DAVID GALLAHER ON WINNING THE FIRST ZUDA CONEST

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

So, the first round of Zuda Comics, DC Comics’ one-month old digital imprint which was first announced back in July, is over.

And the winner goes to the High Moon team of writer David Gallaher, artist Steve Ellis and letterer Scott O. Brown.

As for how the voting system worked, DC Comics Director of Creative Services Ron Perazza posted on the Zuda Comics blog on November 15 that “the exact “formula” is secret.”

Later, he came on board again and laid out the process further. “Votes - are entirely invisible. We don't display the number of votes that any series gets or which users voted for which series. Only you can see who you cast your vote for.

”The other ways we have to evaluate a comic - the conversations you have in the comments section, the rating, which comics you declare as your favorites and even just how often you view or read a comic - all count to some degree toward determining the Rank.

”So, when we display the Rank, you're seeing all of these things together to show who is in first place, second place, third, and so on and so forth in the overall competition and not just the vote result or just the favorite result or some other single indicator. A particular comic may have been read more than another, but may have a lower average rating. Or a comic may be higher rated, but for some reason people just aren't voting for it. There are lots of possible variables. We're looking at all of the ways people interact with the comic in order to determine the Rank

”Make sense?”

So, other than Jeremy Love’s Bayou, which was Zuda Comics’ first “instant winner”, and High Moon, it is entirely up to Zuda Comics website members to vote for the next round of winners.

Almost all of the first batch of contestants were featured on Newsarama days after the launch of Round 1 on 30 October.

With the next batch of competitors are expected to be announced/revealed later today, we thought it would be fitting to track down the winners of the first round of competition and find out what’s in store for fans of High Moon in the coming months.

Presenting David Gallaher and Steve Ellis, winners of Zuda Comics Round 1…

“After a long nap, the next step is finishing the first arc of High Moon,” Gallaher told Newsarama shortly after the announcement was made on Friday. “The stories and mythology that Steve and I have planned out is pretty darn nifty. Readers will be able to follow us on Zuda, and also check out some behind the scenes material on our production blog: http://high-moon.blogspot.com/

“Outside of High Moon, I have another comic project that is in development, that will be really cool, but I can't really say anything about it quite yet.

“Aside from other freelance projects here and there, and maybe a column, I have plenty of corporate ads that I'll be working on for the NYPD, CitiBank, the Visiting Nurse Service, and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

“I've had a blast competing against some truly exceptional people. Matt, Jason, Howard, Rey, Mulele, TS3, Sho, Pop, Gregg, and everyone on their teams have all be true professionals. Zuda has really opened my eyes to a lot of new talent and I think that's pretty wicked.”

We’ll have more from Gallaher later on.

But first, we managed to solicit a few comments from other Zuda Comics Round 1 creators and proved to us why no one’s a sore loser. After all, the playing filed is very wide and each of them has various other projects in the pipeline. Here are comments from those who managed to revert to us by press time…

Matthew Humphreys
Creator
Battlefield Babysitter

“Let's start with congrats to Dave, Steve and Scott. They put out a great comic and I'm looking forward to more. I'm sure a lot of us knew from the beginning that High Moon was going to take the cake. It's just that good. But then you have Dave, Steve and Scott who were humble enough to actually worry about sealing the first place deal. Gentlemen all.

”As for me, I'm completely surprised that I landed high in the rankings much less as 2nd place. Personally I have no qualms about landing second place. Battlefield Babysitter was done out of fun and enjoyment of the medium and telling a fun story. Which I plan to continue in webcomic format for now. Maybe someday someone will want to put it out as a book but for now http://battlefieldbabysitter.blogspot.com will house further comics of the strip for free to anyone who wants to keep reading.

”I have a couple of comics in the work right now that I can't talk about just yet, but they're a lot of fun and I get to work with some great writers and artists. Look for more stuff from me in 2008.

”Thanks Zuda for including me in this competition. I had a lot of fun! And thanks to all the competitors and the winners for making it even more fun for me.”

Mulele Jarvis
Creator
Black Swan

“Well, first of all I'd like to say congratulations to David Gallaher, Steve Ellis and Scott O brown for their win and thank you for making a truly good comic. I'll definitely be reading High Moon and look forward to their future work in comics.

”As for myself, I am based in Japan and have been working on a project for Kodansha Publishing, Mindgator, which you can read more on over at my blog, http://www.mulele.com. In the States, I am working with an American writer, Dale Wilson on another project called Given Before Creation.

”As for Black Swan, I am retooling the story and art and will serialize the comic on my website. For all those that commented on the comic, both good and bad, thank you. I heard you and have learned quite a bit about American comic tastes. I hope you'll join me in my next offering.”

Sho Murase
Creator
Raining Cats and Dogs

“High Moon is definitely a winner. Awesome work from the artist and writer. Can't wait to read the series. I hope the rest of the stories will also be developed. They're all really good.

”What's next....?

”For now Raining Cats and Dogs are going to have to take a backseat .

”Currently I'm juggling a few jobs, working on a cover illustration for Virgin Comics, starting a new illustrated-book (?) unique comic (?) 6-issue series called Uberbabe for SugarLab, a company based in Canada, written by Lisa Voldeng "the lady uberbabe"... It'll be a much more stylized graphic book, closer to ME2.

”I'm also going to keep working on the Nancy Drew graphic novel series, (currently on #13) and keep working in advertisement. I also have two projects I have been wanting to develop for quite some time, hope I can get to it. One of them is biographical, totally different from my previous works and the other one is an animated short film, I hope I can make…

”Anyhoo, thank you for keeping it up!”

Howard Shum
Co-creator
Alpha Monkey

“Thanks to everyone who voted for us. We're not sure what we'll do with Alpha Monkey at the moment. When Bobby Rubio and I first created him, our intentions were for Alpha Monkey to be animated. Maybe that is where his future lies.

”For the time being, Bobby is working on a new movie at Pixar and will continue to do his comic Alcatraz High. You can keep up with his progress at his website www.alcatrazhigh.com

”Matteo Scalera, Oscar Celestini, and I are well into Hyperkinetic, a new comic coming from Image in spring 2008. It's a science-fiction comedy about four female bounty hunters who crash land on an alien planet and have to deal with killer giant robots and crazy aliens. Matteo may not be well known to American readers, but he is highly regarded by top artists around the world. More news and art will be posted on my website www.howardshum.com as the book comes closer to dropping.”

Corey Lewis
Creator
Dead in the Now

“So... Yeah, Dead lost the Zuda competition. But I'm kind of at peace with the fact. I believe Dead probably got some of the most unique attention, and I learned a lot from the experience. It obviously wasn't for everyone... But I think with a couple updates, the broad appeal of the series could easily be fleshed out. I may give it another installment at some point, but I'm currently quite busy with my graphic novel, Sharknife Double Z. I'm also developing about four other comic projects besides Sharknife and Dead... so, like the zombie characters in my comic, I am undying, and will never cease. I thank everyone who gave Dead a shot-- and I hope everyone keeps an eye out for my future comic projects, which will be all sorts of shapes and sizes.”

J. Longo
Creator
This American Strife

“I'm going back to Devry to finish completing my Gunsmithing Certification. For me, the next level [for This American Strife] is [the] live stage. Think "Tin Tin meets GWAR.[Will I approach other publishers?] Most likely, perhaps on another project… or just continue my random bellyaching: http://jlongoart.wordpress.com [What have I got coming up?] Holidays and past due notices. Thinking about my next submission while analyzing NYC's comic conduits… and reading High Moon.”

Pop Mhan
Creator
The Dead Seas

"Yeah, first off, a huge congrats to David Gallaher, Steve Ellis and gang on winning! Their entry was super awesome. I'm astounded by their quality.

"I still haven't given it a ton of thought whether I'll take Dead Seas anywhere yet. I may put it up on my site along with Mourning Dragon and see what kind of feedback the story generates and take it from there.

"I currently need to focus on finishing off the second volume of BLANK with TokyoPop. All else will have to on the back burner in the coming months."

Tim Smith 3
Creator
The Enders

“Big congrats to the High Moon team for a great story. Also a congrats to all the Zuda comic creators for a job well done.

“I have a few projects in the works. One is with TokyoPop, that should be out in the coming year or so. I have written it and I am in the works on drawing it now, which you can see more on in the coming weeks on my site as i post and blog about it.

“As for The Enders, I am working on script and pages right now and will continue the story on my website: http://www.timsmith3.com

“Posting a page and pin-up art every week. I really liked the interaction with people and hope to continue that. I would love to put this to print, we will see. It was great getting it out in the world on Zuda. I would like to thank all the web goers for looking at it and commenting. It was an awesome experience and I look forward to showing them more.

“Also thanks to the good folks at Zuda! And to Newsarama for the coverage!

“Rock on!”

Okay, as promised, here’s David Gallaher again on what’s next for High Moon and so on and so forth.

Newsarama: What has the whole experience's been like?

David Gallaher: Exciting, nerve-racking, and totally awesome. Steve and Scott have been great fun to work with and really made this project. And, the Zuda staff and community have been great... but those final hours were nail-biting moments.

NRAMA: Have things sunk in already for you?

DG: No. Even when we were in the lead, I remained very superstitious.

But, I think it will start sinking in the moment I have to stay up all night to hit my deadlines.

NRAMA: High Moon was a clear favorite from the get go. What factors do you think played into making this creation of yours an instant hit with the online comics community?

DG: I think there is a growing audience that hungers for projects that are off-the-beaten-path. Honestly though, I think folks just like the alliteration of 'werewolf, western webcomic.'

NRAMA: Pitch it to the fence sitters and newcomers again then. What's the high concept now that you've made your mark with an existing fanbase?

DG: High Moon is about an unchanging man in a changing time.

There's mythology, monsters, and all sorts of mayhem in store for Matthew Macgregor, our Pinkerton protagonist. We've got politics, manhunts, outlaws, dancing, fighting, kidnapping, and dirty little secrets – all in 52 more awesome screens!

NRAMA: Let's talk about your online experience for a bit. How did you guys promote it on the world wide web and other mediums?

DG: The moment Kwanza said 'go,' I was on blogs and message boards promoting the hell out of High Moon. It has really been an advertising marathon in that regard. Having a production blog to supplement the story I think really worked in out favor too. I think folks are really into the 'behind the scenes' elements of comic creation. High Moon was conceived back in 2004, and has evolved dramatically since then. The blog was really like a series of 'extras' that added a sense of history to what we were doing.

As far as promotion goes, the key was to make ourselves and our product visible. And, we had a lot of help in that regard from folks like James Hatton, Danielle Corsetto, MattMowczko, Molly Crabapple, Meljean Brook, Jacquelyn Gill, Park and Barb Cooper, Steve Saunders, NeedCoffee, Your Mom’s Basement, Expertologist, Sean Kleefeld, ComicMix, Rich Johnston, and Rich Lovatt. We also used tools like About, Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Delphi, StumbleUpon, and Digg, along with message boards like Zuda, Paperfilms, and Panel & Pixel. And, of course, responding to the feedback – good and bad – on the Zuda site was essential.

NRAMA: What about the man on the streets and others. How did you guys reach out to them, i.e. the retailers, your friendly neighborhood comic book fans, fellow creators, etc?

DG: First of all, there were some things that I wanted to do, but just didn't have the time or the foresight to do. For example, if I were to do it over again, I might have gotten some YouTube clips of Steve drawing some pages of High Moon and posted them on our blog. My original intention was to also to design flyers and hand them out at my local area comic shop, but I ran out of time to do that – I think both of those avenues would have been awesome to explore, but sadly, I have a full-time job in advertising, and I just ran out of time.
As far as out interaction outside the net, I know Steve did some interviews with his local paper – and I recorded a radio spot, and handed out custom High Moon cards at the Big Apple ComicCon a couple of weeks ago. I think it is vital to push beyond the traditional markets, and every little bit of advertising helps.

NRAMA: Do you think that your fans are mostly from North America? Have you read a report yet to find out where they're all from?

DG: No. I think they are from just about everywhere, with the exception of Antarctica. I have not seen a full report from DC yet, but from the tracking I ran from our custom url [ http://www.davidgallaher.com/highmoon ] I can tell you that we have readers from Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, Australia, Netherlands, the Russian Federation, Brazil, Japan, Sweden, Greece, United States Military Bases, Poland, Italy, Finland, Mexico, Malaysia, Portugal, and Singapore.

NRAMA: What's the next step for you guys? Have you heard back from DC already?

DG: Finishing up this arc in High Moon is pretty much my number one priority. Kwanza dropped us a line Friday afternoon – and we are moving forward with deadlines and scheduling.

NRAMA: How far ahead have you planned things?

DG: The first arc is plotted in full, but is evolving in ways that I certainly didn't expect. Steve has been a fantastic collaborator in that regard. We had lunch a few weeks ago, and I mentioned to him the very, very deep underlying premise of High Moon… and he took off – it's been awesome. We have started formulating in our own minds some pretty nifty stuff for future stories.

NRAMA: When do you think fans could see the next chapters up on Zuda?

DG: Soon.

NRAMA: What's your advice for the next batch of competitors?

DG: Play it cool. Be visible. Be respectful to your fellow contestants. Have fun!

NRAMA: What do you hope to see on Zuda Comics next?

DG: More awesome comics from experienced and aspiring professionals.

NRAMA: Anything else that you'd like to add in terms of other matters related to the production, the publicity, the competition as a whole?

DG: I've said this several times before, but it bears repeating, I'm really proud to be associated with so many talented creators and the show of support for High Moon has really been fantastic – this has been and exceptional experience, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Zuda and future creators have in store.

[Rich L]

Go David and Steve!

High Moon was by far the best of the opening round of Zuda strips - congrats to both!

Er, and it's Rich Lovatt but I'll let it go this one time...

[Benjamin Ong]

Originally Posted by Rich L

Er, and it's Rich Lovatt but I'll let it go this one time...

Lovatt it is! Just edited it.

[Jimmy Palmiotti]

two guys who i actually like. what are the chances! best of luck with this.

jimmy

[Fred VL]

Steve's artwork is exquisite on this strip, he's been one of my closest friends forever, and I wish him, David, and High Moon full congratulations and best success.

[waterdragon]

So that's it? The "losers" get their property back and try to sell it other companies?

[pop monkey]

Hooray, and congratulations! Hopefully this strip will get properly printed down the road so I can hold it in my hands and read it -- I'm not too big on the format of webcomics, unfortunately, but this one was my favorite out of the batch!

[Blackbeard]

Congrats, David, Steve and Scott! A well-deserved win.

[ArchonComics]

Congrats to High Moon! I love that name.

[CitC]

I haven't read enough of these, but congratulations.

[ljacone]

I was really hoping for Leprenomicon, but am very happy that High Moon won. The first 8 "screens" were very cool and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

[Jake1823]

High Moon was who I voted for, so I'm happy. Congrats.

[H.W.]

This looks really well put together. I'm glad to see the bar set high at Zuda.

[Jamal Y. Igle]

Originally Posted by Fred VL

Steve's artwork is exquisite on this strip, he's been one of my closest friends forever, and I wish him, David, and High Moon full congratulations and best success.

Thanks for stealing my quote FRED!!LOL. Seriously well deserved guys.

[CoreyB]

Congratulations Dave & Steve! A well-earned win! Can't wait to read more installments!

[Fred VL]

Originally Posted by Jamal Y. Igle

Thanks for stealing my quote FRED!!LOL. Seriously well deserved guys.

You know, we three were roommates, and now we only communicate through Newsarama. There's just something... wrong about that...

[AbacusComics]

Good job guys, book... er... webcomic looks GREAT!

[BUMP]

Major congrats to the team, and especially to David. I've known David for a few years now, and in addition to being a very talented writer, he's also one of the greatest and nicest fellows I've ever met while working in comics. This literally couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

[JLAJRC]

Congrats, I guess. But truthfully, I've been less than impressed with Zuda so far. None of the entries (except for Battlefield Babysitter) were all that great or memorable. Even Bayou hasn't intriqued me.

I think the big problem is that we're basically just getting previews, and it's hard to tell whats really worth reading based on those things. I'd rather they give everyone an actual complete storyarc, and we vote off of that.

I'll probably drop Zuda from my link list.

[Cray_ws]

Originally Posted by JLAJRC

Congrats, I guess. But truthfully, I've been less than impressed with Zuda so far. None of the entries (except for Battlefield Babysitter) were all that great or memorable. Even Bayou hasn't intriqued me.

I think the big problem is that we're basically just getting previews, and it's hard to tell whats really worth reading based on those things. I'd rather they give everyone an actual complete storyarc, and we vote off of that.

I'll probably drop Zuda from my link list.

while I understand your complaint about not veiwing the full story, I think it makes for tougher competition for the contestants to really try to grab the readers in the first preview. Most people sample a book's first few pages before deciding on whether to buy it.

As for someone elses comment that's it for 'Losers', I think that's more than fair shake when you consider the high-profile nature of Zuda. Plus I like the notion that there will be fresh material every new contest.

[TheToileteer]

Put me down as another Leprenomicon supporter. Why no quote from its creative team? And what are they planning to do with it now? Will it be continued somehow?

[AaronStC]

So what happens to the ones that didn't win? Are they gone now? I liked High Moon but Battlefield Babysitter was my fave.
Also, december comp is pretty bad. Spudman was funny though.

[DavidGallaher]

From thier site: http://www.zudacomics.com/node/107

Gregg Delcurla says:

Thanks RKB! To RKB and anyone else who liked our comic... Thank you so much for your support and thank you to Zuda for the chance to compete. This has been a great experience. As for the future of Leprenomicon, the plan is to try to find a publisher for the series (because it would be nice to be paid/break even on the effort). However, failing that, we will publish the series online for free because we too, would like to give Michael and Margel a life beyond Zuda. FYI: I just set up a blog for us at http://leprenomicon.blogspot.com/ Check it out and we'll keep everyone appraised of our situation and maybe even publish some extra artwork and story info to keep ya interested. This had been awesome! Regards... -G-

So, there you have it :-)