Uroborus - Opportunity to showcase artisitic/writing talents!

Uroborus is most commonly seen as a serpent locked in a constant cycle of eating its own tail. The image is used to represent the eternity of nature, creation being consumed by destruction only to bloom once more into the infinite.

Art is equally cyclical and as the greats of our time rise, they are destined to fall and be replaced by others.

I intend to produce an A5 journal under the guise of Oroborus showcasing new creative talents and in order to help each one rise, all contributors will be asked for a brief bio and some form of contact details (whether it be a website, email address or twitter).

This journal will not only be for people to get more of their work out there, but to also have the opportunity for interested parties to contact them about it.

So, if you want to take part then I will gratefully accept submissions on any subject to the e-mail address erranttentacles [AT] googlemail.com in the following formats:

Poems
Short Stories
Commentary
Artwork
Photography
Comics

Please keep in mind that everything needs to be able to fit on A5 pages, maximum submission lengths for written work is 2 pages, for comics 4 pages and artwork 2 but bear in mind only the cover and its inside will be printed in colour so once those 4 have been taken up only black and white submissions can be taken for the inside.

The aim is to have the first edition out by June and a website will be created to coincide with the release. From then on it will be quarterly.

Disclaimer time>
I'm afraid I cannot guarantee that all submissions will be included in the publication but you will be informed whether your work is included or not.
Unfortunately I cannot promise feedback either due to time constraints.
Copyright of all work remains with the creator.

Writing comics...

So in my time in the land of Sheffield I have encountered many a person and among them is the ever curious Owen Watts, who bloggers may already follow as the Crazy Fox Machine http://crazyfoxmachine.blogspot.com/ an exemplary artist whose work you can see here http://crazyfoxmachine.deviantart.com/.

Now when you meet someone who is that completely into their art, talented and looking to produce more I’m generally left thinking how I could work alongside them. The mighty O is oblivious to this as I have never taken my comic ideas to him as they are all far too overblown for the amount of time I can commit (I had visions of a 24 parts series, each one entitled and themed after a major arcana of Tarot detailing the overthrow of a Pedro Paramo type figure in a forgotten human outpost in space. I still have all the plans somewhere...) or are interesting ideas which never truly gained form.

So when Owen announced that he would be creating the comic, Doctor WTF – a series of comics by a mixture of different artists and writers – and asked if I would be interested I jumped at the chance. When confined to a story loosely themed by the Doctor Who mythos, an idea for a horror story came relatively quickly for me but the major learning experience was actually typing it up.

Everyone has their moment where they say they could write a better script than that etc but you really can’t appreciate how deceptively hard it can be. The main content of what would be said and the visual pieces was never altered but the exact wording and the number of panels was constantly changing, ranging from 2 to 3 pages in length and the text getting progressively smaller until I could make the content take up the least space without raping the English Language or damaging the character.

Its certainly given me a lot more respect for the medium, a better understanding of how to write it and a sense of anticipation for what the artist will make of my script and for potentially working on more of them.

So if there is anything that you’ve thought you’d want to try, something you could do better then go for it! It will be a unique experience and you never know what you might learn...