Years Go By
Sometimes things pop into your head out of nowhere; for example, last night I suddenly and inexplicably found myself wondering, How’s that Iron Man thing going? Time, flies, arrow, banana, etc.
- For those youngsters out there, The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge is one of the enduring traditions of webcomics; launched nearly a full year before this here blog, it sought to answer the question How long can a webcomic creator go without missing a regular update? Those looking for bragging rights ponied up an entrance fee of US$20, and last creator standing gets the pot, minus contributions to the CBLDF and the HERO Initiative (originally the ACTOR Comic Fund). 56 creators entered (including such longrunners as Jennie Breeden, Chris Cosby, and Scott Kurtz, as well as superstars like Natasha Allegri).
Three (maybe four; there was a question about 18 months back about a possible disqualification that doesn’t seem to have been resolved) competitors — including Brad Guigar, who doesn’t even look like his official competitor portrait anymore¹ — remain in the running, more than five hundred weeks and 2500 updates² after the start of the competition. I’d ordinarily suggest maybe the remaining three (four?) Iron Men declare a mutual satisfaction and walk away splitting the money, but anybody that’s managed a minimum of five updates a week with no skips for almost ten years (mark your calendars for the week of 9 February, it’s gonna be awesome) isn’t going to take split the pot like gentlemen as an option.
- Never part of the TDGIMC (as near as I can tell), Ryan Estrada nevertheless has reason to contemplate the passage of years today, as it’s his birthday. I note that his latest creative endeavour — Poorcraft: Wish You Were Here — has passed the two-thirds funding mark over on Kickstarter. Maybe we get there by the start of next week, Spike reveals some of the (as yet secret) stretch goals? Yeah, it’s a little shameless, launching a Kickstart the same week two of the principals have birthdays, thus making it easier to prey on your emotions. That’s life in webcomics, and neither Estrada nor Spike are above using every trick at their disposal to make a project succeed. May as well give ’em the five bucks, they’ll wear you down eventually anyway³.
Spam of the day:
Following that, the President and Prime Minister joined the First Lady and Vice President in a St Patrick’s Day Reception at the White House for the one year anniversary of vintage shop Byronesque
I must be tired — I read that as the vintage shop Bronyesque and then I shuddered.
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¹ Brad, update your competitor’s bio picture, please. You’re so much more handsome than you were. Then again, a Google Image Search for “similar pictures” lists a portrait of Jack Kirby as the first match so maybe just keep it? Then again, when you search for “Brad Guigar on GIS, you don’t see that Kirbyesque bit, but you do see pictures like this, to which I can only say Yowza.
² For reference, I wrote about the competitors reaching 200 weeks and 1000 updates in 2008.
³ All hail our new international leaders.
Huh, no Howard Tayler. Did they just want the contest to be fair, so he wasn’t included?
By Lurkerwithout on 11.20.14 8:07 pm
Howard didn’t throw his $20 in.
By Alice on 11.20.14 9:00 pm
Going through that list is like revisiting comics livejournal friend pages circa 2005-2006 (roughly) (almost) (okay, there are some notable exceptions).
And, weirdly, I thought Ryan Estrada had been a participant. Maybe in that other one? There was another one, but I don’t think it lasted as long.
By André on 11.21.14 11:38 am
There was one, but it was far less official – basically a friendly bet between two or three members of the old Crown Commission comics board. As I remember it, Brian Fukushima and Les McClaine were two of the participants – there may have been one or two more. It lasted only a few months at best and everybody thought it would be a great idea to try it again and let anyone who wanted to get in on the action. Something I’m sure the judges now greatly regret…
-Jeff Skinner (#5 loser, DGIMC)
By Jeff Skinner on 11.24.14 2:51 am
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