Page 4 of The Flatworm: The French Connection written by Jay Eales and illustrated by Paul Harrison. This strip originally appeared in Violent! #5.

Today’s the day that we’ve decided to make our official launch for the new web incarnations of The Girly Comic and Violent! Some of you may have already been sampling our wares, but we wanted to have a few strips in the archive already when we launched. Press releases have now been fired off to the great and good, and all that remains is to bid you welcome.

We should probably clarify at this stage - we don’t intend for the webcomic sites to merely reprint the contents of our previous print issues. As new strips are finished, we will slot them into the schedules. We also haven’t abandoned the print medium altogether. Plans are afoot for book collections of the Girly and Violent! archives, so we can let the individual issues go out of print. Speaking of the issues, you can still buy most issues from the Factor Fiction shop at: http://factorfictionpress.co.uk/shop.html

 Apologies to anyone who was hoping to see us at the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing or the London Underground Comics tables at Camden Market today. The best laid plans of mice and men, and all that… Hopefully we’ll catch up with you again soon. Next on the agenda is the Bristol Comics Expo in May.

 Right… back to my sick bed!

 Jay

As we mentioned previously Jay was involved in the recent BLAM! season of events run by Leicester Libraries. Read a round-up of the BLAM! events with pictures.

The Girly Comic has also been praised and highlighted in an article on women in comics by Bridgeen Gillespie.

“Bridgeen Gillespie tells us why comics aren’t just for boys anymore and gives her guide to what’s best, by and for girls, inprint and on the web… “http://www.verbalartscentre.co.uk/verbalmagazine/assets/verbal_11.pdf”

Also, check out Bridgeen’s own lovely work.

Now it can be told… Attendees at Caption 2007: Dreams & Nightmares were given a prophetic dream of the theme for Caption 2008. And the dream came true. Caption 2008 is CAPTION TIMEWARP. We’re just waiting on final confirmation, but it seems likely that it will be taking place again at the East Oxford Community Centre on August 9th and 10th, in the year that celebrates DEADLINE’s 20th anniversary, ESCAPE’s 25th anniversary, LUTHER ARKWRIGHT’s 30th anniversary and THE BEANO’s 70th anniversary…

 Watch this space for further developments as and when we have them.

EDIT: 26/02/08 - The date is now confirmed. Caption Timewarp is go for 9th/10th August 2008!

Jay

“The Beagle Awards are an alternative, but not a rival, to the prestigious Eagle Awards. The Beagle Awards celebrate the best of the small press as voted for by you, the buying public. The Beagle Awards will be held at the Bristol Comic Con in May.”

Keep your eyes here:

http://thebeagleawards.blogspot.com/

 We investigated the possibility of setting up some sort of Awards at Caption last year, but while the idea received mixed enthusiasm, it was decided that Caption’s ethos of not trying to raise any creator above the rest would not sit well with handing out awards, particularly as most Caption organisers past and present, being creators themselves, would also be potential contenders for such an award, unless they removed themselves from competition.

Whether the Beagle Awards have come about because of the discussion at Caption, or just because it’s an idea whose time has come, more power to them for doing it.

Jay and Selina

 Breaking In To Comics: 28^th January, Leicester Central Lending Library

Jay recently chaired a panel on Breaking In To Comics, as part of the BLAM! Season, which Damien Walters is running on behalf of Leicester Libraries. The other panel guests were Matt Smith, Editor of 2000AD, and John Freeman of Down the Tubes, Rok Comics and former Marvel UK and Titan Magazines Editor.

The event was very well attended, with over 60 people in the audience and people travelling from as far away as London and Barnsley. It was a wonderful mix of age, race and gender.

Some of the top tips from the panel were:

• Read and follow the submission guidelines.

• Get some experience and hone your skills in the small press or webcomics arena.

• Try to be original. For example, 2000AD has seen numerous time travel, virtual reality prison stories etc.

• Remember that you are competing with the current contributors to publishers, so you have to be as good as, or preferably better than they are.

• Know the market you are submitting to. If the publication only publishes 5 page standalone stories, don’t submit a ten page first instalment of a 300 page magnum opus!

• Writers: Try to get an artist to work on some of your spec scripts in order to understand how your writing works once it is illustrated.

• Artists: Be ruthless with your portfolio – have no more than 5 pages of your best comic strip work, and do not include pin-ups. The editors want to see your ability to tell a story.

• Artists: When showing your portfolio to an editor, make sure you have illustrated pages using their characters. For example, if you’re trying to submit to 2000AD then you might illustrate one of the spec scripts from their website. Don’t send them your Spider-Man art pages. Send them Judge Dredd or Strontium Dog.

• Attend and network at comic conventions – it’s a great way to make contacts and hear about new opportunities.

• Think about all the different types of places you can submit to:

  •  

    • 2000AD (Rebellion)

    • Commando (DC Thompson)

    • Junior titles (look at what is on the shelves of your local newsagent)

    • Independent & Small Press publishers

    • Webcomics

    • Comics for mobile phones (Anyone can submit to ROK comics)

    • Educational comics

    • Business/Health comics

    • Manga – Tokyo Pop Rising Stars of Manga competitions

    • Mainstream Book Publishers. For example, Jonathan Cope, Gollancz and David Fickling Books

    • Competitions elsewhere. For example, the recent Observer/Jonathan Cape newspaper competition

    • Student newspapers

    • Fanzines

    • Magazines

BUT, most of all, have fun and enjoy creating comics, otherwise it’s not worth the effort!

Related links:

BLAM! Season

Breaking In To Comics report by John Freeman.