Wiley Miller and Universal Uclick are holding a caption contest of sorts with today’s Non Sequitur. The familiar reader board in Wiley’s strip is left blank inviting fans to submit their best punch line which will be whittled down to four by Wiley. The remaining four contestants will then be selected by goComic.com readers. The strip will re-run on December 21. The winner will receive an autographed original cartoon as well as a life-size re-creation of the sandwich board.
Uh oh, has Wiley finally succumbed to a case of Web 2.0-itis?
He’s always been a vocal opponent of newspaper comic polls, rightly arguing that editors should just do their job. Then he was an opponent of Comic Strip Superstar, a talent competition where Joe Reader (i.e., the general public) had their say.
Now he’s asking for Joe Reader to do his job??
I’m flabbergasted 🙂
Admit it, Mike, you’ve already sent in your entry, haven’t you?
I agree with Mike, this seems really out of character. I hope Scott Kurtz wins.
Re-running a strip? Can they do that?
A caption contest where the readers vote on the entry, and the winner gets the original cartoon. I wish I had thought of that.
What would I do with a life sized recreation of the sandwich board? Other than maybe wearing it and walk up and down the street ringing a bell, “I won the caption contest! Bring out your dead!”
My thoughts exactly Mike, but then again this is a audience participation thing, not voting on replacing (or keeping) a strip … although having a voting aspect seems really suspect! 😉
Wiley and I have actually made peace and talk quite politely to each other via email from time to time. I have to admit that the cartoon above actually made me chuckle. There are kittens in the window and a bear with a meat cleaver in the doorway. That’s pretty dark for a syndicated strip. I approve.
I agree with Garey, why would you need the sandwich board? Would you try to recreate the rest of the scene on your own. The punchline out of context makes no sense as a prize.
If you hung the sandwich board on the living room wall it would be a great conversation-starter.
“But what does it MEAN?”
“Two kittens walk into a deli…”
After re-reading my initial comment, it sounds a little more malicious than originally intended.
I have nothing but the upmost respect for what syndicated cartoonists like Wiley do on a daily basis to produce a marketable comic strip.
What I should have done is simply congratulated Wiley for EMBRACING Web 2.0, instead of suggesting that he contracted something from too much exposure to the webcomics community 🙂
I’m wondering if the phrase ” … and win prizes, fame and glory BELOW your wildest dreams …” was intended?
Anything that can connect you with Comics Fans and create a “Buzz” about your strip should be looked at as a positive. TUNDRA creator Chad Carpenter has been doing this for a long time. He sprinkles in a ‘toon every so often from submissions he gets from fans and makes them famous for a day. Using audience participation to develop a bigger Fan base…now that’s radical thinking! :O)
Richard, I think that’s right on the mark. Tundra does that very well! That’s why this is really a different issue than voting on a strip (for the most part). Still, I think it would be better for Wiley to just pick the winner … but I guess the other way gets more folks involved and less pointing the finger back at you. 😉
Just Maybe someone isn’t really watching
but is looking within
but should be looking out
ME, I really do not perceive
anyone winning, but
instead
LOSING ONES IDENTITY
(: + 🙂
ON THIS SANDWICH BOARD
SO, HEREFORE IS MY IDEA
OF THE ULTIMATE ANSWER;
is there any life within
these pages for these reading
lines of quip, who might
just give a crap why they are written?
food for thought
No, audience voting is good if you want to gauge actual interest by fans, but I agree with you that the final decision should be cast by Wiley. (We don’t want the let down associated with American Idol no do we?) :O) In some respects he is making the selection, because he picks the four he likes the most and the audience only gets to vote on those, so he really is controlling the direction of the caption contest.
PS. Not sure what “John” is going on about, but I’m going to re-read his comment a few more times to see if I can decipher the hidden meaning. He’s a real “Dan Brown” that guy! :O)