just not in GMod :)

Am I the only one concerned about the copyright? I'm making the comic whether I win this contest or not. In the likely event that I don't, I think I should be able to self-publish or maybe enter it into another contest somewhere. It just seems wasteful to submit something I put all my effort into only to have it banned from ever being seen. Unless I'm misunderstanding it of course.

Spinwhiz:

Silk_Sk:
Am I the only one concerned about the copyright? I'm making the comic whether I win this contest or not. In the likely event that I don't, I think I should be able to self-publish or maybe enter it into another contest somewhere. It just seems wasteful to submit something I put all my effort into only to have it banned from ever being seen.

That work will always live on The Escapist and you will always be able to point people to your link. The copyright is for our protection as well as yours. We don't want to take your work and if you have that entrepreneurial spirit, we want you to do whatever is best for you. BUT it doesn't make sense for us to allow people to re-publish items they can find right here.

If you want, create for us a rendition of what you have wanted to do. That way, if you win, you have a contract and if not, you still have your original idea and a way to point to some of your ideas that are still posted on The Escapist.

I know this is convenient for people who would be making something specifically for this contest, but I've been working on this comic for a while. I am quite happy with how it's turned out so far. I couldn't make a rendition of what I've done without it being of vastly inferior quality to what I already have, especially in such a short time frame. If I intend to win this, I would submit something I believe actually has a chance.

And then there's the submission guidelines. Four pages and a Logo. I've got 6 pages done and am working on a 7th. As I understand it, unless I win I won't be updating it on this site, effectively cutting off the beginning of the comic from the rest. My comic is plot based and the pages are not stand-alone. Neither are they something I can just re-do. Each one represents 15 hours+ of work. I'm going to be honest; updating twice a week would be a full-time job for me. But frankly, I could use a full time job.

Again, it's likely I won't win. As these rules stand, entering this contest is a huge risk for me. I don't expect you to change the rules just for me. But please understand that not all submissions will be stick figures covered in word bubbles. Some will take actual WORK to produce. Work that will be wasted by a loss as these rules are now.