About two and a half years ago the very first ZUDA COMICS competition went live. The goal was to engage the community, bringing them into the editorial process in a way that had never been done; shifting the ability to green light a project from the publisher to the public.
Those of you familiar with the history of the competition know that we’ve had our ups and downs. While I don’t think anyone can argue with the quality of previous competition winners like HIGH MOON, SUPERTRON and others, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that there were clearly great series that, for one reason or another, didn’t win.
The format absolutely has merits; engaging the community and giving them real decision making power, giving creators a level of exposure that they might not have otherwise had and encouraging an ongoing dialogue about storytelling, quality and what makes good comics. However it’s also had its shortcomings; accusations of cheating, confusion about the process, spamming in the the name of promotion and argumentative, dismissive or even aggressive behavior.
Is there a better way to achieve the former without having to endure or encourage the latter? I think so. The comic industry needs a steady influx of new creators and new ideas. We should consistently explore the medium, looking for new ways to tell great stories. I think that if we, as a company, are committed to those goals we would be foolish not to pursue them.
However, from this point forward, we wont be using the competition format to do it.
In the next few weeks you’ll notice some changes to the site as we eliminate the competition and retool the submissions section. We’ll do our best to keep you updated through our blog, our Twitter and Facebook page; however, if you come across something buggy please leave a comment or send us feedback and let us know.
I’d like to take an extra minute to personally thank everyone that’s ever been in a ZUDA COMICS competition. It takes an amazing amount of passion, dedication and effort to run that particular and often peculiar gauntlet. If you’ve got any specific questions please feel free to reach out to me via email or on my personal Twitter.