What is a "comic tournament"?
The comic tournament is a collaborative game dating back as early as 2006, where artists depict their original characters in competition with one another in the form of a comic.
How does this work, exactly?
You declare your interest to enter into the tournament by submitting a drawing and short description of your original character. Participants are randomly seeded into pairs on a tournament bracket, and face off against their opponent in an exchange of comics.
Each match between players begins with them deciding who goes first. That player will draw a comic that kicks off the match's narrative, and the other player will respond with their own comic. The first player will get another turn, then the second player will respond with a final comic to finish the match.
How is the winner decided?
After each match in a round, the community votes on which artist's comics were the best. The winner moves on to the next round, competing against other winners. In general, comics are judged on their overall quality, and not solely on art, jokes, or length alone.
How long does this take?
Historically, you'd have 3-5 days to decide who goes first, and for that player to post their first comic. After that, each participant would have 3-5 days to respond. This means that in theory, a match could take about a week but could also be as fast as each player is willing to go. After that, the match's poll would remain open for at least two days to make sure people have time to vote. This can be longer if the match is one of the first to finish.
In some circumstances, extensions would be offered to players that request it. This would be more likely to happen if they had a good excuse, or if they're not completely missing. We didn't want strict time limits to be a reason why interested people are unable to compete, but we also wanted to keep the action moving.
Nowadays, we understand that our participants are all old and busy with lives to live. So, mdoern tournaments are much more laid back and take a lot more time, as long as participants are engaging in good faith.
Will there be a prize?
Yes, the competition typically awards a prize to the top four finishers. Also, once the tournament is over, we vote on side categories like Best Comic Panel, Best Character, and others.
Prizes for Comic Tournament 2022 are:
Consolation Prize (all participants)
Semifinalist Prize (participated in round two)
Finalist Prize (participated in final round)
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Prize (participated in round two)
What format should comics take?
You can use any tools you'd like. We've had people draw comics by hand, incorporate stock photos or photographs they've taken, paint with watercolor... most often, people use MS-Paint or a program like Photoshop.
The comic entries themselves can be any length. Longer isn't necessarily better, but it might look lazy to submit a single panel as your turn. You can think of your entry like a series of panels stacked on top of one another, like a bunch of individual comic strips, or more like a comic book with panels of varied number and sizes. For examples, look at some of our past tournaments below.
Where does the tournament take place?
Historically, tournaments have been hosted on our forum. This time, we're going to be holding on Discord:
Here is a link to the Comic Tournament Discord server
How do I enter?
Right now, we are (still) finishing the Comic Tournament 2022 and are not looking for participants. However, feel free to participate by joining the Discord server! Instructions will be there, as well as more news on past, present, and future tournaments.Generally, comics should be rated on three criteria: humor, art, and creativity. No winner has ever been decided on one of these things alone. If you lack one, you can always make it up elsewhere.
Humor: is the comic funny? Jokes can be high-brow, low-brow, crude, offensive, absurd, a pun, a reference, or anything between. Comics usually have humor in some form.
Art: is the comic nice, aesthetically? You don't have to be a real artist to participate, but you should be able to draw in some form or else it'll be hard to tell what's even going on.
Creativity: how did you handle the situations you were put in? Did you put your opponent in situations that challenged their creativity? Drawing a comic where your character punches the other character a lot is neither interesting or creative. You might think of a match as a game of tennis, where you want to serve the ball creatively so that your opponent has to respond creatively.
Here are some rules and general guidelines for participating in the comic tournament:
1. When not going first, your comic should be a continuation of the narrative set by your opponent. You should also try to keep up with previous rounds to maintain continuity across all matches, if you can. You don't have to follow the same thread, but a character's story should make some sense from the start of the tournament all the way to the finish.
2. You can't outright kill your opponent. This will make it hard for them to respond, which is unfair.
3. Pandering for votes by putting in other people's characters is lame. Same goes for stale memes, inside jokes, or otherwise.
4. Do your best to have fun! Comics can be entertaining whether or not they're well drawn, jokey, or otherwise. We want good comics, but don't let shoddy art or a short comic be the enemy of your enjoyment when making them.
5. Part of the fun is coming up with a clever, interesting, or funny character in your own artstyle, and being able to see how other players take them in their own artstyle.
In short: the comic tournament is really just a way to play off of other artists on an evolving narrative, with the incentive of a win for the one who does it best.
2022
Entrants
(click on an entrant to see their full description)
(click here for bracket)
Round 1
Match 1: Frank vs Handson,Match 2: 2Lit vs MacDoug, the Stick Bug P.I.,
Match 3: Fed-Up-Girl vs Colon Mockery,
Match 4: The Gaylien vs Melt-O,
Round 2
Match 1: Handson vs 2Lit,Match 2: Fed-Up-Girl vs Melt-O,
Round 3
Match 1: Handson vs 2Lit vs Fed-Up-Girl,Back to top
2019
Entrants
(click on an entrant to see their full description)
Back to top
2015
Entrants
(click on an entrant to see their full description)
(click here for bracket)
Round 1
Match 1: Kim Jong-un vs Ahura Mazda,Match 2: Candy/Conspiracy Joe vs Julio, the Time-Traveling Mexican,
Match 3: Archmage Mimic vs Reginald Monterey Houndstooth III,
Match 4: Vasilii vs Ken Trucky,
Match 5: Sank Heghor vs Undead Bill Shakespeare,
Match 6: Donut Steel vs Dunno Duck,
Match 7: Capitan Mexico vs Roy, the Shitvincible,
& Muhammad gets a bye.
Round 2
Match 1: Muhammad vs Ahura Mazda,Match 2: Julio, the Time-Traveling Mexican vs Reginald Monterey Houndstooth III,
Match 3: Ken Trucky vs Sank Heghor,
Match 4: Dunno Duck vs Roy, the Shitvincible
Round 3
Match 1: Ahura Mazda vs Julio, the Time Traveling Mexican,Match 2: Sank Heghor vs Roy, the Shitvincible
Round 4
Match 1: Sank Heghor vs Julio, the Time-Traveling MexicanBack to top
2012
Entrants
(click on an entrant to see their full description)
Round 1
Match 1: Doovoo vs Butcher Bear,Match 2: Wizard Man vs Taitosis Boy,
Match 3: Dreamcatcher vs Stokoe, the Runaway King,
Match 4: Cpt. Snappy Briches 'n L vs The Siren,
Match 5: Tino Tuff vs Sprinkles,
Match 6: Dahl vs Sexy Pineapple,
Match 7: Fantome vs Richard "Iron Dick" Nixon, P.I.,
Match 8: Eliot Spinner vs Clockface
Match 9: Dorian Cross vs Richard Rooster
Round 2
Match 1: Doovoo vs Wizard Man,Match 2: Dreamcatcher vs Cpt. Snappy Briches 'n L,
Match 3: Tino Tuff vs Dahl,
Match 4: Sexy Pineapple vs Fantome
Match 5: Clockface vs Richard Rooster
Round 3
Match 1: Dreamcatcher vs Dahl,Match 2: Fantome vs Clockface
& Wizard Man gets a bye.
Round 4
Match 1: Wizard Man vs FantomeBack to top