Roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour.

For those of you who didn't pay attention the first time around, the Comic Cup (founded by famed heroin addict skagg and now, in its second incarnation, being moderated by me) is an exciting new forum in which to test your hilarious-comic-writing skills. Unlike the popular and longstanding Comic Contest, the Comic Cup actually has losers, instead of just a whole lot of people who didn't win. It works like this: eight contestants square off in a seven-round single-elimination series. I, as the moderator, provide a list of rules for each round. Two contestants each create a comic that follows those rules. Our esteemed panel of judges, which consists of the six non-participating contestants, plus anyone else who wants to be a judge, cast votes for their preferred comic. The contestant who earns the most votes advances to the next round, while the loser is mocked openly. Whoever proves comedian enough to emerge victorious from the final battle wins widespread admiration and the right to moderate the next Comic Cup.

Sign yourself up while the signing's good. Only eight people may meet on the field of battle. As of this posting, we have five participants: ladyjdotnet, Spankling, crabby, wirthling, and gabe_billings. Join now, and reserve your chance to demonstrate that you're ten times as funny as all those jokers combined. Anyone who didn't participate in the last Cup gets first crack at a contestant position in this one. If you only want to be a judge, and not a competitor, that's fine, just say so.

I'm thinking up some rules now. We'll get things underway as soon as it seems reasonable. We might wait until the weekend's over in case some people only check the site from work, but if there's a good response before then, we could start sooner.

We need three more contestants and brackets then we can get this thing going.

*steps forward.* I'm your huckleberry! Count me in.

oh wtf, ill give it a try.

Looks like we got the last three contstants we need.

evil_d can get going on the brackets whenever he wants to get this thing started now.

Man you're impatient. Note that in the previous thread I said I was interested in being a judge, not a contestant. So that's at least one more person you need. And wirthling was leaning more toward the judge side, too.

ill be happy to lose, knowing i wont get jadyj's vote at all, even if i were to be against crappy

Gabe is right, if we can get enough contestants so that we can oblige those who said they'd prefer to be judges, we'll do that. Anyway, I'm not done thinking up the rules yet.

Participants, remember, you should be able to check the site and cast a vote on an average of once every two days, at least. If you know in advance of any time when you'll be away, say something and we'll be able to work around it.

*sniff* it brings a joyful tear to my eye to see my little baby being run so very well and proffessionally (sp)

I'm back, and will be happy to participate.

And just where the hell have you been?

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And just where the hell have you been?

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Okay, rather than have to make a judgment call about who should and shouldn't be a player this time, I'm going to call a halt to the signing-up process now that we have eight people who want to play.

The players are: LadyJ, Spankling, crabby, Drexle, NastyPope, descolada99, skagg, and kaufman.

Judging of each round will be carried out by the six non-participating contestants, plus wirthling, Gabe Billings, and myself. If anyone else wants to join as a judge during the contest, say so and we'll add you as soon as the current round finishes.

I'm drawing up a rule set and randomly generating the brackets now. I'll post the brackets and the rules for the first round shortly.

I vote for evil_d.

Already I'm questioning the merits of this judging system.

Here are the brackets:

Round 1: Drexle vs. skagg
Round 2: descolada99 vs. LadyJ
Round 3: NastyPope vs. Spankling
Round 4: crabby vs. kaufman

Round 5 will feature the winners of rounds 1 and 2; and Round 6 will feature the winners of rounds 3 and 4. I imagine LadyJ will be back from her convention in time for her match, but if not, we'll push it back until she is.

A general note about the rules: feel free to be as creative as you want within their constraints. To put it another way, anything not expressly forbidden is permitted. If you follow the letter but not the spirit, we're going to call that "ingenuity" rather than "bad faith".

Round 1: Drexle vs. skagg

1. All characters must be robots.

2. The strip must be an excerpt from a "reality" TV show of your own creation. You should probably explain the premise of the show in the strip.

3. The characters must discuss or refer directly to the background image, or some object therein. They don't have to specifically call it a background image (though they can), but, for example, if you use one of the ambulance pictures, and a character says "What are all these ambulances doing here?", then you're set.

You have 48 hours to post your comics. Good luck and may the best stripper win.

That round 6 between NastyPope and kaufman should be pretty funny.

Shyte.

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i should really have taken some time over this one, then maybe it wouldnt be such a sure thing that ill lose

Do I get to vote in the other rounds that I am not competing in?

Or do I just get to compete and thats that.

you get to shut up

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I wanted to use Clango, but he just didn't look right for what I had in mind.

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Do I get to vote in the other rounds that I am not competing in?

Or do I just get to compete and thats that.

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Though skagg gets bonus points for clever use of the splitter, I'm going cast my vote for Drexle. Two reasons: (1) Tobor breaking the fourth wall. (2) Gyno-bots.

another vote for Drexle

Remember that scene from Revenge of the Nerds where they're all playing poker and the Japanese guy says, "I sink I have frush." Then Booger says, "What the fuck is a frush?"

Well, what the fuck is a frape?

If only I could award skagg points for his wonderful dis toward crabby. But I can't. I'm gonna have to vote for Drexle.

I'm going to vote for Drexle and then have a frappe.

Buchanan

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Buchanan

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Well, five votes out of nine went to Drexle, so he's victorious. That was a quick round. That's good; we're trying to avoid the complaints about slowness that plagued the last Cup.

No word from LadyJ yet, so we'll skip ahead to...

Round 3: NastyPope vs. Spankling

1. The strip must take place in a video game. I mean a real video game, one that's been published and played and whatnot. You'll probably want to make this obvious. That might be as simple as putting the name of the game in the strip's title, or it might not.

2. The strip or one of its characters must make light of the (real or imagined) customs, laws, or traditions of some (real or imagined) country.

3. Counting the narration and left and right dialogue boxes for all three panels, there are a total of nine text boxes that could potentially be used in a strip. Your strip must use exactly five. Which five is up to you.

As before, good luck and please post your strip within 48 hours.

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The contestant who earns the most votes advances to the next round, while the loser is mocked openly.

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My vote goes to Drexle.

Oh wait it doesn't matter anymore.

In that case, I vote for crabby.

Not.

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I'm back from the con. Thank you for holding my match.

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Yes, as legend has it, Amazon warrior women used to cut off one breast so that it wouldn't impede their spear throwing or bowmanship.

Good ones ... I cast my vote for Spankling.

Holy crap! Oh man, I'll get back to you guys later... this is a tough choice.

Like kaufman said, both were good, but I have to give my vote to Spankling. Good use of Maura's expressions, intelligent reference to ancient Mediterranean culture, at least one point of humor in every panel, and he managed to make all three rules come together so seamlessly that I had to go back and check on what they were to make sure he got them all. Well done indeed.

the cat tampon swayed it for me

nastypope

i should have done a decent comic, then maybe id have gotten one vote

I'll go with NastyPope. Besides the creative use of felines and footwear, I also liked the title.

Sorry, Spankster, but I don't really know anything about Diablo, so I didn't get the 3rd panel...

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Sorry, Spankster, but I don't really know anything about Diablo, so I didn't get the 3rd panel...

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I know nothing about Diablo or The Sims, And even though I got the joke about eating corpses, I think I'm going to cast my vote for NastyPope. All other things being equal, twistedness sways my vote

I vote for myself. If I am not eligible to win, however, I'll vote for Spankling.

My vote goes to NastyPope.

My vote is for spankling.

Interesting... A 4 to 5 vote so far in favor of the Pope. I'm not sure what the supreme ruler will have to say about Big Evil Dave jumping into the judging without waiting until the end of the round to be over. I'd prefer that his vote be counted because then it makes mine more cutting edge and exciting.

Anyhoo, I'm voting for NP, so it doesn't really matter anyway. That last panel cracked me up, especially the Mittens the Cat reference. Ha! Cat tampons, what will they think of next?

I actually made this earlier today, knowing I would need it after the cat/tampooon entry.
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