What is it? / How Do I Play? / Videos & Pics
Upcoming Events / Community
What is it? / How Do I Play? / Videos & Pics
Upcoming Events / Community
All Content Copyright 2008 Ezra Claytan Daniels
General Advice
The Comic Art Battle would not exist if not for the fearless warriors willing to put their pride and integrity on hold for the sake of sheer spectacle. Choose your contenders based not only on drawing talent and wit, but also on charisma, style and the chemistry. When you get a group of old pals up on stage competing against each other, the warmth and camaraderie they share as they insult each other's mothers and haircuts will be apparent to the audience.
A 3-against-3 battle is ideal. 2-on-2 can be a little sparse, and committing more than 6 contenders can be a demanding task. If your participants don't fit into any divisible categories as earth-shattering as Boys vs. Girls or Alternative vs. Mainstream, or even Blonds vs. Brunettes, arbitrarily invented team divisions sometimes work just as well. Talk to your artists beforehand and get them to play along with whatever sensational conflict you can work together to come up with. Anything to get the audience going, even if one team has to play the villains (which can be just as much fun as playing the heroes). Gun Control vs. The N.R.A., Commies vs. Libertarians, Boxers vs. Briefs. Go nuts. The more creative and stupid the better. Just be careful not to get too offensive. An audience offended in poor taste rarely forgives.
Before the battle, ask each participant to write a 1-2 sentence bio for you to read during team introductions. Tell them to make it as flashy and aggrandizing as they can manage, but also work in book titles or flagship projects they might be known for or want to plug. But don't let your monolgues go on too long. Explain the basic premise of the game at the start of the event, but save the recitation of the individual challenge rules until your contenders are in place and ready to begin them.
Limit the program to about 5 battles. With around 5 minutes of roughhousing and crowd interaction interspersed between the battles, that makes for an hour-long event. Any longer than that, regardless how entertaining the evening is, people start to get restless.
As important as the artists are to putting together an enjoyable event, the host is really the glue that holds it all together by keeping the show on track. And I'm not just saying that because I'm usually the one who hosts these things. To achieve the level of easy charisma it takes to engage an audience and heckle a group of intimidatingly talented artists for upwards of an hour, I've had to learn to become much friendlier with The Bottle. As the host, the most helpful tip I can give you is to be flexible and spontaneous. If one team is dominating all the way up to the final round, then make the final round worth 1000 points. If you have more people onstage than can participate in 5 battles, then let them join forces or tag team certain battles. Try to involve the audience as much as possible. There are always aspiring artists in the crowd. Try to work in a way to get them up on stage and competing in a battle. The most important thing to remember is to just relax and have fun! If you and everyone else on display is having a blast, so will the audience.
Putting together a Comic Art Battle can be a very daunting and stressful endeavor, especially for someone as introverted and socially ungainly as most of us comic book types tend to be. But that's the whole reason I came up with the battle in the first place--to get me and my friends out from behind our drawing tables and back into the world so our community can see just how quick-witted and charming we can actually be!
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