The fine folks over at The Cartoonist Studio have announced a third “So Ya Wanna Be A Cartoonist” contest. The 10-week contest is slated to launch by February 11. The contest prize has a financial award to the winner and a chance to be mentored by professional cartoonist in the studio who will also help develop your cartoon strip and help in the navigation of getting it in front of syndicates.
Watch www.thecartooniststudio.com for details or follow them on Twitter.
It’s great that they’re doing this contest again and having a professional mentor guide the winner to the ultimate goal of syndication.
I don’t want to seem ungrateful but I am a little let down by the fact that the top prize is not a development deal with a major syndicate as it has been the previous two years.
As an amateur struggling for years, it was another avenue of hope to land that contract.
Still, having a contest of this nature does a great service to the community of amateur cartoonists out there, giving us all another reason to sharpen our skills and create the best material we can.
Have any winners of these “win a contract” contests ever wind up syndicated?
@Jon Carter
There was no development contract last year, only the promise of a Cartoonist Studio e-book deal and some Watterson/Larson book collections. I don’t think there was any development deal for the first contest either. I understand. They don’t want to commit to a development deal because the talent might not show up, but the big deal prize potential will always be there. But it’s not guaranteed and it’s unstated.
I like the new changes: Cash prize, two contests (panels & strips), and a mentor.
^ Dan Beyer won the first contest. His excellent single panel comic strip ‘Long Story Short’ is in development with Creators Syndicate.
http://www.creators.com/comics/long-story-short.html
Hey Justin:
Maybe I misunderstood, Justin, but it seemed that Creators was the syndicate offering a deal with the first contest, and Daniel Beyer won that contest and is in development with them.
Last year it was Universal Uclick and the feature “Nothing is not Something,” by Greg Wallace won that one, and he is currently signed with GoComics/Universal.
I think the Watterson/Larson books were a runner-up prize. They also had a runner-up prize the first year.
But like you said the potential is there. The first year I know Nate Fakes (Break of Day) made it to week 9 or 10 and was eliminated, but got a deal with Universal Uclick a few months later.
I too like the fact that they have split categories for strips and panels.