The End of the Year and the 30 Second Recap Contest!

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It’s New Year’s Eve, and here at the ISB, that can mean only one thing: It’s time for my annual Winter vacation!

2009 has been a strange and wonderful beast for me, and now I’m shuttering up the blog for a week, but I’ll be back on January 6th to celebrate the holy crap FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of the Invincible Super-Blog. In the meantime, if you’re desperate for more Sims content, I’ll probably have things popping up here and there on ComicsAlliance and Heavy.com, and of course I’ll still be bopping around on the Twitter.

And if that’s not enough, the end of the year means it’s time once again for…

 

THE FOURTH ANNUAL 30 SECOND RECAP CONTEST!

 

Yes, it’s that time of year when I flip the script and demand that you generate content for my amusement!

Here’s how it works: Pick a comic story–any comic story, it doesn’t have to be from this year–and do a condensed version in the style of the 30 Second Recap posts I’ve done for stuff like Infinite Crisis, Civil War, Secret Invasion, and of course, Bring It On! Then just post it on your own blog, website, Flickr account LiveJournal or whatever and leave a comment on this post telling folks how to find it. Entries must be done and submitted by 11:59 Eastern time on January 5 (Tuesday night).

I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday and the winner will get a “Fabulous” Prize Package consisting of… well, probably just stuff I’ve got lying around, but at the very least you’ll get a terrible drawing from me and signed (by me) copies of Resurrection #8 and Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N. #1.

 

THE RULES

 

1. 1. Artwise, your entry doesn’t have to look good, because lord knows mine don’t. It won’t hurt if it looks nice, but shoddy art is both accepted and encouraged. Along the same lines, you don’t necessarily have to use crayons (MS Paint has a similar effect), but you have to draw your entry yourself.

2. For lettering, you can do it by hand if you can write legibly, but feel free to head over to Blambot and use one of their free comic book lettering fonts! As always the use of Comic Sans will result in an immediate disqualification.

3. Entries have a maximum of ten panels. Get it done quickly.

4. One entry per person.

5. If you post your entry somewhere other than a blog or website make sure there is some way for me to contact you. Otherwise, I’ll have to move down to the next place to send them your potential prizes.

6. Content is up to you: Despite me calling it the year-end recap contest, your subject does not have to be a story from this year. The only restriction is that it can’t be a story that hasn’t finished yet. By the nature of the contest, spoilers are par for the course, so if you’re planning on spectating this year, take that into account. Also, my definition of “a comic book story” is pretty vague, you can do anything from one issue to the entire history of the DC Universe (which has been done), but it has to be a comic. So if you were thinking of adapting a highly successful series of vampire novels that I’ve been liveblogging on Twitter…

 

 

…that’s a no-go. Otherwise, go nuts.

And that’s it! If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out the previous contests, 2008, 2007 and 2006, and I’ll see you in 2010!

65 thoughts on “The End of the Year and the 30 Second Recap Contest!”

  1. I need to post a link to this to the Twilight fan group on Facebook. That couldn’t possibly end badly.

  7. Unrelated to this, but did you know about this book:

    I really need to get some balloons and confetti for the one millionth person to give me that link.

    (AW BUT I KID MY CONCERNED ALERT READERS!)

  8. . . . and I’m back to feeling inadequate about my own skills. On the bright side, a fatal gunshot wound can be replicated with MS Paint airbrushing. Lucky for me.

  10. Jason, you have seen mine, right? My entry is definitely not one that should make other people feel inadequate. Bear in mind that I was not trying to do a Picasso homage with my use of perspective.

    You know, unless Chris really likes Picasso homages in which case it was totally intentional.

  11. Can those of us without blogs or Flickr accounts still e-mail entries like in the past?

  12. Just Some Guy . . . I just like to feel inadequate. Right now, I’ve gotten three panels done, and I’m hoping for honorable mention. But your entry? That’s a high bar to set.

  13. Can those of us without blogs or Flickr accounts still e-mail entries like in the past?

    I’d prefer it if you put ’em up somewhere and link in the comments, as it’s easier for me to keep track and I’m worried about leaving someone out. Flickr’s free, son!

  22. Done. Had to recycle some material, junk a scene with Wonder Woman bitching about her new wardrobe, and you’ll have to click the first two images for the full effect, but I think I did a good job.

  23. Oh, and in the fifth panel? I didn’t know how to junk the white frame around the pictures, so it looks like the fist (for lack of a better term) is detached. Please suspend your imagination on that.

  25. @Ephraim:

    Brilliant! Also, my longing for the banned Rick Veitch “Swamp Thing meets Jesus” issue is lessened considerably.

  30. This is one of my favorite New Year’s traditions! Also, your drawings are improving.

  33. Nice work, Ross. I hated that storyline . . . it was gratuitously Hal-centric and Kyle came off as a putz. Also, are we the only ones to remember Kyle’s Corps? They actually had a write-up in a Secret Files issue, and nobody went back to them again.

    Damn, it looks like we all got Hal on the brain.

  35. Jason-I hear that! It’s like Ron Marz was channeling the future ghost of Geoff Johns for those issues, having just enough control to make Kyle all whiny.

    “Damn, it looks like we all got Hal on the brain.”

    Everyone wants a piece of the Jordanmeister lately. Even Sinestro’s starting to think he’d look good in yellow.

  38. adam ford, that was awesome. I loves me some Beta Ray Bill, and that Gidhunter storyline didn’t make any sense, until now. Kudos.

  51. PJ, sincerely, if I had thought to do a poop joke, I could have put away the crayons and watched football all weekend like a normal person. You crushed me, dogg.

  53. Michelle . . . first up, you gotta post more often on your blog. You make me look like . . . well, Sims. Secondly, very nice use of Blackest Night. Damian is a cute hellion, isn’t he?

  58. I didn’t get a chance to whip up an entry this year, but I’m really enjoying the ones listed here. Really great work.

  59. Tim C’s Nick Fury is just wonderful. And I love Johnathan’s Man-Bat with a cowl on his head (as well as the rest of his Battle For the Cowl entry).

  63. TimC always delivers but he Steranked it up this year for reals.

    All in all, more entries cracked me up this time than the years before, regardless of skill or time spent.

    I’m particularly glad Max Huffman didn’t participate. It seems everything that kid does is pure gold. (and he’s just a kid, yo!)

    Also, I will never forgive myself for 1.Spelling Reed Richards name wrong and 2.Forgetting to draw the mouth fire when Godzilla is in the past. Opps.

  64. @SKleefeld: Heh. Personally, I just shut out the Twilight noise and had a good CCI. Ran myself ragged, but I had a good time.

    @Michael: You can’t drive yourself crazy over mistakes. Right now, I’m kicking myself for the lopsided dimensions of my panels and for the minimum of two mistakes I made. And yet, I still feel like I have a shot at winning.