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On 11. and 12. May (that’s Thursday and Friday next week), Dupuis and la Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image (“The International City of Comics and Illustration Art”) cultural center in Angoulême will arrange a Spirou comic challenge, where participants from all over the world are invited to create a 24-page Spirou comic (22 pages + front and back covers) in 24 hours.
From the announcement:
24-hour comic challenge: Special Spirou & Fantasio edition!
Have you heard of the 24-hour comic challenge? It’s a challenge, a race and a game where participants make a 24-page comic album, including covers, within a 24-hour deadline, according to some constraint revealed at the start of the event.
Traditionally, la Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image organizes one of these events every year at the end of January, as part of the Angoulême International Comics Festival.
This year, on 11. and 12. May, there’s another 24 hours with Spirou and Fantasio! La Cité and Dupuis Publishing invites professional comic artists, students and amateurs to take up a challenge: create an original Spirou & Fantasio adventure under a constraint that will be revealed on 11. May at 15:00…
This special edition of the challenge takes place in Angoulême, where invited artists will be received at the maison des auteurs (“Authors’ House”), and remotely in France and abroad through the Internet. The pages will be put online on this dedicated web site.
Professionals, amateurs and students may register up until midnight, 9. May 2017.
The graphic for this edition of the challenge is drawn by Lewis Trondheim, sponsor of the event.
There is also a page with more detailed rules, explaining among other things that participants will have the opportunity to upload their pages in real time, or even live-stream their work. The total number of participants is limited to 400 (and potentially to 150 per category), so it is best to register sooner rather than later. Collaborations are permitted, but must be declared on registration. No minors (presumably below 18 years of age) may participate. For the student and amateur categories, two sample pages of the artist’s work (comics, not simply illustrations) must be included with the application.
Importantly, while other characters from the Spirou universe may appear in the comic entries, those that are original to Fournier (in particular Ororéa, Itoh Kato, and the Ankou) are excluded. Entries that break this rule (or otherwise represent the Spirou characters in an unacceptable manner) will be deleted, and the participants’ accounts blocked.
The work remains the intellectual property of the participants, but the organizers of the challenge have a one-year license to use it in PR material (leaflets, etc.) and online. Dupuis retains all copyright to the Spirou characters and universe, and the resulting comics may therefore not be sold or otherwise distributed without the publisher’s authorization.
There’s no mention of any prizes or ranking of the entries: this seems to be something to do purely for the fun of it (and potentially for publicity).
Oui!!!!!
Ooooh this sounds exciting, I’ll have to join up for this (I hope they accept submissions in English unless I can translate 22 pages into French)