In 2007, Jorge Vega impressed the judges with his pitch, Gunplay, and then impressed the voters on-line and became the second winner of Platinum Studios' The Comic Book Challenge.
Gunplay is the haunting, bullet riddled tale of a Buffalo Soldier condemned to roam the Big Empty with a hellish curse slung at his waist - a demonic shooting iron that forces Abner to kill once a day or suffer soul searing pain.
The 88 page, full color graphic novel invites readers to ride alongside Abner and the boy, revealing how the black cavalryman fell victim to the gun and how an adolescent faith healer brought death to an entire township. Under a scorching western sun, their hostile relationship will be transformed - with the boy not only offering companionship to a lonely soul but providing Abner with the moral compass that will guide his curse, transforming the gunman from desert nightmare to high plains folk hero.
- Gunplay preview edition (issue #0), was premiered at WIzard World Los Angeles by actor Donald Faison (Scrubs)
- Gunplay graphic novel set to hit stores in April 2008
Gunplay Links:
In the summer of 2006, veteran web comic creator DJ Coffman used all of his savings to travel to San Diego to pitch his new take on an old-school super hero tale. A week later and he was the first ever winner of Platinum Studio's The Comic Book Challenge.
- 4-issue miniseries debuted at Wizard World Los Angeles
- The miniseries was collected in a hard-bound trade edition and published in November 2007
- A new on-going series debuted in December 2007
- The on-line version of Hero by Night, which includes over 200 pages of content not available in print is the most popular super hero web comic
Hero by Night Links:
Michael Colbert
Top 50 of the 2006 Comic Book Challenge
Michael Colbert has been busy since the CBC. He is currently writing a screenplay of his 2006 entry "Tough Guys" called “Tough guys vs.. Zortron Destroyer of Worlds!� and is part of the art collective “Supermassive� line-up. Other projects of his include "Crazy Mary" which is available worldwide by cell phone through www.rokcomics.com and new stories for free download will be available on www.wowio.com in late spring. Mike has also written for comic projects “Special Edition� and “Ghost Assassin� and currently reviews comics for Comics Bulletin and High Speed comics online.
Brock Heasley
Top 50 of the 2006 Comic Book Challenge
A couple months after the Challenge, having lost in the semifinals with my graphic novel, “The Two Hundred and Fifth,� but emboldened by making it to San Diego in the first place, I took another stab at the comics game with “The SuperFogeys,� a twice-weekly webcomic about a group of retired superfolk living in Valhalla – Home for the Supertired. In April of 2007 “The SuperFogeys� was picked up by Th3rd World Studios who both host the comic strip and publish it.
You can find new SuperFogeys every Tuesday and Thursday at www.superfogeys.com.
Alex Phiambolis
Top 50 of the 2006 Comic Book Challenge
My comic Tales of the New World is on hiatus, but I just finished a movie based on the characters from my comic book called, 'On a Long Walk'. The picture here is a character from the movie named Mr. Mangalar, the great green bird. I also started a new book called 'Tales from the Ismungle Jungle'. The story is set in the future after human society has crumbled. Animals have evolved to take our place and view our infrastructure as dinasour bones.
Jay Chuppe
Top 50 of the 2006 Comic Book Challenge
The Comic Book Challenge was to date one of the best experiences I've had as a future/upcoming creator. The experience of it was so valuable to me looking back and I highly recommend to any potential creators to submit their original idea & concept to a future CBC. It's like getting months worth of development done on your project in 2-3 minutes! Believe me, it's an experience I'm glad I had & feel that I understand "the biz" and how to present a pitch a lot better after going through it. My experience at the Comic Book Challenge is one that I look back & reflect on often today. Even though I also didn't win...I tweaked my characters & made changes following the advice of the judges. I think if you're smart that you ought to be listening to any suggestions/changes that these particular judges have at all. Some people would kill for 5 minutes of input and feedback on their idea from some of them, and that's because they know what they're talking about.
I feel that my concept came through the other side of the whole process a much better comic proposal to Platinum or any other potential publisher or fan for that matter.
The experience of the CBC '06 was a very valuable one to me and one great learning experience in general. I even met other finalists waiting in line to pitch that I still keep in touch with.
Dave Ryan
Top 50 of the 2006 Comic Book Challenge
You couldn't ask for a bigger poster child for this than me! The CBC is the reason I got back into comics and therefore responsible for the War of the Independents.
The CBC also holds another tie to the War of the Independents which is the internet connection. Through the internet I was able to gather all of these creators which otherwise would have been nearly impossible. Scott Rosenberg has spearheaded the comic book medium in many ways throughout the years and is no less prominent in his endeavors with Platinum's online presence. It is Platinum Studio's pioneering that had inspired the entire project as well as an awareness of Indie creators and an alternate venue for distribution of comics. The War of the Independents, if anything, is a child of the Comic Book Challenge!
Elvin Hernandez
Top 50 of the 2006 Comic Book Challenge
I learned a lot from my experience on the Comic Book Challenge, namely how to (or better yet not) do a successful pitch. Needless to say, I’ve been retooling the Solution since my presentation, and its garnered new interest. On a personal note, I’ve finished my studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and am currently a Professor of Animation at the Art Institute of Washington, D.C. By no means am I leaving the comics world, though, as I’ve been working on a couple of projects for different publishers, so you’ll definitely be hearing from me soon!
Carlos Weiser
Top 50 of the 2006 Comic Book Challenge
The Comic Book Challenge was a life changing event for me. I’ve always enjoyed drawing but had never taken it seriously enough to think that I had the potential to create a comic book until this competition. I paid close attention to what the judges said about my story and artwork and made the necessary changes to bring it up to a whole new level. My original story “Greek Squad� is now called “Time of Gods� and I have developed it into a graphic novel that I hope I will soon be able to present to different publishing companies.
Axel Medellin
Top 50 of the 2006 and 2007 Comic Book Challenge
This has been a great time for me since CBC 2007. I got to draw Incursion for the fine folks at Platinum, I've had stories in Heavy Metal and Fablewood, and the upcoming The Piper for Zenescope. As for my CBC project, The Wonderful Lisa Da Vinci, I'm just about making a research trip to Florence so I can nail the series... that happens to be my honeymoon trip, BTW.
Larue Binder
Top 50 of the 2006 and 2007 Comic Book Challenge
While CORNBREAD THE DOG didn’t win at PLATINUM STUDIOS’ two wonderful events, we have won over the laughter and approval of thousands of fans from around the world. It is so cool that so many people are now laughing and having a great time reading CORNBREAD THE DOG’S many hilarious adventures. But, wait! There’s even more to tell!….
CORNBREAD THE DOG and all his friends from DOWN THE BLOCK will soon be starring in fully animated cartoon shorts on UTUBE and IPHONES. With this great exposure from PLATINUM STUDIOS and this fantastic TOON BOOM software for animation; nothing is impossible!
So, thank you, PLATINUM STUDIOS for giving us this great chance to share this labor of love called DOWN THE BLOCK! You guys are awesome and CORNBREAD THE DOG loves you! God bless.
Luciana Maruca (writer-colorist)
Mariano Cutropia (penciler-inker)
Top 50 of the 2007 Comic Book Challenge
It’s been quite hectic for us since the challenge. We’ve got two projects going on, that kind of interfered with the completion of “A Penny for Your Thoughts� (the story we submitted for the CBC) but we get paid! So… no complaints there. Right now we’re working on monthly short stories of eight pages, and a miniseries. As soon as we finish those, we will resume “A Penny for Your Thoughts�. We can’t wait to get our hands on it again. (Apparently a whole lot of readers feel the same!)
Gustavo Duarte Yza
Top 50 of the 2007 Comic Book Challenge
After some thinking as a fan instead of a boring script and a picture or a piece of art,
I came to the conclusion that what comic book fans really like are comics!
So, instead I created a 4 panel strip about "what have done since the Challenge. I think it’s more fun this way.
Nick Andreychuk
Top 50 of the 2007 Comic Book Challenge
Stupid Humans was created by writer Nick Aires specifically for The Comic Book Challenge and the artist who provided the sample page moved on after the contest. But amongst the countless books on display at San Diego Comic-Con, one called Cryptozoo Crew fatefully caught Nick’s eye. Its artwork was exactly what he had in mind for Stupid Humans, so he contacted the extraordinarily talented Jerry Carr, who clicked with the material and agreed to join Nick on the ride to fame and fortune. They don’t have either, yet, but you can fix that by cajoling your favourite publisher into publishing it.
Jonathan Coltan
Top 50 of the 2007 Comic Book Challenge
Since the Comic Book Challenge, great things have been happening for my comic "Projekt Werwolf". After the Challenge, we found a home at Komikwerks, where the comic is currently being published online. "Projekt Werwolf" has received news attention from various comic book news sites. In addition to this, I was interviewed by my alma matta (Academy of Art University) regarding "Projekt Werwolf" for a news feature on the school website. I've received fan emails from as far away as Finland and Japan!
"Projekt Werwolf" is published online at www.komikwerks.com and is updated weekly. Thanks again to Platinum Studios and the Comic Book Challenge for helping to make all of this possible.
Brian Guardiola
Top 50 of the 2007 Comic Book Challenge
I am happy to say that the Comic Book Challenge 2007 has been one of the best opportunities I’ve been involved in. Mc’ken the food substitute was my entry for the competition, which was a non-conventional comic book idea, but with my dedication to it I was still able to hang in with the more popular comic genres. Comedy is not one of my strong suits in comics, however since it was one of the top 50 I now have a greater confidence to produce other genres that are more to my liking. The experience of interacting with the other talented 49 contestants was something I hadn’t expected. Everyone was respectful and supportive of each other and I hope in 2008 I can experience that again.
George Brawn IV
Top 50 of the 2007 Comic Book Challenge
Well, I have to say, since the Comic Book Challenge, I have been working even harder to bring The Untold Chronicles to life for the world at large, including the story I pitched Everdance: A Blood Story. And I gotta admit, I've enjoyed every minute of work for it.
I've worked with some great studios to also bring their work to light as well, and it has led me to work with the Untold Chronicles being published through Twofold Comics, an up-and-comer in the industry that's ready to break out, starting with Blood Rites!
All of this couldn't have been jump started without being apart of the Comic Book Challenge, and can't wait to see what the future holds!
Andrew Holloway
Top 50 of the 2007 Comic Book Challenge
Hi my name is Andrew Holloway creator of Sticky Fingers one of the 2007 CBC top 50. Since last years contest I’ve done some critiquing of SF and addressed what I thought needed to be tweaked; not only with the pitch but the story itself. So enjoy this sample as I introduce you to Raymond Folks III also know as Sticky Fingers.
PS: Not too many people got a chance to see the customized shoes I wore at the pitch so for an example and more Sticky Fingers stuff check out: www.myspace.com/ratedimmature.
