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Out of context: Reply #73547

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  • a_aachen5

    ^
    ok. OBBTKNs post inspired me to share my story:

    Back when I was also about 17 or 18 I also won a Comic/cartoon contest. It was a contest by a state bank so it was state wide and the price money was crazy high for a contest like this at that time. 10000, 5000 and 2500 German Marks for the first three prizes. It was huge and everyone who was into drawing, took part, even the big names. I was about to finish school and back then I wanted to become a graphic novelist / Comic book artist, so this was a great opportunity for me. I was so enthusiastic I made several comics. One of them I particularly liked, but my girlfriend at that time said, that the humor was too sarcastic. As I didn`t want to miss the chance, I submitted it nevertheless under the name of a friend (couldn’t take my girlfriends name – she also took part) and sent in another comic under my name, which I thought would please the jury more. I told the friend on a side note about my submission „ah by the way I submitted a comic in your name. If it wins you get a 10% share“ and he totally forgot about it.

    After the final school exams were done, I went on Interrail the next month touring through France with some friends. When I called back home one day, my mom said I should immediately call back my friend, he has been desperately trying to reach me for the past days (this was the time before mobile phones). When I called him back, he was devastated: The bank had called him to tell him that he had won the first prize, they wanted to set a date for the award ceremony, the press had called to interview him on his ideas, his drawing techniques and where his humor came from, and a nation wide student magazine had even offered him to draw a monthly one pager! He was totally freaked out because he was an absolute non-creative saying he could not even hold a pencil straight and now he was the new cartoon shooting star.

    He said no way he was going to the award ceremony so what we did was we told the that it was a collaborative work after all, and I helped him with the drawing. They bought it, so we could go to the ceremony and recieve the price money together. It was so hilarious being there with him. So many people constantly trying to talk to him he panickly trying to dodge the laserbeams, sending desperate looks to me hoping that I would jump in when they asked him questions about the coloring technique or his favorite inking tools and his artistic influences. The newspaper printed a feature story about him and his artistic path (which he hated).
    The commission for the magazine didn’t work out obviously. He was quite upset with me and didn`t want anything to do with it any more, so there was no chance for me to persuade him to keep selling it as a collaborative work. After the money found its way on our accounts and he got his share of 10%, he cooled down. We are still good friends.

    a_aachen 5Permalink
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    • somwhow I picture you as Harry Potter and him as Ron Weasley, him freaking out, you two both on some big stage at Hogwarts...
      ********
    • stfumonospaced
    • +1 Aachen.monospaced
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