Mark Millar looking for 2 or 3 page stories

[Emperor]

I don't understand " The Loop". Sorry, maybe I'm dim. In Mark's words "Short, clever, cinematic sci fi that's easy to follow for mainstream readers and preferably with a good twist at the end. It's hard to do, but when it works-- as these do-- it looks great". Just don't see how this applies to The Loop. Can anybody offer an explanation to the dunderheads amongst us please!!!

I've been pondering that one since it was first submitted and I have absolutely no explanation.

[johnnystress]

I dont get "The Loop" either

'Fortress' appears to have lost something in translation..that dialogue is very odd altogether. Beautifully drawn though.

[Peter Wolf]

The Loop doesnt make much sense to me either apart from it being some kind of cycle and its more like a cartoon than a strip and i dont get on with those kind of stories without words type things.Its like The Loop artist is trying to be cryptic or enigmatic and as a reader i dont appreciate that very much but i dont class myself as dim particularly.

[Emperor]

i dont appreciate that very much but i dont class myself as dim particularly.

Just for the record: I'm dead smart, me.

Best I can get is: pigs will fly, and do a poo, from which two armless men grow, then one of them grows down into the ground and up again (while his friend shakes) where he eats the man and they give birth to a flying pig. It then asks if we want to "play again?" At first I wondered if each panel represented a word that made some sentence - the man on the bench has a halo so.... "saint", flying pigs are "impossible", it does a poo "crap", that grows two men "sprout", who are armless "harmless" at which point I gave up.

My best guess: We are overthinking it, a lot I hope so, because otherwise it'd mean we are overlooking something obvious (which I do so often I might as well trade mark it).

Perhaps it is an allegory for the stupidity and meaningless of our life on this ball of mud? Stuff I don't "get" usually is

I await House of Usher's explanation of what is going on, followed by a quick round of "D'oh"s.

[Peter Wolf]

i dont appreciate that very much but i dont class myself as dim particularly.

Just for the record: I'm dead smart, me.

Best I can get is: pigs will fly, and do a poo, from which two armless men grow, then one of them grows down into the ground and up again (while his friend shakes) where he eats the man and they give birth to a flying pig. It then asks if we want to "play again?" At first I wondered if each panel represented a word that made some sentence - the man on the bench has a halo so.... "saint", flying pigs are "impossible", it does a poo "crap", that grows two men "sprout", who are armless "harmless" at which point I gave up.

My best guess: We are overthinking it, a lot I hope so, because otherwise it'd mean we are overlooking something obvious (which I do so often I might as well trade mark it).

Perhaps it is an allegory for the stupidity and meaningless of our life on this ball of mud? Stuff I don't "get" usually is

I await House of Usher's explanation of what is going on, followed by a quick round of "D'oh"s.

Your summary seems to be about it and like you did you interpret the strip literally and then think "So What ?" which is what i thought about it.So in a way the strip isnt saying anything to you that means anything at all and you could just do the same thing with any kind of absurd scenario.It does make you think about what you are reading but in the wrong way because if you read it and then think WTF was all that about ?? then its really a waste of time and its a failure of the creator of the work to get their point across to the reader.

Utter rubbish.



The other winners dont interest me in any way either.

[Colin_YNWA]

I think 'Loop' is a riff on relgion and pigs will fly? I often read too much into these things mind?

Anyway one I missed

[johnnystress]

very nice

[Emperor]

Indeed - of the picks this is my favourite one.

[Van Dom]

That is good.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I far prefer the Diner one. Not saying it's bad, it's not, but I just thought the Diner was neater. D'frent strokes for d'frent folks and all that.

[Emperor]

One thing that struck me was the very... Continental feel to the stories both in the art but also the colour schemes (I also got a little John Higgins vibe from a couple of them) and it is interesting that 2 of the stories are from Italian comics creators:

www.bleedingcool.com/2010/07/01/newcomer-shorts-announced-for-clint-magazine/

So from my analysis so far the keys to success are: drawing your own story, decompressing the snot out of it, treat the Future Shock specification as misdirection (as is the need for 1 and 2 pagers apparently) and move to mainland Europe. Simple really with hindsight, easy to say now as I buggered it up on all fronts (sorry to Kev and Jim for dragging you down with me.

[Van Dom]

Hmmmm...Interesting analysis there Emps. But I wouldn't be apologising, that was a damn fine strip you, Kev and Jim put together there, nice piece of work to have in your respective portfolios, so no wasted effort by anyone.

Funnily enough, I have a 4 page script here that has shades of both "Diner" AND "Treasure" in it, and as such would probably stand more of a chance. You'd think. But who knows? I just wish to fuck I could draw, as it is quite tough trying to track down available artists who can work on these things!

Still, on the slim chance that an artist does happen to stumble across this at some point, and that artist is interesting in trying out for the 2nd round of selections for CLiNT (if it even gets that far), by all means drop me a line and we can have a chat about it.

[Emperor]

Interview with Stephen Baskerville:

www.bleedingcool.com/2010/07/04/stephen-baskerville-on-working-for-clint-magazine/

[Emperor]

One thing that struck me was the very... Continental feel to the stories both in the art but also the colour schemes (I also got a little John Higgins vibe from a couple of them) and it is interesting that 2 of the stories are from Italian comics creators:

www.bleedingcool.com/2010/07/01/newcomer-shorts-announced-for-clint-magazine/

In the comments I asked if anyone could explain "Loop" the best anyone has come up with is that it a whimsical looping story that doesn't mean anything. While I suspect they are right, its not... satisfactory on a number of levels.

Also something I slightly overlooked - the idea of using these shorter story slots to bring new British talent on board a new British comic has rather fallen at the first fence.

[Van Dom]

Yes.

The whole thing was a bit strange really. Going from 1 page to 2 page to 3 page to 4
page, asking for Future Shock style stories when he didn't actually want Future Shock style stories, saying he was on the look out for NEW British talent and then selecting mostly already-published international comic creators... Hmmmmm!!!!!!!

Oh well!

Still looking forward to the magazine and hoping it does well for the sake of the comics industry, which badly needs it.

And no, I still don't understand Loop either.!