OFFICIAL Top Cow Talent Hunt 2015 Discussion Thread

[Pauul]

I think we can assume, with each passing day, it's a little less likely that we've won.

However, no, I don't think it's impossible that it might take a few days to notify the winners.

Or maybe they'll notify the winners and then the runners up.

Don't forget, Matt and Ryan have other jobs too. Not just the Talent Hunt. Depending on what comes up, their focus might be elsewhere. It might take a little while to let folk know.

There is nothing wrong with preparing yourself to lose, even if you're still hoping to win.

Rejection is all a part of the process. You just need to come back fighting and do better next time.

As for posting your story, you can, it would be an excellent way to get feedback. But, you do need to weigh that against the possibility that you might be able to recycle elements of your script at a later date.

[Monkeypants]

Matt Hawkins on Twitter just said winners haven't been notified yet. We're still alive, people!

[omorales81]

You're the man, Monkeypants. Timely with the updates!

[JVillain]

I think we can assume, with each passing day, it's a little less likely that we've won.

However, no, I don't think it's impossible that it might take a few days to notify the winners.

Or maybe they'll notify the winners and then the runners up.

Don't forget, Matt and Ryan have other jobs too. Not just the Talent Hunt. Depending on what comes up, their focus might be elsewhere. It might take a little while to let folk know.

There is nothing wrong with preparing yourself to lose, even if you're still hoping to win.

Rejection is all a part of the process. You just need to come back fighting and do better next time.

As for posting your story, you can, it would be an excellent way to get feedback. But, you do need to weigh that against the possibility that you might be able to recycle elements of your script at a later date.

Matt and Ryan are extremely busy, they both handle their business and editorial duties as well as write, in the case of Matt he's up to 8 books I think. So Yeah,. Today I got two calls from a number in CA, both times the call dropped when I answered. Probably the same people that called me yesterday, but it was a different number. I couldn't be sure..so I tweeted Matt and asked if the winners have been notified, he said no, but for sure before the end of the week.

There are definitely some elements of my story that I can use later on, but most of it was specifically for Witchbladr, and specifically for the 13th Artiffact. It will be a long time before I circle back out to those ideas, I got so many projects that I'm working on and are in their baby stage, so when not entering this contest or doing sample pages looking for work, I gotta work on those.

[Franshux]

Well, winners have now been notified. I wasn't one of the, which saddens me, of course, but I'm more than eager to see who won! And, of course, congratulations to all of those who did!

[omorales81]

Yep, it's over now. Matt just sent out the regret e-mail like 5 minutes ago. This was fun! Look forward to next year. Good luck everyone!
- Omar
@TheCruZader on Twitter

[Monkeypants]

I didn't win either. Still a good experience, and I give Top Cow a ton of credit for even offering this opportunity, which is more than the other companies do. It's been fun. If we're allowed to post our script submissions somewhere, I'll definitely do that.

[Killscreen]

Gutted missed out again but it was great craic!! Anyways looking forward for feedback on my story from you guys, can anyone advise how to share?

[SaraKpn]

Didn't win either But I'll tell you one thing, I've never learned so much about drawing comics in my life! It has revealed very clearly what I need to practice and improve and that's exactly what I'm gonna do.
Thank you all, people at Top Cow and on this forum. At least now I have a clear picture of where I stand compared to others. I'm very grateful.

Count me in for next time!

[REINDEER]

Excuse me, do you know if the e-mail has been sent only to the winners? because I have not received anything...AGAIN!

[Michelle Wilko]

De-lurking to say well done everyone! We may not have won but it was a hell of an experience. Big thanks to Matt, Ryan and everyone at Top Cow. Bring on next year's contest!

REINDEER: There seems to have been some trouble with some people not receiving the "regrets" email. I got the re-sent version myself so maybe check your inbox again?

[neo_noir]

Well seems like I didn't win, had my hopes up but what can you do? But congrats to the winners and especially everyone who entered, art and writing is hard work, I'd like to think of this as a good learning exercise. Since I didn't win I guess I mind as well share my script. I think it turned out pretty well, given that I wrote it in like the span of like 2-3 days at the last moment. It was a nice simple self-contained story, trimmed it down a little to fit 22 pages, but it's actually probably better. Self criticism, aside from the few obvious spelling and grammatical errors I feel I could've simplified some of the pages I wrote, took out some unnecessary panels, maybe shift some panels to previous or next page, but I'm happy with it. Hope I was at least in those top 40 scripts, but I guess I'll never know unless I see Matt at a con or signing. Hope all you guys enjoy and I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks....

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ference....pdf

[RamblingBeachCat]

Rejected as well. This was a great experience, though.

Pros

- I 'discovered' Witchblade. I always knew the franchise existed, but was never that interested. The outward appearance made me think it would just be cheesecake stuff...and yes, Sara Pezzini is ridiculously good-looking. But as I researched issues for the project, I really started to dig how she was written. She's a character with clear agency, a nuanced personality, and very real/believable emotional scars that speak to her experiences. She's also funny, self-aware (especially of her 'assets'), and the exact type of person you'd want on your side when the shit hits the fan. The universe she lives in is also brilliantly rich (and wonderfully insane), as well. I'm still going to read/collect Witchblade after this, so that's a win I guess

- I learned A TON about the script writing process, especially when it comes to working with established properties. I'm not arrogant enough to say 'when I have a job with one of the major comic publishers one day,' but if that glorious day ever comes to pass, this competition will have helped a great deal.

- I mostly lurked here, but its been really great reading this thread. It offered great advice (PAAULL), inspiration, and even some laughs---especially as well all pissed our pants this last week waiting for results.

- I've been holding back on reviewing some great looking books at the website I write for (Adventures in Poor Taste) because of Matt and Ryan's involvement. Now I can hopefully jump on a few of the really good ones I've been hoping to cover like Postal and Tithe--at least for a while, anyway. Contrary to what you may hear, most of us comic reviewers would much rather write good reviews than bad ones

Cons

- Unlike a lot of writing projects, I can't really use these scripts for anything else beyond the experience they provided. I'm also very attached (probably a little too much) to one of my two entries. I want to hold it and kiss it and whisper 'I still love you, even if no one else will ever see how special you are to me.' Okay, that got weird....moving on...

- I really wish there was a procedure in place to get feedback, even if it was just to know who those top 40 entries were. I don't really get to go to cons, though I'm trying to get out to Heroes Con in Charlotte this summer finally.


Those are pretty minor things compared to the good stuff, though. It's also pretty cool that something like this exists, especially in this day and age when we can all share our ideas together online. I'm not sure how comfortable people would be with this, but now that the contest is over, it might be cool to share our scripts and workshop them with each other a bit.

Artists who have posted their pages...holy balls. As someone who struggles to draw stick figures, I have no idea how so many of ya'll just inside this thread can make pages that look so damn good. If anyone sucked I just wouldn't say anything, but I can honestly say that every single artist who posted in this thread can at the very least consider themselves talented individuals capabale of beautiful, professional quality work.

Thank you all for the keeping this thread going and congratulations to the winners. We'll all be cheering you when the names are officially announced...and totally not chomping at the bit to see your work so we can obsessively compare it to our own

[AJsAlterEgo]

Thanks to the team at Top Cow for the opportunity, and to CBR for hosting these and the other comic based threads. It was a learning experience, to be sure. Congratulations to the winners who will be announced, I look forward to reading their material next year. Here's to trying to be ineligible for next year! For those like myself who didn't win, don't stop trying. There are only so many closed doors.

[JVillain]

I tweeted it earlier, but again Thank you, Thank you to Matt, and Ryan, and the whole Top Cow team for putting this together, and giving the unknowns a chance, and a platform to show what we can do. Although I did not win, and I am disappointed, my resolve will not waver.This contest really lit a fire, I went from not having drawn or written anything in years to writing two scripts, almost 3, and now I'm working in other stuff. So I can't thank Top Cow enough for this.

I also want to thank every single one if you here, there was such a spirit of cooperation, and such a positive attitude,it was really refreshing. I can't wait to see who won. Congratulations to the winners. Good luck to everyone I can't wait to hear the names and congratulate you, I really hope they are someone from this thread.

I too want to believe either of my scripts was one of the 40 Matt mentioned in the email but who knows, Top Cow is not coming to any convention near me so I won't get to ask. I feel like knowing that itself would be a shot in the arm right? Like I'm on the right path. Anyways time to roll up them sleeves for next year