Organisers of the Eagles Initiative talent competition, launched last year, have abandoned this year’s competition.
The Eagles Initiative was launched in May 2010 as an independent offshoot of the Eagle Awards (see news story) to find and promote new creators in a worldwide talent search. With many industry professionals graciously agreeing to donate their time to judge a shortlist of twelve entries to form three prize winners, and with Stan Lee as its patron, it was a bold experiment and the team behind the project expected many thousands of entries, with a top prize of £1000 on offer.
“Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, I have had to reluctantly cancel this years Eagles Initiative competition due to low turnout,” announced organiser Barry Renshaw.
“Though many entries were of a very high standard, there were not enough submissions to make the competition viable.
“It’s a decision that is bitterly disappointing to me and everyone involved,” he added, “especially after the amount of time and effort put into it, but considering the poor response it was the only option.”
All registration fees are being refunded and as per the guidelines, all submissions remain creator owned and of course will not be published by the Initiative. Entrants have already been informed.
Among those who had agreed to participate as judges were Tom Brevoort, Mike Carey, Howard Chaykin, Chris Claremont, Mike Deodato Jr, Steve Epting, David Finch, Geoff Johns, Denny O’Neil, Trina Robbins, Bob Shreck, Gail Simone and Roy Thomas.
The plan was for all 12 short listed entries to be made available both digitally and in print in the form of an internationally distributed anthology.
While admitting to be “personally gutted” by the cancellation, Renshaw added “we will be looking at developing smaller more localised projects in the future. We still believe a proactive and progressive approach to finding and developing new talent is important and the Eagles Initiative will pursue that mandate in the future.
“In the meantime I want to take this opportunity to personally thank all the industry professionals for offering their time for free to be a competition judge, and for lending their support to what I still believe to be a unique opportunity for undiscovered talent.”
• Eagles Initiative web site: www.eaglesinitiative.com
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics