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[Carl Critchlow]

Nice big Carl Critchlow flavoured update today folks!

Link: http://2000adcovers.blogspot.com/

Oh that is very nice - I love the sketches and being able to see the original of the fully-painted work. Exactly the kind of thing you'd wish for from such a blog and you are really delivering the goodies.

One thing I noticed though was that the creators are being sorted by first name not surname.

Yeah (slaps Vin) - it will be by surname

Cheers.

Will there eventually be somewhere people can enter the weekly competition online?

Very impressive.

Is the character/creator information the barney information brought back onto the main site? Its all very nicely fine-grained and also search engine-friendly (top SEO marks all round ).

One thing I noticed though was that the creators are being sorted by first name not surname.

Anyway fresh oil all round.

"Also, please don't submit more than one story at a time."

Definitely passed me by. Once again, my apologies for the clearly VERY poor advice on the previous page.

There is no need to apologise - you'd not be keeping such a close eye on such processes as you made it, you lived the dream. Most of us would die happy with that kind of achievement under their belt.

Yep,

I did a similar thing last year: Waited months and months for a reply and decided to send a second script in whilst waiting to hear about the first. Both were rejected in the same letter and the last paragraph of the rejection letter said:

"Also, please don't submit more than one story at a time."

Thanks - a useful bit of information. You certainly don't want to get on Tharg's tits, especially as his people are multi-mammaried.

Always enclose a stamped, self addressed envelope, and await our response before sending further submissions.

Well, if that's what the Mighty One says, then I stand corrected and wouldn't dream of contradicting his Verdant Majesty. Apologies for the duff info -- I clearly mis-remembered that one.

It may be it has changed over time - I'm sure when I read it a while back that the guide suggested you send an outline and another script that you had previously done, but I might be mistaken.

In that case, I second the small press route: a bunch of quality stuff in print is probably a better way of demonstrating your talent to our Betelgeusian Overlord than cold submissions languishing in the mouldering foothills of the slushpile.

It is clear that it will take a bit of time before one ges a Future Shock published, so you might as well have fun making comics in the meantime. After all if you are too focused on getting into 2000 AD you are carving the Buttplug of Disappointment for yourself, from a lemon.

I seem to recall something in one of Tony Lee's last columns on Comics Bulletin which suggested Tharg wasn't accepting pitches at the moment.

From February:

the credit crunch has hit publishing. Diamond has raised its costs, and publishers left, right and centre are imploding. Even Top Cow had to let go one of their shiniest employees. And the publishing companies are becoming cautious, in some cases even over cautious.

2000 A.D., with whom I've written three, four stories with in 2008 are holding off now until at least Spring.

There is also a photograph of how the pitching process really works

http://www.comicsbulletin.com/hoaw/123303519142485.htm

[You should enclose a one-page synopsis along with your five-page script.]

One more thing to be aware of is that folks have been on Holidays recently. The command module isn't staffed by that many droids- so the amount of time available may be at a premium at the moment.

Also they have been making more effort on the comics conventions - preparing for San Diego, travel time, jet lag, etc. must really eat into that valuable comics making time and I think we'd all rather focus on that

If I do send another without hearing about the first, though, that's technically breaking the "no more than one submission at a time" rule.

I don't recall ever seeing such a thing written down ... can I ask where this "one submission at a time" rule comes from?

I think the idea is from the submissions page (and possibly some general advice on the forum:

HOW TO SUBMIT
You should enclose a one-page synopsis along with your five-page script. Because we receive so many submissions, we will usually only read the synopsis at first. Only if it engages our interest will we read the full script. Sorry, but that's the way has to be!

Always enclose a stamped, self addressed envelope, and await our response before sending further submissions.

Source - a cache of the original

I suppose what Tharg doesn't want is vast amounts to work through. If you submit one story at a time then you take your time, make it the best it can be and you give Tharg enough time to read it before the next one arrives and possibly head you off at the pass if you realy need to get more practice in before submitting again.

Tharg's ways are not to be questioned by mere Earthlets.

Or this ^^^

BUY FUTUREQUAKE....

..

BUY ZARJAZ & DOGBREATH!

Wot no Something Wicked?

I seem to recall something in one of Tony Lee's last columns on Comics Bulletin which suggested Tharg wasn't accepting pitches at the moment.

My guess would be that, given the financial situation, Tharg (wisely) decided to work through his drawer full of stories he has already paid for (it won't be anything like the frightening stories in TPO but might limit the number of new Future Shocks being accepted).

Also the credit crunch has probably got a few more people interested in pitching to Tharg and I wouldn't be surprised if there has been an increase in submissions making it more difficult for Tharg to work through the pile and/or send everyone a note if he isn't interested.

As has been said the best way is to keep on throwing ideas out and moving forward. I'm sure the fringes of the industry are filled with people still waiting to get their Big Idea accepted which will then be their springboard to further success.

The Lycian Peninsula on the The Turkish Rivera?You fly into Dalaman and stay at somewhere like Fethiye you can avoid the crowds of tourists (which you run into when you go round to the west coast) and get to potter along the coast which is crammed with beaches and ruins, take boats out to swim in ruins and then possibly venture inland if you like. Its all pretty compact with plenty to see an do - definitely worth popping over to Dalyan and visiting Kaunos for example. When I was a teenager the family visited Turkey three years on the run and this was the one that didn't involve a lot of travelling but there was still plenty to fill three weeks and I'm not one for beaches.

I'll double the challenge - make a collage of all them

Sweet Jesus!

So, to clarify, we must all now devote all our waking time to compiling lists of classic moments and lines from AFTER the first ten years, name all the references in Garth's tribute AND compile a collage of all those moments?

Not quite:

• Identify Ennis's best bits from the first decade and then make a collage of it
• Make another list of such moments from the New Wave (mid-1980s to mid-1990s)
• Ditto from the most recent decade

No copying and be sure to show your working.

Will it be negatively marked?

You are already.

What's the deadline?

I was going to say this time next week but really that is far to generous, so midnight Friday makes more sense.

Who's my personal tutor?   

You are you're own personal tutor - feel free to ask as many questions as you like.

I suppose the problem is those kinds of things stick in the mind from whatever the period was when you started reading. You'd need to find some newer readers to give their opinion but I'd imagine they are there. I am rubbish about such things but I'd imagine - got to be at least one or two Dante moments, Zombo's "Can I eat you?", Mary in Cradlegrave.

Also since Ennis only touched on the first 10 years then we can also pick some winners from when the new wave was frotting Tharg's organ like drunken Labradors: the twist at the end of Zenith perhaps, the entrance of Devlin Waugh (I also recall bring hi by the arrival of the Herod too as John Smith had done a great job of setting up how bad it was) and many more I'm sure.

As I say I'm not so hot on such things but I'm sure with a bit of thought they will turn up like the sweetcorn in our memory plops - you just have to poke them with a stick to set them loose (or a sieve - just don't put it back in the cupboard after or borrow someone else's).

C'mon then guys, let's see if we can name all the references:

I'll double the challenge - make a collage of all them

Unfortunately I don't think there are any...? I could be wrong....

There's certainly no Tyranny in the complete Indigo Prime book, which is a shame as the Soft Bodies story for a start featured Fervent and Lobe almost moreso than Tyranny herself. Maybe there was plans for a "Complete Tyranny Rex" at some stage but it hasn't materialised as of yet... Sorry about that. Your best bet is trying to track down some of the Best of 2000ad monthlys from yesteryear - there was at least one issue that was a Tyranny special and probably included all the early stories, excluding Deus Ex Machina most likely.

I was thinking about suggesting a Tyranny Rex volume (not sure if I posted about it now) and it is clear they had ideas to collect the run in a number of trade paperbacks:

http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=reprint&page=usprofiles&choice=trex01

That said I can't really remember the early stories but they had solid art and the revivial was well worth a read. I suppose I should break out the old progs and look them over and see what I think now.

What I thought was odd was "Old Pal's Act" in Prog 2000 - the last Judge Dredd in the issue, written by Alan Grant in which John Wagner gets killed in the bath (or something like that). The issue was also started by a Dredd from Wagner but I don't recall there being anything similar in it.

Weird. I did check around but must have missed it. Thanks for fixing it.