No Explanation Needed

[pierski]

For those of you just showing up, or who just want a refresher, yesterday I posted the above comic without any dialog. I then asked you, the readers, to supply the dialog for the comic. The winner would have their name attached to the comic and receive a free copy of The Outer Circle Digging Up the Past trade paperback. Plus, a free t-shirt.

Now during the process of receiving entries a very unusually thing happened. Almost half of you emailed in telling me not to change the comic. That the comic worked find without any dialog at all. David Park's email was very moving to this point:

I sugest you just leave it as is.
Currently, the expressions convey many meanings (ie it could be a penis joke), but if you add a punchline then thats what people will always think of when they see it.
Imagine someone going through your archives who sees that, having become used to spoon fed punchlines. They will stop and consider what the punchline is supposed to be, and more likely than not come up with something better than anything we could stick to it. Rather than restrict it's meaning, why not leave it open, for people to interpret as their mind takes them?
~hntr/

So I decided to leave the main image being the comic without any dialog. So does that mean no one won? Well, no one did win. But three people did: Austin Ertelt, Donovan (no last name supplied), and Bhlaab (I think that's French). All of them will receive a free copy of The Outer Circle Digging Up the Past trade paperback and the free t-shirt, as well.

If you want to see their winning entries and why I chose them. Check out the rest of this post in the forum.


First off, I chose Austin Ertelt's entry because I felt it best fit the comic as a real strip. This was the closest to what the original comic was going to be. He just got the punchline to work. Kudos, Austin.


Next, is Donovan's entry. I love this one because it's very close to my twisted sense of humor. Has nothing to do with gaming, but I literally laughed out loud at the final panel. Nice work.


Finally is Bhlaab's comic. Bhlaab actually put the dialog in this comic Bhlaabself. I thought it was a clever use of NIN and the last panel is oh, so true... Can you imagine just how much more efficient those emoticons would have been with a Cintiq WX12? I sure can. Donate generously...

[The Anarchyz]

POLE POSITION!!!

Good way to leave the comic as it is, now i'm reading the winnarz...

EDIT: The 1st one is a typical DA comic, the 2nd one is a typical TOC comic, and the 3rd one is a Donation Drive + Nine Inch Nails... Nice touch in every one of them...

[Konig]

Good idea to leave the main one without text, as it can take the form of whatever that individual's point of view is. I'm also looking at getting a graphics tablet.

Is it just me, or is that brain train guy creepy?

[sonicmega]

Well darn, and here I thought I actually had a chance... probably because I sent a text version for each panel and didn't actually CREATE a revised comic to submit in picture form...

Any runner-ups that were of special notice? I always like seeing the people who almost made it XD

[Parksta0]

IwinIwinIwinI oh wait... no I don't... I just get... quoted . Ah well, better than nothing, I guess.
Thankyou very much for quoting me, and for providing two excelent comics so very regularly *coughwhensthenextoutercirclecough*

[pierski]

Thankyou very much for quoting me, and for providing two excelent comics so very regularly *coughwhensthenextoutercirclecough*

Tomorrow is a new comic for The Outer Circle.

[elvor]

I love the second one, but yeah, leaving it blank worked.

[Valentine]

it defiantly added an interesting dimension to this weeks comic, its nice to see something original

[Parksta0]

Tomorrow is a new comic for The Outer Circle.

Yay!