Favourite Art Droids Tourneys - Classic and Current

[Colin YNWA]

So as already discussed on Monday 19th October I plan to start qualifying for the next of these seemingly interminable bloody tournaments to strangle the life out of the General Topic bit of the forum (or Mods what to repurpose the Trailer section maybe? Not sure how easy that is?).

So this time as discussed running two Favourite Art Droid tournaments back to back. I'll use this thread to:

1) Explain why two
2) List 'rules' for what they are worth
3) Talk structure and timing of both
4) Bore you all endlessly with whatever else comes to mind

There are lists of entrants for both competitions available (and subject to last minute change if needed):

Classic

Current

Brace yourselves this is going to get subjective...

[broodblik]

This is going to be the most difficult one to decide on. I am already regretting my choices but let the us get ready to rumble.

[Colin YNWA]

So first thing to explain why two seperate tounaments?

Well just to mix things up really BUT there is more. See, judging by previous tournaments we're a bunch of old fuddy duddies at heart and I wanted to give new talent a bit more of a chance to shine... though I'll come back to that. AND there are so many artists I felt it needed dividing.

So the divide I went for was Classic, essentially artists who we don't really expect to appear in the Prog or Meg anytime soon. Whose work for Tharg seems to be done, the odd cover, or one off appearance aside. Alas some we know won't be adding to their body of work as they have retired or sadly passed away.

I'm hoping this divide will allow us to draw focus on what current talent as well as the old masters. Mind some of the folks in the Current Talent pool have been around for a good long time, so I'm not sure how successful I've been is old to debate. The divide I went for to define an artist as 'current' was:

1) Having at least one ongoing series in Prog or Meg since Prog 2000
2) Or a good body of Dredds since then (either Prog or Meg)
3) Or loads of covers (by which I mean Cliff Robinson really)
4) There wasn't another reason we knew they wouldn't be adding to their work for Tharg, alas some have passed away.
5) They're overall quantity of work passed a certain threshold, numbers as obtained from the magnificent AlexF

[Colin YNWA]

Look this is for Fun so the rules are what the rules are. Guidelines to help us all chug along and enjoy this and find some consistency and understanding of what the heck we are doing.

RULES(ish)

1. MOST IMPORTANTLY - any artist who appears in these votes, be it the tourney proper or qualifying, is a better artist than we'll ever be and so even if you really don't like someone's work (which is fine) keep it lovely like I know you can.

   1a. Art is massively subjective so we won't agree on what makes good art, but we're talking favourites here. So by all means
   disagree with each other, be surprised about folks' decisions, debate and chew over, but be lovely and remember you ain't
   going to change anyone's mind about whose art they prefer so why try!

2. During Qualifying I will start two threads a day, one for 'Classic' Art Droids, One for 'Current' Art Droids. From the list of Droids provided pick your two favourites* (two for each 'Classic' thread, two for each 'Current' thread.

   2a. We are only considering work for Tharg here, so Prog and Meg - defo counted. I don't however give a fig if you think the
   art on Marshal Law or Skrull Kill Krew is the best EVVVEEEERRRRRR, it's not for Tharg so we shouldn't consider it here -
   though you can of course discuss it.

   2b. When we consider sister publications it gets a bit fuzzy, so I take a much more casual - decide for yourself attitude. So me
   I'd say Crisis, yeah sure include that, Starlord and Tornado, you know why not. Revolver... maybe I wouldn't, but if you do, heck
   how the hell will I know?!?

3. For each vote during qualifying simply type the names of the two Art Droids you want to progress to the tournament proper at the top of a post - feel free to say what you will after that, but it will help me (being lazy and all) if you type the name of your votes at the top of the comment - or make it clear otherwise by adding Bold tags.

   3a. There is no weighting to your vote, each vote gets that Art Droid 1 point.

   3b. If you vote for only one Droid in a vote that's fine, but they will still only get one vote. If you name more than two artists I
   will give the first two mentioned a vote each (unless you make it clear who you are voting for in which case I will allocate
   accordingly)

4. I will count up votes in each thread after 3 days of starting it and announce the qualifiers in that thread - once I've done that feel free to add comments, but your vote won't count and you might be charged (if I can work out how to charge you (?!))

5. In the event of a tie I will have the casting vote - 'cos ya know I'm self absorbed. But I won't vote beforehand therefore.

*6. We are voting for our favourite... there's going to be a whole post about that! So not whose had the most impact, or is most important. There are no scales for objective who's the best artist. It's art, it's whose stuff you like to gaze on the most. We won't agree and there are no right answers.

For example I love Carlos' art. I really do. He's in my top ten. Is he in my top 5... no. So there, see I've said it it's okay not to vote for Carlos when the time comes, however wonderful the man.

7. Who gets through in qualifying, well the Classic threads the top 2 out of ten!!! It's bloody brutal, but we need to get down from 80 to 16! For Current 2 from 4 will qualify - we need to get from 32 to 16.

8. I'm sure there never used to be this many rules - what the hell is going on here???

9. I'm winging this so anything thing I've forgotten I'll make up as we go along.

[broodblik]

I think off all the tourneys we had this year this is the most difficult one to choose. It is even a case where the series determines the artists for me example of these are Stickelback and Brink. I a cannot see that anyone else but the current artist handle these series. I think we will see a more close run rounds since it is so subjective. Cool stuff

[Colin YNWA]

What makes your favourite artist?

Well that's up to you isn't it. For all I'll know it's who has the most luxurious hair. Or who makes the best left back. I won't know. However I once again turn to the wondrous AlexF this time not just for his diligent counting of appearances by creators. He summed this up really well, when we discussed how to handle the changing art styles of creators:

"Changing styles is part of the fun! But since we're purely talking about 'favourites' here I guess it's up to you to vote for an artist based on a style that they, perhaps, no longer use. Which is different from posing that question, 'if artist x was announced to be on a new series in the next Prog, how excited would I be?' which I often use when trying to decide who I actually like best."

BUT if you want to go with whose work you'd be most excited to learn was going to be in the Prog next week then you go for it. Who am I to tell you how to choose your favourite. All I ask is:

- Only work for Tharg (as detailed a bit more above)
- Quality should be the primary factor, rather quantity. Which isn't to say you can't consider quantity, as it allows consideration of consistent greatness, but that it should be secondary.

[Magnetica]

Or who makes the best left back.

Well that's Robbo obviously, but I'm not sure he can draw and he will definitely never work for Tharg.

Quality should be the primary factor, rather quantity.

Well that's good because my favourite didn't do that much for Tharg.

[Colin YNWA]

After qulifying what happens?

Once we're past qualifying we'll have two tourney of 32 Art Droids each which will run on straight head to heads, drawn FA Cup style, so no seeding at all. We'll come to that in a week or two.

Once we get to December I'm putting these on hiatus for a month for ... reasons you'll see and hopefully will be a bit of Christmasy fun.

Oh and when we're done with these two separate competitions we might go for a bit of a Champion of Champions and have a quick tourney with say all the semi-finalists of each going head to head to determine the overall champ. Let's see what happens...