ROK Comics awards $10k prize

ROK Comics is pleased to announce the winner of its first $10,000 humour competition is 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 and 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”.

Steve wins the $10,000 overall prize while the runners up will receive 12 month subscription to ROK Comics.

After two rounds of short listing, thirty 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,” commented Alan.

“I wouldn’t 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.”

“We were blown away by the huge range of entries to the competition,” said ROK Comics Managing Editor John Freeman, “Especially given this is a fairly new medium for comics. But the creators have shown how easy it is for comics to evolve and reach new audiences without forgetting how to make people laugh.”

Commenting on his win, Steve English says: “It’s fantastic, the last time I entered a cartoon competition I only won a pizza!”

“It’s nice to know that when you’re staring at a blank page and banging your head against a wall waiting for an idea to drop out, sometimes something lands in your lap that makes others laugh too.”

“I’m torn between cashing in the cheque and framing it as proof that I made the editor of the Beano smile… No I’m not – a framed bank receipt will do the job just fine.”

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’), Kenendy Rose (‘Anomaly’) Star Trek cartoonist David Reddick (‘Reddickulous’) and many more, ROK Comics offers a variety of great strips for mobile download and WAP delivery including:

• US strips such as Garfield, Doonesbury and Too Much Coffee Man

• Jeff Hawke from the Daily Express – classic SF adventure

• Andy Capp and Mandy from the Daily Mirror – the ever popular British comedy strips

• Beau Peep from the Daily Star – madcap antics in the foreign legion!

• Robin Hood from the pages of Swift, in partnership with Look and Learn Limited

• Dredger from Action! Britain’s deadliest secret agent, straight from the pages of the hugely popular 1970s comic owned by Egmont UK

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 thrilling murder mystery set in pre-war Japan and Hunted, a terrifying tale of modern vampires in the style of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.