Broken Frontier

Over 154 artists worldwide have contributed to the internet comic strip website Global Comic Jam, which recently celebrated its third year anniversary on December 1st and has now relaunched itself with a big automation facelift and a new editorial team upon the turn of the new year 2007.

Originally conceived and headed up by Danish artist Kim Larsen, GCJ has seen the creation of about two dozen comic strips that span various genres from space epics, westerns, robotic adventures, psychological science fiction, realistic dramas, video games, paranormal investigations,  alien invasions, horror, and even funny animals.

The fun of the site is that each strip is told in what could be referred to as the “campfire tradition”, where a story is started by one storyteller, and then passed on to other storytellers who add their own spin to develop and further evolve the story. Each page is created by a different artist, and thus overall provides a unique and sometimes unexpected reading experience. And its web presence has made GCJ a true global community with artists joining from such places as Denmark, Germany, USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Chile, England, Sweden, Holland, and the Philippines. The challenge is that when an artist signs up for a strip, they don’t know what may happen in the storyline before their turn. Then when their turn comes, the artist determines where to take the story from there.

The GCJ journey began almost six years ago when Kim Larsen started a webcomic called “Almost Real” and invited other artists from around the world to participate. “Almost Real” found a new home with the creation of GCJ and is still going strong. The story involves a young girl with reality-warping powers reaching out for help from a drunken scientist who once worked alongside the evil men who studied and cloned her. Now the GCJ website is also home to dozens of running strips, including ones that were voted in by contests held on the site every year. This year’s “ScriptJam” (10 pages by one writer and ten different artists) is Bren Coopey’s “True Hero” which already has had some stunning artwork. Other strips “Decisions”, “UpEnded”, and “Ozzy” were all winners in yearly Create-A-Jam contests. Various artists on the strips even tend to alter their work to fit the strip or to just to test a new style. Artists can present their work in color or black and white, but it must be in a finished form (not just pencils).

One of the most popular and respected strips on the website involves absolutely no words. “Surface” is a silent and abstract strip about war and survival. The idea of telling a page’s story using no dialogue is a welcome challenge to an aspiring or established artist, and the sign-up list is usually quite long. Some of the pages are beautifully painted pieces and others are wonderful examples of how stories can be told purely artistically no matter the style.

“Fusion Odyssey” combines the sword-and-sorcery medieval world with the concept of the entire strip taking place within a video game. Characters react and talk while almost oblivious to the occasional power-ups, attacks, points, and levels they obtain along the journey to reunite the separated parts of the Tree of Life. Started by Carsten Bradley, “Fusion Odyssey” follows the exploits and travels of Cicero after his whole army was decimated by Underdark forces (before the strip even began). As the strip evolved in other’s hands, it is revealed that Cicero and his friends are able to resurrect their compatriots each time they find a potion. However, they eventually learn that whoever they don’t resurrect yet can instead be brought back by the Underdark forces and turned evil. Consequently, it gets pretty ugly and personal as old friends and lovers turn into bitter enemies.

Other exciting strips include the space mech war saga “Novo Gaia”, the western “Eat Dust Gringo!”, and the robotic canine adventures of “JetDog”. “Hunter’s Moon” is the website’s first “BackJam”, where artists are challenged to present a page that would happen before the page that was previously posted. “Vitruv” is a jam where an artist can do as many pages as they would like within a given month. And “Chaos Jam” is a strip that, like “Choose Your Own Adventure”, branches off into several possible storylines. For “Chaos Jam”, artists don’t even have to sign up and can just submit a new page to follow whichever page they choose.

It’s that sort of “anything goes” attitude, creative spin, and artistic interpretation with most of the strips that keep artists coming back to GCJ. When “Life Death and Ozzy” started, the original artist’s intent was for a bunny’s dog to be “Ozzy” but without that noted, other artists dubbed the bunny “Ozzy” and then sent him on crazy pseudo-science adventures through time and space. Even artistic variances can be explained later on, such as when alien creatures in “UpEnded” seemed to change size, an artist determined that the smaller ones were the children, who just so happen to enjoy picking up buildings full of people. Artists also rarely hold back on contributing characters to the strips, as probably most evident in “Fusion Odyssey”, where a whole cast of memorable characters has been created by various artists over the span of 50 pages.

Global Comic Jam has now released a 2007 calendar featuring artwork by various contributors and showcasing some of the website’s unique strips. This calendar is currently for screen viewing, but it can also be downloaded at http://www.globalcomicjam.com/automated/sleep/present.htm

Global Comic Jam, once run by one or two people, also now unveils a new six-person editorial team, consisting of Kim Larsen (Denmark; originator and EIC), Jason Vasquez (USA, assistant editor), Jost von Harlessem (Germany; webmaster), Keith H. Jeter (USA; communications), Joshua Robertson (Canada; multimedia), and Scott D.M. Simmons (USA; promotions). In addition to their combined roles, the six will also create a “TeamJam”, which will feature their artwork rotating on a continual basis.

Any interested artists can sign up for strips by e-mailing the GCJ team at globalcomicjam@gmail.com and providing links or attached images showing sequential artwork samples for the editorial team to review for consideration. However, artists can start submitting right away for “Chaos Jam” without a review. Artists can also contribute covers, fan art, and even games. Check the website’s FAQ for information on the acceptable dimensions and formats for any submitted images.