ROK Comics, which delivers licensed comic material to mobile handsets, has announced the winner of its first $10,000 (5,000) humour competition. The prize has gone to cartoonist Steve English, for an episode of his ongoing series Madd Science.
Runners up in the competition, which ran on ROK Comics this summer and attracted hundreds of entries, were David Hailwood and Toshiro de Smeyter for an episode of their strip, Drink Like a Fish, and Paul Eldridge, who used the ROK Comics Creator Tool to produce a strip entitled The Secret of Stonehenge. They will receive a 12-month subscription to ROK Comics.
After two rounds of shortlisting, 30 cartoons were considered by external judge Alan Digby, editor of the best-selling British weekly comic The Beano, published by DC Thomson.
The standard was very high, and the different approaches to a inherently restricted art form, such as the three picture strip cartoon, were refreshing, says Digby. I wouldnt be surprised if one of the contributors who made the shortlist managed to make a breakthrough into the world of cartooning – and it might not necessarily be the most obvious entrant who does.”
In addition to independently created comics by a wide range of creators from across the globe including Vicente Aviles (El Profe); Josh Alves (Out to Lunch); Star Trek cartoonist David Reddick (Reddickulous) and many more, ROK Comics offers a variety of comic strips for mobile download and WAP delivery including Garfield, Doonesbury, Andy Capp and Robin Hood.
The service also promotes independent publishers such as Markosia and Broken Voice, who are producing some ground breaking adventure material such as Dark Mists, a murder mystery set in pre-war Japan, and Hunted, a terrifying tale of modern vampires in the style of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.